A set of letters in the Baring Archive sheds some light on how one of Barings’ Victorian partners spent his holidays.

Joshua Bates (1788-1864) first visited the English holiday resort of Scarborough in June 1856. He had been recommended to visit in order to improve his health. From the very first day he was delighted with this Yorkshire coastal town. He wrote to his fellow partner Charles Baring Young:

I like the place very much there is no company here and the Great “Crown” Hotel has only an old woman to cook. There are no chickens and I am denied Beef, we are confined to mutton and lamb. I think however with long walks and short commons I shall get my strength rapidly for it is really a charming place compared with Brighton.

HC1.020.08.42

Bates stayed at the Crown Hotel (now the Crown Spa Hotel) overlooking Scarborough’s South Bay. Built in 1844 it was Scarborough’s first purpose-built hotel. Scarborough Spa had been a popular resort since the 17th century and the town is reputed to be England’s oldest seaside resort. In 1841 a new rail link between York and Scarborough had seen visitor numbers increase further.

In another letter dated 24 June 1856 Bates described how his walks with his wife Lucretia were testing his legs:

These Hills try my legs and one has given out but in other respects I am quite well. My local complaint does not trouble me in the least but my cough is pretty bad. Mrs Bates is very vigorous and walks enough to tire me and says she feels no fatigue. People begin to arrive here, 20 to our Hotel Yesterday – I think a fortnight will do for me between here and Towlow.

HC1.020.08.43

The mention of Towlow is a reference to the Weardale Iron & Coal Company, a company with which Barings had a long association. While on holiday Bates visited the owner of the company Charles Attwood and reported that all was well with the business.

Bates’s letters also reveal that he kept up to date with business and current affairs while on holiday. Topics covered in his letters range from financial matters in France, Argentina and Russia as well as the American Civil War. In one of his letters dated 27 June 1856 he reveals his source of news as the local bookseller reporting that “we get on well together, he has all the news from London by Telegraph at 12 o’clock.” (HC1.020.08.44).

Bates would continue to return to Scarborough until 1862. He must therefore have visited the newly constructed Spa building where concerts were held, bands played and visitors promenaded and shopped. On occasion he bemoaned the crowds but his overall opinion remained positive and was stated in a letter dated 29 July 1862:

This place is now charming, the very place to be idle in. 

(HC1.020.08.81).

Most definitely a five star review.

Find out more:

• Read the catalogue descriptions of Bates’s letters and other Barings partners in the HC1 catalogue
• Read Joshua Bates’s letters from Scarborough