This curious work contains a one page preface that states:

     "In writing this account of four tourists' six months sojourn abroad, I am greatly indebted to the work called "Europe its Scenes and Society," by Daniel C. Eddy. Some of the expressions herein are about the same as in that; the sentences having been written from memory mostly. Hoping it may find its place in the current literature of the day, I leave it in the hands of the publisher, Lizzie Hoyt Henry, Herbert Hall, July 12th, 1888."

          This work purports to be an account of four month’s travel by four persons, the Marstons, they are: Mr. Fred Marston, his wife, and their daughter Florence, of Beverly, Massachusetts, the fourth was presumably Miss Henry. However, it is quite probable that this is a work of fiction, or of the imagination, or nearly so, for Henry draws upon, liberally - and literally from Daniel C. Eddy's "Europe its Scenes and Society."  Daniel C. Eddy (1823-1896), published his book in 1852 in Boston. Eddy was a Nativist and a hater of Roman Catholics. Elected to the Massachusetts legislature, he became the Speaker of the House. When compared with Eddy's book (available online), his style and Henry’s are quite different, and it is evident that some of descriptive scenes, of places and monuments, were plagiarized by Lizzie H. Henry, as Miss Henry probably never traveled anywhere. She was a patient at Herbert Hall a private hospital for the care and treatment of persons afflicted with mental diseases. The hospital was located on Salisbury Street, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Herbert Hall was founded in 1857 as a young ladies seminary by the Rev. Nathaniel Bent. By 1872, Herbert Hall was taken over by Dr. Merrick Bemis, considered the most eminent physician ever to have lived in Worcester. Dr. Bemis converted the ladies seminary into a private hospital that specialized in mental diseases. Dr. Bemis ran the hospital and when his son Dr. John M. Bemis became a doctor, ran it with his son. After Dr. Bemis' passing, his son took full control. Dr. Bemis was a specialist in psychiatry and was often consulted by the courts in cases of insanity, or alleged insanity.

      The author writing in her preface notes that Herbert Hall was her residence a fact which shows that she was an inmate at the hospital at the time she wrote this volume. Our research shows that this is very likely the case. Lizzie Hoyt Henry was born about 1860, at Newton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, daughter of John Q. Henry (1822-1888) and Helen J. Smith (1834-1906). Both of her parents were born in Massachusetts, her father at Rutland. John L. Henry was a successful merchant and manufacturer in the wholesale boot and shoe business, first with the firm of Burrage & Henry, continuing when that company merged into the firm of Henry & Daniels. In the 1870 Census for Newton, Massachusetts, he had real estate of $17,000, personal estate of $50,000.  Mr. Henry died in 1888. At the time of his death he was the President of the Shoe and Leather National Bank. He was also a member of the New England Shoe and Leather Association. Earlier he had been a councilman at Newton, before moving to Boston. Besides Lizzie, Henry and his wife had two other daughters (Maud and Hattie) and a son (Waldo). Lizzie was the oldest child.

      In the 1880 Census the Henry family is living together at Newton; Lizzie's father John Q, her mother Helen J., Lizzie, and her three siblings, Maud, Hattie, and Waldo. Lizzie's father dies in 1888, while attending a meeting at work, he dropped dead. When the 1900 Census is taken, only Helen and her two daughters Maud and Hattie are living in Newton. Helen's son Waldo has moved out and started a family and her daughter Lizzie is boarding with a Mr. and Mrs. William Cutter at Hollis, New Hampshire. William Cutter (1847-1926), is a physician. His wife Clara Cutter died in 1931. Lizzie is also enumerated with the Cutters in 1910 and 1920 as well. It is unclear who the Cutters are, possibly relatives, or perhaps an older couple who are caring for Lizzie.

      Lizzie's mother died while visiting Marblehead, Massachusetts, while staying at a hotel in 1906. There was no informant on Lizzie's mother's death certificate dated 23 July 1906. Presumably, Lizzie was not traveling with her mother, or she would have likely been the informant on the death certificate. The online database of Ancestry.com has a probate index record of Lizzie H. Henry, of Newtown, where the subject is "Guardian." This is for the year her mother died (1906).

      What it all seems to show is that Lizzie was indeed an inmate at Herbert Hall, after leaving there, her parents seem to have put her up in the residence of the childless Dr. Cutter and his wife and supported her. After the death of her father in 1888, and that of her mother in 1906, a trust must have been set up with either the Cutters, or Lizzie's siblings, having guardianship over Lizzie and any funds for her care. Lizzie does not show up in the 1907 Newton directory, a directory that shows the mother had died. If Lizzie had been living with her mother and her mother passed away, she would have likely been listed. All of this seems to point to the fact that Lizzie Hoyt Henry was an inmate at Herbert Hall Hospital and while a patient there, wrote this work on six months travel in Europe. The question remains did Lizzie actually take a six month tour of Europe, or not? It is somewhat suspect due to the circumstances. Certainly the family appears to have had the wealth to send her on a grand tour, accompanied by the Marstons, assuming that they existed.  Further research would need to be conducted on this journal and on Lizzie.

       The work contains a two page table of contents that includes the following listed chapters: Distant Glimpses, On the Way, From "The Hub" to Liverpool, On Board the Umnia, A Fair Day, Distant Azores, Monotony for Three Days, Distant Shores, In Sight of Liverpool, On to London, The Mists of England, City Sights, Churches, Hotel Americaine, Various Entertainments, Noted Buildings, Meeting with Old Friends, From London to Paris, On the Train, Adieux, Lovely Landscapes, Windsor Castle and Hampton Court, Men and Things, Chapter Nine, Chapter Ten, The Madeleine and the Pantheor,  Parisian Life; Chapelle Expiatore, Champs Elysees; The Hippodrome, Objects of Interest in Paris, Hotel des Invalides; Southern France, Chapter Sixteenth, Rome, Pompeii and Herculaneum, The Alps; Pass of the Simplon, Chapter Nineteenth, The Homeward Voyage.

         Our author presumably spent 6 months traveling around Europe with Mr. and Mrs. Fred Marston and their daughter Florence, of Beverly, Massachusetts. The following are some sample quotations from Henry’s work:

     "July 1st, 1887. The Gallant Umnia was moored to her wharf in our old Bay State City, this quiet fair spring day in readiness to start for foreign lands in seven days. Her jovial agreeable captain, hardy crew and numerous passengers awaited the day and time for departure with widely differing hopes and plans…"

      "Mr and Mrs Fred Marston and daughters passengers on the Umnia bound for Liverpool and to sail that day at 2:30 PM…The ship is taut, safe, and accommodates oh so many and our staterooms are quite as satisfactory as if we had engaged them earlier…"

      "Our party had no one to say farewell to except the Malcoms as Pierce Marston was away at the Highland Military Academy, Worcester, Mass and wished to stay away month longer…"

     "Sunday the 17th the dim shores of England, Wales and Ireland shot into view at two o’clock and all was flutter and excitement on board spying mountains and looking through field glasses.  At four, the Umnia   neared Liverpool with colors flying band playing and as cheerful a set of people as one is accustomed to meet.  Sailors shouted, passengers hurried and jostled one another and finally landed on the pier…"

      "Liverpool looked somewhat dingy & grim and they wondered if it had enough to offer to pay for the effort of going through it...Mrs. Ames had advised them to go, first, to the docks, the city's principal attraction. They are admirably situated to their purpose. They are built between the river and the town, guarded from storms and filled at high tide for the river. Many of them can be entirely drained at low tide or kept full, as circumstances may require. These docks built at an immense expense are capable of protecting a vast number of vessels and distinguish Liverpool from all other cities. One would hardly select L. as a place of residence, independent of business considerations. The streets are irregular and filled with seaman and dock laborers of the lowest sort.  Houses, stores and workshops are strangely mixed and ignorance and poverty are more distinctly seen than in London.  There are some fine buildings among which the stranger admires the Exchange, St George’s Hall and others.  There are parks of great beauty, buildings which frown upon one an impress the traveler with their massiveness.  The American unused to the grimness and dull monotony of this city is longing all the time for his quiet home among the hills or gardens of New England…"

     "About ten o’clock our party found themselves in the great metropolis, London, the city of the world, grand and great.  They were soon bowling along one of the principle streets which led away from the railroad station and passed by proud church well filled stores and grand residences.   Near the bank Mr M began the search for a temporary home.  He soon found that the could engage apartments including breakfast, service for three shillings and eight pence per day…Soon after our friends sought other more satisfactory quarters where they could turn round without hitting the bedpost and found themselves located in the family of a fine intelligent English woman…"

     "Fred Marston found his way to Smithfield.  He had pictured to himself a gloomy old place haunted with mementoes of the past…the old place of execution had been converted into a cattle market.  Such a spectacle he never witnessed before one sea of living creatures huddled together to the number of six thousand calves and thirty thousand sheep lowing bleating and pawing the ground…in a few hours the whole stock is disposed of and the next morning the same is repeated and thousands more are sold out to the butchers who soon slaughter them and distribute their meat throughout the city to the hungry inhabitants..."

     "The Crystal Palace with its crowded apartments, halls, saloons and thousands of visitors was the fortunate idea of Prince Albert.  Ever seeking out some plan to benefit the nation, he conceived the purpose, the grandeur of which has been equaled only by the unparalleled success which has crowned it…The plates are forty nine inches long over the whole, canvas is drawn to modify the sun’s rays and prevent injury from hail or storms.  The iron work is gayly painted so as to give the best impression and the whole structure has a light airy and yet substantial appearance truly pleasing.  It was constructed in one hundred and forty fine working days and cost less than a cheap ordinary building of wood…"

     "By an order kindly given them by his Excellency, Hon Abbott Lawrence, they visited the townhouse of the Duke of Northumberland, who leaving the city during the summer, left his palace open, that the wondering people from the country might see how nobles live…They were admitted by stewards in whose charge the place was and at once a scene of great magnificence met the eye.  The floors of the hall and the splendid staircase wide enough for an army to march up in regiments were of polished marble…"