Besley 3

The agricultural show in Exeter in 1850 was obviously a big occasion and Besley seized the chance to produce a guide specially for the show. Although he could easily have included the map of Exeter that he had been using since 1845 (and continued to use until circa 1900) he had a new plan made which also included the plan of the showground itself. The map is slightly unorthodox as it goes back to the Hooker orientation of showing the River Exe from left to right. This is, in fact, quite a pleasing perspective as Fore Street with High Street and Sidwell Street is now vertically central and North and South Streets intersect forming a cross.

The map had an outline of the showground to the right with a larger plan below. A note at the end of Sidwell Street guides the visitor to the heavy soil trial field and another at the end of Heavitree and Magdalen Roads has to the light soil trial field. The first section (to xxxvi) are devoted to the show and this is followed by a general guide to Exeter, mostly reprinted from the Route Book pages dealing with Exeter.Many of the adverts at the end have a farming bias.

Besley was not the only publisher to seize an opportunity to sell guide books to fair visitors; Llewellynn Jewitt had written guides to four previous agricultural fairs and also wrote a guide for the Exeter event (c.f.). The British Library has a copy of Besley's Hand Book for the Archery Meeting, and Visitor's Guide to Exeter, held in 1858.

 

Size: 230 x 280 mm.     No scale. 

EXETER, ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY'S MEETING, 1850 (Aa). No imprint or signature. Plain single line border. Shows the location of the show yard (Ec) and there is an enlarged plan of the same occupying the bottom right corner with the border reduced to the river so that it can fit. South Devon Railway with Railway Station. Churches and Chapels are listed left. 

1. 1850

The Hand Book Of Exeter, and Visiter's Guide to the Show ...  

Exeter. H Besley. 1850.          DevA, KB.


 

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