Manuscript diary kept by Anne Fletcher recording two extended trips, primarily on the European continent, taken with her husband Jacob, from 1844 to 1845 and 1854 to 1855. The diary begins on May 1, 1844, the wedding day of Anne and Jacob Fletcher. The newlyweds travel to London for the first part of their long honeymoon. There, the couple visits Covent Garden Market, Adelaide Gallery, the British Museum, Surrey Zoological Gardens, and the theater.

From Dover they travel to Antwerp to begin a trip in Europe taking them to Brussels, Liege, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Lucerne, Piedmont, Geneva, Dijon, Versailles, Paris, Milan and Rome. Fletcher chronicles trips to typical sightseeing locations, dinner parties, operas, and concerts. She dwells extensively on details about their accommodation and transportation. Fletcher often expresses her feelings as “unimpressed” and “disappointed.” In “an old looking town with narrow streets” in Germany she “walked through the museum, and the gallery of paintings, but did not admire them so much.” In Livorno: “I was much disappointed with the appearance of the town, it is quite walled in from the sea, there is a very beautiful Turkish Bazaar, the only thing worth seeing in Leghorn.”

Fletcher renews the diary in August 1854, when she and her husband embark upon a similar journey through France, Switzerland, and parts of Germany, but now also on to Venice and Vienna. Fletcher’s entries are shorter in this section of the diary, listing the names of places and hotels, and giving details about the weather.

London (England) > Description and travel.

Europe > Description and travel.

Belgium > Description and travel.

France > Description and travel.

Germany > Description and travel.

Italy > Description and travel.

Switzerland > Description and travel.

Travel literature.

Diaries.