Mrs. Daw's travel diaries, 1838. Volume 1 (Travel Diaries and Journals)

Mrs. Daw's travel diaries, 1838. Volume 1

UPenn Ms. Coll. 850 Volume 1

This two-volume diary traces the nine-month journey (April to December 1838) of Mr. and Mrs. W. Daw as they travel from London, England to Moscow, Russia, and their return trip home. Mrs. Daw writes almost daily about their experiences and observations, which are embellished with eighteen watercolor sketches. Mrs. Daw reports on other travelers, captains of vessels, and their travel companion, Mr. White. The couple travels by ship, steamboat, coach, horseback, and train, stopping at small villages and large cities. On the outbound trip from England to Russia, Mr. and Mrs. Daw travel chiefly by boat through Germany and via the Danube River to Galati, Romania. Mrs. Daw describes the landscapes and towns as seen from the Danube and at stops along the river. From Galati the couple travels to Constantinople, Turkey, and here Mrs. Daw records the dress of Muslims, the mosque, and her experience of watching the dancing dervishes from behind a latticed screen in the mosque; she includes a watercolor of the event. She also records Mr. W. Daw's encounter at a Turkish Bath. Mrs. Daw often interrupts her own narrative to record in quoted passages the observations of her husband; she signs his initials at the end of the entries. Leaving Turkey, the Daws arrive in Odessa, Russia (now Ukraine), where they are quarantined for fifteen days: Mrs. Daw writes about the indignity of the situation, including the fumigation rooms. After quarantine they travel to the Crimean peninsula and stay at Yalta and Alupka, where Mr. Daw and Mr. White go on a three-week journey of their own. Reuniting, the party travels by coach and horseback through the steppes of Russia; Mrs. Daw writes of the landscape and the fields of buckwheat and corn. Arriving in Moscow, they visit the czars' palaces and churches. From Moscow, with a coachman and Jewish guide, Mr. and Mrs. Daw travel through Lithuania. Here Mrs. Daw records the number of versts they have traveled, the desolate land, and the customs and dress of the Jewish families managing the inns along the route to Warsaw. They reach Poland, and Mrs. Daw observes that the country is "feeling the effects of the unfortunate revolution--a people broken rather than subdued." Leaving Warsaw, they visit Mr. White's sister-in-law in Radom, Poland and then continue on to Krakow, a free state at the time. They move on to Czechoslovakia and Austria, staying in Vienna, where, while sightseeing, Mrs. Daw writes that she is much disturbed by Rubens paintings. The Daws leave Vienna, travel through Salzburg onto Germany, where in Stuttgart they take leave of Mr. White. From Cologne, Germany the couple boards a steamship to Brussels, Belgium, where they stay almost a week. They then travel by train to Antwerp, staying for a few days, and continue on to Ostend, where they board a ship to London. Through keen observations and watercolors Mrs. Daw captures many aspects of this lengthy Eastern European journey, including local people, their costumes, customs, religious beliefs, and social attitudes. She describes the landscapes, vistas, hotels, palaces, homes, and buildings. Curiously, Mrs. Daw does not provide the reason for the journey, nor does she reveal the first name of herself or her husband.

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p. 31

May 7th

We took up our quarters at the [[Stadt London]], according to the recommendation of our road book, it is in one of the nar= row streets of what is properly speaking the city, within the walls, this is still the fashionable part of the town, in distinction from the numerous newer, & more airy suburbs by which it is surrounded; the streets are very narrow, & crowded, & being without trattoirs are very unpleasant for foot passengers, the houses are very high, & being crowded so closely to= gether in a carriage one sees very little.

We saw so little of [[Vienna]] however at this time, that I shall leave farther mention of it till our return some months afterward — On the

9th We left for it in a steam boat which arrived at [[Pesth]] that same evening_ The boat was rather crowded, but this gave us some specimen of Hungarian man= ners as they formed a large proportion of our party _ They seemed very generally to know English, & we had a little conversation with some of them

Last edit almost 4 years ago by Kareobl

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p. 32

There were people of high rank among them, though one would not have found it out in seeing them sitting smoking their pipes, unless it were by a certain superciliousness of manner, & by finding that they were to have a table on deck apart for themselves — I was amused by one of them, allowing his nationality to get the better of his dignity, he was the most polished of the groupe, & we had noticed him sitting reading an English book, ( [[Walter Scott]]'s life I think.) As we approached [[Vissegrad]] the former residence of the [[Hungarian Kings]], I was making preparations to draw it, which interested him so much that he condescended to volun= teer making acquaintance with us, got my sketch book to look over, & put me right as to ^the names of any of the places I had drawn within his native land; for it seemed as if any thing connected with it were a chord which to touch was irresistable. There was also a Brother of [[Prince Esterhazy]]'s on board

Last edit almost 4 years ago by Kareobl

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p. 33

a good humoured talking smoking per= son, who herded at least at meals with us more common place people —

Smoking here became more intolerable than we had yet found it, though I would have thought little of it some months after — & spitting, of which latter a= bomination the fair sex were not guiltless _

The country we passed through was flat & uninteresting _ We passed [[Presburg]] which is a small town, with little that is consequential about it, though it is still the place where the Emperor is crowned King of Hungary.

[[Pesth]] is quite a new looking town, with rather handsome houses, but has been dreadfully damaged by an inun= dation of the [[Danube]] which took place in spring, about 1800 people perished, & the appearance of the place is not yet restored, it has quite a waste look _ I had heard much of the delightful climate of [[Pesth]], but I thought it a most disagreable place every way; it was the commencement to us of that

Last edit almost 4 years ago by Kareobl

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p. 34

region of dust & mud which we found extending to [[Odessa]] ^& from [[Odessa]] to [[Petersburg]] _ The dust was such when we arrived, as I had then scarcely ever seen, for I had not ^yet seen [[Odessa]] _ The air was raw & cold, which proved a prelude to rain _ The Sun was comfortless, one felt that they were gradually bidding adieu to the comforts of civilised life _ The peasantry rude & barbarous in the extreme, dressed in sheepskins, little ^elevated above the beasts they drive, not forming a natural & useful gradation, not the lower link, of a society that is all linked together, but seemingly se= parated by an immense chasm from those above them, across which scarcely any feelings of sympathy or kindness can be interchanged _ A different race one might conjecture them to be. Altogether we had here made a great step towards [[Russia]], not only in distance, but by having come where the face of all things be= gins to change _

Last edit almost 4 years ago by Kareobl

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p. 35

[[Buda]] or [[Ofen]] lies just on the other side of the river from [[Pesth]], & is connected with it by a bridge of boats, it lies on higher ground, & is a more ancient & more interesting looking place [than [[Pesth]] ], but owing to wet weather we saw little of it; beyond a hasty visit which we paid to one of the Turkish warm sulphureous baths I left Mr [Mister] D— to explore alone the interior of the publich bath, where he found a crowd of labourers performing their ablutions _

After spending one day at [[Pesth]] of little enjoyment, & having few plea= sant recollections, we set out again

On Friday 11th in a steam boat most uncomfortably crowded, we slept on board the first night at a small place called [[Mohacs]] _ The scene in the cabin at night baffled all description, I under= stand that there was a ladies' cabin in the vessel which was full to overflowing & the interior of which I never saw _ besides what it might contain, there was a party of ladies, & I suppose a dozen of gentlemen in the general cabin & the scramble may be supposed, when

Last edit almost 4 years ago by Kareobl

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