Mare Street, London E8 to Shoot Up Hill, London NW2 at a distance of 8.08 miles.                                                                                                      08.04.16

“… if only the coach would come but I can wait no longer and at last take leave of my dear wife to begin the travers west to my dear friend Mr Harmison. His note arrived but this morning and I hasten to be on my way as the weather is of an intemperate nature today and though wrapped in good coat and breeches, it will be a muddy affair and know the bogs of the the Fleet and Tyburn will not allow great advancement. Still I have stout boots and am stocked with some provision and believe should the journey become less agreeable than it ought, I will stay this night with Mr Mason and his wife on the Kilburn Brook as he assures me of safe passage on the morrow and so my sojourn complete.”

Extract:  ‘Thine Walks Surround Us All’  by William Bull  March 1785

attrib: William H. David’s ‘The Bull Family of London’ pub. 1847

“…at last me thought ‘I’ve advanced through this disagreeable fugg of brick workings and smells so noxious as to be in mind of Dante and will enjoy the refreshment of clean air from the hillside’ when I found the mess of horse and other rankness so abominable there that it was as though I’d come full circle and into hell itself. Never have I encountered such a scene as lay before me,  with kilns and smoke spreading in to the north of London…”

Diary of The Reverend Henry Turnbull   April 1865

attrib: Thomas Bell’s ‘The Turnbull’s of Suffolk’ pub 1949 by David Bell