Travel Books

WINCHESTER Few of our English cities are more strikingly situated than the once royal city of Winchester, which lies on the slopes and along the bed of a chalk valley watered by the River Itchen. The greater part of the present city is situated on the right bank of the river, while the best general view of it is justly considered to be that obtained by looking across the Vale of Chilcomb, from the road... more...

CHAPTER I. IMPRESSIONS OF ST. PETERSBURG. I landed at St. Petersburg with a knapsack on my back and a hundred dollars in my pocket. An extensive tour along the borders of the Arctic Circle was before me, and it was necessary I should husband my resources. In my search for a cheap German gasthaus I walked nearly all over the city. My impressions were probably tinctured by the circumstances of my... more...

PREFACE. Boswell did not bring out his "Life of Johnson" till he was past his fiftieth year. His "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides" had appeared more than five years earlier. While it is on these two books that his fame rests, yet to the men of his generation he was chiefly known for his work on Corsica and for his friendship with Paoli. His admiration for Johnson he had certainly... more...

THE TOWER OF LONDON. GENERAL SKETCH. The Tower of London was founded in 1078, by William the Conqueror, for the purpose of protecting and controlling the city. To make room for his chief buildings he removed two bastions of the old wall of London, and encroached slightly upon the civic boundaries. Part therefore of the Tower is in London, and part in Middlesex, but it forms, with its surrounding... more...

MAYFAIR, BELGRAVIA, AND BAYSWATER Mayfair is at the present time the most fashionable part of London, so much so that the name has come to be a synonym for wealth or pride of birth. Yet it was not always so, as he who runs may read, for the derivation is simple enough, and differs from most cases in that the obvious meaning is the right one. In James II.'s reign a permission was given for a fair... more...

EDITOR'S PREFACE (1893) The Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, always a costly book, has been scarce and difficult to procure for many years past. Among the crowd of books descriptive of Indian scenery, manners, and customs, the sterling merits of Sir William Sleeman's work have secured it pre-eminence, and kept it in constant demand, notwithstanding the lapse of nearly fifty... more...

A briefe Treatise of the great Duke of Moscouia his genealogie, being taken  out of the Moscouites manuscript Chronicles written by a Polacke. It hath almost euer bene the custome of nations, in searching out the infancie and first beginnings of their estate, to ascribe the same vnto such authors as liued among men in great honour and endued mankinde with some one or other excellent benefite. Nowe,... more...

INTRODUCTION The following sketches are entirely informal. They do not cover the subject of Southern California in any way. In fact, they contain no information whatever, either about the missions or history—a little, perhaps, about the climate and the fruits and flowers of the earth, but that has crept in more or less unavoidably. They are the record of what happened to happen to a fairly... more...

It is generally conceded that the Grand Cañon of Arizona beggars description. I shall therefore endeavor to refrain from doing so. I realize that this is going to be a considerable contract. Nearly everybody, on taking a first look at the Grand Cañon, comes right out and admits its wonders are absolutely indescribable—and then proceeds to write anywhere from two thousand to fifty thousand words,... more...

F the capital of the French nation, situated on the river Seine, were simply the most beautiful, the wittiest, wickedest, and most artistic of towns, if—as has been so often asserted (and not exclusively by the citizens thereof)—the most commonplace and the most brilliant of human manifestations alike take on new qualities, texture, and interest the moment they become Parisien, then, indeed, would... more...