Old Map of Pembrokeshire, Wales in 1578 by Christopher Saxton - Pembroke, Newport, Cardigan, Fishguard, Haverfordwest

In 1573, Christopher Saxton set out under a royal patent from Elizabeth I to survey every county in England and Wales, a project that would culminate in 1579 with the first printed atlas of the two nations. His map of Pembrokeshire, engraved in 1578 as one of the later plates in the series, captures the county just as the survey was nearing completion. Saxton worked with remarkable speed for the period, travelling the Welsh countryside himself and relying on local gentry for access and information, and his Pembrokeshire plate carries the decorative hallmarks of the series: a strapwork cartouche, a compass rose, and a scale bar rendered in period units.

The map covers the far south-western tip of Wales, from Pembroke and its castle on the Cleddau estuary to Haverfordwest, already the county's principal market town, and on to Fishguard on the north coast. Newport and Cardigan are marked toward the county's northern edge, close to the boundary with Cardiganshire, and Saxton also records St Davids, seat of the smallest cathedral in Britain, along with the Preseli Hills inland and the sheltered anchorage later known as Milford Haven. The result is one of the earliest reliable printed pictures of this remote corner of Wales.

Collectors of the Saxton atlas, and anyone tracing Pembrokeshire family lines back to the sixteenth century, will appreciate having one of the county's earliest surveyed maps available outside a rare-book library. Scanned at high resolution to preserve the fine strapwork and lettering of the original plate, the print comes in a choice of sizes to suit whatever wall it is destined for.