Nova Scotia: A Traveller's Companion: Over 300 Years of Travel Writing

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

This work gives readers the luxury of becoming instant historians
without having to spend weeks in an archive seeking out and poring over
original documents. In one convenient volume, editor Lesley Choyce gives
us commentary from circa 1600 to 1930, by authors as diverse as Samuel
de Champlain and Charles Dickens.

The book consists of 27 excerpts from travel writings. They touch on
most areas of the province, including Cape Breton, commenting on the
landscape, agriculture, roads, harbours, wildlife, fish stocks,
settlements, wildflowers, customs, and people, from prostitutes to
poets, priests, and politicians. Diseases, housing, religion, meals, and
social events all receive mention by one or another of the writers.

Each excerpt is introduced with a short note on the author and the date
of the document. Each writer exhibits his or her own unique style, some
more readable than others. For the earliest works, Choyce has
occasionally inserted an interpretation or current place names. The
overall impression is of a rough-and-ready backwoods dominated by
poverty, hardship, and spectacular scenery—a place where people have a
“stronger soul.” The work attempts to capture “the Nova
Scotia-ness of Nova Scotia” and therefore will appeal to residents,
social and local historians, and tourists.