EXCURSIONS TO LEAMINGTON and the Country Around and Thence to the ISLE OF WIGHT 1824:
The fully written up manuscript journal of Luke Thomas Flood (1775-1860), 19th July – 28th September, 1824, travelling with his wife and children including his son, also Luke (b.1809). Closely written on 54-pages, 8vo, contemporary limp sheep. Inscribed “L. T. Flood, Chelsea” on endpaper.
“Left Belle Vue Lodge, Chelsea, …” to Leamington, where he takes a house in Brunswick St. at 4 guineas a week, his “carriage & saddle horses with coachman” arriving the following morning. They visit Warwick, Kenilworth, Coventry, and Stratford-upon-Avon. At Leamington he goes to: “… the Theatre & saw Elliston as Vapid in the Dramatist – the House is remarkably small”. On the 1st Aug. he notes that: “these sulphurous waters had a great tendency to throw the Blood to my head by overcharging the system & not having been cupped for 13 months” he seeks the services of Mr. Chambers of the firm of Chambers & Jepson who relieved him of 16 oz of blood and a fee of 10/6: “Mr. Chambers admitted that it was not an uncommon case for the system to increase in blood under the operation of these waters”.
On the 4th August he: “Rode on horseback with Luke & Elizabeth through Warwick……in the evening went to the Theatre to see the Indian Juggler & the Blind Boy etc. – many good tricks exhibited – a stone weighing 5cwt was placed on his chest & broken with a sledge hammer – there was no deception in this…” and on the following day they “see Mr. Green ascend with a young female in a Balloon – it went off very finely & was rapidly carried among the clouds… …”
On the 17th August they depart for the Isle of Wight. He describes the route from Leamington through Banbury, Woodstock, an account of Blenheim Palace, Oxford, Abingdon, Speenhamland where they spend the night at the ‘Pelican’, to High Clerc, Whitchurch: “Where we had a most excellent breakfast consisting of a Fowl & six eggs” and thence to Southampton; “The last few miles before you enter this pleasant town is equal to any place I ever saw for variety of prospect – in richness & extensiveness & the last mile is peculiarly singular by passing under & through a range of lofty trees with a kind of little forest at the sides – in short the whole of the country on every side of this famous town is delightfully pleasant”.
They sail from Lymington: “a very clean pretty town” to Yarmouth and manage to; “get the carriage into the ship without altering any one thing belonging to it by running it on to the deck from the wharf”. Yarmouth he finds: “small & dull – the streets very narrow & the inhabitants poor – nothing whatever to recommend it”.
At Cowes he tries to find a house to rent: “but as this place was then in such a scene of bustle” he is unsuccessful, they do however witness the regatta; “carried out with great spirit & expense……seemed to be covered with beautiful gentlemen’s yachts – with all colours hoisted – and three boats sailing about with each a band of music … …most imposing indeed!”. On the 21st Aug. he takes a house in Ryde: “there was not another house to be had”.
The remaining 28-pages of the journal descriptive of their excursions in the Isle of Wight, various houses visited including that of Sir Willoughby Gordon: “the house is a slated cottage of an elegant description & every thing about the premises proclaims Taste & Beauty”. Four day trips are also made, fully described, to Portsmouth to inspect the Dockyards, the Royal George yacht, and the Victory: “whilst on board a salute of thirteen guns were fired……the unexpected & tremendous noise of which alarmed Luke & almost stunned us both”.
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Item
No. 8206
Price:
£400.00