Ethel Brilliana Tweedie (1862–1940)
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Algemene kennis
- Gangbare naam
- Tweedie, Ethel Brilliana
- Pseudoniemen en naamsvarianten
- Tweedie, Ethel Brilliana Harley
Tweedie, Mrs. Alec
Harley, Ethel B.
Harley, Ethel Brilliana - Geboortedatum
- 1862-01-01
- Overlijdensdatum
- 1940-04-15
- Geslacht
- female
- Nationaliteit
- UK
- Geboorteplaats
- London, England, UK
- Plaats van overlijden
- London, England, UK
- Opleiding
- Queen's College, London
- Beroepen
- travel writer
photographer
painter
biographer
women's rights activist - Prijzen en onderscheidingen
- Fellow, Royal Geographical Society
- Korte biografie
- Ethel Brilliana Harley Tweedie was born in London. She was named after a 17th-century relative, Brilliana Lady Harley, who defended her home, Brampton Bryan Castle, against a siege by Royalist troops. Ethel was educated at Queen's College, London, and in Germany. In 1886, she visited Iceland on vacation with her brother Vaughan, her future husband Alexander (Alec) Leslie Tweedie -- whom she married in 1887 -- and three others. She kept a journal of her travels and published it afterwards as her first book, A Girl's Ride in Iceland (1895). After a visit to Norway two years later, she published her second book A Winter Jaunt to Norway: with Accounts of Nansen, Ibsen, Bjornson, Brandes, and Many Others. Besides further travel writing, her works included a biography of her father, George Harley, F.R.S.: The Life of a London Physician (1899), some early 20th century ethnography studies, and articles and short stories published in the London popular press. She was also a photographer and a prolific painter. She published many of her sketches and paintings and had exhibitions and one-woman shows. She was an advocate of women's rights, women's suffrage, and higher education for women.
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More of a slog than the rather quirky and charming "Iceland" travelouge. Sometimes her little adventuresome side shows through but it is far more priggish, even though her adventures are, well, fairly adventurous for an Edwardian lady. But two was plenty for Mrs. Tweedie.
An enjoyably jaunty trip to Iceland in the 1890s, all taken with great aplomb and good spirits and a long discussion of how important it would be to ride astride, not side-saddle. A nice little find.
'Suppose we make up a party and visit Iceland?' was suggested by me to one of my friends on a hot July day as we sat chatting together discussing this weighty question, fanning ourselves meanwhile under a temperature of ninety degrees; the position of Iceland, with its snow-capped hills and cool temperature seeming positively refreshing and desirable. Mad as the idea seemed when first proposed in mere banter, it ended, as these pages will prove, by our turning the suggestion into a reality, and overcoming the difficulties of a trip which will ever remain engraven on my memory as one of the most agreeable experiences of my life.
When I ventilated the idea outside my private 'den,' wherein it first arose, it was treated as far too wild a scheme for serious consideration--for 'Iceland,' to Londoners, seems much the same in point of compass as the moon! And there really is some similarity in the volcanic surface of both. Here, however, the similarity ends, for while the luminary is indeed inaccessible, the island can easily be reached without any very insurmountable difficulty.
Ethel Brilliana Harley was not yet married when she visited Iceland in the summer of 1886, accompanied by her brother Vaughan and three friends, referred to in the book as A. L. T, Miss T. and H. K. Gordon. As she said that she would not have been allowed to take the trip if her brother hadn't gone with her, and she married an Alexander Leslie Tweedie the next year, I assume that two of her travelling companions were her future husband and sister-in-law. Her book came out a couple of years later, and is illustrated by etchings made from her drawings.
Travelling on a merchant ship that also took passengers, they sailed from Edinburgh, anti-clockwise round Iceland and then back to Edinburgh, taking advantage of a few longer stops to see the countryside from horseback, including riding 160 miles in 4 day trip in order to see the geysers while the ship was docked at Reykjavik. Finding that side-saddles were not easy to come by, since Icelandic women mostly rode astride, and sometimes on chair saddles, Ethel decided to try riding astride, getting her brother to check that she looked decent before setting off. Riding man-fashion is less tiring than on a side-saddle, and I soon found it far more agreeable, especially when traversing rough ground. My success soon inspired Miss T. to summon up courage and follow my lead. She had been nearly shaken to pieces in her chair pannier, besides having only obtained a one-sided view of the country through which she rode; and we both returned from a 25 mile ride without feeling tired, whilst from that day till we left the Island, we adopted no other mode of travelling. I am quite sure had we allowed conventional scruples to interfere, we should never have accomplished in four days the 160 miles' ride to the Geysers, which was our ultimate achievement.
The version of the book available on Project Gutenberg is the second edition from 1894 and it includes an introduction explaining what a scandal her book had caused when it was published five years before, due to the descriptions of ladies riding astride. She argues that it is much more comfortable and less tiring for both horse and rider, as in a side-saddle the rider sits in a twisted position and her weight is all to one side of the horse, and compares it to the new pastime of bicycle riding. If women may ride an iron steed thus attired, surely they might be permitted to bestride a horse in like manner clothed, and in like fashion.
As for Iceland itself, the friends were surprised by the lack of wheeled transport, shocked by the poverty of the Icelanders but impressed by the high levels of education and universal literacy. They were stunned by the rugged and beautiful scenery, and especially the geysers and regretted that they didn't have time to visit any glaciers because the boat wasn't stopping for long enough.
I downloaded this late nineteenth-century travel book to my Kindle after reading Lyzzybee's review. I have visited Iceland three tomes and it was really interesting to read a first-hand account of what it was like 125 years ago, through the eyes of an outsider visiting the country. I may well look for some more old travel books… (meer)
When I ventilated the idea outside my private 'den,' wherein it first arose, it was treated as far too wild a scheme for serious consideration--for 'Iceland,' to Londoners, seems much the same in point of compass as the moon! And there really is some similarity in the volcanic surface of both. Here, however, the similarity ends, for while the luminary is indeed inaccessible, the island can easily be reached without any very insurmountable difficulty.
Ethel Brilliana Harley was not yet married when she visited Iceland in the summer of 1886, accompanied by her brother Vaughan and three friends, referred to in the book as A. L. T, Miss T. and H. K. Gordon. As she said that she would not have been allowed to take the trip if her brother hadn't gone with her, and she married an Alexander Leslie Tweedie the next year, I assume that two of her travelling companions were her future husband and sister-in-law. Her book came out a couple of years later, and is illustrated by etchings made from her drawings.
Travelling on a merchant ship that also took passengers, they sailed from Edinburgh, anti-clockwise round Iceland and then back to Edinburgh, taking advantage of a few longer stops to see the countryside from horseback, including riding 160 miles in 4 day trip in order to see the geysers while the ship was docked at Reykjavik. Finding that side-saddles were not easy to come by, since Icelandic women mostly rode astride, and sometimes on chair saddles, Ethel decided to try riding astride, getting her brother to check that she looked decent before setting off. Riding man-fashion is less tiring than on a side-saddle, and I soon found it far more agreeable, especially when traversing rough ground. My success soon inspired Miss T. to summon up courage and follow my lead. She had been nearly shaken to pieces in her chair pannier, besides having only obtained a one-sided view of the country through which she rode; and we both returned from a 25 mile ride without feeling tired, whilst from that day till we left the Island, we adopted no other mode of travelling. I am quite sure had we allowed conventional scruples to interfere, we should never have accomplished in four days the 160 miles' ride to the Geysers, which was our ultimate achievement.
The version of the book available on Project Gutenberg is the second edition from 1894 and it includes an introduction explaining what a scandal her book had caused when it was published five years before, due to the descriptions of ladies riding astride. She argues that it is much more comfortable and less tiring for both horse and rider, as in a side-saddle the rider sits in a twisted position and her weight is all to one side of the horse, and compares it to the new pastime of bicycle riding. If women may ride an iron steed thus attired, surely they might be permitted to bestride a horse in like manner clothed, and in like fashion.
As for Iceland itself, the friends were surprised by the lack of wheeled transport, shocked by the poverty of the Icelanders but impressed by the high levels of education and universal literacy. They were stunned by the rugged and beautiful scenery, and especially the geysers and regretted that they didn't have time to visit any glaciers because the boat wasn't stopping for long enough.
I downloaded this late nineteenth-century travel book to my Kindle after reading Lyzzybee's review. I have visited Iceland three tomes and it was really interesting to read a first-hand account of what it was like 125 years ago, through the eyes of an outsider visiting the country. I may well look for some more old travel books… (meer)
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isabelx | 2 andere besprekingen | Aug 7, 2012 |
isabelx | 2 andere besprekingen | Aug 7, 2012 | Misschien vindt je deze ook leuk
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Despite frequent encounters with bedbugs and some near misses while shooting the rapids on a tar-boat, the group traverse the country...a country estate in Vyborg (now Russia); a visit to a monastery in Lake Ladoga; meeting peasants in their cottages; attending a cultural festival...
While a cheery account, it is not great literature, and was something of an effort to complete. The author likes to introduce bits of extraneous information, which seemed a tad superfluous: did I need the individual weights of all the fish caught by a celebrated angler? A word for word translation of a lengthy song? A precise catalogue of the numbers of women employed in every occupation?
Certainly a different kind of tourism than we experience- when a couple of English ladies can get ready permission to bivouac in a major Finnish castle!
Mildly interesting , whether for the Brit interested in Finland- or the Finn intrigued as to what foreigners thought of his homeland.… (meer)