Guest Post: Travel in the Early Nineteenth Century by Catherine Kullmann, Author of Perception & Illusion

Please join me in welcoming Catherine Kullmann to Let Them Read Books! I'm happy to have Catherine here today with a guest post about traveling in the nineteenth century and the sources she used when writing her latest release, Perception & Illusion. Read on and grab a Kindle copy for just $3.99!

Cast out by her father for refusing the suitor of his choice, Lallie Grey accepts Hugo Tamrisk’s proposal, confident that he loves her as she loves him. But Hugo’s past throws long shadows as does his recent liaison with Sabina Albright. All too soon, Lallie must question Hugo’s reasons for marriage and wonder what he really wants of his bride.

Perception & Illusion charts Lallie’s and Hugo’s voyage through a sea of confusion and misunderstanding. Can they successfully negotiate the Rocks of Jealousy and the Shoals of Perplexity to arrive at the Bay of Delight or will they drift inexorably towards Cat & Dog Harbour or the Dead Lake of Indifference?

Catherine Kullmann skillful evocation of the Regency period rings true, as do her protagonists’ predicaments. It is a joy to step into this other world with her.

Travel in the Early Nineteenth Century

by Catherine Kullman

One horse-power, two horse-power, a dashing curricle, a private travelling chariot and four, a hired post-chaise or a seat in a mail or stage coach or even in a cumbrous, plodding stage-wagon drawn by up to ten horses? Or must I ride or walk?

There were four tiers of travellers in early nineteenth-century Britain. At the top were the wealthy few who owned their carriage and horses. They must decide whether they should use their own horses exclusively, allowing ample rest periods and, on longer journeys, incurring additional overnight and other expenses or hire fresh post-horses at regular intervals (‘stages’) and easily halve the duration of the journey.

Next came those able to hire a private post-chaise, changing both horses and carriages along the way. At the beginning of the century, this cost one shilling a mile plus tolls and the obligatory tips to postilions and ostlers.

Perhaps you can’t afford either to own or hire a carriage, but what about a seat inside or on top of a coach or crammed among the goods of a stage-wagon? Inside seats on the stage or mail coaches cost between three and four pennies a mile plus tips to the coachman and guard while outside seats cost half of this and tips were also less.

The cumbrous, covered stage-wagons drawn by teams of up to ten horses were the trucks of the period, carrying mostly goods but also some passengers who paid roughly one penny per mile. They travelled very slowly. A so-called ‘flying’ wagon i.e. one that travelled continuously through the night, leaving Shaftesbury for London (101 miles) on Monday evening would not arrive until Thursday morning. By contrast, in 1800 the 'Mercury' coach departed from the New London Inn Exeter at 3:45 in the morning and arrived at the Swan with Two Necks Inn at Cheapside, London, the following day at noon, having covered 168 miles in 32 hours—less than half the time it took the wagon to cover 101 miles. The mail coach was even faster, taking twenty-five hours for the Exeter to London journey, leaving at 4:45 a.m. and arriving by six a.m. the next day.

But for a large proportion of the population, even a penny a mile was more than they could afford. They had no choice but to walk.

When my characters set out on a journey, there are three invaluable books that help me send them on their way. From left to right:

• Cary’s New Itinerary of the Accurate Delineation of the Great Roads both Direct and Cross throughout England and Wales with many of the principal Roads in Scotland from an Actual Admeasurement made by Command of His Majesty’s Postmaster General……..to which are added at the end of each Route the names of those Inns which supply Post Horses and Carriages Accompanied by a most extensive Selection of  Noblemen & Gentlemen’s Seats (1802)
• Crosby’s Complete Pocket Gazetteer of England and Wales or Traveller’s Companion (1815)
• Cary’s Traveller’s Companion or a Delineation of the Turnpike Roads of England and Wales shewing the immediate Route to every Market and BoroughTown throughout the Kingdom………….on a New Set of County Maps………(1817).

They may not look particularly exciting, but they immediately transport me back two hundred years. As I plan my routes, I come across ancient slips of paper marking the place of previous owners trying to determine the connections of a zigzag journey across Britain and imagine their excitement or trepidation as they made their plans. I can see them tilting the book to catch the candlelight or, like me, reaching for a magnifying glass so that they can more easily decipher the small print. There are no railways on these maps that record Britain just at the dawn of the age of steam. Within twenty years, everything would be changed.

Amazon  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Goodreads  ~  Catherine Kullmann

About the Author:

Catherine Kullmann was born and educated in Dublin. Following a three-year courtship conducted mostly by letter, she moved to Germany where she lived for twenty-six years before returning to Ireland. She has worked in the Irish and New Zealand public services and in the private sector. After taking early retirement Catherine was finally able to fulfil her life-long ambition to write. Her novels are set in England during the extended Regency period—that fascinating period between the demise of hoops and the invention of crinolines—the end of the Georgian era but before the stultifying age of Victoria.

Her debut novel, The Murmur of Masks, published in 2016, is a warm and engaging story of a young woman’s struggle to survive and find love in an era of violence and uncertainty. It takes us from the ballrooms of the Regency to the battlefield of Waterloo. https://goo.gl/zr7xvE

In Perception & Illusion, published in March 2017, Lallie Grey, cast out by her father for refusing the suitor of his choice, accepts Hugo Tamrisk’s proposal, confident that he loves her as she loves him. But Hugo’s past throws long shadows as does his recent liaison with Sabina Albright. All too soon, Lallie must question Hugo’s reasons for marriage and wonder what he really wants of his bride. http://amzn.to/2n9Ljxi