Pilgrim personified


The Itineraries of William Wey Edited and translated by Francis Davey BODLEIAN LIBRARY, 253PP, £27.99 ■Tablet Bookshop price £25.20


W 01420 592974


illiam Wey, a Devon-born priest, had much advice for his fellow medieval


pilgrims. When travelling aboard a galley, they should shell out a little extra for a berth in the higher decks: lower down everything became “smouldering hot and stinking”. If they were headed to Jerusalem they should take full advantage of the stop at Venice and stock up on provisions. There were laxatives, restoratives, rice, figs, ginger and raisins to be bought. It was also sensible to purchase “a small cauldron and frying pan, dishes, platters, wooden saucers, glass cups”, and, since fresh produce was at a premium, why not invest in a “cage for half a dozen hens and chickens to have with you in the galley”? Finally, when one arrived in Jaffa it was best to remember that the early-rising tourists caught the best mules and donkeys. Tiny details such as these are uncommonly useful commodities for the historian. They provide a rare and intimate glimpse into the workaday medieval world. Wey’s itineraries are jam-packed with such nuggets, so Francis Davey is to be warmly congratulated for producing a modern,


South Sea Islanders are less ridiculous.” For the next two years, Pückler roamed


society balls, drawing rooms and great estates looking for a bride. There was Miss Gibbings of Brighton, who was both rich and clever (“But Dear Lord, she really is not my type”); Georgiana Elphinstone, who was rich, amusing and good-natured (“ugly to be sure, and a redhead too”); Harriet Bonham, who was rich, youthful and unspoilt (“Pretty rather than not, and as healthy as a doe”); and Elizabeth Hamlet, who was enormously rich, and still single at 31 (“I feel exactly as I did when as a child I was forced at all costs to consume the onion soup I so hated”).


Alas, though Pückler’s personal charms seem to have been great, his divorce was a barrier to success. Not uncommon in Prussia, it was still exceedingly rare in England and proved an insurmountable problem for several of those to whom he gave chase.


Still more of a problem was the fact that his schemes were becoming generally known. He made influential enemies, such as the king’s brother, the Duke of Cumberland, and was rumoured to have badly mistreated Lucie. He attempted to scotch such gossip by writing an ill-advised letter to Frederick William III, King of Prussia, stating that he was in England to marry money and needed all the help he could get. Unsurprisingly, his appeal went


scholarly edition of these precious texts. Wey knew a great deal about the joys and tribulations of pilgrimage. During the 1450s and 1460s, he travelled to Santiago de Compostela (a round trip from Plymouth that he achieved in an impressive 23 days), Rome, and Jerusalem (two rather lengthier jaunts). His main purpose was devotional. As he explained, to become a pilgrim was to follow the command of Christ. The future of his eternal soul was also in Wey’s thoughts and some of the most fascinating sections of this book itemise the benefits to be gained from ticking off visits to various holy places and famous relics. On any given day, the discerning pilgrim could reduce his stay in purgatory by several hundred years. If he timed his visit properly (to coincide with special occasions, anniversaries, and so forth), millennia-worth of indulgences could be secured. This might all strike us as rather silly but Wey’s devotion reminds us that, for all the abuses it produced, the medieval purgatory business was taken extremely seriously by contemporaries. As Davey rightly suggests, “diffidence and modesty” are both on display in Wey’s works. Imagine someone writing a book like this nowadays. It would almost certainly turn into yet another self-indulgent first-person travelogue brimful of tales of derring-do. The chances of the narrator remaining “I”-less in Gaza (and/or surrounding regions) would be slim. Wey sometimes included personal


unanswered. An entanglement with Napoleon’s niece brought Pückler’s name into the newspapers once more, and, on New Year’s Day, 1829, he left England, defeated, to return to Lucie.


Although their plan had failed, success was just around the corner. Pückler’s observations of English life were so acute, his prose so lively, that an edited version of his scrapbooks and letters from England was published at home to universal acclaim and enviable sales figures. He had lost the battle for a bride, but won the war: Muskau was saved – for a while. His book’s translation into English won him new fans, and immortality as Dickens’ Count Smorltork in Pickwick Papers. (The prince, unabashed, also began an epistolary affair with his English translator, Sarah Austin.) Today, Pückler is still best known in


Germany as an authority on landscape gardening. Signal’s publication of this work may give it the appearance of a dry PhD thesis, but Peter James Bowman’s prose is entertaining and assured. He clearly holds his incorrigible subject in great affection and ensures that his reader does too, in spite of Pückler’s foibles. “If in my next life”, wrote the prince to a friend, “I cannot be an Englishman I should just as soon stay in my grave.” Here, in Bowman’s book, he is both rehabilitated and restored, to delight a new generation of English readers. Nicola Smyth


anecdotes (and, since they are 500 years old and enlightening, there is no sense in complaining) but, for the most part, he was dedicated to a very specific task: to provide guidance for those who followed in his pilgrim footsteps. There were guides to the different currencies the traveller might encounter. There were some rough and ready Latin hexameters that served as mnemonic reminders to the pilgrim in search of sacred sites. There was even a nifty phrase book that allowed the western European far from home to say “good morning”, “where is the inn?” or “give me bread”, in Greek. It all adds up to a supremely interesting


document, and the reader’s enjoyment will only be enhanced by Davey’s painstaking commentary and annotations. Davey has travelled these routes and, while on furlough, he has spent long hours in the library. He has worked hard to clarify the details of Wey’s sometimes confusing text (the place names and relics mentioned and so much else besides). The results are spectacular. Davey modestly refers to his interest in Wey as a hobby. Spare time has rarely been better spent. Wey has found his champion, and it is about time, too. Jonathan Wright


OUR REVIEWERS David Goodall is a former High Commissioner to India.


Robert Carver’s The Accursed Mountains: journeys in Albania was shortlisted for the 1999 Thomas Cook Travel Award.


Philip Womack‘s second novel, The Liberators, is published by Bloomsbury.


Michael Glover is The Tablet’s poetry editor. Nicola Smyth is an author and journalist.


Jonathan Wright is editing a volume on the suppression of the Jesuits.


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