The Young Northern Traveller. Being a Series of Letters from Frederic to Charles, During a Tour Through the North of Europe

London: Printed at the Minerva Press for A. K. Newman, 1813, 1813. First edition. NCBEL III, 734 (which cites the date as 1825); Blakey, Minerva Press, page 241 (but apparently did not locate a copy to examine); OCLC records nine copies; Colbert; ODNB. Some browning and spots, but a fine copy overall.. 12mo, modern brown wrappers and printed paper label, 176 pages, untrimmed. Folding copper engraved frontispiece by Charles Heath. With half-title. The first of several imaginary travelogues for young adults by Barbara Hofland (1770-1844), the prolific novelist who never traveled out of England. The young traveler was 13-year-old Frederic, who accompanied his uncle on a tour of Northern Europe, and wrote to his friend Charles back home about the sights of Copenhagen, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Amsterdam, and Leyden, with historical background about the palaces, churches, museums and people. The folding frontispiece is an eerie depiction of the interior of an iron mine, with miners at work, and an interesting choice for the book's only illustration. Frederic and his uncle visited the famous iron mines of Dannemora, Sweden, which horrified the young man. He described them as "awful beyond description" and "hideous. . . . I think the poor men who work in this mine to be more pitied than any other I ever met with. . . . Their wages amount to only threepence English a day. Only think of being buried a live, Charles, for threepence a day!".