I cannot boast of the commendatory strains of public Journals in my own
country. No intellectual steam-engine has been put in motion to manufacture
a review of unqualified approbation of the Work now submitted to the public
eye--at an expense, commensurate with the ordinary means of purchase. With
the exception of an indirect and laudatory notice of it, in the immortal
pages of the Author of Waverley, of the Sketch book, and of Reginald
Dalton, this Tour has had to fight its way under the splendour of its own
banners, and in the strength of its own cause. The previous Edition is now
a scarce and a costly book. Its Successor has enough to recommend it, even
to the most fastidious collector, from the elegance of its type and
decorations, and from the reasonableness of its price; but the highest
ambition of its author is, that it may be a part of the furniture of every
Circulating Library in the Kingdom. If he were not conscious that GOOD
would result from its perusal, he would not venture upon such an avowal.
"FELIX FAUSTUMQUE SIT!"


[1] M. Crapelet is of course speaking of the PREVIOUS edition of the Tour.
He continues thus: "M. Dibdin, dans son voyage en France, a visité nos
départemens de l'ouest et de l'est, toutes leurs principales villes,
presque tous les lieux remarquables par les antiquités, par les
monumens, par les beautés du site, ou par les souvenirs historiques.
Il a visité les châteaux, les églises, les chapelles; il a observé nos
moeurs, nos coutumes; nos habitudes; il a examiné nos Musées et nos
premiers Cabinets de curiosité; il s'est concentré dans nos
Bibliothéques. Il parle de notre littérature et des hommes de lettres,
des arts et de nos artistes; il critique les personnes comme les
choses; il loue quelquefois, il plaisante souvent; la vivacité de son
esprit l'égare presque toujours." A careful perusal of the notes in
THIS edition will shew that my veracity has not "almost always led me