Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
John Walker's Commonplace Book: A Traveller in the 1670s

John Walker's Commonplace Book: A Traveller in the 1670s

Walker, John
Jones, Anthea

Paperback

General EuropeGeneral European HistoryBritish History

ISBN10: 1914407865
ISBN13: 9781914407864
Publisher: Hobnob Press
Published: Apr 5 2025
Pages: 158
Weight: 0.51
Height: 0.34 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

Travelling for pleasure in the 1670s required plenty of stamina. John Walker, a well-to-do country gentleman in his early thirties, rode many miles on horseback through England, Wales and Scotland, and not always on good horses, as he commented. Twice he journeyed through France, and he went also to the Low Countries and the Channel Islands; crossing the North Sea to Rotterdam, he and his man were entertained by the playing of porpoises 'in a tempestuous sea'. Walker kept notes as he journeyed, subsequently writing longer accounts of ten of his travels in a Commonplace Book which is preserved amongst the records in Somerset Heritage Centre. Everywhere he took an interest in the commerce of the towns and the harbours, and in their defences. He made some pertinent political observations. As he rode, he observed the nature of the land, and he commented on the buildings which a modern tourist, too, might visit. The Pond-du-Gard, 'which is a lofty stupendous bridge', was described with artistic enthusiasm. Not many accounts by travellers in the seventeenth century have been published. John Walker's Commonplace Book, edited by Anthea Jones, is wide-ranging and full of interesting observations.

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British History

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