Joseph Pennell: Illustrated Travel Guides

"Right of Way" by Joseph Pennell

"During the Nineties the vogue for the illustrated travel book had become firmly established, the result largely of Pennell's influence - not the huge elaborate publications, but the idea now was a small volume convenient for the traveler to carry, well made, well written, well illustrated, and issued for a reasonable sum. The Macmillans' Highways and Byways Series was a success from the start. It was continued with one or two volumes every year. To the English publisher of Henry James's 'Little Tour in France,' Pennell suggested: Why not an illustrated edition? 'The Best Guide Book ever written. I know because I illustrated it,' is his inscription in Mr. Edward L. Tinker's copy.

In the spring of 1899 the Little Tour took him and his bicycle over a route part of which he knew by heart, while the other part he had long been meaning to get to know as well. His Highways and Byways book for the year was also in France, 'Normandy' by the Reverend Percy Dearmer.  

Twice he interrupted the journeys. On the second he crossed from London with Lavery, each bringing a bicycle, arrived in time for the opening of the Van Dyck Exhibition with which the ceremonies closed. The collection impressed him, he must write this article himself, and we sat up till all hours, he dictating, I writing in the old fashion. The first  thing in the morning, the three of us were off on our bicycles, riding along the Belgian and French coast, Lavery as far as Calais, I as far as Dieppe, Pennell as far as Mont St. Michel, where he proposed an article to the Century and wrote to me to return to France as fast as possible. Familiarly as he knew France, his love of the beauty of 'the French scene' had not lost its ardour. 

1900 called him away on fewer long journeys, a good thing, so often did the Paris Exposition lure him across the Channel. One journey was to illustrate 'East Anglia,' a Highways and Byways book. Another in the summer was for his own amusement, though it was the prelude to a later article, 'In the Alps on a Motor Bicycle.' His love of cycling had not swindled, nor his spirit of adventure cooled. Now he was the first to put the motor bicycle to the test. He chose the London streets to begin on, not the wisest choice, and a story lingers of the machine getting away with him one day as he turned from the Marble ARch into Park Lane and met a detachment of the Black Watch. Right into the bagpipes he charged, scattering apologies right and left - 'Awfully sorry but I don't know how to stop the thing!' He escaped unhurt before they recovered from their surprise and tried to resume the swagger of their march." 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Life and Letters of Joseph Pennell" by Elizabeth Robins Pennell.)