An unusual map of Bath, set in a round frame in imitation of a compass.

Bath was a fashionable destination for the nobility and gentry of Georgian and Regency Britain. The town itself contained the Pump Room, where the spa waters were drunk, the Theatre Royal, and the Assembly Rooms, where balls were held. The countryside around it was a popular destination for day trips and riding. Although nominally a spa town, it was also an important part of the marriage market, and was less formal than London. The year before this map was published, the playwright Richard Sheridan helped the soprano Elizabeth Linley escape from an arranged marriage and elope to France.

The map is a reduction of Thomas Thorpe’s survey of Bath and its environs. Thorpe first published the large scale map on nine sheets in 1744. The reduction was first published in 1771, then again in 1773 (as in the present example), and in 1787, 1799, and 1800.