TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA AND SWEDEN. DURING THE YEARS 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808. BY ROBERT KER PORTER. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY HOPKINS AND EARLE. Fry and Kammerer, printers. 1809. PREFACE. THE author of the following pages, while relinquishing them for the press, felt a thousand hesitations whether or not to commit himself so far to the mercy of the world, as to submit a simple familiar correspondence to its eyes. He had engaged to accompany the drawings* in this work with some explanations, and a general sketch of the manners and customs of the people who form their subjects. There was matter in these letters to furnish what was required; but the peculiar circumstances of the writer on his return to England, finding the friend to whom they had been addressed dying, would not allow him leisure nor spirits to throw them into any other shape. Hence the work appears with every imperfection; and three immovable ones, he fears, are prominent: continual egotism, an appearance of ostentation, and perhaps a too unreserved disclosure of his own situation and feelings. To such charges, the fact must reply-As these pages were originally written in the free intercourse of confidence, the writer naturally mentioned himself as going hither or thither, or being engaged in such and such scenes. He also did not hesitate to acknowledge the kindnesses he received from persons of all ranks; and so, perhaps, by giving way to gratitude, The American publishers of these travels omit the drawings referred to, because the time and expense necessary to procure them would greatly exneed the limits required; and because they are not an indispensable, though elegant appendage to the work. 228921 |