Stansted in the County of Sussex. Beeverell c1727.

by Beeverell, James

18thC engraving of Stansted with Coat of Arms of the Lumley family, with motto Murus Aeneus Conscientia Sana (A sound conscience is a wall of brass).

This balloon's-eye view of Stansted was a few hundred years before the Stansted international airport was built locally. Stansted Park now encompasses 1800 acres of parkland and ancient forest within the South Downs National Park. The first structure built at Stansted was a hunting lodge in the 11th century. In 1688 Richard Lumley built the first grand house at Stansted, but it burnt down in 1900 and in 1903 the current grand house was built on the same footprint of the previous building. In 1924 the estate was bought by Vere Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough. In 1983 the 10th Earl of Bessborough set up a charitable trust to preserve the estate for the nation: Stansted Park, the Arboretum and his Grade II listed family home with its beautiful contents. Lord Bessborough died in 1993 without a male heir to inherit his title. His book "The Enchanted Forest" tells the history of Stansted since the 12th century.

Original fine copperplate-engraved view of a grand English country estate for Les Delices de la Grand Bretagne et de l'Irlande, Ouvrage tres utile et tres curieux which translates roughly as "Estates of Great Britain and Ireland, Useful and Curious Works". This exquisite little engraving (with later fine hand-tinting with watercolour) is printed on watermarked paper with two vertical fold marks, for a pocket edition by James Beeverell published in 1727 by prominent mapmaker of Leyden, Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733), reducing the grand views of eminent topographical draughtsman Johannes Kip (1653-1722) for “Britannia Illustrata, ... Nobility or Gentry of Great Britain”, published in London circa 1708.

Plate size 13cm x 16cm (5 x 6.5 inches). Page size 15 x 20cm (6 x 8 inches), with two vertical folds for pocket publication.