REMARKS, MADE ON A SHORT TOUR, BETWEEN HARTFORD AND QUEBEC, IN THE AUTUMN OF 1819: By the Author of a Journal of travel in England, Holland and Scotland. New-Haven: Printed and Published by S. Converse, 1820. 20x11.5 cm (12mo), pp. [1-3] 4 [5] 6-8 [9] 10-407 [408: blank], 9 plates plus vignette title leaf, all with tissue guards, with illustrations engraved by S. S. Jocelyn from drawings by Daniel Wadsworth, later nineteenth-century three-quarter polished calf and pebbled cloth, spine panel titled and ruled in gold, marbled endpapers, untrimmed. First edition. An important, early account of a northern tour from New England to Montreal and Quebec by way of Albany, Lake George and Lake Champlain, and return through Vermont, New Hampshire and the Connecticut River Valley. Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864), "professor of chemistry and natural history in Yale College from 1802 to 1853 was the most prominent and influential scientific man in America during the first half of the nineteenth century" (DAB). An able scientific investigator with a keen interest in geology, Silliman's travel narrative is chock full of geologic observations of the country he passed through, so much so that he advised his readers that "the geological notices are, with few exceptions, placed under distinct heads, and may, without inconvenience, be omitted, by those to whom they are uninteresting. But, the geological features of a country being permanent -- being intimately connected with its scenery, with its leading interests, and even with the very character of it population, have a fair claim, to delineation, in the observations of a traveller; and this course, however unusual with us, is now common in Europe." Additionally, the travelogue includes historical accounts of some of the towns, villages and points of interest visited by Silliman who observes: "the historical remarks and citations have been the more extended, from an impression, that less has been said by travellers in America, than might have been expected, of scenes and events, which, to Americans, I conceive, must ever be subjects of the deepest interest." "Of the region from Albany northward to Lake Champlain, Silliman wrote: 'Indeed, from Albany, upon the course proposed, every part of our way was to be over classical ground. History sheds a deeper interest over no portion of the North American States. He who venerates the virtues and the valour, and commiserates the sufferings of our fathers, and he, who views, with gratitude and reverence, the deliverances which heaven has wrought for this land, will tread with awe, on every foot of ground between Albany and the northern lakes.' Although Silliman also described the actual, as opposed to the historical, landscape, its place in history was paramount to him. The ... engravings in the book [including] 'Lake George from Fort George' and 'Lake George, from the Village of Caldwell,' were drawn by Daniel Wadsworth (1771-1848) of Hartford. His appreciation and enjoyment of the American landscape was perhaps nurtured during trips such as this one with Silliman. Wadsworth's love of landscape found a later and lasting expression in his patronage of artists of the Hudson River School, particularly Thomas Cole" (Barnhill, Wild Impressions: The Adirondacks on Paper, Prints in the Collection of the Adirondack Museum, pp. 7-8). Silliman's account of his journey by private conveyance and steamboats between Albany and Montreal is found on pages 65-195. Includes a side trip to Lake George "through very bad roads" where Silliman spent several days (pages 140-156). The trip down Lake Champlain with a stop in Burlington to drop off the carriage was made aboard the Congress, the only steamboat in operation at the time, the Phoenix having burned and sunk in September 1819 (a new Phoenix was built in 1820). According to DAB, Silliman's work, "which contained much of both general and scientific interest ... was widely read and went through two editions." Howes S459. Sabin 81041. Not in Cole or Plum. Spine panel and corners worn, scattered foxing to text and plates, nevertheless a sound, very good copy overall. (#170545).
Price: $450.00
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