 He and his wife visited Italy in 1839–1840.Ford began the work on his most famous work, "Handbook for Travellers in Spain" on their return.A first draft took until the end of 1843 to complete and was partially printed in 1844, but was finally abandoned in early 1845, because of its hostility to perceived inadequacies of Spanish government, the cult of Mariolatry (worship of the Virgin Mary), and Spanish military incompetence together with French misconduct and depredations during the Peninsular War in which Marshal Soult, who happened to be the French Head of Government at the time, was categorised as the 'plundermaster general'.