The History of France: From the Conquest of Gaul by the Romans to the Peace of 1856. E-book. Formato PDF Amelia B. Edwards   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

Fabulous as are the chronicles of this period, it is, ho w ever, certain that the Franks, albeit the least civilized of the usurpers, became in time a powerful race; extended their conquests to the banks of the Loire; and were governed, somewhere about the year 48 5, by a Christian king named Clovis, who was the grandson of Mcrcvée, and principal founder of the French monarchy. It must he confessed that Christianity produced no bene ficial efi'ect upon these wild converts. On the contrary, it appeared only to increase the ferocity of their dispositions and Clovis, who received from his clergy the title of Most Christian King, has left a reputation stained by every crime. It was during the reign of this monarch that the Court removed to Pan's. Clovis died in the year 511, after having secured to the Franks all that district which lies between the Rhine, the Rhone, the ocean, and the Pyrenees. The city of Paris, des tined afterwards to become the most elegant of modern capitals, was at this timc confined to the narrow limits of the Isle de la Cité, and consisted of some few churches and hovels surrounded by a fortification. A palace was situated beyond the walls, on the south bank of the river; the abbeys of St. Genevieve, St. Germain l'auxerrois, St. Germain-des-pres, and others, were scattered about the vicinity; and the grounds in the neighbourhood of the river, having been partially cleared of their primeval forests, were planted with vineyards and fig trees.

A Thousand Miles Up the Nile. E-book. Formato PDF Amelia B. Edwards   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

"Un voyage en Êgypte, c'est une partie d'ânes et une promenade en bateau entremelees de ruines." - AmpereAmpere has put Egypt in an epigram. "A donkey ride and a boating trip interspersed with ruins" does, in fact, sum up in a single line the whole experience of the Nile traveler. Apropos of these three things - the donkeys, the boat, and the ruins - it may be said that a good English saddle and a comfortable dahabeeyah add very considerably to the pleasure of the journey; and that the more one knows about the past history of the country, the more one enjoys the ruins.Of the comparative merits of wooden boats, iron boats, and steamers, I am not qualified to speak. We, however, saw one iron dahabeeyah aground upon a sand-bank, where, as we afterward learned, it remained for three weeks. We also saw the wrecks of three steamers between Cairo and the first cataract. It certainly seemed to us that the old-fashioned wooden dahabeeyah - flat-bottomed, drawing little water, light in hand, and easily poled off when stuck - was the one vessel best constructed for the navigation of the Nile. Other considerations, as time and cost, are, of course, involved in this question. The choice between dahabeeyah and steamer is like the choice between trailing with post-horses and traveling by rail.

Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys: A Midsummer Ramble in the Dolomites. E-book. Formato PDF Amelia B. Edwards   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

Nor is this surprising when we consider the nature of the ground lying within the area just named; the absence of roads; the impossibility of traversing the heart of the country, except on foot or on mule-back; the tedious postal arrangements; the want of tele graphic communication; and the primitive quality of the accommodation provided for travellers. A good road is the widest avenue to knowledge; but there is at present only one good and complete road in the whole district — namely, the strada regia which, traversing the whole length of the Ampezzo Thal, connects the Venetian provinces with Lower Austria. Other frag ments of roads there are; but then they are only fragments, leading sometimes from point to point within an amphitheatre of mountains traversed only by mule-tracks.