Chapter I: Introduction

WHEN I began the MS. of this book, it was with the intention of including it in the “Common Sense in the Household Series,” in which event it was to be entitled, “FAMILIAR TALKS FROM AFAR.”

For reasons that seemed good to my publishers and to me, this purpose was not carried out, except as it has influenced the tone of the composition; given to each chapter the character of experiences remembered and recounted to a few friends by the fireside, rather than that of a sustained and formal narrative, penned in dignified seclusion, amid guide-books and written memoranda.

This is the truthful history of the foreign life of an American family whose main object in “going on a pilgrimage” was the restoration of health to one of its members. In seeking and finding the lost treasure, we found so much else which enriched us for all time, that, in the telling of it, I have been embarrassed by a plethora of materials. I have described some of the things we wanted to see—as we saw them,—writing _con amore_, but with such manifold strayings from the beaten track into by-paths and over moors, and in such homely, familiar phrase, that I foresee criticism from the disciples of routine and the sedate students of chronology, topography and general statistics. I comfort myself, under the prospective infliction, with the belief which has not played me false in days past,—to wit: that what I have enjoyed writing some may like to read. I add to this the hope that the fresh-hearted traveler who dares think and feel for, and of himself, in visiting the Old World which is to him the New, may find in this record of how we made it Home to us, practical and valuable hints for the guidance of his wanderings.

MARION HARLAND.

SPRINGFIELD, MASS., April, 1880.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PAGE
The Average Briton, 1

CHAPTER II.
Olla Podrida, 14

CHAPTER III.
Spurgeon and Cummings, 29

CHAPTER IV.
The Two Elizabeths, 39

CHAPTER V.
Prince Guy, 52

CHAPTER VI.
Shakspeare and Irving, 67

CHAPTER VII.
Kenilworth, 84

CHAPTER VIII.
Oxford, 96

CHAPTER IX.
Sky-larks and Stoke-Pogis, 111

CHAPTER X.
Our English Cousins, 121

CHAPTER XI.
Over the Channel, 137

CHAPTER XII.
Versailles—Expiatory Chapel—Père Lachaise, 154

CHAPTER XIII.
Southward Bound, 170

CHAPTER XIV.
Pope, King, and Forum, 183

CHAPTER XV.
On Christmas-Day, 196

CHAPTER XVI.
L’Allegro and Il Penseroso, 216

CHAPTER XVII.
With the Skeletons, 230

CHAPTER XVIII.
“Paul—a Prisoner,” 243

CHAPTER XIX.
Tasso and Tusculum, 258

CHAPTER XX.
From Pompeii to Lake Avernus, 272

CHAPTER XXI.
“A Sorosis Lark,” 293

CHAPTER XXII.
In Florence and Pisa, 308

CHAPTER XXIII.
“Beautiful Venice,” 325

CHAPTER XXIV.
Bologna, 339

CHAPTER XXV.
“Non é Possibile!” 351

CHAPTER XXVI.
Lucerne and The Rigi, 366

CHAPTER XXVII.
Personal and Practical, 379

CHAPTER XXVIII.
Home-life in Geneva—Ferney, 392

CHAPTER XXIX.
Calvin—The Diodati House—Primroses, 408

CHAPTER XXX.
Corinne at Coppet, 419

CHAPTER XXXI.
Chillon, 428

LOITERINGS IN PLEASANT PATHS.