18th Century tourists would give it 5*: travelogues from Holkham Library

August 13, 2025 | Treasure tales and archive snippets | 5 minute read

If you’re planning to go away this summer then you’ve probably watched travel shows, read travel guides, and talked to others for recommendations about where they’ve been.  But what did the Georgians turn to for inspiration, before television and the internet allowed you to view, research and book at a moment’s notice?  Written accounts of travels and exploration were popular reads, often accompanied by maps and engravings for visual clarification, and there are a few of these to be found in the Holkham library.

Richard Haklyut. The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation. 1589.

Richard Haklyut (1553-1616) set out to write an account of those places across the globe visited by the English.  Not necessarily travelling to these places himself, Haklyut gathered the verbal reports of others he encountered.  The first part of the work relates to travels through India, Asia, and Africa; the second includes reports of Lapland and Georgia; the third part includes reports of ‘the English valiant attempts in searching almost all corners of the vaste and new world of America… further than euer any Christian hitherto hath pierced.’  Haklyut supported the exploration and colonisation of North America by the English and had already published a book relating to voyages to the continent in 1582.

The Holkham volume of Haklyut’s Principall Navigations was purchased by Thomas Coke, and the crest on the spine shows a baron’s coronet (portrayed as a coronet with four pearls, as opposed to an earl’s coronet which has five raised on stalks).  As Thomas held the title Baron Lovell from 1728 until his investiture as Earl of Leicester in 1744, this decoration can help date when it is likely to have first entered Holkham’s collection.

Aubrey de La Motraye. Travels Through Europe, Asia, and into Part of Africa. 1723.

Aubrey de La Motraye (c.1674-1743) was a French traveller and diplomat.  Having originally taken refuge in London due to his Huguenot faith he began to travel in 1696, and published his writings in 1723.  The Holkham library includes two versions of de La Motraye’s voyages, the first edition printed in English in 1723, and a later edition printed in French.  The later French edition was bought by Thomas Coke, whilst the earlier English edition is likely a ‘second-hand’ purchase, or maybe a gift, as there is an ownership inscription for Elizabeth Burton within.  De La Motraye was known to have complained about the revised content of the French edition, which may be why the two versions now sit side by side in the Long Library.

James Cook.  A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean.  1785

James Cook may be famous for his voyages around the coast of Australia, but this volume of work relates to his time in the northern hemisphere.  Under the authority of King George III, Cook was to explore the west side of North America, gage its distance from Asia, and to determine where a northern passage to Europe lay.  The expedition took place between 1776 and 1780 in two ships, the Resolution and the Discovery.  Cook first printed his travel reports in 1784 and this second edition was published the following year, it also includes some engravings of the animals and people he encountered, such as the seemingly unphased ‘Sea Horses’ below. This book was purchased by Thomas William Cook and demonstrates how travel was still a popular topic, as it remains today.

John Minsheu. The Guide into the Tongues. 1617.

Of course, what every traveller needs is a phrasebook to help them get about and freely converse with the locals.  Minsheu’s handy polyglot, published in 1617, will help you translate English into Welsh, Low and High Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Greek and Hebrew – although measuring 40 x 26 x 7.5 centimetres it’s not exactly a pocket guide.  First purchased by Sir Edward Coke, this volume was then part of the vast library Thomas Coke inherited from earlier generations.

So, wherever you are inspired to visit this year, have a lovely time, and maybe if you publish your travel memoirs we’ll be reading about your journey in years to come.