A Map of England and Wales

I loved sharing my zany embroidered world map with you the other day, but I'm surprised that I didn't get around to showing this one to you sooner - I've had it a little longer: 

I bought it in the Saint Columba's Hospice Shop on the way down from Edinburgh city centre into Leith - it's the shop where the Hospice put all their best vintage donations, and the prices are usually accordingly steep, but when I saw this map, set in a charming oak fire screen, I was prepared to pay a bit of a higher price (and of course, the hospice is very dear to our hearts, too).

So the question that the two charming elderly ladies in the shop asked me was, "Why has nobody bought this sooner? It's lovely, isn't it?" I was a bit surprised too, but my dad laughed and laughed, and pointed out that this was the answer:

It's a map of England and Wales! How enthusiastic are Scots going to be for a piece of vintage embroidery which casually ignores their own country? Anyway, my gain...

Like any self-respecting embroidered map, this one has a range of ships romantic,

modern,

and war-like. My dad loved this one, which he reckoned was a good way of dating it - I think it's some kind of naval Destroyer, but please don't quote me.

There is a faded leaping dolphin,

and a compass rose, although the more recent one from my groovy map beats it for style, I think:

The counties are the old ones, of course, and we are guessing that the embroidery itself dates from the 1930s. I'm only going to show you one county today, my old home of Devon:

It has particularly detailed embroidery, with a walker on Dartmoor, the hills of Exmoor and a Red Devon cow. Some of the other counties don't really have any special detail, but many show some kind of industrial or leisure activity. To wish my fellow English bloggers a Happy Saint George's Day (and Welsh readers a belated St David's Day!) I'm going to let you choose your own counties, and ask you to let me know in a comment how you think they might have been represented by a 1930s embroiderer. Please let me know in your comment which (old) county you would like to see, and have a guess at what we'll find embroidered there! I'll post the results in a few days' time. Scots, (Northern) Irish, Americans, French blogueuses, and international friends from all over are also welcome to leave a comment and/or a request, of course! Have a lovely day, especially if it's your National Day!