(From the 1913 A. C. Fifield edition with some portions taken from
the 1881 edition.)
Author's Preface to First Edition
I should perhaps apologise for publishing a work which professes to
deal with the sanctuaries of Piedmont, and saying so little about
the most important of them all - the Sacro Monte of Varallo. My
excuse must be, that I found it impossible to deal with Varallo
without making my book too long. Varallo requires a work to
itself; I must, therefore, hope to return to it on another
occasion.
For the convenience of avoiding explanations, I have treated the
events of several summers as though they belonged to only one.
This can be of no importance to the reader, but as the work is
chronologically inexact, I had better perhaps say so.
The illustrations by Mr. H. F. Jones are on pages 95, 211, 225,
238, 254, 260. The frontispiece and the illustrations on the
title-page and on pages 261, 262 are by Mr. Charles Gogin. There
are two drawings on pages 136, 137 by an Italian gentleman whose
name I have unfortunately lost, and whose permission to insert them
I have, therefore, been unable to obtain, and one on page 138 by
Signor Gaetano Meo. The rest are mine, except that all the figures
in my drawings are in every case by Mr. Charles Gogin, unless when
they are merely copied from frescoes or other sources.
