A glimpse of England in times past is best recorded by inveterate travellers of an inquisitive nature who traversed the land asking questions and making notes about what they saw. Among the most famous were Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) and William Cobbett (1763-1835) but Bourne was not of sufficient interest to excite their curiosity and the only one of note to make an incursion into the neighbourhood was the Hon John Byng (1742-1813) who rode through but did not stop except perhaps to have a meal and water his horse.

Byng, later the 5th Viscount Torrington, came from a distinguished naval family but spent 25 years in the army, afterwards working for the Inland Revenue, and it was in middle age that this rather crusty gentleman, too poor to travel to the continent, began to explore his own country, usually travelling on horseback, accompanied by a servant and a dog, and keeping a detailed journal recording his observations on the landscape and buildings he saw and the people he met. He does not seem to have had a happy life and these excursions may have been undertaken to get away from the unpleasantness caused by an unfaithful wife although he remained on reasonable terms with her.

He missed his home comforts during his journeying as well as the amenities of London life but his expectations of rural hospitality and service seem to have been set rather too high. His diaries, however, have left us a realistic picture of what travel was like in Georgian England during the late 18th century with rough roads and frequently rough inns.

He entered Lincolnshire on 23rd June 1791 at Market Deeping “a mean, long town” in a very low, damp situation. The landlord of the inn where he stayed was civil but his wine undrinkable. He went on: “The bedroom was cold and miserable with a horrid putridity of blankets, over which I prudently poured part of my half pint of brandy as I have often done in Wales. I was up early, glad to quit my nasty bed. Happy in a fine day, I hastened my departure from a miserable inn where I was sure I had caught a cold.”

He rode on through Bourne for a further nine miles until reaching Folkingham, “a prettily placed town with its grand new inn at the top of the market place [the Greyhound], an inn worthy of the Bath road but here goes not two post chaises in a day.”

Byng had not felt well on the last stage of his ride, the result no doubt of his unfortunate stay in Market Deeping “. . . having a sore throat and headache for which I gargled much and at bedtime took several analeptic pills which gave me through the night a violent perspiration during which I tossed and tumbled in a bewildered state.” At breakfast, he drank a quart of tea and, in warmer clothing, explored the neighbourhood before returning to the Greyhound in the evening. “Another feverish night”, he wrote, “but with appetite apparently unimpaired, ate dinner of boiled fowls, roast beef and young potatoes, which all travellers should certainly do, particularly on a Sunday.”

And so Byng journeyed on through Lincolnshire, to Sleaford and then on to Lincoln. In all, he spent most summers between 1791 and 1794 on the road exploring the country but what a pity that he did not find the time, or the inclination perhaps, to spend a while in Bourne because his experiences would be a most entertaining read today.

NOTE: Journal extracts from The Torrington Diaries, containing the tours through England
and Wales of the Hon John Byng between the years 1781 and 1794, Cyril Bruyn
Andrews, ed 4 vols, London, Eyre and Spottswoode, 1934-38.