Cornish-born writer, traveller and controversialist James Silk Buckingham (1786 1855) spent much of his early life as a sailor in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and went on to publish accounts of his extensive travels to India, Palestine and Persia. His criticisms of the East India Company and the Bengal government led to his expulsion from India in 1823. In the 1830s he became a Member of Parliament and campaigned for social reforms and for the promotion of the temperance movement. He founded several journals, including the periodical The Athenaeum, covering a wide range of topics from literature to popular science. This illustrated two-volume work, published in 1827, recounts Buckingham's journey through Mesopotamia, giving descriptions of its ancient sites and opinions of its modern inhabitants. In Volume 2, Buckingham continues his travels through Mesopotamia, from Sinjar in the north-west of the region to the city of Baghdad.

Cornish-born writer, traveller and controversialist James Silk Buckingham (1786 1855) spent much of his early life as a sailor in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and went on to publish accounts of his extensive travels to India, Palestine and Persia. His criticisms of the East India Company and the Bengal government led to his expulsion from India in 1823. In the 1830s he became a Member of Parliament and campaigned for social reforms and for the promotion of the temperance movement. He founded several journals, including the periodical The Athenaeum, covering a wide range of topics from literature to popular science. In this work, first published in 1821, Buckingham describes his journey from Egypt by sea to Syria and then to Palestine. He ascended Mount Tabor and visited the Holy Sepulchre, but considered his experiences in Bashan and Gilead, east of the Jordan, to form the climax of his journey.

This works is an account by John Bacon Sawrey Morritt (1771-1843), traveller, classical scholar and friend of Sir Walter Scott, of his Grand Tour during the years 1794-6. His letters home were edited by G. E. Marindin (1841-1939) and published in 1914. In 1790 Morritt inherited the Rokeby estate, County Durham, and came into a considerable fortune. Educated at St John's College, Cambridge, he graduated in 1794, and soon afterwards set out for the continent. Visiting Constantinople, Troy, the Greek islands, Crete, Naples, Rome and Venice, Morritt developed a lifelong passion for European art and culture (he purchased the Rokeby Venus in 1813). He was well-read in Greek and Latin literature, had a considerable taste for antiquarian research, and was undeterred by the dangers of traversing Europe during the French Revolutionary Wars. According to his editor, 'it would be difficult to imagine a better traveller'.

Captain Basil Hall (1788 1844) was a Scottish seaman and travel writer. After attending the Royal High School in Edinburgh he joined the Navy in 1802, and was appointed captain in 1814. He served on many diplomatic and scientific naval missions, and on his retirement from the Navy began to publish accounts of his experiences, based on his journals. These volumes, first published in 1829, contain his detailed and controversial account of his journey across America and Canada between 1827 and 1828. Hall provides a fascinating and engaging description of social conditions, political structures and political tensions in Canada and America in the period, while also illustrating contemporary English prejudices concerning American society. Volume 3 contains his description of Washington D.C. and his journeys through South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama and along the Mississippi river. Hall also includes an analysis of slavery and cotton farming in the southern states.

Scottish-born Alexander Mackay (1808 52) spent much of his career as a journalist in North America. He was in Britain working for the Morning Chronicle when, in January 1846, he set sail again for the United States, this time to report on the debates over the Oregon question, relating to British and American claims to territory in the Pacific North-West. He spent several months in Washington, D.C. before travelling around the country as far south as the Mississippi, and west to the Great Lakes. This three-volume work, published in 1849, uses his journey to frame a general account of 'the political system, the social life, and the material progress of the Union'. Mackay observed a vibrant and prosperous country, and his work captures the energy of these boom years. Volume 2 focuses on political parties, slavery and railways, and describes Mackay's travels in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana.

Scottish-born Alexander Mackay (1808 52) spent much of his career as a journalist in North America. He was in Britain working for the Morning Chronicle when, in January 1846, he set sail again for the United States, this time to report on the debates over the Oregon question, relating to British and American claims to territory in the Pacific North-West. He spent several months in Washington, D.C. before travelling around the country as far south as the Mississippi, and west to the Great Lakes. This three-volume work, published in 1849, uses his journey to frame a general account of 'the political system, the social life, and the material progress of the Union'. Mackay observed a vibrant and prosperous country, and his work captures the energy of these boom years. Volume 3 focuses on the Great Lakes region, mining and navigation, and discusses education, religion, and the 'American character'.

This book of 'Persian Pictures' is the first published work of Gertrude Bell (1868 1926), the celebrated traveller, archaeologist, Orientalist and supporter of Arab independence. She first visited Persia in 1892, when a relative by marriage was British minister there, and published her impressions in a series of essays in 1894. Her subjects range from Roman ruins to Ottoman graves to shopping in the bazaars, and from the bustling life of cities to the isolation of the desert. Having studied the Persian language in preparation for her journey, she was able to enter into the life of the country, and especially of its women, more deeply than a casual visitor, and indeed her second publication was a free-verse translation of the fourteenth-century poet Hafiz. Bell captures a sense of delight at a mysterious land still marked by the traces of many of the great civilisations of the past.

Targeted at both intrepid travellers and 'readers at home', this two-volume account of Spanish history, topography and culture by Richard Ford (1796 1858) combines the rigour of a gazetteer with the humour and pace of a private travel diary. First published in 1845, as part of John Murray's series of guidebooks, the work made an immediate impact upon the reading public, and it was celebrated in the press as the 'most comprehensive and accurate account of that country' hitherto produced. Through a series of hand-picked routes, readers encounter an array of landscapes and experiences as varied as coastal Cadiz, lively Barcelona, bull fights, beggars and pig farming. Opening with a guide to the country, its currency, 'gesticulations' and 'slang', Volume 1 leads the reader from Andalucia to Granada and on to Catalonia. The result is an engaging account that will be of interest to modern tourists and historians alike.

Targeted at both intrepid travellers and 'readers at home', this two-volume account of Spanish history, topography and culture by Richard Ford (1796 1858) combines the rigour of a gazetteer with the humour and pace of a private travel diary. First published in 1845, as part of John Murray's series of guidebooks, the work made an immediate impact upon the reading public, and it was celebrated in the press as the 'most comprehensive and accurate account of that country' hitherto produced. Starting in the Kingdom of Leon, and again using a series of hand-picked routes, Volume 2 leads readers to the pilgrim shrine of Santiago de Compostela and through Galicia and the Basque provinces, introducing them to castles, universities, art collections and the 'inhospitality of Madrid'. The result is an engaging account that will be of interest to modern tourists and historians alike.

Henry C. Barkley (c.1825 c.1895) was a civil engineer and author. His travel books included Between the Danube and the Black Sea (1876), which covers the five years in which he was working on the construction of a railway line linking the Danube and the Black Sea, and Bulgaria before the War (1877), written at the time of the Russo-Turkish war. (He also wrote a guide to rat-catching for public-school boys, and My Boyhood (1877), a collection of tales from his own childhood.) Published in 1891, this work recounts the author's adventures on a journey that took him in 1878 from Bucharest, through Istanbul, across Asia Minor and back to Trebizond (now Trabzon) on the Black Sea coast, a distance of 1400 miles, completed in 96 days. He describes with zest and humour the habits and customs of Christian and Muslim communities that he encounters on the way.

It is 1875, the time of the 'Great Game', when the British and Russian Empires are vying for power in central Asia. A British officer rides for Khiva, a Russian city closed to European travellers. He is on a dangerous mission, to learn if Russia plans to invade India, the 'jewel in the crown' of the British Empire. It might be the plot of a Rudyard Kipling novel; instead it is the true story of Captain Frederick Burnaby (1842 85). Burnaby joined the British army in 1859, but in periods without active duty he crafted his own adventures. He ballooned across the English Channel, travelled in Spain and Russia, and was wounded, and eventually killed, fighting for Britain's empire. This account of his perilous journey to Khiva, published in 1876 and immediately reprinted, brought him instant fame. The book includes maps of the route he took and an appendix.

'If modern Egypt is so far away that it takes three weeks to get there, ancient Egypt is infinitely more distant.' So wrote novelist, journalist, traveller and Egyptologist Amelia Edwards (1831-92) in this, the last published work of her career. Having first travelled to Egypt in 1873, in 1889-90 Edwards was invited to lecture in the United States, campaigning for the Egypt Exploration Fund, of which she was joint honorary secretary. In five months she addressed 100,000 people at over 110 meetings in sixteen states. First published in 1892, a month before her death, this book is a collection of her lectures, containing substantial illustrations, additions, notes, and references. Exhibiting both Edwards' ability to make abstruse subjects come alive without losing factual correctness, and the humour and enthusiasm with which she recounted her experiences, this book marks the culmination of twenty years' research and exploration.

Having decided to try his fortune in the new colonies of South Australia and New Zealand, budding geologist James Coutts Crawford (1817-89) landed at Sydney in 1838 and lost no time in buying and driving a herd of cattle from Braidwood, New South Wales, to Adelaide, a distance of more than three hundred miles of unfamiliar territory. This remarkable journey proved typical of the rest of his travels, during which he served variously as explorer, translator, and sheriff of Wellington. This book, which includes illustrations and maps, is his own record of his experiences, first published in 1880. Even at that time, New Zealand and Australia had changed radically since Crawford's first arrival in the earliest, minimal colonies; today, his account offers not only a fascinating insight into the difficulties and dangers of life there, but a useful source for students and researchers in history and geology.

James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855) was a writer who travelled extensively and published accounts of his adventures in places such as India, Persia, Egypt, and Palestine. He first went to sea as a boy, and, aged only ten, spent a period as a prisoner-of-war in Spain. He was expelled from India in 1823 for criticising the East India Company and the Bengal government. Back in London, he was a supporter of reform, and served as the first M.P. for the new constituency of Sheffield, from 1832 to 1837. He founded several journals, including The Athenaeum. On retiring from Parliament, he left for North America, where he spent nearly four years, and was highly critical of America's economic dependence on slavery. His autobiography was cut short by his death. Volume 1 covers his early life and travels until 1812, mostly in the Mediterranean but also to the West Indies and America.

Published in 1876, this vivid, action-packed account describes the experiences of David Kennedy Jr (1849-85) as he toured the world with his musician father and family choir between 1872 and 1876 performing 'The Songs of Scotland'. Kennedy travelled through 'nearly every town and village in Australia, New Zealand and Canada', and over a three-year period wrote articles recording his impressions for publication in Edinburgh newspapers; this book is an edited and expanded compilation of those pieces. Kennedy describes places and events including Sydney Harbour, floods in Melbourne, the New Zealand volcanic country, a violent storm at sea, the cosmopolitan, frenetic atmosphere of San Francisco, the American trans-continental railway and a Canadian snowstorm. His closely observed vignettes of local society are particularly fine, and depict entertainments and pastimes, education and worship, and indigenous traditions as well as individuals such as innkeepers, stage-coach drivers, travellers, miners, and particularly his fellow Scots.

First published in 1872, this memoir recounts the extraordinary life of Sir Henry Holland (1788-1873), physician, and travel writer. Holland's first voyage abroad was a four-month trip to Iceland in 1810, and he went on to traverse much of the globe by boat, on horseback, and on foot. He journeyed through Europe during the Napoleonic Wars, survived earthquakes and other disasters, and was arrested three times during his travels. Holland was also well known as a society doctor in London, and this work also includes numerous references to the eminent people Holland treated in a medical capacity. He was medical attendant to Queen Caroline, wife of George IV, and was appointed physician-extraordinary to Queen Victoria in 1837. He also treated six British prime ministers. Originally written for his friends and children and printed privately, the book was revised and expanded for publication the year before Holland died.

In 1804 when W. B. Stevenson (fl. 1803 1825) arrived on the small island of Mocha, just off the coast of South America, he stepped onto a continent on the brink of mass revolution. Over the next twenty years, he had an extraordinary range of experiences: as a traveller, a Spanish government official, a prisoner, and as secretary to an ex-Royal Navy admiral turned revolutionary. In this three-volume work, published in 1825, Stevenson gives a dramatic, fascinating account of life and society in South America as it began to break free from Spanish colonial rule. Volume 2 continues Stevenson's description of the culture and customs of Chile, Colombia and Peru. It also covers Stevenson's arrival in the province of Esmeraldas, where he became governor in 1810.

In 1804 when W. B. Stevenson (fl. 1803 1825) arrived on the small island of Mocha, just off the coast of South America, he stepped onto a continent on the brink of mass revolution. Over the next twenty years, he had an extraordinary range of experiences: as a traveller, a Spanish government official, a prisoner, and as secretary to an ex-Royal Navy admiral turned revolutionary. In this three-volume work, published in 1825, Stevenson gives a dramatic, fascinating account of life and society in South America as it began to break free from Spanish colonial rule. Volume 3 focuses on the revolutions and uprisings Stevenson witnessed in Colombia, Peru and Chile, as well as his time as secretary to Lord Cochrane, the former admiral who fought on the side of the rebels.

The English geologist George William Featherstonhaugh (1780 1866) was commissioned to undertake a survey of the Arkansas territory in America, and spent 1834 5 travelling through the southern slave states to reach his destination. He was shocked by the slave system of the south, saying he 'had never seen so revolting a sight'. When he began to write about his experiences, Featherstonhaugh was urged not to publish his work in the US, as his opinions might 'irritate a powerful interest', and his manuscript remained unpublished until 1844, after his return to England. His lively two-volume account of his adventures contains a fascinating mixture of scientific and sociological detail. It is a closely observed record of Southern society in the period before the Civil War that candidly documents the violence experienced by Black slaves, Native Americans and frontier settlers. Volume 1 describes the Alleghany Mountains, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri.

The English geologist George William Featherstonhaugh (1780 1866) was commissioned to undertake a survey of the Arkansas territory in America, and spent 1834 5 travelling through the southern slave states to reach his destination. He was shocked by the slave system of the south, saying he 'had never seen so revolting a sight'. When he began to write about his experiences, Featherstonhaugh was urged not to publish his work in the US, as his opinions might 'irritate a powerful interest', and his manuscript remained unpublished until 1844, after his return to England. His lively two-volume account of his adventures contains a fascinating mixture of scientific and sociological detail. It is a closely observed record of Southern society in the period before the Civil War that candidly documents the violence experienced by Black slaves, Native Americans and frontier settlers. Volume 2 describes the geography and inhabitants of Arksansas and New Orleans.

Captain Basil Hall (1788 1844) was a Scottish seaman and travel writer. After attending the Royal High School in Edinburgh he joined the Navy in 1802, and was appointed captain in 1814. He served on many diplomatic and scientific naval missions, and on his retirement from the Navy began to publish accounts of his experiences, based on his journals. These volumes, first published in 1829, contain his detailed and controversial account of his journey across America and Canada between 1827 and 1828. Hall provides a fascinating and engaging description of social conditions, political structures and political tensions in Canada and America in the period, while also illustrating contemporary English prejudices concerning American society. Volume 2 contains his descriptions of New England, including Boston and Harvard University, with an analysis of mutual English and American misunderstandings of each others' societies and a discussion of the role of women in American society.

Sir Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) was a journalist and explorer renowned for his adventures in Africa. After emigrating to America in 1859, Stanley worked as a journalist for the New York Herald. In 1869 he was instructed to undertake an expedition to find the missionary David Livingstone, and the success of this mission brought him public recognition and financial success. Published in 1895, these two volumes contain Stanley's early journalistic writing as special correspondent for the Herald and the Missouri Democrat. Stanley's reports in Volume 1 cover General Hancock's military expedition against the Cheyenne and the Sioux peoples in Kansas and Nebraska, and the subsequent peace conferences between General Sherman and the Plains Indians. He paints a vivid picture of life in 1867 in this area of the United States through in-depth descriptions of the customs and living conditions of the native Indians, geographical features and military confrontations.

Scottish-born Alexander Mackay (1808 52) spent much of his career as a journalist in North America. He was in Britain working for the Morning Chronicle when, in January 1846, he set sail again for the United States, this time to report on the debates over the Oregon question, relating to British and American claims to territory in the Pacific North-West. He spent several months in Washington, D.C. before travelling around the country as far south as the Mississippi, and west to the Great Lakes. This three-volume work, published in 1849, uses his journey to frame a general account of 'the political system, the social life, and the material progress of the Union'. Mackay observed a vibrant and prosperous country, and his work captures the energy of these boom years. In Volume 1, Mackay describes New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, and explains American society and the political and judiciary systems.

Sir Samuel Baker (1821-93) was one of the most famous Victorian explorers and hunters. First published in two illustrated volumes in 1866, this account of his most celebrated expedition is amongst the most important works of its type. Baker promises 'to take the reader by the hand, and lead him step by step ... through scorching deserts and thirsty sands; through swamp and jungle ... until I bring him, faint with the wearying journey, to that high cliff ... from which he shall look down upon the vast Albert Lake and drink with me from the sources of the Nile!' Volume 2 finds Baker a prisoner of a native king. Baker offers a number of 'gifts' to buy his release, and after an arduous journey, with his wife in a coma, in March 1864 he reaches Luta N'zige, which he renames in memory of Prince Albert. A compelling account of an historic adventure.