1832.] A Ramble with the Travellers. 139 



tholic religion, down to the explorer of central Africa, who expected to 

 find Timbuctoo a city of Emerald Palaces. Bruce has been succeeded 

 by Lander, and Lady Montague by Mrs. Colonel Elwood. But in 

 proportion to the increased love of discovery, the glory of the emprise 

 was abated. A voyage to Canton is thought little more of than a sail 

 to Dublin, and a month in Barbary scarcely entitles the tourist to any 

 honorary attention. In a very scarce work, t( The Travels of Certain 

 Englishmen into various Countries," we remember to have been ex- 

 tremely amused at the quaint and hyperbolical terms in which the 

 editor eulogises his hero ; " By land," he says, " he travelled farther 

 than Jacob, and the same way that Jacob did, from Hebron to Padan 

 Aram ; and hath had hard lodging in his travel as Jacob had, viz. the 

 ground to his bed, a stone for his pillow, the skie for his covering, and 

 sometimes the aire for his svpper." The conclusion of the preface de- 

 serves to be quoted " And thee, gentle reader, travelling towards the 

 heavenly Jerusalem, where God grant we may at length all arrive. Je- 

 sus Christ being our pilot and Jenizary to conduct us thereunto." 



William Biddulph, from whose letters, published in 1609, these ex- 

 tracts are made, lived, as the reader will perceive, in the reign of Eliza- 

 beth ; and we observed an instance of the estimation in which she was 

 held, in a marginal note, where he alludes to a report of her death which 

 had reached him in his travels. " Queen Elizabeth," he says, " was 

 famous throughout the whole world, and her death will be wailed by 

 heathen people." 



One of the most curious manuals for travellers we have seen, is a 

 little work purporting to be written by the " three much admired, 

 Robert, late Earle of Essex, Sir Philip Sidney, and Secretary Davi- 

 son."* Even in the sixteenth century, that affectation which has since 

 been the distinguishing characteristic of English tourists, appears to 

 have been common Lord Essex, writing to his cousin, in 1596, cautions 

 him against, ' (t being given to affectation, which is a general fault among 

 English travellers ;" and the advice of Sir Philip Sydney to his brother, 

 as to the manner of his behaviour to persons whom he might meet in 

 his wanderings, is worthy of a place in the note-book of every traveller. 

 " Task him well,'* he says, " before you drink much of his doctrine, 

 and when you have heard it, try well what you have heard before you 

 hold it for a principle ; for one error is the mother of a thousand. But 

 you may say, how shall I get excellent men to take pains to "speak to 

 me ? Truly, in few words : either much expence, or much humbleness/' 

 The latter would be the preferable method, a meekness and teachable- 

 ness of heart will always meet with correspondent gentleness from the 

 intellectual learned. 



But we are wandering from the Travellers. One of our chief 

 favourites is Pietro della Valle : as Mr. St. John very justly remarks, he 

 was endowed with qualities almost certain to make him illustrious, 

 enthusiasm, romance, and enterprise. Gibbon, while attacking his 

 wearisome vanity and frequently tedious egotism, yielded him the high 

 meed of knowledge and judgment, and considered him the most acute 

 observer of Persia and its inhabitants that had hitherto appeared. 

 The most romantic in his adventures of all true travellers, as the Poet 



* The title, if we recollect rightly, is to the following effect. Profitable Instruc- 

 tions, describing ivhat special observations arc to be taken by travellers, in all nations, 

 states, and countries. 



