William Gilpin at the Coast: A New Perspective on Picturesque Travel Writing

Abstract

This article offers a new perspective on William Gilpin’s picturesque travel writing by focusing on the coastal descriptions in two relatively neglected works: Observations on the Western Parts of England, first published in 1798, and Observations on the Coasts of Hampshire, Sussex, and Kent, published posthumously in 1804. Both tour accounts provide evidence of Gilpin’s keen maritime interests and demonstrate that the concerns of his parish in Boldre in the New Forest, a community with close ties to the sea, significantly influence his work. Complicating the common critical assumption that Gilpin’s travel writing is dominated by detached pictorialism, attention to the author’s manuscript revisions to these works demonstrates the ways in which his own observations and experiences are layered with other narratives, both written and oral. The rhythms and relationships identified in Gilpin’s writing reveal a complex spatial and historical understanding of the spaces of travel which transcends visual aesthetics and situates local landscapes within wider national and global contexts.