Britannia The Great Elizabethan Journey

When William Camden's Britannia was printed in 1586, it staggered its Elizabethan readers. Nothing like it had been seen before. For the first time, the entire British Isles had been described in astonishing detail: the mountains and rivers, the history and customs, the climate and the people of each and every county. Britannia was an encyclopaedic tour of the whole country in a single book. In this three-part series, Nicholas Crane rediscovers this 'lost' masterpiece as, on an epic 5000-mile hike, he battles the elements in search of Elizabethan Britain. He looks at England and Wales first.

Nicholas Crane visits parts of Britain that were largely unknown until William Camden wrote his encyclopaedic account of the British Isles. Britannia is an Elizabethan 'lost' masterpiece describing the mountans and rivers of Britain, its climate, its customs and people like it had never been seen before. On the Scottish leg of a 5,000-mile journey, Nick discovers there's still gold in them hills, witches in Athol, Britain's only true remaining wilderness, and a spirit of independence that makes some Scots today as uncertain about union with England as their ancestors were in 1600

In the last leg of his epic 5,000 mile journey across the pages of William Camden's 'lost' masterpiece Britannia, Nicholas traverses Ireland, the country that sent a shudder down the spines of Elizabethans. The Queen said that Ireland was full of 'ravening beasts'. It was impossible to govern, but could not be ignored because the Spanish might use it to launch an attack on Britain. Nicholas sets off to discover why the Emerald Isle terrified the Elizabethans and how Camden tried to tame it.