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This collection of narratives contains vivid accounts of the varied landscapes, built environment and customs encountered by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century travellers in the British Isles and Europe. Some were wealthy individuals on the Grand Tour, while others were travelling on business, for pleasure, in pursuit of better health or simply to escape trouble at home.

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61 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Travel, Europe

Page 1 of 4

The Idler in Italy
  • Volume 2
  • Marguerite Blessington
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    23 February 2012
    First published in:
    1839
  • Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789–1849), was famous for her charm, wit and beauty, the latter reflected in Sir Thomas Lawrence's famous portrait of her in 1822. Blessington had an unhappy childhood, and was forced into her first marriage at the age of fourteen, but had developed a love of reading and story-telling. With her second husband Charles John Gardiner, first Earl of Blessington, she lived for several years in France and Italy. This three-volume work, first published 1839–40, contains Blessington's humorous account of living abroad. In Volume 2 she gives detailed descriptions of her travels in Italy, where she stayed in cities such as Lucca, Siena, Florence, Rome and Naples, but also in smaller seaside towns such as Terracina. She draws attention to 'the odour of the cuisine' and the beautiful surroundings and weather, inspiring encounters with artists and locals, and daily visits to art galleries.

Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa in the Seventeenth Century
  • Volume 1
  • Evliya Çelebi
  • Translated by Joseph von Hammer
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    26 January 2012
    First published in:
    1834
  • This two-volume English translation of part of a longer travel narrative by the Ottoman aristocrat Evliya Çelebi (1611–c.1680) was translated by the Austrian scholar Joseph von Hammer (1774–1856) and published in 1834 by the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, set up to make 'Eastern' texts more widely available in English. Çelebi was highly educated, had served the Ottoman court both as a diplomat and as a soldier, and as he says, had in his travels 'seen the countries of eighteen monarchs and heard 147 different languages'. His lifetime encompassed the highest point of Ottoman expansion into Europe, and his indefatigable curiosity about everything he saw makes this work a fascinating assemblage of topics varying from the fountains of Istanbul to a journey to Georgia. Volume 1 includes a short biography of Çelebi and accounts of the history and architecture of his native city.

The Idler in Italy
  • Volume 1
  • Marguerite Blessington
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    23 February 2012
    First published in:
    1839
  • Marguerite Gardiner, countess of Blessington (1789–1849), was famous for her charm, wit and beauty, the latter reflected in Sir Thomas Lawrence's famous portrait of her in 1822. Blessington had an unhappy childhood, and was forced into her first marriage at the age of fourteen, but had developed a love of reading and story-telling. With her second husband Charles John Gardiner, first Earl of Blessington, she lived for several years in France and Italy. This three-volume work, first published 1839–40, contains Blessington's humorous account of living abroad. She gives detailed descriptions of her time in Italian cities such as Florence, Rome and Naples, drawing attention to 'the odour of the cuisine', the beautiful surroundings and weather, inspiring encounters with artists, and daily visits to art galleries. Volume 1 describes travelling around Switzerland and France, and ends with the author's encounter with Lord Byron in Genoa in 1823.

The Idler in Italy
  • Volume 3
  • Marguerite Blessington
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    23 February 2012
    First published in:
    1840
  • Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789–1849) was famous for her charm, wit and beauty, the latter reflected in Sir Thomas Lawrence's famous portrait of her in 1822. Blessington had an unhappy childhood, and was forced into her first marriage at the age of fourteen, but had developed a love of reading and story-telling. With her second husband Charles John Gardiner, first Earl of Blessington, she lived for several years in France and Italy. This three-volume work, first published 1839–40, contains Blessington's humorous account of living abroad. Volume 3 includes her lively narrative of her travels in Northern Italy: she spends time in Padua, Venice, Bologna, Milan and the Italian lakes. The volume concludes with a return to Genoa, where Blessington remembers her good friend Lord Byron, who had died in 1824, and her departure for England.

The Land Beyond the Forest
  • Facts, Figures, and Fancies from Transylvania
  • Volume 1
  • Emily Gerard
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    25 November 2010
    First published in:
    1888
  • Novelist Emily Gerard (1849–1905) went with her husband, an officer in the Austrian army, to Transylvania for two years in 1883. Then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today a region of western Romania, Transylvania was little known to readers back in England. In the years following, she wrote this full-length account (published in 1888) as well as several articles on the region, which Bram Stoker used when researching the setting for Dracula. She describes her encounters with the different nationalities that made up the Transylvanian people: Romanians, Saxons and gypsies. Full of startling anecdotes and written in a novelistic style, her work combines her personal recollections with a detailed account of the landscape and people. The first volume recounts her first impressions and the superstitions and customs of the Romanian and Saxon populations. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=geraem

A Narrative of Three Years' Residence in France, Principally in the Southern Departments, from the Year 1802 to 1805
  • Including Some Authentic Particulars Respecting the Early Life of the French Emperor, and a General Inquiry into his Character
  • Volume 3
  • Anne Plumptre
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    02 April 2015
    First published in:
    1810
  • The writer and translator Anne Plumptre (1760–1818) and her sister Annabella, also a writer, divided their time between Norwich and London, where they moved in radical and dissenting circles. Anne also travelled abroad, publishing this three-volume description of three years' residence in France in 1810. (Her 1817 volume on Ireland is also reissued in this series.) Like many other Britons, Plumptre took the opportunity of the Peace of Amiens to visit post-revolutionary France, and she stayed in the country until hostilities recommenced in 1805. Sympathetic to the revolution, she intended to examine for herself the state of the country and its people, and compare her first-hand impressions (especially of Napoleon) with the generally hostile information about France then currently available in Britain. Volume 3 describes Plumptre's travels through western France on her way home, and ends with a long section on the character and deeds of Napoleon.

A Narrative of Three Years' Residence in France, Principally in the Southern Departments, from the Year 1802 to 1805
  • Including Some Authentic Particulars Respecting the Early Life of the French Emperor, and a General Inquiry into his Character
  • Volume 1
  • Anne Plumptre
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    02 April 2015
    First published in:
    1810
  • The writer and translator Anne Plumptre (1760–1818) and her sister Annabella, also a writer, divided their time between Norwich and London, where they moved in radical and dissenting circles. Anne also travelled abroad, publishing this three-volume description of three years' residence in France in 1810. (Her 1817 volume on Ireland is also reissued in this series.) Like many other Britons, Plumptre took the opportunity of the Peace of Amiens to visit post-revolutionary France, and she stayed in the country until hostilities recommenced in 1805. Sympathetic to the revolution, she intended to examine for herself the state of the country and its people, and compare her first-hand impressions (especially of Napoleon) with the generally hostile information about France then currently available in Britain. Volume 1 describes her stay in Paris (where she was accidentally locked in the ruins of the Bastille at nightfall), and her journey to Marseilles via Lyons.

A Narrative of Three Years' Residence in France, Principally in the Southern Departments, from the Year 1802 to 1805
  • Including Some Authentic Particulars Respecting the Early Life of the French Emperor, and a General Inquiry into his Character
  • Volume 2
  • Anne Plumptre
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    02 April 2015
    First published in:
    1810
  • The writer and translator Anne Plumptre (1760–1818) and her sister Annabella, also a writer, divided their time between Norwich and London, where they moved in radical and dissenting circles. Anne also travelled abroad, publishing this three-volume description of three years' residence in France in 1810. (Her 1817 volume on Ireland is also reissued in this series.) Like many other Britons, Plumptre took the opportunity of the Peace of Amiens to visit post-revolutionary France, and she stayed in the country until hostilities recommenced in 1805. Sympathetic to the revolution, she intended to examine for herself the state of the country and its people, and compare her first-hand impressions (especially of Napoleon) with the generally hostile information about France then currently available in Britain. In Volume 2, Plumptre is based at Marseilles, and describes both the city and its recent history during the Reign of Terror; she then travels to Aix-en-Provence.

Travels in Italy, between the Years 1792 and 1798, Containing a View of the Late Revolutions in that Country
  • Also a Supplement, Comprising Instructions for Travelling in France
  • Volume 2
  • Mariana Starke
  • Published online:
    05 March 2015
    Print publication:
    09 September 2010
    First published in:
    1802
  • Mariana Starke (c.1762–1838) published this work in 1802, launching her career as a travel writer. Volume 2 contains nine beautifully written letters which evaluate the cultural attractions of the cities of Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Florence, Bologna, and Venice and the cities' surrounding countryside. The guide gives detailed information on the climate, dialects, population, geography and medical facilities of each city. A supplement offers advice on visiting the major cities of France and using the main transport links between them. The work quickly became popular as it took into account the increasing trend for less affluent families to travel abroad. Starke offers a wealth of advice on affordable food, accommodation, transport and entertainment; her famous rating system, employing exclamation marks to signify the quality of a cultural site, was the precursor of the modern-day system of star-rating. It is a classic of nineteenth-century travel writing.

A Tour in Switzerland
  • Or, a View of the Present State of the Governments and Manners of those Cantons: With Comparative Sketches of the Present State of Paris
  • Volume 2
  • Helen Maria Williams
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013
  • The radical writer and poet Helen Maria Williams (1759–1827) is best remembered for her eight-volume Letters from France (1790–6), charting the progress of the French Revolution. Having published poetry and a novel, Julia (1790), she travelled to France, where her salon welcomed the likes of Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Paine and leading Girondists. Forced to flee the country in 1794, she went into exile in Switzerland for six months, travelling with the printer and political reformer John Hurford Stone (1763–1818). This two-volume account of the journeys she made during her time there, first published in 1798, documents what she sees as the failure of Swiss democracy. Highlighting the shortcomings of the Swiss government and the suffering of much of Swiss society through exploitation, Williams anticipates revolutionary activity in the cantons. In Volume 2, she describes her excursion in the Alps, presenting also observations on Zurich, Fribourg and Berne.

Through Bosnia and the Herzegovina on Foot during the Insurrection, August and September 1875
  • With an Historical Review of Bosnia, and a Glimpse at the Croats, Slavonians, and the Ancient Republic of Ragusa
  • Arthur John Evans
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1876
  • Remembered chiefly for his archaeological discoveries in Crete, Sir Arthur John Evans (1851–1941) was also highly respected as an expert on the Balkans, an area then little known. Evans describes 'a land and people among the most interesting in Europe', and in 1875 he was visiting for the third time. This trip found him witnessing the outbreak of the revolt that saw Austria-Hungary take control of Bosnia. Here, however, Evans explores Bosnia's rich heritage with detailed ethnographic and anthropological observations, alongside descriptive impressions of its people and natural beauty. He returned in 1877 as a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, which resulted in his Illyrian Letters (also reissued in this series). First published in 1876 and reprinted the following year, the present work offers background not only to the revolt in that country, but also to the later deadly conflicts that would shake all of Europe.

A Tour in Switzerland
  • Or, a View of the Present State of the Governments and Manners of those Cantons: With Comparative Sketches of the Present State of Paris
  • Volume 1
  • Helen Maria Williams
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013
  • The radical writer and poet Helen Maria Williams (1759–1827) is best remembered for her eight-volume Letters from France (1790–6), charting the progress of the French Revolution. Having published poetry and a novel, Julia (1790), she travelled to France, where her salon welcomed the likes of Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Paine and leading Girondists. Forced to flee the country in 1794, she went into exile in Switzerland for six months, travelling with the printer and political reformer John Hurford Stone (1763–1818). This two-volume account of the journeys she made during her time there, first published in 1798, documents what she sees as the failure of Swiss democracy. Highlighting the shortcomings of the Swiss government and the suffering of much of Swiss society through exploitation, Williams anticipates revolutionary activity in the cantons. Volume 1 concentrates primarily on Basel and its canton.

Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys
  • A Midsummer Ramble in the Dolomites
  • Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    13 February 2014
    First published in:
    1873
  • Even in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Dolomites in the Italian Alps were little known beyond the geological community, and largely unexplored by non-natives. In 1872, the English author Amelia Edwards (1831–92) and her friend travelled through these mountains, riding side-saddle on donkeys. Edwards' account of their journey is presented in this charming work, originally published in 1873. In it, she describes in great detail the people and mishaps met with along the way, including also digressions on the history of the region, the local flora, and geological theories on the origin and development of the mountains. The lively text is accompanied by wood engravings of the settlements and landscapes encountered by the travellers on their route. The result is a highly readable record of a bold journey which helped open up this area to tourism.

The Alps
  • Or, Sketches of Life and Nature in the Mountains
  • Hermann Alexander Berlepsch
  • Translated by Leslie Stephen
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    27 June 2013
    First published in:
    1861
  • Following the precedent and standards set by the Baedeker guides, travel literature enjoyed great popularity during the later nineteenth century. This guidebook to the Alps, written by Hermann Alexander Berlepsch (1814?–83) and translated from German by the renowned author and mountaineer Leslie Stephen (1832–1904), was first published in English in 1861. This was during the golden age of alpinism, when many major peaks were ascended for the first time. While later mountaineers concentrated on climbing as a sport, earlier expeditions were of a more scientific nature; this guidebook, which provides detailed information pertaining to the geology, flora and fauna of the Alps, is a reflection of this ambition. Also containing descriptions of village life and Alpine customs, it enjoyed a significant readership in its day and was also translated into French. It remains an instructive work in the history of alpinism and travel writing.

Iceland
  • Its Volcanoes, Geysers, and Glaciers
  • Charles Stuart Forbes
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    27 June 2013
    First published in:
    1860
  • The nineteenth century saw an influx of British travellers to Iceland, drawn by growing interest in its saga literature or by the potential for scientific discovery offered by its volcanic and glacial landscapes. Charles Stuart Forbes (1829–76), an officer in the Royal Navy, was one of these adventurers. In this work, first published in 1860, he gives a vivid and detailed account of his journeys across the island, conveying his wonder at its natural phenomena and sharing his observations on its history, culture and way of life. A fervent supporter of Garibaldi, Forbes went on to publish in 1861 The Campaign of Garibaldi in the Two Sicilies (also reissued in this series). While making little reference here to the growing movement for independence from Denmark, the present work, written with colour and wit, remains an engaging source of information on Iceland.

Journal of a Tour in Italy, in 1850
  • With an Account of an Interview with the Pope at the Vatican
  • George Townsend
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • A Church of England clergyman and biblical scholar, George Townsend (1788–1857) gained recognition for preparing chronological arrangements of both the Old and New Testament. First published in 1850, the present work is an intriguing account of his journey to Italy for an audience with Pope Pius IX, whom he intended to convert to Protestantism. Townsend's journal features details of his stay in Paris, where he was received by the city's archbishop, as well as remarks on the churches and clergy he encountered along the way. In Rome and the Vatican, he visited the main sites of interest while commenting on points of doctrinal divergence and the hospitality shown towards him. Warmly received by Pius IX, who chose to interpret the visit as ecumenical, Townsend inevitably failed in his ultimate objective. Tendentious and forthright, his work sheds light on a strain of English anti-Catholicism.

Naples and Garibaldi
  • William George Clark
  • Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    04 July 2013
    First published in:
    1861
  • This short book derives from an article published in the periodical Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel, edited by Francis Galton, in 1860. W. G. Clark (1821–78) was most famous as co-editor of the Cambridge Shakespeare, but was originally a classical scholar, whose Peloponnesus (1858) is also reissued in this series. This lively account of a critical period in Italian history, 'during the occurrence of events so strange and sudden that they resembled incidents of a romantic melodrama rather than real history', deliberately avoids the usual landscapes, ruins and peasants to give a day-by-day description of events in Naples at the time when Garibaldi had arrived in the city during his campaign for the liberation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. However, as well as narrating political and military developments, Clark introduces some picturesque notes, including an account of the famous 'miracle' of the liquefaction of St Gennaro's blood.

Two Roving Englishwomen in Greece
  • Isabel J. Armstrong
  • Published online:
    05 April 2014
    Print publication:
    06 May 2013
    First published in:
    1893
  • Isabel J. Armstrong (born c.1848) and her travelling companion Edith Payne were part of an increasing cohort of determined women entering territory deemed unsuitable for ladies: travel. Women such as Isabella Bird (whose work is also available in this series) and Mary Kingsley had defied social convention in order to explore the world around them. Their independence of spirit and thirst for knowledge made them inspirational role models. Little is known of Armstrong and Payne other than what is recorded in this engaging account of their Greek adventures, about which 'the general opinion seemed to be that we were going out to be murdered'. First published in 1893, the book depicts a country whose traditions and way of life were in danger of being swept away by the advance of modern technology. Incorporating vivid descriptions of Piraeus, Olympia, Thessaly and the monasteries of Meteora, the narrative is charmingly illustrated with Armstrong's own sketches.

The Alps from End to End
  • William Martin Conway
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    08 November 2012
    First published in:
    1895
  • During a life of many and varied interests, the art historian and mountaineer William Martin Conway (1856–1927) served as a professor of art at Liverpool and Cambridge, a member of parliament, director-general of the Imperial War Museum, and president of the Alpine Club. He climbed extensively in Europe and the Himalayas, mapped part of the Karakoram range (for which he was knighted), and named several mountains. In 1894 he walked the length of the Alps accompanied by two Gurkha soldiers. The celebrated expedition took the party sixty-five days to complete. Conway and his companions climbed twenty-one peaks, including Mont Blanc, the Jungfrau and Grossglockner, and traversed thirty-nine mountain passes. Published a year later, this is the illustrated second edition of Conway's popular personal account of the expedition, in which he documents the party's progress on a daily basis.

Travels on the Continent
  • Written for the Use and Particular Information of Travellers
  • Mariana Starke
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    21 February 2013
    First published in:
    1820
  • Mariana Starke (1762–1838) was an ideal travel guide: she lived and travelled in Italy for much of the 1790s and had a truly practical mind, predicting perfectly what a traveller might need to know about both the journey and the destination. Travels on the Continent, first published in 1820, was partly based on her earlier bestseller Travels in Italy (also reissued in this series) but featured completely updated information based on extensive research during the late 1810s. Noting the latest improvements in transport and accommodation, which had both become more comfortable in Europe during the previous thirty years, the guide covers most of mainland Europe. For each popular route Starke offers itineraries and journey times, as well as recommendations for sightseeing and the best inns. In particular, she offers advice to the many travellers of the time who sought to improve their health through a change of climate.

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