Page:Notes ecclesiological and picturesque.djvu/12



The reasons which induced me to undertake the tour, an account of which the reader has before him, have been briefly detailed in the First Chapter.

I could not have carried it out with any advantage to the objects which I had in view, had it not been for the great kindness of His Excellency Count Apponyi, the Ambassador from Austria to this country. At the request of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, to whom my warm thanks are also due, Count Apponyi favoured me with a very strong official recommendation to the authorities, both Ecclesiastical and Civil, in Dalmatia and the neighbouring provinces, — a document which proved most truly a golden key, opening every door, and surmounting every difficulty.

Notwithstanding the excellent works of Sir G. Wilkinson, Mr. Paton, and Mr. Adams, an ecclesiological account of Dalmatia had yet to be written. I may also add that, to the best of my knowledge, several parts of our tour — a portion of Istria, and the whole Island of Veglia, so curious from the Glagolita rite — have never yet been described by an English traveller.