Gloucester Lady (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. This is a very well written and very interesting travel diary by an unnamed young lady from a wealthy Gloucester Family recounting a trip by ship from Tilbury Docks through the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean, with time spent at Malta touring around the sights, then onto Sicily and Italy. The young lady who wrote the account was travelling with her father, unfortunately she does not give her name, but they seem to be from a well to do family as they have wealthy friends abroad that they call in on during the trip. They depart from Tilbury "Royal Albert Docks" on January 9th 1909 on the P&O Line Ship SS Simla. They have a rough time sailing through heavy swells in The Bay of Biscay with most of the passengers suffering from seasickness which is recounted in detail. Passing The Rock of Gibraltar they sail to Malta, with a detailed account of visiting several places on the island, after their stay in Malta the move on to Sicily. While on Sicily they visit Messina on 21st January and the sight of the devastating earthquake that happened a few weeks before on 28th December. She gives a detailed account of the ruins and the devastation stating it was a fearful sight with whole streets being utterly swept away from the resulting Tsunami that followed the earthquake. She goes on to mainland Italy visiting Rome, Pompei, climbing up to the crater of Vesuvius, Naples, Venice, etc giving detailed accounts of each place. She also gets to meet the Pope, an event that she was very nervous about. The whole of the account is hand typed and runs to 123 numbered pages, bound in green cloth with red cloth spine, Apart from light marking to the cloth, the book is in very good condition. A VERY WELL WRITTEN AND DETAILED ACCOUNT, WITH SOME FURTHER RESEARCHAND FOLLOWING CLUES IN THE BOOK IT MIGHT BE POSSIBLE TO IDENTIFY THE AUTHOR.