Thomas Dowler Murphy was an American who lived from 1866 to 1928
and wrote a number of travel books. British Highways and
Byways From a Motor Car, subtitled Being a record
of a five thousand mile tour in England, Wales and Scotland, recounts a
tour of Great Britain, presumably a year or two before its first publication by
L.C. Page & Company in Boston in 1908. Coming at the very beginning of the
"modern era" this book provides a fascinating snapshot from the days when motor
cars were still something of a novelty, as were roads to drive them on.
As written, the book amounted to over 300 pages and had 50
illustrations, divided into 20 chapters. Undiscovered Scotland has focused on
the Scottish aspects of the book, presenting the forewords; the opening
chapter; the full text of the three
chapters that cover Scotland; and part of the closing chapter on what else the
author would have visited given the time. The may be accessed using the drop-down menu above.
Like other eBooks whose texts are reproduced on Undiscovered
Scotland, British Highways and Byways From a Motor
Car is long out of copyright. What sets the Undiscovered Scotland
version apart is the cross linking between the text of the book and
geographical and biographical features elsewhere on the site, allowing the
reader to explore beyond the text itself, finding out more about the places and
people mentioned.
