Isabella Bird was an English explorer, writer, photographer and naturalist who lived from 1831 to 1904. She travelled the world as a single woman throughout much of the late 1800’s. Pat Barr’s A Curious Life for a Lady, The Story of Isabella Bird, Traveller Extraordinary, is, to me, an interesting and pleasant read. As she travels one gains insights into the goings on in what were then remote locations on the planet.
She was not content with life in Victorian society. And she suffered from “neuralgia, ‘intermittent fevers’, spinal pain, bouts of listless depression.” 1
Yet during her initial travel to the Sandwich Isles (now Hawaii) she thrived, regained her health:
The life fitted her right and tight; she was so healthy and energetic; she felt “like a centaur’ on horseback; she could lasso cattle, bake bread, drive a waggon. … ‘with an unconstrained manner and up -to-anything free-legged air.'” 1
With the exception of certain very physically uncomfortable travel periods, this pattern continued as she returned home and traveled again. A renaissance woman with a clear flair for the body mind and soul connection!
~Caryn
1 Barr, Pat. A Curious Life for a Lady, The Story of Isabella Bird, Traveller Extraordinary. 3rd ed., Penguin Books, Ltd. 1970.