North of England and Scotland in 1704

In the spring of 1704 a young student set out on his horse from London to explore Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Scottish Lowlands. With the proposed Act of Union being very much in the headlines he was curious to see a country that would soon be so closely linked to his own. The author offers detailed comments on his visits to the major cathedrals and churches of eastern England, as well as to Burghley House near Stamford. His youth and naivety are exposed in an encounter with a group of Scottish washerwomen, and he is forced to pass a bleak night on a bare mountain when he becomes utterly lost in rain and mist on his return journey towards Moffat and Lockerbie. The journal of his tour remained in manuscript for over a century, probably surviving a major fire which destroyed the library of Hafod near Aberystwyth. In 1818 it was finally published by William Blackwood of Edinburgh, in an edition of only 100 copies. It has not been reprinted since. This edition reproduces the text printed in 1818 with a modern introduction. Numerous footnotes explain contemporary references and give extracts from the travel journals of other tourists who travelled along the same roads. The editor, Tim Griffiths, has previously published A Place Quite Northward: Visitors to Northumberland 1500-1850 (www.FeedARead.com publishing, 2015).