Walter Courtenay Pepys travel journal

The journal of Englishman Walter Courtenay Pepys chronicles trips to Italy, France, Monaco, and Algeria in 1867. Entries describe travel conditions, landmarks visited, hotels, meals, and social engagements.

Pepys’s journal contains short, daily entries written in an embossed cloth-covered book entitled Agenda du Commerce de l’industrie et des Besoin journaliers 1867, a commercially published, French language notebook intended for the documentation of business transactions. Despite its original purpose, Pepys used the notebook as his personal journal.

At the top of the first page, Pepys wrote "Walter Courtenay Pepys / Paris – 31 December 1866." The majority of the entries chronicle two trips made by Pepys in 1867. The first is a tour of Italy. After spending the beginning of January in Paris, Pepys traveled through Hyéres, Nice, and Monaco. He then arrived in Italy and visited Genoa, La Spezia, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Mt. Vesuvius, Pompeii, Salerno, Castellammare di Stabia, Sorrento, Capri, Foligno, Assisia, Perugia, Florence, and Turin. Pepys wrote about sightseeing including museums, plays, operas, meals, hotels, weather, and the people he met. On May 6, Pepys left Italy to return to London through France.

During his time at home in England, Pepys’s entries were shorter and less frequent. He noted only occasional social engagements and short excursions such as a trip from May 22 to 25 to see the derby in Epsom, England.

On October 10, Pepys’s began a trip to Algiers via Paris, Lyon, and Arles, France. He arrived in Algiers on November 30 and spent the rest of the year traveling in Algeria. Other cities he visited include Phillippeville and Constantine. In addition to sightseeing, Pepys also went hunting or "shooting."

The "Notes" section at the back of the volume contains entries for the beginning of January 1868 describing additional travel in Algeria. There is a list of cities in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany headed "Proposed Trip for 1867." The names of months and days of the week are printed in French on the front endpaper. At the end of the book, there is a section listing the titles and names of various ministers in the French government (in 1867). The names of three senators are crossed out by hand and noted as "mort" or dead. Following this section is a list of the streets of Paris, featuring districts each street is located in as well as their starting and ending points.