Anne Lister: Tourist

This article analyzes Lister’s records in the context of travel writing. Although the desire to travel and its accomplishment were a significant part of Lister’s identity, my summary is going to be confined largely to discussions of her trip to Wales and the visit to Plas Newydd, the home of the Ladies of Llangollen.

Travel records not only document the sights and experiences, but also her advanced planning – how she researched the places she wanted to visit and what preparations she would need. While some of her travel writing was included in her regular daily journaling, in 1827 when she visited Switzerland and Italy, she kept a separate travel notebook, commenting that it allowed her to keep separate the more private material. (She also kept separate expense accounts.) As with some other aspects of her life, she considered publishing an account of her travels, but never did so. McHugh comments that while previous studies are focused on the more extraordinary aspects of Lister’s travels (and they were many), her journals are also valuable documentation of ordinary tourist practices of her day, and how they were changing.

Published itineraries and travel guide books are noted by Lister as part of her planning process, as she identified particular locations of interest and sketched out variable options for routes. Wales had become a popular destination for those with a Romantic sensibility, but Lister’s research also included geology, natural history, and industry.

Lister’s tour of Wales in 1822 began and ended in Llangollen, enabling her to arrange a visit. She was familiar with Ponsonby and Butler’s story from published accounts in newspapers and a 1791 article in La Belle Assemblée [sic]. [Note: the Wikipedia entry for La Belle Assemblée indicates that it began publication in 1806. It appears that the 1791 article being referred to is from the General Evening Post, which appears to be a reprint of an article titled “Extraordinary Female Affection” from Town and Country magazine, August 1790.]

[Note: Lister’s familiarity with Ponsonby and Butler is a good index to general public awareness of the couple and their “oddity.” Lister is surely not the only woman of the Georgian era who explored her own sexuality by contemplating Ponsonby and Butler’s lives.]

Published descriptions sometimes try to fit Ponsonby and Butler into a gender-differentiated model, framing Butler as the more “masculine” partner. Certain other visitors such as Lister’s neighbor Christopher Rawson commented negatively on their gender presentation. [Note: One wonders if, in that case, familiarity with Lister colored his attitude.] But most visitors were effusively positive in their views and Lister recorded that she saw no masculine affect to Butler. Lister’s commentary, both at the time and when later recounting the visit to Mariana, reveals that she saw in their lives a model for what she might aspire to. In crypt hand, she speculates that the relationship was not purely platonic. And Lister records a conversation with Rawson’s sister Emma (who had also traveled to Wales) who called them “two romantic girls” and said, “she had thought it a pity that they were not married; it would do them a great deal of good.” [Note: There’s a little more context for interpreting her comment in Gonda 2023, a couple of articles further into the collection. My initial reaction was to wonder whether we could distinguish between “it’s a pity they’re romantic friends and not married-equivalent same-sex partners” versus “it’s a pity that they can’t be married because they’re both female.” Certainly, women in such relationships called themselves “married” and this could have been Emma’s way of signaling her sympathy for Lester’s desires.]

Travel – which meant getting away from curious friends and family, as well as opportunities for forced proximity – provided Lister with chances to pursue romance with travel partners. Her relationship with Sibbella McLean developed while the two were traveling in Scotland.

Although there were many notable female travelers of the 19th century, traveling without male company – especially when it involved rough hiking and mountain climbing – was definitely considered unfeminine. Other female travelers drew similar negative comments to those Lister attracted. There was a careful balance to seeking adventure versus maintaining an unquestioned social reputation. Travel writer Sarah Murray, who was one of Lister’s sources, managed to stay on the “ladylike” side of the equation.

Excursions on foot typically involved the hiring of a local guide, though Lister sometimes found herself impatient with the need (or with the opinions of chance-met fellow travelers). [Note: having recently watched the BBC series The Other Miss Bennett, the mountain climbing episode in that show comes vividly to mind!]