1914
PREFACE
This essay was written in 1908-1910 while I was studying at Oxford as
Fellow of the Society of American Women in London. Material on the
subject of travel in any century is apparently inexhaustible, and one
could write many books on the subject without duplicating sources. The
following aims no further than to describe one phase of Renaissance
travel in clear and sharp outline, with sufficient illustration to
embellish but not to clog the main ideas.
In the preparation of this book I incurred many debts of gratitude. I
would thank the staff of the Bodleian, especially Mr W.H.B. Somerset,
for their kindness during the two years I was working in the library of
Oxford University; and Dr Perlbach, Abteilungsdirektor of the Koenigliche
Bibliothek at Berlin, who forwarded to me some helpful information
concerning the early German books of instructions for travellers; and
Professor Clark S. Northup, of Cornell University, for similar aid. To
Mr George Whale I am indebted for the use of his transcript of Sloane
MS. 1813, and to my friend Miss M.E. Marshall, of the Board of Trade,
for the generous gift of her leisure hours in reading for me in the
British Museum after the sea had divided me from that treasure-house of
information.
I would like to acknowledge with thanks the kind advice of Sir Walter
Raleigh and Sir Sidney Lee, whose generosity in giving time and
scholarship many students besides myself are in a position to
appreciate. Mr L. Pearsall Smith, from whose work on the _Life and
Letters of Sir Henry Wotton I have drawn copiously, gave me also
courteous personal assistance.
To the Faculty of the English Department at Columbia University I owe
the gratitude of one who has received her earliest inclination to
scholarship from their teachings. I am under heavy obligations to
Professor A.H. Thorndike and Professor G.P. Krapp for their corrections
and suggestions in the proof-sheets of this book, and to Professor W.P.
Trent for continued help and encouragement throughout my studies at
Columbia and elsewhere.
Above all, I wish to emphasize the aid of Professor C.H. Firth, of
Oxford University, whose sympathy and comprehension of the difficulties
of a beginner in the field he so nobly commands can be understood only
by those, like myself, who come to Oxford aspiring and alone. I wish
this essay were a more worthy result of his influence.
CLARE HOWARD
BARNARD COLLEGE, NEW YORK
October 1913
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION
Among the many didactic books which flooded England in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries were certain essays on travel. Some of these have
never been brought to light since their publication more than three
hundred years ago, or been mentioned by the few writers who have
interested themselves in the literature of this subject. In the
collections of voyages and explorations, so often garnered, these have
found no place. Most of them are very rare, and have never been
reprinted.
