Our Journey

On our Journey Blog we shall follow Lucy from 21st June 1819 until her return to "our happy home, Gunnersbury" on 4th November. We shall see her character develop, learn of the places she visits and perhaps, when we compare her world to ours now, stand aghast at the changes in the environment wracked by 200 years of industrial and social development. We may also find that in some ways we are better off now than in Lucy’s world two centuries ago

The 170 pages of Lucy’s diary along with her sketchbook record her experiences as she sets out with her parents and brothers from their home, Gunnersbury Park near London, along the Bath Road to Bristol and then by ferry across the Severn into Wales. Four days later they embark on the first stage of the family tour, exploring Wales over the following four weeks. Taking just over a week through Chester and Liverpool they move on to immerse themselves in the Lake District, spending 11 days on this second stage, before heading North to Gretna Green via Carlisle. The third and final part of journey is the longest and perhaps the most gruelling. In these ten weeks they make their way throughout Scotland, reawakening their family roots in Aberdeen, before heading into England and down the Great North Road through York on their way home.

Why is Lucy’s Diary Important?

Although there were several women diarists in the Regency era I believe Lucy may well be the youngest.

She was clearly influenced by architecture (her father was a successful builder and her cousin the architect Sir Robert Smirke) yet she records her own opinions on what she saw.

She certainly prefers "genteel" company and we suspect that her comments on the posting inns at which they stopped to change horses and take refreshment and the coaching inns at which they rested on their journey reflect the status of the society that frequented them. Nevertheless, the family takes time to visit "Mr Owen's manufactory", whose reform-minded socialist philosophy guided the welfare of his textile workers and who created the first "Co-op" shop with profits ploughed back to workers, and they observed the mines, smelting factories and other industries that fueled the rapidly growing economy of the day.

Although they followed the fashionable tourist trail of the day, family connections introduced her to exclusive scientific collections such as Hunter's in Glasgow and Coplands in Aberdeen, and she had access to some of the finest “stately homes” of the day that other tourists were unable to penetrate.

Lucy feels at home attending Anglican Sunday services but is appalled when witnessing worshipers from one nonconformist chapel. Perhaps she is not old enough to have opinions on marriage other than the veiled condemnation of a Gretna Green "priest" they called upon. Unlike Jane Austen there is no hint of the need to find a suitable match. Being considerably better off than Austen perhaps there was no desperation. Indeed Lucy, whose portraits show her to be a quite beautiful woman, did not marry until she was 35 years old.

The appearance of the British Isles has changed so dramatically over the last 200 years that towns, cities and countryside would be almost unrecognisable to Lucy today. Certain things do not change, such as Government backed projects like the Caledonian Canal upon which she comments and which ran way overdue and way over budget. Rough and ready coaching inns are nowadays replaced by dull, uniform motorway service stations.

Like many travellers throughout time she falls for myths like Beddgelert's grave and Wallace's Great sword and was taken in by the guide, "a curious old woman" at the 14th century Cawdor Castle, who "gave us a bit of Duncan's sofa and bed" that had survived from his murder at the hands of Shakespeare’s 11th century Macbeth.

The bicentenary of Lucy's diary, from 21st June to 4th November 1819, gives us an opportunity to recognise the negative effects of industrialisation on our present day environment, although we might still marvel at the natural waterfalls, mountain scenery and ancient ruins that amazed her then. Some might be shocked by her brothers shooting cormorants for sport off the west Wales coast and others amused by her comment that "the bathing is excessively well conducted here" when we are so free with our bathing attire today. We also may sit back and feel relieved that modern comforts, modern health and modern social care were absent to all, even those who lived privileged lives.

The purpose of this Blog

We shall follow Lucy’s journey, page by page, in our blog. With your help, advice and local knowledge we hope to bring Lucy's diary alive and make it relevant to the world we live in today by adding more information, more pictures and gaining more insight into Lucy’s world.

On the first anniversary of the double centenary of their departure, Sunday 21st June 2020, Gunnersbury Park Museum will be hosting an open day in celebration of the Copland family, who built the present building. Lucy’s diary will, with your assistance, provide an opportunity to demonstrate the dramatic changes to society and the environment, positive and negative, over the last 200 years.