Fanny Parkes or Parks (née Frances Susanna Archer) (1794–1875) was a

travel writer The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern period ...

from Wales, known for her extensive journals about colonial India, where she lived for 24 years. These are recorded in her memoirs ''Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque''. In 1970, extracts from her memoirs, '' Begums, Thugs and White Mughals'', became available for the first time since their original appearance in 1850. The first biography, by Barbara Eaton, ''Fanny Parks: Intrepid Memsahib'', appeared in 2018.

Early life and family

Fanny Parkes was born Frances Susanna Archer in

Conwy Conwy (, ), previously known in English as Conway, is a walled market town, community and the administrative centre of Conwy County Borough in North Wales. The walled town and castle stand on the west bank of the River Conwy, facing Deganwy on ...

, Wales, the daughter of Ann and Captain William Archer,

16th Lancers The 16th The Queen's Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1759. It saw service for two centuries, before being amalgamated with the 5th Royal Irish Lancers to form the 16th/5th Lancers in 1922. History Early war ...

. On 25 March 1822 she married Charles Crawford Parks (17 November 1797 – 22 August 1856), a writer for the East India Companies.

Travel writing

Fanny lived in India between 1822 and 1846, with a break in England and

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

1839–1844. Parkes began living in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

in 1822, before moving to

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

ten years later due to her husband's posting. Parks wrote two volumes on her time travelling through India on horseback and befriending people around her, while learning

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, Hindustani and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

s, written in a lively style, reveal independence of mind. Parkes allows an affectionate pre-colonial perspective of northern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and its peoples and customs, recording changes in Britain's governing of India, the economic impact of such policies, and domestic problems in Indian society. People she encountered included wealthy socialites and famine-stricken residents of

Kanauj Kannauj ( Hindustani pronunciation: ənːɔːd͡ʒ is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is a corrupted form of the class ...

, seen on a trip over mountains from

Landour Landour, a small cantonment town contiguous with Mussoorie, is about from the city of Dehradun in the northern state of Uttarakhand in India. The twin towns of Mussoorie and Landour, together, are a well-known British Raj-era hill station in ...

Simla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. After independence, the ...

. Parks' narrative reflects admiration and respect for the richness of Indian culture. It includes a glossary of terms and a collection of translated Indian proverbs. Some of Parkes's writings cover topics that were controversial at the time. One of the extreme examples was the murder of a woman in

sati Sati or SATI may refer to: Entertainment * ''Sati'' (film), a 1989 Bengali film by Aparna Sen and starring Shabana Azmi * ''Sati'' (novel), a 1990 novel by Christopher Pike *Sati (singer) (born 1976), Lithuanian singer *Sati, a character in ''Th ...

by those who felt that male heirs were more entitled to her possessions. Parks condemned the event and went on to criticize the laws governing married women in England. Parks also protested about a plan to sell the

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

, which she compared to

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

. Clashing with the lack of respect for Indian culture commonly found in Europe, she described natural beauty in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and

Benares Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic tr ...

, and fascinating dress and

cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...

. In one of her last entries, she described feeling disenchanted with Europe after leaving India. The memoirs were published as ''Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque during four and twenty years in the East with Revelations of Life in the Zenana'' (Pelham Richardson, 1850).

William Dalrymple William Dalrymple may refer to: * William Dalrymple (1678–1744), Scottish Member of Parliament * William Dalrymple (moderator) (1723–1814), Scottish minister and religious writer * William Dalrymple (British Army officer) (1736–1807), Scott ...

rediscovered and edited this travelogue as ''Begums, Thugs & Englishmen. The Journals of Fanny Parkes'' (Penguin Publishers).

Iris Portal Iris Mary Butler (15 June 1905 – 9 November 2002) was an English journalist and historian. Butler was born in Simla, India, to Sir Montagu Sherard Dawes Butler and his wife Ann. Her brother was the Conservative politician Rab Butler.''The Dail ...

referred to Parks as a "kindred spirit" because of her curious writing style and the fact that her book expresses an open-minded approach to Indian customs. In 1851 she invested money, organised and wrote the catalogue of the "Grand moving diorama of Hindostan, from Fort William, Bengal, to Gangoutri in the Himalaya", which was displayed at the "Asiatic Gallery, Baker Street Bazar, Portman Square. It was so popular that it was also shown in Hull in 1853.

Bibliography

*F. Parks, ''Wanderings of a pilgrim in search of the picturesque, during four-and-twenty years in the East with revelations of life in the zenana'', 2 vols (London: Pelham Richardson, 1850) *''Begums, Thugs & Englishmen, the journals of Fanny Parkes'' (London: Sickle Moon Books, 2002) *Barbara Eaton: ''Fanny Parks: Intrepid Memsahib, A Biography of Fanny Parks (1794–1875). An Independent Traveller in 19th Century India'' (UK: KDP Paperback and Kindle ebook )

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Fanny Welsh travel writers People from Kanpur 1794 births 1875 deaths People from Conwy British women travel writers 19th-century British writers 19th-century British women writers