1828.] c 391 J 
DR. GRANVILLE’S TRAVELS TO ST. PETERSBURGH.* 
, Man (here, in England, at least) may be described, by way of distinc- 
tion, as a travelling animal. So strong is this propensity imprinted upon 
him, that even the impossibility of gratifying it (which in time eradicates 
all other propensities) has little or no effect upon this. If an English- 
man cannot travel in fact, he will, somehow or other, contrive to do s9 
in fancy ; if he is precluded from “ going abroad” in his own proper per- 
son, he will, in imagination, take upon him that of some one who is more 
happily situated, and, in default of being able to see “ foreign parts” 
with 1 his own eyes, will examine and judge of them through those of 
other people. The innumerable books of travels, of every conceivable 
class and quality, that each succeeding season puts forth, at once prove 
and provide for this imperishable and insatiable want of the English 
mind. Nothing in the shape of travels comes amiss to us, by whoever it 
may be offered, or of whatever it may consist. Even we ourselves (critics 
as we are, and therefore exempt, ex officio, from all human infirmities or 
deficiencies whatsoever) must plead peculiarly guilty to the charge now 
in question. For sedentary persons, who seldom or never move farther 
from our writing-tables than to our reading-chairs, we have been great 
travellers in our time, having made the circuit of the terrestrial globe 
several times—to say nothing of sundry voyages to the moon and else- 
where. And yet, tothis day, we are content to accompany “ to the 
Continent,” and back again, the mérest Cockney who contributes his 
travelling lucubrations to the Morning Herald newspaper! Nay, we 
have even read every word of the letters lately indited by Mr. Henry 
Hunt himself in the above-named erudite miscellany, touching the rela- 
tive prices of peas, potatoes, and periwinkles on the opposite side of 
the Channel, and pointing out the striking inferiority of the flavour of 
Bourbon coffee, as sold in the Parisian cafés, to the radical roasted corn 
of the said modest and disinterested reformer! It may readily be sup- 
posed, therefore, with what hungry delight we hail the appearance of 
a book of travels upon our table. Dr. Granville’s work,—(we take the 
of whispering this information into the doctor’s exclusive ear, 
seeing that it is a matter with which, for reasons to be explained 
eafter, our readers have little concern) is, among books of travels, 
and taken as a whole, in all probability not the most lively and intelli- 
_ gent that has for many years issued from the English press ; nevertheless, 
_ if we do not contrive to extract from it a sufficient quantity of entertaining 
matter to prevent our readers at least from complaining that it was ever 
' written, we will be content to be set down for the future as persons 
_ utterly unqualified to exercise the honourable calling to which we belong. 
d we shall-take the more pleasure in performing this duty, because 
the worthy doctor who furnishes us with the occasion of it is gifted with 
_ a certain irrepressible bonhommie, which, though it cannot make up for 
_ his manifold deficiencies as an author, renders him a by no means disa- 
able travelling companion. Accordingly, with his tediousness, his 
-_ * A Journal of ‘Travels to and from St.Petersburgh, by A. B. Granville, M.P., &c. &e. 
2 vols. Bvo. 
ieee 
