The Dodd Family Abroad. ... With illustrations by Phiz

Front matter

THE DODD FAMILY ABEOAD. . AiR@AP. GMARLES LILVER. L® RLE) ©Si ' Pa©@&S>.LiLY. THE DODD FAMILY ABROAD. BY CHARLES LEVER, AUTHOR OF "HARRY LORREQUER," "THE KNIGHT OF GWYNNE," &C. &C. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY PHIZ. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. MDCCCLIV. TO SIR EDWARD LYTTON BDLWEfi LYTTON, BART., M.P. My deae Sie Edwaed, "While asking you to accept the dedication of tins volume, I feel it would be something very nigh akin to the Bathos were I to say one word of EMogy of those powers wMch the world has recog- Msed in you. Let me, however, be permitted, in common with thousands, to welcome the higher development which your Genius is hourly attain ing, to say God speed to the Author of "The Castons" and "My Novel," and cry " Hear !" to the Eloquent Orator, whose words have awakened an enthusiasm that shows Chivalry stiU Uves amongst us.

BeUeve me, in all admiration and esteem, Your faithful friend, Chaeles Levee. Casa Capponi, Florence, March, 1854. "A WORD FROM THE EDITOR." The Editor of the Dodd Correspondence may possibly be expected to give the Public some information as to the manner by which these Letters came into his possession, and the reasons which led him to pubUsh them. HappUy he can do both without any breach of ho nourable confidence. The circumstances were these : Mr. Dodd, on Ms returning to Ireland, passed through the little watering-place of Spezzia, where the Editor was then sojourning. They met accidentally, formed acquaintanceship, and then intimacy. Amongst the many topics of conversation between them, the Continent and its habits occupied a very wide space. Mr. D. had lived Uttle abroad ; the Editor had passed half of a life there.

Their views and judgment were, as might be surmised, not always alike ; and if novelty had occasionaUy misled one, time and habit had not less powerfuUy blunted the perceptions of the other. The old resident discovered, to his astonishment, that the very opinions which he smiled at from his friend, had been once his own ; that he had himself incurred some of the mistakes, and fallen into many of the blunders, which he now ridicMed, and that, so far from the Dodd Family being the exception, they were in reality no very unfair samples of a large class of our travelling countrymen. They had come abroad with crude and absurd notions of what awaited them on the Continent. They dreamed of economy, refinement, universal politeness, and a profound esteem for England from aU foreigners. They fancied that the advan tages of foreign travel were to be obtained without cost or labour ; that locomotion coMd educate, sight-seeing cultivate them ; that in the capacity of British subjects every society shoMd be open to them, and that, in fact, it was enough to emerge from home obscurity to be come at once recognised in the fashionable circles of any continental city.