Bradshaw's Handbook - 1863

http://www.aboutnottinghamshire.co.uk/
I've never used this blog to talk about a book before, but this is so exceptional I decided to include it.  The book in question is Bradshaw's Handbook, published in 1863, and now reprinted.

Certainly from the outside it looks pretty dreary, with a stained brown cover, and gold leaf embossing that is so worn and faint it's hard to read.  Inside the pages are so packed with information, and the print so small, there are places where it's quite hard to read.

So what is so marvellous about this unassuming book?  For one thing it's a facsimile of the only surviving original of the book, hence the marks, thumbprints etc., which give it so much character.
Bradshaw's Monthly Railway Guide first appeared in 1840, and soon became the publication used by everyone, including Count Dracula when he was planning is journey from Transylvania to England and Phileas Fogg had an edition in his pocket as he travelled the world in 80 days.  When William Temple was headmaster of a public school in Repton, before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury, he punished erring boys by making them memorise journeys from Bradshaw.  It appears in the crime novels of both Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes.

This is part of the long description regarding Chatsworth

'Chatsworth, ten miles from Matlock or Chesterfield  station, near the Peak of Derbyshire, on the crystal Wye. Omnibuses from the Rowsley railway station (6d) meet the train.  This splendid seat of the Duke of Devonshire ......is called the Palace of the Peak, and may be seen daily from 11 to 5.  Parties are let in by turn.  Apply early if you want to save time...."

The description of Nottingham is equally quaint:

'A telegraph station
Market Days - Wednesdays and Saturdays
Fairs - March 7th and 8th, October 2nd, 3rd and 4th, Thursday before Easter and Friday June 13th.  Races in July. 
NOTTINGHAM .....capital of the county of Notts, near the beautiful river Trent, well known to the angler, is situated on a rocky eminence of red sandstone and is by competent judges to be not only one of the healthiest, but one of the most picturesque inland  towns in England. ...'

As it has no glossy cover blurb, it is dependent on the narrow slip of paper that adorns the cover.  Inside it reads
 "Collector's item, landmark in the history of the tour guide, snapshot of Britain in the 1860's - Bradshaw's Handbook deserves a place on the bookshelf of any traveller, railway enthusiast, historian or anglophile.  Produced as the British railway network was reaching in zenith, and as tourism for rail became a serious pastime, it was the first national tourist guide specifically organised around railway journeys, and to this day ofter a glimpse through the carriage window at a Britain long past.'

What has undoubtedly added to its attraction is the TV series with Michael Portillo, which was inspired by the book.  This edition has been produced by Oxford-based Osprey, whose subsidiary Old House Books has reproduced this special book.

I am proud to have it on my bookshelf.