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ANTIDOTE TO WEAR AND TEAR.

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permitted to state, that the main object of the following tour was HEALTH—and that the observations and reflexions which grew out of the impressions received on the road, were noted as mere amusement. I do not recommend this plan as an example to be followed by all others. After the WEAR and TEAR of metropolitan drudgery, it would probably be wiser to make such a journey (whether North or South) as a passive rather than an active spectator-thus letting the mind rest, while the body is whirled through the fresh air, and the senses are regaled with a constant succession of new scenes. But there are many whose organization and temperament will not permit them to be inactive under any circumstances :—and this, I fear, is my unfortunate case! If that which has furnished amusement to myself, should not prove amusing to others, (technically speaking, should the book be damned) the detriment will not be very great to society at large-and I can assure the compassionate READER as well as the conscientious critic, that the disappointment will not deprive the WRITER of a single night's rest. He He may be permitted to add, in conclusion, that he has passed off nothing as his own which he has drawn from books. Any descriptions which he may have ventured on, are copied from Nature-nor are the reflections arising from scenes or circumstances the echo of other men's thoughts. He is not without a hope that this unostentatious little volume may prove useful, even where it fails in amusement, to many who, like the author, seek health or relaxation in a temporary abstraction from the WEAR and TEAR of metropolitan drudgery.

As a preliminary to the Tour which forms the subject of the remainder of this volume, I think I shall be forgiven in laying before the reader a few observations on the SALUTARY EFFECTS of TRAVELLING, from a medical work lately published. The extract is rather long, but it is so very germain to the object in view, that I shall make no apology for the insertion of it in this place.

SALUTARY EFFECTS OF TRAVELLING EXERCISE.

"Viresque acquirit eundo."

"Since the Continent has been open to the English, there has been no lack of this species of exercise; but there are different kinds of travelling now, as there were different kinds of travellers in the days of Sterne. It is one thing to travel for health, and quite another thing to travel for the sake of studying architecture, viewing pictures, ransacking libraries, collecting antiquities, exploring geological formations, or collecting rare and beautiful specimens of plants. It is entirely with the first kind of travelling that I have to do-namely, that mode which conduces most to the restoration of health, leaving every other consideration entirely out of the question, with the exception of amusement, which I consider as essentially connected with the subject of health.

Six individuals, three in health (domestics) and three valetudinarians (one a lady), travelled, in the months of August, September, and October, 1823, about 2500 miles, through France, Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium, for the sole purpose of HEALTH and such amusement as was considered most contributive to the attainment of that object.

The experiment was tried, whether a constant change of scene and air, combined with almost uninterrupted exercise, active and passive, during the day-principally in the open air, might not ensure a greater stock of health, than slow journies and long sojourns on the road. The result will be seen presently. But in order to give the reader some idea of what may be done in a three months' tour of this kind, I shall enumerate the daily journeys, omitting the excursions from and around those places at which we halted for the night, or for a few days. Our longest sojourn was that of a week, and that only thrice—at Paris, Geneva, and Brussels. In a majority of places, we only stopped a night and part of a day, or one or two days, according to local interest. But I may remark that, as far as I was concerned, more exercise was taken during the days of sojourn at each place, than during the days occupied in travelling from one point to another. The consequence was, that a quarter of a year was spent in one uninterrupted system of exercise, change of air, and change of scene, together with the mental excitement and amusement produced by the perpetual presentation of new objects—many of them the most interesting on the face of this globe.

The following were the regular journeys, and the points of nightly repose:-1, Sittingbourn-2, Dover-3, Calais-4, Boulogne-5, Abbeville— 6, Rouen-7, Along the banks of the Seine to Mantes-8, Paris, with various excursions and perambulations-9, Fontainbleau-10, Auxerre—11, Vitteaux

SALUTARY EFFECTS OF TRAVELLING EXERCISE.

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-12, Dijon, with excursions-13, Champagnole, in the Jura Mountains14, Geneva, with various excursions—15, Salenche—16, Chamouni, with various excursions to the Mer de Glace, Jardin, Buet, &c.-17, Across the Col de Balme to Martigny, with excursions up the Vallais-18, By the Valley of Entrement, &c. to the Great St. Bernard, with excursions-19, Back to Martigny-20, Ivian, on the Lake of Geneva, with excursions-21, Geneva― 22, Lausanne, with excursions-23, La Sarna-24, Neuf-Chatel-25, Berne, with excursions and perambulations—26, Thoun-27, Valley of Lauterbrunen, with various circuits-28, Grindenwalde, with excursions to the Glaciers, &c. -29, Over the Grand Scheidec to Meyrengen, with excursions to waterfalls, &c.-30, By Brienz, Lake of Brienz, Interlaken, and lake of Thoun, with various excursions, to the Giesbach and other waterfalls, back to Thoun31, Berne-32, Zoffengen-33, Lucerne, with various excursions-34, Zoug and Zurich-35, Chaufhausen and Falls of the Rhine-36, Neustad, in the Black Forest-37, By the Vallé d'Enfer to Offenburgh-38, Carlshrue, with excursions-39, Heidelburg-40, Darmstadd-41, Frankfort on the Maine, with excursions-42, Mayence, with excursions-43, Coblenz, Bingen, Bonn, &c.-44, Cologne-45, Aix la Chapelle, with excursions-46, Liege—47, Brussels, with a week's excursions-48, Ghent and Courtray-49, Dunkirk50, Calais-51, Dover-52, London.

Thus, there were 52 regular journeys during the tour, and 32 days spent in excursions and perambulations. And as there never was so much exercise or fatigue during the journeys as during the days of sojourn and excursions, it follows that the whole of this tour might be made with great ease, and the utmost advantage to health, in two months. As far as natural scenery is concerned, it would, perhaps, be difficult to select a track, which could offer such a succession of the most beautiful and sublime views, and such a variety of interesting objects, as the line which the above route presents. It would be better, however, to dedicate three months to the tour, if time and other circumstances permitted, than to make it in two months; though, if only two months could be spared, I would recommend the same line of travel where health was the object. Perhaps it would be better to reverse the order of the route, and to commence with the Rhine, by which plan the majesty of the scenery would be gradually and progressively increasing, till the traveller reached the summit of the Great St. Bernard, the Simplon, or Mont Blanc. The foregoing circuit was inade, as far as the writer is concerned, entirely in the open air; that is to say, in an open carriage-in char-à-bancs

* The tour which follows the one now in question, (1829) is probably over a still more interesting tract, as far, at least, as intellectual excitement is concerned.

on mules-and on foot. The exercise was always a combination, or quick succession of the active and passive kinds, as advantage was often taken of hills and mountains, on the regular journeys, to get down and walk-while a great part of each excursion was pedestrian, with the char-à-banc or mule at hand, when fatigue was experienced. This plan possesses many advantages for the invalid, over the purely active or purely passive modes of travelling. The constant alternation of the two secures the benefits of both, without the inconvenience of either. As the season for travelling in Switzerland is the hottest of the year, and as, in the valleys, the temperature is excessive, so, great danger would be incurred by the invalid's attempting pedestrian exercise in the middle of the day. But by travelling passively in the hot valleys, and walking whenever the temperature is moderate or the ground elevated, he derives all the advantage which exercise of both kinds can possibly confer, without any risk to his health.

The journeys on this tour varied from 20 to 50 or 60 miles in the day, and were generally concluded by sunset-often much before that period.* The usual routine of meals was, some coffee at sunrise, and then exercise, either in perambulations, excursions, or on the first stage of the day's journey. At noon, a dejeuné à la fourchette, and then immediately to exercise or to travel; concluding the journey and the exercise of the day by dinner at the 8 o'clock table d'hôte, where a company, of all nations, varying from 10 to 50 or 60 people, were sure to assemble, with appetites of tigers rather than of men. By ten, or half-past ten, all were in bed, and there was seldom a waking interval from that time till six in the morning, the punctual hour of rising.

In this circuit, we experienced great and sometimes very abrupt vicissitudes of temperature, as well as other atmospheric changes; but, as will be presently seen, without any bad consequences.-Before I give any exposition of the moral and physical effects of this kind of exercise, I may be permitted to premise, that I made it one of my principal studies during the whole course of the tour, not only to investigate its physiological effects on my own person and those of the party (six in number,) but to make constant enquiries among the numerous and often intelligent travellers with whom I journeyed or sojourned on the road. Many of these were invalids-many affected with actual diseases-a considerable proportion had had dyspeptic complaints previously, and all were capable of describing the influence of travelling exercise on their mental and corporeal functions. What I am going to say on this subject, therefore, is the result of direct personal experience and observation, in Europe, and in almost every quarter of the globe, unbiassed by any pre

* The same applies to the tour which follows.

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conceived opinions derived from books or men. I am not without hope that my observations will be of some service to the physician as well as to the invalid, by putting them in possession of facts, which cannot be ascertained under any other conditions than those under which they were investigated in the present instance, or under similar circumstances.

Moral Effects. If abstraction from the cares and anxieties of life, from the perplexities of business, and, in short, from the operation of those conflicting passions which harrass the mind and wear the body, be possible under any circumstances, it is likely to be so on such a journey as this, for which previous arrangements are made, and where a constant succession of new and interesting objects is presented to the eye and understanding, that powerfully arrests the attention and absorbs other feelings, leaving little time for reflections on the past, or gloomy anticipations of the future. To this may be added, the hope of returning health, increased, as it generally will be, by the daily acquisition of that invaluable blessing, as we proceed.

One of the first perceptible consequences of this state of things is a greater degree of serenity or evenness of temper, than was previously possessed. There is something in the daily intercourse with strangers, on the road, and at the TABLE-D'HÔTE, which checks irritability of temper. We are not long enough in each other's society to get into argumentation, or those collisions of sentiment which a more familiar acquaintance produces, and too often raises into altercations, and even irascibility, where the mind and body are previously irritable. These short periods of intercourse are the honeymoons of society, where only good humour and politeness prevail. We change our company before we are intimate enough to contradict each other, and thus excite warm blood. Besides, the conversation generally turns on scenes and subjects with which we are pleased and interested on the road-while political and religious discussions are studiously avoided by all travellers, as if by a tacit but universal compact. One of the best remedies, then, for irritability of temper, is a tour of this kind. A few hundred pounds would be well expended, annually, by many of our rich countrymen, in applying this pleasant remedy to the mind, when soured and unhinged by the struggles after wealth, rank, or power!

I have already portrayed the influence of bad health, and especially of disordered states of the digestive organs, in producing depression of spirits, or mental despondency, far worse to bear than corporeal pain. For the removal of this kind of melancholy, there is no other moral or physical remedy of half so much efficacy as a tour conducted on the plan which I have pointed out. It strikes directly at the root of the evil, (as I shall presently shew, when speaking of the physical effects of travelling,) by removing the causes on which this sombre and irritable state of mind depends. It is true that, in

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