On his way from Kensington (London) to East Everley (Wiltshire) in 1826, William Cobbett rode to a place called Tangley. There he approached a woman at a cottage to ask for directions to Ludgershall which he reckoned was only about four miles away. The woman said she did not know. Cobbett recounts this incident like this:
“ ‘Well, my dear good woman,’ said I, ‘but you have been at Ludgershall? – ‘No’ – ‘Nor at Andover?’ (six miles another way). ‘No’ – ‘Pray, were you born in this house?’ – ‘Yes’ – ‘And how far have you ever been from this house?’ ‘Oh! I have been up in the parish and over to Chute.’ That is to say, the utmost extent of her voyages had been about two and a half miles. Let no one laugh at her and, above all others, let not me, who am convinced that the facilities, which now exist, of moving human bodies from place to place are amongst the curses of the country, the destroyers of industry, of morals and, of course, of happiness.” (E. R. Chamberlin, abridg., Rural Rides (London, 1982), p. 108)

Note: Our own journeys are conditioned by virtue of our feet and our bicycles. They are also conditioned by our own biases and tastes which will be made just as plain as Cobbett’s.

Find out where Salisbury is: [GP:Salisbury]