Voyagers

A feature a travel supplement as it might have been written by a well-known novelist, alive or dead

Though few, unlike me, can afford to savour the pleasures of Paris, Versailles and beyond, there are joys to be had on a bicycle, riding the windswept slopes of England’s South and West. After pedalling slowly up Yell’ham Hill, where seven buxom women once slithered and slid on a cold, winter’s day, refresh yourself at The Traveller’s Rest, famed for its sprightly serving maids. A short ride hence heralds Wynyard’s Gap which, apart from its views, marks the start of the trampwoman’s ill-fated trek to the jail where her woebegone sweetheart would swing from the hangman’s noose. Returning southwards, an easy descent from the Wessex heights leads to Casterbridge town where hangings were once a popular sight. As a journey’s end, Budmouth’s HarbourBridge offers welcoming inns with their smokers’ club-stories of lovers’ torments and drowning wives! These are the tragedies everyone likes – And so will you. (Thomas Hardy)