TRAVELLING SKETCHES

ON THE RHINE, AND IN BELGIUM

AND HOLLAND.

WITH TWENTY-SIX BEAUTIFULLY FINISHED ENGRAVINGS,

FROM DRAWINGS

BY CLARKSON STANFIELD, Esq.

BY

LEITCH RITCHIE, Esq.

AUTHOR OF THE ROMANCE OF FRENCH HISTORY," &c.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND

LONGMAN.

PARIS: RITTNER AND GOUPILL.

FRANKFORT: CHARLES JUGEL.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY JOHN HADDON AND CO., IVY LANE.

TO THE GENTLE READER.

GRATITUDE, says a French writer, is a keen sense of favours to come. If we accept this definition, we may understand why the manager of an unsuccessful theatre invariably opens a new campaign by thanking the public for its support last season-in staying away; and why the publisher of a condemned book begins his second volume by acknowledging gratefully the reader's patronage-in not buying the first. The act of returning thanks, indeed, has become so equivocal in its nature that we are inclined to question its policy.

In an undertaking like ours, for instance-which the public last year contributed from ten to twelve thousand guineas to support-where can be its use? If ten times that number of words would be considered an acceptable oblation, we should pay it willingly! But we desire to do more; nay, as far as in us lies, we have done more, for We-the pencil, the burin, and the pen-have tried to do better.

As for the individual who is thus made the mouth-piece of the rest, although quite conscious of

iv

the comparative insignificance of his part, he takes advantage of his privilege, as a dealer in words, to offer a few in his own behalf.

The traditional stories, which are so plentifully interspersed in this volume, belong, in the main, to the country and the people. The author, however, has thought himself perfectly at liberty to try to give them a point and a meaning where he found none, and, in general, to "work them up" according to his own fancy. As for the account of the famous Robbers of the Rhine, it may be depended upon as tolerably correct, being drawn up from authentic accounts, and more especially from the published notes of a magistrate who presided at some of the trials.

In sailing down the Rhine (for the second time) the author had Schreiber's Guide in his hand; and if his own description is found to tally, so far as it goes, in points of utility, with that excellent work, he will esteem the comparison a compliment.

Next year the journey will be continued, from Ostend (the nearest point, on the sea, gained in the present volume), along the coasts and in the islands of France, to the farther extremity of Brittany.