''Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland, A. D. 1803'' (1874) is a

travel memoir Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel can ...

by Dorothy Wordsworth about a six-week, 663-mile journey through the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

from August–September 1803 with her brother

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

and mutual friend

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...

. Some have called it "undoubtedly her masterpiece" Ernest de Selincourt, 1941 edition of ''Recollections''. and one of the best Scottish travel literature accounts during a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries which saw hundreds of such examples. It is often compared as the Romantic counterpart to the better-known Enlightenment-era ''

A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland ''A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland'' (1775) is a travel narrative by Samuel Johnson about an eighty-three-day journey through Scotland, in particular the islands of the Hebrides, in the late summer and autumn of 1773. The sixty-three-y ...

'' (1775) by

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

written about 27 years earlier. Dorothy wrote ''Recollections'' for family and friends and never saw it published in her lifetime. The three travelers were important authors in the burgeoning

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

movement and thus the trip itinerary was in part a literary pilgrimage to the places associated with Scottish figures significant to Romanticists such as Robert Burns,

Ossian Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/Scottish Gaelic: ''Oisean'') is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as ''Fingal'' (1761) and ''Temora'' (1763), and later combined under t ...

, Rob Roy, William Wallace, and contemporary

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...

. Dorothy's descriptions and judgments of the countryside and landscapes were a mixture of her own personal

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

and the in-fashion aesthetics of the

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, beautiful and picturesque—in fact ''Recollections'' is considered today a classic of picturesque travel writing.John R. Nabholtz, "Dorothy Wordsworth and the Picturesque", in ''Studies in Romanticism'', m 2., Winter 1964 Venturing to Scotland in 1803 was not an easy trip and the thirty-year-old Dorothy would experience much of the rougher nature of Scottish life. Scotland had become depopulated in areas from emigration throughout the 18th century and the remaining rural Scots existed in a preindustrial lifestyle more reminiscent of the Middle Ages than modern times. The roads were poor and dangerous or mere cattle-paths requiring a local guide. Dorothy notes the road quality along each segment from "most excellent", "roughish", to "very bad" to "wretchedly bad". Finding a place to sleep meant finding a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

along the road, which could range from a pleasant inn by English standards, to a dirty and smoky peasants hut with no glass windows nor chimney and a dirt floor. More than once the Wordsworths were refused a room for the night after dark in the rain with miles to the next town; however this was contrasted by the kindness and generosity of others. Food in 19th century Scotland along the road ranged from boiled fowl and egg on the high end to

whey Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a byproduct of the manufacturing of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is a byproduct resulting from the manufacture of rennet types of hard ...

and oat bread on the low end, and none at all in some cases, although "A boiled sheep's head, with the hair singed off" was a true Scottish fare savored. Most of the trip was in a

jaunting car A jaunting car is a light two-wheeled carriage for a single horse, with a seat in front for the driver. In its most common form with seats for two or four persons placed back to back, with the foot-boards projecting over the wheels and the typical ...

, an Irish open-air two-wheeled cart drawn by a single horse—which because of the poor roads in practice meant going most of the way on foot. Compared to the more fashionable chaise which other travelers took to Scotland, the jaunting car was a plain and exposed vehicle, which the Wordsworths preferred as they could be travelers instead of tourists and remain approachable to the people of Scotland. There was a central luggage box and two seats facing back to back in which the riders' feet were a foot off the ground.Carol Kyros Walker, ed. (1997), ''Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland by Dorothy Wordsworth''. Yale University Press. As an Irish design, it was an unusual sight and brought a lot of attention along the way, in part because of rumors circulating at the time that Ireland might soon invade Scotland. Dorothy wrote the journal over a 20-month period starting in September 1803. "I had written it for the sake of Friends who could not be with us at the time". Her friends admired her ''Recollections'' and it soon began to circulate and talk of publication became inevitable. In 1822 Dorothy put together a more refined version, she had lost the original and it was completed from memory, but a publisher was never located. It would not be until 1874, nearly 20 years after her death in 1855, that

John Campbell Shairp John Campbell Shairp (30 July 1819 – 18 September 1885) was a Scottish critic and man of letters. Life He was born at Houstoun House, Linlithgowshire, the third son of Major Norman Shairp of Houstoun, and was educated at Edinburgh Acade ...

would publish it for the first time. It sold so well a second edition came soon after including one in the US. Then a third edition in 1894, and then another in 1897. In 1941 it was recognized again when Ernest de Selincourt published a new edition and deemed ''Recollections'' "one of the most delightful of all books of travel, and it is, undoubtedly her masterpiece". In 1997

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

published an edition by

Carol Kyros Walker Carol may refer to: People with the name * Carol (given name) *Henri Carol (1910–1984), French composer and organist * Martine Carol (1920–1967), French film actress * Sue Carol (1906–1982), American actress and talent agent, wife of actor ...

which is a definitive edition with hundreds of photographs of Scotland, maps, footnotes and scholarly commentary.

References

External links

''Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland, A. D. 1803''
published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, edited by J. Shairp, 1874 (first edition). From

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.
''Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland, A. D. 1803''
published by D. Douglas, 1894 (third edition). From

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. {{Gutenberg, no=28880, name=Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland 1874 books British travel books Books about Scotland 1803 in Scotland

References

Further reading

External links