Ye olde maps

WISH THERE WAS a perfect romantic walk to take on Valentine’s Day? Well, thanks to the playful cartographers of the 17th and 18th centuries, there might just be such a thing.

As the mapmaking industry blossomed, wags and wits jumped on the bandwagon to create beautiful maps of less-than-physical phenomena, and love was a popular subject.

Take, for example, Thomas Sayer’s A Map or Chart of the Road to Love, produced in 1748. Starting from the west in the Sea of Common Life, it brings the traveller into the Road of Love ( passing the twin capes of Fairpromise and Fools), and on through the Coast of Ambition, the Cape of Extasy [sic], the Land of Desire and Content Bay. But watch out for the Rocks of Jealousy, Henpecked Sand, the Whirlpool of Adultery and Cuckoldom Bay. If you get through all that, you can both progress through the Outlet of Death to the Lake of Rest.

Likewise George Skaife Beeching’s 1880 Map of Matrimony is full of delights and terrors: Cape Flirtation, Cape Proposal, the Ocean of Admiration, the Sea of Doubt and (our favourite) the State of Agitation.

In the 1830s, there was even a Map of the Open Country of a Woman’s Heart (credited to ‘A Lady’), which includes proud nations such as Sentiment, Selfishness and Coquetry. It aspires to lead you to Old Man’s Darling Bay in the Sea of Wealth.

There’s a beautiful illustrated essay on all these and more on the Public Domain Review website. Find it at bit.ly/romancemaps.

In the meantime, console yourself that there are some real-life romantic placenames for walkers to explore:

Cupid’s Hill, above Grosmont in Monmouthshire Sweetheart Abbey near Dumfries ( pictured; handy for our fabulous Criffel walk; download it at www.lfto.com/ bonusroutes) Isle of Ewe (say it out loud), near Aultbea in the Highlands …and the village of Lover in Wiltshire.