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Irish travel writings as source material

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

C.J. Woods
C.J. Woods*
Affiliation:
Department of Modern History, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth
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Type
Review Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 110 , November 1992 , pp. 171 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1992

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References

1 X.Z., ‘A tour in the south of Ireland’, pt 2, in Hibernian Magazine, Nov. 1786, p. 597.

2 Carty, James, Bibliography of Irish history, 1870–1911 (Dublin, 1940)Google Scholar. He lists 2,727 items.

3 Hayes, R. J., Sources for the history of Irish civilisation: articles in Irish periodicals (9 vols, Boston, 1970).Google Scholar

4 Idem, Manuscript sources for the history of Irish civilisation (11 vols, Boston, 1965).

5 First supplement, 1965–1975 (3 vols, Boston, 1979).

6 Cox, E. G., A reference guide to the literature of travel (Seattle, 1935-)Google Scholar. In the preface to vol. iii (1949) Cox promises a further volume to cover Ireland.

7 Where are there copies of Gaston de Bonneville, Souvenir d’un voyage en Angleterre en 1838 (1839) and Bekaert, Ph. J., Voyage de Londres á Dublin et retour par Belfast (1846), mentioned in Marie-Hélène Pauly, Les voyageurs franqais en lrlande au temps du romantisme (Paris, 1939) but not traced in the Bibliotheque Nationale?Google Scholar

8 Sjoestedt, M.-L., ‘L’Irlande d’aujourd’hui: gens de la terre et de la côte’ in Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 June 1930, pp 839-64, 1 July 1930, pp 458–91.Google Scholar

9 Brun, Pádraig de (ed.), ‘Rev. Forster Archer ’s account of Kerry in 1801’ in Kerry Arch. Soc. Jn., xiv (1981), pp 26–30 Google Scholar; idem (ed.), ‘Some impressions [of Forster Archer] of Kildare in 1801’ in Kildare Arch. Soc. Jn., xvi, no. 4 (1983–4), pp 340–41.

10 Grimes, Séamus (ed.), Ireland in 1804 (Dublin, 1980)Google Scholar. The original edition of this anonymous tour appeared in London (1806).

11 John A. Gamble, a Belfast antiquarian bookseller, collector of Irish tours and descendant of the early nineteenth-century Irish travel writer of the same name, contributed an introduction, bibliography and index to (and generally promoted) a facsimile reprint by the Blackstaff Press (Belfast, 1984) of John Stevenson’s edition of the Latocnaye, Chevalier de’s A Frenchman’s walk through Ireland, 1796–7 (Belfast & Dublin, 1917).Google Scholar

12 See below, pp 173–6.

13 Lyne, Gerard J. (ed.), ‘Lewis Dillwyn’s visit to Kerry, 1809’ in Kerry Arch. Soc. Jn., xv-xvi (1982-3), pp 83–111 Google Scholar; idem (ed.), ‘Lewis Dillwyn’s visit to Waterford, Cork and Tipperary in 1809’ in Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., xci (1986), pp 85–104; idem and M. E. Mitchell (eds), ‘A scientific tour through Munster: the travels of Joseph Woods, architect and botanist, 1809’ in N. Munster Antiq. Jn., xxvii (1985), pp 15–61; Lyne, Gerard J. (ed.), ‘Rev. Daniel A. Beaufort’s tour of Kerry, 1788’ in Kerry Arch. Soc. Jn., xviii (1985), pp 183–214 Google Scholar; idem (ed.), ‘Journal of a visit to Kerry in July 1788’ in Kerry Arch. Soc.Jn., xxi (1988), pp 133–9.

14 A large number of Irish travel accounts written during and before the ‘great age’ can be found in the section on contemporary descriptions in David Dickson’s ‘Bibliography’ in Moody, T. W. and Vaughan, W. E. (eds), A new history of Ireland, iv: Eighteenth-century Ireland (Oxford, 1986)Google Scholar (henceforth New hist. Ire., iv), pp 738–43, or in Henry Heaney’s ‘Tourists in Ireland, 1800–1850: an annotated bibliography’ (unpublished F.L.A. thesis, 1967). However, Dickson omits MS accounts, and Heaney omits accounts that appear as articles in periodicals; both have overlooked items of major interest. See also below, p. 182.

15 The letters of Lord Chief Baron Edward Willes to the earl of Warwick, 1757–62: An account of Ireland in the mid-eighteenth century. Edited by James Kelly. Pp x, 141. Aberystwyth: Boethius Press. 1990. £21 hardback; £14 paperback. (Studies in Irish Archaeology and History)

16 McCracken, J. L., ‘The social structure and social life, 1714–60’ in New hist. Ire., iv, 31, 44, 45, 53, 54–5, 56Google Scholar; idem, ‘The political structure, 1714–60’, ibid., p. 67.

17 Letters of Chief Baron Willes, p. 79. I have modernised the spelling of quotations.

18 Ibid., pp 92–3.

19 Ibid., p. 46.

20 Ibid., pp 90–91; McCracken, ‘The social structure & social life’, pp 54–5.

21 ‘A description of the manners and customs of the native Irish in a letter from an English gentleman to his friend in London’, n.d. but probably early summer of 1761, in The Library of Fugitive Pieces, no. 5 (Aug. 1761), pp 236–40 (copy in R.I.A. in bound file with The Repository on spine and title-page).

22 Letters of Chief Baron Willes, intro., p. 13.

23 Pococke’s tour in Ireland in 1752, ed. Stokes, G. T. (Dublin, 1891). This also contains narratives of nine short journeys Pococke made in Leinster in 1753.Google Scholar

24 ‘Pococke’s tour of south and south-west Ireland in 1758’, ed. Maidin, Pádraig Ó, in Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., lxiii (1958), pp 73–94, lxiv (1959), pp 35–56, 109–30, lxv (1960), pp 130–41Google Scholar. This tour is discussed in McVeagh, John, ‘“Romantick” Ireland: Pococke’s tour of Cork and Kerry, 1758’ in Eire-Ireland, xxv, no. 2 (summer 1990), pp 69–95 Google Scholar. Dr McVeagh did not, however, see Ó Maidin’s edition. See also Woods, C. J., ‘Pococke’s journey through County Down in 1760’ in U.J.A., 3rd ser., xlviii (1985), pp 113-15.Google Scholar

25 They are printed as appendixes in Day, Ella B., Mr Justice Day of Kerry, 1745–1841: a discursive memoir (Exeter, 1938), pp 184-6, 262–89Google Scholar. Other circuit narratives by Day, for 1807–13, unpublished, are held by Yale University ( Craig, David, ‘Report of a survey of manuscripts of Irish interest in Yale University Library’ in Anal. Hib., no. 30 (1982), p. 257).Google Scholar

26 Kelly, James (ed.), ‘A tour in the south of Ireland in 1782’ in N. Munster Antiq. Jn., xxix (1987), pp 49–67.Google Scholar

27 X.Z., ‘A tour in the south of Ireland’ in Hibernian Magazine, July 1783, pp 362–4, Nov. 1786, pp 593–8, Dec. 1786, pp 642–6.

28 Kelly (ed.), ‘A tour in the south’, p. 64.

29 Journal de voyage en Grande Bretagne et en Irlande, 1784. By Marc de Bombelles. Edited by Jacques Gury. Pp xi, 370. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. 1989. £58. (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century No. 269)

30 Ibid., pp 222–9.

31 Ibid., p. 229. The translation is mine.

32 He describes Dublin ibid., pp 228–33, 236–41, 245–59.

33 He describes County Kildare ibid., pp 233–6, 241–5, 259–62.

34 Ibid., pp 260–75.

35 Preface and introduction, ibid., pp vii, 2–6.

36 Gury is attached to the Universite de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, and is a member of the Groupe de Recherche sur la Littérature des Voyages. This body, which functions under the umbrella of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique while drawing its membership from outside as well as inside France, exists to promote research in the field of travel writings.

37 Bombelles, Journal de voyage, introduction, pp 37–8.

38 Puckler’s progress: the adventures of Prince Puckler-Muskau in England, Wales and Ireland as told in letters to his former wife, 1826–9. Translated by Flora Brennan. Pp 254, illus. London: Collins. 1987. £15.

39 Tour in England, Ireland and France in the years 1828 & 1829 … in a series of letters by a German prince (2 vols, London, 1832). Neither the name of the author, Hermann von Piickler-Muscau (the original spelling), nor that of the translator, Sarah Austin, appears on the title-page. The original edition was Briefe eines Verstorbenen: ein fragmentarisches Tagebuch aus England, Wales, Irland und Frankreich geschrieben in den Jahren 1828 und 1829 (4 vols, Stuttgart, 1830–31).

40 One example is another German visitor, Hering, whose letters home were published in 1826 ( Woods, C. J. (ed.), ‘Johann Friedrich Hering’s description of Connacht, 1806–7’ in I.H.S., xxv, no. 99 (May 1987), pp 311-21).Google Scholar

41 ‘Walks in Wicklow from a traveller to his friend in Edinburgh’ in Belfast Magazine and Literary Journal, i (1825), pp 524–34.

42 For other Derrynane visits see Marie-Héléne Pauly (ed.), ‘Montalembert’s Journal de voyage en Irlande, 1830’ in Dublin Magazine, xv, no. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1940), pp 44-6Google Scholar; Súilleabháin, Pádraig Ó (ed.), ‘Father McDonnell’s visit to Derrynane in 1833’ in Kerry Arch. Soc. Jn., vi (1973), pp 143-51Google Scholar; O’Hagan, John, ‘Leinster and Munster in the summer of 1844’ in Irish Monthly, xl (1912), pp 580-90Google Scholar. O’Connell briefly mentions Pückler’s visit to Derrynane in a letter dated 1 Oct. 1828 (The correspondence of Daniel O’Connell, ed. O’Connell, M. R. (Shannon & Dublin, 1972-80), iii, 417).Google Scholar

43 Hennig, John, ‘Goethe’s personal relations with Ireland’ in Dublin Magazine, xviii, no. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1943), pp 53-6.Google Scholar

44 There were two new German editions by 1837; a French translation (1832-3); and a Philadelphia edition of Austin’s translation (1833 and 1836).

45 Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, Reisebriefe aus lrland (Berlin, 1969; 2nd ed., 1979).Google Scholar

46 I have not yet been able to examine a new edition by Therese Erler of Briefe eines Verstorbenen (2 vols, Berlin, 1987) or Heinz Ohff and Ekhard Haack’s selection from the prince’s extensive writings, Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, Ausgewdhlte Werke (2 vols, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1985)Google Scholar. I am informed by DrGrogan, Geraldine F., who referred to these publications in preparing her study, The noblest agitator: Daniel O’Connell and the German Catholic movement, 1830–50 (Dublin, 1991)Google Scholar, that Ohff and Haack include letters from Ireland taken from the MSS in the Staatsbibliothek.

47 Tocqueville, Alexis de, Oeuvres (9 vols, Paris, 1864-7), viii, 377–436Google Scholar. A new edition, by J. P. Mayer, appeared in 1958, and another, a collaborative affair, is in progress.

48 Tocqueville, Alexis de, Journeys to England and Ireland, trans. Lawrence, George and Mayer, K. P. (London, 1958).Google Scholar

49 Alexis de Tocqueville’s journey in Ireland, July-August 1835. Translated and edited by Larkin, Emmet. Pp xv, 157. Washington: Catholic University of America Press; Dublin: Wolfhound Press. 1990. $26.95 hardback; IR£9.95 paperback.Google Scholar

50 Ibid., pp 6–7.

51 Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor (2 vols, 2nd ed., London, 1876), i, 347–52.

52 Beaumont, Gustave de, L’Irlande sociale, politique et religieuse (2 vols, Paris, 1839).Google Scholar

53 Beaumont, Gustave de, Ireland: social, political and religious, ed. Taylor, W. C. (2 vols, London, 1839).Google Scholar

54 L’Irlande Sociale, Politique et Religieuse. By Beaumont, Gustave de. 2 vols: i, pp 408; ii, pp 349. Paris: Gosselin. 1839 Google Scholar. Facsimile reprint, with introduction by Godeleine Carpentier. Lille: C.E.R.U.L. G.D.R. d’Études Anglo-Irlandaises du C.N.R.S.; Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille III. 1990. 220 FF.

55 [Pulszky, Franz von], Aus dem Tagebuche eines Groβibritannien reisenden Ungarn (Pesth, 1837), pp 126-49Google Scholar; [Hailbronner, Karl von], Cartons aus der Reisemappe eines deutschen Touristen (Stuttgart, 1837), pp 279–306 Google Scholar. I am grateful to Dr Thomas Kabdebo for confirming the authorship of both these tours.

56 ‘Montalembert’s Journal de voyage en Irlande, 1830’, ed. Marie-Helene Pauly, in Dublin Magazine, xv, no. 2 (Apr-June 1940), pp 44–62, xv, no. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1940), pp 27–50, xvi, no. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1941), pp 39–50, xvi, no. 2 (Apr.-June 1941), pp 60–73.Google Scholar

57 The late Patrick Rafroidi, who had an encyclopaedic knowledge of French writings of Irish interest in the first half of the nineteenth century, went so far as to state in print that Montalembert’s Irish journals are unpublished (‘Franco-Irish encounters of the literary kind’ in Zach, Wolfgang and Kosok, Heinz (eds), Literary interrelations: Ireland, England and the world (3 vols, Tubingen, 1987), iii, 14)Google Scholar. Geraldine Grogan, arguing at some length in The noblest agitator (see above, n. 46) that Montalembert was an important medium for the spread of O’Connell’s liberal ideas among Catholics in France, Germany and elsewhere, overlooks his Irish journals which would have lent even greater weight to her argument.

58 The English traveller in Ireland: accounts of Ireland and the Irish through five centuries. Edited by Harrington, John P.. Dublin: Wolfhound Press. 1991. IR£22.95.Google Scholar

59 Woods, C. J., ‘A check-list of accounts in French of Irish tours’ in Études Irlandaises, ix (1984), pp 367-72.Google Scholar

60 John Singleton’s grand tour, 1815–1817. Edited by Cole, Richard Cargill. Pp xxxi, 267. New York, Bern, Frankfurt-am-Main & Paris: Lang. 1988. $38.95. (American University Studies Series XIX)Google Scholar

61 Ibid., p. 234. In another letter written during his stay in Paris in the summer of 1814, one of several to a friend which are perhaps substitutes for a journal, Curran states: ‘When I came here I intended to have scribbled some little journal of what I met. I am now sorry I did not. Things so soon become familiar and appear not worth notice.’ ( Curran, W. H., The life of … John Philpot Curran (2 vols, London, 1819), ii, 348–76, quotation from pp 348–9).Google Scholar

62 E.g. that by van Alphen, Daniel Frans, a Dutchman who toured Ireland in 1867: Reisverhalen en indrukken uit lerland, ’t Noorden van Wallis enz: een daghoek met aanteekeningen (’s Gravenshage, 1869).Google Scholar