Richard Twiss (1747–1821) was an English writer, known for books on travel and

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

Life

Born at

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

on 26 April 1747, he was the son of an English merchant living in Holland;

Francis Twiss Francis Twiss (bapt. 1759 – 1827) was an English drama critic, known as the compiler of a concordance to William Shakespeare. Life He was the son of Francis Twiss, a merchant from Norwich, and was baptised in Rotterdam on 5 April 1759; Richard ...

the writer was his younger brother. With an ample fortune, he travelled, and visited Scotland. He then journeyed through Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Bohemia till 1770, when he returned to England. In 1772 he went to Spain and Portugal, returning the following year. He was elected a fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1774; but left it in 1794. In 1775 he visited Ireland. Subsequently, Twiss concentrated on literature and the fine arts. A project to manufacture paper lost him money. He revisited France during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, and wrote on his experiences. Twiss died in

Somers Town, London Somers Town is an inner-city district in North West London. It has been strongly influenced by the three mainline north London railway termini: Euston (1838), St Pancras (1868) and King's Cross (1852), together with the Midland Railway Some ...

5 March 1821.

Works

Twiss wrote: *''Travels through Portugal and Spain in 1772 and 1773'', London, 1775; the volume contains a print of "Our Lady of the Fish", drawn by

Giovanni Battista Cipriani Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727 – 14 December 1785) was an Italian painter and engraver, who lived in England from 1755. He is also called Giuseppe Cipriani by some authors. Much of his work consisted of designs for prints, many of whic ...

and engraved by

Francesco Bartolozzi __NOTOC__ Francesco Bartolozzi (21 September 1727, in Florence – 7 March 1815, in Lisbon) was an Italian engraver, whose most productive period was spent in London. He is noted for popularizing the "crayon" method of engraving. Early life Ba ...

. It appeared the same year in Dublin, and French and German editions were issued the following year. *''Tour in Ireland in 1775'', London, 1776, several Irish editions. In the appendix he states he had taken 16 sea voyages and travelled altogether about 27,000 miles. The book was disliked in Ireland. It provoked William Preston to wax satirical in ''An Heroic Epistle'' by Donna Teresa Pinna y Ruiz of Murcia, supposedly known to Twiss, and ''An Heroic Answer from R. Twiss, esq., to Donna Teresa'', Dublin, 1776. "Twiss" became or was proposed as

rhyming slang Rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language. It is especially prevalent among Cockneys in England, and was first used in the early 19th century in the East End of London; hence its alternative name, Cockney rhymin ...

for "piss" or

chamber pot A chamber pot is a portable toilet, meant for nocturnal use in the bedroom. It was common in many cultures before the advent of indoor plumbing and flushing toilets. Names and etymology "Chamber" is an older term for bedroom. The chamber pot ...

. *''A Trip to Paris in July and August 1792'', London, 1793, also issued in two vols. in Dublin. *''Chess'', published anonymously, London, 1787–89, 2 vols. *''Miscellanies'', London, 1805, 2 vols.

Notes

External links

A Tour in Ireland in 1775
at the Ex-Classics website; can be read online or downloaded in text, pdf, or epub formats. ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Twiss, Richard 1747 births 1821 deaths English travel writers British chess writers Fellows of the Royal Society