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Item Number: 125636
Title: Letters from Abroad : The Grand Tour Correspondence of Richard Pococke & Jeremiah Miles, Volume 3: Letters from the East (1737-41)
Author: Finnegan, Rachel (ed)
Price: Not Available
ISBN: 9780956905826
Description: Piltown: Pococke Press, 2013. 21cm., pbk., 336pp., 15 illus. Summary: Volume 3 (final volume of the series) reproduces all the letters from Pococke to his mother written from his first trip to Egypt, from the Holy Land, Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, Crete, Turkey and mainland Greece, together with selected letters (and excerpts) from him to his uncle, the Bishop of Waterford & Lismore. Excerpts from letters sent to his mother from his second trip to Egypt, together with places in Europe visited on his return journey, are included where they are of particular interest to his life, including his church career, his family and his later reputation as a traveller. The reader is directed to Volumes 1 & 2 of this series for a fuller account of Pococke's travels in Europe. Though the eastern voyage was the highlight of Pococke's foreign travels, and involved a considerable degree of planning, he managed to keep it from his anxious mother right up until two days before he boarded the ship from Leghorn [Livorno] to Alexandria. The letter in which he related this news is dated 6/17 September, 1737 (and is reproduced as Letter 27 in Volume 2) though of course it would not have reached her for another two or three weeks. As gradually revealed in certain letters, Pococke was meant to have been joined on this part of his travels by his cousin Jeremiah Milles, and with the full knowledge and support of Bishop Milles; but sadly for both travellers, Milles was obliged to return to Ireland early, on account of his uncle's poor health. It is this part of his travels that brought Pococke immediate and lasting fame, since two years after his return he published his "pioneering" book, A Description of the East, in two volumes (1743 & 45). In addition to offering a unique collection of 167 engravings (views, architectural line drawings, maps and plans), many of which have been recognised as anticipating the works of later writers such as James "Athenian" Stuart, Nicholas Revett and Richard Chandler, Pococke's book provides a scholarly account of the his observations while travelling in the "Sultan's dominions" and is one of the earliest such examples of this type of study. In its scholarly historical, geographical and anthropological interest it very much resembles the collection of letters from Pococke to his uncle and patron, Bishop Milles. By contrast, the larger collection of correspondence to his mother offers a more intimate description of daily events in his travels, including fascinating details about his dress, his "whiskers" (or beard), his social activities, his travel arrangements (including frequent bribes made to the Ottoman officials) and of course endless descriptions of eastern customs and cuisine. In keeping with the letters to his mother reproduced in Volumes 1 & 2 of this series, the correspondence printed in this Volume 3 once again offers us an alternative view to that of Mrs. Delany that Pococke was "the dullest man that ever travelled".
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