English women and written culture at the first third of the XIXth century: “diary of a tour in Sweden, Norway and Russia in 1827” by Lady E. Mary Grosvenor

ENGLISH WOMEN AND WRITTEN CULTURE AT THE FIRST THIRD OF THE XIXTH CENTURY: “DIARY OF A TOUR IN SWEDEN, NORWAY AND RUSSIA IN 1827” BY LADY E. MARY GROSVENOR. BY ALICIA MARCHANT RIVERA, UNIVERSITY OF MÁLAGA (SPAIN). VISITING FELLOW AT CHAWTON IN AUGUST 2014. Lady Elizabeth Leveson-Gower was born in 1797. She was the younger daughter of George Leveson-Gower, the first Duke of Sutherland, and Elizabeth Sutherland Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland, also 19th Countess of Sutherland. Richard Grosvenor, second Marquess of Westminster, married her in 1819. They had thirteen children, ten of whom survived into adulthood and three of whom lived into their nineties1. My first interest in Lady E. Mary Grosvenor, Marchioness of Westminster, was related to her work titled Narrative of a yacht voyage in the Mediterranean during the years 1840-1841; there she dedicates some words to the English cemetery at Málaga helping us -Foundation of the English Cemetery at Málagato build the historiography about this beautiful place, among the texts by other women writers from the epoch like Olive Patch, Margaret Thomas or Valérie di Gasparin: “The protestant cemetery is about a quarter of an hour’s walk from the mole, near the sea; it is small but prettily laid out with plants and flowers. It was a matter of great difficulty to get even this small piece of ground conceded by the Spanish government, and it was at last granted at the intercession of the English consul, Mr. Mark. This burial place was much to be desired, for before it was obtained the bodies were buried anywhere upon the sea-shore. It is neatly walled in and the first body was interred there in 1831”2. 1) Place of burial of Annie Plews, one of the most famous iconography in our cemetery. 2) Funeral monument to William Mark, founder of the British Cemetery at Málaga and British Consul in 1830. 1 Newton, Diana; Lumby, Jonathan (2002), The Grosvenors of Eaton, Eccleston, Cheshire: Jennet Publications, pp. 25–26. Huxley, Gervas, Lady Elizabeth and the Grosvenors: Life in a Whig Family, 1822-1839, Oxford University Press, 1965. 2 Grosvenor, Lady E. Mary, Narrative of a yacht voyage in the Mediterranean during the years 18401841, London: John Murray, 1842, p. 143. My interest now is, as we can find more information about Lady Elizabeth’s mother, father and husband than about her -printed and on line documentary sources-, we can establish that she is, in many aspects, an unknown woman yet (her books have not been translated into Spanish, for example).The first aim will be to create and complete a biobibliography about Lady Elizabeth Mary Grosvenor, using different historical sources as her own voyage books or publications like The Spectator and other similar ones (Gervas Huxley uses, above all, the information included in her personal letters and diaries, but we can also compile more information from other contemporary sources). Above all, I am interested in what other people -public and privatethought about her. The Spectator (07/02/1880)3 provides us announcements about Lady Elizabeth’s voyage books, like this one belonging to Diary of a tour in Sweden, Norway and Russia in 1827: Other information from The Spectator is related to her friendship and relationship with the Queen Victoria (April, 8, 1854): We can also find some interesting news about Lady Elizabeth’s tendency to help in maternal health and cultural matters: “The New Hospital for Women has received £ 1oo under the will of Mr. Daniel Box, of Streatham, and £50 from "S. 0. S." The Marchioness of Westminster has given £30, additional, to the Royal Hospital for Women and Children”4. 3 Periodicals Archive Online, http://search.proquest.com/pao 4 The British Medical Journal, 9 September 1882. Other newspapers, like The Nation (May, 20, 1916), also provide us some notices about Lady Elizabeth Mary Grosvenor´s mother, the Duchess of Sutherland, and her taste for writing, inherited by her daughter and shared by other women at that time, like the own Queen Victoria: The second aim would be to find evidences in Diary of a tour in Sweden, Norway and Russia in 1827 related to Lady Elizabeth Mary’s thought about writing and written culture in her social context. In the prologue of the work, she establishes the difference between diary and letters: “The following short diary consists of literal extracts from one kept by me at the time of our Tour, and of letters of the same period addressed to relations at home. I have thought it better to give both, though necessarily involving some repetition, as the letters are often more ample than the Journal, while the latter preserves the sequence of events”5. We can observe by reading her book that she is interested in History and tries to build little biographies by means of the footnotes in the Diary: “Wednesday morning, 18th.-I have got up early, being awakened by a fly who comes regularly to torment me (...) It was all very pleasant, and we were charmed with the King himself*, who has better manners than anybody I ever saw(...)* This King was Charles XIV, the ablest of Napoleon’s marshals. He was elected Crown Prince in 1810”6. We also reach to know throughout her diary when and how she writes, what kind of books she reads: “We came home exhausted and hungry at a little before seven, dined at half past seven, passed the evening in paying our bills, writing this journal etc...”7. 5 Preface of Diary of a tour in Sweden, Norway and Russia in 1827, London: Hurst and Blackett, 1879. 6 Diary of Tour in Sweden..., p. 120. 7 Diary of a Tour in Sweden..., p. 21. “Monday October 22´nd._ The Hereditary Grand Duchess having very kindly arranged that we should pay Göthe a visit, the poet wrote that he would receive us at eleven...”8 Finally, as a part of a searching project carried out by DUODA in Spain -Professor María Milagros Rivera Garretas-, we will try to project on Lady Elizabeth Mary’s work the theory related to the “Living History” -sustained by Marirí Martinengo, Luisa Muraro,...-, who continue those former studies about women produced by Jane Austen: “The true history is one that expresses love, not just the data sources traditionally considered historic, and that love is expressed by narrating history which results from the implacable dialogue between the female historian and the relation (with a person, with an issue, with a question, with a desire) which are at the origin of her vocation as a historian”9. 8Diary of a Tour..., p. 284. 9 Fiona Geuβ, “Alex Martinis Roe, A story from Circolo della rosa”. http://www.fionageuss.net/2014/09/alex-martinis-roe-a-story-from-circolo-della-rosa/