Having got Douglas as far as Albany I'm going to pause and backtrack for a while. Albany marks a significant change in this 1823 journey. Although he has been active in visiting gardens and fulfilling that part of his commission relating to providing examples of new fruits etc he hasn't really been doing much seed or plant collecting. From Albany onwards he is journeying 'upcountry' and doing the plant collecting activities which really interest him, indeed in a few days time he will say "This is what I might term my first day in America".
So I'm taking a break from following him day-by-day from the 1823 Journal and focusing more on his experience of his journey to date. I'll start back in London so there's a bit of catching up to do. I've work going on behind the scenes with the RHS Library and will be exploring some other primary sources both in the UK and USA.
I'll restart the day-by-day Commentary as soon as I can but in the meantime watch out for what I can find on How it Was to be Douglas in 1823!
PS - It's Burns Night soon (25th January). Although Douglas would be back in the UK by 1824, so not in the scope of the 1823 Journal, would he have celebrated it wherever he was (London?)?
No comments:
Post a Comment