Revisiting the Harz Tour of Coleridge and the ‘Carlyon-Parry-Greenation’ in May 1799

The walking tour of the Harz Mountains in 1799 by Coleridge and his English companions – Clement Carlyon, Charles Parry, and George Bellas Greenough – was an exploration of Romantic science and Romantic poetry. This paper examines the Harz tour of the ‘Carlyon-Parry-Greenation’ as a geological and mineralogical excursion concurrent with Coleridge's Harzreise described in his letters. Influenced by the natural history lectures of Professor Blumenbach, the Harz walking tour was organised around visits to caves and mines. A comparative analysis of Coleridge's letters and Charles Parry's journal reveals that while the tour was more significant as a geological field trip for the ‘Carlyon-Parry-Greenation’, it was while walking en route to these destinations of scientific exploration that Coleridge responded to the landscapes traversed and discovered his own Harzreise.