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    68 4 The Pub]ishers , Circular August, '...

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    GUIDE-BOOKS. 'Travelling,' wrote Lord Ch...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    68 4 The Pub]Ishers , Circular August, '...

    68 4 The _Pub _] _ishers Circular _August , ' _^ p

    Guide-Books. 'Travelling,' Wrote Lord Ch...

    GUIDE-BOOKS . ' Travelling' wrote Lord

    ChesterfieldMsunquestionably , a , very proper part of the , education , of our youth ; and like our bullion , I would allow them to be exported . ' The immeasurably greater

    man who had waited in his lordship's outward rooms , and was repulsed from his lordship ' s door , sagely remarked that the use of travelling was * to regulate

    imagination by reality , and , instead of thinking how things may be , to see them as they are . ' It would be impossible , in these days of

    universal travelling , to determine the number of pilgrims who imagine ' how things may be , ' or go forth to ' see them as they are' but we may be

    excused for thinking that they would ; be few indeed compared with the multitudes who are continually wandering over the face of the globe in search of

    health , or looking for relief from the cares and worries of their ordinary business life . Other classes are the idle and the blasiwho are not very

    particular where they go . , Everyone , however , who travels at home or abroad must now carry the indispensable

    guidebook , and these useful aids are yearly increasing in number at a rate fully equal even to the requirements of our multiplying multitudes of travellers .

    We recollect reading of a distinguished divine and scholar who , when preparing for a tour in foreign countries , always removed the familiar red

    binding of his ' Murray' and put in its place a graver cover of black or dark grey . The precaution was uselesshowever . His surreptitious studies

    attracted a , more than ordinary amount of notice , and perhaps aroused a suspicion which would have been absent had he adhered proudly to the treasured

    lied Book of his countrymen . In every way we think that the tourist with his guide-book is infinitely less ridiculous than the tourist who goes

    blindl half the y about pleasure without of roving one . . The latter , too , loses It has been remarkedwith some degree of truth

    that a handbook for travellers , is thoroughly an , English invention . The sense of this may be discovered by looking over the pages of * The Book of

    British Topography , ' by Mr . John P . Anderson , of the British Museum . Mr . Anderson ' s is the most useful book of its kind which has ever been published in

    this available country classification ; it gives , a in comp the lete form catalogue of a readi of all ly the topographical works in the Library of the

    British Museum , relating to Great Britain and Ireland . Turning to the section devoted to Guides , we find the first mentioned is bJohn Nordenit

    is dated 1625 , and has the following y title : ' England , : an intended guyde for English Travailers , shewing in general 1 how far one citie , and many shire townes

    in England are distant from other , & c . ' Another of the same class of books , and dated 1682 has a more ambitious designationbeing ' The

    Infallible , Guide to Travellers or Direct , Indepenroads dants , g of iving Eng an land exact , beg account inning of at the the four Standard principal at

    Corn hill . . . extending to the seashore and branching to most of the cities . ' Most of the old itineraries and journeys ,

    howschol ever , arshi were p . crammed Following with the examp dry , if le not of Leland profound and , love Camden of observation , the first of made our countrymen personaland who to , from this real day

    most interesting , surveys , of { Britain , , we find a hostCM writers treating separately , in formidable foliosof antiquitieshistoryarchitectureand the

    seats , of the nobility , and gentry , . Later , still we see commercial centres coming in for their share of notice . 'Road Books' toobecame common during

    I the _" end of the last and , the , beginning of the present <¦» '' ' " ¦ ' ' ' ' ¦ ' — ¦

    I popularity centuries . That first of issued Paterson in , 177 which 1 and gained a high

    series editions of were , was subsequentl . y published , during many a _otS W _™ _. J years

    often Hebrides Some a lasting , ' books although , topograp such they as hical are Johnson mostl value y ' s . personal « Tour One , of to have the the j

    most important is Pennant ' s * Tours in Scotland' book to omi which t from no his historian authorities of . that country can afford _«

    new The and romantic most fascinating genius of direction Sir Walter to S the cott descrip gave a . tion of his Border

    collected England scenery and and Scotlan preserved . In d , ' published for * all time in the Anti 1814 traditional quities -17 , are of

    lore Shortl which of y the afterward an scenery intensel s the , y too interesting works , is grap of Robert hicall fronti y er Chambers - dep land icted , of .

    replete with charming signs of his great love of , works nature ' s designed beauties for , contributed the purpose to enrich of being the useful style to of

    travellers . The compilation of a handbook must not be rashly undertaken . And yetlike ' driving a gi

    , g , feat poking which a fire nearl , or y everybod writing y a thinks leading he article can perform , ' it is 8 better than his neighbour . Looking the work fairl

    in the facehoweverwe see that the writer who y undertakes , such a book , single-handed must possess an encyclopaedic knowledge :

    artarchaeologyarchi-, , tecture , history , geology , botany , agriculture , commerce , and mechanics , must all be represented in his store of his intellectual attainments . Nearly

    of all several good handbooks writers , often are , th local erefore specialists , the joint , whose work experienced ' exuberance of editor verbosity who ' has knows to be what pruned the by public some

    want . , books The whi first ch of now Mr . Murray have a 's wide series -world of famous reputation hand- ,

    was issued , in 1836 with the title'A Handbook for Travellers through Holland and on along the , , Continent Bel the gium Rhine , , being Prussia from , a Holland , guide Northern -book and _,

    was Germany Switzerland thus , inaugurated . ' The popularity has become of the a feature series in which the

    national has succeeded life . in According identifying to the his Times countrymen , ' Mr . Murray all the nearly

    world worl seventy d and over separate . including ' The books s other eries referring now books to comprises eminently all parts of useful the

    , for We tourists have , besides received the from guides Mr . . Murray the latest Wales

    issues Handbook of the for « Handbook Scotland for and England _Handbook and i _» ,

    Travellers in Ireland . ' The , ' construction ' ana r liable value of these books are so universa 11 _^ _^ J _^ L

    But that we any may descri remind ption our may readers be deemed that the supernn arra _' j , , _ ment of the « Handbook for England and Wa

    strictly alphabetical , so that the reference w J routes place of to note laces can of be interest found in and a their moment surrouna , _wn _" b

    are outcome equall of p y a clear comp . ilation The detail from s other given sources are not j the results of actual editorial visit _*™

    are an residents the various We districts would particularly , supp lemented _wm _« by * n _™*\ infor _^ _^

    mation and attractiven . . The same ess of the may anti be quarian said of histo the ja " d bo 0 .

    for Scotland' which has reached a niiu _^ This writers being work readil correspond is y , arranged found in with an in routes exhaustive the , lines the names in 01 _^ e * _^ v Uira j _^ _fog _^ ys ,

    steamers , and coaches extension . All of P _» tfftVel rtlcu _£ rL _focilities _^ _.

    to the recent rapid " _lL ; -- _^ = l - _¦ w _ _-w _«_ - ____ _WWw-W- _ _-Ww _» W _**««^*^ ' ¦ _^ ' M

• Citation
  • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), Aug. 1, 1885, page 684, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_01081885/page/4/