Notes on The Broads and Rivers of Norfolk and Suffolk

First published in 1887, this is a window into a vanished England. Harry Brittain records a sailing holiday aboard his eight-ton cutter, The Buttercup, navigating the mysterious waterways of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads. These shallow lakes, carved by medieval peat diggers and later flooded by the sea, form Britain's third-largest inland waterway system. Brittain, his friend Jack, and their man George drift through a landscape where goods and passengers still move by water between the coastal ports of Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. They visit villages and places of interest, and with the help of an experienced captain, venture beyond the Broads to the open coast. The writing captures a world on the cusp of change, when the Broads were just beginning to discover their future as a holiday destination. For readers who love vintage travel writing, quiet English landscapes, or the particular pleasure of following a Victorian gentleman on a leisurely voyage through history.