Embassy to Constantinople: The Travels of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Hardcover - 1990

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) was born Lady Mary Pierrepont. She spent her childhood in the care of her paternal grandmother at West Dean Manor near Salisbury and later at her family seat of Thoresby Park in Nottinghamshire. She was a voracious reader and soon developed a strongly independent outlook. Her courtship by Edward Wortley Montagu evoked the disapproval of her father, which forced an elopement under dramatic circumstances. The marriage was not a success and later in life they separated. On their return from Constantinople, Lady Mary pioneered the smallpox innoculation in London that she had studied in Turkey. After her separation, she pursued to no avail a much younger Italian writer, and went to live in Venice. She died in London and her Embassy Letters were published a year later. Dervla Murphy was born in 1931 in County Waterford, where her father was County Librarian. Along with most of his family, her father was deeply involved in the Irish Republican Movement. Dervla Murphy was educated at the Ursuline Convent, Waterford, until 1945 when she returned home to nurse her invalid mother. She made her first historic bicycle journey to India in 1963, and has since undertaken many journeys with her daughter, Rachel; these have been the subject of many successful books. Dervla Murphy has long been an admirer of Lady Mary and her letters.