[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been numbered and moved to the end.] Letters of a Traveller; Or, Notes of Things Seen in Europe and America By William Cullen Bryant. 1850. To the Reader. The letters composing this volume were written at various times, during the last sixteen years, and during journeys made in different countries. They contain, however, no regular account of any tour or journey made by the writer, but are merely occasional sketches of what most attracted his attention. The greater part of them have already appeared in print. The author is sensible that the highest merit such a work can claim, if ever so well executed, is but slight. He might have made these letters more interesting to readers in general, if he had spoken of distinguished men to whose society he was admitted; but the limits within which this may be done, with propriety and without offense, are so narrow, and so easily overstepped, that he has preferred to abstain altogether from that class of topics. He offers his book to the public, with expectations which will be satisfied by a very moderate success. New York, _April_, 1850. Contents. To the Reader Letter I.—First Impressions of an American in France.—Tokens of Antiquity: churches, old towns, cottages, colleges, costumes, donkeys, shepherds and their flocks, magpies, chateaux, formal gardens, vineyards, fig-trees.—First Sight of Paris; its Gothic churches, statues, triumphal arches, monumental columns.—Parisian gaiety, public cemeteries, burial places of the poor Letter II.—Journey from Paris to Florence.—Serenity of the Italian Climate.—Dreary country between Paris and Chalons on the Saone.—Autun. —Chalons.—Lyons.—Valley of the Rhine.—Avignon.—Marseilles; its growth and prosperity.—Banking in France.—Journey along the Mediterranean.— American and European Institutions Letter III.—Tuscan Scenery and Climate.—Florence in Autumn.— Deformities of Cultivation.—Exhibition of the Academy of the Fine Arts.—Respect of the Italians for Works of Art Letter IV.—A Day in Florence.—Bustle and Animation of the Place.—Sights seen on the Bridges.—Morning in Florence.—Brethren of Mercy.—Drive on the Cascine.—Evening in Florence.—Anecdote of the Passport System.—Mildness of the Climate of Pisa Letter V.—Practices of the Italian Courts.—Mildness of the Penal Code in Tuscany.—A Royal Murderer.—Ceremonies on the Birth of an Heir to the Dukedom of Tuscany.—Wealth of the Grand Duke Letter VI.—Venice.—Its peculiar Architecture.—Arsenal and Navy Yard.—The Lagoons.—Ceneda.—Serravalle.—Lago Morto.—Alpine Scenery.—A June Snow-Storm in the Tyrol.—Splendor of the Scenery in the Sunshine.—Landro.—A Tyrolese Holiday.—Devotional Character of the People.—Numerous Chapels.—Sterzing.—Bruneck.—The Brenner.—Innsbruck. —Bronze Tomb of Maximilian I.—Entrance into Bavaria