Sarah Ann Nichols, lady’s maid and diarist, travelled Europe as Lady’s Maid to Miss Anna Gurney and Miss Buxton, and documented these travels in a diary, a transcript of which is kept at the Norfolk Record Office (NRO, MC 2784/H/10).
The diary describes travelling from England to Ischel and back through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, France, etc., with ‘the ladies’, i.e., Anna Gurney, Sarah Buxton, Miss Carr [said to be step-sister of Anne Buxton who married Joseph Hoare in 1836], and another maid, Hannah, April-September 1836.
In an extract from the diary from 1 September 1836, Sarah Anne writes:
‘There are a great many fine things to be seen in Paris, and I have seen some, once I went out with the ladies, the Triumphant Arch which had been opened about 6 weeks, on one side they are crowning Boniparte, on the other side there is he and his troops and a great deal of merriment about it. Miss Carr and I went several times into the Palais Royale where there were a great many shops, and bought many little things. We went into a church, the inside was beautiful, it looked like rocks, where they were taking Our Lord into the Tomb. We stayed here nearly three weeks.’
Find out more: You can see a transcript of Sarah Anne Nichols’ diary at the Norfolk Record Office – NRO, MC 2784/H/10.
Norfolk Record Office 