Holograph manuscript travel journals and notebooks kept by John Dunn Gardner between 1833 and 1871. Journal (4 vols.): 1) "Journal of my travels on the continent," 1835 Jun-Dec. 270 p. Account of a lengthy sojourn in France, particularly in Paris. In addition to sightseeing, expenses and travel conditions, and art and architecture commentaries, topics include Paris libraries; visits to booksellers and to Galignani's; attendance at plays, concerts, and operas; and impressions of the Chambres des Deputes, several hospitals and an insane asylum, an orphanage, and the Paris Zoo. Also described are Gardner's conversations with Sir William Sidney Smith; libraries and bookshops at Nantes, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Lyons, and Marseilles; a tour of the house where Montesquieu wrote De l'esprit des lois; and the steamer voyage from Marseilles to Leghorn. 2) "John Dunn Gardner's Journal of travels," 1836-1871 (548 p.). Contains diary entries for several European tours: the continuation of his 1835 tour into Italy, 1835 Dec-1836 Sep; a shorter visit to the Channel Islands, Brittany, and Paris, 1837 Feb-Jun; a "Grand Tour" that includes both Western Europe and Poland, Estonia and Russia, 1837 Jul-1838 Dec; and several Continental trips with his wife Ada and their growing family between 1850 and 1871. These provide exhaustively detailed itineraries and descriptions of daily activities; visits to libraries and purchases of books in Germany and Italy; commentary on social and economic conditions in Eastern Europe, especially in Estonia and St. Petersburg; and many full appreciations of artwork and architecture. The 1837-1838 journals contain extensive discussion of individual paintings and sculpture, including the Van Eyck altarpiece at Ghent and works by the Dutch masters. The 1850 journal entries on Gardner's ascent of Mont Blanc and climbs around Chamonix formed the basis for his The Ascent and Tour of Mont Blanc (Chiswick, 1851). Gardner's notes on his 1871 trip to France contain his observations of the effect of the Franco-Prussian War on life and morale in Paris. 3) "Journal of John Dunn Gardner's journies on the Continent," 1867-1868, contains short entries on a vacation with his family in the South of France in early 1867; and the beginning of an extensive journal for 1867 Jul-1868 February, which is continued in 4). This latter journal documents Gardner's solo travels through Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar, and contains detailed descriptions of bullfights; the manufacture of sherry; local customs, foods, and costumes; contrasts between "Iberian" lifestyles and English practices; and notes on the difficulty of travel due to bad roads and inadequate facilities. Notebooks (3 vols.): small, mostly blank notebook containing quotations from "Professor Millar's Historical View of the English Government, 4 vol. 1818;" notebook containing reading notes on works of Greek and Roman history; mostly blank notebook divided into two sections, "Prose March 3rd, 1833" and "Poetry March 3rd, 1833" and containing numbered quotations from various English, Latin and Greek authors, including Cicero, Addison and Steele, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Jefferson, Lucretius, Euripides, and Shakespeare.
