ABSTRACT
Between 1534 and 1543 John Leland travelled widely throughout England giving the first detailed description of the English countryside. The earliest English road book intended for the traveller is Richard Rowlands’s The Post of the World published in 1576 which begins with ‘A godly prayer very needefull to be used and sayde before any Iorney to be taken in hand’, no doubt desirable before facing the hazards that could lie ahead. It describes seven roads which he calls ‘Certaine used ways and passages in England’, being roads recommended for the traveller. They are Dover to London, Rye to London, Oxford to London, Bristol to London, York to London, Berwick to York, and St David’s in Wales to London via Hay, Hereford, Gloucester, Cirencester, Dorchester in Oxfordshire, and Maidenhead. The road from Worcester to London via Evesham is in seven stages and that from Carnarvon via Chester to London is in 17.
