James John Hissey

Born in 1847 and dying in 1921, James John Hissey was an English travel writer and illustrator remembered for books about touring the countryside by road. His work often followed journeys through English counties and along older coaching routes, mixing landscape, local history, and the small details of travel that bring a route to life.

Many of his best-known titles focus on slow travel in England, including A Tour in a Phaeton Through the Eastern Counties, Across England in a Dog-Cart, On Southern English Roads, An English Holiday with Car and Camera, and A Leisurely Tour in England. The repeated return to roads, inns, and rural scenery gives his writing a clear personality: curious, companionable, and deeply interested in the character of place.

Hissey also illustrated his own books, which helps explain why his travel writing feels so visual. For listeners and readers today, his work offers more than route descriptions—it opens a window onto the look and rhythm of English travel before modern life fully changed it.