The GBR Project (GBRP) Ch.11 Addendum. Slow Travel

What had the GBR Project taught me?

Slow Travel. The way to go

What had it taught me? What was it really about and why had I done it? These are questions that need a two pipe consideration (a famous phrase of Sherlock Holmes!). There were smaller one pipe questions also and I might come to these later. What had it taught me is an interesting question in itself. Why did it need to teach me anything? It didn’t have to but for me life is always about questioning, curiosity and an attempt to better understand the world and my place or role within it. The initial driver to my tour had been my general interest in the 18th century and the creation of bath in that period. When I did my bath book in 2005 I found out as much as I could about that age of enlightenment and the character that changed Bath from a sleepy mediaeval town to a fast expanding hub of fashion. It is a remarkable story and the likes of Beau Nash, Ralph Allen and John Wood were all extraordinary characters in each of their fields. The coming together of these men in the melting pot of Bath with their talents in social management, business and architecture created one of the best designed cities in the world at that time. Their ideas and their ability to realise them also created an urban planning revolution recognised today by its world heritage status. Beau Nash in particular intrigued me and I was keen to find out more about this glamorous and capable man. He came to Bath in 1704 and by the time he died in 1762 it was a completely different city. He had come from London via an education (never finished) in Oxford and spent some time in the capital as a trainee lawyer. His clients or followers as we might call them today also travelled to bath in their thousands. It really was the place to see and be seen. In the early parts of the century the west country was not an easy place to get to either. The roads were bad and there were no prescribed routes or even reliable maps. One went from town to town and one could almost make up the roads as one went on depending no doubt on local guidance, conditions or advise. Over time however the best routes were worked out and communicated via their networks. The GBR was born or came into being but is an advisory not an obligatory route. I was keen to actually experience what it was like to be ‘on the road’ for 3-4 days and to visit one by one those towns that formed the main ports of call on their itinerary. In that context not only was the journey such a joy and so interesting but it opened my heart to its visual and sensory pleasures. I couldn’t’ actually travel by coach and take it on the A4 (there’s a thought) but I now have a much better feel for what it would have been like. It was in other words the closest to the 18th century experience as I could create. At the beginning and just outside bath I had seen a tollhouse and an old coaching inn on the exact same road that Beau Nash would have come or travelled frequently. I visited the towns that Georgians ladies and gentlemen also have passed through. Riding over the Marlborough downs alone under a blue sky full of fluffy clouds I had that sense of freedom and sheer joy one experiences when a bike takes over control. Riding through fields of barley along gravel paths alongside the river Kennet were experiences I will never forget. There were standing stones 3000 years old, Victorian churches, coaching inns, communities of thatched cottages and the pure unspoilt English countryside. And then there were all the people I met along the way. Friendly, helpful, engaging connections with other folk that happened to drift my way. Their paths accidentally crossed my path in a random madrigal of the souls. I do love people really. We all have such different lives. We’re all therefore unique and literally irreplaceable. Their variety, their stories, their personalities are all so different that engagement with them is never dull but always constructive or enlightening. What else did I learn? Slow travel as in the 18th century or 19th or all previous centuries is still actually possible. It is an option if travel is seen as an end in itself. Fast travel down the M4 for instance isn’t compulsory. On a 10 day holiday you could spend 3 days travelling there, 4 days at the destination and 3 days travelling back home. I’m certainly not advocating you rip up the M4 and return to coaching but what I am saying is that the journey can often be more fun than the destination.

Pondering as lonely as a cloud

One other benefit of the way I did the trip was that I did it alone. Now I’m not a loner but going solo (as opposed to commando) does have some advantages. One can go at your own speed which in my case is very slow. One has time to ponder, observe and reflect. Whether this is a pathological problem, a sign of my venerable age (66) or just my greater human share of languorousness I couldn’t possibly comment. But yes I am a little bit tardy but that’s the way I like it. I hate rushing and the bustle required to ‘cram everything in’. The feeling of panic, stress, hustle and fretfulness are all emotions I could do without. I see little point in them. Why not just do less in a more comfortable way. One can’t do everything after all. Life is not a race and I found that the peace of mind I have in an unruffled state is much more productive. One gets things finished, not half -baked ending perhaps in a soggy bottom. The feeling of achievement of doing this ‘on my own’ gave me a strong inner sense of independence and autonomy rarely achieved in communal life where compromise is the necessary order of the day. What you see and experience when you stop and slow down is the biggest benefit. Close attention and observation of people and things brings huge rewards. People in particular should be listened to with unhurried care. The space you give them allows a deeper understanding and more thorough enjoyment of their story. As a photographer I’ve always taken time to see, look or observe. Really looking takes time and concentration. It was something I learned studying art. The superficial glance doesn’t cut it in art history. It might take hours to evaluate all that goes on in a painting or photo, close visual attention is a necessary skill. It’s also true in the creation of art works. Photography is a contemplative art and the connections between disparate objects, their symbolism or meaning, historical references and connections are all important. We are story tellers and stories are many layered works of art. But unlike stories or paintings photographic stories need to be conjured from reality rather than the imagination. Photography also needs imagination but the reality of the medium’s needs means we must use our reality as a currency or alphabet.