Illustrated manuscript diary of a journey through Belgium in the weeks leading up to the outbreak of the First World War and the devastation of everything that the author describes here.
Octavo, blue cloth over boards, gold bands and lettering to spine, slight fading and marking to spine and front board, spine and corners lightly pushed; green card endpapers, binding sound. Author’s ownership label pasted inside front cover; glazed paper, 124 numbered pages plus 1 blank leaf to begin and 4 to finish; tissue interleaf at frontispiece; 47 pasted-in colour and b/w illustrations of landmarks, views and buildings, plus a fold-out map of Belgium to rear; title page, contents page, page numbers and chapter titles printed with ink and pad stamps. Webb has dedicated the diary to ‘Mme René Seeuws of Ghent’. 2pp Preface, 2pp Prologue, 5 Chapters covering the principal cities of Belgium. Contents page indicates an intended Prologue, but the text finishes at the end of Chapter 5.
A cursive hand-written personal account, in purple ink, charting the poet and anthologist A.P. Webb’s one week progress through Belgium immediately before the start of The Great War, finishing at Antwerp on 1 August 1914. Webb quotes Lord Bacon in his Preface ‘... [travel] “in the younger sort, is a part of education. Let him not stay long in one city or town; more or less as the place deserveth,” and he wisely adds “let him also keep a diary”.’ This is Webb’s summary recitation of the more important episodes in history attaching to places - including the field of Waterloo - and of the impressions left on him, liberally illustrated with scenes of towns, such as Dinant and Liege, that were imminently to be razed by the German army which attacked on 4 August.
Arthur Patterson Webb was a Presbyterian minister, deacon of St. George's, Croydon Presbyterian Church. A composer of devotional poetry and hymns, he is remembered as a creator of anthologies. Some of his archive is held in Australia.
