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Auction: 26066 - Historical Documents, Autographs and Ephemera
Lot: 1192

Great Britain
Peninsular War
Travel journal of a young civilian war tourist
1812 The journal of Richard Edward Digby (1782-1820) of Geashill, King's County (Offaly), written over 100 sides in a red leather travel sketchbook, titled by him "Richard E. Digby, Monday morning, First June 1812, George Inn, Portsmouth" at the start of his travels.
A vivid and exciting narrative, with related pen and ink sketches, written by a 30 year old Irishman and amateur engineer, with detailed descriptions of his journey from Portsmouth to Portugal and Spain, particularly in and around Lisbon during the Peninsular War, from being confronted by wolves to engaging local young ladies in conversation (despite disparaging their looks); inspecting British and Allied lines and fortifications; the abbeys and churches of Portugal, the terrain travelled and privations and luxuries encountered, with the beauty and desolution of abandoned royal palaces. He enjoys generous hospitality and encounters remarkable and memorable characters.
When held up on the road to Cadiz by banditti he is "plundered, rifled and left bound in the thickest part of the forest" 172 miles from "safety of a friend in the world." He then hires boats to travel along the border with Spain and stays in Hill's Hotel in Cadiz under bombardment by the French "but we have brought news that will vex them, a total defeat of Marmont (at the Battle of Salamanca) for which all the ships and batterys (sic) here are firing in great style." Digby notes that a single toll of the great bell at Cadiz is "the signal to the inhabitants to be on their guard. And yesterday it tolled in signal of a shell that very shell fell precisely upon it and shivered it to atoms." At the time Cadiz served as the temporary seat of the Spanish Government while the French Army held much of the region under siege.
31st July 1812 "this morning a gentleman was killed in his own house next door to and within 6 yards of Mr Wellesley's own bed..." A reference to Henry Wellesley, brother to the Duke of Wellington and acting British Ambassador to Spain.
There are descriptions of Wellington's latest victories and the notorious escape of General Philippon (who broke his parole as a prisoner of war), dining with Wellesley and aboard HMS Revenge with Admiral Legge.

The journal appears to be unpublished and is a rare survival, giving an important insight into the Siege of Cadiz by one of the first "war tourists" of the modern age. While the Napoleonic wars prevented traditional travel to France and Italy, upper-class British and Irish civilians turned to the Iberian Peninsula, made accessible by British military dominance in the region.
Richard Digby later married Mary L'Estrange and died of consumption aged 38 in 1820.
(10x19x3.5cm)

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Estimate
£400 to £500

Starting price
£350