Anne Elwood

Anne Elwood
Anne Elwood
	Elwood was carried between two camels
Born	1796
Died	24 February 1873; Clayton Priory
Pen name	Mrs Elwood
Occupation	writer
Nationality	United Kingdom
Subject	travel and biography

Anne Elwood (née Curteis, 1796 – 24 February 1873) was a British traveller, writer and biographer. It was claimed that she was the first woman to travel overland from Britain to India.

Life

Anne was born in 1796 to Edward Jeremiah Curteis, a writer and an independent Member of Parliament for Sussex, and his wife Mary Curteis. They lived near Battle.[1]

She married on 9 January 1824 to Major Charles William Elwood. He was about 15 years older than her and he had worked for many years for the East India Company. The couple set off for India in 1825 and it was claimed that she was the first female to travel overland to India.[2] She described her journey using the device of letters home which she published as Narrative of a Journey Overland from England to India in 1830. The book described her journey to India via Egypt and it was illustrated by her and her husband.[1] She advised on the need for three days of underwear, riding habits and several evening dresses.[3] Elwood's book also included not only descriptions of her time in India when her husband was leading a regiment, but also the couple's return to England in 1828 by sea.[1]

Her second book was also remarkable. Elwood says that she could not find a book about women writers and so she decided to write one. Memoirs of the Literary Ladies of England from the Commencement of the Last Century was published in 1841 and it described the life of 29 leading women.[4] Elwood knew several of the women and she was given access to their documents. The book was well regarded and was used as a source for the Dictionary of National Biography. Her writing was not always objective.[1] She included Emma Roberts in her leading women who had later travelled to India. Elwood thought her journey of two months was too fast.[4]

Elwood died in Clayton Priory in 1873.

Works

Narrative of a Journey Overland from England (1830)

Memoirs of the Literary Ladies of England (1845)

References

Deborah Manley, ‘Elwood , Anne Katharine (1796–1873)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 17 Nov 2016
Anne Elwood, Wolverhampton University, Retrieved 17 November 2016
Deborah Manley (30 November 2013). Women Travellers in Egypt: From the Eighteenth to the Twenty-first Century. The American University in Cairo Press. pp. 6–. ISBN 978-977-416-570-2.
Elwood, Mrs. (1843). Memoirs of the literary ladies of England. London: Henry Colburn. p. 333.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[odnb-1] Deborah Manley, ‘Elwood , Anne Katharine (1796–1873)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 17 Nov 2016

[wolv-2] Anne Elwood, Wolverhampton University, Retrieved 17 November 2016

[Manley2013-3] Deborah Manley (30 November 2013). Women Travellers in Egypt: From the Eighteenth to the Twenty-first Century. The American University in Cairo Press. pp. 6–. ISBN 978-977-416-570-2.

[ELWOOD-4] Elwood, Mrs. (1843). Memoirs of the literary ladies of England. London: Henry Colburn. p. 333.