Travel journal of Birmingham, Derbyshire, the Netherlands, Weymouth, and Lyme

Volume comprising four travel narratives, written by an anonymous author. Journeys begin and end in Stroud, Gloucestershire, and a large number of friends and relatives are mentioned by name. Also included within the journal is several lists of expenses for their journeys.

The diary begins on 21 June 1834 recording a journey from Stroud to Evesham and then around the Birmingham area, and later Derbyshire. This includes a visit to the Botanical Gardens, the Edgbaston 'Deaf and Dumb Asylum,' a number of industrial manufactories, Haddon Hall, Willesley Castle, and the Peak Cavern.

Her second journey begins 8 June 1835, travelling from Stroud to London and then Rotterdam for Amsterdam, but also visiting Leyden, the Hague, Zeeburg, and many attractions in the towns and cities of the Netherlands. This also includes her account of experiencing some minor 'riots in Amsterdam' on 4 July 1835.

A third entry is written on 9 June 1837 relating to another journey to Birmingham and around the West Midlands, but is cut short and left unfinished.

Lastly, the author tours Weymouth and Lyme from 3 July 1840, where they visited the Isle of Portland, toured the cliffsides of Charmouth, and observed the impact of the Whitlands Landslip near Dowlands in Devon of the year earlier.

The author provides meticulous accounts of the places and buildings she visits, including very detailed accounts of the rooms of palaces; of paintings in museums and galleries, particularly during her tour of the Netherlands in 1835 and at the Felix Meritis; of the processes of the manufactories; and the history and stories behind the buildings and places which she visits, including an entire section dedicated to retelling the history of Lyme after her journey there is finished. She also regularly records the sermons she has heard each Sunday, visits many different churches on her travels, and even attends a meeting of discussion at Easter Hall in London between Catholics and Protestants on 11 July 1835 which resulted in several Roman Catholics being taken out by the police.

The author of the volume is unknown but the contents of the journal reveals some details about their life and family, although it is largely impersonal with a greater focus on the places to which she travels. What is potentially a name is written inside the front of the diary, but is illegible.

The author of the journal is a woman, mentioning on 8 July 1835 on the journey back to England from the Netherlands that 'all the ladies except Mamma, Miss Stephenson & myself were very ill & nearly all the gentlemen were also sick.' She was travelling in 1834 with her cousin Eliza, who appears to live in Birmingham. A 'cousin E. Cocks' is also named, who is presumably the same cousin. When she returns to Stroud she was also welcomed back by her 'dear parents and Mr Harris,' and travels with her 'dear Mamma' from Stroud on her second and third journeys, indicating that she was probably unmarried and living with her parents in Stroud, Gloucestershire at the time.

Her brother William is named at the start of her fourth journey, 3 July 1840. Two women, Sarah and Esther (often referred to affectionately as 'dear Sarah' and 'dear Esther') are mentioned throughout the entries, and are possible relatives of the author. In 1835 the author visits Sarah with a William in Amsterdam (sometimes referred to as 'S & W'). This William may or may not be the same William as her brother. It seems possible these two were living permanently in Amsterdam at the time and that the author and her mother were visiting them, but it is also worth noting that both Sarah and her brother William (although not necessarily the same William) are also mentioned again five years later on her fourth journey to Weymouth and Lyme in England.

The author is English, but expresses interest in other cultures and travelling, having not only visited the Netherlands herself but also writing of friends in England who were from or lived in other countries such as Mr Butler, who she had 'much conversation with' regarding his time in Switzerland. She notes on 8 July 1834 that she was 'the only English person at the table,' and also reveals her struggles with the language barrier while in the Netherlands on 10 June 1835, writing that her and her mother 'soon experienced the great inconvenience of not understanding the language of the country,' and being faint in the heat, 'was obliged to call Mr Davenport to request him to request the landlady to bring up some vinegar.'

Open, access to all registered researchers.

Purchased November 2016

Please see full catalogue for more information.

Catalogued by Christopher Olive, July 2018. Prepared in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G).

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