ENGLAND FROM A SIDE-SADDLE

Join Celia Fiennes on a 3,000-mile horseback journey through 17th-century England. Over the course of two summers, Celia Fiennes visited every county in England and kept meticulous notes of her travels in her diaries. This unprecedented journey saw her make her way along unmarked and treacherous roads, stop off in questionable lodgings and meet people from every class and creed.

The remarkably well preserved diaries have now been compiled to document her journey. Diary extracts accompanied by maps, images of what Celia would have encountered on her travels and commentary from historian Derek J. Taylor paint a vivid picture of pre-Industrial England.

An unedited extract of Celia’s diaries included in the book allows us to see her writings and observations in their purest form, as we gain an insight into the perspective of an independent, aristocratic, devout Puritan woman in the late 1600s.

Celia’s great-great-great-greatgreat-great-great-great-great-great nephew, Martin Fiennes, remarks that if this pioneering woman were alive today, she would surely be a war correspondent.

The thus far neglected diaries of this trailblazing woman also provide an incredible insight into significant moments in history. On her travels, Celia attended the coronation of

Queen Anne, encountered infamous slave-trader Edward Colston and much more. Commenting on her travels, Celia writes: “If all persons, both ladies and much more gentlemen, would spend some of their time in journeys to visit their native land, it would be a sovereign remedy to cure laziness.”

The History Press, £14.99;

ISBN: 978-0-750-99623-5