Published in 1851, Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley's account of her travels through the Americas during the mid nineteenth century represents an early example of the travel writing genre. The United States was becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination for Europeans at this time, and Lady Emmeline's writings present a quintessentially British impression of America and its people. Volume I of this three-volume work begins with Lady Emmeline's arrival in New York in 1849, and the reader accompanies her to Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and New Orleans before returning to New York. Written in an engaging and conversational tone, the volumes are both informative and entertaining, fulfilling the author's aim to 'amuse' with 'the gossip of travel.'