Humboldt in England, 1790 — A Journey Chronology

The route across England

Sites Humboldt observed, coloured by stage. The connecting line is an inferred route — the journal gives no itinerary.

Southwest — the cloth townsenlarged

The Peak Districtenlarged

How to read this

The manuscript is a scientific field notebook, not a dated diary — it carries no calendar dates. What follows is the sequence of places and observations in the order of the journal’s own foliation, grouped into the three regions it moves through.

1Southwest England — the wool & cloth country

Wiltshire · Somerset · Gloucestershire — folios 1–5

Textile economy. Many cassimere (fine-wool) factories, “especially in Bath, in Trowbridge and Bradford.” The sheep here are shorn twice yearly; in Leicester, Lincoln and Warwickshire mostly once.
The river Avon. The dyers crowd along the Avon, “whose pure water is of superior quality for dyeing.” Humboldt regrets the lack of real chemistry on how waters affect dyeing and brewing.
Wool prices, 1790. Blamed in the papers on the wars and the manufactures; highest South Down 1s 2d. He notes cloth was made at Winchester for the Roman emperors (citing Anderson on Shetland wool, 1790).
History & trade. Chippenham “nearly the residence of Alfred the Great”; he weighs the Bristol Channel against the Thames, and Milford as a safer harbour than Portsmouth. (Alfred drove the Danes from Rochester and London, 884.)
Somersetshire. Fuller’s teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) and its kin grow wild; Linné wrongly made it a variety of D. sylvestris. The county holds galena, “not so fine as the Derbyshire kind.”
Bath, geology. By the Avon: a shelly limestone under thin clay, on a greyish quartz-rich sandstone.
Gloucestershire, trade. True Gloucester cheese goes to Bristol and on to the West Indies; most “Gloucester” cheese in London is really from Wiltshire.

2The Peak District, Derbyshire — mines, caverns & alpine flora

Matlock · Buxton · Castleton · Stoney Middleton — folios 5–16, 20r

Matlock. On the Heights of Abraham and at Lover’s Walk on the Derwent he found Hypnum crista-castrensis (as near Göttingen), Lichen capperatus, L. calcareus and Verrucaria pertusa.
Lichen dyes. L. tartareus is gathered in the Peak, carried to Manchester and boiled with urine for a fine purple — with a long comparison to Norway, Iceland, Leith and the Levant.
Poole’s Cavern, Buxton. 560 yards long on the river Wye toward Axe Edge; its narrowness makes finer stalactites (the flitch of Bacon, the Queen of Scots pillar). En route: Saxifraga granulata; at the mouth Viola montana, Alchemilla vulgaris, Polypodium vulgare. In England lime is burnt in the open — the reverse of Germany.
Castleton. At the fluorspar mine, Gentiana amarella of unusual beauty.
Stoney Middleton. Arenaria saxatilis in quantity — in Germany known only at Herzberg am Harz.
Matlock, mineralogy. The Toadstone in the lead-mines at Masson Hill he read as a true amygdaloid with calcspar, disputing Faujas de Saint-Fond’s “trapp.”
Manners & law (fol. 20r). Cites the harsh statute under Edward I: a thief robbing a lead-mine had a hand nailed to a table.

3The West Midlands — the basalt of Rowley Rag

Halesowen · Dudley — folios 13–16

The road to Dudley. Near Halesowen the ground is full of Rowley Rag, which Kirwan and Cavallo call a distinct rock. Humboldt argues it is plainly basalt — a trivial name, like the German Stolpenerstein.
Petrography. Dirty-grey, conchoidal, hard; a green schistose coat like the Dransberg basalts; gypsum evenly disseminated; compared with Stolpen, Antrim and Iceland, but without olivine.
Halesowen. Two conical, bush-covered hills by the Rowley Rag Hills and red sandstone; here grows much Dianthus prolifer.

◇Named in the index only

folio 28r

Alston — the Cumbrian lead-mining district appears only in the alphabetical index, with a page reference. Noted, not described.

Species	Folio	Where noted
Dipsacus fullonum · D. sylvestris · D. laciniatus	3	Somerset & Gloucestershire
Hypnum crista-castrensis	5	Matlock — Heights of Abraham
Lichen tartareus · L. calcareus · L. capperatus	5	Matlock
Verrucaria pertusa	5	Matlock
Saxifraga granulata · S. tridactylites	12	Buxton → Poole’s Cavern
Alchemilla vulgaris	12	Poole’s Cavern — cave-mouth
Viola montana	12	Poole’s Cavern — cave-mouth
Polypodium vulgare	12	Poole’s Cavern — cave-mouth
Gentiana amarella	12	Castleton — fluorspar mine
Arenaria saxatilis	13	Stoney Middleton / Middleton Dale
Dianthus prolifer	16	Halesowen

People & works cited

The journal records no personal meetings. Every name is an author being read or a historical figure — this is a reader’s and observer’s notebook.

Naturalists: Linné · Willdenow · Richard Kirwan · Tiberius Cavallo · Faujas de Saint-Fond · J. J. Ferber · James Pilkington · George Pearson · James Anderson · A. W. Roth · Dambourney · G. F. Hoffmann · Demachy · F. C. L. Faber · Niels Mohr · Hans Strøm · J. C. Fabricius · Domenico Manni
Historical: Alfred the Great · Edward I · Mary Stuart

Minerals & geology

The rocks and workings the journal singles out.

Shelly limestone · clay · sandstone — Bath Galena / lead — Somerset, Derbyshire Toadstone / amygdaloid & calcspar — Masson Hill Fluorspar — Castleton Basalt “Rowley Rag” — Dudley, Halesowen Stalactites — Poole’s Cavern

A Naturalist’s Passage Through England, 1790