This blog was researched and written by Paul Auchterlonie, Volunteer Cataloguer.

The Voyages and Travels section is shelved in the gallery of the Outer Library at the Institution, and on the shelves there are two relatively short travel books, Letters from Portugal and Spain (1809) and Travels through some parts of Germany, Poland, Moldavia and Turkey (1818), both by Adam Neale. When I discovered that Neale had been an early proprietor of the Institution (1816-1818) and had donated copies of his books to the library, I felt it was worth investigating more about him. It turns out that there are no published articles about him, only passing mentions of him in both contemporary and current books, and that the short entry on him in the Institution’s copy of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has numerous errors of omission and commission. Fortunately, there is one very substantial obituary of Neale, published in December 1834 in The Military and Naval Gazette, two years after his death, which has helped to fill in some of the gaps.

Adam Neale was the son of John Neale of Willielands, near Edinburgh, and his wife Katherine (née Adam), and was born Edinburgh on April 1st, 1779. He was always intended for the medical profession and began his career at sixteen as an assistant surgeon (a much more artisan and lower-grade profession than that of physician) in a locally-raised regiment, the Midlothian Fencible Cavalry. Successful as a surgeon, he moved on to Edinburgh University where he took his degree in medicine in 1802, writing his thesis (in Latin) on the medical uses of nitric acid. It was also during his time as a student that he married, in 1799, Margaret Johnstone Young, the daughter of a naval captain.

He lived in London shortly after graduation and also appears to have been a surgeon in the Shropshire Regiment of Militia for some time. He seems to have moved to Devon around 1804, since his eldest child, Erskine Neale, was born in Exeter on 12th March 1804. He seems to have undertaken a journey to South America around this time, but we have no details of this journey. What we do know, is that in 1805, Neale had accepted an appointment as Physician to the British Embassy in Constantinople (now Istanbul). Because of the Napoleonic Wars, he was neither able to sail to Constantinople, nor to travel through France and Italy, so, in July 1805, he decided to sail across the North Sea from Harwich to Husum in Schleswig-Holstein and then travel overland through Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe. Many of his observations in Travels through some parts of Germany, Poland, Moldavia and Turkey, his account of his journey to Constantinople and back which was not published until 1818, relate to ancient history – Neale was fond of quoting Tacitus and the Roman poets in the original without translation – but he was also interested in contemporary mores and customs and had a particular interest in ascertaining the origins of the names of peoples and places. He was a man with the prejudices of his period, and makes numerous remarks which would now be considered racist, but he was also a son of the Enlightenment who prided himself on his rationality and lack of superstition. He was also, like many travellers, a decent amateur artist and both his travel books contain examples of his sketches.

On his return to England, Neale was appointed physician to the forces with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and accompanied the British army which was sent to confront the French forces which had been occupying Portugal and Spain. While his descriptions of the countryside and the views are quite romantic, his descriptions of the conditions of the soldiers, particularly when they had to undertake a forced retreat through the mountains of Spanish Galicia in the depths of winter, is very stark and very powerful. On his return from Spain, he had some very bitter things to say to the powers that be at the inquiry into the military disaster, and particularly on the medical provision for the sick and wounded. His views are very evident in his second book, Letters from Portugal and Spain, which was published in 1809. Despite this, Neale returned for a second term of duty in Spain with the army for about a year from 1811 to 1812, after which, apart from a brief interlude as chief medical officer of the British Ionian Islands in 1815, he worked as a private physician in Exeter, Cheltenham and London. Apparently, according to his obituary he was offered a knighthood twice,
but declined both times.

In 1820, Neale moved to Cheltenham presumably in search of a more lucrative medical practice. There he published a 40-page pamphlet entitled A letter to a professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh respecting the nature and properties of the mineral waters of Cheltenham, suggesting that ‘tropical invalids were probably wasting their time and money taking the waters.’ This was received very badly by the Cheltenham medical establishment, who accused Neale of having a financial interest in increasing the use of the Original Spa, compared to the other wells. This accusation was repeated in national newspapers like The Globe, and resulted in Neale having to return to Devon. After a singularly unsuccessful application for the post of Physician to the Devon and Exeter Hospital in 1822, Neale briefly rejoined the army but retired, for the final time, in 1824. Although his wife seems to have remained in Dawlish where she died in 1860, Neale moved to London in the 1820s, and died in December 1832, in Dunkirk, as he was setting out on further European travels.

Adam Neale’s legacies are his family, his writing and his career as a doctor. Three children survived him: His eldest son Erskine Neale (1804-1883), born in Exeter, was a clergyman and prolific author, his younger son, William Johnstoune Neale (1812-1893), baptised in Withycombe Raleigh, was a barrister and novelist, while his daughter Sidney (1807-1868), born in Exmouth, in 1829 married the Devon antiquarian, vicar of Crediton, and author of A perambulation of the antient and royal forest of Dartmoor (1848), the Rev. Samuel Rowe (1793-1853). Neale’s medical writings were not ground-breaking and did very little to advance our knowledge, and his career as a private physician never achieved the success Neale felt he deserved. However, Neale’s two travel books can be viewed in a much more positive light. His 1818 description of his journey to Constantinople which he undertook in 1805-06 is attractive and full of interesting observations and anecdotes, but has no particularly distinguishing features, although his knowledge of Orientalist literature, and issues relating to publishing in the East is intriguing. On the other hand, his 1809 Letters from Portugal and Spain is a more influential work. It is a romantic travelogue in the new style of military memoir which in this case not only describes the scenery and inhabitants he encountered, but combines this with a powerful personal narrative of the painful retreat to Corunna, and allies it to a growing sense of indignation. The emotions Neale put into this work do raise it above the ordinary, and one can only regret that he did not continue his writing during his second Spanish campaign, although, given his disagreements with his fellow doctors, his friends may well have dissuaded him from making even more public his anger at the treatment of the sick and wounded by the medico-military establishment. So, perhaps the final judgement on Neale should be that he is an interesting if flawed and unfulfilled character, but one whose writings are both entertaining and instructive, and one whose determination to ensure better treatment for the sick and wounded soldiers of the British Army can only be applauded.

 

The following books are available to view in the Devon and Exeter Institution library:

Adam Neale, Letters from Portugal and Spain (1809). Classmark: G 34.2

Adam Neale, Travels through some parts of Germany, Poland, Moldavia, and Turkey (1818). Classmark: G 34.3