EXCURSION. [Bristol author?]. A Tour around England undertaken in the early 1840's, which opens with a description of the railway trip from Bristol to Liverpool, with a detailed 70 page ‘survey’ of the city. The party then travel around Cheshire, Somerset, Devon and Dorset. The preliminary index page notes Birkenhead, Seaforth, Waterloo, Chester, Taunton, Ilminster, Hatch Beaumont, Ashill, Exeter, Sherborne, Shepton Beauchamp, South Pellerton, Montacute, Yeovil, Banwell, Woodboro, Axbridge, Cheddar, Langport, Ilchester, Somerton, Glastonbury, Wells, Wookey, and Shepton Mallet. 274 pages, written mainly on rectos only, the volume fully used, but with some blank leaves excised at the end. Illustrated with 26 contemporary tipped-in engravings; Liverpool (10), Chester (5), Taunton, Exeter(3), Banwell Hill, Cheddar Cliffs, Glastonbury (hand-coloured plan), Wells (4). Bound in contemporary half black calf, marbled boards. The gilt decorated spine is blind lettered ‘Excursion’. Wear to the head of the spine with loss, corners worn, and joints rubbed. Internally very clean and the writing easy to read. 8vo (205mm x 130mm). 1840's. ~ This is well thought out tour, with visits to the larger towns & cities organised into various ‘walks’. The observations are nearly all on the towns, buildings, and scenery, and no names are mentioned, and no dates given, apart from one reference to travelling in December. Some engravings are dated between 1840 & 1842, and a number of the Liverpool engravings are identified as Lacey’s Liverpool Localities, which were issued as topographical letter-heads by Henry Lacey c.1835. In all, the volume has more the feel of a private ‘guide-book’ rather than a personal journal. Liverpool and suburbs; pages 1-88. “Liverpool is fast striding onward in the march of competition with the Metropolis - having beaten its former rival (Bristol) into comparative insignificance, it now steps forward with giant strides in competition with its sole remaining rival, every day adding to its importance and lessening the difference of commercial greatness between itself and London.” The ‘survey’, as it is so-named, is divided into a series of six street-by-street ‘walks’, noting and describing ‘nearly all its public buildings’, condition of the area, and miscellaneous observations (the number of Scotchmen in Liverpool must be very considerable judging by number of kilts). The first five walks start and finish at the Railway station, each taking a different circular route. Walk 6 forms a trip to the Zoological Gardens (with an engraved view). In Taunton they take three ‘walks’, in Exeter five, and describing the arrival at Banwell: “The early evening was thick with fog, at last the sun showed an edge of dark rich crimson and gradually rose into full view a circle of beautiful ruby shorn of its usual refulgence - as the mist cleared the colour became less deep and more bright until it dazzled the eye with its lustre and scattered its strong beams over the land as brightly as tho’ the season was June instead of December.” There are also good descriptions of Cheddar Cliffs, Glastonbury, and of Wells.