ABSTRACT
It was in the 1570s too that Christopher Saxton was commissioned to prepare the first systematic survey of England, by which mayors were instructed to 'see him conducted unto any towre, castle, high place or hill, to view that country', and which was published in 1579 (L. Brown, 168). Willes's invocation ofthe widespread vogue for geography in his prefatory advertisement has been described as 'chronological intimidation' (Lewis, 308), and the vogue is certainly confirmed by the several reprints achieved by Valentine Leigh's Commendable Science ojSurveyingbetween 1562 and 1596.5 'One ofthe first, that attempted the collectyng ofthe same Arte into a volume' (A3r), Leigh addressed his readership as 'all men (inasmuche, as the thyng it self, appertaineth to every manne)' (A2r).
