04/09/2024
Carpenter’s World Travels: From Tangier to Tripoli
Author’s account of travels through Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli and the Sahara Desert with stories about the people, climate, industry and culture. Summary by BettyB. [chương_files]
04/09/2024
Carpenter’s World Travels: France to Scandinavia
A travelogue through the countries of France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden for young and old alike. Interesting big cities and lesser known areas that provide a glimpse of Europe nearly 100 years ago. Summary by BettyB [chương_files]
04/09/2024
Wild and romantic: Early guides to the English lake district
A collection of some of the most significant literary work on the English Lake District prior to Thomas West’s A guide to the Lakes (1778). The poet Thomas Gray takes the reader from Brough south to Kendal on his return from a tour in Scotland. An agricultural reformer, Arthur Young, also returning from Scotland, begins his journey in the northern parts of Cumberland with dry descriptions of local farming, but on arriving in Keswick, his account turns to the picturesque scenery around Derwent Water, Ullswater and Windermere. ‘Wild and romantic’ is Young’s phrase, yet the agriculturalist in him comes to the fore as he declares the enclosed landscapes around Kendal and Windermere to be the most picturesque of all. Thomas Pennant’s account of his journey through the district is cursory, and he seems not have noticed the lakes or mountains at all. West’s Guide quotes Gray, Young and Pennant, and its second edition included the full text of Gray’s unpublished letters as an addendum. It also included four short pieces. John Brown’s letter to his former pupil William Gilpin (who would become the foremost exponent of the ‘picturesque’) connects the scenery of the Lakes to European landscape painting. Experimental philosopher Adam Walker provides a note on a local curiosity, the underground passages of Dunald Mill Hole. John Dalton and Richard Cumberland were among the first in a long line of Lakeland poets to be inspired to verse.> – Summary by Phil Benson [chương_files]
04/09/2024
National Geographic Magazine Vol. 08 – 11. November 1897
The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, Vol VIII, the November Number. It includes the following articles: Patagonia, by J. B. Hatcher Hatcher’s Work in Patagonia, by W. J. McGee The Sushitna River, Alaska, by W. A. Dickey A Winter Weather Record from the Klondike Region, by E. W. Nelson The Russian Census of 1897, by A. W. Greely [chương_files]
04/09/2024
Ride Across the Peloponnese
In the spring of 1877, a young Oscar Wilde visited Greece with his classics professor, J. P. Mahaffy, and two friends. One of these friends, George Macmillan, wrote a brief account of the party’s ride across the Peloponnese. The account, without mentioning Wilde by name, records the travelers’ first impressions of the newly excavated sites of ancient Olympia, Argos, and Mycenae. It also includes colorful descriptions of the Arcadian mountains and flora, and of Greek customs and dress. This recording was made in the spring of 2019 at the sites visited by Wilde and Macmillan. Listen out for the crash of a falling tree at Olympia, the chorus of frogs at Tegea, and the lapping waves at Nafplio Harbor. – Summary by Rob Marland [chương_files]
04/09/2024
Travel Collection: Short Non-fiction
A collection of short, non-fiction travel memoirs or guides written in, or translated into, English. Material covered might be a museum, a village or town, or a particular voyage or train journey, or other travelogues of potential interest to listeners. – Summary by KevinS [chương_files]
04/09/2024
Scilly and its Legends
A travel journal to the Scilly Islands written in the Nineteenth Century. It records Scillonian legends and folklore. There are brief diversions into period racism. -Summary by Timothy Ferguson [chương_files]
04/09/2024
Italian Hours
A loving recollection of the writer’s experiences, over many decades, of Italian places, people and art. – Summary by barbara2 [chương_files]
04/09/2024
Going Abroad? Some Advice
Going abroad for a holiday or business is always exciting, but we can only imagine how exciting it would have been in 1900 to board a steamer from the United States and take a tour through Europe. Luckily Robert Luce gives advice in this book about how to get around, where to stay, what to see, and generally how to make the journey a success. – Summary by Carolin [chương_files]
04/09/2024
North Lancashire
Cambridge County Geographies was a 75 volume series covering the counties of England, Scotland and Wales. Separate volumes were produced for Lancashire north and south of the River Ribble. J. E. Marr’s volume on North Lancashire covers a geographically diverse region, including Furness and the Lake District west of Lake Windermere that now spans Lancashire and Cumbria. As much a history, guidebook and gazetteer as it is a geography, Marr’s volume paints a rich and in places idyllic picture of the northern parts of the county in the years before the first world war. – Summary by Phil Benson [chương_files]