Marjorie Morgan. National Identities and Travel in Victorian Britain. New York and Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. x + 271 pp. $65.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-333-71999-2.
Reviewed by Roger Beck
Published on H-Albion (October, 2002)
Marjorie Morgan, an Associate Professor of en time," in space and time to Europe and Britain History at Southern Illinois University, Carbon‐ and especially to the Victorian era, because it was dale, has also published Manners, Morals and during the mid- and late-nineteenth century that Class in England, 1774-1858 (1994). The present large numbers of middle-class Britons began trav‐ book is the product of many years of refection eling to Europe and other lands (p. 4). In depart‐ and research, beginning with a year in Britain ing from the current practice of studying the rela‐ gathering material for her dissertation and flling tionship between travel and identity by focusing personal journals with daily impressions. After on the imperial experience in non-European ar‐ completing her dissertation she turned to the eas, Morgan rightly points out that there was an question that had been intriguing her since leav‐ English empire before a British one, anti-Catholi‐ ing Britain: "to use travel writing (published and cism predated Orientalism, and "much of what we non-published) about trips to the Continent and are now terming 'colonial' existed within Europe around Britain to explore components of national itself before there were any overseas colonies" identity imagined by middle- and upper-middle- (pp. 6-7). class men and women from England, Scotland Morgan argues three main points in her book. and Wales during Victoria's reign (1837-1901)" (p. First, people found their national identity more 3). Her goal, she writes, is to "reveal what travel‐ often in everyday images and material goods, ers from each of the main regions of Britain had such as landscape, manners, and religious rituals, in mind when they used such items as 'British', than they did in less frequently experienced state- 'English', 'Scotch', and 'Welsh' to imagine and de‐ sponsored pageantry and propaganda. Second, scribe themselves collectively" (p. 4). rather than claiming a single national identity as Morgan limits her study of "how the 'us', or "British subjects," people often embraced multiple national group imagined, depended on the 'them', and varying national identities depending on con‐ or the Other, encountered by travelers at any giv‐ text: "British" while on the continent, English, H-Net Reviews
Scotch, or Welsh when traveling in Britain itself. also identifed with a localized English, Scottish or Morgan suggests that there were at least four dif‐ Welsh landscape as opposed to a more overarch‐ ferent identities in Great Britain in the Victorian ing British or Celtic one." Second, and quite inter‐ era, and fve if Ireland is included. Here she de‐ estingly, Morgan argues that the physical position parts from the work of Linda Colley, Eric Evans, a people choose to adopt "when viewing and ap‐ and Gerald Newman.[1] Third, Morgan moderates preciating landscape" is as important as the land‐ recent scholarship that stresses "how nations and scape itself. People from all parts of Britain pre‐ national identity are inventions constructed at ferred "looking down rather than out across or up particular moments in time, rather than givens at landscape." Third, that there is a "close relation‐ existing since time immemorial." She argues in‐ ship, or mutual infuence, between a nation's stead that national identities are a blending of landscape and its people, such that they come to "age old stereotypes continually invested with exhibit similar qualities, at least in people's new meanings" (pp. 4-5). minds." This was perhaps most true of the Eng‐ Chapter 1 begins with a thoughtful discussion lish, and to a lesser extent the Scots. Fourth, while of the meaning of travel and of "travel as doing the Scots and Welsh preferred majestic settings, four things, particularly to travelers, but some‐ the English, following their perception of them‐ times to those they encounter as well: estranging, selves and their own landscape, sought "restraint transforming, liberating and unsettling" (pp. 10-3). and moderateness," and were adverse to the dra‐ Morgan then turns to the mechanics of travel as matic, majestic, and extreme" (pp. 46-7). she discusses everything from Thomas Cook's frst In chapter 3 Morgan looks at religion, begin‐ cheap excursion in 1841 to handbooks for "travel‐ ning with a discussion of the link between Protes‐ ers" who sought "authentic" experiences as op‐ tantism and national identity, and between posed to "tourists" who trod the well-worn paths. Protestant patriotism and anti-Catholic senti‐ British travelers' penchant for quantifying their ments. The frst few pages of the chapter place journeys, by time (nine cities in a fortnight) and Protestantism and anti-Catholicism in their histor‐ detail (208 staircases in St. Peter's) is discussed, as ical context. Morgan also delineates the diferent are their passports, their drawing boxes (they forms of Protestantism found in England, Scot‐ were "passionate sketchers"), and their powders, land and Wales, and how these afected local chemicals, and spirits for "doing battle with the identities. Quite frequently, however, "Protes‐ unnerving European entomological world and for tantism" referred to secular qualities, such as edu‐ dealing with medical matters" (pp. 18-9). This cation, rational inquiry, open-mindedness, and chapter contains a wealth of fascinating anec‐ enlightenment. These qualities contrasted sharply dotes, well-placed quotes, and revealing depic‐ with Victorian travelers' perceptions of "Catholi‐ tions of the modes and rigors of travel a century cism," which they viewed as lacking a spirit of in‐ and more ago. quiry and toleration. Domestic morality, cleanli‐ Chapter 2 focuses on "landscape and climate." ness, an enterprising spirit, and prosperity were In this chapter Morgan makes a strong case for also attributes attributed to Protestants that were her argument that there were at least four difer‐ found wanting in Catholics. Morgan ranges widely ent identities people of Great Britain could choose in her analysis of Protestant travelers' perceptions depending on context. She elaborates on four key of Catholicism on the Continent, including their themes that inform the chapter. First, "landscape lack of respect for Catholic priests and nuns, ser‐ is an integral part of national identity," although vices, and worshippers. Morgan concludes this Morgan found that generally "Victorian travellers chapter by looking at British traveler's observa‐ tions about religion when traveling within
2 H-Net Reviews
Britain, and then English Catholics' views while lieves that "national identity formation is not sim‐ traveling on the continent. ply a matter of inventing and artifcially con‐ Morgan begins chapter 4 on "Customs, Com‐ structing something new. National identity often fort and Class" with a personal anecdote about rests on age-old outlooks and traditions which are her own travels to England and the continent, and continually invested with new meanings depend‐ it is in this chapter that the reader could most ing on circumstances" (p. 157). Here Morgan likely relate their own similar experiences and in‐ shows how the meaning of "liberty" evolved over sights while traveling. Here the "minutiae of daily the centuries, comprising at times Protestantism, life that Victorian travellers identifed as English, various elements of the landscape (trees, wind, Scottish, Welsh or British," is explored including free-ranging cattle, the surrounding water, and food and drink, manners, and recreation (p. 121). accessible countryside and mountains), national Through travelers' journals, Morgan concludes for prosperity (John Bull's robustness), and a specifc example that meat, milk, and butter were consid‐ system of government. Morgan points out, howev‐ ered indispensable by both the English and Scots, er, that while "liberty" was an important indicator but that the "English even more than the Scots of national identity, Victorian travelers on the identifed passionately with tea" (p. 122). English continent, particularly women, found many as‐ reserve is evident in their negative reaction to the pects of life in Europe very liberating, and came "warmth and exuberance [of] social exchanges on to associate British "moral and social conventions the Continent," as is the English desire for privacy with nothing short of tyranny" (p. 169). Such con‐ revealed by the diferences in names for country ventions included the social hierarchy in England, homes in Holland ("Our Contentment") and Eng‐ the "pressures of pretentious living," ostentatious land ("Towers") (pp. 129-30). In discussing leisure lifestyles, constraints on personal grooming and activities, Morgan includes an interesting and ex‐ dress, and a perceived lack of mental and moral tensive analysis of the diferent views the Scots, individuality. Morgan spends several pages dis‐ English, and Welsh had, and that they believed cussing the entries in women travelers' journals their neighbors on the Continent had, toward edu‐ to show how they came to recognize how English cation, singing, poetry, formal exercise and sport, conventions and laws limited their freedom and the home, and social rankings. denied them opportunities. The chapter concludes by describing the ways language and history both In her ffth chapter Morgan questions the re‐ united and diferentiated Victorian travelers. cent works of scholars such as Benedict Anderson, Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, Linda Colley, The discourse of national identity is the sub‐ and David Cannadine,[2] which argue that cultur‐ ject of chapter 6. Here Morgan is concerned with al traditions and nations are "inventions con‐ the various terms and patterns of terminology by structed at a particular moment in time, rather which the diferent peoples of the British Isles, the than^Åage-old phenomena existing since time im‐ British government, and Europeans labeled Victo‐ memorial" (p. 155). Morgan contends that while rian travelers. Thus, they could be "British, imagination and invention have played an impor‐ Britons, English, Scotch, Welsh, Irish, Northerners, tant role in creating modern manifestations of na‐ Southerners, Celts, Gaels and Anglo-Saxons." But tional identity and tradition, there are some conti‐ "how could it have been otherwise in a state that nuities, such as the concept of liberty, that "the was technically known as the United Kingdom of English in particular had imagined themselves to Great Britain and Ireland, but commonly referred possess for centuries," and that was and is a cen‐ to as Great Britain, Britain and Ireland, the three tral ingredient of their Britishness (p. 156). She be‐ Kingdoms (England, Scotland and Ireland) or Eng‐ land, with the latter term meaning the whole UK,
3 H-Net Reviews the island of Britain, England and Wales, England, Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, ed., The Inven‐ or even only the southern part of England, de‐ tion of Tradition (London: Cambridge University pending on context" (p. 196). The author systemat‐ Press, 1983); Colley; and David Cannadine, "The ically dissects each of these various terms and ex‐ Context, Performance and Meaning of Ritual: The plains why and how they were used and what British Monarchy and the Invention of Tradition, each meant in the various contexts in which they c. 1820-1977," in Hobsbawm and Ranger, chapter were used. 1. In her conclusion, Morgan muses on her own study and what contributions she believes it has made to the current debate about national identi‐ ty. She argues that "this book certainly casts doubt on the high politics/government model. It suggests that national identity should be understood in terms of everyday images and rituals to do with landscape, religion, food and drink, recreation, manners, liberty, language and history" (p. 219). I would agree. Morgan's extensive study of more than 160 travel journals, diaries, accounts, and guidebooks representing travelers from all cor‐ ners of Britain (she includes biographical infor‐ mation on eighty of them in an appendix), presents a convincing argument that a high poli‐ tics model is not sufcient to explain the constitu‐ tive elements of national identity. Nor is it possi‐ ble any longer, as Morgan demonstrates, to speak of a single British identity, or to argue that nation‐ al identities are a purely modern invention. Na‐ tional Identities and Travel in Victorian Britain must be added to the list of signifcant contribu‐ tions to the feld of nation studies. Notes [1]. Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation: 1702-1837 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992); Eric Evans, "Englishness and Britishness: National Identities, c. 1790-c.1870, in Uniting the Kingdom?: The Making of British History, ed. Alexander Grant and Keith J. Stringer (London: Routledge, 1995); and, Gerald Newman, The Rise of English Nationalism, 1740-1830 (London: Wei‐ denfeld and Nicolson, 1987). [2]. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communi‐ ties: Refections on the Origin and Spread of Na‐ tionalism, rev. ed. (London: Verso, 1991); Eric
4 H-Net Reviews
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-albion
Citation: Roger Beck. Review of Morgan, Marjorie. National Identities and Travel in Victorian Britain. H- Albion, H-Net Reviews. October, 2002.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=6825
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
5