Journal of a voyage to investigate manufacturing in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland

This journal was kept by an unknown American travelling in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland in 1811-1812. The author provided detailed accounts of British and Irish infrastructure and manufacturing efforts, as well descriptions of local landmarks, scenery, and customs.

While keeping this journal, the writer traveled extensively around Great Britain and Ireland. He embarked aboard the American ship Susquehanna from New Castle, Delaware in late June and arrived in Liverpool on July 19, 1811. After a brief trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, and a stay in Liverpool, the writer arrived in London on August 9. Following a break in his journal, he traveled North in early September, visiting the coal pits of Newcastle before arriving in Scotland. With Jonah Thompson, the author made a trip throughout the Scottish Highlands that lasted until mid-October. Heading south again, the author and his traveling companion visited the manufactories of Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, and Birmingham, before returning to London on November 29, 1811.

The author resumed his journal in Volume 2 on November 30, describing his time in London and a trip to Bath. A gap between December 26, 1811, and April 20, 1812, follows. The author then met with his friend E. Thomas in Birmingham before setting out on a tour of Wales and Ireland in April and May of 1812. Following another gap in the journal, the author traveled for Plymouth in late June. In his final entry on July 8, 1812, he began his journey to Penzance.

Although the author observed that this was his first trip abroad, he carried letters of introduction to merchants and manufacturers in several large cities, including Liverpool, London, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, and Birmingham, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Dublin, Ireland. He took particular interest in visiting manufactories, aqueducts, docks, and other sites of British industry and innovation. While in Newcastle, he and Thompson descended into the coal pits “equipped in the habiliments of the Colliers.” The writer described extensively processes of cloth dyeing, roller printing, minting, and silver plating, occasionally adding small sketches to his descriptions. While visiting a pin manufactory in Birmingham, the author observed that “excepting in pointing [the pins] the whole manufactory may be carried on by children even of the Smallest Size.”

In addition to manufacture and infrastructure, the writer provided detailed descriptions of the castles, cathedrals, and public buildings he visited as well as landscapes he found particularly romantic or picturesque. On his journeys, he visited Warwick Castle and Blenheim Palace, climbed Ben Nevis, and even took a sailing boat on the River Shannon. He occasionally commented on the habits and appearance of local people. He noted that the Scottish Highlanders ate poorly and lived in dirty sod-roofed houses, “yet even in all this filth and wretchedness you find they have good educations.” While in Wales, he “made several attempts to converse with the Peasantry but could not succeed with an interpreter as not one in a thousand understand a word of English.” He was particularly horrified by the beggars of County Kildare, Ireland, whose “frequent appeals to the Deity” shocked him and almost induced him “to stop up my Ears for they accompany every demand and declaration.”

Both volumes are bound in light-colored vellum with laid paper pastedowns. They contain faintly-lined, laid paper leaves with handwritten text in black ink. Volume 1 contains 140 leaves of paper, of which 12 are blank. Volume 2 contains 141 leaves of which 126 are blank. The leaves of Volume 1 bear the watermarks “J. JELLYMAN” and “1810.” The leaves of Volume 2 bear a watermark of Britannia, depicted as a woman sitting in a cartouche with a spear and shield.