Travelling with The Cotswold Parson: By Carriage, Stage Coach, and by Rail 1830-1854

Francis Witts was born in 1783 and from the age of 15 he kept a diary in one form or another. In all, his surviving diaries extend to two-and-a-half million words and are published (and available) in 10 volumes under the title The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson.
 
Witts came from a gentry family and was well-educated and well-connected. He was inquisitive and observant. New inventions and developments fascinated him and he noted them carefully. He was educated at Oxford and entered the Church in 1806. In 1808 he obtained the rectory at Upper Slaughter in the Cotswolds, previously held by his uncle Ferdinando Travell.
 
In his youth he travelled frequently with his parents who lived an itinerant life moving from one fashionable watering place to another. Once married and in his rectory Witts travelled a great deal on family and magisterial business. He was chairman of the bench at Stow-on-the-Wold and also attended the  assizes in Gloucester. Added to this were many tours and holidays all of which he recorded in much detail.
 
The travel accounts range from August 1799 to his death in August 1854. This volume focuses on the years 1830 to 1854.