Travel Writing 1700–1830 an Anthology
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OXFORD WORLD’ S CLASSICS TRAVEL WRITING, 1700–1830 DURING the eighteenth century British travellers fanned out to every corner of the world, driven by diverse motives: scientific curi- osity, exploration, colonization, trade, diplomacy, and tourism, which began to flourish during this period. Those at home read voraciously in travel literature, which informed curious Britons about their nation’s activities overseas. The Empire, already estab- lished in the Caribbean and North America, was expanding in India and Africa and founding new outposts in the Pacific. Readers also enjoyed reports of travel closer to home: tours of the Continent and the British Isles themselves, whose beauty spots fuelled the rising fashion for picturesque and sublime scenery. Travel writing fed readers’ desire for adventure and exoticism and reinforced their pride in their nation’s achievements. It addressed scientific questions and gave philosophers food for thought. Political controversies were fought out in travel books, including the slavery question and the French Revolution debate. Above all, travellers’ descriptions of the wider world reveal their perception of themselves. Selected authors include Daniel Defoe, Joseph Addison, Mary Wortley Montagu, Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, James Cook, William Bartram, Mary Wollstonecraft, Dorothy Wordsworth, Walter Scott, Olaudah Equiano, Mungo Park, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew ‘Monk’ Lewis, and Frances Trollope. ELIZABETH A. BOHLS is Associate Professor of English at the University of Oregon. She is the author of Women Travel Writers and the Language of Aesthetics, 1716–1818, recently translated into Japanese, and of articles on travel writing and the novel. She is currently finishing a book on identity and place in writings from the colonial British Caribbean. IAN DUNCAN is Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. He has edited several works of fiction for Oxford World’s Classics, including Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe and Rob Roy. He is completing a book called Scott’s Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh (Princeton University Press). OXFORD WORLD’ S CLASSICS For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics have brought readers closer to the world’s great literature. Now with over 700 titles––from the 4,000-year-old myths of Mesopotamia to the twentieth century’s greatest novels––the series makes available lesser-known as well as celebrated writing. The pocket-sized hardbacks of the early years contained introductions by Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Graham Greene, and other literary figures which enriched the experience of reading. Today the series is recognized for its fine scholarship and reliability in texts that span world literature, drama and poetry, religion, philosophy and politics. Each edition includes perceptive commentary and essential background information to meet the changing needs of readers. OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS Travel Writing 1700–1830 An Anthology Edited by ELIZABETH A. BOHLS and IAN DUNCAN With an Introduction by ELIZABETH A. BOHLS 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York Selection and editorial matter © Elizabeth Bohls and Ian Duncan 2005 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as an Oxford World’s Classics paperback 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available Typeset in Ehrhardt by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd., St. Ives plc. ISBN 0–19–284051–7 978–0–19–284051–6 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS THE editors thank their research assistants, Keiko Kagawa and Nick Nace, whose hard work, resourcefulness, and acuity helped bring this project to completion. Gordon Sayre provided invaluable advice about eighteenth-century North American travellers. We are grate- ful to the staff of the University of Oregon English Department, especially Marilyn Reid and Sheryl Powell, and to staff at the Knight Library at the University of Oregon, the Bancroft and Doe Libraries at the University of California, Berkeley, and the National Library of Scotland. Financial assistance was provided by the Barbara and Carlisle Moore endowment at the Department of English, University of Oregon, and the Committee on Research of the Academic Senate of the University of California, Berkeley. Thanks are due to Gordon Turnbull, General Editor, and the Editorial Committee of the Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell, for permission to reproduce selections from Boswell’s Scottish and Grand Tour jour- nals; to Alice Wilson, at David Higham Associates, and the Hakluyt Society for permission to reprint selections from J. C. Beaglehole’s edition of the journals of Captain Cook; to Richard Price and Sally Price for permission to reprint selections from their edition of John Stedman’s Narrative; and to the Champlain Society for permission to reprint a passage from the 1962 edition of David Thompson’s Narrative. Ian Duncan thanks Ays¸e Agis¸ for her encouragement and support. Liz Bohls thanks her family (Chris, Natalie, and Cooper Doe) for their great forbearance, and her parents, Mary and Allen Bohls, for starting her travels early. Last, but far from least, we both thank Judith Luna, at Oxford World’s Classics, for her apparently inexhaustible good humour and patience. This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Introduction xiii Note on the Texts xxviii Select Bibliography xxx Chronology xxxvi TRAVEL WRITING PART I. EUROPE AND ASIA MINOR 1.CLASSICAL GROUND JOSEPH ADDISON, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy (1705) 5 JOHN GALT, Letters from the Levant (1813) 11 2.DEBATING THE TOUR The Gentleman’s Magazine: ‘Of Travelling’ (1731) 13 THOMAS NUGENT, The Grand Tour (1756) 14 RICHARD HURD, Dialogues on the Uses of Foreign Travel (1775) 18 3.SOCIETY AND SENTIMENT JAMES BOSWELL, Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland (1764) 20 TOBIAS SMOLLETT, Travels through France and Italy (1766) 29 JOHN MOORE, A View of Society and Manners in Italy (1781) 32 HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI, Observations in a Journey through Italy (1789) 36 4.REVOLUTIONARY TOURISM ARTHUR YOUNG, Travels, during the Years 1787, 1788 and 1789 (1792) 40 viii Contents HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS, Letters from France (1790–1796) 48 ANN RADCLIFFE, A Journey made in the Summer of 1794 (1795) 57 CHARLOTTE ANNE EATON, Narrative of a Residence in Belgium (1817) 60 WALTER SCOTT, Paul’s Letters to his Kinsfolk (1816) 65 5.OFF THE BEATEN TRACK LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU, ‘Embassy Letters’ (1716–1718) 68 LADY ELIZABETH CRAVEN, A Journey through the Crimea to Constantinople (1789) 77 MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT, Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796) 82 PART II. THE BRITISH ISLES 1.THE STATE OF THE NATION CELIA FIENNES, The Diary of Celia Fiennes (c.1685–1703) 97 DANIEL DEFOE, A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–1726) 105 ARTHUR YOUNG, A Tour in Ireland (1780) 116 JOHN CARR, The Stranger in Ireland (1806) 122 WILLIAM COBBETT, Rural Rides in the Southern, Western and Eastern Counties of England (1822–1826) 126 2.PICTURESQUE TOURISM THOMAS GRAY, Journal in the Lakes (1769) 129 THOMAS WEST, A Guide to the Lakes (1784) 132 WILLIAM GILPIN, Observations on the River Wye (1782) 137 ANN RADCLIFFE, Observations during a Tour in the Lakes (1795) 140 Contents ix 3.SCOTLAND MARTIN MARTIN, A Voyage to St Kilda (1698) 141 SAMUEL JOHNSON, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775); JAMES BOSWELL, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1773) 149 MARY ANN HANWAY, A Journey to the Highlands of Scotland (1777) 163 DOROTHY WORDSWORTH, Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland (1803) 167 JAMES HOGG, ‘Malise’s Journey to the Trossacks’ (from The Spy, 1811) 177 PART III. AFRICA 1.THE SLAVE TRADE, 1732–1789 JOHN BARBOT, A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea (1732) 182 JOHN ATKINS, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil and the West-Indies (1735) 186 JOHN NEWTON, Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade (1788) 191 OLAUDAH EQUIANO, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) 196 2. INFANT COLONY, 1794 ANNA MARIA FALCONBRIDGE, Two Voyages to Sierra Leone (1793) 206 3. EXPLORERS, 1790–1822 JAMES BRUCE, Travels into Abyssinia, to Discover the Source of the Nile (1790) 220 MUNGO PARK, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa (1799) 227 JOHN BARROW, Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa (1801) 237 JAMES K. TUCKEY, Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire (1818) 244 x Contents WILLIAM J. BURCHELL, Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa (1822) 250 PART IV. THE CARIBBEAN 1.NATURAL HISTORY AND AESTHETICS HANS SLOANE, A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S.