By the Way: Travel Letters Written During Several Journeys Abroad

Chapter 1: The Author's Apology

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About This Book

A collection of travel letters recounting sojourns across England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Greece, and European and Asiatic Turkey. The writer blends shipboard anecdotes and personal impressions with practical observations about accommodations, local customs, and travel routines, offering vivid sketches of towns, monuments, and everyday scenes. The revised edition adds further journeys and provides a list of pensions, a bibliography, and numerous illustrations that complement the episodes. The tone is conversational and episodic, alternating personal reflection with useful advice for those contemplating a first trip across the Atlantic.

The Author's Apology

MY DEAR:

"When at the first I took my pen in hand

Thus for to write, I did not understand

That I at all should make a little book

In such a mode; nay, I had undertook

To make another, which, when almost done,

Before I was aware I this begun.

... But yet I did not think

To show to all the world my pen and ink

In such a mode; I only thought to make—

I knew not what: nor did I undertake

Thereby to please my neighbor; no, not I,

I did it mine own self to gratify."

* * * * * * * *

And thus it was, one bright September day,

Full suddenly I finished "By The Way."