Miss Jennings Abroadby Major FRANCIS JONES, C.V.O., T.D., F.S.A., | ||||||||
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| In this contribution we shall savour the journal of a young lady enjoying a Grand Tour in the high noon of the Victorian age. We shall follow her into foreign lands and be instructed or reminded of scenes and customs of bygone as well as contemporary times. Nearly four centuries ago the learned Francis Bacon observed "Travel in the younger sort is a part of education, in the elder a part of experience". A discerning person will always acquire knowledge when travelling, especially in foreign fields where novelty serves to strengthen the impact made upon the observer's mind. Under these circumstances such ploy becomes education without effort, certainly without tears. In the Gulistan we are told by Sadi, "Of journeying the benefits are many; the freshness it bringeth to the heart, the seeing and hearing of marvellous things, the delight of beholding new cities, the meeting of unknown friends, the learning of high manners". These and many others are the bonuses that come the way of the sojourner in far-off lands. | ||||||||
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The diarist whose observations now come under discussion was a talented young lady, Miss Agnes Hermione Jennings of Gellideg near Kidwelly. In volumes XI and XII (TODO - link to 12) of The Carrmrthenshire Historian I published selections from her journals describing activities in West Wales and London during the period 1865-1871. In the introduction to that contribution I mentioned that some time in 1868 she had gone on a tour to the Continent and returned to England in the summer of the following year. I had no knowledge then of any journal she might have kept concerning her overseas tour, but subsequently I was delighted to learn from the tourist's grand-daughter, Mrs Jewson of Guppy Bush near St. Florence, Pembrokeshire, that two such journals had survived, and, with commendable public spirit, she kindly loaned them to me so that historians and antiquaries could benefit from a perusal of them. I wish to express my gratitude to Mrs Jewson for making these volumes available. | |||||||
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The diarist whose observations now come under discussion was a talented young lady, Miss Agnes Hermione Jennings of Gellideg near Kidwelly. In volumes XI and XII of The Carrmrthenshire Historian I published selections from her journals describing activities in West Wales and London during the period 1865-1871. In the introduction to that contribution I mentioned that some time in 1868 she had gone on a tour to the Continent and returned to England in the summer of the following year. I had no knowledge then of any journal she might have kept concerning her overseas tour, but subsequently I was delighted to learn from the tourist's grand-daughter, Mrs Jewson of Guppy Bush near St. Florence, Pembrokeshire, that two such journals had survived, and, with commendable public spirit, she kindly loaned them to me so that historians and antiquaries could benefit from a perusal of them. I wish to express my gratitude to Mrs Jewson for making these volumes available. | |||||||
| Details of the ancestry and biography of Miss Agnes Hermione Jennings (known as "Hermie" to her family and friends) were presented in some detail in volume XI of the Historian which renders unnecessary any repetition here. Suffice to remind readers that she was the daughter of a Carmarthenshire landowner, Richard Jennings of Gellideg by his wife Agnes Catherine Annabella Hamilton; born on 7 May 1848, she married in 1874 Captain H. F. C. Barclay by whom she had six children, and died on 29 May 1925. | ||||||||