An account,
with extracts from her diary, of a tour taken by Miss Margaret
Gilchrist of Ospisdale, accompanied by her Father and Sister, during
the summer of 1835. In June 1835, after spending three weeks ‘amid
the splendours and heat of London’ Margaret, Catherine and their
father, Major Gilchrist of Ospisdale, left on the 27th of the month
for a continental tour, embarking, early that morning from Tower
Stairs, on board SS The Earl of Liverpool. No mention is made as to
how the little party had reached London from Sutherland, but it is
more than probable that they travelled by sea, either from
Littleferry or Invergordon. The sail down the Thames was delightful,
but the weather became more windy in the Channel, and they did not
reach Ostend until 1 o’clock the following morning after a somewhat
rough passage. They travelled with trunks and carpet bags, and must
have indeed have required quite a quantity of baggage for what was
to be a lengthy trip. They stayed at The Hotel de la Cour Imperiale
and were given tea and bread and butter before going to their beds.
Later that Sunday morning they attended Mass at the old church of
St. Peter, and afterwards found ‘shops open, music and dancing,
vegetables for sale in the street, which betrayed to us for the
first time the habits of a Catholic country’. Ostend was at that
time a small town of between 12,000 and 13,000 people and Margaret
remarks that they ‘saw few of the better class, but those of the
lower reminded us of our own Highlanders, especially the women who
wear dark blue cloaks with hoods over the head, and no bonnets. The
children and young girls all have neat white caps and look very
clean.’ The following day they went on to Bruges, travelling in the
Diligence, which was a public stage coach. This took some two hours.
They liked Bruges and found it a clean place, surrounded by pretty
country. They put up at the Hotel du Commerce where ‘the table
d’hote was good, the wine bad and the coffee indifferent and served
without
cream’.
The next stage of their journey was to Ghent by
canal, the boat being pulled by four horses at walking pace. They
had ‘an excellent dinner on board in the little mirrored salon,
which, with wine and servants, cost 8 francs’. They were all three
ardent sightseers and almost immediately went off to explore the
town. ‘Our first object of curiosity was to see the Beguine Sisters
at Vespers in the Chapel of the Beguinage – the establishment
consists of 700. Their dress black with a white linen veil which, on
going out, they fold up and place flat on their heads, giving a very
odd appearance. The nuns as far as I saw were old and ugly’. They
visited several churches, including St. Bavon, but no mention is
made of’ the famous Van Eyck altarpiece. They went to a flower show,
so even then Ghent was renowned for its flowers, as it still is
today.
The next stop was Antwerp, where as usual they
visited the Cathedral and other churches, looked at Reuben’s tomb
and walked over the ramparts ‘under a broiling sun’, leaving on the
evening Diligence for Brussels and getting there at 10 p.m. ‘just in
time to secure good rooms’. The next day being Sunday, they went to
Mass at St. Gudule, and later to an English service with a sermon.
It is interesting to note how many Church services in English are
held in continental towns (mainly during the summer months) which
shows that travelling in Europe is nothing new for the British.
They stayed four nights in Brussels, which Margaret
describes as a very pretty town. On Tuesday 7th July, they drove to
Namur, their next overnight stop, via the Battlefield of Waterloo,
where they had a Belgian lady guide who ‘fought the battle over with
us’. This was only 20 years after the battle, but even then it was a
tourist spot, with the mound surmounted by the Lion Memorial, up
which they ascended to get a good view of the surrounding country.
The Gilchrists passed through Namur, staying one
night, and on to Liege for two. They enjoyed Namur for its pretty
views, and thought Liege delightful with handsome modern houses.
They must have left Liege early on the 10th as they breakfasted at
Chaudfontaine – ‘a beautiful little spot in a charming valley’ - 7
miles outside the town and frequented for its natural warm baths,
though no mention was made of this Scottish family availing
themselves of this facility.
Two days later they were in Aachen and must have
been glad to get there as they were ‘very much tired’ after a
cramped journey. They stayed here for a day or two and obviously
found the whole place, but particularly the Cathedral, with it’s
connections with Charlemagne, most interesting, and descriptions of
the town and it’s wonders took up several pages in Margaret’s
journal. They also had to have their passports visad here, a
performance which was to be repeated several times during the tour,
as were Customs checks, but the hotel was a good one, the best they
had yet struck, and it was even possible to have hot baths, which
must indeed have been a luxury. No further mention is made of baths
hot or otherwise, until they are in Dieppe, and almost home.
But now they are in Germany, or to be more exact,
in Prussia, and they are not over impressed by the landscape....’the
soil appears poor....no enclosures for miles .... crops grown in
small patches...the roads as bad as possible – we crawl along at 4
m.p.h. but preparations seem to be in prospect for having them
macadamised....few or no carriages, but very many huge country carts
with five horses, loaded with teazel, wool and other farm crops.’
Eventually, they reach Cologne ‘through a fine old
gate’ and drive to their hotel in the Breitestrasse (this belied
it’s name and proved to be very narrow) which was excellent and
‘elegantly furnished’. There are long descriptions of the Cathedral
and the town generally – it seems that Margaret must have had some
knowledge of German as she was able to converse to some extent with
people in the hotel and elsewhere and ‘the natives seemed obliging
and willing to direct them’. The streets were ‘dirty and extremely
ill-paved...with no apparent means of carrying off the waste water,
very different in it’s nature from the celebrated eau-de-cologne, of
which we bought a case’. From Colgone they embarked on the steamer
‘Stadt Mainz’ for what must have been a magical journey up the Rhine
as far as Coblenz, and thence by road again to Frankfurt. Margaret’s
description of the scenery, the houses, the crops make fascinating
reading .... she remarks that Frankfurt is a ‘free town with about
40,000 inhabitants, with a succession of gardens and shrubberies,
pretty villas and tea-drinking arbours.... about 5,000 Jews live
here including Mrs. Rothschild, the mother of the great banker. They
travel on through Darmstadt (‘the Duke of Darmstadt’s palace has
nothing magnificent about it on the outside’) to Heidelburg – she
mentions the castle and the famous bridge, but Heidelburg was
apparently a noisy place after dark, making sleep impossible. Then
Carlsruhe and on to Baden-Baden, where the hotels are all full and
they are obliged to go into lodgings at 48 fr a week. The Sunday
that they were there they were able to hear an English church
service, with a good sermon. During the (Sunday) evening promenade
in the public gardens, our Scottish travellers were somewhat
disconcerted to see gambling going on, with smartly dressed people
taking wine, coffee or ices in an ‘orange grove’. The evening was
cool and beautiful after a hot day ‘but no remembrance of the
Sabbath appeared in this mixed concourse’. The next morning Margaret
‘mounted on an ass in a sort of saddle chair’ rode to the top of one
of the surrounding hills to get a view of the town.
The next halt was at the Hotel Fortune at Offenburg
(most comfortable) and the landlord, Herr Phahler, who spoke English
well, and also dealt in wine, showed them his cellars and on the
strength of this Papa ordered a quantity of wine to be shipped back
to Scotland. I have actually seen the bill for the same consignment
among Miss Lyon’s papers. It was written on a piece of paper with a
handsome picture of the vineyards as a letterhead, and was in good
English. The wine was contained in two tuns, (equal to 400 bottles),
and sent by sea to Invergordon, from whence it was carried by
ox-cart to Ospisdale, and bottled there in Major Gilchrists own
bottles, each with a "DG" impressed onto the glass (the cost was
£24) Breakfast in the Offenburg Hotel was ‘beautiful, with a fine
display of fruit’. A brief stop at Freiburg to look at the
Cathedral, and then on through the Black Forest and into
Switzerland.
The Gilchrists spent one night at the Hotel Falk in
Schaffhausen, and had a look at the Rhine falls, and then went on to
Zurich, getting occasional glimpses of the ‘beautiful blue Rhine’
through the trees. All this travelling was done, over very rough
roads – poor Papa felt ill at a small village called Arth, and no
wonder. He was 62 years old, elderly for that time. They rested at
Arth for some little time before going on to Lucerne, where Margaret
was fascinated by the roofed bridges, ornamented with pictures. They
saw the Lion Monument, and the place where William Tell shot his
arrow, admired the views of Mount Pilatus and the varied national
costumes of the Swiss peasants, which are described in some detail.
The roads improved as they neared Berne, and they were thankful for
this as they were anxious to get there quickly in the hopes of
getting some news from home ..they had now been away for about 5
weeks. They stayed at an Hotel in Berne, considered to be a good
one, but it had ‘a greater assortment of fleas then we had yet met
with’. Their letters were awaiting them in the care of the British
Consul – two from Alexa and Dan, and another from Daniel dated
somewhat later (12 July, and posted in Inverness (it was by now 3
August) with an account of the sheep and wool markets, which
doubtless pleased Papa, since Daniel’s transaction had been
satisfactory, and all was well at home. Another Cathedral had to be
inspected, but there was time to write home and a packet of letters
for posting to England and Scotland was left with the Consul. The
coachman who had driven them from Baden was here dismissed, and paid
9½ Napoleons for his work. A 3hour drive took the party to Thun – ‘a
dirty little place – very old’ – but the views were wonderful, and
from their hotel, the Freyenhof, they had their first sight of the
Jungfrau, and also saw it later by moonlight ‘in its white
nightcap’. On August 6th they drove to Interlaken, getting there in
time for breakfast, and finding that the lodgings there, to which
they had been recommended, were rather second-rate, but since their
stay there was to be brief, they decided to endure them. The cost
for board and lodging, exclusive of wine, was 5 francs – the usual
rate in this village – and they took the table d’hote at 4 p.m. They
explored the countryside around Interlaken, sometimes by carriage,
sometimes on horseback, admiring the huge Eiger with it’s snowy
front while the Mittenberg and Watterhorn frown over the glacier at
their base and the Schreckhorner towers beyond. They went also to
Grindlewald and Lauterbrunnen, and Margaret remarks on the many
walnut, apple and cherry trees which grew luxuriantly there. The
Lake of Brienz was mentioned but not so the town of that name, which
must have been even more charming then than it is now. On Sunday the
9th they ‘heard the English service read in a small chapel fitted up
for the purpose, by a clergyman who we understand comes every season
to officiate gratis for the benefit of the travellers who congregate
here annually in great numbers’. The next day they were anxious to
retrace their steps in the hopes of finding more mail in Berne so a
boat was hired to taken them back to Thun. This boat had four hands
and did the 15 mile journey in 2½ hours for the sum of 9 francs, and
from Thun they went again by boat down the River Aar to Berne. They
met the Consul by chance in the street, only to learn that the
letters had been sent to Interlaken, where they hadn’t thought of
looking for them, and now they would have to wait until they reached
Geneva.
The next stop was Friberg which they reached at 10
o’clock in the evening, but, as usual, they were up early next
morning to look at the Cathedral. There they hired a carriage for
three days to take them to Vevey and Chillon and back, and had a hot
drive over hilly roads, but at least there was very little traffic.
They reached Bulle in 5 hours, staying at ‘Le Cheval Blanc’ – ‘a
dirty looking inn, undergoing repairs, but we had good bedrooms and
got excellent tea, butter and the first good cream’. Breakfast next
morning consisted of chamois killed on the neighbouring hills, which
they did not consider as good as Scottish venison. The landlord
appeared to be a man of taste and had a large collection of
flowers...Catherine took some plants from here ‘to give them a
chance of a visit to Scotland’. Vevey was eventually reached after 5
hours on the road, and from there a visit was paid to Chillon some 5
or 6 miles further on, and all were suitably impressed by the 500
year old (then) castle standing in the Lake – ‘the dungeons appeared
airy and comfortable!’. They returned to Geneva by steamer, passing
Lausanne and other smaller towns, ‘under a boiling sun’, but were
able to cool off next day when it rained hard. In Geneva they
wandered around the town (alas! no mail) and looked at watches and
jewellery but ‘made no bargains’. Church again on Sunday, and later
a promenade on the ramparts and through the Botanic Gardens, with
which they were unimpressed.
From Geneva to Chamonix, and it rained almost all
the way, but Chamonix proved pleasant with ‘nice looking villas near
the town with very English looking grounds’ In Savoy they drove
through a valley which caused Papa to remark that it very much
resembled the Ross-shire Conon, but he couldn’t have noticed the
vineyards. Despite the rain, they got a fine view of Mont Blanc,
even though by now the evenings were starting to draw in and it was
soon dark. Next morning they were up early (again) to take a
char-a-banc drive around the neighbourhood, through very wild
country. The horses halted at one point for the party to look at a
collection of stones and minerals found in the local mountains ‘kept
there to tempt travellers of all tastes’ After an excellent
breakfast ‘a la fourchette’, the Gilchrists joined up with another
group of tourists ( 8 in all) and mounted on mules, rode off to
inspect the glaciers and look at even finer views. Presumably the
Gilchrist girls were well used to riding, and just as well they
were, as Margaret writes ‘For the nervous and inexperienced it is,
at first setting out on the ascent, a serious looking business, but
when assured of the steadiness of the mules and the care of the
guides, one forgets everything but the grandeur and the novelty and
the picturesqueness of the situation...the appearance of this mass
of ice (the glacier) is exactly like the waves of the deeply
agitated ocean – in length it extends many leagues, the breadth does
not appear a quarter of a mile – thousands of rhododendrons grow
almost to its very edge and many other wild plants that I have never
seen’. It rained most of the way down, but at least they had seen
the glacier. They left Chamonix on the 19th in their bumpy
char-a-banc and got back to Geneva at 9 p.m. ‘quite fatigued after
this long day’s drive, but charmed and enchanted with all we had
seen’. On August 20th they took their places in the Diligence for
Dijon, where several hours were passed in looking at M. Tissot’s
watches and jewellery (‘I bought upwards of £40 worth’), and after
this they made directly for Paris, spending two nights in the coach,
which must have been tiring and uncomfortable to say the least
..’twice in the course of one evening we narrowly missed being
overturned, the road was steep with a great pull for the horses, and
the driver we believed was a little tipsy’. They found the French
wayside inns where they were obliged to stop for meals not up to the
standard of the Swiss and German ones – ‘we had to pass through a
dirty kitchen to get to a dirty salon’ – and frequently their
baggage was looked at by Custom officials-indeed at Bellegarde it
was ‘plombed!’. They must indeed have been thankful to reach Paris.
This they did on the morning of August 25th, and
remained for 12 days. They stayed at the Hotel de l’Europe in the
Rue Rivoli, overlooking the Tuilleries gardens, and from there they
did the usual tourist things – the Louvre, the Invalids, visited
Versailles and the porcelain factory at Sevres, went to the opera
and met some Scottish friends – a Mrs Ross and Sir F. McKenzie
...all very delightful and the descriptions of everything take up
many pages in her diary. They also had meals in several different
restaurants, but one evening chose to eat at their hotel, having the
meal sent up to their rooms. They had fish, chops, turkey, duck and
apple fritters...it was pronounced not very good, and yet with wine,
cost almost a pound sterling! However, at Meurice’s a day or two
later they had ‘among many good things, frogs and kidneys dressed in
champagne’ – alas, there is no mention of the price. By Sunday 6th
September the Grand Tour was almost at an end. They ‘bid adieu to
Paris, which I liked very much and travelled by the Diligence right
on to Dieppe. Reached Dieppe about 5 o’clock on Monday morning, went
in to the old church built by William the Conqueror, looked at the
carved ivory works which are very pretty and had a refreshing hot
salt water bath’.
And so ended the holiday of a lifetime. One cannot
but admire the energy and stamina of the Gilchrist sisters (then
aged 34 and 27 respectively) and indeed also that of Papa, who
perhaps was glad to get home to his sheep and the quiet pastures of
Ospisdale. He died some 5 years later; Margaret survived, unmarried
until she was 56, while Catherine later married George Ross of
Pitcalnie and achieved the ripe old age (for those days) of 80
years.
While Margaret kept her meticulous and comprehensive journal of
this long excursion, reference is made to Catherine’s sketches, made
whenever time allowed and when views warranted them, but alas these
have long since been lost...what a splendid accompaniment to the
journal they would have made!