Celia Fiennes
CELIA FIENNES
Traveller and diarist
Lived in a house near this site
From 1738, and died here.
(Well Street)
“...a hearty wish and recommendation to all...the Studdy of those things which tends to improve the mind and makes all our Lives pleasant as comfortable as well as proffitable... and render Suffering and Age supportable and Death less formidable and a future State more happy.”
Celia Fiennes was born in 1662 near Sailsbury, daughter of Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes. Celia commenced her travels in the South East of England at the age of 22 and began recording her experiences. Travel memoirs were particularly popular at this time although it is thought that these are the only ones written by a woman. During the next 18 years Celia managed to visit every county in England and the border regions of Scotland and Wales.
The ostensible motive for her travels was her health, she visited many of the new fashionable spas throughout England and described their effects;
“I dipp’d my head quite over every tyme I went in and found it eased a great pain I used to have in my head.”
However, it seems that Celia was a hardy woman, as many of her travels were undertaken on horseback over poor roads and she often stayed at inns along the way.
Her work although completed in 1702, was not published, albeit anonymously and in part until 1812, and finally appeared complete in 1888.
Little is known of Celia Fiennes after she completed her travels except for small details. We do know that she eventually died in Hackney, probably in the home of one of her nieces in 1741.
Page updated: 28 Feb 2007