Category: Travel Writing

The Bath Road: History, Fashion, & Frivolity on an Old Highway

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Chapters

12. Part 12

Among these records of the Bath Road must be mentioned the various essays made by C. A. Smith, of the Bath Road Club, on tricycles. He rode to Bath and back on a three-wheeler,...

5. Part 5

The town of Hounslow is as unprepossessing as its name, which is saying a great deal. Its mile-long street, unlivened by any interesting features, is dull without descending to...

10. Part 10

It stands, that hoary pile, in a wide and well-wooded park, sheltered beneath the swelling Wiltshire downs and close beside the gentle Kennet, whose stream has been fruitful of...

13. Part 13

They say that Nash "made" Bath. That, however, is but partly true. Bath was beginning to make its way when he appeared, and he simply exploited the place. The Moment had come an...

8. Part 8

A fine broad gravel stretch of highway is that which, on leaving Salt Hill, takes us gently down in the direction of the Thames, which the Bath Road crosses, over Maidenhead Bri...

11. Part 11

Meanwhile, Thomson was sipping nectar (which is Greek for brandy-punch) with my Lord Hertford, and babbling of other things than green fields. In fact, the literary Lady Hertfor...

7. Part 7

But all the Salt Hill hotels were ruined when the Great Western Railway was constructed. The first section was opened, from Paddington to Taplow, on June 4, 1838, and those old...

2. Part 2

A clever and enterprising man resident at Bath had noted these things. This was John Palmer, the proprietor of the Bath Theatre. He not only noted them, but devised a plan by wh...

6. Part 6

It was the Hon. Grantley Berkeley who first drew attention to the "haunted" character of the house. He tells, in his "Recollections," how one night when he and his brother had r...

4. Part 4

This ornate palisade of cast-iron, which pretended to be wrought, once passed, a gravel drive led up to the house. Ah, that house! It possessed all the flamboyant glories of Gro...

3. Part 3

Cary's "Itinerary" for 1821 (Cary was a guide, philosopher, and friend without whom our grandfathers never travelled) gives no fewer than thirty-seven stage-coaches which starte...

9. Part 9

The most famous inhabitant of Newbury was that fifteenth-century clothier, that "Jack of Newbury," whose wealth and public benefactions were alike considered wonderful in his da...

1. Part 1

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 37921-h.htm or 37921-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/37...

14. Part 14

A black horse, rising five years old, thirteen Hands and a Half High, Star in his forehead, small Ears, Mane stands up rough, being lately rubbed off, long Tail, hangs his Tongu...