THE
VALLEYS OF TIROL
[Contents]
[Contents]
KUFSTEIN.
[Contents]
THE
VALLEYS OF TIROL
[Contents]
LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
[Contents]
THEIR TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS
AND HOW TO VISIT THEM
AND HOW TO VISIT THEM
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1874
All rights reserved
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1874
All rights reserved
[v]
[Contents]
PREFACE.
There are none who know Tirolbut are forward to express regret that so picturesque and so primitivea country should be as yet, comparatively with other tracks of travel,so little opened up to the dilettante explorer.
It is quite true, on the other hand, that just in proportion as acountry becomes better known, it loses, little by little, its merit ofbeing primitive and even picturesque. Intercourse with the world beyondthe mountains naturally sweeps away the idiosyncracies of themountaineers; and though the trail of progress which the civilizedtourist leaves behind him cannot absolutely obliterate the actualconfiguration of the country, yet its original characteristics mustinevitably be modified by the changes which his visits almostinsensibly occasion. The new traditions which he brings with him ofvast manufacturing enterprise and rapid commercial success cannot butreplace in the minds of the people the old traditions of the fire-sideand the Filò, with [vi]their dreamsof treasure-granting dwarfs and the Bergsegendependent on prayer. The uniform erections of a monster Hotel Company,‘convenient to the Railway Station,’ supersede the frescoedor timbered hostelry perched on high to receive the wayfarer at hisweariest. The giant mill-chimneys, which sooner or later spring up from
...