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1Faces and Places

By Sir Henry W. Lucy

<em>Faces and Places</em> is a collection of articles on nineteenth century travel, events and personalities by the British journalist Henry Lucy, who wrote for the Daily News, a London newspaper. His open letter <em>To Those About to Become Journalists</em> rings as true today as when it was written.<br /><br />The first article, <em>"Fred" Burnaby</em>, includes a lively account of a balloon trip, while <em>Night and Day on the Cars in Canada</em> and <em>Easter on Les Avants</em> relate Lucy's experiences of rail travel at that time. Other travel tales (<em>A Night on a Mountain</em>, <em>Mosquitoes and Monaco</em>, and <em>Oysters and Arcachon</em>) provide an insight into the Victorian Englishman's attitude to Europe.<br /><br />Three of the pieces, <em>With Peggotty and Ham</em>, <em>A Cinque Port</em> and <em>Christmas Eve at Watts's</em>, concern the county of Kent, where Lucy had a country house. <em>Christmas Eve at Watts's</em> contains an interesting exposé of Dickens' short story <em>The Seven Poor Travellers</em>.<br /><br />Other articles are of historical interest: <em>A Wreck in the North Sea</em> is an account of the wreck of the ship "Deutschland" in 1875; <em>A Historic Crowd</em> describes the massive popular interest in the 1871 trial of the Tichborne Claimant; <em>The Battle of Merthyr</em> contains an eye-witness account of the Merthyr Riots of 1831; <em>The Prince of Wales</em> paints a portrait of the future King Edward VII.<br /><br />Lucy, who also wrote as "Toby, M.P." for the satirical magazine Punch, loved to poke gentle fun, particularly at the establishment, and this is especially evident in <em>A Peep at an Old House of Commons</em> and <em>Some Preachers I Have Known</em>.<br /><br />This eclectic collection, mostly affectionately humorous, but with moments of great pathos, was originally published in 1892 in The Whitefriars Library of Wit & Humour.(Summary by Ruth Golding)

<i>East by West: a Journey in the Recess</i> is an account of British journalist Henry Lucy's travels across America and on to the Far East during the parliamentary recess in 1883.<br /><br /> Lucy was one of the most influential journalists of his day and, as "Toby M.P.", a noted humorist in Punch magazine. His acute powers of observation and light touch make this a most engaging book. It is a fascinating insight into the Englishman's travels abroad within two decades of the American Civil War and the end of Japanese isolationism.<br /><br />This is the first of two volumes covering his journey with his wife. This first volume includes his travels in America and in Japan, including the Atlantic and Pacific crossings by steamer. Volume II, which is also available <a href="http://librivox.org/east-by-west-a-journey-in-the-recess-vol-ii-by-henry-w-lucy/">here</a> as an audio recording, continues his experiences in Japan and India, returning home via Aden and the Suez Canal. (Introduction by Ruth Golding)

<i>East by West: a Journey in the Recess</i> is an account of British journalist Henry Lucy's travels across America and on to the Far East in 1883, within two or three decades of the American Civil War, the Indian Mutiny and the end of Japan's isolation from the western world. Lucy was one of the most influential journalists of his day and, as "Toby M.P.", a noted humorist in Punch magazine. His acute powers of observation and light touch make this a most engaging book. <br /><br /> This is the second of two volumes and covers his experiences in Japan, India and other parts of south-east Asia, returning home via Aden and the Suez Canal. The <a href="http://librivox.org/east-by-west-vol-i-by-henry-w-lucy/">first volume</a> included his travels in America and in Japan, including the Atlantic and Pacific crossings by steamer.<br /><br />Note: In Chapter 6, Lucy understandably, to a readership wholly unfamiliar with Japan, includes lengthy statistics about Japan's systems and economy. While the reader of the <em>text</em> can glance at such tables and move swiftly on, this is not possible in an audiobook. Accordingly, I have made two versions of Chapter 6. The first version is completely unabridged. In the alternative file, 6alt, I have excised the longest statistical tables. (Summary by Ruth Golding)