Oscar Wilde's Father on Portugal and Austria

Author:

Irene Mountjoye

Report:

17

Page:

85

Year:

1990

Subject Matter:

Travellers

Excerpt:

William Robert Wills Wilde (1815-1875) was a versatile man indeed; "aural and ophthalmic surgeon, archeologist, ethnologist, antiquarian, biographer, statistician, naturalist, topographer, historian, folklorist". He also founded and directed St. Mark's Opthalmic Hospital, which became so popular that he had to move it to ever larger and better premises until he took over those of an abolished private medical school in Dublin's Park Street. He was a gifted and very prolific author and apart from scientific works he wrote travelogues  of a very special kind dedicated to those who travel for more than change of climate, and desire to know something of a country beyond its scenery and amusements". He was the author of the first catalogue of Irish Antiquities,  still being used in the Irish Natioinal Museum and of voluminous blue books which he wrote as medical advisor to the Census in Ireland.

Read the full article here