Exmoor Travellers

by Rosemary Anne Lauder

Today's Exmoor presents a welcoming face to its many visitors, but this was not always so. Its wild, untameable uplands were once considered to be 'beyond the limits of the civilised world', and in 1796 William Marshall, though he found the country 'delightful beyond description', deplored the condition of the roads which he found 'in a shameful state'. Then, most travellers preferred not to risk the Moor's vastnesses, only packhorse trains and shepherds being familiar with the lonely tracks that crossed it. As industry reached the Moor in the nineteenth century, and it was later designated one of the first National Parks, Exmoor began to draw outsiders, and its elusive champ were gradually opened up to the world at large.
This engaging anthology draws on the written accounts of its travellers and visitors over the past two hundred years, from the poets and artists who hailed Lynmouth as a 'Little Switzerland' and extolled the Valley of the Rocks as a wonder of the age, to sporting recollections of village cricket, deer hunting and the impact of smuggling, and the history of the forest itself. Here are descriptions from the early guidebooks at a time when remote fishing villages suddenly found themselves famous resorts, and excerpts from local tales and stories.
A richly diverse collection of anecdote and history, Exmoor Travellers paints a picture of an area which is now well-known but was then relatively untravelled and undeveloped. Illustrated with a wealth of contemporary photographs and engravings, the book will provide a detailed and amusing account of the region for those who live there, as well as appealing to tourists and visitors.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993