Rides Round Britain

These journals, written between 1781 and 1794, record John Byng's horseback tours through England and Wales. A retired soldier and later a stamp commissioner, he notes inns, roads, churches, great houses, farms, and the company at table, often comparing what he sees with an older, more hospitable England. The routes include the West Country, the Midlands, Kent, Lincolnshire, the North, and North Wales. He is curious about building and landscape and impatient with fashion, poor food, and neglected monuments. The book is a sequence of travel diaries, not a single continuous tour or a political tract.

Quarter bound in tan buckram with hand marbled paper covers. Dark brown endpapers and slipcase. Page tops stained brown.