Is Catherine Morland’s journey to Bath really as dangerous as the narrator leads us to believe? Or is the mockery of the sentence simply a way to highlight Catherine and Isabella Thorpe’s absurd fascination with romance and adventure? The narrator’s concern about poor weather, robbers, and accidents is not at all unfounded or unexpected. Travel in the Regency era was difficult, expensive, and could be dangerous. Today, travel by train from London to Bath takes about an hour and a half; on the coach, it would have taken about 14 hours. This chart provides more details. Roads were frequently full of mud and ruts, which only slowed down journeys. Horses were replaced about every ten miles and carriages only went between eight and ten miles an hour!

Stagecoaches were the primary mode of long-distance travel during the Regency era, but they were not always a safe or fast method of travel. The stagecoach was first introduced to English roads in the early 16th century, and by the 17th and 18th century had become a common sight on the roads. Drivers were not on their own to plan journeys. They had the very handy resource of Cary’s New Itinerary; or, An Accurate Delineation of the Great Roads, Both Direct and Cross throughout England and Wales; With many of the Principal Roads in Scotland which provided information on routes, inns, and other important travel information.

While coaches had become common, their rise in popularity resulted in the expansion of the presence of highwaymen. These men terrorized the roads of England, and for 100 years Hounslow Heath, near London, was the most dangerous place in the country. The roads to Bath and Exeter ran across the Heath and these travelers provided rich targets for the highwaymen. Learn more about the highwaymen here.

Catherine’s journey to Bath is uneventful, which is to be expected, but the dangers that came with stagecoach journeys highlight the possibilities that came with travel in the Regency era.

“The Hare and Many Friends” is the final poem in John Gay’s collection of fables written in 1727 for Prince William, Duke of Cumberland. This collection is commonly known as Fables, but it is also known as Fifty-one Fables in Verse or Fables of John Gay. Gay’s poem opens with: “Friendship, like love, is but a name,/Unless to one you stint the flame.”<br /> The poem concerns the inconstancy of friendship, as exemplified by a hare that lives on friendly terms with a group of farm animals. The hare is refused help by each of the animals as she begs them to help her escape an approaching hunter. Each of the animals gives her a different excuse of why they cannot help, eventually leaving the hare to her death at the hands of the hunter.

“A hare, who, in a civil way, Complied with ev'ry thing, like Gay, Was known by all the bestial train, Who haunt the wood, or graze the plain: Her care was, never to offend,<br /> And ev'ry creature was her friend.”

The poem is intended to teach readers that one with many friends has no true friends, so it is better to be close friends with a few than friends with many. However, beyond the lesson of friendship, there is a darker moral lesson in the poem intended specifically for the young women reciting it. Gay creates a connection between friendship and romantic love that sets up the poem as a description of the fatality that awaits women (symbolized by the hare) if they associate with the wrong people and lose their reputations. This foreshadows the risks that readers will witness Catherine experience in her new environment when she journeys to Bath.

Both at the time of publication and for some 150 years afterwards, the poem won widespread popularity. Despite this widespread popularity, Gay’s hopes of Court preferment were disappointed and the story was put about by his friends that the fable had a personal application. Johnathan Swift in particular wrote “Thus Gay, the Hare with many friends,/Twice seven long years at court attends;/Who, under tales conveying truth,/To virtue formed a princely youth;/Who paid his courtship with the crowd,/As far as modish pride allowed;/Rejects a servile usher’s place,/And leaves St. James’s in disgrace.” (Heneage Jesse 88). But after a prose version appeared in a collection of Aesop’s Fables, Gay’s original authorship gradually slipped from the public memory. Nevertheless, Gay’s Fables went through repeated editions, and “The Hare and Many Friends” stood out as a particular favorite. As Austen’s narrator notes, it was a common recitation piece for children and was frequently shown off as part of a young lady’s accomplishments.

How do you normally travel to your vacations? While we now depend on machines to get us where we are going, relying on animals used to be the norm. In Regency England, your travel would have depended on having access to horses, as John Thorpe indicates in this passage. While Thorpe argues that rest ruins horses, his treatment of horses counters the common practices at the time, hinting at his callous character. While traveling it was common to stop at coaching inns to get food, alcohol, rest, and fresh horses before continuing on the journey. The term “stagecoach” derives from the fact that journeys were undertaken in stages of 15-20 miles in length. At each stage stop, horses would be changed to ensure the health of the horses and the speed of the journey. Hired horses only traveled between stages, going back and forth between posts that averaged about ten miles apart. So, you would use your own horses for the first part of a journey and leave them at the coaching inn for your servant to retrieve, while continuing on your journey with hired horses. This process would be repeated at each stage of travel.

Domestic tourism was a growing area of interest for many Britons in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. While the European Grand Tour has been popularized in literature, domestic tourism was celebrated as a patriotic way to learn about the history and modern state of Britain, as well as offering an enjoyable leisure pursuit. As John Thorpe offers to Catherine Morland earlier in this chapter, one aspect of the leisurely pursuits offered by domestic tourism was exploring the countryside by the phaeton, as depicted in this painting by George Stubbs. Travel thus became something undertaken as an activity unto itself, rather than an uncomfortable method of arriving at one’s destination. Perhaps John Thorpe and James Morland are themselves enjoying a domestic tour of Britain when they encounter their family members in Bath.

Is Catherine Morland’s journey to Bath really as dangerous as the narrator leads us to believe? Or is the mockery of the sentence simply a way to highlight Catherine and Isabella Thorpe’s absurd fascination with romance and adventure? The narrator’s concern about poor weather, robbers, and accidents is not at all unfounded or unexpected. Travel in the Regency era was difficult, expensive, and could be dangerous. Today, travel by train from London to Bath takes about an hour and a half; on the coach, it would have taken about 14 hours. This chart provides more details. Roads were frequently full of mud and ruts, which only slowed down journeys. Horses were replaced about every ten miles and carriages only went between eight and ten miles an hour!

Stagecoaches were the primary mode of long-distance travel during the Regency era, but they were not always a safe or fast method of travel. The stagecoach was first introduced to English roads in the early 16th century, and by the 17th and 18th century had become a common sight on the roads. Drivers were not on their own to plan journeys. They had the very handy resource of Cary’s New Itinerary; or, An Accurate Delineation of the Great Roads, Both Direct and Cross throughout England and Wales; With many of the Principal Roads in Scotland which provided information on routes, inns, and other important travel information.

While coaches had become common, their rise in popularity resulted in the expansion of the presence of highwaymen. These men terrorized the roads of England, and for 100 years Hounslow Heath, near London, was the most dangerous place in the country. The roads to Bath and Exeter ran across the Heath and these travelers provided rich targets for the highwaymen. Learn more about the highwaymen here.

Catherine’s journey to Bath is uneventful, which is to be expected, but the dangers that came with stagecoach journeys highlight the possibilities that came with travel in the Regency era.

“The Hare and Many Friends” is the final poem in John Gay’s collection of fables written in 1727 for Prince William, Duke of Cumberland. This collection is commonly known as Fables, but it is also known as Fifty-one Fables in Verse or Fables of John Gay. Gay’s poem opens with: “Friendship, like love, is but a name,/Unless to one you stint the flame.” The poem concerns the inconstancy of friendship, as exemplified by a hare that lives on friendly terms with a group of farm animals. The hare is refused help by each of the animals as she begs them to help her escape an approaching hunter. Each of the animals gives her a different excuse of why they cannot help, eventually leaving the hare to her death at the hands of the hunter.

“A hare, who, in a civil way, Complied with ev'ry thing, like Gay, Was known by all the bestial train, Who haunt the wood, or graze the plain: Her care was, never to offend,<br> And ev'ry creature was her friend.”

The poem is intended to teach readers that one with many friends has no true friends, so it is better to be close friends with a few than friends with many. However, beyond the lesson of friendship, there is a darker moral lesson in the poem intended specifically for the young women reciting it. Gay creates a connection between friendship and romantic love that sets up the poem as a description of the fatality that awaits women (symbolized by the hare) if they associate with the wrong people and lose their reputations. This foreshadows the risks that readers will witness Catherine experience in her new environment when she journeys to Bath.

Both at the time of publication and for some 150 years afterwards, the poem won widespread popularity. Despite this widespread popularity, Gay’s hopes of Court preferment were disappointed and the story was put about by his friends that the fable had a personal application. Jonathan Swift in particular wrote “Thus Gay, the Hare with many friends,/Twice seven long years at court attends;/Who, under tales conveying truth,/To virtue formed a princely youth;/Who paid his courtship with the crowd,/As far as modish pride allowed;/Rejects a servile usher’s place,/And leaves St. James’s in disgrace.” (Heneage Jesse 88). But after a prose version appeared in a collection of Aesop’s Fables, Gay’s original authorship gradually slipped from the public memory. Nevertheless, Gay’s Fables went through repeated editions, and “The Hare and Many Friends” stood out as a particular favorite. As Austen’s narrator notes, it was a common recitation piece for children and was frequently shown off as part of a young lady’s accomplishments.

See this illustration by John Wootton of "The Hare and Many Friends."

“The Hare and Many Friends” is the final poem in John Gay’s collection of fables written in 1727 for Prince William, Duke of Cumberland. This collection is commonly known as Fables, but it is also known as Fifty-one Fables in Verse or Fables of John Gay. Gay’s poem opens with: “Friendship, like love, is but a name,/Unless to one you stint the flame.”<br> The poem concerns the inconstancy of friendship, as exemplified by a hare that lives on friendly terms with a group of farm animals. The hare is refused help by each of the animals as she begs them to help her escape an approaching hunter. Each of the animals gives her a different excuse of why they cannot help, eventually leaving the hare to her death at the hands of the hunter.

“A hare, who, in a civil way, Complied with ev'ry thing, like Gay, Was known by all the bestial train, Who haunt the wood, or graze the plain: Her care was, never to offend,<br> And ev'ry creature was her friend.”

The poem is intended to teach readers that one with many friends has no true friends, so it is better to be close friends with a few than friends with many. However, beyond the lesson of friendship, there is a darker moral lesson in the poem intended specifically for the young women reciting it. Gay creates a connection between friendship and romantic love that sets up the poem as a description of the fatality that awaits women (symbolized by the hare) if they associate with the wrong people and lose their reputations. This foreshadows the risks that readers will witness Catherine experience in her new environment when she journeys to Bath.

Both at the time of publication and for some 150 years afterwards, the poem won widespread popularity. Despite this widespread popularity, Gay’s hopes of Court preferment were disappointed and the story was put about by his friends that the fable had a personal application. Johnathan Swift in particular wrote “Thus Gay, the Hare with many friends,/Twice seven long years at court attends;/Who, under tales conveying truth,/To virtue formed a princely youth;/Who paid his courtship with the crowd,/As far as modish pride allowed;/Rejects a servile usher’s place,/And leaves St. James’s in disgrace.” (Heneage Jesse 88). But after a prose version appeared in a collection of Aesop’s Fables, Gay’s original authorship gradually slipped from the public memory. Nevertheless, Gay’s Fables went through repeated editions, and “The Hare and Many Friends” stood out as a particular favorite. As Austen’s narrator notes, it was a common recitation piece for children and was frequently shown off as part of a young lady’s accomplishments.