Mystery author's travel work on display

The document was penned in 1814 and describes a 32-day journey taken by a family from the East Yorkshire village of Kilnwick to the south of France.

It was written by a man heading for Frejus, near Nice, with his parents, sisters and servants.

His identity is not known but staff at the East Riding Archives and Local Studies Service say the journal is an interesting record of how much overseas travel has changed. The Kilnwick party spent more than a month covering 1,073 miles.

Sam Bartle, collections officer at the Treasure House in Champney Road, where the journal is being kept, said: "Imagine setting off on holiday and not reaching the resort for another 32 days. I think we take for granted how easy it is to travel nowadays."

The group travelled in carriages shipped across the English Channel and where necessary, on French rivers.

The detailed account shows how 19th century travel was more perilous than modern journeys, and includes a description of being aboard a sinking boat on the River Rhone.

The journal said: "About four o'clock we got into the carriages to dinner and had scarcely finished our repast when we heard a most dreadful crash, and the water pouring into the boat too soon assured us we had struck upon a rock... we were up to our necks in water."

Poor roads and turbulent rivers provided plenty of pitfalls.

The journal also includes descriptions of Paris before the Eiffel Tower was built and comparisons of French hospitality at the Hotel d'Angleterre and the Hotel de France.

The journal can be read on request in he research room of the Treasure House.