BISHOP, ISABELLA (1831-1904), English traveller and author, daughter of the Rev. Edward Bird, rector of Tattenhall, Cheshire, was born at Boroughbridge hall, Yorkshire, on Oct. 15 1831. Isabella Bird began to travel when she was 22. Her first book, The Englishwoman in America (1856), consisted of her correspondence during a visit to Canada undertaken for her health. But her reputation was made by the records of her extensive travels in Asia : Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (188o), Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan (1891), Among the Tibetans (1894), Korea and her Neighbours (1898), The Yangtze Valley and Beyond (1899), Chinese Pictures (i9oo). She married in 1881 Dr. John Bishop, an Edinburgh physician, and was left a widow in 1886. In 18o2 she became the first lady fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and in 1g0I she rode a thousand miles in Morocco and the Atlas mountains. She died in Edinburgh on Oct. 7 1904.
See Anna M. Stoddart, The Life of Isabella Bird (1906) .