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Maps that made Cabmen honest
- By The Map Collector
- Published 1 December 1979
- Maps
- Unrated
The Map Collector
The Map Collector, initiated by Peter Scott and Valerie G. Newby, was a journal on historical cartography published every quarter. The first issue appeared in 1997 and continued for nearly 20 years. After 74 issues the last copy appeared in Spring 1996. Mrs. Valerie G. Newby, is presently editor of the IMCoS Journal.
www.imcos.org
By Ralph Hyde
It was said that among cab men the name of Edward Mogg was better known than beloved. From 1844 this mapmaker published a steady stream of guides and London maps which enabled travellers in London to discover where they were and whether they had been over-charged getting there. Small wonder Thomas Hood was so thankful to have his:
'What is this world, with London in its lap?
Mogg's map.
With Greenwich and its Isle of Dogs
This map of Mogg's.'
Upright Victorians were outraged by the dishonesty of cabmen in their era. Not surprisingly, it was they who hit upon the most ingenious cartographical solutions. But the problem was not a new one, and nor were the attempts to solve it cartographically. Hackney coaches had been introduced into the narrow streets of pre-Fire London in the 17th-century. In 1720 Henry Overton advertised in the Daily Courant 'A New and Correct Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, &c. including the new Buildings now finished' on which appeared tables giving the rates of the hackney coachmen and watermen, 'very necessary for Persons who are often imposed on by these Fellows.' Overton's rivals followed suit issuing new maps with coachmen and watermen's rates (e.g. Joseph Smith, 1724), or squeezing in tables of fares on their existing plates (e .g. Thomas Bowles, 1723 and Thomas Taylor, 1720). Darton & Harvey in 1797 made room for upwards of 200 hackney coach fares on their 'New Pocket Map of London', and John Cary in 1782 upwards of 350 on his 'London, Westminster and Southwark Accurately Delineated.' The latter map had to be revised in 1785 to accommodate new fares just introduced by Act of Parliament.
In the 1890's W.J. Gordon recorded that out of 15,000 cabmen plying for hire in London approximately 2,000 were annually convicted for drunkeness, cruelty, wilful misbehaviour, loitering, obstruction, stopping on the wrong side of the road, leaving their cabs unattended, etc. 'Gentlemen in this class', observed Max Slesinger earlier, 'are not generally flattering in their expressions or conciliatory in their arguments, and the cheapest way of terminating a dispute is to pay and have done with the man.'
By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
The cabriolet de place - 'cab' for short - was introduced at the beginning of the nineteenth-century. At first it carried two people only, driver and passenger sitting side by side. Later the driver was relegated to a seat built on the off-side between the body of the vehicle and the wheel. In 1834 Joseph Aloysius Hansom, founder of the Builder magazine and the architect of Birmingham old Town Hall, patented a cab so designed that the driver sat on top. Curiously, Hansom's name became associated with a superior version of it for which he was not responsible. This was the invention of John Chapman, proprietor of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, who placed the driver's seat at the back.
Chapman's cab was instantly popular. Not so its driver. Readers of Dickens' Pick wick Papers will recall the fuss Mr and Mrs Raddle and Mrs Cluppings became embroiled in when calling upon friends in Goswell Street. In the first place their driver was cruel. ('The horse being troubled with a fly on his nose, the cabman humanely employed his leisure in lashing him on the head on the counter¬irritation principle.') In the second place they were deposited at the wrong door. In the third place the man was dishonest and Mr and Mrs Raddle were overcharged. 'Is there no legal scale of fares?' asked Max Schlesinger innocently in Saunterings in London. 'Of course there is', he himself replied, 'eight pence per mile. But who can tell how many miles he has gone in a cab?'
Mogg'scab-fare map, with extensions to the west and south, as issued in the 1870's. The Mogg family had been issuing maps at least since 1803 and had a special interest in maps for travellers. By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
To rescue Mr and Mrs Raddle, Max Schlesinger, and tens of thousands like them F.G. Harding of 24 Cornhill in 1833 published The Arbitrator or Metropolitan Distance Map.' This gave distances in each street and square in miles and yards, provided tables of distances, and explained passengers' rights. In a note the publisher advertised that he would correctly compute disputed distances, wagers, and unmeasured ground: 'Any error discovered in this Map, or distance disputed, shall be remeasured, free of expense if found incorrect; but if otherwise, a charge of half-a-crown per mile will be made to the party requiring the same.' An improved version of the map was published by M.A. Leigh in the following year. On this, half mile measurements were indicated by red spots from east to west, and by blue spots from south to north. Later Leigh issued the map as a little booklet. The text in this was re-set as pages, the map itself forming an appendage.
It was said that among cab men the name of Edward Mogg was better known than beloved. From 1844 this mapmaker published a steady stream of guides and London maps which enabled travellers in London to discover where they were and whether they had been over-charged getting there. Small wonder Thomas Hood was so thankful to have his:
'What is this world, with London in its lap?
Mogg's map.
With Greenwich and its Isle of Dogs
This map of Mogg's.'
Upright Victorians were outraged by the dishonesty of cabmen in their era. Not surprisingly, it was they who hit upon the most ingenious cartographical solutions. But the problem was not a new one, and nor were the attempts to solve it cartographically. Hackney coaches had been introduced into the narrow streets of pre-Fire London in the 17th-century. In 1720 Henry Overton advertised in the Daily Courant 'A New and Correct Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, &c. including the new Buildings now finished' on which appeared tables giving the rates of the hackney coachmen and watermen, 'very necessary for Persons who are often imposed on by these Fellows.' Overton's rivals followed suit issuing new maps with coachmen and watermen's rates (e.g. Joseph Smith, 1724), or squeezing in tables of fares on their existing plates (e .g. Thomas Bowles, 1723 and Thomas Taylor, 1720). Darton & Harvey in 1797 made room for upwards of 200 hackney coach fares on their 'New Pocket Map of London', and John Cary in 1782 upwards of 350 on his 'London, Westminster and Southwark Accurately Delineated.' The latter map had to be revised in 1785 to accommodate new fares just introduced by Act of Parliament.
In the 1890's W.J. Gordon recorded that out of 15,000 cabmen plying for hire in London approximately 2,000 were annually convicted for drunkeness, cruelty, wilful misbehaviour, loitering, obstruction, stopping on the wrong side of the road, leaving their cabs unattended, etc. 'Gentlemen in this class', observed Max Slesinger earlier, 'are not generally flattering in their expressions or conciliatory in their arguments, and the cheapest way of terminating a dispute is to pay and have done with the man.'
By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
The cabriolet de place - 'cab' for short - was introduced at the beginning of the nineteenth-century. At first it carried two people only, driver and passenger sitting side by side. Later the driver was relegated to a seat built on the off-side between the body of the vehicle and the wheel. In 1834 Joseph Aloysius Hansom, founder of the Builder magazine and the architect of Birmingham old Town Hall, patented a cab so designed that the driver sat on top. Curiously, Hansom's name became associated with a superior version of it for which he was not responsible. This was the invention of John Chapman, proprietor of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, who placed the driver's seat at the back.
Chapman's cab was instantly popular. Not so its driver. Readers of Dickens' Pick wick Papers will recall the fuss Mr and Mrs Raddle and Mrs Cluppings became embroiled in when calling upon friends in Goswell Street. In the first place their driver was cruel. ('The horse being troubled with a fly on his nose, the cabman humanely employed his leisure in lashing him on the head on the counter¬irritation principle.') In the second place they were deposited at the wrong door. In the third place the man was dishonest and Mr and Mrs Raddle were overcharged. 'Is there no legal scale of fares?' asked Max Schlesinger innocently in Saunterings in London. 'Of course there is', he himself replied, 'eight pence per mile. But who can tell how many miles he has gone in a cab?'
Mogg'scab-fare map, with extensions to the west and south, as issued in the 1870's. The Mogg family had been issuing maps at least since 1803 and had a special interest in maps for travellers. By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
To rescue Mr and Mrs Raddle, Max Schlesinger, and tens of thousands like them F.G. Harding of 24 Cornhill in 1833 published The Arbitrator or Metropolitan Distance Map.' This gave distances in each street and square in miles and yards, provided tables of distances, and explained passengers' rights. In a note the publisher advertised that he would correctly compute disputed distances, wagers, and unmeasured ground: 'Any error discovered in this Map, or distance disputed, shall be remeasured, free of expense if found incorrect; but if otherwise, a charge of half-a-crown per mile will be made to the party requiring the same.' An improved version of the map was published by M.A. Leigh in the following year. On this, half mile measurements were indicated by red spots from east to west, and by blue spots from south to north. Later Leigh issued the map as a little booklet. The text in this was re-set as pages, the map itself forming an appendage.
