The Editor of the HANDBOOK for SWITZERLAND, PIEDMONT, and Savoy, is very solicitous to be favoured with corrections of any mistakes and omissions which may be discovered by persons who have made use of the book. Those communications especially will be welcomed which are founded upon personal knowledge, and accompanied by the name of the writer to authenticate them. Travellers willing to make such communications are requested to have the kindness to address them to the Editor of the HANDBOOK, care of Mr. Murray, Albemarle Street. CAUTION TO TRAVELLERS.-By a recent Act of Parliament, the introduction into England of foreign pirated Editions of the works of British authors, in which the copyright subsists, is totally prohibited. Travellers will therefore bear in mind that even a single copy is contraband, and is liable to seizure at the English Custom-house. CAUTION TO INNKEEPERS AND OTHERS.-The Editor of the Handbooks has learned from various quarters that a person has or persons have of late been extorting money from innkeepers, tradespeople, artists, and others, on the Continent, under pretext of procuring recommendations and favourable notices of them and their establishments in the Handbooks for Travellers. The Editor therefore thinks proper to warn all whom it may concern, that recommendations in the Handbooks are not to be obtained by purchase, and that the persons alluded to are not only unauthorised by him, but are totally unknown to him. All those, therefore, who put confidence in such promises, may rest assured that they will be defrauded of their money without attaining their object. Certificates in praise of Inns must be signed by respectable and well-known persons. No attention can be paid to letters from Hotelkeepers in praise of their own inns; no letters received unless pre-paid. ZONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET; PARIS: GALIGNANI & CO.; BOYVEAU. 1874. 246.d. 172. The right of Translation is reserved. PREFACE. THE Handbook for Switzerland owes its success, and the favour of travellers, and the number of imitators it has found in France and Germany, to the circumstance that its information was drawn from practical knowledge of the country, gained on the spot; and that it was not a mere compilation from other books. The author, in the first instance by his own travels, and afterwards by the aid of experienced editors whom he has called in to revise the book, has endeavoured to bring down the information of every edition to the time of its appearance, taking note of all changes and improvements that have occurred. The Handbook was the first guide which, instead of stopping short north of the Great Chain, carried travellers down to the more sunny and beautiful peaks and valleys of the Italian Alps. It still remains the only complete single Guide-book for Savoy and Piedmont, as well as for Switzerland. These regions, previously a terra incognita to Englishmen, are now equally resorted to and held in as great repute for the beauty and grandeur of their scenery. The fourteenth edition of the Handbook was not merely revised: for the most part it was re-modelled, and an addition of nearly onethird new matter, including many new routes, introduced. Plans of the principal towns are inserted, and a carefully prepared Map of Savoy and Piedmont, which it is hoped may prove of use in those countries hitherto so destitute of good maps. This edition is corrected as far as possible up to the time of publication, and contains notices of the railways which now bring Switzerland almost, as it were, to our own door. An Index has been prepared for the Swiss Handbook, independent of the Section relating to Savoy and Piedmont; and as each is furnished with a map, the two parts may be bound up separately for convenience, without injuring the completeness of either. |