The late eighteenth century saw a growing market for cartographic games. John Bowles was one of its earlier proponents. John Wallis (1745?-1818) was apprenticed to William Johnson, a bookseller at Ludgate Street, London. Made free in 1769 he was in a brief partnership before going bankrupt in 1778. He recovered to be a highly successful publisher of children’s games and puzzles. According to the label on the front of the slipcase this map was sold at ‘Edlin’s Toy Shop, 37 New Bond Street’.

In 1794 he published ‘Wallis’s tour through England and Wales, a new geographical pastime’, a similar work on just England and Wales. This publication covers the whole of the United Kingdom and takes in 190 places. The accompanying booklet of rules is long since separated but a manuscript one is present. The game begins at Windsor and finishes in London having travelled the length and breadth of the country including Ireland. Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).