\"In the various countries wherein I have happened to be a temporary resident, I have felt great interest in the acquisition of such knowledge as might be within my reach, with respect to the genius and the effects of their established institutions. Without the
slightest idea of publication, I continued the same line of inquiry during my stay in the Austrian dominions. Circumstances of a peculiar nature favoured my pursuit; and, on my last return to England, I found myself possessed of much information, tending to elucidate a variety of points hitherto, as it appeared to me, very imperfectly understood, and leading also to views, both as to the government and
the people, materially different from those which I had myself, in common probably with most of my countrymen, previously entertained.
Thus, in the order now adopted, the first volume contains the \"Narrative of Travels,\" being remarks and reflections made in the course of our journey through the most interesting parts of Bohemia, the states of Austria and Styria, the Illyrian Provinces, and the Peninsula of Istria; - including, besides the more prominent objects of general interest, notices of the antiquities and present condition of Pola; of the commercial ports of Fiume and Trieste; of the monastic establishments of Admont Moelk, and Mariazell; of the mines of Idria; and of Carlsbad, Gastein, and other principal Baths; - together with some account of the exiled royal family of France, who were then residing in the vicinity of Prague.\" [...]
This book is a reprint of the original published work from 1840.