Shandy Pockets | An online travel magazine
  • Front
  • Features
    • Travel Features
    • Interviews
    • Photo Features
    • Travel Archives
  • Reviews
    • Hotel Reviews
    • Eat & Drink Reviews
    • Attraction Reviews
    • Product Reviews
  • About
    • Media Kit

How we used to blog

5/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Apologies for Shandy Pockets radio silence, we've been working hard getting ready for our book launch tomorrow for New Orleans Historic Hotels, which, if you're in New Orleans, you should definitely come to!    

To whet your appetite, here's a short excerpt:

In the mid-19th century, peer-review websites were, of course, the stuff of a madman’s dreams, but luckily we have the published diaries of affluent travelers (surely the travel blogs of the day) to give us some insight as to how the older hotels and boarding establishments operated. Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley, an English poet and writer, stayed at a hotel called The Verandah in 1849. She  wrote about it in a book which documents her travels in the United States between 1849 and 1850, a book which bears the unswervingly literal title of 'Travels Within the United States During 1849 and 1850'.
  Here’s what Lady Wortley had to report: “We are at a very splendid and comfortable hotel called The Verandah. It reminds me of a Parisian one. The St. Charles is the largest of all the hotels in New Orleans but it is much crowded, and we were recommended to try this, as it is quieter, and thus pleasanter for the ladies.”
  Lady W. goes on to praise the St. Charles at some length, implying that she actually would rather be staying there, then damns the Verandah with faint praise and ends with a complaint about the price: “The attendance at [this hotel] is admirable, and all the arrangements excellent. But the charges are much higher than usual in the States.”
  She then relates a rather tedious story about being harassed by “a little Swede” at dinner (someone from Sweden, not the root vegetable). In any case, she is by and large quite impressed by the place, especially the “airy apartments” as they saved her from “an early termination from these frying- pan temperatures.” She was being dramatic then, of course, but her early termination sadly did come just five years later, when she died of dysentery while traveling in the Ottoman Empire, an unfortunate case of out of the frying pan and onto the pyre.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    Air Travel
    Americas
    Asia
    Books
    Celebrities
    Cities
    Competitions
    Eco Travel
    Europe
    Food/Drink
    Gadgets
    Guides
    Hacks
    Hotel Guests
    Hotels
    Humour
    Infographic
    Interviews
    Luxury
    Magazine Content
    Maps
    New Orleans
    News
    Passengers
    Photos
    Podcast
    Products
    Restaurants
    Reviews
    Surveys
    Technology
    Trains
    Travel Writing
    Trivia
    UK
    USA
    Video
    Weird

    RSS Feed

Copyright © Shandypockets and the individual authors, 2013, 2014 and 2015. All rights reserved. Online travel magazine, travel features, travel reviews, travel interviews, travel funnies, hotel reviews, product reviews, travel photos


In the course of writing features, we will sometimes be hosted. Where appropriate, we will indicate this within the article. For all queries regarding Shandy Pockets, see the CONTACT page, above.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Ewan-M, Chrissy Olson, Powershift2012, Mr Thinktank, jennicatpink, nafra cendrers, eastmidtown, ST33VO, PYONKO, shaman2477, Upupa4me, Infrogmation, jikatu, Janitors, Robert S. Donovan, JD Hancock, beltz6, beggs, brownpau, sierragoddess, badgreeb RECORDS, mikedarnell1974, °Simo°, Daquella manera, Alex Schwab, ST33VO, MMartin Photography, Numinosity (Gary J Wood), Coco Mault, dying regime, DonkeyHotey, LoFish23, Aero Icarus, Bob Jagendorf, Matt @ PEK, travel.executive