Tuesday Tuesday 7th September 1819
Tuesday Sept 7th Left Inverness after breakfast & proceeded to Beauly through a pretty & fertile country while the horses were resting we walked to the Abbey a pretty ruin in the interior are several tombstones some of which appear to be ancient we then advanced to Dingwall the surrounding country is very wooded & several gentlemens seats
form a pretty variety Dingwall is a pretty small town with a tolerable good Inn.
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Beauly is the site of the Beauly Priory, or the Priory Church of the Blessed Virgin and John the Baptist, founded in 1230 by John Byset and also the site of Lovat Castle, which once belonged to the Bissets, but was presented by James VI, to Hugh Fraser, 5th Lord Lovat and later demolished. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauly
Beauly Priory was a monastic community located probably founded in 1230. The French monks, along with Bisset (a nearby, recently settled landowner), had a strong enough French-speaking presence to give the location and the river the name "beau lieu" ("beautiful place") and have it pass into English.
2004: Beauly Priory, Scotland, by Wojsyl, the copyright holder of this work, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scotland_Beauly_Priory_2.jpg
2004: Beauly Priory, Scotland, by Wojsyl, the copyright holder of this work, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scotlan_Beauly_Priory.jpg
In August 1818 John Keats and his friend Charles Brown stopped at Beauly on their way to Cromarty. Their visit produced a collaborative poem, On Some Skulls in Beauley Abbey, near Inverness, written early in August 1818 or possibly some weeks or months later. The majority of the lines are by Brown. Keats contributed the first line of the poem and the first four words of the second line, and three stanzas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauly_Priory
Dingwall lies near the head of the Cromarty Firth. In the early Middle Ages Dingwall was reputed to have the largest castle north of Stirling. On the top of Knockfarrel, a hill about three miles (5 km) to the west, stands a large and very complete vitrified fort with ramparts. The 18th-century town house, and some remains of the ancient mansion of the once powerful earls of Ross, still exist. An obelisk, 51 feet (16 m) high, was erected over the grave of Sir George Mackenzie, 1st Earl of Cromartie, near the parish church of St Clement. It was affected by subsidence, becoming known as the "Leaning Tower", and was replaced by a much smaller replica in the early years of the 20th century but even this is now a dangerous structure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingwall
Dingwall as the “pretty small town” would have appeared to Lucy:
1824: The Town of Dingwall, by John Heaviside Clark, artist and engraver, from Clark's Views in Scotland, published by Smith & Elder, Fenchurch St, London http://www.rareoldprints.com/z/16054
Dingwall as the town is today:
2005: View of the eastern part of Dingwall, looking towards the Cromarty Firth by Peter Reynolds, the copyright holder of this file, who allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dingwall.jpg
Inn not located
Can you help us?
Dingwall Inn: We would love to know what hotels/Inns were operating in 1819. At least Lucy thought it was tolerably good!
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?