Ann Radcliffe is known chiefly as the author of a number of Gothic novels in the 1790s, in particular Mysteries of Udolpho, satirised by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey. She also wrote this account of her travels in Holland, Germany and England. The English section focuses on the Lake District, hence my reading that section now during my holiday in this lovely area. Radcliffe's descriptions are very evocative and would be seen now as excessively flowery, but in general seem to suit the feelings that the landscape can evoke in the visitor to the region even today. She doesn't pull her punches in saying what are her favourite and least favourite lakes, being rather dismissive of Derwent Water and most of Windermere, but loving Ullswater. SHe is very fond of the word "sublime" and its derivatives to describe her impressions of the things she sees of which she approves. Her attitude towards the locals can be rather dismissive and/or patronising, but I have seen this in other early travel writings such as those of Mary Shelley. She can also show a, for the time, pretty typical English antipathy towards Catholicism: "...the ruins of monasteries and convents, which, though reason rejoices that they no longer exist, the eye may be allowed to regret." All in all, this is worthy of a read by a traveller to the Lakes. ( )