Page:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.djvu/387

CHAPTER XXVIII.

hints for travellers.

New Inventions—Stomach Pump—Built a Carriage—Description of Thames Tunnel—Barton's Iridescent Buttons—Chinese Orders of Nobility—Manufactory of Gold Chains at Venice—Pulsations and Respirations of Animals—Punching a Hole in Glass without cracking it—Specimen of an Enormous Smash—Proteus Anguineus—Travellers' Hotel at Sheffield—Wentworth House.

In this chapter I propose to throw together a few suggestions, which may assist in rendering a tour successful for its objects and agreeable in its reminiscences.

Money is the fuel of travelling. I can give the traveller a few hints how to get money, although I never had any skill in making it myself.

In one tour, extending over more than a twelvemonth, I took with me two letters of credit, each for half the sum I should probably require. My reasons for this were, that in case one was lost the other might still be available. One of these was generally kept about my person, the other concealed in my writing-case. Another reason was, that if I were unluckily carried off and detained for a ransom, it might thus be mitigated.

It is of great advantage to a traveller to have some acquaintance with the use of tools. It is often valuable for his own comfort, and sometimes renders him able to assist a friend. I met at Frankfort the eldest son of the coachmaker

2 b 2