Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Re: travelling modes & times; From T.B. Macaulay
Macaulay on 17th century social alienation owing to the fearsome and chaotic state of the roads, due to parochial taxation policies:
The chief cause which made the fusion of the different elements of society so imperfect was the extreme difficulty which our ancestors found in passing from place to place. Of all inventions, the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted, those inventions which abridge distance have done most for the civilisation of our species. Every improvement of the means of locomotion benefits mankind morally and intellectually as well as materially, and not only facilitates the interchange of the various productions of nature and art, but tends to remove national and provincial antipathies, and to bind together all the branches of the great human family. In the seventeenth century the inhabitants of London were, for almost every practical purpose, farther from Reading than they now are from Edinburgh, and farther from Edinburgh than they now are from Vienna.
Travel times: two days by coach from the Strand to Portsmouth distance: 73 miles;
Seeing a map of the John Ogliby and seeing the modern map, most of the roads still be there especially at the Fluvius crossings :
One day trip Guilford to Portsmouth. By using the the London - Portsmouth street roads in/out of the main towns, one follows most of the old SP route.
Mileage in miles and furlongs: Guildford 4.4 to Godalming 12.2 [including that nice climb at Hindhead Puff- Puff] Lippock 8.4 Petersfield 7.2 Harnden 6.4 Portsey Bridge [M25 ] 4.2 to the Portsmouth [Old Portsmouth]
Errata S/B M27/A27 not the ring road the Dreaded M 25
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