A Week's Holiday in the Forest of Dean

This book includes a high quality replica of the very rare first edition of John Bellows' A Week's Holiday in the Forest of Dean. For visitors in the 1880s, "A week’s holiday in the Forest of Dean" was specifically designed to assist their exploration and enjoyment of the district. The pocket sized first edition was published in two formats; as a paperback with brightly coloured covers, which have been used on this book, and as a hard bound book. As well as printing and publishing the book, Bellows also wrote much of the text. Included was a short account of the Forest’s natural history. The book is packed with information. There are lists that range from places of interest, butterflies and plants, to the thickness of the coal seams and the length of the Severn Railway Bridge measured in feet and inches. And between the lists are pages of wonderful description and illustrations of the Forest in the late Victorian Period. The guidebook begins with a brief history of the Forest surmounted by an engraving of the Great Oak of Newland. Then Bellows recommended an inspection of Gloucester Museum before boarding the railway to reach the Forest. His preferred approach was by rail via Berkeley and thence over the old Severn Railway Bridge, ‘the largest bridge of its kind in Great Britain’ to reach Lydney and then onwards, still by train, into the Forest. A popular destination was the Speech House where ‘...a party may find lunch laid ready for them on arrival if they will hand a card to the Station Master at Lydney, en route, stating their number and requirements’. Thus the visit began and excursions on foot, horse, or by rail might be made to all parts of the district and to Tintern Abbey and the castles of Goodrich and Raglan that lay beyond the Forest.