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Writer's pictureThe Bridge Burford

One View of Tourists



On 5 April 1870 the Rev. Francis Kilvert, a curate in the Welsh Marches, described in his diary a visit to the ruins of Llanthony Priory in the Brecon Beacons:

"What was our horror on entering the enclosure [of the priory] to see two tourists with staves and shoulder belts all complete postured among the ruins in an attitude of admiration, one of them of course discoursing learnedly to his gaping companion and pointing out objects of interest with his stick. If there is one thing more hateful than another it is being told what to admire and having objects pointed out to one with a stick. Of all noxious animals too the most noxious is a tourist. And of all tourists the most vulgar, ill-bred, offensive and loathsome is the British tourist".

No doubt he felt better when he had got that off his chest!


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