Traveling rough in 1873

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, Isabella Bird

Reading about the travels of Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Smith Gibson in The Sisters of Sinai reminded me of Isabella Bird and her travels.  Many years ago a friend gave me a copy of A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, saying, "Oh, you have to read this."  I never did get around to reading it, but I remembered the author's name when I came across it in a book I've mentioned before, Sue Shepherd's book on food history, Pickled, Potted and Canned.  That led me to read Bird's Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, and to dig out my copy of A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains.

Born in Yorkshire in 1831, Isabella Bird developed health problems early in her life, including a spinal tumor at age 18 that was successfully but painfully removed.  Her doctor advised her to travel for her health.  For many Victoria women, this meant a visit to a European spa town, or a winter in Italy.  Isabella Bird would travel the world for the next fifty years.  Her last trip, at age 70, was to Morocco.

Her first trip abroad was to Canada and the United States in 1854, an account of which was published two years later as The Englishwoman in America  (I posted about it back in February).  In 1872 she set off on an extended voyage that took her to Australia and New Zealand, across the Pacific to the Hawaiian Islands, and finally to the United States.  Landing in San Francisco in September of 1873, she immediately set off for Colorado. She spent  four months exploring the Rocky Mountains, primarily in Colorado, before heading east to sail home to England.  Like several of her other books, A Lady's Life is a collection of the letters she wrote home to her sister Henrietta.  I didn't realize that this book follows directly after the account of her Hawaiian adventure, Six Months in the Sandwich Islands, which I have on the TBR pile.  If I had, I might have read it first, since Bird frequently referred to Hawaii.

I can't help but wonder if the title of this book was meant ironically, because Isabella Bird's life in those four months was anything but "ladylike" according to Victorian standards, even for a middle-aged woman of forty-two.  She spent those months riding around northern Colorado, covering more than 800 square miles.  She sometimes had guides, including an infamous one-eyed outlaw named "Mountain Jim," whom she discovered to be a man of education and culture, ruined by drink and the violence of the frontier, who became a good friend and traveling companion.  At other times Bird set off alone, riding astride in trousers under her long skirt, with only the vaguest of directions, trusting to find shelter in scattered settlers' cabins, often caught in the extremes of winter weather, including blizzards.  I'm not sure she realized how fortunate she was to come safely through all that she did.  Due to a wide-spread financial crisis, she was unable to cash her equivalent of traveler's checks, and when her money ran out she was forced to spend almost a month living in a snow-bound cabin in Estes Park, with two hunters wintering there, with whom she cheerfully shared cooking and cleaning duties, as well as minding the stock.

Bird was completely captivated by the gorgeous scenery of Colorado, devoting many pages of her letters to describing the majesty of the mountains.  "Jim" took her with two male tourists on an expedition to Long's Peak, and with the help of the men she climbed (and was dragged) to the top.  She was equally interested in the people that she met, though many of them were rough settlers, uncomfortable with tourists.  As in her 1854 trip, Bird still met hostility toward England, which I understand better after reading Amanda Foreman's book on Britain and the American Civil War.  It seems that wherever she went, Bird met friends and acquaintances, and she also made friends easily.  She was a good listener, and she took a share in whatever work there was to be done.  She went out of her way to help those in need, including nursing the sick and caring for children.  She seems to have taken everything in stride; the difficulties and privations she faced counted for nothing compared with the glorious mountains.

I found the Isabella Bird of 1873 much better company than the 1854 version, and now I'm greatly looking forward to Six Months in the Sandwich Islands.

Isabella Bird and America

The Englishwoman in America, Isabella Bird (1856)

I found this a couple of weeks ago at Half-Price Books.  I learned about Isabella Bird last year, from a wonderful book on food history (Pickled, Potter and Canned, by Sue Shepherd). I ordered two of her books on-line, and when they arrived, I added them to the TBR pile.  I did read one, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan - and I found it a bit of a slog.  So I moved the other (Six Months in the Sandwich Islands) further down the pile, next to A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, which I think I've had unread since at least 1990.

But when I saw The Englishwoman in America was about a trip in the 1850s, I wanted it more for my Civil War collection.  I had found an abridged edition of Anthony Trollope's North America, and I also thought they would be interesting book-end views of America & the Civil War from England.

I didn't realize until I started reading that Bird defined "America" as North America, and that the book is as much about Canada as the US.  In fact, she lands first in Canada, and the book includes a wonderful description of Prince Edward Island (I wondered if she might have met Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, or Mrs. Rachel Lynde).

The book is fascinating reading.  Bird addresses slavery head-on, challenging biblical justifications and the inherent contradiction in the American ideal that "all men are created equal."  She sees clearly that slavery will lead to a great struggle, even open conflict.  Bird can appreciate what America had achieved by 1854, but she sees Canada's future as brighter.  In part, this is because America is weighed down with Romish priests and Irish immigrants - in the last half of the book, there are almost constant references to the baleful influences of these two groups.  Bird actually sees the Know-Nothings as the great hope of America! because the KNs want to exclude immigrants and rein in foreign influences.

Though I found her anti-catholicism grating in the end, I enjoyed this book and Bird's view of the US - and I learned quite a bit about Canada!  So this one is a keeper (and one off the current TBR).