A word about the impressions themselves They were written down at the time, in journals and letters, more or less roughly, with no idea of publication. In these days, such a visitor would be writing for a newspaper, or consciously preparing for a book. In 1872 we were not so sophisticated, and if I took copious notes it was with no thought that they would ever be published. If it had been otherwise, doubtless I should have secured many useful particulars now lost, but I hope that a cer tain freshness is retained by the fact that I thought only of my own instruction and pleasure. The elderly man who puts these pages together has not attempted to tone down the enthusiasm of the boy who wrote them; yet, if a sagacious reader is inclined to laugh at so much zeal about poetry and such sustained illusion, why, the author will not be grieved, but, somewhat sadly, will smile too.
