       |
Life
1772–1832; b. Devonshire; Middle Temple and bar; travelled throughout Europe for reasons of health; and issued successful travel-books incl. The Stranger in France (1803); The Stranger in Ireland (1806), for which he received an advance of £600 and which sold 1,500 copies in the first edn.; also Descriptive Travels in the Southern and Eastern part of Spain and the Balearic Islands, in the Year 1809 (1811); he was knighted by Duke of Bedford in Dublin, c.1806; became K.C.; his Irish excursus was answered satirically by an Irish writer in Analysis of a New Work of Travels Lately Published in London (1806); also published some poetry; knighted by the Lord Bdeford, Irtish Viceroy [Lord Lieutenant]; Stranger in Ireland contains 16 aquatint plates and a list of Irish poets which D. J. O’Donoghue used as a basis for his collation in Poets of Ireland. ODNB
[ top ]
Works
|
|
|
| Poetry |
|
| Anthology |
|
[ top ]
Bibliographical details| A Stranger in Ireland, or a Tour in the Southern and Western Parts of that country, in the year 1805 (London: Richard Phillips 1806), 530pp., with Dedication to Lord Moira | ||
| DESCRIPTION [De Burca]: | ||
|
|
|
| American edn - title page: | ||
|
||
| 3rd American edition: A Stranger in Ireland [... &c.] (New York: Printed by and for I. Riley & Co.1807), xi, 334pp., front [JP Curran], fold. tab. 20cm. [copy in Chicago UL; Hathi Cat. - online.] | ||
|
||
|
||
[ top ]
Commentary
Constantia Maxwell, Strangers in Ireland (1954) p.222ff.: Carr’s Stranger in Ireland was parodied by Edward Du Bois in a small volume entitled My Pocket-Book, or Hints for a Ryghte Merrie and Conceited Tour in Quarto to be called ‘The Stranger in Ireland in 1805. With humorous plates. In suppressed stanzas of ‘Childe Harold’, Byron refers slightingly to him as ‘Green Erin’s Knight and Europe’s Wandering Star.’ Maxwell comments, Carr is pompous and facetious. He gives far too many quotations from other people’s books and relies to a greater extent than he should on other people’s opinions ... yet his books were very popular in their day ... [valuable for their illustrations’]. He was knighted by John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, who was Lord-Lieutenant in 1806-07.
Richard Kain, Dublin in the Age of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce (Oklahoma UP 1962; Newton Abbot: David Charles 1972), on The Stranger in Ireland: ‘The mixture of pedestrian description, prosaic detail, and tedious narrative has served to fill many books before and since Carr’s time. [...] Carr had written successful books on France and the Baltic, but now his subject was Ireland. Within a year an amusing satire appeared, in the form of directions for writing a book like Carr’s. The gibes are delicious. An author is advised to proceed in just the same was as the Englishman [6] had. One must praise other writers and refer to one’s own books. It will make friends and help sales. One must attempt joviality, tell jokes even though they are not very funny, use plenty of platitudes, write elegantly, and be sure to omit nothing tedious or silly. Above all, learn the art of padding. Copy generously, list everything you can – “it will make many quarto pages.”’ / Mr. Carr, now Sir John, was very unhappy, and doubly so when his suit against the publisher of My Pocket Book was lost in court. Even less fortunate was one Richard Twiss. Ireland was bewildering to him, for there he experienced what he called “intellectual regress”; that is, the more he heard, the less he understood! He received a strange commemoration, his picture being used to decorate chamber pots manufactured in Dublin. An indecent epigram on the theme was forthwith written by Lady Clare, the Lord Chancellor’s wife.’ (pp.6-7.)
[ top ]
References
Hyland Books (Jan. 1998) lists The Stranger in Ireland; or, a Tour in the Southern and Western Parts in tha part of the Country in the Year 1805 (3rd US edn. NY 1897), xi, 334pp.
De Burca, Cat. No. 44 (1997) lists John Carr, Esq. The Stranger in Ireland, or, A Tour in the Southern and Western Parts of that Country, in the year 1805. With 16 fold. sepia tinted aquatints and coloured engraved map of the Lakes of Killarney. [rep.] Shannon, IUP. 1970. 4to. x, xv, 530pp.; v. good in buckram [£85].
Kenny’s Bookshop (Dec. 2001) lists Analysis of a New Work of Travels. Lately Published in London.. London: Phillips, 1806. Rebound in modern cloth. Foxing throughout. 55pp. €75.00
Morris Collection (University of Ulster Library) holds The Stranger in Ireland (1806) 530pp.
[ top ]
Quotations
Abject scholars: Sir John Carr astonished that a poor boy ‘under an appearance of the most abject poverty ... was well acquainted with the best Latin poets, had read most of the historians, and was then studying the orations of Cecil’. (The Stranger, 2 vols., 1806, p.380; quoted in W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition, IAP 1976; 1984).
Prose
A Stranger in Ireland (1806)
—extract from p.298. [ top ]
Google’s “Popular Extracts” from A Stranger in Ireland (1806)
In yon bright track that fires the western skies They melt, they vanish from my eyes. But oh ! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height Descending slow their glittering skirts unroll? Visions of glory, spare my aching sight, Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul! (2) Iren. Because the commodity doth not countervail the discommodity; for the inconveniences which thereby do arise are much more many; for it is a fit house for an outlaw, a meet bed for a rebel, and an apt cloak for a thief. (19 [Spenser on the Irish cloak])
When it raineth it is his pent-house; when it bloweth it is his tent; when it freezeth it is his tabernacle. In summer he can wear it loose, in winter he can wrap it close; at all times he can use it; never heavy, never cumbersome.(19) Fewness of people, is real poverty; and a Nation wherein are Eight Millions of people, are more than twice as rich as the same scope of Land wherein are but Four... (245; quoting Sir William Petty; American edn. p.255.) In vain for him the officious wife prepares The fire fair-blazing, and the nvestment warm, In vain his little children, peeping out Into the mingling storm, demand their sire, With tears of artless innocence. Alas ! Nor wife, nor children, more shall he behold, Nor friends, nor sacred home. (293) "Merciful God, what is the state of Ireland, and where shall you find the wretched inhabitant of this land...(294) [Among several samples from the speeches of J. P. Curran; var. American edn., p.304 - available online] He seemed a twin star of the defendant, equal in honour, in confidence; equal also (for who could be superior?) in probity and humanity. To this gentleman was my client consigned and in his custody he remained about seven weeks, unthought of by the world, as if he had never existed. The oblivion of the buried is as profound as the oblivion of the dead. His family may have mourned his absence or his probable death, but why should I mention so paltry a circumstance? (295) ... pass along ! Retire to the bosom of your families and your children, and when you are presiding over the morality of the parental board, tell those infants, who are to be the future men of Ireland, the history of this day. Form their young minds by your precepts, and confirm those precepts by your own example; teach them how discreetly allegiance may be perjured on the table, or loyalty be...(293 ) ... neglected, — do not strike him into that most dreadful of all human conditions, the orphanage that springs not from the grave, that falls not from the hand of Providence, or the stroke of death; but comes before its time, anticipated and inflicted by the remorseless cruelty of parental guilt.(296) Note: Pagination of Philadelphia Edition is at variance with that of the London one and the linked pages here relate to the latter - while those in square brackets relate to the former, whcih is available for searching and reading at Google - online.
Poetry
“The Poets’ Corner” selects Sir John Carr (1732-1807)—.
—See “The Poets’ Corner” on The Other Pages - online [accessed 24.09.2010] [ top ]
Notes
List of Poets: Stranger in Ireland contains a list of Irish poets which D. J. O’Donoghue used as a basis for his collation in Poets of Ireland.
[ top ]