Between 1827 and 1854, Dorothea and John Ladeveze Adlercron of Moyglare, Co. Meath, and their children made a series of tours of France, Switzerland and Italy. Dorothea (1800–79) was daughter of Abraham George Rothe (1768–1846) of Kilkenny and Anne Salisbury (d. 1842). Detailed records of these tours survive in Dorothea’s diaries and the passports issued to the family in various European cities.
Dorothea’s husband, John Ladeveze Adlercron (1782–1852) of Moyglare, Co. Meath, had travelled travelled widely in Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East and Russia as a young bachelor. He kept a brief diary of his journey from Vienna to Moscow, discussed in another post. This post focuses on Dorothea and her experiences as a woman travelling with her children.
High life and deprivations on the family tour
Dorothea loved art and architecture, and spent much of her time visiting churches, museums, galleries, and artists’ studios. She describes these excursions in detail, bringing welcome life and colour into her diary, and sitting in contrast to her descriptions of the privations of travel.
Dorothea attempted to attend to her children’s education while travelling, and her diary records purchases of English history books, French grammars, and workbooks in Switzerland [1]. Visits were made to galleries, museums, churches and other places of useful educational and cultural interest. However beneficial travel was thought to have been for young minds, Dorothea admitted that her children found more enjoyment in picking wildflowers in the Alps than in observing the architecture and culture of Europe’s great cities [2]; they were also amused by experiencing different cultures and were ‘delighted’ with exotic Marseille [3].
The children struggled with the Mediterranean heat and Dorothea had some trouble making them comfortable, particularly when it was necessary to sleep in the carriage due to the poor accommodation available in rural areas [4]. Dorothea suffered through early morning starts and rough Mediterranean crossings, and was troubled by the difficulty in obtaining milk for her young children. To insure against the risk of being unable to source good food for her children, Dorothea packed dry stores of tea, marmalade, bread, sugar and plum cake. She was assisted by three domestiques and an institutrice [5].
Dorothea’s record of familial love
Dorothea’s tours appear to centre around her children. She gave birth to her daughter, Theodora Maria Louisa in Paris on 3 July 1827 [6]. The family remained in or around Paris until their departure for Geneva on 20 May 1828. The journey took a week, but the family remained at Geneva for about six months, during which time Dorothea’s diary falls silent.
Dorothea’s diaries are a record of familial love and care. She missed her own family greatly while travelling, describing an emotional leave-taking of her father and sisters at Caen on 1 October 1842, five months after their mother’s death. The diary often addressed a “dear Fan” – Dorothea’s sister, Frances Rothe – and talks of missing “my deal Sal and lazy Sam” – her sister, Anne Salisbury, and brother-in-law, Samuel White [7].
This focus on family is nowhere more strikingly expressed than in Dorothea’s record of her devastation at the death of her eldest son, John George (1821–43) from fever while on military service in Bermuda. The rest of the family received the news at Naples, where they lived from October 1842 until April 1844. Her grief completely overshadowed her journey from Naples to Lake Como in the summer of 1844. Simultaneously, Dorothea mourned the second anniversary of her mother’s death. Her diary at this point contains long reminiscences and reflections on faith and on death. The plans laid for John George to join his family in Switzerland in 1844 would never be realised.
The diaries may have had a dual purpose, both as a comfort to Dorothea and as a book of advice to friends or family members planning to make the same journeys. Dorothea recorded the names of even the smallest post-stations at which they changed horses; the names of many hotels along with their costs and the quality of their service, meals and accommodation; her expenditure on clothing; and the addresses of shops in Padua, Venice and Verona.
Dorothea’s apparent dissatisfaction with the family’s circumstances and the many difficulties she experienced during their many tours prompt the question, why did the family travel so much? Dorothea unfortunately never shared the reason. But this in itself reveals something – the normalisation of travel by an Anglo-Irishwoman whose family lived in Caen and whose children were all but raised in the inns of France, Italy and Switzerland. While previously described as ‘of Moyglare’, the Ladeveze Adlercrons may perhaps be better described as ‘of the world’.
For more on Dorothea’s travels, see:
Angela Byrne, “Grieving through the Sublime: Dorothea Ladeveze Adlercron at Lake Garda, 1844.” Death and the Irish: a Miscellany, edited by Salvador Ryan, Wordwell Books, 2016, pp. 127–9.
Angela Byrne, “The European Travels of Dorothea Ladeveze Adlercron (neé Rothe), c.1827–54.” Old Kilkenny Review: Journal of Kilkenny Archaeological Society, vol. 65, 2013, pp. 81–93.
References:
[1] Adlercron, Dorothea. “Diary of a tour in France and Switzerland.” 1828. MS. National Library of Ireland, MS 3763. 28 May 1828.
[2] Ibid., 22 May 1828.
[3] Adlercron, Dorothea. “Diary of a tour in France, Italy and Switzerland.” 1842. MS. National Library of Ireland, MS 3764. 10 Oct. 1842.
[4] Adlercron, Dorothea. “Diary of a tour in France and Switzerland.” 1828. MS. National Library of Ireland, MS 3763. 26 May 1828.
[5] Adlercron family. Adlercron papers, Passports. MS National Library of Ireland, MS 8730. Adlercron, Dorothea. “Diary of a tour in France, Italy and Switzerland.” 1842. MS. National Library of Ireland, MS 3764. 1 May 1844; 8 Oct. 1842.
[6] Theodora Maria Louisa was baptised in the British Embassy Chapel in Paris on 23 July 1827. Record available at www.familysearch.org.
[7] Adlercron, Dorothea. “Diary of a tour in France and Switzerland.” 1828. MS. National Library of Ireland, MS 3763.