This Atlas was published in 1794 by John Cary. At the time, it was the most detailed atlas of England and Wales and the first to methodically lay out the atlas according to location. Previous atlases were largely a page to a county and often each page had a different scale. The Atlas is hand coloured as was the norm at that time.

Cary is recognised as one of the foremost British cartographers and the quality and detail of the engravings far surpasses most previously published maps. If the map is examined in detail (as in the example below), the quality and detail in very good - remember every letter and line (even the hatching in the sea) is hand engraved onto a sheet of copper. This atlas significantly precedes the ordnance survey maps of the next century.