Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Profoundly disappointed by his experiences in America, Richard Parkinson's Tour in America 1798, 1799, 1800, originally published in London in 1805, was expressly published to prevent emigration to America, seeking to save those who seek to make their fortunes in America from their "delusions." He notes that: "It will afford me infinite pleasure if the publication of the following sheets, giving an account of my disappointments in America, should have the desired effect--that of preventing my countrymen from running headlong into misery, as myself and many others have done." A "practical farmer," Parkinson left England in 1798 after arranging to "let" a parcel of land surrounding Mount Vernon from George Washington himself. Coming to America to "Speculate to make a rapid fortune," Parkinson found himself rapidly disappointed: "but farming being my sole object in life, I found the climate and soil there to be of such a nature as to put it out of the power of man to enrich the land without such an enormous expence as (if he had no other means than what the produce of the land would afford) must ruin any one." Even more shocking, are the "notions of equality" and he complains mightily of the "disrespectful manners of white servants toward masters," finding it shocking that "The idea of liberty and equality there destroys all the rights of the master, and every man does as he likes." In decrying his experience in America, Parkinson highlighted the very qualities that made America and Americans of the late-eighteenth century what they were, thereby showcasing the cultural and material divide between England and her former colony.

The Rosetta Stone contains a decree written three times in Greek, Demotic and hieroglyphic that provided the key to the mysterious hieroglyphic script of ancient Egypt, and opened up 3,000 years of the country's history and culture. This book tells the fascinating story of one of archaeology's icons, from its creation in the second century BC, to its discovery in 1799 during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, to the subsequent race to decipher its hieroglyphic text. Undertaken by two brilliant scholars - the Frenchman Jean-Francois Champollion, and the English physicist Thomas Young - it was the former who eventually succeeded in making the crucial breakthrough. Today the Rosetta Stone stands in the Museum as an enduring symbol of human understanding and communication through the ages.