ley, ‘at my poore house neere Fulham,’ and he complained that he had ‘been forced to struggle with want.’
Norden had a garden at his house ‘near Fulham,’ and was friendly with J. Gerard, the author of the ‘Herball.’ Before 1597 Gerard gave Norden some red-beet seeds, which, although ‘altogither of one colour,’ ‘in his garden brought foorth many other beautifull colours’ (Herball, 1597, p. 252). Between 1 Jan. 1607 and 27 March 1610 Norden lived at Hendon (cf. Surveyors Dialogue, 1607 and 1610, Dedications).
Apart from the first part of his ‘Speculum,’ the ‘Middlesex,’ issued in 1593, Norden only succeeded in publishing his account of ‘Hertfordshire’ (1598). The manuscript of the latter is in the Lambeth Library (codex 521). But he finished in manuscript full surveys of five other counties. His description of ‘Essex,’ of which the original manuscript is at Hatfield, was edited for the Camden Society by Sir Henry Ellis in 1840 (another manuscript, with important variations, is in the British Museum, Add. MS. 33769). ‘Northampton’ was completed in 1610, but was not published until 1720. ‘Cornwall’ (probably visited by Norden as early as 1584) was also written in 1610 (Harl. MS. 6252), but was not published until 1728. Descriptions of ‘Kent and Surrey are said to exist in manuscript, but their whereabouts are unknown’ (Wheatley, p. xcii). The latter may be identical with portions of Additional MS. 31853 (see supra).
In 1600 Norden was acting as surveyor of the crown woods and forests in Berkshire, Devonshire, Surrey, and elsewhere (Add. MS. 5752, f. 306), and on 6 Jan. 1605 he petitioned for the surveyorship of the duchy of Cornwall, and complained that he had expended 1,000l. in former employments without receiving any recompense. On 30 Jan. a satisfactory reply was returned (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1603–10, pp. 186, 191). ‘A Plott of the Six Escheated Counties of Ulster’ was made by Norden about the same time (Cotton MS. Aug. i. ii. 44), and is interesting as the only evidence of his being employed in Ireland. In 1607 Norden published his ‘Surveyors Dialogue’ (Arber, iii. 331, 412), which was republished in 1610, 1618, and 1758, and it was re-edited in 1855 by J. W. Papworth in the ‘Architectural Society's Publications,’ vi. 409. In 1607 Norden also surveyed Windsor and the neighbourhood. The result is extant in a vellum folio manuscript (Harl. MS. 3749) entitled ‘A Description of the Honor of Winsor, namely of the Castle, etc., taken and performed by the Perambulation, View, and Delineation of John Norden, anno 1607.’ This is dedicated to James I, and contains eighteen beautifully coloured maps, including a fine ‘Plan or Bird's-eye View of Windsor Castle from the North,’ with maps of Windsor Forest, Little Park, ‘Greate Parke,’ and ‘Moate Parke.’ Five of these maps, with abstracts from the manuscript as far as they relate to Windsor, are given in R. R. Tighe and J. C. Davis's ‘Annals of Windsor,’ 1858. For this labour Norden received from the king a ‘Free Gift of 200l.’ (Nichols, Progresses of James I, 1828, ii. 247). With E. Gavell he surveyed the king's woods in Surrey, Berkshire, and Devonshire in 1608 (Egerton MS. 806). To the same year probably belong ‘Certaine necessary Considerations touching the Raysing and Mayntayning of Copices within his Mates Forests, Chases, Parkes, and other Wastes, and the increasing of young Stores for Timber for future Ages,’ subscribed ‘John Norden,’ n.d., and ‘A Summary Relation of the Proceedings upon the Commission concerning New Forests,’ addressed by Norden to the lorde highe treasurer (Ashmolean MS. 1148, ff. 239–242, 257–8). On 2 Nov. 1612 Norden received a grant in survivorship to himself ‘and Alexander Nairn of the Office of Surueyors of the Kings Castles, etc., in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Berks, Dorset, Wilts, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1601–18, p. 508). In 1613 he made ‘Observations concerning Crown Lands and Woods’ (Lansdowne MS. 165, No. 55). In 1616 and 1617 he appears to have held the surveyorship of the duchy of Cornwall jointly with his son, also named John Norden. An ‘Abstract of the general Survey of the Soke of Kirketon in Lindesey, in the County of Lincoln, with all Manors, etc., being Parcel of the Inheritance of the right worthy Charles Prince of Wales, as belonging unto his Dukedom of Cornwall, 1616,’ folio, is in the Cambridge University Library (Ff. iv. 30). Although not ascribed to Norden in the library catalogue, it is probably an original work of his or a contemporary copy formerly in Bishop Moore's collection (cf. Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xi. 29; Reliquiæ Hearnianæ, 2nd ed. 1869, ii. 260). ‘An Abstract of divers Manors, Lands, etc., granted to Prince Charles by James I, and surveyde by John Norden the elder and John Norden the younger, June–Septr 1617; with Plans of Binfield and Blowberie, Berks, Whitchwood and Watlington, Oxon, etc.,’ is extant in Additional MS. 6027. A ‘Supervisus Manerii de Blowberie,’ dated 1617, is in the Cambridge Library MS. (Dd. viii. 9). ‘The Presentment and Verdicte of the Jurie
