I’ve read a few novels recently where the protagonists make amazingly fast journeys, leaving London in the morning and arriving in York for afternoon tea, or zipping across the Mediterranean in what must be a jet powered sailing ship. It always throws me out of the story. So, in the interests of the pleasure I get from well-researched books, here’s my rule of thumb for early 19th century travel. Times give don’t allow for rest, changing horses, storms or other adverse conditions, or particularly fast journeys over a short distance.
Walking: ten miles in 3.5 hours
Carriage or horse: ten miles in 1 hour
Ship: four knots (four nautical miles in 1 hour)
Try these resources as a starting place for further research:
Sarah Waldock on speed of travel in Jane Austen’s England
Teach us history on Travelling in the early 19th century
Royal Museums Greenwich on sailing times in the 18th century
And posts of my own:
All at sea — travelling the Mediterranean
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Yeah I was betaing an amateur fic and they had a 100 mile journey on horseback without bad weather or footpads, taking a week to ten days with experienced travelers. They were convinced and did not want to change from a sedentary person today, I live in an area where there are a lot of horse and buggies, so I have been stuck waiting to pass them many, many times. The digital speedometer wavers between 10 and 10.1 mph. The farmers started taking produce sixty miles away before trains every week. Even today there is an endurance race near California to travel a 100 mile cross country course that finishes in about a day.
I can always tell when a writer doesn’t have any real feel for the period they’re writing for, they give it away like that. They are too much attached to current technology and cultural standards to put themselves in another era.
Yes. Too long is as bad as too fast.
This is the bane of every writer of historical fiction,,,and of plenty of readers too.
It’s always hard to remember that the past is a different country.