The Great Journey 2002

What is the Great Journey?

In 1698, Celia Fiennes embarked on her 'great journey' - an (almost) unaccompanied horse-ride around England. For anyone to ride around England in those days was rare; for a lady to do it without a large armed escort was unprecedented. Her journey took her from London to the Lakes; from East Anglia to Cornwall - all told, over one and a half thousand miles of poorly-mapped countryside; and the journal she kept is a fascinating picture of England prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Why 2002?

The route is being re-ridden over the course of this summer by Jennifer Delaney, a freelance journalist and author; she is recreating Celia's route and commenting on the changes over the last 304 years. Updates and comments will be posted here - and the whole story will hopefully find its way into print at the end of the journey.

Unlike Celia, Jennifer is doing the ride solo (with the help of her horse Peggy!). Although bandits and disease are no longer the challenges that they once were, Jennifer has to cope with cities, roads and the near-extinction of coaching inns.

Thanks!

Jennifer has received sterling support from a number of kind sponsors, who have provided her with useful and essential equipment for her journey. Without their help, riding, route planning and updating this website would be a much harder task. Many thanks to:

Bates Australia for their top-notch Cair saddle.
Palm for their m505, keyboard and Bluetooth module.
Memory Map for the Cartography software.
Vodafone for the use of a GPRS circuit for data transmission.