MORE than 200 years ago Wales was the place for aspiring Georgian tourists. Wild, untamed, unknown, with towering mountains and awe-inspiring landscapes it ticked the box for every would-be Romantic poet and traveller.

Their travel accounts make fascinating reading. Now local author Dr David Lloyd Owen has dipped into 60 such books and read more than two million words to create A Wilder Wales: Travellers Tales 1610-1831 which is due to be published this month (July) by Parthian Press.

Dr Lloyd Owen will also be featuring in this September’s Penfro Book Festival at Rhosygilwen, near Cilgerran.

While Victorian George Borrow might be the best known travel writer with his Wild Wales (published in 1862), Dr Lloyd Owen has tracked down lesser known accounts dating from the 17th century when the Duke of Beaufort came into Wales to rally support for the Stuarts to a genteel Georgian traveller who was intrigued and slightly horrified by the “large beetles” they came across in Pembrokeshire (coracles!).

Dr Lloyd Owen, a former mayor of Cardigan, lives locally and came across some interesting tales from the area including an unfortunate Englishman who was nearly lynched in Llechryd because locals thought he was a Frenchman.

The early English visitors to Wales were intrigued by the locals. While Scotland and Ireland remained distinct entities, Wales had been part of England since 1536. However once travellers crossed the border the locals spoke a different language making it seem more “foreign”.

A Wilder Wales introduces readers to the sheer breadth of experience these travellers had, through extracts from 35 books, journals and periodicals, published or written between 1610 and 1831. These accounts, ranging from jobbing writers, to a Duke's progress, include antiquarians, historians and seekers of sublime scenery from the Wye Valley to the 'British Alps' of Mid and North Wales.

A Wilder Wales highlights the astonishing transformation from a poor rural backwater to the crucible of the industrial revolution and how others saw the land and its people.

These accounts describe the early days of mining, in Parys Mountain (Anglesey) and Ceredigion as well as early coal mines in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire and then cover the birth of metal refineries in Swansea, Merthyr and across into the Valleys.

As well as describing the towns, countryside and mountains, religion, customs, politics and eating and drinking are discussed, along with a more open-minded consideration about Welsh language and culture than would emerge in later accounts.

“What came across most strongly is that Cardigan had the greatest extremes – the poorest people and a large number of gentry,” said Dr Lloyd Owen.

“The Tivy-Side area had numerous large houses but the families didn’t last. The gentry had to try to keep up with England but the economic basis of Ceredigion didn’t allow that. In local great houses the butler was usually a farmhand in the day and put his uniform on in the evening.”

Dr Lloyd Owen will be talking about his book – plus how it was put together – at the Penfro Book Festival at Rhosygilwen from September 7-10. Tickets for his talk are on sale now on the festival website www.penfrobookfestival.org.uk.

A member of Rhosygilwen Writers Group, he has just completed his first novel based on a farmer’s son’s experiences in the City of London during the Big Bang of the 1980s.