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Library4Travel - Britain
There is a particular pleasure in reading classic travel literature. Guide books are another thing: practical, factual handbooks that need to be as up to date as possible when they accompany the traveller. But to capture the spirit, the essence of a country or a great city, within a historical perspective, it takes the descriptive skills of a great writer coupled with the knowledge and acumen of a scholar.
Our first book, E. V. Lucas's classic "A Wanderer in London" - a fascinating voyage through this great city in the leisured Edwardian days by a man who knew it well - is a fine example. Edward Verrall Lucas (1868 -1938) was a versatile and prolific man of letters: a journalist, essayist, biographer, novelist, poet, editor and publisher. He is probably best remembered nowadays for his inspired and inspiring writing about cricket and travel. He wrote a popular column for the Sunday Times, "A Wanderer's Notebook"; and his wanderings in Holland, London, Paris, Florence, Venice and Rome resulted in a series of books published in the early years of the 20th century.
"A Wanderer in London" first appeared in 1906. Here we reprint the 24th Edition of 1926 which takes account of the many changes to the London scene, its galleries, theatres and monuments, in the aftermath of the First World War. Over 50 classic illustrations from the original book are included in this online version.
If you're planning to visit London, if you know and love the city, if you have a serious historical interest or just want to know what London was like 100 or so years ago, you'll find this a memorable document. The first part of Lucas's wanderings take you down Piccadilly, past the stately homes and bustling shops of Mayfair, then to Trafalgar Square and a long look at the masterpieces of the National Gallery, and on to The Strand, Covent Garden, Fleet Street and the Inns of Court. Highlights of the second part include Cheapside, the churches of the City of London, the Tower, the British Museum, Kensington, Chelsea, the Tate Gallery, Westminster and Whitehall.
This site aims to make freely available some of the most fascinating literature now in the public domain (i.e. out of copyright) as online books, offering a wealth of information that is still of intrinsic value. We scan and convert these indispensable texts into web pages that are easy to find and digest, broken down into convenient short sections and sub -sections in line with the chapter and sub-section divisions of the original book. This makes it easy for you to access and read some of most useful and interesting extant material on travel in Britain.
All material on this site is available free of charge to students, researchers, historians, travellers and general readers, with no subscription fees.
