Thursday, 8th of July – From Chester to Holyhead

A rather pretty railway pier, reminiscent of Brittany, with a mountainous, green backdrop.

From Holyhead to Dublin

Foam-flecked seas, gloom, no ships, grey-green water, seagulls. Rain, wind. The English are pacing furiously, as if to ward off seasickness. However, there are dreamers lying down in the lounge below. On the deck, an old Englishman reads Casanova's Memoirs in French. Hilly Irish coastline in the mist. Upon arrival, we are surprised to see the Irish laughing – nothing English in their features, so miserable in their clothes, beautiful eyes, grey. From misery and carelessness?

Sad city, with wide, very wide streets, red brick walls, flat façades, small gates in front like in London, and squares with dark greenery.

Cars, coaches, where people sit back to back, the coachman in the middle or beside you on his own seat.

Friday, 9 July – In the streets of Old Dublin

Dublin is nothing but feeble-looking people, barefoot children, poor women with cloths on their heads covering them entirely. The miserable look of these people. It is the ultimate degree of poverty, the suits look refined enough. St Patrick's, grey stones almost entirely rebuilt. The main street where the O'Connell monument stands, extremely wide.

Phoenix Park. Very beautiful, wild, enormous lawns where cows graze, numerous deer, hundreds of them, magnificent thorns, a small pond in the background. A complete picture, missing only a signature. Straight paths, the one that stretches in front of Lord Cavendish's white house. The place where he was assassinated marked with a cross almost opposite the house.

Glasnevin Cemetery, where O'Connell's grave is located. Nice cemetery, O'Connell's monument, a round lighthouse topped with a cross – an enormous mound covered with grass – only his name on the entrance gate. Paths lined with yew trees, Taxus hiberna.

Bray seaside resort to the south of Dublin, five leagues from Dublin. Mountains, dark forests, calm blue sea. All the land belongs to great landowners, to lords, the roads pass through their parks, one is obliged to get out at the gate, and the gate is opened by a woman, child or man. When they are not there, they are in no hurry. Admirable parks, splendid beech trees, oaks, green trees, all kinds of pines and firs, araucaria, a powerful velvet, dark, strong, tall. The castles are made of grey stone, a kind of granite, rivers, lakes, dreamlike landscapes, of great beauty. The waters are dark, black mirrors, the trees form an amphitheatre on the mountains, the grass short, felted, bright green and fresh, fallow deer roam freely. All this has an extraordinary colour and power.

Irish priests dressed like clergymen.

From Dublin to Killarney. 10 July.

Deserted countryside consisting of hedges, no crops, meadows, no farmers, flocks of geese, sheep, cows, unparalleled monotony. Ruined cottages. A few castles, grey stones. Smoke from peat fires.

Killarney, Saturday market day.

Small carts pulled by puny donkeys. Women wrapped in shawls covering their heads. Dirty, smelly. The town dirty too.

Sunday, 11 July. Tour of the lakes.

In the mountains, from time to time, a few thatched huts with inhabitants, a doorless stable with a cow, and geese in the decaying courtyard. The savages are better housed. The ultimate misery.

The part of the mountain travelled on horseback, rocky, a little steeper on the descent into the Black Valley. A gate (the poor set off small cannons, horses are afraid) where one pays a shilling to pass through Lord Brandon's land. Lunch by the river. Boarding the boat. Immediately, pretty little rocky islands covered with pink heather, delightful lake with green banks, wooded islands, then the delightful river again, black waters, as if mixed with ink. Rapids at the bridge.

The enchanting landscape, grassy and wooded banks, admirable trees with large trunks, low branches, strikingly composed, cool river, dazzling greenery, forest-covered mountains in the background, more rocky islands, unlike anything we know, very special kind of nature.

Echoes repeating a trumpet phrase from the first note to the last: “Not a soul in Killarney.”

Peat.

Tour of the lakes by car – huge ash trees, superb fragrant lime trees, crows on the rivers or lakes, seagulls, storks – at the waterfall, straight larch trees, amazing rockets, the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Tuesday, 18 July, Dublin

Guinness Brewery – Stout and porter, 2,500 workers and everything is done by machines that run on their own. The pungent and dizzying smell of the vats. 8,000 barrels a day are rinsed with machines. “Anshake” (i.e. Handshake) is sent all over America, and stronger stout abroad. Horrible taste of this black drink, mixture of liquorice and chicory.

The Irish are not like the English, but more like the French, with laughing grey eyes, brown hair.

Crossing from Dublin to Holyhead. Round moon, sky with black clouds, passing a black ship on the water reflecting the moon, black smoke unfurling, flashing light. The coast of England with different lighthouses, one side-flashing, another red light.

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Extent: 1550 words

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Literature

• For information on Hector Malot, see https://www.amis-hectormalot.fr/

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Malot, Marthe (2025). Unpublished‍. Cork: CELT (electronic edition).

You can add this reference to your bibliographic database by copying or downloading the following:

@book{T890002-001,
  title 	 = {Unpublished},
  author 	 = {Marthe Malot},
  edition 	 = {0},
  publisher 	 = {CELT (electronic edition)},
  address 	 = {Cork},
  date 	 = {2025}
}
 T890002-001.bib

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Creation: By Marthe Malot (1850-1926).

Date: July 8-18, 1897

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• The translated text is in English. (en)
• One botanical term has been retained in Latin. (la)

Keywords: prose; 19c; travel journal; Marthe Malot; English translation

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(Most recent first)

1. 2025-09-22: Header constructed; file parsed and validated. (ed. Beatrix Färber)
2. 2025-07-31: Text encoding checked. (ed. Beatrix Färber)
3. 2025-07-31: Text proofed and encoded for structure. (ed. Anne-Sophie Hartung)
4. 2025-07-25: File converted into plaintext. (ed. Beatrix Färber)
5. 2025-07-09: French text and introductory note donated in MS Word format. (ed. Hélène Charderon)