Tag: George Borrow

  • An anatomy of early Welsh tourism

    An anatomy of early Welsh tourism

    How many tourists visiting Wales today, I wonder, ever think about their early predecessors?  I mean those who first arrived, in surprisingly large numbers, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.  How many are aware that these travellers, rather than composing Instagram posts, blogs and TikTok videos, would most likely have busied themselves drawing…

  • Father Toban, the greatest scholar in the world

    Father Toban, the greatest scholar in the world

    It’s late summer, 1854.  George Borrow, walking around Wales, has arrived at Holyhead.  He stays overnight at the ‘Railway Hotel’ – reluctantly, because he detests railroads and never takes a train if he can do the same journey on foot.  In the morning he explores the town and then finds himself on the breakwater at…