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Personal diaries, 1892-1949, which include detailed accounts of his years in retirement at Barmouth, Merionethshire, from 1939 and subsequently at Ty'n y Ceunant, Islaw'r dref, Dolgellau; draft notebooks, 1895-1946, containing records of appointments, activities and descriptions of holiday visits, including many to Wales, detailed accounts of ascents of Cadair Idris, Merionethshire, and other British mountains, including Snowdon, Elidir Fach and Elidir Fawr in Caernarfonshire, and Pumlumon, Cardiganshire; registers of correspondence, 1939-1940, 1943-1944; a register of snapshots [which are not part of the archive], 1906-1940; a volume of statistics of his mountain ascents, holiday travels, and walks, 1892-1951, and family papers (including some relating to L. W. Brown of Bath), 1846-1926.

Tour journal, 1835-1837, of Joseph Gurney Barclay, banker and astronomer, containing accounts of tours of parts of England, 1836, and of North Wales, 1837.
The English tour, 16 March-7 April 1836 (pp. 1-33), consists of Barclay's journey from London, via Matlock and Wakefield, to Darlington, mostly in the company of his second cousin Samuel Gurney, mainly to visit members of their extended, interlinked families of fellow Quaker bankers and philanthropists, the Leatham family in Wakefield, including the brothers William Henry and [John] Arthington Leatham (pp. 14-24), and the Backhouse and Pease families in Darlington, notably Jonathan Backhouse and Joseph Pease, MP (pp. 26-31). On the Welsh tour, 26 [recte 25] July-[9] August 1837 (pp. 33-106), Barclay travelled with his father and four sisters in a Britzka from London to Gloucestershire, explored the lower Wye Valley (pp. 45-47), then journeyed north via Brecon, Rhayader, Aberystwyth, Machynlleth, Dolgellau, Harlech, Tremadog, Llanberis, Bangor and Beaumaris, ending in Conway (pp. 103-106). Barclay describes the scenery of Matlock, Derbyshire (pp. 6-9); a visit to the naturalist and explorer Charles Waterton at Walton Hall, Wakefield (pp. 16-19); a railway journey from Darlington to Middlesbrough with his uncle, Joseph Pease (pp. 29-30); a visit to Devil's Bridge, Cardiganshire (pp. 53-57); the ascent of Cader Idris (pp. 61-69) and an excursion to see waterfalls on the River Mawddach (pp. 70-77), both in the company of local guide Robert Pugh; and the ascent of Snowdon (pp. 93-97). Also included is a short account of the wildlife of Wales, as described to him by Robert Pugh (pp. 169-172). A small pen and ink sketch of the summit of Snowdon is on p. 95. An almanac for 1835 is bound into the volume (pp. 181-196, inverted text).

Travel journal, [late 1790s] (watermark 1796), of Richard Cust [stationer and gentleman naturalist, of Westminster and Carlisle], containing his 'Observations on the Picturesque Scenery of North Wales in the Autumn of the year 1783' (ff. 7-73 passim), together with thirteen monochrome wash watercolours of landscapes viewed (ff. 15, 16, 23, 25, 26, 28, 35, 41, 42, 46, 47, 49, 50). The journal primarily describes Cust's impressions of the scenery in terms of the ideals of the picturesque and the sublime; the entries are undated.
As explained in the introductory section (ff. 2-5) the Observations were transcribed by Cust from his original 1783 travel journal, with the illustrations being based on brief sketches. Cust and his unnamed companion(s) travelled by coach from London (f.7) to Llangollen (ff. 8 verso-9), then via Conwy (f. 10) and Bangor (f. 13) to Anglesey (ff. 13 verso-17 verso) and Caernarfon (ff. 19 recto-verso, 22 recto-verso). From there they went on excursions up Snowdon (ff. 24-34 passim) and to [Aberglaslyn] (ff. 34 recto-verso, 37-38) and Llanbenys [Llanberis] (ff. 39-40 verso, 43 recto-verso, 44 verso-51 passim, 54-55 verso), before returning to Conwy (ff. 57 recto-verso, 59-61 verso) and Llangollen (ff. 64-65 verso, 68-69, 70 verso, 72-73). There are descriptions of the castles at Caernarfon (ff. 19 recto-verso, 22 recto-verso), Dolbadarn (ff. 40 verso, 43, 55) and Conwy (ff. 57 recto-verso, 59-60); four of the watercolours also depict Dolbadarn Castle (ff. 41, 42, 46, 47), the others are mostly views of mountains and rocky outcrops. The narrative is incomplete and breaks off after a description of the River Dee at Llangollen (f. 73); additionally, eleven pages have been left blank to provide space for further illustrations (ff. 20, 21, 29, 32, 36, 53, 56, 58, 66, 67, 71, usually with indicative captions written in pencil on the otherwise blank versos).