Journal of a Tour and Residence in Great Britain, during the Years 1810 to 1811, by a French Traveller: with Remarks on the Country, Its Arts, Literature, and Politics, and on the Manners and Customs of Its Inhabitants

Name of traveller

Louis Simond (1767-1831)

Reason for travel

• travelling as cultural tourist, self-improvement

Date of travel

July 1810

The exterior of Tintern Abbey disappointed us; but the coup-d'oeil of the interior is wonderful. Suppose Westminster Abbey, with the roof off,---the pavement transformed into a short green turf, over which clusters of pillars, like Gothic skeletons, rear their slender forms; dark ivy in matted locks hanging from their high bushy heads. (Simond 209)

Content

• Frenchman who has lived more than twenty years in America, married to an Englishwoman
• agriculture: complimentary on the cultivation of gooseberries and strawberries which are of a superior quality than those grown in France or the USA
• architecture:
  • generally enthusiastic about ruined castles and churches
  • repeated references to people and their life-stock living in ruined castles and churches
• art: account contains some illustrations of landscapes, castles, character sketches
• industry: notes on industrial character of Swansea
• language: without naming the Welsh language, notes that he cannot understand a word, but that English is spoken in the inns
• literature: criticism of Gilpin's descriptions of south Wales not being true to reality
• people:
  • women in Wales more beautiful than those in the London area
  • references to Hester Piozzi (1741-1821)
  • attempts to meet with the Ladies of Llangollen, Eleanor Charlotte Butler (1739-1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755-1831), but to no success
  • reference to Mme de Genlis (1746-1830)
• recreation:
  • street-begging as consequence of tourism
  • ubiquity of tourists in the Wye valley; fewer tourists in west Wales
• terrain:
  
  • contains description of the Wye
  • complaints about the weather
  • some notes on geology
  • comparisons with North America, especially New York and Niagara Falls
  • describes the Cob, Porthmadog, under construction
• transport:
  • modes of travel: boat; carriage; chaise; horse-drawn railway wagons; ponies; on foot
  • notes on tipping for services rendered
  • descriptions of early railways and trains
• French translation by the author himself from the English original: Voyage d’un Français en Angleterre pendant les années 1810 et 1811: Avec des observations sur l'e?tat politique et moral, les arts et la litte?rature de ce pays, et sur les mœurs et les usages de ses habitans. Paris: Treuttel, 1816. 275-323. Print
• German translation: Reise eines Gallo-Amerikaners (m. Simond's) durch Großbritannien in den Jahren 1810-1811. In zwei Theilen. Trans. Ludwig Schlosser. Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1818. Print.
• click here to read the full account in English

Nationality of traveller

French

Language of publication

English; translations: French, German

Gender of traveller

Male

Type of publication

diary; travelogue

Citation

Simond, Louis. Journal of a Tour and Residence in Great Britain, during the Years 1810 to 1811, by a French Traveller: with Remarks on the Country, Its Arts, Literature, and Politics, and on the Manners and Customs of Its Inhabitants. Edinburgh: Printed by George Ramsay and Co., for Archibald Constable and Co, 1815. 206-37. Print.