‘After luncheon we all adjourned to the Liane where there were some rural sports going on - men racing in tubs with paddles - then walking along a greased pole to catch a flag at the end, of course continually dropping off into the water, and swimming round to their covered boat, to try their luck once more - two only succeeded in performing the great feat.’ This is from the Boulogne holiday diary kept by Frances Louisa Hayman - later Lady Frances Somerville - who died 140 years ago today. Her diaries, now transcribed online, give an unusually rich view of upper-class travel, spa culture and family life in the 1850s.
In widowhood, following Kenelm’s death in 1864, Frances maintained that itinerant respectability, leasing East Close House near Hinton Admiral for some twenty years and retaining control over the scattered Somerville properties. She died in London, at Granville Place, Marylebone, on 18 November 1885, aged eighty-one, leaving both land and family papers to her surviving daughters and their heirs.
The surviving diaries - the focus of modern interest in Lady Somerville - are not a continuous life record but a set of carefully written holiday books. They cover, among other episodes, a stay at Boulogne in 1854, a season at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1855 and 1858, a northern journey in 1856 to inspect the family’s Scottish estates, and later visits to Weymouth and other resorts. Written in her clear, controlled hand, they mix itineraries, weather notes, topographical description and family logistics with pointed remarks about fellow visitors and relations. For modern readers they chart how a mid-Victorian aristocratic family used spas and seaside towns as a network of meeting-places rather than escapes from society.
Social hierarchy is one of the diaries’ clearest themes. Lady Somerville did not aspire to mix with royalty, but equally avoided those she considered lower in status, reserving her energy for a wide but carefully policed circle of family and friends. At Cowes, Boulogne or Melrose she moves among titled cousins, naval officers, clergy and genteel visitors whose names recur like a private directory. The result is a dense picture of mid-Victorian networks: marriages, promotions, illnesses and deaths are all logged, often with anniversaries noted years later in the margins.
The sea and the water-cure are another preoccupation. Entries from the 1855 Cowes diary describe rough Channel crossings, excursions on the royal yacht, days spent watching waves at ‘Egypt’ on the shore, and a family visit on 10 August 1855 to St Lawrence’s Well near Ventnor, complete with observations of the shrine and its spring. Elsewhere she records promenades to fountains and wells in Boulogne and in other spa towns, providing material that historians of spa culture and hydropathic tourism have used to trace routes, timings and the burgeoning infrastructure of mid-nineteenth-century travel.
The 1856 diary shifts the focus north, following the family to the Pavilion at Melrose and other Scottish properties whose history had been intertwined with Walter Scott’s editing of Memorie of the Somervilles. Here the entries blend sightseeing with estate inspection, reflecting a landowning widow conscious both of romantic heritage and of the practical business of managing far-flung holdings. The same volume mentions the seventeenth-century Somerville manuscripts, which Lady Frances later bequeathed to her daughter Louisa, showing her awareness of written records as heirlooms in their own right.
The modern publishing history of the diaries is straightforward but revealing. They seem to have become detached from other Somerville family papers when the Pavilion at Melrose passed through several hands after the barony lapsed in the 1870s. In the late twentieth century the Spas Research Fellowship acquired the original volumes from the book trade and began a methodical transcription and annotation project. Today the Somerville Diaries are available online through the Fellowship’s dedicated portal, where the text is accompanied by essays on family networks, spa landscapes and individual sites such as Boulogne’s fountains or St Lawrence’s Well. Here are several extracts.
14 July 1854, Boulogne
‘Breakfasted at 9, and then went down to the Pier to see the 21 horses slung up by a crane in boxes, and lowered into the steamer with wonderful ease - A scud of rain came on and alarmed us for our voyage, so we listened to Giovanini singing various bravura songs - The rain cleared off and after taking a quantity of Dr Jephson’s specific lemon juice, we embarked in the Reine Des Belges steamer for Boulogne - there was a fresh breeze and for the first quarter of an hour we all thought it very charming dancing over the green waves - but by degrees Louy, Mary and last Emily were handed down to leeward and endless white basins were called into the service of the unhappy passengers. Kenelm bore it like an Admiral, and so did I till we were about ‘half seas over’ when I succumbed to the fate of the rest but soon recovered, and did not suffer near so much as my neighbours - At about half past 4 we got into the harbour and very thankful we were to find ourselves there. We were detained sometime at the wearisome Custom house to give our names and address, and then found our Commissionaire Mr Pay ready to escort us to our house 8 Rue du pol d’Etain rather a back street, but a good large house which holds us all comfortably plenty of clocks and looking glasses - but rather scanty in the necessaries of life and the offices very deficient. After a substantial tea we walked up the Grande rue and through the Haute VilleClick, and went to bed thoroughly tired with our voyage and its consequences.’
15 August 1854, Boulogne
‘This was a grand jour de fete for the assumption of the Virgin and also the Emperor’s birthday, and luckily it was a very fine day, tho’ there had been rain in the night - Monsieur Brunet came to the boys at 8, and Monsieur Laston at 10 - so at 11 we went to St Nicholas to hear high mass and the Te deum for the Emperor. The Church was crowded to excess, but with great difficulty we got on chairs, and saw the knave lined with soldiers all in grande livree. It was like all the other ceremonies we have attended full of pomp, but very little devotion, people crushing in and out in all directions, and the officers shouting out to their men to lower arms etc. in the middle of the service - I found myself next to an English Catholic who persuaded us to go and hear the English sermon at 12 the last of the ‘retraile’ series which she assured us would be most eloquent. We waited some time while various little bells rang, and the Priest at the altar seemed to be drinking up all the Wine, after which began our English sermon which I thought very unsatisfactory and unconvincing - he tried to persuade us that the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud that attended the Israelites in the Wilderness, were no other than the blessed Virgin herself - quite a new Doctrine to us - he then went on to say that there were proofs in scripture that our sinfulness required the mediation of a third person as with Moses Job the Angels, Saints etc. that our Saviour was always subject to his mother and that therefore she was all powerful in heaven, etc., and that it was our duty to pray for her for her intercession in every case - In short all his arguments were futile, and not to be proved from scripture, and I came away a more decided Protestant than ever!
There were festoons of evergreens all the way up the Grande rue and a triumphal Arch of the same near the top. After luncheon we all adjourned to the Liane where there were some rural sports going on - men racing in tubs with paddles - then walking along a greased pole to catch a flag at the end, of course continually dropping off into the water, and swimming round to their covered boat, to try their luck once more - two only succeeded in performing the great feat. The next exhibition was a Duck hunt, quite different to that at CowesClick - a cargo of real Ducks were taken out in a basket and thrown in all directions into the water when about a dozen men and boys plunged in after them, and swam with all their might to catch the poor animals, who flew, dived, and did their utmost to escape their pursuers - but in vain for they were all captured at last, and carried about in triumph poor things. It was anything but a jour de fete for them!
These diversions lasted till near 4 when the grand procession of the Virgin was to begin - We took some of the children up to Lady Louisa Ramsay’s a capital situation for seeing all down the Grande rue - the rest of us went to Admiral Knox's who has a house 14 Grande Rue - There we found the old Admiral and his Wife and daughter and a Mr Goff who married Lady Adelaide Knox a very pretty pleasing person - After waiting a long time we began to despair of the arrival of the procession, but at last we ascertained that it had gone round by the Tintelleries the Rue Sallequin and was to return up the Grande rue - soon the sound of music proclaimed its approach. First came a great Red Beadle to clear the way and then a long run of Priests, Nuns white black and grey of the Various orders - Sisters of Charity with their schools - then fishwomen most picturesquely dressed in scarlet petticoats white bodices and pretty caps and earrings - then about 50 young girls all in white with Veils and white bouquets and some carrying Lilies in their hands - all supporting by white ribbons a silver image of the Virgin in a boat with a large bunch of Grapes - then another turn of English Catholic girls in white and gold Veils bearing another Virgin then the Bishop and Priests carrying the Host the Crosier and Crucifix born before him, and blessing the people as he went with his goggle eyes looking enough to frighten them all - Upon the whole I must say it was the very prettiest and most picturesque thing I could have imagined and I would not have missed it for worlds! We came home to dinner with Stephen and then rushed down to the pier where the Military band was playing, and a great crowd assembled - after which we walked home with the Ramsays and up to the top of the Grande Rue to see the Illuminations - the Prefet's house and the Eagle and Legion d’Honneur were very brilliant, and the ramparts lighted with torches - returned home quite exhausted with our day’s exertion.’
3 September 1856, Scarborough
‘This is our 23rd wedding day, and I was greeted by congratulations from my two dear girls! Certainly I have much to be thankful for in such uninterrupted happiness - About a quarter past one, we all started in three carriages for Bramham Park. Mr George Fox’s - where there was a fete Champetre, attended by all the County / about 200 people / beautiful gardens, with Terraces and cut high hedges, in the formal style like Versailles on a large scale, and very handsome, but the house was burnt down some years ago, and only the shell remains. It was a very pretty sight, such a number of gaily dressed, pretty people, Harewoods, Nevills, Meynell Ingrams etc. and several pretty children -. After refreshments in a tent, we all adjourned to the Bowling Green where they danced to rather an indifferent Band till half past 6 when we all returned to a late dinner, very tired and rather cross. I met a few people I knew - Mrs Bland, the Boucheretts, Wilkinsons, and was introduced to Lord Harewood, Sir Maxwell Wallace etc. - It was a very pleasant day, tho' not brilliant.’
22 August 1860, Weymouth
‘After a pouring night and misty morning, it cleared about 10 and Humfry came up to make arrangements about Lulworth - It was settled that Emily, Selina, Julia, and I, were to join him and his sisters at 11-30 - which we did, but when we got on board the steamer, we found it was not going to Lulworth, but only to Portland, as the landing at the former is so bad. We therefore made the best of it, and payed our £s to go to Portland - landed there and engaged a Wagonette which took us all up the hill very steep and strong but a beautiful view at the top - The Chiswell beach and a fine sea surf dashing against it.
We then drove on to Pennsylvania, or Bow and Arrow Castle, - a modern house on a precipitous rock overhanging the sea, with a wood down to the water - it is now uninhabited but we went into a handsome circular drawing room, with some beautiful old carved oak furniture in it and ate our sandwiches there - Emily and Julia rushed down among the rocks to get some ferns, and Humfry and Selina to the old ruin which is small, but very picturesque, and will make a beautiful sketch - and is a prefect spot for a picnic! From thence we drove on to the Quarries, got some specimens of petrified wood and water - saw the outside of the Prison and all the Offices of the establishment. We saw some of the Convicts at work. Altogether it was a curious and interesting drive, to say nothing of the amusement afforded by the Hats blowing off etc etc. for the wind was very high but no rain. After much discussion, and finding we were late for the steamer, and should have to wait some time, we agreed to drive on in the carriage to Weymouth - It was tremendously cold and windy coming along Chesil beach - and we dropped Humfry Emily Selina and Julia near Sandsfoot Castle to walk home, while I drove on with the Skipwiths about half past 3 after a very pleasant Excursion - I having engaged them all to dine with us, as they missed their own dinner at home - No letters but one containing a Prawn for Selina - Kenelm and the girls went on the Pier and met the others coming from Sandsfoot.’
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