First published in London in 1882 and republished here on fully-searchable CD-Rom is the third edition of John Murray's Handbook for Travellers to Berks, Bucks & Oxfordshire. Containing some 383 printed pages, the original title of the publication reads as follows: A Handbook for Travellers in Berks, Bucks, & Oxfordshire. Including a Particular Description of the University & City of Oxford, & the Descent of the Thames to Maidenhead & Windsor.
Travel writing as it is understood today can perhaps be traced to 1828 and Karl Baedeker's Rheinreise von Mainz bis Cöln. This was quickly followed by John Murray's Handbook for Travellers on the Continent and indeed Baedeker and Murray were to collaborate for the formers first publication in English in 1861. Murray's Handbooks for Travellers set the standard for English travellers for the rest of the nineteenth-century until Murray's was taken-over by the Muirhead brothers and their famous 'Blue Guides' in 1915.
John Murray (1809-1892) was educated at the prestigious English public school, Charterhouse from where he enrolled at Edinburgh University and following his studies he travelled extensively on the continent and this was the basis for his development of the first successful modern guidebooks, the Murray's Handbook for Travellers series. This series was begun in 1836 at a time when domestic and foreign travel was opening up, the guides came to cover all of Britain, the continent and further afield. Writers and contributors to these guides included known and unknown correspondents, including Thomas Cook correcting details about the Nile steamer, John Ruskin on Italian hotels and Felix Mendelssohn who recommended a hotel where he lived 'with a party of several ladies'. With their distinctive red covers and gold lettering Murray's handbooks became known and famous throughout the world. By the time the business was sold Murray's had help produce 400 titles and editions in the Handbook for Travellers Series and the company was also responsible for publishing works by David Livingstone and Charles Darwing, amongst many others.
This edition of Murray's Handbook for Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, details 28 routes throughout the three counties in question and includes detailed introductory notes on each. The routes begin at Windsor Castle and the Great Park at Windsor in Buckinghamshire - a detailed plan for which is included - and ends in Oxford. Each route is introduced by the overall distance to be travelled, the available modes of transport, typically by rail and provides extremely details topographical, geological and historical information for all of the places of note in between the start and destination. The original is fully-indexed and contains many hundreds of contemporary advertisements, mainly for hotels in the United Kingdom, Ireland and continental Europe.
Republished here in fully-searchable CD-Rom, is a chance to own own Murray's Handbook for Travellers to Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, one the publications that set the standard for independent travel literature throughout the English-speaking world.
Originally published in London 1910 by MacMillan & Co., Ltd., this first edition of the Highways and Byways in Buckinghamshire, is republished here on fully-searchable CD-Rom. Macmillan began publishing the Highways & Byways series in 1899 and by 1909 had completed almost twenty publications in the series, which extended across the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales, with one publication on Normandy and and another on Ireland. This highly popular series continued until the beginning of the Second World War. In May 2009 Pan Macmillan reissued a one-volume collection of the best of the Highways and Byways series offering a glimpse of the very best of Britain.
The original publication of the Highways and Byways in Buckinghamshire contains more than 340 printed pages, but unusually for the series as a whole no map of the route undertaken by the author, Clement Shorter, who chose to take a number of short trips, and almost 100 pen and ink illustrations by Frederick L. Griggs, providing as with all of the Highways and Byways series a wonderful mix of topography, local history and folklore, which perhaps more than ever allows the reader to rediscover parts of Britain that have long disappeared under a morass of concrete, motorways and bypasses.
Clement Shorter undertook more than twenty-five 'tours' on which he reported in the Highways and Byways in Buckinghamshire, which included the following stops in his itinerary: Aylesbury and Thame; Aston; Brill; Quarrendon & QuaintonTring; Wendover; Great Missenden; Amersham; High & West Wycombe as well as chapters on noted personalities of the county such as the Chalfont family and noted establishments, including Eton College, Chequers and Hampden House.
Much of the charm a vigour of the Highways and Byways series, which has stood the test of time is down to the travellers and in the case of Buckinghamshire this is no exception. Clement Shorter (1857-1926), a noted journalist, began his career at the Star, before becoming editor of the Illustrated London News and founded icons in British publishing such as Sketch, Tatler and Sphere. Shorter was married to Dora Sigerson, author and daughter of George Sigerson a noted Dublin surgeon, writer and folklorist. The Highways and Byways in Buckinghamshire is replete with more than 100 pen and ink sketches by Frederick Landseer Griggs (1876-1938). A native of Hertfordshire, this was one of thirteen books illustrated by Griggs in the Highways and Byways series. An architectural draughtsman, illustrator, early conservationist, associate of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the Cotswolds, Griggs was the most distinguished etcher of his age and the first etcher to be elected to full membership of the Royal Academy. His illustrations from this period 'capture a vanishing England of a brooding spiritual intensity, harking back to an idyll of vanished dreams' and as such fit very well with the general themes of the Highways and Byways series, that of a vanished or forgotten heritage. The presence of so many of Griggs' sketches in one place is sufficient reason to purchase any of the series in which he was the illustrator.
Bedfordshire, Berkshire & Buckinghamshire
The original Gentleman's Magazine contained articles on a vast array of subjects, including lots of wonderful topographical pieces.
In 1891 George Gomme republished all of these topograhical articles but edited and indexed them into county specific order. Each of Gomme's works contains between two and four separate counties, except for the London volumes.
An absolute goldmine of information about the county, its people and its places.
This is one of the most important resources that we have seen, and one that should be of great interest to all family historians. Published in 1772 it was the handbook of the duties and responsibilities of the Parish Officer.
It includes the duties of the overseers of the poor, the power in relieving, employing and settling, etc. of poor persons; the laws relating to the poor, and settlements, and the statutes concerning masters and servants. The right of Settlement was something that was of great concern to all of our ancestors. Basically, to be able to have right of settlement in a parish, one had to be born there, married there or serving an apprenticeship there. Proof was all-important, especially if a person became destitute and needed support from the parish. Parish officers would have people literally evicted and transported to another parish under such circumstances. What happened about bastardy? What obligations does an apprentice have to his master and vice-versa? This book describes it all, together with the supporting laws.
Other sections of the book include the authority and duty of constables, tithingmen, etc.; churchwardens, how they should be chosen, their duties, church accounts, repairing of churches, etc. There are some very interesting punishments for not attending church and keeping to the rules! There is a section on surveying the highways, Scavengers, methods of taxation of the highways, and laws. And finally, the duties and powers of Watchmen.
A really excellent description and history of Buckinghamshire, its towns and villages and people.
Published in 1806. Illustrated with fine engravings.
Illustrated with nine engravings and a lovely pull out county map.
An account of Buckingham's towns, castles, churches, monuments, picturesque scenery and antiquities. This wonderful old book describes the history of Buckinghamshire and it's people as far back as Roman times. It describes all the main towns individually and gives a glimpse of life in each. As well as lots of details about the way people lived, the customs and trades of the area.
Particularly well described is agricultural life, its difficulties and the "modern" ways of overcoming problems. For example the "Mill Churn" machine, worked by a horse, which took a great deal of hard labour out of churning milk. Some of the new machines were less welcome, the local women occupied in lace making, as most were, found their pay greatly reduced after the introduction of lace manufacturing machinery.
Two very large format volumes, by Kennett. (1818). Describing the churches and parishes in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. (Illustrated).
Langley, A beautiful book published in 1797.
A hundred is a division of a county, that contains many parishes, and this one describes the parishes in the Hundred of Desborough in great detail.
Book kindly loaned by the Buckinghamshire Record Office.
A primary resource. The original small pox vaccination register for Newport Pagnell from 1909-1927. A hand written register in pre-printed forms that gives the same details as in a birth register, (except mother's maiden name) plus the date of vaccination, and in some cases death information.
Published in 1755, and set in an old typeface, this wonderful book describes the town of Buckingham in great detail gathered from the earliest records. An excellent and important work. Includes a street map of Buckingham in 1610.
This book was kindly loaned to the Archive CD Books Project by the Buckinghamshire County Record Office.
Gibbs. (1885)
The authoritative history of Aylesbury. Now a really rare and sought after volume. The CD also contains a full index of names.
Important and notable families of Buckinghamshire. Descriptions, background information and pedigrees.
Book loaned to the project by Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake
A fascinating account of country life in the 1800s. Essentially about life in Buckinghamshire, but equally applicable to many other counties in England. Lots of anecdotes and stories about real people.
Book kindly loaned to the project by Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake.
Another in the series of books about Buckinghamshire life by J. K. Fowler.
Book kindly loaned by Barney Tywhitt-Drake
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