Lefort, Pierre Alexandre Francisque, 1809-1878, Notes sur mon voyage en Angleterre (Ier) et ... en Irelande et Ecosse , 1835, June 3-1851, September 12
- Title(s):
- Notes sur mon voyage en Angleterre (Ier) et ... en Irelande et Ecosse : du 3 juin 1835 au 9 aout.
- Published/Created:
- 1835, June 3-1851, September 12.
- Physical Description:
- 1 v. (86, [28] p.) ; 17 cm.
- Holdings:
- Rare Books and ManuscriptsDA625.L44 N68 1835Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund[Request]
- Copyright Status:
- Copyright Not Evaluated
- Full Orbis Record:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/8941610
- Classification:
- Archives & Manuscripts
- Notes:
- Pierre Alexandre Francisque Lefort (1809-1878) was a French engineer in the Corps des Ponts et Chausées. He was involved in the planning and construction of rail lines in northern France.
In pen and ink.
Bound in much later marbled boards.
Manuscript journal, in a single hand, of a trip to the British Isles in the summer of 1835 by Pierre Alexandre Francisque Lefort. The diary in unsigned, but there is an invitation addressed to a Monsieur Le Fort. Given the diarist's evident strong interest in engineering, bridges, and railways, it is very likely to be the diary of the French railway engineer Pierre Alexandre Francisque Lefort. The route of the trip begins in Paris, continues to Le Havre and London by steamboat, and later includes Manchester, Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, York, and Leeds, before returning for an extended stay in Liverpool and Everton. Lefort's daily diary entries are relatively terse, noting details of transport, meals, social visits, and correspondence. His interest appears to be with the burgeoning industrialization of the country rather than its picturesque delights. He describes the Gallery of Practical Science, in London, the new Liverpool and Manchester railway, and a ceremony inaugurating a new mechanics' institution in Liverpool on 20 July 1835, with a special visit by Lord Brougham (a large clipping from the Liverpool Times of the following day also describes the ceremony).
In a separate section at the back of the diary Lefort records the expenses of his trip to Britain, with detailed daily notes. The table of expenses reveals common travel costs, including hotels, many forms of transport, and meals, as well as expenditures on toiletries, lithographs and engravings, and admission fees for various entertainments and zoological gardens. The expenses section also records costs of a subsequent trip to England, from June to September, 1851, almost certainly made to see the Great Exhibition in London, as there are several costs for "exhibition avec Adele" listed. - Subject Terms:
- Great Britain -- Description and travel.Lefort, Pierre Alexandre Francisque -- Diaries.Liverpool (England) -- Description and travel.London (England) -- Description and travel.Mechanics' institutes -- Great Britain.Railroad travel -- Great Britain.Travelers, French.
- Form/Genre:
- Diaries.
- Export:
- XML