author
Celia Fiennes
1662–1741
An intrepid English traveler and writer, she rode on horseback across much of England at a time when travel for curiosity’s sake was rare, especially for women. Her lively journals became a rich record of everyday life, roads, towns, houses, and local customs in late Stuart England.
1 Audiobook
Through England on a side saddle in the time of William and Mary
by Celia Fiennes
About the author
Born on June 7, 1662, in Newton Toney, Wiltshire, Celia Fiennes was the daughter of Nathaniel Fiennes, a Parliamentarian leader from a prominent family. She never married, and between the later 1680s and early 1700s she made remarkable journeys across England, usually on horseback.
What makes her stand out is the sharp, practical way she observed the world around her. She wrote about inns, gardens, great houses, industries, roads, spas, and regional habits with energy and detail, creating a picture of England that historians still value today. Her travel writing is especially striking because she was exploring largely for the sake of seeing the country for herself.
Her best-known work is usually published as Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary, drawn from journals that were not printed until long after her death on April 10, 1741, in Hackney, London. No clear portrait of her could be confirmed from the sources I checked, so no reliable author image is included here.