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Verne in Scotland

From: <ithompson~at~geog.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 11:41:29 +0100
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

I hope colleauges will excuse a long message, but it concerns a
remarkable Verne survival.
Among the acquisitions by Amiens library in the Gondolo della Riva
collection is a small, battered but legible fragment of paper, torn
from a notebook and folded in four as though to fit into a pocket or
wallet.In fact it is the only known document in Verne's handwriting
surviving from his 1859 visit to Scotland. It consists of a six stage
itinerary from Edinburgh to Glasgow, Loch Lomond, the Trossachs
and Stirling exactly as followed in Voyage a Reculons (Backwards
to Britain) complete with instructions re boat and train times.
The provenance seems quite clear to me viz the route discussed
with Miss Amelia (Chapter 26). My first thoughts were that it was
the actual piece of paper written by Amelia ("Miss, give me if you
please, one document for reading" i.e.the itinerary) Indeed the
handwriting is more florid and less angular than Verne's normal
style ("Miss Amelia wrote out the itinerary in that fine elongated
hand").A closer examination, with the help of a Technician,
comparing the document with other samples of Verne's handwriting
suggested that sufficient letters corresponded with Verne's habitual
style to identify it as by his, rather than Amelia's hand. Moreover,
the inaccurate spelling of Sterling in the document, rather than
Stirling, would hardly have been written by Amelia, who Verne tells
us is an educated and intelligent young lady who would hardly have
mis-spelled, more than once, the name of a town not much more
than twenty miles away. Either Verne rewrote the itinerary, perhaps
translating from English into French, or, in my view more likely,
wrote it down hurriedly as dictated by Miss Amelia.If my
explanation is correct, then the document can be dated precisely
to the 29th August 1859 at approximately 9pm!!
On analysing the document the following observations emerge.
1. The days of the week correspond exactly with those in the
book...Monday and Tuesday.
2. The itinerary is followed exactly by Verne as far as Glasgow,
down to the detail of the cab to Granton, boat to Crombie Point and
the visit to the Reverend Mr Smith at Oakley ("chez Mr Smith" is
stated in the document). This confirms my message to the Forum
in February that the "Reverend Mr S" is indeed the Reverend
William Smith, residing in Inzievar House (changed to Oakley
Castle in the ms to protect his identity).Oakley is written correctly,
not as Ockley in the ms.
3 Verne follows the itinerary exactly...afternoon departure from
Oakley station (4.10 pm) change of trains at Stirling arriving at
Glasgow at 7.10 pm.
4 The next morning, Verne and his companion take time to visit
Glasgow and have lunch there and depart on a later train than
proposed in Amelia's itinerary.i.e. early afternoon rather than 10.45.
5. The two friends take Amelia's itinerary from Glasgow, to
LochLomond, Inversnaid and Loch Katrine as far as the Trossachs.
Here the document proposes taking a coach to Stirling to catch the
last train to Edinburgh (depart Stirling 8.10 pm, arrive Edinburgh
9.50) but because of their excursion in Glasgow Verne is behind
the schedule and takes a coach to nearby Callander and the train
to Stirling where they stay overnight before returning to Edinburgh
the next day.
It is little short of a miracle that this scrap of paper, so crucial to
the story (and to the analysis) of Backwards to Britian, should have
survived.
Apologies for the length of this message.
Ian Thompson.
Received on Mon 21 Jul 2003 - 13:35:44 IDT

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