The chapters of which this volume is composed have with few exceptions
already been collected, and were then associated with others
commemorative of other impressions of (no very extensive) excursions and
wanderings. The notes on various visits to Italy are here for the first
time exclusively placed together, and as they largely refer to quite
other days than these--the date affixed to each paper sufficiently
indicating this--I have introduced a few passages that speak for a later
and in some cases a frequently repeated vision of the places and scenes
in question. I have not hesitated to amend my text, expressively,
wherever it seemed urgently to ask for this, though I have not pretended
to add the element of information or the weight of curious and critical
insistence to a brief record of light inquiries and conclusions.
The fond appeal of the observer concerned is all to aspects and
appearances--above all to the interesting face of things as it mainly
_used_ to be.