I picked up a copy of the map a few weeks ago. There is a slight misconception here; the map has a few things on it: The first is Nelson last route before embarcation from Merton Place to Portsmouth and his final walk from the George Hotel to the shingle beach for the tender to the Victory. Then there is the route of Lapenotiere and the post-chaise from Falmouth Dockyard to the Admiralty which took 37 hours, 21 stops at coaching inns – a typical change of horses every 10-15 miles – and at a cost, according to the accounts, of the equivalent of about six months of his pay. He was entrusted with Collingwood’s full despatch (one assumes much too much to semaphore). Lapenotiere was given discretion by Collingwood how far up the channel to sail and as it happened it went calm after light adverse easterly winds so it wasn’t even worth trying to make for Plymouth. Starting along the A39, the route basically follows the modern A30 to Honiton then the A35 to beyond Dorchester and the A354 to Salisbury. After leaving Salisbury, briefly along the A30 again, the route doesn’t follow the A30 or the A303 across Hampshire before finally returning to the A30 across Surrey and running into London. There are inset boxes on various sites/buildings/etc. of Nelson/Trafalgar significance a few miles either side of the route. One example is the Hardy monument overlooking Weymouth, another is the Nile Clumps (Amesbury, Stonehenge) which are woodland copses now preserved._________________
