“Account of a Tour on the Continent”
ACCOUNT OF A TOUR ON THE CONTINENT.
“Early in the spring of 1833 Prout published his Sketches in
Flanders and Germany. I well remember going with my father
into the shop where subscribers entered their names, and being
referred to the specimen print, the turreted window over the
Moselle, at Coblentz. We got the book home to Herne Hill
before the time of our usual annual tour; and as my mother
watched my fatherʼs pleasure and mine in looking at the wonderful
places, she said, why should we not go and see some of them in
reality? My father hesitated a little, then with glittering eyes
said—why not? And there were two or three weeks of entirely
rapturous and amazed preparation. . . .
Flanders and Germany. I well remember going with my father
into the shop where subscribers entered their names, and being
referred to the specimen print, the turreted window over the
Moselle, at Coblentz. We got the book home to Herne Hill
before the time of our usual annual tour; and as my mother
watched my fatherʼs pleasure and mine in looking at the wonderful
places, she said, why should we not go and see some of them in
reality? My father hesitated a little, then with glittering eyes
said—why not? And there were two or three weeks of entirely
rapturous and amazed preparation. . . .
“We went by Calais and Brussels to Cologne; up the Rhine
to Strasburg, across the Black Forest to Schaffhausen, then made
a sweep through North Switzerland by Basle, Berne, Unterlachen,
Lucerne, Zurich, to Constance,—following up the Rhine still to
Coire, then over Splügen to Como, Milan, and Genoa; meaning,
as I now remember, for Rome. But, it being June already, the
heat of Genoa warned us of imprudence; we turned, and came
back over the Simplon to Geneva, saw Chamouni, and so home
by Lyons and Dijon.”
(Praeterita, I.iv)
to Strasburg, across the Black Forest to Schaffhausen, then made
a sweep through North Switzerland by Basle, Berne, Unterlachen,
Lucerne, Zurich, to Constance,—following up the Rhine still to
Coire, then over Splügen to Como, Milan, and Genoa; meaning,
as I now remember, for Rome. But, it being June already, the
heat of Genoa warned us of imprudence; we turned, and came
back over the Simplon to Geneva, saw Chamouni, and so home
by Lyons and Dijon.”