Guaranteed to shed yet more fascinating light on the rich and continually unfolding history of Bermuda, Daniel Blagg's `Bermuda Atlas and Gazetteer', is due to be published in September.

Besides an exhaustive list of every island, road, lane and avenue, each section of the 400-page volume leads with an over-view of every parish, as well as the town of St. George's and City of Hamilton. In addition, there are 14 newly devised, fold-out maps in full colour. The book is designed and illustrated by a former student of his, Luca Gasperi, a gifted young artist from St. Croix who is being hailed as a rising star in Caribbean art circles.

Six years of long and painstaking research have gone into Mr. Blagg's project which, he says, really began by accident.

"Back in 1991, when I was Fundraising Director for the National Trust, I got talking to some visitors in the gardens at Waterville who wanted to know how The Foot of the Lane got its name. I guessed at the answer but got it wrong because the original meaning of the word `lane' was `channel', but over the years, that nautical term has been borrowed for use on land, and the old road running along that Paget shoreline came to be known as The Lane. "Then,'' he adds, "I was asked the origin of the name `Ireland Island' and, again, I had the impression it may have referred to the fact that many of the convicts who built Dockyard had come from Ireland. In fact, Bermuda's most western isle was named for a man named John Ireland, who had resided and owned a tract of land there in the early 17th century.'' Increasingly intrigued by the origins of many of the Island's place names, Mr.

Blagg, eventually made his way to the Bermuda Archives to find out more, only to learn that no reference book on this subject existed. "It was there that I met Government archivist John Adams who jokingly said, `Why don't you write one?' The rest, as you might say, is history, because I decided that I would do just that. My life changed radically, as I spent just about every night and weekend for the next few years, gleaning bits and pieces of information from a truly dizzying array of sources.'' The sheer scope of his investigation was made easier, he says, by the fact that when he first arrived, he knew few people here: "It made more sense to do something like that, rather than sitting around watching `The Young and the Restless'!'' As his work progressed, Mr. Blagg became well aware that the legacy of place names is, as he notes in his introduction, "a cultural chronicle drawn from the tragedies and comedies of everyday life, from the tenancies and ownership of land, from the marriages, deaths, murders and folklore of preceding generations''.

Mr. Blagg is confident that his book will have a wide general appeal as, "even people who aren't interested in history as such, are curious about places where they grew up, or are living, where their families or ancestors lived -- or just wondering why or how a certain area was given its name.

Tobacco Bay is a good example, as I discovered that many people who thought the name rather strange had no idea that Bermuda had grown tobacco in its early history.'' Also of interest to the general reader is the research undertaken on peoples' names. "Take the reference to `Simon the negro', for instance. Shortly after that mention, we find the first sir-names appearing -- among them the name of Simon, so probably `Simon' is the oldest black sir-name in Bermuda.'' One of the more tragic stories related in his section on Sandys refers to Skeeters' Bay where in 1878, Anna Skeeters was found floating in the bay that has since borne her name. Eventually her husband confessed to her murder and was hanged on Burt Island in the Sound which, for some time after that, was known as Skeeters' Island.

Humour -- albeit very much of the `gallows' kind -- occurs in the entry for the Duke of Kent Street in St. George's. This was the site, in 1826, of a double murder for which a certain Joseph Gwynn was sentenced to hang. The Royal Gazette reported that "...the solemnity of the procession from the gaol to the place of execution was considerably lessened by the attendance of the executioner in female attire'' -- presumably a cautionary move, Mr. Blagg believes, taken to hide his identity from the felon's family.

The daunting task of tracking down place names began with the examination of Bermuda's oldest maps, going back to that made by the versatile Sir George Somers while he was also engaged in building one of the two wooden ships that took most of the survivors on to complete the original mission of relieving the infant Jamestown Colony in Virginia. Great use was made too, of course, of Richard Norwood's famous survey of 1616 and each successive map issued after then, up to the present day. To ensure that no names were missed, he placed each map on top of the one below, thus systematically filling in each era portrayed.

One of the very earliest places to be named, says Mr. Blagg, was Commissioner's Point (at Dockyard), originally called Northwest Point by none other than the great Sir George Somers himself, who personally bestowed that name on Bermuda's westernmost extremity in 1610, approximately one year after the Sea Venture's shipwreck.

When, in World War II, Bermuda sacrificed to America, two large parcels of land (and involving extensive land reclamation) it also sacrificed many historical associations and fascinating place names: the Americans bestowed their own names on their newly acquired enclaves -- most noticeably, of course, in the designation of the present airport area as Kindley Field, named for an American navigator from World War I.

A practical as well as an academic researcher, Mr. Blagg sallied forth, armed with his maps and notes, on a massive, Island-wide journey of discovery.

Bermuda book In a sense, it was a journey back into the past in more than one sense, a re-tracing of the Island he had always loved, for Daniel Blagg had spent some of his most formative years (12 to 16) in Bermuda: as the son of the then US Air Force's Provost Marshall, he claims Bermuda as his first love. Living close by the waters of Stovell's Bay at Spanish Point, and making endless vacation forays into the wild expanses surrounding St. David's Battery and Ferry Reach, the seeds of curiosity about his childhood home were still lying dormant when he returned here in 1991.

Now the Director of Development at Saltus Grammar School, Mr. Blagg is well qualified for the mammoth historical task he has undertaken. With degrees in political science from the American University in Washington D.C., and in law from the Delaware Law School, he is a member of the Bar in the American Virgin Islands. He has taught history there to high school level, and history, political science and social studies to college level at the City Colleges of Chicago, and at Bermuda's Naval Air Station. "I went to school there and I ended up teaching there,'' he reflects.

Mr. Blagg pays tribute to historian Michael Jarvis (now in process of compiling a new, exhaustive history of the Island) who, he says, generously allowed him access to material never previously published in Bermuda. "In the course of his own research, Michael went to the Public Records Office in London where he discovered that Governor Lefroy had only used about 75 percent of the Colonial Records for his two-volume history on early Bermuda.'' When Mr. Blagg saw the artwork produced for his book by Parsons School of Design graduate Luca Gasperi, he was so impressed that he immediately re-negotiated printing arrangements so that his watercolours could be printed in full colour throughout. "Originally, I had thought of designing the book myself but when I saw the amazing quality of his work, I asked him to do the whole thing. Another point that should be of interest is the fact that he has designed a beautiful, customised typography especially for this book which he has christened `Bermuda'. I think it's true to say, that besides being what I hope will be an informative history book, gazetteer and atlas, it will also be a work of art in its own right.'' Orders for advance copies of The Bermuda Atlas & Gazetteer, which will cost $120, and signed by the author, include a special Collector's Portfolio of 14 new full-colour maps for each volume pre-purchased prior to the Cup Match holiday (July 31). For further details, or an appointment to view the sample book, please telephone Daniel Blagg at 236-0098 or Joanne Ingham at 232-2394.

Bermuda book In a sense, it was a journey back into the past in more than one sense, a re-tracing of the Island he had always loved, for Daniel Blagg had spent some of his most formative years (12 to 16) in Bermuda: as the son of the then US Air Force's Provost Marshall, he claims Bermuda as his first love. Living close by the waters of Stovell's Bay at Spanish Point, and making endless vacation forays into the wild expanses surrounding St. David's Battery and Ferry Reach, the seeds of curiosity about his childhood home were still lying dormant when he returned here in 1991.

Now the Director of Development at Saltus Grammar School, Mr. Blagg is well qualified for the mammoth historical task he has undertaken. With degrees in political science from the American University in Washington D.C., and in law from the Delaware Law School, he is a member of the Bar in the American Virgin Islands. He has taught history there to high school level, and history, political science and social studies to college level at the City Colleges of Chicago, and at Bermuda's Naval Air Station. "I went to school there and I ended up teaching there,'' he reflects.

Mr. Blagg pays tribute to historian Michael Jarvis (now in process of compiling a new, exhaustive history of the Island) who, he says, generously allowed him access to material never previously published in Bermuda. "In the course of his own research, Michael went to the Public Records Office in London where he discovered that Governor Lefroy had only used about 75 percent of the Colonial Records for his two-volume history on early Bermuda.'' When Mr. Blagg saw the artwork produced for his book by Parsons School of Design graduate Luca Gasperi, he was so impressed that he immediately re-negotiated printing arrangements so that his watercolours could be printed in full colour throughout. "Originally, I had thought of designing the book myself but when I saw the amazing quality of his work, I asked him to do the whole thing. Another point that should be of interest is the fact that he has designed a beautiful, customised typography especially for this book which he has christened `Bermuda'. I think it's true to say, that besides being what I hope will be an informative history book, gazetteer and atlas, it will also be a work of art in its own right.'' Orders for advance copies of The Bermuda Atlas & Gazetteer, which will cost $120, and signed by the author, include a special Collector's Portfolio of 14 new full-colour maps for each volume pre-purchased prior to the Cup Match holiday (July 31). For further details, or an appointment to view the sample book, please telephone Daniel Blagg at 236-0098 or Joanne Ingham at 232-2394.