Trip to Killarney [Manuscript travel diary of Albert J. Perrett]

1913. Ireland: June 16-18, 1913.

Small lined notebook (11x17.5 cm), [56] pp. orange card covers titled by hand, spine reinforced with tape. Approx. 28 pages filled with neat ink manuscript entries, illustrated with four small original sepia photos and a hand-drawn folded map tipped to inside of front cover. Covers a little worn, contents age-toned but entirely legible.

§ A delightfully detailed record of an amusingly rushed school trip to Ireland made by an English schoolboy in 1913. The boys and several masters departed from Stonehouse in Gloucestershire (it seems likely they attended Wycliffe College prep school), and travelled by train to Fishguard in Wales, and from there by boat to Rosslare Harbour in Country Wexford, Ireland. Then by train, char-a-banc, a governess cart, ponies, and finally boats, they tore across the south of Ireland to Killarney and back in a single day. The dutiful author of the journal prepares for the trip with several lists: "General time-table", "List of required articles" (including "change of socks...cup, soup-plate... rug (if room)", "Things to be noticed" (Waterford Harbour, Mountains, Lakes, Cattle Grazing...), and a very thorough plan for "Meals" (cornflakes, chocolate, bananas, squashed fly biscuits...). The journal itself is neatly written and full of detail, particularly of the various vehicles (Irish trains get a thorough review) and his glimpses of "real Ireland". Four small mounted photos show a bridge in Kerry viewed from a boat, Ross Castle, "A Jaunting Bar" (a kind of horse-drawn carriage), and, happily, "the Author" who appears to be in his early teens. The star of the journal is a large folding map of the trip, carefully hand-drawn and keyed and mounted inside the front cover. (Inventory #: 126635)