1. Touring the British Isles Online:
18th-19th Century Travel Accounts
Darris G. Williams, AG®

2. Itinerary
• Introduction
• Find a guidebook
• People’s Collection Wales
• Geograph
• Google Maps

3. Introduction
• Gerald of Wales wrote of his travels in 1188
• Geographic, historical, and social context
• Each travel account offers tidbits of detail
• Start your online journey with a guidebook

4. Find a Guidebook
• Search online sources first
– Vision of Britain
– Google Books
– Family History Library Catalog

5. Vision of Britain
• Gerald of Wales (1188)
• Paul Hentzer (1590s)
• Celia Fiennes (1690s)
• Daniel Defoe (1720s)
• Charles Wesley (1736-56)
• Samuel Johnson (1773)
• Thomas Pennant (1780)
• William Cobbett (1821-6)
• George Borrow (1854)

6. Vision of Britain
• Search by place-name from the home
page
• Select an author from the gallery to
learn more, and to read their book
• Click on place-names to learn more
about the places they visited

10. Here I saw ye way of makeing Runnet as
they do in Cheshire-they take ye Reed bag
and Curd and haveing washed it Clean, salt
it and breake ye Curd small about ye bag, so
drye them, being stretch'd out with sticks
like a glove, and so hang them in a Chimney
till you need it, then Cut a piece off this as
big as halfe a Crown and boyle it in a little
water wch water will turn ye milke better
than any made runnet and its freshe.

16. The Cambrian Tourist; or, Post-Chaise
Companion Through Wales, 1828 (Google
Books)

17. Long before you reach Merthyr,
the blackened atmosphere points
out the site; but when
immediately upon it, you are
obliged to inquire where it is, and
the way to it:
The Cambrian Tourist; or, Post-Chaise Companion
Through Wales, 1828 (Google Books)

18. P.S. One thing I must tell you, for it made us
laugh fit to kill ourselves two whole days.
You must know, the women go barefoot, and
wear stockings that reach just down to the
ancle, and no lower; but the strangest part of
all is, that these stockings are fastened round
their great toes by a long thread.
They walk over the roads, and make nothing
of it, though all rough and stony.

34. MAPS

38. Keep zooming in until you find your
point of refence

39. Features appear to help navigate

40. The road branches