sample pages from Women's Travel Writings in Iberia

7/29/2019 sample pages from Women's Travel Writings in Iberia

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SARAH ELLIS

Sarah Ellis, ne Stickney, (17991872) was amous not or being a travel writer,

but or being a writer o emale conduct books, her most well-known beingTe Wives of England(1843), Te Women of England: Teir Social Duties and

Domestic Habits (1839), Te Mothers of England(1843) and Te Daughters ofEngland(1842), as mentioned in the general introduction to this series. Borninto a amily belonging to the Society o Friends, in 1837 she joined the Con-gregational church beore marrying Rev. William Ellis, whose ill health was thecause o their journey to the Pyrenees rom December 1839 until November1840, during which time they settled in Pau.

All the reviews o this travel book are anonymous and, save the rst reviewmentioned below, are lacking a title, headed merely with the publication detailso the work. Te edition oSummer and Winter in the Pyrenees presented here

is the rst edition o 1841, published by Fisher, Son and Co. Although it doesnot contain the year o publication, the act that it was reviewed in the LiteraryGazette and Journal of the Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, for the Year 18411 leaves nodoubt that it had been published just beore this date. Tis review states that MrsElliss work is a pleasant guide to the baths, showing that perhaps its anonymousauthor had not read the work in its entirety. Indeed, this reviews main asset is togive a clue as to the works date o publication, as apart rom the above-mentionedcomment, all it does is reproduce a ew passages rom the book.

Te books moralistic and religious tone was discussed in several texts. In theChurchmans Monthly Review,2 which was published in January 1842, the readeris assured that Mrs Ellis has produced a very lively, agreeable and interesting

work3 whose chie recommendation is the high tone o moral and religious

eeling, by which it is pervaded.4 Te reviewer commends the author or theact that her evangelical observations rise naturally rom the scenery or objects

which she is contemplating, and come, thereore, with double efect.5 In linewith this comment, a short mention o Mrs Elliss book in Home MissionaryMagazine also credits the work or being the production o a christian writer,and thereore perectly sae in the hands o juvenile readers, whose standardso morality, might not be raised by every exhibition o oreign habits and man-


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2 Womens ravel Writings in Iberia, Volume 5

ners.6 Also, in the Literary Register oaitss Edinburgh Magazine, where largepassages o the book are reproduced, the reviewer makes the ollowing commentabout Mrs Ellis:

I any shall condemn her or English prudery and narrow views, in the threateneddanger to morals and religion, which she predicts, rom intercourse with our con-tinental neighbours, and rom breaking up o our domestic habits, they may beconsoled by learning that her work urnishes the antidote, in showing that travel maybe a healthul and improving exercise or both body and mind. 7

Te reviewer inEclectic Review states that Mrs Ellis is Free rom the absurd preju-dices o many English tourists, yet deeply sensible o the paramount importance o

religious truth8 and concludes by recommending the work as a sae guide.Another interesting review, published in the Monthly Review, is perhaps

slightly more critical than the ones mentioned above, although the reader isassured that the work requires, and admits o, very little criticism. 9 Despite

placing Mrs Ellis on a par with Countess Blessington, whose workTe Idler inFrance10 is also reviewed in the same volume o theMonthly Review by the sameanonymous reviewer,11 and calling them two accomplished women speakingat the same time,12 the reader is told that Mrs Ellis had less knowledge o ourGallic neighbours, and thereore deals more with appearances than essentials, with external signs than principles.13 Te reviewer admits that the books con-tent about Protestants in Pau and other places will interest some readers.14 Herbook is likened to a guide-book and descriptions which the reviewer decides arelively or distinct15 are reproduced.

It is necessary to make an observation that is pertinent to the content o MrsElliss travel book. Like other writers o the age, she borrows reely rom othersources without quoting them. Such examples are to be ound in the editorialnotes whenever they have been located. One such example o this borrowing cor-responds to DugennesPanorama historique et descriptif de Pau et de ses environs,

which Mrs Ellis merely justies as related by a French writer (p. 72). Anotherinstance is the inormation she gives on good authority, which the anonymousreviewer in theMonthly Review reers to sarcastically, attributing her commentson the expenditure o the English in France to mere guesswork.16 My own opinionis that she was copying this inormation rom some unidentied source.

Te second edition oSummer and Winter in the Pyrenees was published in1847 as part o the Fisher, Son and Co. Englishwomens Family Library series.It is identical to the rst in its pages and page numbers, and like the rst editionthe date o publication is not shown. It only difers rom the rst edition in theexpression Second Edition on its title page aer the quote by Inglis.


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Sarah Ellis 3

Notes1. Literary Gazette and Journal of the Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, for the Year 1841, 1274

(19 June 1841), p. 388.2. Churchmans Monthly Review ( January 1842), pp. 4748.3. Ibid., p. 474.4. Ibid., p. 477.5. Ibid., p. 476.6. Home Missionary Magazine (1841), pp. 2601.7. aitss Edinburgh Magazine (1841), pp. 5347, on p. 537.8. Eclectic Review (1841), pp. 2356, on p. 36.9. Monthly Review (1841), pp. 43040, on p. 430.10. M. Gardiner, Countess o Blessington, Te Idler in France (London: Henry Colburn,

1841).11. Elliss review states that In reviewing the Idler in France, we saw that (MonthlyReview, p. 430).

12. Monthly Review, p. 430.13. Ibid.14. Ibid., p. 434.15. Ibid., p. 436.16. Ibid., p. 438.


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sample pages from Women's Travel Writings in Iberia

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