Letters Written During a Tour through Normandy, Britanny, and Other Parts of France, in 1818…

1820

Special Collections DC27 B78 1820

London: Longman, et al.,

In 1818, novelist Anna Bray (née Kempe, 1790-1883) married her painting tutor, Charles Stothard, and the pair honeymooned in France. Charles’s artistic pursuits took them off the beaten track and Anna wrote letters home to her mother of her travels. While in Rennes, the capital city of Brittany, she complains of the terrible road conditions but describes the town as ‘clean’ and ‘modern’. Charles provided the engravings for her book; this one depicts some ‘natives’ of Brittany in traditional dress; note the clogs which were usually worn without socks or stockings, but stuffed with straw to prevent chafing. Anna uncharitably describes the ‘common people’ of Brittany as ‘rude’, ‘uncivilised’ and living in ‘filth and misery’.