Summer Saunterers, part 2
The second part in our series following Bessie Goldsmith, Myra and Helen Bodwell on their trip to Europe in 1906.
Summer Saunterers, part 2
This week we rejoin Bessie Goldsmith and her friends Helen and Myra Bodwell just after they arrive in Liverpool, preparing to travel north to Windermere in the English Lake District and from there to Scotland.
For this part of the trip Bessie does not keep a diary, instead long letters home to her mother record the places visited and her reactions to them. If you missed Summer Saunterers, part one you can read it here.
Travelling by train to Windermere, the girls must change trains at Preston;
“In the station Hel and I went to the toilet room. It may not be a nice thing to write about but it was very funny. I dropped a ‘penny in the slot’ to make the knob turn and we both went in at once. The toilet paper had illustrated reading matter on it.”
Bessie also remarks on the views from the train noting, “A thatched cottage is picturesque, but I doubt if it is sanitary.”
The party arrives at Windermere, which Bessie thinks is “…perfectly delightful, all the houses of stone and such roses over the doorways, every street corner is a dream”. She adds, “The hills are covered with estates that make William Wood’s grounds look like thirty cents.” William Wood’s 80-acre estate on North Main Street was the largest in Andover.
The following day they have their first sightseeing excursion.
“Our first ‘coaching trip’ has come up to every expectation. To begin with we had seats on top right behind the driver with a tall hat and a scarlet coat…From Windermere we went down to Bowness and down to the lake where we crossed on a ferry just big enough to hold us and then along to Hawkshead.”
Bessie observes that the fields have walls,
“…made of flat slate stones, not round ones like ours” and “as for flowers and birds, Hel and I are simply wild not to be able to name everything we see.…along the walls there is an abundance of both pink and white wild roses to say nothing of the sweet honeysuckle climbing about as freely as our poison ivy.”
In Hawkshead they visit “the Grammar School which Wordsworth attended and the desk where his name is carved.” Travelling next to Coniston,
“We looked up John Ruskin, reposing in his grave, and squandered a penny to visit the ‘Ruskin Museum.’ As you may imagine I was out again in about three minutes stopping only long enough to play America on his ‘stone harmonium’.”
The patriotic hymn “America.” written in Andover, shares a tune with the British national anthem so it would not have seemed too out of place in the English village.
The stone harmonium Bessie refers to is more correctly known as a stone lithograph. Made for Ruskin by William Till in 1884 using musical stones made from hornfels rock, found near Skiddaw, one of the Lake District’s mountains. The lithophone can still be seen at the Ruskin Museum, Coniston.
Also in Coniston, Bessie, a teacher in the Andover schools, gets to observe an English school.
“Hel and I went visiting school and had the adventure of the day. First we visited the primary school, three ‘standards’ (grades) all in one room, the classes being separated by curtains.” “The higher standards were in a separate building across a dear little walled-in playground. The headmaster was very cordial and spent a long time talking with us, even leaving his school to go out and show us his garden and cut roses for us.”
During their return to Windermere the girls “saw Ruskin’s house across the lake, and I believe there was one of Tennyson’s somewhere, to say nothing of Dove Cottage when we got back near Windermere. Ruskin was once master of the school we visited.”
“At Skelwith Bridge we got down again to visit some waterfalls” and there was more activity after dinner, “tonight Hel & I climbed to the top of Orrest Head and though it was quite a climb the panorama spread out below us was well worth the trouble. The lake extended far to the right and left with the mountains rising peak on peak behind it and the sunset light overall… and just at our feet nestled the little town of stone houses”.
Orrest Head is one of the many places where Bessie picks flowers to press and place in her scrapbook. In her letters she complains “Why didn’t Mr Gutterson lend me his pocket press for my Baedeker will be ruined.” Unfortunately time has not been kind to the pressed flowers, some surviving better than others.
The following day “we coached from Windermere to Keswick, the ‘Buttermere drive,’ said to be the most beautiful in all England, but I hardly think we could call it finer than yesterday.”
Stopping enroute to visit William Wordsworth’s home at Rydal Mount, the girls arrive in Keswick where they went to the bank “money flows away like water” and had time to “walk down to Derwent Water and buy some postcards” before they took the train to Glasgow.
After an overnight stay in Glasgow the girls travel up the north-west coast of Scotland to Oban. The first part of this journey was known as the “Royal Route” named after Queen Victoria who sailed the route in 1847 and was used by Victorians and Edwardians to reach their estates in the Highlands of Scotland.
After taking a train to Greenock the girls boarded David MacBrayne’s steamer “Columba” which carried them to Ardrishaig where a smaller steamer is boarded to sail through the Crinan Canal.
“This canal trip was very interesting to me as I have never been on one before. It is nine miles long, there are 9 locks, time 1h…..Where the locks were close together Hel and I got out and walked so that we could gather roses, cornflower and heather.”
At Crinan, a final boat change takes them to Oban. Bessie records “this coast is broken up into any number of islands and locks and it is just like going through the mountains by boat.”
Their room overlooks Oban Bay “to be sure it is up three weary flights of stairs but the view from the window is worth the entire price.” She adds “we had a fine evening to arrive and the evening light on the clouds hanging on the mountains of Mull is something to remember.”
In Oban the girls indulge in a little shopping.
“The shops are very attractive and we bought several little things of green Iona stone. All the things I really wanted cost too much money but it was great fun to look at them. This all happened at ‘Maclachlan’s Royal Clan Tartan Warehouse’ and we were waited on by a most picturesque gentleman in full highland costume. We were urged to look at rugs, suits and woolens of all sorts. The plaids were enough to make your mouth water and you would have wanted to take home the whole store.”
So what did Bessie buy?
“Now you can’t guess what I bought! Well, a union suit- from the sheep’s back to Bessie’s - and I guess it is wool all right for it is very warm tho’ so thin…..It cost 15/6 which seems a good deal but I nearly perished with cold the day before and simply had to have something to keep me warm.”
Another boat trip is made the following day to the islands of Iona and Staffa.
“We very soon approached the black island of Staffa which as you know is made up of basaltic columns and contains the wonderful Fingal’s Cave…..I picked some everlasting flowers and with a good deal of difficulty found a loose piece of the rock”. While returning to Oban “we put in at Tobermory….the most out of the way place imaginable. There were various ruins of castles to be seen but they are so common in this part of the world that one or two more or less don’t make much difference”.
Travel to Edinburgh by train, coach and steamer follows and there they see Walter Scott’s monument, Arthur’s Seat, and Holyrood Palace. Bessie is clearly enjoying her trip, she closes a letter mailed in Edinburgh with “just think what we have seen in one week. I should be perfectly satisfied with my trip if I had to go home tomorrow.”
Just south of Edinburgh the trio visit Abbotsford, home of Sir Walter Scott. Scott’s books and poems are obviously a favorite of Bessie’s. She tells her mother that she needs to reread some of his books after her trip and her letters often note which of his characters lived in the locations they are visiting.
Another letter to her mother is written Thursday, July 17th “en route for Durham on a terribly slow train.” Travelling south through England, the girls now visit several cathedrals; Durham, York and Lincoln. Of York cathedral Bessie notes “I don’t think I like it was well as Durham - when I had expected to like it the best of any.”
Her letter closes with “more cathedrals tomorrow” and “I haven’t much use for cities.”
Bessie’s dislike of cities is unfortunate as girls are heading to London then Paris next - what will Bessie think of those cites? Join us in two weeks to find out!
Click here to discover History Center collections related to Bessie Goldsmith.
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