George Eckersall verses and sketches notebook

Travel journal, diary, and sketchbook of George Eckersall of St. Catherine, near Bath, Somerset. Eckersall's journal documents, in part, the second half of his grand tour. He spent the months of January to May, 1827 in Italy, primarily in Rome, Naples, Florence, and Venice. Entries from June and July document his journey home through Austria, Switzerland, and France. Beginning in August, Eckersall described his time at home in St. Catherine and a trip to London in December. Diary entries chronicle the people and sights he saw, dinners and balls he attended, meals, the weather, phases of the moon, and so on. Sketches of the buildings, coaches, and sights along Eckersall's journey accompany nearly every week's journal entries. Among others, Eckersall drew the "Pantheon in the flood," the "Vatican by torchlight," fetuses in jars in Florence, and animals at the Tuileries gardens. Some of the pictures poke fun at Roman Catholicism. (For instance, Eckersall captioned his depiction of a papal procession "Dr. Jingo taking a ride.") The last section of the volume takes on a commonplace book format, with quotations and snippets of text.