British travellers in early nineteenth-century registers and guest books

Abstract

ABSTRACT The experience of travellers has usually been explored through their own journals, diaries and letters. Here, focusing on British travellers on the Continent in the early nineteenth century, a different approach is adopted: using registers, and other similar sources, in which individuals are named, allows us to list large numbers of travellers at various points of their journey. The resulting data enables us to build up an objective picture of the whole travelling cohort, to estimate overall numbers generally, and to assess the relative popularity of particular destinations. Combining details about individuals may enable us to get beyond a name to an identification, and perceive patterns in individual itineraries. Knowing the location of named travellers on a particular day may reveal the identities of their travelling companions, enable a name to be attributed to an anonymous travel journal, and confirm or refute biographical information derived from other sources.