Arthur Granville Bradley

Arthur Granville Bradley was a British historian, travel writer, and illustrator whose first-hand experience of Virginia informed one of his best-known American books. Sketches Old Virginia gathers narratives about landscapes, communities, sport, and social life that Bradley had previously contributed to periodicals including Blackwood's and Macmillan's. Macmillan published the volume in 1897. Bradley lived near Lynchburg after the American Civil War and returned to Virginia several times, giving the essays an observer's familiarity with the Blue Ridge and surrounding country. The University of Virginia preserves a group of his field drawings from 1875 to 1885, including scenes near the Peaks of Otter and the Tye River. He later wrote histories and regional studies about Britain, colonial North America, and figures such as Captain John Smith. Sketches Old Virginia belongs to the travel-historical side of that extensive body of work, linking remembered journeys with the research habits that shaped his long career.