Three Years in Europe, 1868 to 1871/Preface
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
The very great interest with which the writer of the following pages has been often heard by many of his countrymen about his travels and experiences in Europe, has induced him to publish the following pages. They are, as they profess to be, simply extracts from letters sent from Europe, and as such they cannot, the writer is but too well aware, come up to the standard of books specially written on the subject, or even of notes taken with an eye to publication. Had any such books existed, the writer would have at once retired from an unequal competition, nor would he have pushed to the notice of the public his letters written carelessly, and without the least idea of publication. As it is, however, none of our countrymen has favored the public with accounts of their travels in Europe. These letters were written mostly from England, but they also contain accounts of some of the most important places in Scotland and Ireland, in France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. They may therefore serve as a guide-book to Indian youths intending to visit Europe, containing at the same time something more than ordinary guide-books profess to do,—viz., the views and opinions of a foreigner for the first time coming in contact with the noble institutions of the West. A thorough and careful revision of these extracts would require greater leisure than what the writer has at his disposal; he therefore ventures to publish them with such alterations only as seemed urgently needed.
| Calcutta June, 1872. |
R. C. DUTT. |
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
It is not without misgivings that a new edition of this little work is placed before the public. The notes of a tourist who makes a hurried tour through countries of which excellent and readable accounts are available can have little interest except for his personal friends. The sketchy and superficial notes contained in the following pages can scarcely interest the public.
Again, the first four chapters of the present work are almost a reprint,—with some alteration in arrangement, and somewhat condensed,—of a little book which I published in 1872 after my return from Europe. They were extracts from letters which I had written from England, and which were preserved by my friends here with more care than they deserved. A young student leaving his home for the first time is easily pleased with whatever he sees in foreign lands; any hill scenery charms him, and the beauty of a lake throws him into ecstacies! Whatever I felt, I wrote in my letters to my friends, and much of what I wrote in the letters, I published on my return home. There was some justification in publishing these extracts from letters, eighteen years ago, when but few of my countrymen had travelled in Europe or had published their notes. After the lapse of 18 years I can scarcely read without a smile the accounts which I then wrote about every lake, stream or mountain which I saw; and the republication of such accounts at the present day, when so many of my countrymen have visited and ably written on Europe, is putting the good nature of an indulgent public to a rather severe test.
The last six chapters of this book relate to my later visit to Europe in 1886. Some of the places I visited on this occasion, like Norway and Sweden, Berlin and Vienna, Florence, Rome and Naples, are not generally visited by my young countrymen who go to England for education. But nevertheless I am but too well aware that my accounts of these places are slipshod and careless, often penned in the saloon of a steamer or the smoking-room of a crowded hotel. These accounts have before now appeared in magazines and have been read, and I had my misgivings as to the expediency of republishing them in a permanent form.
"The request of friends" is pleaded as a justification for many works which had better not seen the light;—in my case, it was the request of my publisher! That enterprising gentleman has pressed me repeatedly to bring out my travels in Europe in a collected form. "But it is an old story now," I said, "many of my countrymen have travelled in Europe, and all know about Europe." "It may be an old story," he rejoined, "but none the less interesting to us."
A writer does not need many arguments to be convinced of the value of what he has written, and I was soon persuaded to yield to the better,—or at least to the more favourable judgment of my worthy publisher. To revise or rewrite what I had written eighteen or twenty years ago was out of the question, and indeed was scarcely the trouble; and thus the little book goes before the the public in a somewhat mixed and composite character! Extracts from letters written by a young and enthusiastic student will appear herein, side by side with the notes of an older and sadder, if not a wiser tourist. This arrangement, or rather want of arrangement, will have an interest for my personal friends; while the general reader too will find the arrangement convenient, as he will be able without any difficulty to select what he cares to read, and reject what he does not.
| Burdwan 1st July, 1890. |
R. C. DUTT. |
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
An account of the Rhineland,—i. e. of Cologne and Wiesbaden, of Frankfort and Heidelberg, of Alsace and Lorraine,—which I visited in 1893 has been added in this edition.
| Cuttack 1st July, 1896. |
R. C. DUTT. |