Travels Through Portugal And Spain During The Peninsular War

Excerpt from Travels Through Portugal and Spain: During the Peninsular War In the month of October, 1812, I bid adieu to my father and old friends, and stepped into the mail coach, in College Green, Dublin, for Cork. Here I fell asleep with regretful ruminations, it being the first time in my life that I had ever travelled. I was supported in the trial of this separation, by the prospect of gratifying my curiosity in seeing foreign countries, and acting my part under Lord Wellington. I considered myself as now beginning the world on my own account, and I indulged in the hopes of becoming a more useful member of society, and eventually of relating my adventures, on my return home, to all my friends, around the Vicar of Wakefield's fire-side. We arrived in the morning, about eight o'clock, at Kilkenny, where we were much enlivened by a good cheerful fire and breakfast. I travelled inside, yet found it very cold, and one of the outside passengers was nearly frozen to death during the night. Kilkenny coal emits no smoke, and, when lighted, which takes more trouble than the common coal, it produces a very strong heat, and leaves no ashes. After breakfast, we again went into the coach, and I was not a little amused at observing the delightful country we passed through. There were many passengers who came and went during the day, but they were all silent, except one man, who talked like a parrot, for his tongue never ceased from the time he came into the coach until he left it. He dwelt much on the mail being robbed, and assured us it was likely to be our case. This he seemed to enjoy, so that one would have thought he wished it. "As soon as night fell, perhaps some troop of banditti would start out from the road side and attack us." In consequence, I kept a good look out for every clump of trees that grew near the road side (as Ireland had been much disturbed of late) and my fancy would sometimes picture their hats moving among the trees. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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