Journal de voyage en Grande Bretagne et en Irlande, 1784

Name of traveller

Marc de Bombelles (1744-1822)

Reason for travel

• on return from Ireland

Date of travel

1784

[Brecon] la Capitale du plus joli petit pays qu’il y ait peut-être sur la surface du globe. Les belles vallées de Suisse ne présentent pas une culture plus soignée. (de Bombelles 282)

Content

• agriculture: cows and horses in Wales smaller than in France
• architecture:
  • peasant houses are cleanly and solidly built compared to Ireland
  • Chepstow castle ruins very beautiful
• customs:
  • employment of harpists in inns; notes lack of pedals on harps
  • low cost of living and best of all England-dominated lands
• diet: praises good quality of mutton
• industry:
  • remarks on quality of south Wales coal
  • lead industry and tanneries
• language:
  • notes that people speak no Welsh in former Flemish area of settlement, "little England beyond Wales"
  • Welsh language as Celtic, like Scotland and Ireland
• politics: Wales as under-represented in the Union
• terrain:
  • evaluates pretty landscape through his experience of landscape painting, works by Salvator Rosa (1615-1673)
  • Carmarthen as most substantial town in south Wales, some grand houses
  • praises Brecon; comparison with Switzerland
  • great variety of trees
  • river Wye deserving of praise in poetry
• transport:
  • modes of travel: boat
  • poor conditions of roads, hence slow travelling, 56 hours of crossing through south Wales
  • regrets not being able to venture further into Wales

Nationality of traveller

French

Language of publication

French

Gender of traveller

Male

Type of publication

diary; travelogue

Citation

Bombelles, Marc de. Journal de voyage en Grande Bretagne et en Irlande, 1784. ed. Jacques Gury. Oxford, Voltaire Foundation, 1989. Print.