Florence Alice Stewart Rawson (1843–1905)

"An uncommon travelogue published to raise funds for a church bazaar. The bazaar was held at the Royal Exchange in Manchester in order to liquidate a debt of £300 incurred in building the new schools connected to the Old Presbyterian Unitarian Chapel at Blackley. Just over £200 was raised from the seven stalls selling goods and ware and presided over by ladies connected with the chapel and Florence provided her own contribution by going to the unusual trouble of having her private account of her travels the year before bound and published to aid the fund.

Florence sailed with four members of family on the Lacona from Liverpool in February 1863. They were the only passengers for the first part of the voyage which took them down to Tangiers. 'We now saw Moorish women, and were not at all prepossessed by their appearance. Instead of the haik worn by the men, they wear a loose flowing drapery in which they are completely enveloped, generally only allowing one eye to be seen. We did occasionally see the face uncovered, but there is no beauty, at least according to our tastes.' Florence, who was only 20, was unusually allowed to visit the Pasha's harem. 'The ladies, three in number, were seated on cushions in a long room, the centre part open of which opened to the court, and the room was covered with Turkey carpeting, and here and there cushions and articles of apparel strewn about. At one end of the room was a four-post bedstead, and at the other, against a wall, an English office clock, the only familiar looking object in the room. Two of the ladies were stout, and large featured, the other younger and very melancholy looking.' They try and converse, Florence tries on one of their heavy silver bracelets and they ask if the two women, both dressed in black, are sisters, language barrier seems to to be a sticking point.

'We took luncheon at one o'clock, in a very dark room, only lighted by one circular window near the ceiling: the principle dish was composed of semolina stewed with rabbit; it seems a very favourite food here, and it is called kioscasou [couscous]. We were waited on by an old man named Hamet, wearing a large turban... The English hotel is kept by three ladies named Ashton... it is a dark gloomy place, and not by any means clean.' The Ashton's are referred to by Richard Ford in his Handbook to Spain and Hamet too in other contemporary works. The journal continues much in the same style with comments on the pilgrims for Mecca taken on board, then sites and expeditions to the island of Malta, Alexandria and Cairo with the inevitable excitement of being pulled up a pyramid. Even though they could have visited Jerusalem they instead continued on another ship for the next leg of the journey. 'Part of the deck was occupied by Nubian women, who are going as slaves to Constantinople.' Then stays at Naples, Pompeii, then Rome and back home for April with a obligatory stop at Paris, all dully noted by Florence with her keen eye for the exotic if tempered with flourishes of natural prejudice.

Florence Alice Stewart Shaw (1843-1905) was the daughter of a John Ralph Shaw of Arrowe Park who had inherited the estate from his uncle a merchant and slave estate holder from Liverpool. References usually cite the work under Florence's married name of Rawson, who she married in 1871. Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson (1843-1910) is now considered something of a controversial figure for his part in the looting of Benin in Nigeria during a punitive expedition. OCLC records two copies, at Manchester and the BL." (Pickering & Chatto, cat. 799, lot 76).… (meer)