Exploring the Cotswolds with this book is an eye-opener.
You could be forgiven for imagining that a one-hundred- and-twenty-year-old account of a cycle ride across one of the most famous tourist areas in the world would bear little resemblance to what faces a 21st century visitor looking to explore the region in the comfort of a modern motorcar.
The roads now are much busier and more numerous, inns are fewer and further between, the pace of life is very much faster; but the over-riding feeling from the experience is how extraordinarily little has changed.
Carrying the historical understanding of Evans with you, wherever you go, will enable you to draw on a perfect mixture of academic rigour and slightly gossipy fascination with ancient families. It will enhance your experience beyond recognition. In his day most of the population of these remote settlements had never strayed more than a couple of miles from home; Cheltenham was seen as a seething uncomfortable place, and London was an entirely alien concept; but the churches and other buildings he describes are largely unchanged and at the very least everything he saw and wrote about is recognisable to the 21st century traveller. It's true that you will begin to see the extent of the tone-deaf development that has taken place over the years, and don’t try knocking on the doors of ancient manor houses to be shown round, but your over-riding feeling will be how well the Cotswolds has been protected and how lovely it remains.
Long may it last and meanwhile, follow in the footsteps of Herbert Evans.
(Tags : Highways and Byways in Oxford and the Cotswolds: Cotswold Explorer Edition (Unabridged) Herbert Evans Audiobook, Herbert Evans Audio CD )
