Map of a Nation: A Biography of the Ordnance Survey by Rachel Hewitt

A thorough institutional history of Britain’s cartographic bureau

Being an American, I’m not familiar with the British Ordnance Survey maps, but I am interested in the history of geography and how maps were made in the olden days before electronic devices. In her 2010 book Map of a Nation, author Rachel Hewitt provides an in-depth history of the Ordnance Survey, a department of the British military responsible for mapping the British Isles and colonies of the British Empire. In particular, Hewitt focuses on the creation of the First Series of Ordnance maps, which was the first time an accurate scale map of England and Wales had ever been professionally compiled, printed, and released to the general public. The scope of Hewitt’s account ranges from about 1745 to 1870.

The most fascinating portions of the book are those that detail the exploits of the Ordnance surveyors as they are out in the field making maps. Hewitt clearly explains the science behind the instruments used and how they were employed on site. It is very interesting to learn how the surveyors achieved maximum accuracy by calculating and compensating for the effects of temperature change on their instruments or the gravitational pull of land masses. In their rambling journeys over the countryside, the intrepid mapmakers not only faced hardships from the elements but also hostility from landowners who suspected the surveyors to be spies or taxmen. The Ordnance Survey’s mapping projects took far longer than expected, and considering the difficulties they faced, as Hewitt describes them, it is a wonder the maps were ever completed at all.

The history of the Ordnance Survey is not all about rambling over hill and heath, however. It also involves a great deal of politics and military bureaucracy. Before the Ordnance Survey even appears in the book, Hewitt gives a long summary of the Jacobite Rising of 1745, in which the Scots rebelled against the English. Hewitt uses this to establish the context for the birth of the Ordnance Survey, but it makes for an awfully lengthy set-up. Over the course of the Ordnance Survey’s history, Hewitt sketches the biography of each new officer who takes up a managerial position in the department. These biographies often digress into tangled webs of genealogy, peerage titles, descriptions of estates, and tangential relationships to the royal family. Hewitt broadens the scope of her study even further by delving into the role that maps played in popular culture, which involves her quoting just about every contemporary English play or poem in which the word “map” is uttered. Such deviations often feel like a stretch from the topic at hand. As often as not, however, Hewitt’s digressions lead to the discovery of surprising facts and curious trivia.

The thoroughness of Hewitt’s research is impressive, but for many general readers it may just be too thorough. At times this narrative of the Ordnance Survey feels just as arduous and protracted as that institution’s lengthy mapping projects. If you are approaching this book from an interest in cartography, be advised that cartography is only part of the story here. This is, after all, an institutional history, and as such it is bound to contain its fair share of mundane details and figures. That said, as far as government departments go, the Ordnance Survey is more interesting than most, and readers who enjoy exploring maps will certainly learn much about the complex processes behind the making of maps. You will come away from this book with a greater appreciation for the cartographic pioneers who devoted their lives to the science and art of mapping our world.
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