Promenade autour de la Grande Bretagne

Name of traveller

Jacques-Louis de Bougrenet de La Tocnaye (1767-1823)

Reason for travel

• journey undertaken whilst exiled from France and bored with London life

Date of travel

1793

Combien j’ai regretté ici, de ne pas savoir le bas-breton. Quel plaisir n’eût-ce pas été pour moi de m’égarer dans les montagnes de ce pays? (La Tocnaye 73)

Content

• customs: no noticable difference between Wales and England along the Cheshire border
• language: speakers of Welsh remind author of his native Brittany
• people: contains anecdote of meeting and helping a Turk who has walked from Holyhead to Cheshire
• terrain:
  • description of Welsh mountains as seen from the confluence of Avon and Severn
  • Shrewsbury and surrounding area described as Welsh
• republished as a second, revised edition with the title: Promenade d’un Français dans la Grande-Bretagne. Brunswick: P. F. Fauche et Compagnie, 1801. 72-5. Print.
• compare with second journey undertaken through south Wales two years later
• click here to read the full account

Nationality of traveller

French

Language of publication

French

Gender of traveller

Male

Type of publication

travelogue

Citation

[Bougrenet de La Tocnaye, Jacques-Louis de]. Promenade autour de la Grande Bretagne; précédé quelques details sur la campagne du duc de Brunswick. Edinburgh: Jean Paterson, 1795. 146-9. Print.