Enlightenment Travel and British Identities: Thomas Pennant's Tours of Scotland and Wales
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Enlightenment Travel and British Identities: Thomas Pennant's Tours of Scotland and Wales
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781783086559 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Anthem Press |
| Publication date: | 04/15/2017 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 286 |
| File size: | 7 MB |
About the Author
Mary-Ann Constantine is Reader at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. The author of The Truth against the World: Iolo Morganwg and Romantic Forgery (2007), Constantine has written widely on the Romantic period in Wales and Brittany.
Nigel Leask is Regius Chair in English Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow as well as a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is the author of Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late Eighteenth-Century Scotland (2010), which won the Saltire Prize for best research monograph in 2010.
Read an Excerpt
Enlightenment Travel and British Identities
Thomas Pennant's Tours in Scotland and Wales
By Mary-Ann Constantine, Nigel Leask
Wimbledon Publishing Company
Copyright © 2017 Mary-Ann Constantine and Nigel Leask editorial matter and selection; individual chapters (c) individual contributorsAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78308-655-9
CHAPTER 1
'A round jump from ornithology to antiquity': The development of Thomas Pennant's Tours
R. Paul Evans
In November 1780 the literary wit Horace Walpole critically observed to the Revd William Cole:
He [Pennant] is not one of our plodders: rather the other extreme: his 'corporal' spirits (for I cannot call them 'animal') do not allow him time to digest anything. He gave a round jump from ornithology to antiquity – and as if they had any relation, thought he understood everything that lay between them.
Walpole was commenting upon Pennant's propensity to travel and write at speed: in his opinion, the succession of topographical works which Pennant produced from the early 1770s onwards were superficial, too hastily flung together, and consequently lacking in scholarly depth. They included his two tours of Scotland, published 1771 and between 1774 and 1776, and his Tour in Wales which appeared in two volumes between 1778 and 1783. Walpole's charge that Pennant seldom had time 'to digest anything' will be addressed during the course of this chapter, but what is important to note here is the fact that his contemporaries had detected a distinct change in Pennant's literary output during the 1770s. Prior to this date he had only published works on natural history, his magnum opus being his British Zoology which appeared in stages under the auspices of the London-based Cymmrodorion Society between 1761 and 1766. This work gained Pennant critical acclaim and established his reputation as a leading scholar in the field of natural history, especially in ornithology and zoology. It was followed in 1769 with an Indian Zoology and in 1771 with the Synopsis of Quadrupeds. What contemporaries like Walpole identified, then, was a move away from the production of natural history publications which had so dominated his academic studies during the 1750s and 1760s, towards a series of topographical works which described tours through previously little explored regions of the British Isles such as the Scottish Highlands and the mountains of north Wales. The principal aim of this chapter is to determine at what stage, if at all, it is possible to detect a change of emphasis in Pennant's writing, and if so how and why such a change might have taken place.
The Genesis of Pennant's Interest in Natural History: A Passion for Minerals and Fossils
It seems quite plausible that Pennant's interest in topographical exploration first developed as a consequence of his passion for natural history, the origins of which lie in his fossil-hunting expeditions during the 1750s. Many of these expeditions had a specific scientific purpose in mind, from the search for mineral and fossil specimens to augment his growing collections, to the observation of animals in their native environment and the gathering of field evidence for his ornithological and zoological writings, to viewing a 'cabinet of curiosities' belonging to a correspondent, or sharing mutual interests with other fellow naturalists. Whatever the specific reason, and often it was a combination of factors, natural history field-expeditions dominated Pennant's activities throughout the 1750s, 1760s and early 1770s.
In 1746 or 1747, whilst an undergraduate at the Queen's College, Oxford, he undertook a geological excursion into Cornwall where he met the Revd Dr William Borlase, the man who he later claimed had first instilled in him 'a strong passion for minerals and fossils'. During 1747 he explored the Isle of Wight, searching for fossils in the soft chalk cliffs. In 1750 he visited the Isle of Sheppey, rambles which he later commented were undertaken 'in order to collect the various extraneous fossils with which the cliffs on the north side abound'. In 1752 he travelled to the spa town of Buxton, stopping en route to explore the brine pits and salt mines at Northwich in Cheshire, during which he
descended thro' a dome, and found the roof supported by pillars, about two yards thick and several in height; the whole was illuminated with numbers of candles, and made a most magnificent and glittering appearance.
During the summer of 1754 he made a 15-week tour of Ireland, the primary reason for the expedition being to collect geological specimens. While waiting to cross to Dublin from Holyhead he had a chance meeting with William Morris, a customs official at the port who was the youngest of the three Morris brothers of Anglesey, two of whom, Lewis and Richard, had been responsible for founding the Cymmrodorion Society in London in 1750. The meeting proved advantageous to Pennant on several fronts. William was a keen naturalist, while Richard would later use his position as a clerk in the Naval Office in London to establish for Pennant a lucrative correspondence involving the exchange of specimens with naturalists across the Mediterranean.
During his Irish tour Pennant kept a daily journal and his brief comments allude to places and sites visited as well as people he met. It was not the informed journal of an author who intended publication, but rather a practical working document which concentrated upon geological interests such as visits to mines and quarries and the provenance of particular specimens. The outline itinerary does, however, occasionally provide specific details. In Dublin, for instance, he spent several days in the company of the Revd Richard Barton of Lurgan with whom he had previously exchanged fossils. Travelling anti-clockwise around the country he continued north, and after Ballycastle visited the Giant's Causeway which, he commented, 'was not so great as I imagined'. (He did still feel it necessary, however, to have a basalt column sent back to his home at Downing.) At Muckross in Co. Kerry he visited the copper mines, and his mineral collection of over 800 specimens (now in the Natural History Museum) contains these and others collected during the Irish expedition. Shortly after Pennant's return to Downing in early October William Morris wrote very excitedly to his brother Richard in London to tell him that he had just received from his Flintshire correspondent:
flychaid o bethau gwerthfawr anial [a box of extremely valuable things], viz., fossil shells, plants, animals, mines minerals etc. Wala, ni bu erioed wr mwynach ar wyneb y ddaearen hon rwyn llwyr gredu [Well, there never was a nicer man on the face of the earth I fully believe]. There are twenty-six parcels of these curiosities.
When evaluated together, Pennant's journal and his varied correspondence point to a strong geological focus during his expedition across Ireland, and this passion for collecting minerals and fossils reached a peak during the mid-1750s. During June 1755 he explored the Forest of Dean and the banks of the river Severn in search of specimens, and in August of that same year he traversed Snowdonia in the company of William Morris.
Such rambles continued almost unabated until the late 1750s but as the decade drew to a close two factors contributed towards a decline in the extent and scope of his geologizing. In 1759 he married Elizabeth Falconer and the domestic and social responsibilities which this now entailed limited his wanderings. But Pennant's own interests were also now shifting from geology towards ornithology and, to a lesser extent, zoology. By 1762 Pennant could inform the mineralogist Emanuel Mendes Da Costa that he felt he had now 'exhausted' the fossil and mineral kingdom and was now turning his attention to a new branch of natural history; he had set himself the task of compiling a 'British Zoology', the first part of which was to be a catalogue of native birds. However, the writing of such a work required more extensive research and active fieldwork than he had previously undertaken.
The Birth of a Naturalist: A Shift of Interest from Geology to Ornithology and Zoology
Two bereavements, his father in 1763 and his wife in 1764, caused Pennant to slide into a period of melancholy and depression, and it was partly in an attempt to lift his spirits that he planned a Grand Tour of the near Continent. It was a Grand Tour with a difference: not a typical European tour concentrating upon the Classics and the arts, but the itinerary of a working naturalist keen to gather subscribers for his partly written British Zoology and to further his research by networking with his peers, viewing their collections and agreeing to the exchange of specimens. Lasting six months, Pennant's continental journey took him through France, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. Much of his time was spent in the company of fellow naturalists: in Paris, for instance, he discussed research interests and viewed the collections of Mathurin-Jacques Brisson, Henri-Louis Duhamel and Georges Louis Leclerc, the Comte de Buffon. A large part of the journey through Switzerland was made in the company of Rodolph Valltravers from whom Pennant received 'a present of several valuable fossils'. At Berne he struck up a profitable friendship with the ornithologist Daniel Sprungli and the anatomist and botanist Albrecht von Haller. Through such associations Pennant was able to establish a web of correspondents with whom he kept in contact over the following decades. Two friendships established in Germany proved to be particularly profitable. At Leiden he met the Dutch naturalist Laurens Theodorus Gronovius, noting in his journal that he found his cabinet to be 'rich in fish and serpents'. Even more significant was the friendship established with a young German naturalist, Peter Simon Pallas, during a visit to The Hague towards the end of the tour. The chance meeting of these two like-minded individuals resulted in Pennant's second publication on natural history, his Synopsis of Quadrupeds (1771).
Friendship with Joseph Banks and Peter Simon Pallas
In 1767 Pallas took up a position with the Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg and between 1768 and 1774 he led scientific expeditions to explore the vast expanse of Siberia. Pennant was anxious to be kept informed of Pallas's travels, requesting information relating to the discovery and recording of fauna of these little-traversed regions. It was during this same period that another of Pennant's new acquaintances, Joseph Banks, began his numerous journeys of exploration and discovery.
Pennant had first become acquainted with Banks in March 1766,possibly through the influence of a mutual friend, John Lloyd, 'the philosopher' of the Hafodunnos and Wigfair estates near St Asaph. Only a month after their initial meeting Banks embarked upon a 10-month expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Pennant was deeply fascinated by these explorations and prior to Banks's departure for the northern seas he supplied him with a notebook full of natural history questions which he hoped his new friend would answer. Hearing of Banks's safe return early the following year Pennant wrote in haste that he was 'impatient to survey the treasures you bring home; & rejoice that ornithology is to receive such improvements from yr labors'. In November 1767 Banks visited Downing and stayed with Pennant for 12 days during which time the two naturalists explored the neighbouring countryside and viewed the latter's natural history collections. Pennant returned the visit the year after, travelling to Lincolnshire to spend time at Banks's home at Revesby Abbey.
There followed a three-year gap in their correspondence owing to the fact that in August 1768 Banks, with the naturalist Dr Daniel Solander, set sail with Captain Cook on the Endeavour on a voyage of exploration to the South Pacific which would make a significant contribution to the study of natural history. It was not until July 1771 that Pennant heard that Banks had survived the journey and made his way with great haste to London to view the flora and fauna specimens collected in the Southern Hemisphere by his naturalist friends. It was more than likely that these momentous expeditions by his colleagues Pallas, Banks and Solander inspired Pennant to undertake his own journey of discovery, if on a less dramatic scale. In June 1769 he decided to venture north into Scotland.
The Urge to Explore and Discover the Fauna of Scotland
For much of the eighteenth century Scotland was viewed by its southern neighbours as a wild, inhospitable region. The 1715 and 1745 Jacobite Rebellions had resulted in a policy of severe repression and this together with its geographical isolation provided little inducement for English travellers to venture north; as Dr Johnson remarked, to Englishmen the area north of the Tweed was as 'equally unknown with that of Borneo or Sumatra'. One of the few who did explore was Daniel Defoe, who toured Britain between 1724 and 1726. His experiences and hardships forced him to conclude that the Highlands was 'a frightful country, full of hideous desert mountains and unpassable except to the Highlanders'. Anti-Scottish prejudices were strong and, with the exception of Martin Martin in 1703, few travellers before Pennant spoke well of Scotland. Richard Pococke, the bishop of Ossory, made three tours of the Highlands in the years 1747, 1750 and 1760, and though his work was not published in his lifetime he was a correspondent of Pennant's and the latter may well have had a copy of Pococke's manuscripts when writing up his own Tour.
Scotland was thus ripe for exploration, and in 1769 Pennant undertook what was considered by many of his friends to be a dangerous and somewhat foolhardy expedition to the Scottish Highlands. This journey would enable Pennant to fill the gaps in his knowledge of the natural history of Scotland, about which very little had been written. In his British Zoology Pennant had relied heavily upon the works of Martin and, to a lesser extent, the publications of Sir Robert Sibbald. But he was a firm believer in field observation and, besides being always hopeful of discovering a 'non-descript', wished to study birds and animals in their natural habitat. There can be little doubt that the 1769 tour was made principally for the purposes of fulfilling his study of natural history, a desire clearly identified in the preface:
I cannot help making this application to myself, who, after publishing three volumes of the Zoology of GREAT BRITAIN, found out that to be able to speak with more precision of the subjects I treated of, it was far more prudent to visit the whole than part of my country: Struck therefore with the reflection of having never seen SCOTLAND, I instantly ordered my baggage to be got ready, and in a reasonable time found myself on the banks of the Tweed.
As the Revd Gilbert White of Selborne commented to Pennant after his safe return home to Downing:
You must have made, no doubt, many discoveries, and laid up a good fund of materials for a future edition of the British Zoology: and will have no reason to repent that you bestowed so much pains on a part of Great Britain that perhaps was never so well examined before.
That Pennant achieved so much in his 1769 expedition is all the more remarkable given that it was such a hastily arranged venture. In many respects this was in complete contrast to his second tour of Scotland in 1772, which was carefully planned and for a specific reason – to gather a wealth of information for a publishable travelogue.
The Expedition of 1769 – the 'Tour of a Naturalist'
Pennant left Chester on 26 June 1769, just a few days after his 43rd birthday. He proceeded east across country, travelling via Northwich, Macclesfield, Buxton, and Chesterfield to Lincoln and the heart of the Fen country. He spent several days in the Fens engaged in ornithological observation, noting in his journal that 'the birds which inhabit the different Fens are very numerous: I never met with a finer field for the Zoologist to range in'. Proceeding north along the east coast he hired a small boat to transport him to Flamborough Head where he observed nesting sea birds up close:
The cliffs are of a tremendous height, and amazing grandeur [...] the color of these rocks is white, from the dung of the innumerable flocks of migratory birds which quite cover the face of them, filling every little projection, every hole that will give them leave to rest; multitudes were swimming about, others swarmed in the air, and almost stunned us with the variety of their croaks and screams; I observed among them cormorants, shags in small flocks, guillemots, a few black guillemots, very shy and wild, auks, puffins, kittiwakes, and herring gulls.
The following week he took to the sea again to view the Farne Isles:
Visited those islands in a coble, a safe but seemingly hazardous species of boat, long, narrow, and flat-bottomed, which is capable of going thro' a high sea, dancing like a cork on the summits of the waves. [...] Landed at a small island, where we found the female Eider ducks at that time sitting [...] The Ducks sit very close, nor will they rise till you almost tread on them [...] We robbed a few of their nests of the down, and after carefully separating it from the tang, found that the down of one nest weighed only three quarters of an ounce, but was so elastic as to fill the crown of the largest hat.
(Continues...)
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Table of Contents
List of Figures; List of Contributors; Preface; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; Introduction: Thomas Pennant, Curious Traveller, Mary- Ann Constantine and Nigel Leask; Chapter 1. ‘A Round Jump from Ornithology to Antiquity’: The Development of Thomas Pennant’s Tours, R. Paul Evans; Part I. History, Antiquities, Literature; Chapter 2. Thomas Pennant: Some Working Practices of an Archaeological Travel Writer in Late Eighteenth- Century Britain, C. Stephen Briggs; Chapter 3. Heart of Darkness: Thomas Pennant and Roman Britain, Mary- Ann Constantine; Chapter 4. Constructing Identities in the Eighteenth Century: Thomas Pennant and the Early Medieval Sculpture of Scotland and England, Jane Hawkes; Chapter 5. Shaping a Heroic Life: Thomas Pennant on Owen Glyndwr, Dafydd Johnston; Chapter 6. ‘The First Antiquary of His Country’: Robert Riddell’s Extra- Illustrated and Annotated Volumes of Thomas Pennant’s Tours in Scotland, Ailsa Hutton and Nigel Leask; Chapter 7. ‘A Galaxy of the Blended Lights’: The Reception of Thomas Pennant, Elizabeth Edwards; Part II. Natural History and the Arts; Chapter 8. ‘As If Created by Fusion of Matter after Some Intense Heat’: Pioneering Geological Observations in Thomas Pennant’s Tours of Scotland, Tom Furniss; Chapter 9. Geological Landscape as Antiquarian Ruin: Banks, Pennant and the Isle of Staffa, Allison Ksiazkiewicz; Chapter 10. Pennant, Hunter, Stubbs and the Pursuit of Nature, Helen McCormack; Chapter 11. Pennant’s Legacy: The Popularization of Natural History in Nineteenth- Century Wales through Botanical Touring and Observation; Caroline R. Kerkham; Short Bibliography of Thomas Pennant’s Tours in Scotland and Wales; Index.What People are Saying About This
‘Enlightenment Travel and British Identities shows why Thomas Pennant was more than a “curious traveller”, revealing his literary, scientific and antiquarian concerns. Enriching our understanding of Pennant’s Scottish and Welsh tours and how travel made truth, these engaging essays illuminate the making of historical identities in an age of intellectual reform.’ —Charles W. J. Withers, Ogilvie Chair of Geography, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, UK
‘This important and thought-provoking volume persuasively argues the case for a multidisciplinary approach to Pennant. Together the essays offer a fresh and subtly nuanced reading of the writings of this influential traveller and his significant contribution to home tour narratives of regional and national identity in the late eighteenth century.’ —Zoe Kinsley, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Department of English, Liverpool Hope University, UK
‘Weaving together science, history, antiquarianism and art, this stimulating collection of essays amply demonstrates Thomas Pennant’s centrality to a broad range of British Enlightenment debates and discourses, especially those relating to Britain’s so-called “Celtic Fringe”. At the same time, it underscores the epistemological importance of travel and travel writing in the late eighteenth century.’ —Carl Thompson, Senior Lecturer in English, St Mary’s University, UK
‘No one did more to map the British cultural imaginary of Scotland and Wales than Thomas Pennant, and this landmark collection details the magnitude of his wide-ranging achievement. Enlightenment Travel will be indispensable for anyone interested in Pennant or the rise of domestic tourism as shaping forces of cultural historiography, scientific enquiry and national identity.’ —Benjamin Colbert, Reader in English Literature, Faculty of Arts, University of Wolverhampton, UK