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Excerpt from A Winter in Madeira: And a Summer in Spain and Florence The following pages were the fruit, not so much of deliberate design as of a long-settled habit, on the part of the writer, of devoting a portion of every day to some steady employment. During his absence from his native country, for want of his usual occupations of business, he found the continuance of this practice in some degree essential to his comfort. In attempting to delineate the objects by which lie was surrounded, and the scenes into which he was thrown, many an hour, which would otherwise have hung heavily on his hands, was beguiled, and, at least, rendered agreeable to himself. If the sketches he has drawn, or the opinions he has advanced, shall prove in any degree interesting or useful to others, he will enjoy a still higher gratification than that which the occupation afforded him. In the lighter portions of the work he has written down every thing he saw precisely as it presented itself; in the graver, his sole aim has been to state facts with accuracy, and in a plain and intelligible shape. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.