[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been numbered and moved to the end.]
The letters composing this volume were written at various times, duringthe last sixteen years, and during journeys made in different countries.They contain, however, no regular account of any tour or journey made bythe writer, but are merely occasional sketches of what most attracted hisattention. The greater part of them have already appeared in print.
The author is sensible that the highest merit such a work can claim, ifever so well executed, is but slight. He might have made these lettersmore interesting to readers in general, if he had spoken of distinguishedmen to whose society he was admitted; but the limits within which this maybe done, with propriety and without offense, are so narrow, and so easilyoverstepped, that he has preferred to abstain altogether from that classof topics. He offers his book to the public, with expectations which willbe satisfied by a very moderate success.
New York, April, 1850.
Letter I.—First Impressions of an American in France.—Tokens ofAntiquity: churches, old towns, cottages, colleges, costumes, donkeys,shepherds and their flocks, magpies, chateaux, formal gardens, vineyards,fig-trees.—First Sight of Paris; its Gothic churches, statues, triumphalarches, monumental columns.—Parisian gaiety, public cemeteries, burialplaces of the poor
Letter II.—Journey from Paris to Florence.—Serenity of the ItalianClimate.—Dreary country between Paris and Chalons on the Saone.—Autun.—Chalons.—Lyons.—Valley of the Rhine.—Avignon.—Marseilles; its growthand prosperity.—Banking in France.—Journey along the Mediterranean.—American and European Institutions
Letter III.—Tuscan Scenery and Climate.—Florence in Autumn.—Deformities of Cultivation.—Exhibition of the Academy of the FineArts.—Respect of the Italians for Works of Art
Letter IV.—A Day in Florence.—Bustle and Animation of the Place.—Sightsseen on the Bridges.—Morning in Florence.—Brethren of Mercy.—Drive onthe Cascine.—Evening in Florence.—Anecdote of the PassportSystem.—Mildness of the Climate of Pisa
Letter V.—Practices of the Italian Courts.—Mildness of the Penal Code inTuscany.—A Royal Murderer.—Ceremonies on the Birth of an Heir to theDukedom of Tuscany.—Wealth of the Grand Duke
Letter VI.—Venice.—Its peculiar Architecture.—Arsenal and NavyYard.—The Lagoons.—Ceneda.—Serravalle.—Lago Morto.—Alpine Scenery.—AJune Snow-Storm in the Tyrol.—Splendor of the Scenery in theSunshine.—Landro.—A Tyrolese Holiday.—Devotional Character of thePeople.—Numerous Chapels.—Sterzing.—Bruneck.—The Brenner.—Innsbruck.—Bronze Tomb of Maximilian I.—Entrance into Bavaria
Letter VII.—An Excursion to Rock River in Illinois.—Birds and Quadrupedsof the Prairies.—Dad Joe's Grove.—Beautiful Landscape.—Traces of theIndian Tribes.—Lost Rocks.—Dixon.—Rock River; beauty of its banks.—AHorse-Thief.—An Association of Felons.—A Prairie Rattlesnake.—ThePrairie-Wolf; its habits.—The Wild Parsnip
Letter VIII.—Examples of Lynch Law.—Practices of Horse-Thieves inIllinois.—Regulators.—A Murder.—Seizure of the Assassins, their trialand execution.—One of the