"Au pays de Galles"

Name of traveller

Firmin Roz (1866-1957)

Reason for travel

  • travelling as cultural tourist, self-improvement

Date of travel

undated, around 1900

Cette contrée montagneuse, plus reculée et plus inaccessible que les autres, restait la citadelle de la puissance et de l’idéal gallois, l’asile sacré de l’inspiration des bardes. Elle était le foyer de l’indépendance. (Roz 256)

Content

  • customs:
    • meditation on Welsh history and cultural rebirth, including castles, religion, University of Wales, eisteddfodau
    • comparisons with Scotland and Brittany
    • notes Welsh hospitality
    • Methodism, history of religion and revival
  • history:
    • notes on medieval Wales and heroic survival against English invasion; a history of defiance against the odds
    • heroic past as source of inspiration, despite the tragic defeats
  • industry: notes on slate-mining and appearance of quarries to visitors
  • literature:
    • inspired by John Rhys (1840-1915) and David Brymnor-Jones (1851-1921), The Welsh People (London: Fisher Unwin, 1900) and other scholarly sources
    • idealisation of bardic tradition
  • recreation:
    • notes seasonality of tourist economy in north Wales
    • classifies beach resorts as un-Welsh
    • compares effects of tourism in Wales with those in Brittany and Normandy
    • people-watching as touristic activity
  • terrain:
    • melancholy and picturesqueness of north Wales at night
    • extreme qualities of the land determine the character of the Welsh nation
  • transport:
    • modes of travel: train, coach
    • travels outside regular holiday season
    • description of view from Ffestiniog train
  • account republished as: "Au pays de Galles." Sous la couronne d’Angleterre. L’Irlande et son Destin: Impressions d’Ecosse au pays de Galles. Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1905. 237-300. Print.
  • English translation: Under the English Crown. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1906. Print
  • click here to read the full account in French

Nationality of traveller

French

Language of publication

French; translation: English

Gender of traveller

Male

Type of publication

essay; travelogue

Citation

Roz, Firmin. "Au pays de Galles." Revue des deux mondes: recueil de la politique, de l'administration et des moeurs 20 (1904): 897-922. Print.

Entry created: 27 February 2014
Entry last updated: 26 September 2016