Stephen Duckworth, “Nineteenth century travellers in Crete - Edward Lear, Pashley and Spratt”

BSA Friends' Lecture
Abstract: Whilst Western travellers to the newly independent Greece in the 19th century after independence were often critical of the performance and effectiveness of the new government, travel in Crete was very different. It was still under Ottoman rule after the independence movement failed, and the population was mixed Christian and Moslem. In Pashley’s time, the wounds of the war which had also taken place in Crete only a few years earlier were still fresh and there are numerous references in his book to some of the horrors about which he was told.
The interests of the three travellers varied widely. Both Pashley and Spratt wrote well and clearly. Pashley in particular had done voluminous prior reading of earlier sources. Spratt had detailed professional knowledge of the geography and geology of the island. Lear came with much less precise knowledge or objectives. His wide range of travels were individual projects to soak up the experience of the country and to produce numerous landscape drawings which would later be his stock-in-trade for producing finished watercolours and oil paintings for his clients.
In this paper I will describe the workings of the three men, in chronological order. I do not attempt to follow their journeys in detail, apart from a brief description. It seemed of more interest to describe their interests and the lengths they sometimes went to describe these.