[SOUTH AFRICA] Manuscript travel diary, a fair copy written in the form of a letter, inscribed in a different hand in pencil on the first page, 'Notes of a journey into the interior of Cape Town. From Southey's Library', September 1812 - n.d. [1813?], describing the arrival of the anonymous writer and his wife; giving his first favourable impressions of the Cape Town, 'a rendez-vous for people from all parts of the world'; remarking upon the hospitality of the people, admiring particularly the skills of the drivers of the ox-wagons, 'some of these waggons are drawn by no less than twenty-four cattle, driven a-breast by a single Hottentot ... [who] utterly eclipses the puny skill of your most knowing four-in-hand man'; commenting in several places on the treatment of the Africans, 'if it is possible for slavery to be rendered even tolerable it is so here'; observing the landscape and vegetation on his travels, describing social life among the Boers, their gardens and handsome houses at 'Stellinbock' and elsewhere; also sporting activities including quail, partridge and deer shoots; giving details about country estates and farms, and generally recording the scene, the manuscript ending when the writer is at Paarl, neatly written in brown ink, 79 pages, 178 x 108 mm, blank leaves, contemporary boards. Provenance. Robert Southey (whose library was dispersed mostly by auction in London). Robert, Marquess of Crewe (bookplate).The anonymous diarist reveals that he comes from Patterdale, at the Southern end of Ullswater in the Lake District, which suggests that Southey acquired the manuscript when he was at Keswick. He refers to his wife as 'Letty' and once as 'Mrs. L.', but offers no other identification. He may be idenitified as the Wordworths' friend Charles Luff, who with his wife Letitia left Patterdale in March 1812, and in 1814 was in Mauritius, where he died. Letitia Luff returned to the Lake District, and is often mentioned in William and Dorothy Wordworth's letters.

[SOUTH AFRICA] Manuscript travel diary, a fair copy written in the form of a letter, inscribed in a different hand in pencil on the first page, 'Notes of a journey into the interior of Cape Town. From Southey's Library', September 1812 - n.d. [1813?], describing the arrival of the anonymous writer and his wife; giving his first favourable impressions of the Cape Town, 'a rendez-vous for people from all parts of the world'; remarking upon the hospitality of the people, admiring particularly the skills of the drivers of the ox-wagons, 'some of these waggons are drawn by no less than twenty-four cattle, driven a-breast by a single Hottentot ... [who] utterly eclipses the puny skill of your most knowing four-in-hand man'; commenting in several places on the treatment of the Africans, 'if it is possible for slavery to be rendered even tolerable it is so here'; observing the landscape and vegetation on his travels, describing social life among the Boers, their gardens and handsome houses at 'Stellinbock' and elsewhere; also sporting activities including quail, partridge and deer shoots; giving details about country estates and farms, and generally recording the scene, the manuscript ending when the writer is at Paarl, neatly written in brown ink, 79 pages, 178 x 108 mm, blank leaves, contemporary boards. Provenance. Robert Southey (whose library was dispersed mostly by auction in London). Robert, Marquess of Crewe (bookplate). The anonymous diarist reveals that he comes from Patterdale, at the Southern end of Ullswater in the Lake District, which suggests that Southey acquired the manuscript when he was at Keswick. He refers to his wife as 'Letty' and once as 'Mrs. L.', but offers no other identification. He may be idenitified as the Wordworths' friend Charles Luff, who with his wife Letitia left Patterdale in March 1812, and in 1814 was in Mauritius, where he died. Letitia Luff returned to the Lake District, and is often mentioned in William and Dorothy Wordworth's letters.

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[SOUTH AFRICA] Manuscript travel diary, a fair copy written in the form of a letter, inscribed in a different hand in pencil on the first page, 'Notes of a journey into the interior of Cape Town. From Southey's Library', September 1812 - n.d. [1813?], describing the arrival of the anonymous writer and his wife; giving his first favourable impressions of the Cape Town, 'a rendez-vous for people from all parts of the world'; remarking upon the hospitality of the people, admiring particularly the skills of the drivers of the ox-wagons, 'some of these waggons are drawn by no less than twenty-four cattle, driven a-breast by a single Hottentot ... [who] utterly eclipses the puny skill of your most knowing four-in-hand man'; commenting in several places on the treatment of the Africans, 'if it is possible for slavery to be rendered even tolerable it is so here'; observing the landscape and vegetation on his travels, describing social life among the Boers, their gardens and handsome houses at 'Stellinbock' and elsewhere; also sporting activities including quail, partridge and deer shoots; giving details about country estates and farms, and generally recording the scene, the manuscript ending when the writer is at Paarl, neatly written in brown ink, 79 pages, 178 x 108 mm, blank leaves, contemporary boards. Provenance. Robert Southey (whose library was dispersed mostly by auction in London). Robert, Marquess of Crewe (bookplate).

The anonymous diarist reveals that he comes from Patterdale, at the Southern end of Ullswater in the Lake District, which suggests that Southey acquired the manuscript when he was at Keswick. He refers to his wife as 'Letty' and once as 'Mrs. L.', but offers no other identification. He may be idenitified as the Wordworths' friend Charles Luff, who with his wife Letitia left Patterdale in March 1812, and in 1814 was in Mauritius, where he died. Letitia Luff returned to the Lake District, and is often mentioned in William and Dorothy Wordworth's letters.

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