Blog del Instituto Cervantes de Londres

Sir John Carr (1772–1832) was a travel writer born in London on 6 December 1772. A short biography is available at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Our copy of Descriptive travels in the southern and eastern parts of Spain and the Balearic Isles in the year 1809 was published in London in 1811.
 
 Descriptive travels … includes some interesting engravings of the city of Granada (frontispiece), Cádiz from the sea (pp. 112-113), Valencia from the river Segura (pp. 254-255), Ermita de Santa Anna in Montserrat (pp. 316-317), La Granja d’Esporles (pp. 356-357) and Port de Maó (pp. 368-369)

 
 Appendix III contains a table with details about the different coins used in Spain, the “Spanish Money” (maravedíes, reales, sols y diners) and its exchange rates.

Sir John Carr visited Spain during the Peninsular War, providing the book with important episodes.

The last chapter is entirely dedicated to the island of Menorca which had been under British sovereignty during the last hundred years (with the exception of the brief period of French occupation).

Carr arrives in Cádiz and travels around Andalusia. There are references to the Central Commission and to the Second Siege of Saragossa. After visiting Granada, Carr travels to Murcia, Valencia and Cataluña, and finally ends his journey in Palma.

Amongst the contents dealt with in the book, we can find odd references such as “Waiters, Spanish, How called”, “Women, Spanish, their devotional coquetry”, or “Galejos, or porters from Galicia, their honesty”, etc.

Although Sir John Carr met Lord Byron in Cádiz, there are no references in this index about this meeting.

USEFUL LINKS

About the Author (in Spanish):

http://www.dipalme.org/Servicios/Anexos/anexosiea.nsf/VAnexos/IEA-LVA09/$File/LVA09.pdf (pages 6 to 7)

About the book:

Cristina Torres-Fontes Suárez. Viajes de extranjeros por el reino de Murcia. T. 1
Asamblea Regional Real Academia Alfonso X el Sabio 
1996  ISBN84-88996-05-5 
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/01604529214583901890035/023652_0038.pdf 

There is an extract in Spanish about the «Reino de Murcia»
 http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/04700624244616662232268/023653_0054.pdf