Sarah West (née Steavens; c.1721–1799) An extensive manuscri...

Sarah West (née Steavens; c.1721–1799) An extensive manuscript travel diary through England and Scotland, 1739–1745 Inscribed "Sarah West 1739", oblong 8vo, pp.123 numbered pages in a neat contemporary hand, two with no MSS, numerous blank leaves following, contemporary vellum, blind ruled, with engraved brass fore-edge clasp. Vellum rubbed, marked and somewhat worn at extremities, internally excellent, with the odd ink spot. A remarkably extensive record of journeys undertaken between June 1739 and June 1745, describing routes through Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, East Anglia, Northamptonshire, Dorset, Yorkshire, the Midlands and Scotland. West regularly notes distances, roads, inns and meals, together with candid observations upon towns, churches, antiquities, country houses, gardens and collections. The diary opens with a Worcestershire tour in June 1739, including Blenheim, Woodstock, Evesham and Stowe; followed by Portsmouth and Bath, with visits to Winchester, Salisbury, Amesbury and Stonehenge, described as "the greatest collection in England of antique stones." Later journeys include Norfolk and Suffolk in March 1739/40; Kent in May 1740, recording Rochester, Sheerness, Canterbury, Deal and Dover; and Worcestershire in July 1740, during which West visited Oxford, met the antiquary George Ballard at Chipping Campden, admired drawings and embroidery belonging to Mrs Pendarves—later Mary Delany—and inspected Guy of Warwick's armour and the celebrated "rib of the Dun Cow" at Warwick Castle. A Yorkshire tour beginning in August 1740 includes Peterborough, Burghley, York, Ripon, Knaresborough, Harewood, Ledston, Rufford Abbey, Nottingham and Cambridge. West describes the York Assembly Rooms, the Dropping Well, Lady Elizabeth Hastings's charitable foundation and the university buildings at Cambridge. Two travelling accidents are recorded: her chair overturned near Gloucester, while a carriage horse later fell on the Yorkshire journey, nearly overturning the party. Further tours include Welbeck and East Anglia in 1743, with detailed visits to Narford Hall, Raynham, Houghton, Holkham, Blickling, Chatsworth and Welbeck; Dorsetshire in September 1743; and Worcestershire in June 1744. Collections, pictures and interiors receive particular attention, including the Earl of Orford's celebrated collection at Houghton Hall and Sir Andrew Fountaine's pictures, marbles, china, enamels and antiquities at Narford. The principal journey, beginning on 15 April 1745, took West north through Northampton, Nottingham, Welbeck, Castle Howard, Rievaulx, Raby Castle, Bishop Auckland, Newcastle, Alnwick and Berwick, before entering Scotland on 10 May. Travelling in the company of Lady Oxford, she visited Edinburgh, Holyroodhouse, Dalkeith, Hopetoun, Stirling, Perth, Glasgow and Hamilton Palace, dining or taking tea with Lady Glenorchy, Lady Mary Crichton, Lord and Lady Elibank and others. She comments upon Glasgow's linen and inkle manufactures, the university and cathedral, and the pictures at Hamilton, including works attributed to Rubens and Titian. The party returned through Dumfries, Carlisle, Lancaster, Manchester, Lyme Hall, Buxton, Peak Cavern, Sheffield and Welbeck, reaching London on 17 June 1745—only weeks before the outbreak of the Jacobite rising. Sarah West (née Steavens; c.1721–1799) was the daughter of Sir Thomas Steavens, a wealthy timber merchant of Southwark and Eltham, Kent. She married James West on 15 August 1738. Following her brother Thomas's death in 1759, she inherited the Steavens family's extensive property in Bermondsey and Rotherhithe, which she continued to manage after her husband's death in 1772. (ODNB)

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