'My Determined Love for Being Abroad’ British Women Travelling On the Continent Between 1780 and 1840

Abstract

This thesis examines British women travelling on the Continent between 1780 and 1840. It argues that the repeated and extensive journeys of these women have much to tell us of their social and economic circumstances and their aspirations for a higher level of education, financial independence and social advancement. Using the personal papers and published works of a variety of these women, this thesis investigates in detail at what age they started and completed their travels, where they went and with whom. A few of these women published travel accounts, but it is mostly from manuscript journals, diaries, letters and extracts of these papers published after their deaths, where the evidence of their prolific travelling is to be found. Their achievement as travellers was mostly overlooked, criticised as unpatriotic or denigrated by their contemporaries, and until now little attention has been paid to them in the secondary sources. Over the course of five thematically structured chapters, this thesis investigates the multifaceted nature of their travels, their reasons for going abroad and effects of doing so. By exploring change over time in individual travellers it will be possible to identify their motivation to continue their journeying, which has not previously been studied.