Bathing, billiards, and a bay like Naples: An 1820s travel guide to Swansea
Jason Evans
A guidebook is an essential aid to the traveller providing a wealth of information about a destination from the best places to stay to top attractions to see - and that was just as true 200 years ago as it is now.
The New Swansea Guide of 1823 covered just about everything a well-heeled Georgian visitor to the area would have needed to know about the town and places of interest to see in Gower, Carmarthenshire, and the Swansea and Neath valleys. As the title page proudly boasts, it offers a "particular description of the town and its vicinity, together with a short history of the county (never before published) and such information as may be deemed useful to the traveller through the counties of Carmarthen and Glamorgan".