A rare and charming anonymous early 19th Century Map of Matrimony

Map of Matrimony

Printed on card. Trimmed to outer line border, with slight losses of outer neat line in places. Attractive original wash colours. Overall fine condition, given the nature of the item.

A small late Georgian or early Regency period Matrimony map, produced anonymously and probably published in London in about 1825. Taking the form of a Voyage, the map probably served as a model for the poem, A Metrical Map of Matrimony, which was first published in the collection, Rhyming Reminiscences in Comical Couplets by Geoffrey Grin, Gent [London 1826] and reads as follows:

A Matrimonial trip to take,

I sail’d in the brig Rover

Determined quite no more to rake

But give my follies over

Well stored my purse with well earned pence

The Land of Promise making;

I touch’d the Kingdom of Suspense,

With palpitation quaking.

The Sea of Pinmoney I knew

Was dangerous navigation,

But making sail, it came into view,

With long Straits of Flirtation

Strong Tides of Jealousy arose,

In which I somehow stumbled;

But Courtship’s gulf cured all my woes,

For headlong in I tumbled.

Engagement Bay I entered next,

Quicksands of Censure daring;

But Isles of Envy came abreast,

The brought me to a bearing.

Long Coasts of Preparation soon

I steered, no pilot staying;

Run foul, in sight of Honeymoon,

Dark rocks beneath us laying.

The tribe of Lawyers here I met,

But soon the anchor heaving;

A breeze sprung up, our sails we set,

Behind Cape Doubtful leaving;

The Bay of Settlement appear’d

While laying on this station :

A storm arose, but caution cleare’d

The Point of Separation.

With favouring gales I sail’d on now,

To Land of Spinsters steering;

Took bride and bridesmaids there in tow,

Gay Hymen’s Port appearing;

Lake of Congratulation rose

Like streams of milk and honey;

And soon I buried all my woes,

Safe moor’d in Matrimony !!!

Virtually all of the landmarks and features mentioned in Geoffrey Grin’s Metrical Map of Matrimony are referenced within this charming little map. It is attractively complemented by a small decorative cartouche upper right, which shows a small classically-clad Cupid bearing a torch lit from the inextinguishable eternal flame that burns on the nearby Altar of Love. In the background can be seen a typical English Church with tall spire, the ultimate destination for the final solemnization of this amorous matrimonial voyage.

An extremely rare and charming matrimonial chart.