A Once in a Lifetime Journey Travel Memoirs by Harriet Beecher-Stowe. Edited by Pamela Luxton

In 1853 the world-famous american author Harriet Beecher-Stowe and her family crossed the Atlantic by steam-ship and visited Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. Harriet describes people, reports conversations and describes the countryside and the many towns and cities that they visited. There are humorous anecdotes and discussion concerning subjects such as anti-slavery, art, literature, religion and politics resulting from observations made during the journey. Harriet met many influential and famous people of the time. Harriet received an invitation to the Lord Mayor's Dinner in London where she met Charles Dickens. Other invitations included visiting Queen Victoria's apartments in Windsor Castle; Pembroke Lodge, home of Lord John Russell, the Prime Minister; Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury; Playford Hall, former home of Thomas Clarkson. who played a crucial part in the movement for the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. The journey had resulted from an invitation by antislavery societies in response to Harriet Beecher-Stowe's world-famous novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which exposed the harsh conditions endured by the enslaved African Americans. After returning from her journey Harriet collected letters, sent back to the family, and published them under the title "Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands" in 1854 with excerpts from her brother Charles' journal. "A Once in a Lifetime Journey" was created by editing and abridging text from an edition published in 1860 by Milner and Sowerby of Halifax, United Kingdom-one year before the beginning of the America Civil War. Abraham Lincoln is quoted as calling Harriet, "The little lady who made this big war." Many historic and scenic places were visited--as tourists the travellers called at Abbotsford in Scotland--the former home of Sir Walter Scot. In England they visited the birthplace of Shakespeare in Stratford on Avon. They toured many parts of Paris including a visit to the Louvre and La Madeleine. In Switzerland, they visited Mont St. Bernard and saw the St. Bernard dogs, climbed La Flégère on donkeys, visited the Wengen Alps and Harriet entered a cave in the glacier of Rosenlaui.