Abraham Ortelius — Epitome du theatre du monde (1601)

All of Britain, which today is called by the double name of England and Scotland and contains two kingdoms within itself, is the largest island of our entire world; it is surrounded by the Ocean, the German Sea, and the French Sea. Its largest and more southern part, now called England by the English who occupied it, has its own King and is divided into thirty assemblies, which they call counties. These counties are divided into seventeen ecclesiastical jurisdictions, which the Greeks call dioceses. This England is bounded from the east and south by the Ocean; from the west by the borders of Wales and Cornwall; from the north is the Tweed river, which separates it from the Scots. The land is fruitful and abounds especially in livestock; whence it happens that the inhabitants are almost more herdsmen than plowmen; because they study more almost for pasture than for cultivating the field, so that almost a third part of the land is left uncultivated solely for the cattle. The region is very temperate in every season of the year, and there is no heaviness of the sky, so that diseases are rare, and hence there is less use for medicine than elsewhere. Earthquakes are almost never here. Lightning is very rare. The soil is fertile. But the land does not produce wine. Instead of wine, beer is in use. There are many hills everywhere, not planted with trees, nor irrigated by fountains of water, which produce the thinnest and shortest grass, which nevertheless abundantly supplies fodder for the sheep; very white flocks of sheep wander over them, which, whether by the kindness of the sky or the goodness of the land, bear soft wool, and by far the thinnest of all other regions. This wool is truly golden, in which the riches of the islanders mostly consist: for a great supply of gold and silver is brought into the island annually from everywhere by merchants for the sake of buying such merchandise primarily. It has most excellent dogs. It abounds with an abundance of fish of every kind. There are no oysters more delicate or more numerous elsewhere. It bears gold, silver, tin, lead, and iron, but a small supply of it.

A woodcut map of England and Wales, oriented with West at the top. The coastline of France with Calais is visible on the left. Major regions labeled include Cornwall, Wales, and the border with Scotland. Numerous towns are marked, including Falmouth, Exeter, London, Cambridge, Oxford, York, and Berwick. The Isle of Man and Anglesey are shown off the coast.