242
CHRISTOPHER SAXTON.
reported upon by Lowndes. It was described in the catalogue
as having formerly belonged to Queen Elizabeth.
In Bryan's Dictionary of Painters it is stated that "Master
Ryther bore the expense of the series which was published in
1579," but in Daines Barrington's copy of the Atlas in the Library
of the Society of Antiquaries there is a manuscript note to the
effect that the work was "made chiefly at the expense of Sir
Thomas Sackforde." This statement appears to be supported by
the fact that the maps were dedicated to Queen Elizabeth and
adorned with the Royal Arms and those of "Master Sekeford" :
whom Walpole describes as the promoter.
Timperley, in his Dictionary of Painters, confirms Walpole's
statement. I am inclined to think that the statement in Bryan
is incorrect and that "Master Ryther" is a typographical error
for "Master Seckford." What is intended is that Ryther was
the publisher, for I find that a person by name Augustine Ryther
published some of the maps of the Spanish invasion and kept a
shop near Leadenhall, next to the sign of the Tower.
Ryther was also an engraver and had the chief hand in pro-
ducing the maps of Cumberland, Durham, Westmoreland, and
Yorkshire included in Saxton's Atlas. It is somewhat strange
that no record is entered in the Stationer's Company of the
registration of the Atlas or of any other work having been pro-
duced by Saxton.
A portrait of Thomas Seckford appears in Vertue's print of
the Court of Wards. I have been unable to trace any portrait
of Christopher Saxton. The Essex Map exhibited by me at the
meeting of the Club was engraved by Leonard Terwoort and is
dated 1576.
I have not been successful in tracing the date or place of
death of our first cartographer, but he was alive as late as
1596, when he measured and described the town of Manchester.
Saxton was married, and left sons who died without issue, and
a daughter Grace, who married Thomas Nalson, of Altofts,
Yorkshire,