Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 edition. Excerpt: ... tyrol and the tyrolese. chapter I. A Glimpse at the Landscape and the People. It may well amaze even those who have been whirled in the train through the two or three chief valleys of Tyrol, to learn that this country, with a population considerably less than half that of Yorkshire, contains five hundred and thirty-seven old castles. These Tyrolese castles form so picturesque a feature in scenery nearly always grand and striking, that the indulgent reader will excuse my inviting him to visit one of their number ere I lay before him the results of my experience amongst the people. To this end he will kindly accompany me up the steep path leading to the ponderous ironbarred old gate giving entrance to one of the most ancient and historically interesting of Tyrolese castles--the home of this volume, --and after ascending endless flights of stairs, find himself comfortably seated in an armchair in front of the broad oldfashioned window overlooking the whole of the country near. Lying at your feet is a goodly stretch of the smiling, exquisitely verdant valley of the Inn, skirted by two parallel rows of noble peaks terminating in the far distance with the glistening glacier world of the Oetz and Stubai Thaler. As your eye glances down the giddy height and follows the upward course of the broad swift Inn at your feet, as it winds like a band of silver through green meadows, eight old castles, the remains of what were once feudal strongholds, occupying the eminences of hills, or perched like swallows' nests on the precipitous slopes of the adjacent mountains, become discernible. Interspersed between these hoary relics rise the amazingly slender, needle-shaped spires of three churches, the houses belonging to each village clustering round the..
