A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Howell, James
Howell, James (1594?-1666).—Miscellaneous writer, s. of a clergyman at Abernant, Caermarthenshire, was at Oxf. and spent the greater part of his earlier life travelling in various Continental countries, including the Low Countries, France, Spain, and Italy, on various matters of business, during which he became versed in many languages, and amassed stores of information and observations on men and manners. He was a keen Royalist, and was on this account imprisoned in the Fleet, 1643-51. He wrote a large number of books, including Dodona's Grove, a political allegory, Instructions for Foreign Travel (1642), England's Tears for the Present Wars, A Trance, or News from Hell, and above all, Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ, Familiar Letters, chiefly written in the Fleet to imaginary correspondents, but no doubt based upon notes of his own travels. It is one of the most interesting and entertaining books in the language.