James West FRS (1703–1772) A manuscript journal of two tours...

James West FRS (1703–1772) A manuscript journal of two tours through England and Wales, 1734 and 1736. Including an early inventory of the paintings at Cowdray House, West Sussex; with accounts of country houses, collections, antiquities, industry and Matthias Buchinger &c. &c. Small octavo manuscript travel journal and antiquarian commonplace book, unsigned, but almost certainly written by James West. Recording extensive tours through England and Wales in 1734 and 1736. Pp.104 of manuscript, with occasional blank pages interspersed, followed by approximately fifty blank leaves. Contemporary blind ruled vellum over boards, fore edge metal clasps; the vellum somewhat soiled and marked, with slight bowing to the boards. Written in a generally clear contemporary hand, with occasional corrections, marginal notes, staining and show-through. A remarkable record of travel, reflecting an industrious and inquisitive mind; combining daily entries with descriptions of towns, churches, cathedrals, country houses, gardens, libraries, collections, industries and public institutions; together with lists of paintings, sculpture, antiquities, coins and inscriptions, and later bibliographical and antiquarian memoranda. The earlier journey begins on 2 August 1734 and proceeds from Islington through Barnet and St Albans, where the writer saw the Duchess of Marlborough's house and almshouses and examined Mr Bettle's collection of Roman coins, including "a silver Carausius very fair," many reportedly found locally; Beechwood, the seat of Sir Thomas Sebright, with its library and extensive gardens; Whaddon Hall, where Browne Willis showed him an original portrait of Dr Willis; Stowe, with its lake, gardens and Persian pavilion designed by William Kent; Rousham; Great Tew; Stow-on-the-Wold; Gloucester; Monmouth; Raglan Castle; Pontypool; Caerleon; Newport; Cardiff; Caerphilly; Llandaff; Hereford; Ludlow; Shrewsbury; and numerous smaller towns and estates. He pays close attention to regional commerce and manufacture, particularly the clothing towns and the production of superfine cloth at Trowbridge and Beckington, which he calls "a good Clothing place"; records the ironworks at Pontypool and the machinery by which iron was drawn or rolled; and remarks upon roads, bridges, water supplies, charities, schools, inns, churches and the relative prosperity of their inhabitants. At Hereford on 16 August he witnessed the celebrated German born artist and performer Matthias Buchinger—born without hands or feet—execute his "inimitable exploits of writing & drawing"; he records that Buchinger's pen was valued at five guineas and that he purchased from him a handwritten pedigree and another specimen for one guinea. The tour also contains observations upon Roman remains and inscriptions at Caerleon, industrial processes, engineering, natural and artificial curiosities, and the condition and operation of schools, hospitals and charitable foundations. The second tour, undertaken from 8 August to 30 September 1736, runs from London through Bromley, Sevenoaks, Knole, Tunbridge Wells and Penshurst; Lewes, Brighthelmstone, New Shoreham, Bramber and Steyning; Arundel, Petworth, Midhurst, Cowdray, Chichester and Goodwood; Portsmouth, Portchester, Southwick, Bishop's Waltham and Winchester; Stockbridge, Salisbury, Wilton, Wimborne St Giles and Shaftesbury; Blandford, Dorchester, Bridport, Honiton and Exeter; Wellington, Taunton, Bridgwater and Glastonbury; Shepton Mallet, Mells, Frome, Rode and Bath; and homeward through Corsham, Calne, Marlborough, Highworth, Fairford, Burford, Charlbury, Cornbury, Woodstock, Banbury and Bodicote. Particularly valuable are the writer's accounts of the large clothing trade at Shepton Mallet and the commercial communities of Frome and other western towns; Portsmouth dockyard, naval fortifications and academy; Blandford's rebuilding after the fire; the post roads and coaching stages; and local elections, patronage and alleged corruption at Steyning, Stockbridge, Honiton and Exeter. Throughout both journeys he identifies the houses visited and the people who received or guided him, among them Browne Willis, Lord Cobham, Sir Thomas Sebright, Judge Probyn, Major Hanbury, bishops and cathedral clergy, local antiquaries, collectors, merchants, mayors, schoolmasters and members of the aristocratic families whose seats he inspected. The manuscript is especially rich in descriptions of private collections and works of art. An introductory note describes a picture of Thomas Lord Cromwell, seated upon a wainscot bench with a Bible or parchment before him, attributed to Hans Holbein and then at Lord Aston's house at Standon; elsewhere the writer records portraits and historical pictures at Hampton Court and other houses, including works or likenesses associated with Holbein, Sir Godfrey Kneller, the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and Henry IV and his family. Several collections are described room by room, with the names of sitters, subjects and artists where known. The concluding antiquarian notes include lists of drawings after paintings, sculpture and antiquities in Roman palaces and villas—including the Villa Borghese, Palazzo Farnese, Villa Medici and other collections—together with numerical inventories of busts, statues and bas-reliefs, references to drawings by Ciferri, Caldani and Campiglia, and copies of Latin inscriptions seen or recorded at the Vatican, Ravenna and elsewhere. These notes suggest a sustained interest not merely in sightseeing but in connoisseurship, numismatics, archaeology, engineering and the practical sciences. West's detailed inventory of the paintings at Cowdray closely anticipates Richard Gough's later account, which drew its descriptions of the smaller paintings from "a MS. paper, delivered into the Society by Dr. Stukely." Written in 1736, West's record predates both Sir Joseph Ayloffe's account by nearly forty years and Gough's publication by sixty years; see Sir Joseph Ayloffe, 'An Account of Some Ancient English Historical Paintings at Cowdry', Archaeologia, III (1775), pp. 239–272; Richard Gough, 'Notes accompanying plates 33–37', Vetusta Monumenta, III (1796).

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