Sir Charles Wilson's original estimate for this work was only for a revision of the 1-inch maps of Scotland and of about two-thirds of England and Wales, the rest of England and Wales to be completed more gradually. But it seemed to me that an excellent opportunity now presented itself for obtaining a 1-inch map on the same uniform lines, and nearly up to date, for the whole of the United Kingdom. The Board of Agriculture readily concurred, and obtained the sanction of the Treasury to this work being carried out at once to completion, not only for Great Britain, but also for Ireland. Diagram No. 6 shows the area of 1-inch revision of Great Britain completed from 1893 to 1899. It amounts, as above stated, to practically the whole of the area of Great Britain, only some five or six sheets in the Midlands remaining to have the engraving completed on March 31, 1899. 4. Revised 1-inch Maps of Scotland, Ireland, and the North of England, with Hills in Brown. 1898-1899. The revision of the 1-inch maps of Scotland and the north of England was only carried out on the outline copper plates, and not on the hill copper plates, which contained both names and detail. To have carried out the revision on these hill plates would not only have doubled the cost of the engraving but would have damaged the hill features. On the other hand, if these hill-sheets are unrevised, they will go out of use, and their original cost will be thrown away. The difficulty has been got over by preparing one zinc plate with the hills. only, and another zinc plate with only the revised detail and the names. From these two zinc plates, by double printing, a map is obtained containing both the hill features and the revised details. As the hills on this revised map are printed in brown, it is in many respects clearer than the original engraved hill-map, especially in the more mountainous districts, where the engraved hills, printed in black, although very artistically executed, are extremely dark, and obscure the names. and detail. The revised map also has the contours, which the original hill-map has not. Two specimens of Sheet 54 Scotland (" Loch Rannoch "), one being the original unrevised sheet with the hills in black, the other being the revised sheet with the hills in brown, can be compared in the portfolio of English maps. This map should be pushed on rapidly for Scotland, the North of England, and Ireland, as the revision of the 1-inch maps in the case of those countries or districts cannot be considered complete until it is done. Only a few sheets of Scotland had been published on March 31, 1899 (see Diagram No. 7). 5. Progress of One-inch Coloured Map. England and Wales. 1893-1839. In March, 1892, the War Office appointed a Committee, of which Sir Charles Wilson was a member, to report upon the best means for obtaining a military map of the United Kingdom, and in April, 1892, the Board of Agriculture appointed, as has been stated above, a Departmental Committee to report upon the work of the Ordnance Survey generally. Both committees agreed that the military map should be based upon the 1-inch map of the Ordnance Survey, which should be printed in five or six colours, and that it should be on sale to the public. They also agreed, with some minor exceptions, as to the details which should appear on the map. The Treasury at first refused to appropriate any money for this coloured map, but General Sir Redvers Buller, who was then Adjutant-General, and who is a strong advocate of maps in colour, brought pressure to bear on the Treasury, and obtained permission for me to divert £500 of the Survey Vote to making an experiment in the preparation of 1-inch coloured maps. Later on, the Treasury, on the recommendation of the Board of Agriculture, sanctioned the preparation of these coloured maps as part of the regular work of the Survey; the map was not, however, intended to extend beyond the southern counties of England, until it should be seen whether it would be taken up by the public. But colour printing from zinc or stone was till recently comparatively unknown on the Ordnance Survey, and practical difficulties arose in organizing a staff for carrying it out. The earlier maps produced were not satisfactory, but a considerable improvement has since been effected. Two specimens of these maps, one being an early sheet containing Margate, and the other being the Shaftesbury sheet, which was one of the last done before I left Southampton in March, 1899, are in the portfolio of English maps. The latter is a great improvement on the former, and is a good clear map. Diagram No. 8 shows the progress which had been made in the preparation of these 1-inch coloured maps up to March 31, 1899. 6. One-inch Civil Parish Map in Colours for Great Britain. 1898-1899. Another experiment in colour printing has been the production of 1-inch maps for civil purposes with the parishes shown in colour. They are also used as indexes for the 6-inch and 25-inch maps, and are on sale to the public, but enough time has hardly yet elapsed to show whether they will have any sale as maps. Two specimens, one for England and one for Scotland, are in the portfolio of English maps. When the next census comes, these 1-inch maps, and a general map in colour on the scale of 2 miles to an inch for each county of England and Wales, a specimen of which was prepared in 1898, may be found to be not only useful but necessary. The latter map was prepared at the instance of the Board of Agriculture. Both maps ought to be of great service for all purposes connected with local government, although, as is mentioned elsewhere, the Local Government Board, the department principally concerned, appears rather to dread than to |