Book Description

Excerpt from The Danube: Its History, Scenery, and Topography In the accompanying work on the Danube, which closes the series of illustrated Works on which I have been pleasingly engaged during the last ten years, I have endeavoured to combine as much interesting matter as the nature and limits of the undertaking would admit. I have followed nearly the same plan as that which I first adopted in the Switzerland Illustrated; and for whatever scenes I have not described from actual observation, I have been studious to select the best authorities, both English and German: whilst my own manuscripts have, in several instances, been enriched by the graphic notes of Mr. Bartlett, taken during his recent voyage down the Danube. Keeping in view the picturesque character of the task, I have aimed at conciseness; and instead of loading the text with a weight of mere historical matter, I have endeavoured to lighten it with legends, traditions, anecdotes, and ballads, many of which are now, for the first time, printed from the original manuscripts. Of the great public establishments in these countries, I have had no cause to speak but with respect. The subject of politics I have purposely avoided: he who travels in search of the picturesque, admiring the scenery, and sharing the hospitality of the different states through which he passes, will find his time and taste more agreeably occupied, than in criticising the forms and peculiarities of governments, on which no stranger can judge correctly, till he has made the country, for some months at least, his home, and the laws by which it is governed his almost exclusive study. In this tour along the vast territories of the Danube, I have walked, so to speak, hand in hand with the Illustrator, directing my pen to the description of such points of its scenery as most forcibly arrested his pencil, and awakened the remembrance of deeds and circumstances which bore the stamp of history. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.