The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social StructureAlan Rosevear
Alexandre Benois, The King walked in any weather…(Saint-Simon)
Imagine! No bike, no car, no bus, no train; a walk to work and a wet trudge to the shops. Our social support miles away; how to keep in touch? Can granny look after the sick kids? How far do we dare move from home?
The personal diaries of men and women from the mid-1600s to the early 1800s show how people in England and Wales resolved these dilemmas. What emerges from the analysis of 300,000 miles of journeys is a story of evolutionary change in travel, facilitated by technological improvement.