A map of Surrey, with inset views of the palaces of Richmond and Nonsuch, both royal Tudor residences which were demolished by the end of the seventeenth century. Nonsuch was given by Charles II to Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine, who then tore it apart to pay gambling debts; Richmond was sold by Parliament after the execution of Charles I.

John Speed (1552-1629) was the outstanding cartographer of his age. His ‘Theatre of Great Britain’ was the first atlas of the British Isles: Speed prepared the maps himself about two years before they were published. His maps and books dominated the seventeenth-century English market. The present map is taken from the 1627 English edition published by George Humble.