Romantic Essex - R.A Beckett

First published in April 1901, this book represents a way of life that was soon to disappear forever. The author, Reginald Beckett, encapsulated the spirit of the age with his acute observation of the people and places he encountered whilst walking along the highways, byways and sunken lanes through what was then remote Essex at the end of the Victorian era.;Shunning the bicycle and travelling always on foot, he would rest for the night at inns and hostelries en route, setting off again on his travels the next day. Through his writing he shares his love of the county and of the people he found there. Many of Essex's towns are also included in his histories, anecdotes and sometimes philosophical writing.;Too valuable a work to remain forgotten on a second-hand bookshop shelf, it has been republished facsimile in a new binding to be presented to a wider public who should enjoy retracing the steps the author took over 100 years ago.;Some of the elderly people that Beckett encountered during the late 19th century would have been children during the Napoleonic Wars. They themselves had mixed with people of an even earlier period in time. This book provides a bridge to the past and to another age.;Of the 320 pages included in this book, 32 are colour plates of some of the places mentioned in the text. The map printed in the original publication has been redrafted and reproduced in two colours to indicate the author's routes a little more clearly. The book is further complemented by 17 monochrome engravings. The laminated cover with flaps to front and back encloses sewn sections which make up the body of the book.