Live data from Hacker News

1600s England Through the Eyes of One of the First Modern Travel Writers (2017)

smithsonianmag.com

11–17 of 17 posts

Re: 1600s England Through the Eyes of One of the First Modern Travel Writers (2017)

#11

Drop back a few decades and Pepys’ Diary is another fine slice of life of urban England. I’m finishing a public domain production of the 1893 edition[1] for Standard Ebooks[2] at the moment but in the meantime they’re all online and cross referenced at https://www.pepysdiary.com/ ; it’s fun to dive in and read an entry or two. [1] https://github.com/robinwhittleton/samuel-pepys_the-diary-of... [2] https://standardebo…

Peyps also created one of the great treasures of English folk history, a collection of over 1,800 broadside ballads. Broadsides are the closest thing we have to a 17th century newspaper - cheaply printed, sold in the street and fundamentally ephemeral. Browsing his collection gives a remarkable insight into the zeitgeist.

https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/page/pepys

Re: 1600s England Through the Eyes of One of the First Modern Travel Writers (2017)

#12

It's about Celia Fiennes' Through England on a Side Saddle In the Time of William and Mary "She travelled around England on horseback between 1684 and about 1703, "to regain my health by variety and change of aire and exercise". At this time the idea of travel for its own sake was still novel, and Fiennes was exceptional as an enthusiastic woman traveller." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Fiennes Download her boo…

If the name Fiennes brings to mind actor Ralph Fiennes and his cousin explorer Ranulph Fiennes, it's no coincidence: they are related.

Wikipedia has several overview pages:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fiennes_family

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes_fami...

Re: 1600s England Through the Eyes of One of the First Modern Travel Writers (2017)

#13
post #9

Interesting article, but I'm slightly puzzled by the [sic] comments following many of the quotes. The use of English looks correct for the time.

Surely the [sic] annotations are to indicate that the quotations are unchanged from the original source text, which contains somewhat archaic language and misspellings of words when compared to modern English.

Re: 1600s England Through the Eyes of One of the First Modern Travel Writers (2017)

#14
post #13
post #9

Interesting article, but I'm slightly puzzled by the [sic] comments following many of the quotes. The use of English looks correct for the time.

Surely the [sic] annotations are to indicate that the quotations are unchanged from the original source text, which contains somewhat archaic language and misspellings of words when compared to modern English.

You're right. I'm so used to seeing it used in a snarky way that I was overlooking the original meaning of "sic erat scriptum" (thus was it written).

Re: 1600s England Through the Eyes of One of the First Modern Travel Writers (2017)

#15
I note with interest how her travelogue was rediscovered. How will this work a couple hundred years from now when people of our generation put stuff online instead of pen to paper? Will there hopefully be a local copy on their computer, assuming the SSD or HD hasn't died and later generations can read it? Or will it simply perish when the hosting bill isn't paid, or the account is inactive?

A lot of memoirs from this writer's era certainly didn't survive either, but it seems like there was a greater chance back then even considering the cost of pen, ink and paper.

Re: 1600s England Through the Eyes of One of the First Modern Travel Writers (2017)

#16

I note with interest how her travelogue was rediscovered. How will this work a couple hundred years from now when people of our generation put stuff online instead of pen to paper? Will there hopefully be a local copy on their computer, assuming the SSD or HD hasn't died and later generations can read it? Or will it simply perish when the hosting bill isn't paid, or the account is inactive? A lot of memoirs from this…

I think about that every time I am visiting an archaeological site with stone inscriptions.

Looking 5000 years in the future, no one will be able to read our documents, like we do with those written 5000 years ago.

Re: 1600s England Through the Eyes of One of the First Modern Travel Writers (2017)

#17
post #16

I note with interest how her travelogue was rediscovered. How will this work a couple hundred years from now when people of our generation put stuff online instead of pen to paper? Will there hopefully be a local copy on their computer, assuming the SSD or HD hasn't died and later generations can read it? Or will it simply perish when the hosting bill isn't paid, or the account is inactive? A lot of memoirs from this…

I think about that every time I am visiting an archaeological site with stone inscriptions. Looking 5000 years in the future, no one will be able to read our documents, like we do with those written 5000 years ago.

Reading 25 year old documents is hard enough. I mean, none of my current computers even has an optical drive, let alone a 3.5" floppy. To say nothing of the actually-floppy floppies.
Post reply on HN