VELSIN SCOTLAND 1788-1881 HISTORY SOCIETY SCOTTISH 3 I F X I ] T ■I 3 ('/ X I ) TRAVELS in SCOTLAND 1788-1881

VELSIN SCOTLAND 1788-1881 HISTORY SOCIETY SCOTTISH 3 i f x i ] t ■i 3 ('/ X i ) TRAVELS IN SCOTLAND 1788-1881 ALASTAIR J. DURIE Tourist travelling changed remarkably between 1780 and 1880, and the six accounts collected here help us to see how and why. Whether by a well-off and intrepid lady, a self-important youth, a young man and his parents, or an overweight middle-aged lawyer, what they have in common is a relish for the pleasures of discovery, of holidaymaking, of finding a Scotland for themselves. The writers travel, they see, they listen (some more than others), enjoy good weather (and endure the frequently bad), take in the scenery and sights, and talk with other visitors and locals. Theirs are intimate voices - they were writing for themselves, or friends or family, not for the public - but as we eavesdrop on them a larger picture unfolds. Travelling conditions vary: the first account shows to a world of elite travel, the private coach, and the privileges enjoyed by the well-heeled, while the last is the homely and charming description of a one-week holiday taken with relatives in the country. In between comes the new world of travel: the steamer, the railway and the guidebook. A general preface by the editor sets these pieces in their historical and social context, and a selection of photographs and sketches drawn from two of the accounts complements these hitherto unpublished visitors’ narratives. ALASTAIR J. DURIE is Teaching Fellow at the University of Scotland and Associate Lecturer at the Open University. JACKET DESIGN: SIMON LOXLEY Nationalllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Library of Scotland *13000465800* SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY Travels in Scotland, 1788-1881 A Selection from Contemporary Tourist Journals Travels in Scotland 1788-1881 A Selection from Contemporary Tourist Journals Edited by Alastair J. Durie SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY 2012 THE BOYDELL PRESS © Scottish History Society 2012 All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner First published 2012 A Scottish History Society publication in association with The Boydell Press an imprint of Boydell 8C Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com ISBN 978'0'90624'530-9 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Papers used by Boydell & Brewer Ltd are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests Designed and typeset by Tina RanfO*!* x> Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO 4YY Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction: Tourist Travels in Scotland 1 Editorial Method 17 Note on the Illustrations 17 Elizabeth Diggle: Journal of a Tour from London to the Highlands of Scotland, 19 April to 7 August 1788 18 Adam Bald: Journal of Travels and Commonplace Book, 1790-99 41 Anon: Tours to the Highlands, 1817 and 1818 100 Thomas Adam: Journal of an Excursion to Loch Maree, 24 June to 13 July 1857 131 Henry Underhill: Tour in Scotland, Autumn 1868 169 Mary Allison: Uncle and Aunts Trip to Butterbridge, July 1881 206 Bibliography 235 Index of Significant People and Places 237 List of Illustrations Map of Scotland Henry Underhill, Tour in Scotland, 1868 Plate section between pages 182 and 183 1 Glasgow Cathedral 2 Glasgow Necropolis 3 Glasgow Old College 4 Glasgow George Square 5 Glen Aray 6 Cladich Waterfall 7 Oban 8 Oban. The Great Western Hotel 9 Staffa. Fingals Cave 10 Staffa. Boatmen 11 Iona. Celtic Cross 12 Glencoe 13 Ballachulish 14 Falls of Foyer 15 Aberdeen 16 Aberdeen Castlegate 17 Linn O’ Dee 18 Killiecrankie. Guide and Family 19 Killiecrankie 20 Birnam Hotel 21 Dunkeld Travels in Scotland, 1788—1881 :A Selectionjrom Contemporary Tourist Journals 22 Dunkeld. The Cathedral 23 Loch Katrine 24 Stirling Castle 25 Stirling Looking South 26 Edinburgh. Waverley Station 27 Edinburgh. John Knox’s House Mary Allison, Trip to Butterbridge, 1881 Figure page 1 Prospect from our window 211 2 Bella welcomed us kindly 213 3 A little refreshment 214 4 On the road to Butterbridge 216 5 Washing in the mountain stream 218 6 Bicycling 219 7 Katie 221 8 Going to Church 223 9 From four till half past eight on Monday morning 18th July 1881 224 10 Climbing Ben Ime 226 11 On the top of Ben Ime 226 12 The wandering minstrel 229 13 Butterbridge 231 14 Bella 232 15 Jessie 232 Acknowledgements In the preparation of this volume, I have incurred many debts, notably to the staff at Glasgow City Archives, whom I also thank for permission to publish the transcriptions from Bald and the Tours. Great support came from the Special Collections Department of Glasgow University, particularly Julie Gardham, and I acknowledge the readiness with which permission was given to reproduce Elizabeth Diggle’s journal and that of Henry Underhill. The technical assistance of the Photographic Unit at that university was essential to the provision of the illustrations. There are the many archivists and local studies librarians who have helped: Murdo MacDonald of Argyll and Bute, Sybil Cavanagh of West Lothian, George Dixon of Stirling, and of course the staff of the reader services at the University of Stirling who have borne my many and esoteric queries with remarkable forbearance. They can all now relax. My wife, Kate, has laboured long and hard to decipher the handwriting of Mr Bald (from whom we will both be glad to take a break), and to track down obscure phrases: !dEolus' for what seemed to read as ‘Colus’ was a particular triumph. Travels in Scotland, 1788—1881: A Selectionfrom Contemporary Tourist Journals Map of Scotland. Inset: Argyll and Loch Lomond. Introduction: Tourist Travels in Scotland Overview Tourism in Scodand, in its growth from an elite to a mass experience, was as much a success story of the nineteenth century as the rise of shipbuilding, steel and textiles, all of which have long been discussed and analysed in depth. Yet tourism as an industry also created substantial employment, some of it urban, but much of it in rural and highland Scotland, and generated a stream of income, albeit on a heavily seasonal basis, for many groups in society. It is not surprising, therefore, that having been relatively neglected, in recent years the development of tourism to and in Scotland has become a flourishing area of study for both the professional academic historian and the wider community. Some broad surveys of the subject have recently been published which draw on the ever increasing number of accounts of the growth of tourism in particular resorts, coastal and inland, from Dunoon to Aberdour, Iona and North Berwick. Some types of tourism have received particular attention, such as sporting and health, and transport studies, of the railway companies or individual branch lines, or the recent study of MacBraynes, are extremely valuable. To add to the well known classics of travel in Scotland - Dr Johnsons Tour, Pennant, Wordsworth, Mendelssohn, Verne, Fontane - there is a steady stream of travellers’ accounts, of varying calibre and interest. These help to show the way that this new industry, although in different ways and to differing degrees, affected all classes and all areas. Some localities - for example, the Highlands - were places to which people went, some places from which they came: the towns of industrial Lanarkshire or west Fife. Others were both sending and receiving; as early as the 1850s the influx of summer visitors to Edinburgh may well have been matched by the outflow of the professional classes to their holiday retreats. Different places attracted a differing clientele, as did different types of tourism; the seaside drew the many, the grouse moors welcomed only the few. But the reality is that by the end of the nineteenth century tourism in one form or another had long since ceased to be the preserve of the wealthy few. The lower the income, the less the level of participation, but even the poorest child might get a Sunday School trip or an institutional outing. Clearly the lower down the social and economic scale, the less room there was for manoeuvre; options as to where and for how long were limited by time and money. But they could think of themselves as tourists, however humble.‘Tourism is a generously inclusive term Travels in Scotland, 1788—1881 :A Selectionfrom Contemporary Tourist Journals 2 which takes in all forms of travel for pleasure and leisure, from the measured touring of the moneyed to distant parts through the organised excursions of the middle order to the days out of the masses to the seaside. There was for the select the expensive stay at a big spa or hydro hotel, for the middling orders, either by necessity or choice, cheaper boarding with a landlady, for some free accommodation with a friend or family. Whether focused or informal, scheduled or casual, expensive or cheap, tourism in one form or another - tour, vacation, excursion holiday or outing - touched most lives, from the summer vacation at a coastal or inland retreat of the professional and middle classes to the day away of the urban worker. Much of it focused on the big cities and the popular coastal resorts, but even quite remote rural and Highland communities began to rely on the visitor as a key source of income, consistent or casual.

Load more