Are you tempted to book a holiday now that Covid restrictions are being lifted? Will it be worth the risk and the effort? Well we all have different motives for travelling or staying at home, some people have itchy feet and want to travel. I am not one of them. There has always been an element of risk in any sort of travel, but some accept that this is part of the adventure. Here are a few snippets from accounts of travellers from times past. Would you have had the same courage? When starting out on your journey do you think about the food you will eat on the way? Matthew G Lewis kept an account of his voyage to the West Indies. He left London in November 1815 on a West Indiaman called "Godfrey Wesbster" This picture is of a ship called an Indiaman, it is Indiaman in the Thames by William Adolphus Knell [1802 - 1876] at the National Maritime Museum. Imagine the swell, the cold, the water and also ..... I left London and reached Gravesend at nine in the morning ... the captain now tells me that we may expect to sail certainly in the afternoon of tomorrow ... Just now a carriage passed my windows conveying on board a cargo of passengers who seemed sincerely afflicted at the thoughts of leaving their dear native land! The pigs squeaked, the ducks quacked and the fowls screamed, and all so dolefully, as clearly to prove, that theirs was no dissembled sorrow . And after them came a wheelbarrow with a solitary porker tied in a basket with his head hanging on one side and his legs sticking out on the other .... At four o'clock in the afternoon [it would be getting dark] I embarked the "Sir Godfrey Webster" ... on approaching the vessel we heard the loudest of possible shrieks proceeding from a boat lying near her, and who should prove to be the complainant but my former acquaintance the despairing pig. .... I had already declared against climbing up the accommodation ladder; the pig had precisely the very same objection. So a soir-disant chair, being a broken bucket, was let down for us and the pig and myself entered the vessel by the same conveyance, only pig had the precedence and was hoisted up first. And how would you travel about when you reached your destination? Some took their own horses and carriages with them. This picture is called "Stallion" by that famous painter "Unknown artist" and is at the Suffolk Punch Museum. Fanny Duberley was one of those intrepid women who went out to the Crimea to be with her soldier husband. She took her own horses, what a terrible time they had. She sailed from Plymouth in April 1854 and soon hit a storm, Fanny was sea sick and parts of the masts and rigging were broken and lost. Saturday 29th April. weak and nervous, I staggered up on deck to see it strewn with ropes and blocks. During the night the gale had fearfully increased and the morning sun found two of our horses dead ..... They sailed on, and hit more storms, more horses died.The hold where our horses are stowed, although considered large and airy, appears to me horrible beyond words. The slings begin to gall the horses under the shoulder and brestbone and the heat and bad atmosphere must be felt to be understood. Every effort to alleviate their sufferings is made, their nostrils are spunged with vinegar ... Our three horses bear it bravely but they are immediately under a hatchway where they get air. The voyage was extremely rough and Fanny reported on the sufferings of the horses. She was very upset when her own favourite horse died. It had to be lifted up out of the hold of the ship and put overboard. There were still other horses in the hold when .... Today has been a day of as much suffering as I ever wish to experience. Sick incessantly, too weak to turn ... I was roused by a most tremendous roll. The ship heeled over till her deck was under water. Candlesticks falling from the table rolled at their leisure into corners. .. Captain Tompkinson into the hold where every horse was down, one being pitched half over the manger. I was shot from the stern locker to the far corner of my cabin, and every box and portmanteau came crushing over me. Amazingly Fanny quite enjoyed herself when she got to the Crimea. Pity those poor horses going into battle. This picture is called A Huntsman with his horse and a group of hounds by Charles Bilger Spalding [1810 - 1871] at the Walker Art Gallery. Rachel Sheringham travelled out to India with her husband, two very tiny children and twenty two pairs of hounds. They left Liverpool in May 1901 on the ship "Asia". We have three very roomy cabins which will make the voyage easier for us. The babies are lying happily at my feet together in a lower berth and nurse will sleep opposite them on a bench ... Arthur has had a great deal of trouble with the hounds, the Railway Company having delayed getting them onto the ship until past five o'clock ... They are in huge kennels with iron bars in front, some holding five, others four .... They sailed through the Suez Canal and arrived safely at their destination They and the hounds were expected ..... we took our farewells of the Asia and her officers and made our way to the station, nurse, the children and I in a carriage of sorts, Arthur in a dog cart with Mr Birkett, a member of the Bombay Hunt who kindly came to help us with the hounds, and then a long procession of 17 bullock waggons carrying kennels containing hounds, luggage and sacks of Spratts dog biscuits ..... Their destination was Poona. Life in India was one long round of social engagements, ghymkhanas and hunting. Rachel and her husband, along with the hounds, were invited to Government House. hounds and hunting, which really are the chief interest to us both ... but thanks to Arthur's untiring energy and incessant care, hunting throughout the season has been excellent giving the greatest satisfaction to the entire hunting community and hounds have stood the season well, a few deaths only have occured from accident or disease. An eastern scene with camels and figures resting in the shade under trees, is the rather long title of this picture by Victor Pierre Huguet [1835 - 1902] at The Cooper Gallery. You might have to arrange your mode of transport once you had disembarked from your ship. That brave adventuress Gertrude Bell made several expeditions into the Middle Eastern desert. Setting out from Damascus in November 1913 this was her list of requirements - 17 camels at £17 each £50 worth of food £50 for cloaks, cotton, presents. She also took with her her own dishes, silver, linen, the complete works of Shakespeare plus other books, two cameras, binoculars, medicines, comsetics, a tent, a bath tub, a folding chair, a desk, guns and surveying instruments. No wonder she needed 17 camels ...... She was a woman on her own in a man's world, and certainly faced very real danger. I found my servants camping near the first palace (she was surveying ruins) and a little upset becaue two bullets had whizzed past their ears while they were riding up to it ... a good many people came out to see me in the course of the afternoon and they all assured me that we would be greatly troubled by thieves, but there was no doubt about the rifle bullets, and it is almost as annoying to be shot by accident as on purpose . The last incident of this eventful evening was the arrival of a mild looking man with a message from Kerim-Khan. He said that the Serkar had heard that I had had some dispute with the head of the Custom House and desired to know whether I was in any difficulty as he would be glad to settle it by having all the Custom House people shot. It was merely a complimentary expression of good will ... I sent back my salaams and said there was no need for such extreme measures as I had made it up with the head of the Custom House. This picture is called Coach Scene by Richard Dodd Widdas [1826 - 1885] and is at the Streetlife Museum. There was always a problem of getting good Bed and Breakfast accommodation. And if there was none to be had you might just have to sleep in your carriage. William and Mary Wordsworth and William's sister Dorothy Wordsworth, went on a walking tour on the Continent, they walked vast distances, but also travelled by carriage. In 1820 they were at Herzogenbuchsee. They were with other travelling companions and stopped at an Inn to enquire about rooms. They decided not to take those offered, but to sleep in their carriage or "voiture". They looked around at the sights, bought food for a picnic and admired the distant Jura mountains This is Dorothy Wordsworth's account - when twilight came on we took our seats in the carriage, as close as beans in their velvet shell. Then began the fleas; and though sleepy, we had little hope of rest. At last, after long and patiently submitting to struggles with sleepiness, intense heat, and the restless fleas, William left us to refresh himself with water from the fountain, and prayed admission into Mr M's carriage. Never people were more glad to get rid of their worst enemy than we were to part with him. We felt as if a bath of fresh air had come to us with space and liberty. We shook our garments and sat down in quiet; but alas! soon again began the same tormentors, and we were pleased to while away the time by watching the broad flashes of lightening above the Jura ......... This picture is called Sailing Ship by James Henry Cleet [1840 - 1913] and is at the Tyne and Wear archives and museum. There could be unexpected travelling companions on board ship as well. Janet Schaw left Scotland in 1774 to visit her brother in the West Indies. She left the Firth of Forth in October and the ship sailed around the north of Scotland. She travelled with a brother called Alexander, a maid, and there were also a group of children on board who were the children of a resident in North Carolina, and an East Indian servant. That was all, or so she thought. One day she went onto the deck and we ascended the companion stair when judge of my surprize, I saw the deck covered with people of all ages from three weeks old to three score, men, women and children, and suckling infants,. For some time I was unable to credit my senses when I believed there was not a soul on board but the ship's crew and our own family. They looked like a cargo of Dean Swift's Yahoos newly caught. It was impossible to account for this strange apparition till the Captain informed me that they were a company of emigrants whom the owner had made him smuggle on board privately, and had ordered to be kept close under the hatches till they were out at sea ...... these wretched human beings ... they were fully sensible of the motion of the Vessel as we were, and sickness works more ways than one, so that the smell which came from the hole where they had been confined was sufficient to raise a plague aboard. I am besides, not a little afraid that they may bestow some of their live-stock upon me, they have brought thousands of them. Faugh! let me not think of it, it affects my stomach more than this smooth sailing vessel, or this shocking rough sea .... So travelling in times gone by was fraught with dangers and I could go one, and on, and on, selecting delicious extracts from diaries and letters of men and women who were very brave indeed. But I will end with ... A View of Madeira by William Hodges [1744 - 1797] at the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. William Hodges was the official artist on Cook's second voyage to the Pacific. Madeira was a stopping off point for fresh water and food.
Madeira was also a place recommended for the good of your health. This is from "The Invalids Guide to Madeira with a vocabulary of the Portuguese by William White Cooper, 1840. Invalids should be provided with warm clothing as well as light apparel ... they will often need it as when the wind blows from the north east the air is very chilly. Calico shirts are the best, and if it is proposed to spend the summer upon the island a few jean jackets will be serviceable. .. Medicines of all kinds are excessively dear at Madeira, and therefore a small chest fitted up with some of the most important would be useful to the traveller. Invalids who require an easy chair should bring one out with them as they are not to be procurred on the Island. If they propose to take a house, they should provide themsleves with bed and table linen, as well as plate .... with respect to servants, if invalids bring them out with them, they should be especially careful to select those who are to be depended on for steadiness and sobriety! So, I think I will settle for staying in this country and enjoying the delights of God's Own County, reading up travel diaries from days gone by, and looking at the amazing collection of art on the ArtUk website.
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
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