I enjoy reading travelogues about places all around the world, though there is a certain sameness to them all after a while. With Argentina’s bicentennial approaching in 2010, I decided to reach back and examine an Englishman’s account of living in Buenos Aires from the early 1800s: A Five Years’ Residence in Buenos Ayres: during the years 1820 to 1825. If you want to read along, you can find the PDF over at Google Books.
The author is supposedly a guy named George Thomas Love. However, this authorship is disputed by an Argentine historian: Alejo B. González Garaño, who translated the book into Spanish. (If I’m not mistaken, González Garaño also was once the director of the Museo Histórico Nacional). From the bibliographic records it looks like González Garaño wrote a prologue to the Spanish edition. That sounds interesting. I should find a copy, there are several floating around the city, and see what he had to say. However, he attributes the author of this work not to Love but to John Luccock, an Englishman who wrote several travel accounts in South America.
So, was the author Love or Luccock? I don’t know but in the spirit of blogging and contemporary travelogues on the Internet, I will simply refer to this mysterious man as Mr. Lovecock.
Mr. Lovecock’s impression of Buenos Aires… from page 156:
A person will not be long in Buenos Ayres without picking up acquaintances with its inhabitants; amongst whom are some very intelligent young men. I have sometimes thought it would give me pleasure to conduct one of them to England, to be – not exactly a Mentor (needing that myself), but a sort of escort to him in the modern Babylon, London.
Ah, throughout the city’s history all good foreigners have picked up sexy Argentines. More of Mr. Lovecock’s adventures in early Buenos Aires in subsequent postings….
November 16th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I love your blog. Hope to get your visit in mine.
Saludos
November 17th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Hi Christian, thanks for your comment. I’m actually familiar with your blog. It’s a good one!
November 17th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Hi Jeff,
I didn’t know. You are a very quiet visitor. I didn’t know either about the Literary Quaterly. What to do to contribute with it?
Cheers,
February 18th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Dear Mr.Barry,
John Luccock was a cloth merchant from Leeds who was stuck in Rio for ten years 1808-1818 and wrote a book about it.He went back to Leeds and stayed there until his death in 1826.It’s a pity Gonzalez Garano has passed on,I would have liked to ask him why he thought of don L.
Hugh Kerrigan.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Thanks Hugh for the insights into Luccock’s whereabouts post Rio. It is curious as to why he was suspected of being the author of this work on BsAs.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Meanwhile,
George Thomas Love seems to have been the editor of ‘The British Packet’.Search:-
“george thomas love”+ packet
to find a mention on http://www.irlandeses.org ,The Society of Irish Latin American Studies.I doubt if he was a Leeds man.
Hugh.