Holograph diary of the author’s trip to France and Italy in a single hand describing the author’s Grand Tour two years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars : The hallmarks of a half pay British officer in the midst of a rather hopeless feeling peace. Clearly an admirer of classical architecture, he makes careful note of remaining classical elements in towns like Avignon and Lyon (“The town of Lyon is by no means handsome. The houses are much crowded and the streets narrow, and dirtier if possible than those of Paris”), and appears very much more affectionate towards what was there, rather than what is. He is nevertheless much struck by the wonders of Florence as he travels towards what his conspicuous classical education clearly regards as the ultimate destination: the city of Rome. In a rather pleasing exhibition of mingled scholarship and military professionalism, he spends a lot of time discussing the historical strategic qualities and shortfalls of many of his stopping points. The journal is erudite, vigorous and detailed.
- Title: Journal of a tour through France and Italy / by an officer stationed with Wellington’s Army of Occupation at St. Pol, Pas de Calais : manuscript.
- Production: France and Italy, 1817.
Catalog Record
LWL Mss Vol. 251
Acquired October 2019
Holograph diary transcribed by Charles Lucas from memorandum written by his cousin James Lucas during a tour to France in 1816.
“A trade token issued by the famed bookseller James Lackington (1746-1815), the same year he opened the Temple of the Muses, ‘one of the wonders of London’ (Oxford DNB); with reputedly a million books on display, it was at the time the biggest bookshop in the world. Tokens such as these were issued in many places in England in the late eighteenth century, when the government failed to mint enough copper coinage for the conduct of business. According to Oxford DNB, Lackington issued thousands of such tokens, which were only valid at his shop. All were struck by Lutwyche of Birmingham.”–British Museum online catalogue.
“Portrait of Mary ‘Perdita’ Robinson, half-length in an oval, directed to left but looking forward, with high dressed hair with a cap on top, and both hands in a muff.”–British Museum online catalogue.
