From the Thames to the Tiber / or, My visit to Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, Switzerland, etc.

This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.
OR, My Visit to Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, Switzerland, etc., With Illustrations.
BY J. WARDLE
Author of
“General Gordon, Saint and Soldier.” “Tour in Palestine and Egypt.” “Sound at heart,” etc.
A. TAYLOR, CHAPEL BAR, NOTTINGHAM. 1909.
“Go, little book, God send the good passage, And specially let this be thy prayer: Unto them all that thee will read or hear, Where thou art wrong, after their help to call, Thee to correct in any part or all.” —CHAUCER.
London: Its teeming millions of population: Its commercial aspect: Leaving Victoria Station for New Haven: On the Boat: New found friends: Landing at Dieppe: Leaving for Paris: Rouen, its Cathedral, etc.
We had settled to have a holiday—not a mere pic-nic, not a week-end at Blackpool, or a tour of a few days in the Isle of Man—but a real first-class, out-and-out trip. Where then is it to be? Why, to Rome and back, came the reply. From St. Paul’s in London, the largest city in the world, to St. Peter’s in Rome, one of the great cities of the ancient world.
“To Rome!” my friends said in astonishment.
“Yes! to Rome.” There seems to be magic in the very word. Rome—The Eternal City. The city of the seven hills. The city of which St. Paul was proud to be a citizen. See Acts, chapter 22, verse 25. “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, uncondemned?” verse 28. “Then the Chief Captain came and said unto him. Tell me, art thou a Roman?” He said, “Yes.”
Rome stands for power. Her proud eagles once swept their wings over almost the then known world. Rome stands for antiquity, greatness, wealth, splendour, conquest and colonization, liberty, law, self control, prowess, skill. But, alas! It also stands for cruelty, luxury, strife, war, humiliation, decay, decline.