CARTOPHILIA 2: THE PARIS MAPGUIDE Michael Middleditch has mapped whole cities single-handed, but the Paris underground was a challenge

Jonathan Foster reports on a port that knows its place. Or did, until a minister struck

A medieval outline of Britain lurks beneath the glass of Terry Jones's coffee table. In the first of a series on the fascination of maps, the former Python comedian explains his obsession

Helen Wallis was one of Britain's leading historians of cartography.

GPs are to be offered a 'golden hello' to work in deprived areas of north London. Camden and Islington Family Health Services Authority plans to offer a guaranteed salary of pounds 42,000 a year for GPs who take up posts in the area, where an estimated 50,000 residents are not registered with a GP.

Don't look for Rose Street in your A to Z; this dustbin-alley off Garrick St obviously didn't strike the cartographers as being somewhere anyone would want to go.

Eila Muriel Joice Campbell, geographer: born 15 December 1915; Professor of Geography, Birkbeck College, London 1970-81; died London 12 July 1994.

LVOV - The town's founder named it after his son, Lev. That was in 1256. Since then much of Europe has quarrelled over the pronunciation. But whether you prefer Lwow, Lvov, Lviv, Lemberg or any other variation, it remains a city of sublime, though by now, somewhat shabby, grace.

'ERASMUS Shmerasmus,' our high school history teacher in Buenos Aires muttered when we got to chapter VI of our Historia Universal. 'A braggart and a meddler. We'll start on chapter VII: The Counter Reformation.' The result of this pedagogical ellipsis was to send us scuttling for the renegade's books and that year the cafe next to our school was full of pimply 14-year-olds reading The Praise of Folly. Strange as it may seem, we found that here, at last, was something immensely appealing. Erasmus's sarcasm, his refusal to accept power without authority, his constant questioning, spoke temptingly to our rebellious urges. We too lived among fools.

PATIENTS will receive fewer home visits at night and be asked more often to attend 24-hour family doctor surgeries under a deal struck yesterday between Dr Brian Mawhinney, the Minister for Health, and GPs' leaders.

Marriott Hotels (0800 221222) has just launched its Summer City Break programme, saving up to 50 percent on normal rates. Sample prices are pounds 56 for a night in Munich and pounds 66 in Athens, including breakfast and a free city map.

About 40 per cent of GPs want to quit because National Health Service changes are causing stress, according to to a survey for BBC 2's Public Eye.

Sir: Ian Thomson ('A grand tour in the circles of hell', 26 February) writes that Dante, in the Inferno, is involved in a 'descent to the centre of the earth, which is also the bottom of hell (medieval cartographers must have located this limbo somewhere in Australia)'.

IT IS 400 years since this map, the first in Britain to show roads, was published, writes David Keys. Prepared by John Norden in 1593, it covered Middlesex on a scale of 1:12,000 and, together with a guidebook, would have sold for about a shilling (equivalent to about pounds 25 today). Before 1593, maps were not designed for travellers, but for people interested in property ownership and antiquarian sites. Norden's map, now in the British Library, does not appear to have been a great success. Essex followed Middlesex in 1594, but never went into print, and from then on he left roads off his maps. Norden's work was also the first to use a key, with symbols for churches, mills, and castles. After Norden, road cartography ceased for about 80 years, and the Civil War was fought with hardly a road map in sight.