Edwin Waugh’s Cruise on the Hesperia 1888

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Edwin Waugh, Rochdale born dialect writer and journalist (1817-1890), left behind a large amount of manuscript material on his death. The collection was acquired by the library service in the 1920’s from Mr Clement M Royds. Some of the manuscripts are in bound volumes and volume 5 recounts a cruise taken by Waugh in the summer of 1888. He was invited by a friend, Mr James Henry Johnson Esq of Southport to partake in a cruise of the Scottish Isles on his yacht, ‘The Hesperia’.

The manuscript details all of the places that Waugh and his companions visited and is a captivating read. His descriptive style of writing is superb, as he documents his journey as can be seen from the following excerpt…..’Indeed everything in sight seemed so undisturbed discordant intrusion, so completely steeped in the dreamy beauty of a glorious summer morning, that it seemed impossible that such an enchanting combination of ‘the shapes and sounds, and shifting elements of nature’ should ever be overcome by wild tempestuous gloom and the bleak sterility of winter’.

The manuscript’s incredibly descriptive content is further enhanced by a series of holiday ‘snaps’ taken by Waugh and his companions.