Dates of arrival
13 July Left London
- via Edgware
13 July Arrived in Ruislip
14 July Stoken Church
15 July Abingdon
(5 nights)
20 July Great Tew
21 July - via The Swan
Warwick
22 July Hunningham
(4 nights)
26 July - via Coventry
Lichfield
27 July Stone
28 July Nantwich
29 July Chester
30 July Flint
31 July Holywell
(2 nights)
2 August - via Rhuddlan
Conwy
3 August - via Beaumaris, Anglesey
Bangor
4 August Caernarfon
5 August Clenennau, near Dolbenmaen
6 August - via Harlech
Barmouth
7 August Aberdyfi
(2 nights)
9 August - via Aberystwyth
Plas Gogerddan, near Aberystwyth
10 August Llanfair Clydogau, near Lampeter
‘That day, after sixteen miles travel, I came to the house of an ancient worthy and hospitable gentleman, named Sir Walter Lloyd, he was noble in bountiful house-keeping, and in his generosity, caused his horse to be saddled, and the next day he rode three miles to Conway.’
11 August - via Conway [location unclear]
Carmarthen
12 August Pembrokeshire [Tenby]
13 August Pembrokeshire [- via Pembroke]
Pembrokeshire [Milford Haven?]
14 August Pembrokeshire [St Davids?]
15 August Pembrokeshire [?]
16 August Carmarthen [?]
‘Thus having gone and ridden many miles, with too many turning and winding mountains, stony turning ways, forward, backward, sideways, circular, and semi-circular, upon the 17 of August I rode to the house of the right honourable, Richard Vaughan Earl of Carbery, at a place called Golden Grove.’
17 August Golden Grove, near Llandeilo
18 August Swansea
?19 August* - via nearby house of William Thomas
Neath
19 August Penllyn
20 August - via Cowbridge
Llantrithyd
(3 nights)
(travels to and from Penmark for dinner)
23 August - via Cardiff
Llanrumney
24 August - via Newport John Taylor’s birthday
- via ‘Carbean’ [Caerleon?]
Usk
25 August Monmouth
(2 nights)
27 August Gloucester
28 August Barnsley
(2 nights)
30 August Abingdon
‘From Barnsley on Monday the 30 of August, I rode 30 miles to Abingdon, from thence, etc. to London, where I brought both ends together on Tuesday the 7 of September.’
7 September London
View the route on Google Maps.
Cooking the books, or honest mistake?
* There is some confusion in Taylor’s account about events between arriving in Swansea on 18 August and reaching Penllyn on 19 August. During this time he says he stayed one night in Swansea, one night in Neath, and the night of the 19 in Penllyn. Either Taylor didn’t stay the night in Swansea and travelled on to Neath, or Taylor got the dates wrong, perhaps as far back as his time in Pembrokeshire. He says that:
‘The 18 of August, I hired a guide who brought me to Swansea [where I was welcomed by Walter Thomas, Esquire]; he stayed me till the next day after dinner.’ Taylor hoped to stay the next night with Walter Thomas’s son nearby, but William Thomas was away and Taylor was not welcome at the house. Later that day he found ‘lodging and entertainment […] in a pretty market town called Neath. […] The 19 of August I hired a guide for 3 s. (16 miles) to a place called Penllyn.’
A SHORT RELATION OF A LONG JOURNEY,
Made ROUND or OVAL
This painful circuit began on Tuesday the 13 of July last, 1652, and was ended (or both ends brought together) on Tuesday the 7 of September following, being near 600 miles.
John Speed's map of Wales (1610) Held in the National Library of Wales. Click here to see the image in a larger window.