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‘I have two students to take down the Via Appia (a month’s walk) and mean to leave Rome about the 15th, so as to avoid too much heat’ (Thomas Ashby, Letter to Evelyn Shaw, BSR London Secretary, 26th February 1913).

In April 1913, Thomas Ashby, Robert Gardner, and J.S. Beaumont walked the Via Appia from Benevento to Brindisi. Gardner was a BSR Cambridge fellow who became good friends with Ashby, and Beaumont was an architectural fellow at the school. The BSR Annual Report for that year tells us that Ashby and Gardner returned from Brindisi to Benevento along the Via Traiana, before re-joining the line of the ancient Via Appia to Terracina. A series of letters from Ashby in the BSR Administrative Archive highlight just how productive and enjoyable the trip was for all three men. 

From Benevento the trio headed southeast towards Venosa in an attempt to follow the ancient line of road. However, Ashby wrote that beyond Benevento, the Via Appia’s course 'becomes somewhat difficult to follow, and Mr. Gardner and I were not able in our journey through this part of the country on foot to find any remains of it until shortly before reaching Venusia (the modern Venosa), the birthplace of the poet Horace’ (Thomas Ashby, Retracing Roman Highways, Melbourne Argus, 3rd October, 1914).
This image, taken by Gardner, shows Beaumont strolling into the town of Venosa. From there, Ashby, Gardner, and Beaumont continued their expedition to Brindisi on the southern Adriatic coastline.  

Photo by Robert Gardner: J.S. Beaumont walking into the town of Venosa, 1913, Robert Gardner Collection, RG-0038