Fenton, Ellen, b. circa 1813, Diary, 1857 September 14-September 29
- Call Number:
- MSS 28
- Holdings:
- [Request]
- Creator:
- Fenton, Ellen, b. circa 1813
- Title(s):
- Diary
- Date:
- 1857 September 14-September 29
- Classification:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Series:
- Diaries
- Part of Collection:
- Vol. 7
- Conditions Governing Access:
- The materials are open for research.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- The collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Archives Department.
- Scope and Content:
- Continuation of Ellen Fenton’s holograph journal, describing a family vacation at Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1857. Includes twenty-eight pages of watercolor drawings featuring local people, scenery and landscapes to accompany journal descriptions. This volume also contains a hand-written list of “Objects [sic] Cassée” [broken objects], most likely charged to Fenton by her landlord at the conclusion of the family’s stay. Although she extols the simplicity and ‘picturesque’ nature of the Boulogne fish quarter, Fenton nevertheless reveals her prejudice against its inhabitants’ hygiene. She describes one fisherwoman who stood watching her and the children, with hair “which I am sure had not been combed for years. It was red, and tossed up all round her – indeed thrown matted and tangled anywhere” (109; she includes a drawing of the woman on a subsequent page). When Hal goes missing for a few hours, she finds him sitting on the knee of her French landlord, M. Andrieux. She “rebels against the idea of his dirty red bristles of moustaches on Hal’s face,” hastily whisking him away to procure a comb from the hairdresser next-door (111). During an excursion, Fenton seeks permission to sketch the Chateau of the Comte de Bethune at an attached house on the grounds, and is “amazed… to see the exceeding poverty of the house. Good rooms but oh the dirt, dust and spiders!” (122). Fenton hires a “cariole”--an older type of carriage--for a picnic, which they dub the “funny carriage” (see 191). Though Fenton prefers that Clara not be seen in “such a strange carriage,” it is a topic of great amusement, and the youngest children “had not a thought about the disgrace or honor” of it (115). They stop at a farm, where she takes a moment to sketch the Chateau of the Comte de Bethune, adjacent. Fenton helps the farmhouse landlady make bread, and the two speak about the recent events of the Indian mutiny (123). The coachman teaches Fenton’s servant how to play skittles. Fenton runs into the woods and finds the “most wild, quiet bowery spot I ever remember” (124). The ride back in the fog reminds Fenton of a childhood carriage ride on her nurse’s knee, traveling all over France, when the carriage wheel came off as they approached Versailles. Missy Macleod, a friend of Dall’s, arrives from England to stay with the Fenton’s during their holiday and the two girls are inseparable. They like to imitate the landlord, whom they nickname “Grubbins” (see 167), and a beggar named Pierre Olivier with an affected tremble, whom they call “trembler” (see portrait, page 165). Meanwhile, Fenton takes Clara and the eldest Russel girls to several balls, where they attract the attention and jealousies of French and English alike. Fenton takes several opportunities to converse with Julian (see portrait, page 134), while guarding him against his chaperones, the “Romans.” Fenton is thrilled when Julian offers to walk Clara home: “he is so gentlemanly and graceful” (138). Fenton includes a particularly finished watercolor of Julian doffing his hat to Clara (189). Despite the rigid formal interactions at the ball, Fenton’s journal provides glimpses into her more spontaneous activities at Boulogne. There are several instances of Fenton’s good humour and her ability to spontaneously adapt to circumstances. On a picnic excursion, they hire the same “funny carriage” and a large horse, however the old horse struggles going up a hill and Fenton breaks a parasol in town by pushing the carriage from behind. The horse falls on some stones and breaks its ankle, and the family is stranded under a tree while the coachman brings replacement horses (143). Not deterred from travel, Fenton and Clara hire donkeys on another day to take them to the “Colonne” overlooking the Vallée du Nacre, topped with a “colossal figure in bronze on top” (150). Always adventuresome, Fenton inquires whether it would be possible to sleep a night in one of the sea forts. For fun, she tries to convince the confectioner Mademoiselle Desir to sleep in the fort with her, conjuring “the animals, the wind, the noise,” and sketches the confectioner’s reactions to entertaining such an idea (153). Resolved to go alone, she enquires at the police station, where they say it has been closed for the winter. She and her daughters, with the nurses, walk out to sea one evening, and swim in the phosphorescent sea: “We soon undressed, and put on our night gowns, and ran in…. Wherever the water rippled only, or was touched, it sparkled with stars” (186). Fenton sketches the scene on page 155.
- Physical Description:
- 1 volume (118 pages), 28 pages of watercolor drawings; 1 list ; c. 32.5 x 20.5 cm.
- Genre:
- Diaries, Views, Travel sketches, Watercolors (paintings), and Sketchbooks
- Subject Terms:
- Anti-CatholicismBalls (Parties)BritishChronClothing and dressCrimean War, 1853-1856Description and travelForeign relationsWomen travelers
- Subject Period:
- 1854-1862
- Associated Places:
- Boulogne-sur-Mer (France)FranceGreat Britain
- Associated People/Groups:
- Fenton, Ellen, b. circa 1813
- Finding Aid Title:
- Ellen Fenton Diaries of Travels to Boulogne-sur-Mer
- Collection PDF:
- https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/15.pdf
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/2575
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/2575?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1