Footnotes

AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF AN ANTIQUARIAN TOUR OF WALES, undertaken by Sir Francis Palgrave, first Keeper of the Public Record Office, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of the banker, botanist, antiquary and manuscript collector Dawson Turner. She, in common with her sisters, had studied watercolour-drawing, first under John Crome and then, from 1812 to 1823, under John Sell Cotman; the present drawings being very much in the manner of those produced by Cotman on the antiquarian tours of Normandy and elsewhere sponsored by Turner. The half-morocco boards are characteristic of the style favoured by Turner when binding up his celebrated collection of MSS (as Munby notes in his study of Turner and Upcott as collectors, The Cult of the Autograph Letter in England, he somewhat disconcertingly even subjected the condolence letters received on the death of his first wife, Elizabeth's mother, to this treatment).

In her letters, Elizabeth furnishes a running commentary of their tour: "We left St David's, with regret, for no place can have more interest in the past, & the relics of that past make it also full of charm in the present state of the strangely desolated city & the ruined buildings – The latter too not being in anyway made a shew of, only left in their sad desolation, & beautified by the fine turf, the mantling ivy & the abundant & splendid wild flowers... Last year a party of young [...] went there to read, & before they left St David's they subscribed £250 amongst them, where with a new Gothic rood loft out of carved wood has been erected above the old stone screen which divides the nave from the Choir of the Cathedral, strangely out of character as well as most utterly useless, & a ship load of new caustic tiles is also daily expected to replace the old pavement in the same part of the Cathedral. It seems very conceited, but I wish I might have advised these good youths how to lay out their money". Her husband, in his letters, holds forth on matters antiquarian ("...Notwithstanding the multitude of Welsh tours and Welsh guides the history of these Counties still remains to be written, and St David's alone would furnish material for a volume..."), refers with pride to Elizabeth's sketches, and lets slip: "I expect that the State Paper office will be transferred to me – The plan has been long under consideration; and I am glad to say, without any suggestions or urging of my own" (this refers to the Treasury Minute of 8 August 1848 that directed incorporation of the State Paper Office into Palgrave's Public Record Office).