The Oldest Map of Romney Marsh

THE OLDEST MAP OE ROMNEY MARSH. 221 East and West Bays. It is quite a lesson in the shapes of our then sea-craft. On turning over the map I found this note on the back: " This map of Romney Marsh was found with some rubbish at Acrise Court, the property of the Papillon Family, and presented to iiie Charles Museum by Edward Gaudy, Maidstone, October 11th, 1867." Mr. Hannen had also drawn my attention to Gough's topographical collections, page 492, Additions and Corrections to Kent, where it states: " Mr. Papillon, 1737, shewed the Antiquary Society an illuminated map of Romney Marsh and the adjacent counties, copied from an authentic MS. survey done in ,the year 1617, by Matthew Poker, and engraved by James Coles." So I wrote to the secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and he replied that there was no doubt of this exhibition to the Society, and that Mr. Papillon had given them this Uluminated map, but it was not now to be found. Mr. Falconer-Madan, the Bodleian Librarian, writes to me that they have two copies of the map in the Gough collection, but does not state that there is any note with them. All these are, of course, impressions of J. Cole's plate, based on Poker's MS. map of the previous century. As to the original map in the Maidstone Museum: size, with the painted margin, 34 by 24£inches; date, "'1617," in bottom left-hand corner, below the name "M. Poker," at end of explanation of scale,- scale, 3 furlongs = 1 inch; description of Marshes, top right-hand corner, signed "Mathew Poker." J. Cole's map exists in the following states : (a) Without dedication or indication of Cole having done it. At the New Hall, Dymchurch. (6) With Cole's dedication to the Lords and other Proprietors of Romney Marsh. (c) With this dedication, and in addition the delightful Latin phrase: " Insculptus ex sumptibus David PapUlion, Esqr." This is the common form. This issue also includes thick paper copies, which are coloured nearly like the original. Of these, the only specimens I am acquainted with