A Tale of Two Journeys

The Fry diaries: France and Belgium in the early 1800s. Joseph Fry, husband of the famous Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth, visited Paris in 1814 after a carriage tour through Belgium. His diary of the trip gives a lively insight into early 19th century tourism. An eager, engaging traveller, he delights in personalities and landscapes, art and absurdities. The second of the 'two journeys' was to Normandy in 1827. This time it is Joseph's daughter Katharine who is the diarist, travelling with her young brother and sister. As well as inns and cathedrals, falaise castle and the Bayeux tapestry, her account takes in hospitals, a school, a lunatic asylum and a brace of gaols- until all her attention is demanded by her sister's sudden illness in Caen.