Manuscript 'Journal of a Tour to London' in 1844 [by William Morris Mousley of Cold Ashby, Northamptonshire?], including descriptions of visits to 'Tom Thumb' at the Egyptian Hall, and to 'Wizard' Jacobs, the magician and ventriloquist, in Dover

12mo, 39 pp. Stitched into original coloured wraps decorated with pastel-coloured rainbow stripes. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. The final two pages of the volume contain crude sketches in coloured pencil (figure seated on steps of country cottage, a clump of trees, ships at sea). The year is not stated, but certainly 1844 from the references in the volume. Found with other autograph material of the Rev. W. M. Mousley, who would have been sixteen at the time of writing. The trip is made along with 'Papa', 'Mama [Mamma]' (often 'poorly'), 'Henry' and 'James'. The family are clearly religious (fitting in with Mousley's father's vocation), and there are a number of descriptions of devotions, but the main part of the account is devoted to a description of the family's full participation in what Altick calls the 'Shows of London', with the diarist writing in a light, jaunty, energetic and youthful style. The account begins on 4 June with the family 'setting off at 7 OClock for Crick Station', where they 'procured a carriage to ourselves and went off in great glee for Euston'. On arrival they 'stopped at the Euston Hotel procured rooms and soon started to look for lodgings', taking them at 371 Oxford Street. They then go to the Pantheon [in Oxford Street], where they see 'some beautiful parrots', and then down Regent Street to the Quadrant, 'came back by Portland Place had tea and sketched the Railway Terminus'. The next day they see 'the Cosmorama Regent St the erruption of Vesuvius was very good next the Diorama which was beautiful indeed the two scenes were the Cathedral of Notre Dame Paris and the interior of St Over & Rouen'. Describes the 'scarcely describable' effect. They then go to Covent Garden Market. Visits to the National Gallery, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and other sights on the following day are described. On 7 June they spend 'nearly all the morning' in the Zoological Gardens, and then on to Baker Street Bazaar. On 8 June 'The Empress of Russia paraded by when we were in we saw however the carriage of the Duke of Cambridge'. On 9 June they go in the morning to the Roman Catholic chapel in Warwick Street, where they are 'much astonished at the service', which is described at length. The next day they go 'early to the Polytechnic', where they 'walked round the Great Hall and examined many of the models the variety of them almost baffles', before attending a 'lecture on experimental philosophy', and examining a number of models, and seeing 'disolving [sic] views', including one of 'the Houses of Parliament as they were before the fire then the conflagration lastly the new houses of Parliament'. On 11 June they go from 'Mr Stintons' to 'the Soho Bazaar by far the finest that I have been to as yet'. After lunch they see 'Madam Tussaud's collection of wax work figures wonderful likenesses and gogeously fitted up'. On 12 June they go 'into the city to call on Oswin [Oswin, Good, & Co., Italian warehousemen, 102 Leadenhall Street] found him not at home but saw Mr Goode', who takes them to India House where, among the 'many curiosities', they see 'Tippoo's Tiger of which I had seen a plate in the Penny Magazine also a letter of Cromwells in his own handwriting'; then to the 'New Royal Exchange', where they are 'first putting the figures up thence to the Bank here we saw the King of Saxony twice'. After calling on 'Mr Bankes' they go to St Pauls. After this 'James went to the Penitentiary to see William Clerk and Charles Bond people of Ashby'. 13 June they buy 'some chocolate'. The following day sees the party at the British Museum - 'indeed a pride of England' - and some of its features are described. On 15 June the writer goes out 'to have my likeness taken next to the Burlington Arcade saw in Trafalgar Square what is called an "Happy Family" a great many beasts & birds in the same cage which have by nature an averssion [sic] to one another', then to the Art Union ('no exhibition') and on to the Lowther Arcade. 'Papa went to the City on business went out again in the evening Henry bought a British Union'. The following day is a Sunday, and the writer goes 'with James to St George's Hanover Square', where they hear 'a very beautiful sermon': 'in coming Home up Regent St we saw a Highland Chief with his eagle's feather'. On 17 June the writer goes 'to Mr Le Dray Berners St' [Mons Le Dray & Son, 42 Berners St, surgeon dentists] to have his 'teeth stopped'. The diarist then visits the 'Adelaide Gallery' [Gallery of Practical Science, opened 1832], considering it 'not equal to the Polytechnic': 'the first thing was explaining models next pictures by the old masters then a lecture on Galvanism & Electro Magnetism then a lecture on Meteorology in which he said that great storms generally came when two planets were in conjunction with the earth [...] then the Hydro-Oxygen gas microscope [...] next a chemical lecture [...] then the Grand attraction the Phrenological lecture [...] he said the duke of Wellingtons head was remarkable for its firmness [...]'. The following day, after having his 'likeness altered', goes to Burlington Arcade, 'where Mamma purchased a pocketbook', and thence 'to see Tom Thumb a very amusing gentleman he was exhibiting in the Egyptian Hall we saw at the same place the Red Man' [in George Catlin's Indian Collection]. They then go to see Temple Church, 'but were unable in consequence of the expected arrival of the King of Saxony'. That night, 'in the evening just before going to bed we were astonished by a great concourse of people and found them looking through the window the a [sic] chimney was on fire a little way down on the opposite side of the St it was however very soon put under'. On 19 June the diarist has a 'tooth extracted it was done in the first style', thence to the Royal Academy with James, 'Mama is engaged with packing up Papa & Henry are gone to see Tom Thumb they [sic] the Duke of Devonshire present him with a gold snuffbox all our thoughts are engaged with our trip to Dover'. Travelling down to the port by rail the following day, they find the country 'barren & parched [...] we arrived at the Dover Station took lodgings which commanded a magnificent view of the sea the pier & castle the ships & shingles every thing is new to me the rolling ocean [...] the noise is extraordinary & beautiful'. They take lodgings, visit sights, buy souvenirs, have a 'beautiful dinner of Herring fresh that morning from the sea' and are delighted to see the coast of France: 'it is indeed a great contrast to the view we had of Oxford St.' They go to see 'Jacobs the conjuror [Jacob 'John' Lewis 'Wizard' Jacobs (1813-1897); see Frost's 'Lives of the Conjurors' and Milbourne's 'Magic'] & ventriloquist', whom they find 'very clever [...] he played a variety of tricks such as changing eggs into birds making a windmill go on & stop when he wished changing oranges into eggs and making strings join together rapidly into a chain but the most extraordinary was this he asked some gentlemen to lend him their handkerchiefs he plumped these into a footpan of water washed them and immediately produced them dry folded up & scented after a great variety of amusing deceptions such as throwing up a pack of cards and catching any particular one with the point of a sword he gave us extemporary songs from different subjects proposed by the audience they were very clever & witty'. Jacobs also gives 'proofs of his ventriloquism by imitating the voice of an old alderman the buzzing of a bee crying of a child & we came home at eleven'. The next day they walk to 'Shakespeare's Cliff but the wind was so high that we did not ascend'. On the Sunday they hear divine service 'at the Town Hall in consequence of the repairs that St Mary's was undergoing'. Description of the Town Hall and St Mary's. On 24 June the party 'take a sail [...] Mama excepted'. On 26 June they return to London: 'this train was called a fast one and fast indeed it was it went in some places at 40 miles an hour'. The following day the diarist buys 'some dates and raisins' at the Soho Bazaar. On 28 June they catch the one o'clock train for Ashby, arriving 'safe and well'. They find 'every thing right at home we ought indeed to thank God for his mercy to us -'.?>