John Walker’s Commonplace Book

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Travelling for pleasure in the 1670s required plenty of stamina. John Walker, a well-to-do country gentleman in his early thirties, rode many miles on horseback through England, Wales and Scotland, and not always on good horses, as he commented. Twice he journeyed through France, and he went also to the Low Countries and the Channel Islands; crossing the North Sea to Rotterdam, he and his man were entertained by the playing of porpoises 'in a tempestuous sea'. Walker kept notes as he journeyed, subsequently writing longer accounts of ten of his travels in a Commonplace Book which is preserved amongst the records in Somerset Heritage Centre. Everywhere he took an interest in the commerce of the towns and the harbours, and in their defences. He made some pertinent political observations. As he rode, he observed the nature of the land, and he commented on the buildings which a modern tourist, too, might visit. The Pond-du-Gard, 'which is a lofty stupendous bridge', was described with artistic enthusiasm. Not many accounts by travellers in the seventeenth century have been published. John Walker's Commonplace Book, edited by Anthea Jones, is wide-ranging and full of interesting observations.