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Travels with Baedeker
19. Murray, Switzerland, 8th edn (1858); 16th edn (1878). Note that in the 1860s, the
revised 9th and 10th editions of Murray’s guide did have a relatively short paragraph on
the tourist trade, with an indirect reference to Baedeker: “A German writer has truly
remarked that a traveler in the Oberland should be supplied with plenty of patience and
small change.” Murray, Switzerland, 9th edn (1861), p. 77. This paragraph is removed in
the 1870s. Compare with the introduction to the Oberland in Baedeker, Switzerland, 6th
edn (1873), pp. 99–100, and also Baedeker, Switzerland, 2nd edn (1864).
20. Murray, Switzerland, 10th edn (1863), pp. 80–1; Baedeker, Switzerland, 2nd edn
(1864), p. 121.
21. A more detailed overview is W.A.B. Coolidge, Swiss Travel and Swiss Guide-Books
(London, 1889).
22. John Ball, The Alpine Guide, 3 vols (London, 1863–68), here vol. 2, p. 58.
23. Cook’s Tourist Handbook for Switzerland (London, 1874), pp. 88–91.
24. Henry Gaze, Switzerland: How to See it for Ten Guineas (London, 1866).
25. Ibid., pp. v, 16.
26. See, for instance, Cook’s Tourist Handbook, p. 83 (Wengern Alp), p. 84 (Staubbach).
27. Hugh Honour and John Fleming, The Venetian Hours of Henry James, Whistler and
Sargent (London: Walker, 1991), p. 20.
28. Mrs. Staley, Autumn Rambles; or, Fireside Recollections of Belgium, the Rhine, the
Moselle, German Spas, Switzerland, the Italian Lakes, Mont Blanc, and Paris. Written by
a Lady (Rochdale, 1863), pp. 104–6. Murray, Switzerland, 9th edn (1861), pp. 1–2.
29. Compare, for instance, the description of the journey the day they leave Basle. Staley,
Autumn Rambles, pp. 106–11. Murray, Switzerland, 9th edn (1861), pp. 34–8, 210.
30. Miss Jemima’s Swiss Journal – The First Conducted Tour of Switzerland (1863),
also vol. 3 of The History of Tourism: Thomas Cook and the Origins of Leisure Travel, ed.
Paul Smith (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 70–1 (Giessbach), p. 74 (Sarnen). Murray,
Switzerland, 10th edn (1863), p. 93 (Giessbach), p. 68 (Sarnen).
31. Miss Jemima’s Swiss Journal, p. 35. Murray, Switzerland, 10th edn (1863), p. 401.
32. Miss Jemima’s Swiss Journal, p. 21. Murray, Switzerland, 10th edn (1863), p. 381.
33. A further piece of evidence is provided by a comparison between Agnes and Maria
E. Catlow, Sketching Rambles. Or, Nature in the Alps and Apennines (London, 1861), vol.
1, p. 145 (Staubbach) and pp. 165–71 (on Chillon), and Murray, Switzerland, 8th edn
(1858), pp. 75–6, 162–4.
34. According to the Baedeker’s English editor, evaluating the readers’ correspondence
was the essential first step in preparing a guidebook’s new edition: Pall Mall Gazette
(August 23, 1889), p. 1.
35. [Mrs. Henry Jane Freshfield], Alpine Byways or Light Leaves Gathered in 1859 and
1860, by a Lady (London, 1861), pp. 3–5, 8. Murray, Switzerland, 8th edn (1858), and
Murray, Switzerland, 9th edn (1861), pp. 83–4. Freshfield’s book would not have been
published long before the revised 9th edition of Murray’s handbook, but given her agenda
set out in the introduction, and given the guidebook’s very striking responsiveness, it is
highly likely that Freshfield let Murray have her criticism before publication – after all, the
Murray’s actively encouraged readers’ comments and criticisms.
36. Freshfield, Alpine Byways, p. 40. Murray, Switzerland, 8th edn (1859), p. 98.
Murray, Switzerland, 9th edn (1861), p. 203.
37. See, for instance, Elizabeth Tuckett, How we Spent the Summer or a Voyage en
Zigzag in Switzerland and Tyrol, with Some Members of the Alpine Club (London, 1864) –
though some of the accommodation (e.g. in Bergün) used by the party was, of all the
guidebooks, referred to only in the Murray.
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