The Project Gutenberg eBook, Views a-foot, by J. Bayard Taylor


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Title: Views a-foot

Author: J. Bayard Taylor

Release Date: March 10, 2004 [eBook #11535]

Language: English

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VIEWS A-FOOT;

OR

EUROPE SEEN WITH KNAPSACK AND STAFF.

BY

J. BAYARD TAYLOR.

WITH A PREFACE BY N.P. WILLIS.


"Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,
And merrily hent the stile-a;
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a."

_Winter's Tale_.



IN TWO PARTS.

PART I.







Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by

WILEY AND PUTNAM,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for
the Southern District of New York.








PREFACE.

BY N.P. WILLIS.


The book which follows, requires little or no introduction. It tells its
own story, and tells it well. The interest in it, which induces the
writer of this preface to be its usher to the public, is simply that of
his having chanced to be among the first appreciators of the author's
talent--an

Julia Pardoe (December 4, 1806 - November 26, 1862), was an English poet, novelist, historian and traveller. She was born at Beverley, Yorkshire, and showed an early interest in literature. She became a prolific and versatile writer, producing in addition to her lively and well-written novels many books on travel, and others dealing with historical subjects. She was a keen observer, and her Oriental travels gave her an accurate and deep knowledge of the peoples and manners of the East.

James Lane Allen (December 21, 1849 February 18, 1925) was an American novelist and short story writer whose work, including the novel A Kentucky Cardinal, often depicted the culture and dialects of his native Kentucky. His work is characteristic of the late-19th century local color era, when writers sought to capture the vernacular in their fiction. Allen has been described as Kentuckys first important novelist.

Theocritus (Greek ), the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC. Little is known of him beyond what can be inferred from his writings. We must, however, handle these with some caution, since some of the poems (Idylls) commonly attributed to him have little claim to authenticity. It is clear that at a very early date two collections were made, one of which included a number of doubtful poems and formed a corpus of bucolic poetry, while the other was confined to those works which were considered to be by Theocritus himself. He was probably from Sicily, as he refers to Polyphemus, the cyclops in the Odyssey, as his countryman. He also probably lived in Alexandria for a while, where he wrote about everyday life, notably Pharmakeutria. It is also speculated that Theocritus was born in Syracuse, lived on the island, Kos, and lived in Egypt during the time of Ptolemy II.