File NLW MS 24023A. - Journal of a Tour in Wales and Ireland

A commonplace book containing a copy, [?1812] (watermark 1808), of a journal of a picturesque tour in Wales and Ireland, 11 July-23 August 1812, probably written by William Osmund Hammond of St. Alban's Court, Nonington, Kent, describing scenery and points of interest, the weather, towns, people, inns, food, local customs and legends (ff. 17-148 verso).
The writer travelled by carriage in the company of his brother Maximilian [Hammond, later Dalison]. Departing from London on 11 July, the itinerary included Cheltenham and Gloucester (ff. 20-27), the lower Wye Valley (ff. 28-45), Brecon (ff. 49-52), Llandovery (ff. 53-54), Lampeter (ff. 58-60), Cardigan (ff. 61-62), Aberystwyth (ff. 65-71), Dolgellau (ff. 74-75) and Caernarfon (ff. 81-87), reaching Holyhead on 28 July (f. 87). In Ireland they stayed in Dublin (ff. 93-97), then travelled through County Wicklow (ff. 97-111) to Waterford (ff. 115-122) and Cork (ff. 123-126), reaching Killarney (ff. 128-148 verso) on 20 August. Included in the volume are descriptions of boat trips on the Wye from Ross-on-Wye to Chepstow (ff. 29-42) and around the Lakes of Killarney (ff. 131 verso-148 verso), the voyage from Holyhead to Dún Laoghaire (ff. 89-92), visits to a pin factory in Gloucester (ff. 22-24) and the glass blowing factory in Waterford (ff. 121 recto-verso), Goodrich Castle, Herefordshire (ff. 30-33), Tintern Abbey (ff. 38-41), Devil's Bridge, Cardiganshire (ff. 66-70), Snowdonia (ff. 78-80, 86), Caernarfon Castle (ff. 83-85) and Glendalough, County Wicklow (ff. 101-107). The Hammonds, and their friends and neighbours the Plumptres of Fredville (see ff. 20-21, 25), were acquaintances of Jane Austen (see Jane Austen's Letters, 4th edn, ed. by Deirdre Le Faye (Oxford, 2011), pp. 530, 562).