Saturday, August the 8th, 2009

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Map Tip

I think it highly likely that quite a few Hooting Yard readers will have woken up this morning thinking to themselves, “Gosh! It really is time I bought myself a map of Switzerland! As soon as I have done my ablutions and chomped my breakfast I shall head off to the cartographers' bazaar to make a judicious purchase!”

It is thus fortunate that I can pass on to you some very sensible advice in the matter, courtesy of that excellent Mr Ruskin.

The Original von Keller's Zweiter Reisekarte der Schweitz (1844) is, says Ruskin,  “the only map of Switzerland which has ever been executed with common sense and intelligence”. (Praeterita, Volume II, Chapter XI, paragraph 215.) Lord knows there are plenty of maps of Switzerland made with foolhardiness and stupidity, and you might have gone and bought one of those. Notch that up as another triumph for Hooting Yard's map-procurement advisory service.

The illustration below is a detail from von Keller's earlier 1825 map of Switzerland. It has clearly been executed with somewhat less common sense and intelligence than the 1844 version, but is still far more sensible than the average Swiss map.