HANDWRITTEN DIARY OF A YOUNG WOMAN'S TRAVELS IN WESTERN EUROPE BETWEEN THE WORLD WARS, JUNE 5-AUGUST 22, 1927 by Farquhar, Alice M - 1927

1927. Original manuscript. Hardcover. Very Good. Contains 72pp of neat holograph entries in ink, in a diary labeled "My Trip Abroad." Also present are pp: (6) color illus of funnels, signal flags, etc., (14) printed nautical matter, (7) blank, (3) hotel list, (12) blank, (2) addresses (4) filled in accounts of cash spent, thumb-indexed address section, partly used, including other data: "what we learned", notes on activities, list of travelers checks cashed, etc., large folding color world map at rear. Laid in are two typewritten sheets: "Friends (Quaker) Centers" where "you will find people who can put you in contact with individuals, groups and institutions important in education, social and spiritual movements in these countries"; and "reasonable hotels" in three countries, with 13 listed for Switzerland (all "called Christlichen Hospize"), a note on Germany for the same chain saying they're "in almost every city", and a list of six non-Christian hotels in Paris. // ITINERARY: Alice begins her journey aboard the S.S. Regina (White Star Line), sailing out from New York on June 5, and where she and her companions "discovered to our delight that we had a large four-berth stateroom all alone.... Owing to the typhoid scare there is a small sailing, only about 200 passengers." These include "yacht club men...en route to the Henley rowing match", but the boat is also "infested by tours." When the "tourist passengers all come up for air," they had "all the best places on the top deck." // By June 18, the ship docks in Scotland, and Alice takes a bus to Glasgow. She stays in the area several days, including a side trip through the Trossachs, Loch Lomond and Loch Sinnhe areas, etc., and she wishes she had reread [Sir Walter] Scott before going. She sails down the Clyde, spotting "two warships in the bay, the last of the British fleet which was all along from Clyde on." At Inverness, she sees "lots of kiltie soldiers around, some with plaid long trousers, some B v. D plaids." In Aberdeen, she "saw three squads of Highland soldiers march to church, leopards skin, pipes and all." She also "called on Dad's old friends Alexander and Jim Porter, Farquharson's store...Cumings' store where called up Duckie" and arranged to meet her and go to Lady Simpson's garden party where there was "much athletic dancing on the lawn." Cummings "drove us to Old Echt" and to "Dunecht House" (now owned by Viscount Courtney) because "Great-grandfather used to be gardener there....Evidently he bossed the ranch and yet was a great favorite....through the garden where 17 men are being kept busy...the house where grandfather brought up Father most attractive with slate roof and cute windows. Went through the graveyard..." Then she called at "Maitlands and read a diary Dad wrote 48 years ago when on a three-month sail to New Zealand...about 175 passengers" and notes that someone (Maitland?) is "the second of Dad's old girls we've met." // The Scotland leg of the journey (the longest) continues, and there are visits to Balmoral ("not as pretentious as Dunecht House"), Edinburgh, including the "new War Memorial to be opened soon by the Prince of Wales", and St. Andrews. On to Ireland, where she "will no more kiss that greasy [Blarney] stone than fly." In Dublin, she notices "many new buildings where old ones were blown up. People very against deValera of Spanish blood and they claim paid by the crown to settle things." She has her first "bed bug experience" on the boat to England, followed up a day later by a flea in Leamington Spa which "chawed me all night." // In England, Alice sightsees in Oxford, "Shakespeare Country", and of course London, where she sees a "royal group" go by near Buckingham Palace, including the Duke of York, the future King George VI, and his wife: "He was full of real charm, better looking than the Prince but with the same winning smile and she looked very sweet." She proceeds to Holland (Amsterdam, Vollendam, the Hague, etc.) and she offers much description of native costume there. Then on to Germany (Heidelberg, Weisbaden, Cologne) for only a few days. Switzerland is next (Interlaken, Lucerne, etc.) and her descriptions of its beauties are numerous. She picks up the Simplon Orient Express (competed 1919), "a crack sleeper between Greece and Paris" and heads for Italy, through the lake country to Milan. From Milan, she goes on to Venice and Florence, where she sees an "Italian funeral...huge floral pieces, band, men in dirty white aprons and hands called servitors, carried casket." Rome is next, where there is an audience with the Pope ("very simple, spoke specially to three poor peasant boys, very few Americans"), and side drives ("in two seven-passenger Fiats") to Pompeii, Amalfi, Sorrento, and Capri. She entrains for the Italian Riviera and Monaco, then travels to Nice ("many forest fires all over, much damage") and Avignon, before winding up in Paris. She sightsees there, tours the battlefields, takes side trips to Versailles, etc., and leaves for Cherbourg on the "boat train" on August 27th. Alice briefly mentions her sail home, including rough seas and the fact that the S.S. Leviathan "nearly ran into us" in the fog. Her father picks her up at Englewood, NJ, and Alice's diary ends. June 6, 1927-August 27, 1927. Diarist Alice M. Farquhar is traveling with 7-10 people. Alice is probably an East-coast girl, since on her return from Europe, she is met by her father in Englewood, NJ. She is of Scottish ancestry and meets family friends in various Scottish cities. She is a meticulous diarist, and offers long descriptions and historical background for the sights she sees in Scotland, Ireland, England, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Monaco, Germany, and Italy. Her modes of travel while abroad are numerous, ranging from trains (including a "new pullman" one in Ireland), busses (private and public), streetcars, and "private taxis" and autos, to the Simplon Orient Express, boats, charabancs, a 10-passenger car, an "Irish jaunting car", and a "four-horse 'talliho' for 10." // Alice's diary includes references to WWI and its aftermath, as well as a passing reference to Ireland's "troubles". She visits the site of the as-yet-unopened War Memorial in Edinburgh, and notes the presence of the "last of the British fleet" in Scotland. In Brussels, she documents that "everything looks rather down in the heels except the lace curtains." She also sees there "the biggest building in the world, which the Germans ruined by driving horses up the steps, melting all fixtures, using lovely tapestries for targets." She talks to two Belgians on the train to Cologne, and "got them started on German atrocities....Guess they weren't exaggerated." In Heidelberg, on the other hand, although the prices are "high", she "saw no evidence that they lost the war, and while hotel people were friendly, [I] had a feeling we weren't exactly popular with them." In France, Alice visits the battlefields "Chateau-Thierry, Vimy Ridge, hill 204, dugouts, blasted trees, etc. and saddest of all, many ruined buildings and temporary wooden houses without heat, still used." Rheims Cathedral is only "partly rebuilt." // Alice's journal also foreshadows European unrest to come. In Venice, she sees a "fascisti boy parade", and on the train to Florence, there is "excitement when Southern boy threw bottle out of window and it broke and came in on two of us, breaking Diane's glasses and striking her in the face. Many police, soldiers, etc. Government men on train had her sign she was ok. Wanted to arrest the whole Southern crowd...." Then in France, there is a 10 p.m. "demonstration by the communists [which] gave us a fright...yelling...hissing and singing the [Inter]National[e]. Hotel barricaded doors, drove all Americans upstairs, lights out and guards on various floors...Promise trouble for the Legion." The next day (August 24), there is "grand clearing out of Americans. Hear crowd rushed American consulate, Follies, and sightseeing bases....No going out evenings anywhere the rest of our stay and no busses out." // Alice may be somewhat priggish (or simply a creature of her times) regarding foreign cultures. For example, she is "surprised by the artistic ability of the Scotch"; is shocked by Edinburgh's "High St. with its squalid closes and lots of dirty children"; and notes in Cork that the "town is poor and untidy and streets full of bums and shawled girls. At dinner about 30 large pigs were driven by down the street." She's learned, she adds, that "the Irish always smile and agree with you, then do as they please. Most aggravating." She also writes of the Dutch Isle of Marken, where the inhabitants are "Dutch Reform instead of Catholic and so much intermarried they're very stupid-looking." In Florence, she is "much surprised at the cleanliness of all the people and that so many are fair," and she finds Monte Carlo full of "typical seedy gamblers and terrible women." The Follies Bergere in Paris features "much naked women, bad air, all Americans, but sumptuous scenic effect. Ahead of us [Americans] only in scenic effect-dancing, cleverness and music not so good." //.