Series 6 > Travels in Scotland 1788-1881

ELIZABETH DIGGLE:
Journal oja Tourjrom London to the
Highlands of Scotland
19 April to 7 August 1788
Introduction
Elizabeth Diggles journal is a consolidation, perhaps made by the family rather
than her, of the thirty-two letters she sent to her sister and other relations back in
Kent during her extended tour in the spring and summer of 1788. And what a
remarkable tour it was. It was just after the middle of April that she had set off
from the south of England in her own carriage transport, accompanied by her aunt
and a servant, Joseph. Her first letter, which is dated 19 April, is from Hartfield:
‘here we are, aunt and niece at the Salisbury Arms’. It was an early start to the
tourism season. Not, however, until early August, nearly four months later and
with many hundreds of miles under the wheels of her carriage, did she finally
return. Scotland was her destination and the reason for her tour, but the first leg
through England was no light undertaking: getting to the north, by way of Leicester,
Nottingham, Durham and Newcastle, took her more than ten days before she was
able to reach the border at Berwick. May, June and the early part of July were spent
in Scotland, with an added-on sortie up to Aberdeen, showing that she was not
pressed for time, before crossing back into England, this time by the west coast at
Gretna on 7 July. The final leg of her return - by Carlisle, the Lakes, Buxton and
Oxford - was not unduly hastened by a desire to get home, taking in as it did
Chatsworth, Warwick Castle and Blenheim Palace.
It was a formidable expedition for a single lady, even if accompanied by her aunt
and a servant, and for someone whose health was not entirely robust. Not quite
well at Murthly in Perthshire where she was dosed, and over-tired at Aberdeen
(letter of 10 June), she was advised by a physician to take two days’ rest, which she
did not enjoy, as the accommodation was so overcrowded. True, she had ample
money (or drafts which were honoured and converted into cash) to soften the
experience of touring and possessed letters of introduction to ease her way into
society. The relative isolation of being in this distant and different country was
lessened by letters from her family, which caught up with her from time to time,
by the ability to buy reading materials and by the courtesy of the landowning class.