Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia with Notices of their History, Antiquities, and Present Condition. — Reading Notes

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Authors: Forester, Thomas Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2009 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Corsica (France) -- Description and travel; Sardinia (Italy) -- Description and travel Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 128,769

Reading time 560 min

Text sections 15

Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia with Notices of their History, Antiquities, and Present Condition. — Reading Notes can be approached with a clearer sense of reading commitment from its source measurements: 128,769 words, 9 hr 20 min estimated reading time, and 15 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 24.7 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Corsica (France) -- Description and travel,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #28510

Thomas Forester's 1858 travel narrative alternates between Corsican and Sardinian landscapes, blending firsthand observations with historical digressions. The text moves from rugged terrain to sieges, using recurring motifs of rock, sea, and endurance.

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Chapters / structure15 pts
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Inducements to the Expedition.—Early impressions concerning Corsica.—Plan of the Tour.—Routes to Marseilles.—Meeting there Page 1

Marseilles.—Cafe de l'Orient.—Cannebière and Port.—Sail to the Islands in the Gulf.—The Château-d'If and Count de Monte-Cristo.—A sudden Squall 8

Embark for Corsica.—Coast of France and Italy.—Toulon.—Hyères Islands, Frejus, &c.—A stormy Night.—Crossing the Tuscan Sea 21

Coast of Capo Corso.—Peculiarity of Scenery.—Verdure, and Mountain Villages.—Il Torre di Seneca.—Land at Bastia 28

Bastia.—Territorial Divisions.—Plan of the Rambles.—Hiring Mules.—The Start 38

Leave Bastia.—The Road.—View of Elba, Pianosa, and Monte-Cristo.—The Littorale.—An Adventure.—The Stagna di Biguglia 44

Evergreen Thickets.—Their remarkable Character.—A fortunate Rencontre.—Moonlight in the Mountains.—Cross a high Col.—Corsican Shepherds.—The Vendetta.—Village Quarters 53

The Littorale.—Corsican Agriculture.—Greek and Roman Colonies.—Sketch of Mediæval and Modern History.—Memoirs of King Theodore de Neuhoff 65

Environs of Olmeta.—Bandit-Life and the Vendetta.—Its Atrocities.—The Population disarmed.—The Bandits exterminated 77

The Basin of Oletta.—The Olive.—Corsican Tales.—The Heroine of Oletta.—Zones of Climate and Vegetation 90

Pisan Church at Murato.—Chestnut Woods.—Gulf of San Fiorenzo.—Nelson's Exploit there.—He conducts the Siege of Bastia.—Ilex Woods.—Mountain Pastures.—The Corsican Shepherd 102

Chain of the Serra di Tenda.—A Night at Bigorno.—A hospitable Priest.—Descent to the Golo 117

Ponte Nuovo.—The Battle-field.—Antoine's Story 129

Filial Duty, Love, and Revenge: a Corsican Tale 134

Morosaglia, Seat of the Paolis.—Higher Valley of the Golo.—Orography of Corsica.—Its Geology 145

Approach to Corte.—Our “Man of the Woods.”—Casa Paoli.—The Gaffori.—Citadel.—An Evening Stroll 156

Pascal Paoli more honoured than Napoleon Buonaparte.—His Memoirs.—George III. King of Corsica.—Remarks on the Union.—Paoli's Death and Tomb 164

Excursion to a Forest.—Borders of the Niolo.—Adventures.—Corsican Pines.—The Pinus Maritima and Pinus Lariccio.—Government Forests 179

The Forest of Asco.—Corsican Beasts of Chase.—The Moufflon.—Increase of Wild Animals.—The last of the Banditti 191

Leave Corte for Ajaccio.—A Legend of Venaco.—Arrival at Vivario 200

Leave Vivario.—Forest of Vizzavona.—A roadside Adventure.—Bocagnono.—Arrive late at Ajaccio 205

Ajaccio.—Collège-Fesch.—Reminiscences of the Buonaparte Family.—Excursion in the Gulf.—Chapel of the Greeks.—Evening Scenes.—Council-General of the Department.—Statistics.—State of Agriculture in Corsica.—Her Prospects 213

Leave Ajaccio.—Neighbourhood of Olmeto.—Sollacaró.—James Boswell's Residence there.—Scene in the “Corsican Brothers” laid there.—Quarrel of the Vincenti and Grimaldi.—Road to Sartene.—Corsican Marbles.—Arrive at Bonifacio 227

Bonifacio.—Foundation and History.—Besieged by Alfonso of Arragon.—By Dragut and the Turks.—Singularity of the Place.—Its Medieval Aspect.—The Post-office.—Passports.—Detention.—Marine Grottoes.—Ruined Convent of St. Julian 242

ISLAND OF SARDINIA.—Cross the Straits of Bonifacio.—The Town and Harbour of La Madelena.—Agincourt Sound, the Station of the British Fleet in 1803.—Anecdotes of Nelson.—Napoleon Bonaparte repulsed at La Madelena 258

Ferried over to the Main Island.—Start for the Mountain Passes of the Gallura.—Sarde Horses and Cavallante.—Valley of the Liscia.—Pass some Holy Places on the Hills.—Festivals held there.—Usages of the Sardes indicating their Eastern Origin 272

The Valley narrows.—Romantic Glen.—Al fresco Meal.—Forest of Cork Trees.—Salvator Rosa Scenery.—Haunts of Outlaws.—Their Atrocities.—Anecdotes of them in a better Spirit.—The Defile in the Mountains.—Elevated Plateau.—A Night March.—Arrival at Tempio, the Capital of Gallura.—Our Reception 280

Tempio.—The Town and Environs.—The Limbara Mountains.—Vineyards.—The Governor or Intendente of the Province.—Deadly Feuds.—Sarde Girls at the Fountains.—Hunting in Sardinia.—Singular Conference with the Tempiese Hunters.—Society at the Casino.—Description of a Boar Hunt 295

Leave Tempio.—Sunrise.—Light Wreaths of Mist across the Valley.—A Pass of the Limbara.—View from the Summit.—Dense Vapour over the Plain beneath.—The Lowlands unhealthy.—The deadly Intempérie.—It recently carried off an English Traveller.—Descend a romantic Glen to the Level of the Campidano.—Its peculiar Character.—Gallop over it.—Reach Ozieri 310

Effects of vast Levels as compared with Mountain Scenery.—Sketches of Sardinian Geology.—The primitive Chains and other Formations.—Traces of extensive Volcanic action.—The “Campidani,” or Plains.—Mineral Products 320

Ozieri.—A Refugee Colonel turned Cook and Traiteur.—Traces of Phenician Superstitions in Sarde Usages.—The Rites of Adonis.—Passing through the Fire to Moloch 331

Expedition to the Mountains.—Environs of Ozieri.—First View of the Peaks of Genargentu.—Forests.—Value of the Oak Timber.—Cork Trees; their Produce, and Statistics of the Trade.—Hunting the Wild Boar, &c.—The Hunters' Feast.—A Bivouac in the Woods.—Notices of the Province of Barbagia.—Independence of the Mountaineers 344

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Thomas Forester opens his 1858 narrative by positioning himself as a successor to James Boswell, who visited Corsica nearly a century earlier. Where Boswell sought out Pascal Paoli, Forester aims to document two islands he claims were less known in England than New Zealand. The preface establishes a pattern: the author moves between personal travelogue and historical set-pieces, often pausing to recount sieges, sieges, and more sieges. The reader should expect abrupt shifts from scenic description to medieval warfare, linked by a persistent fascination with how geography shapes human struggle.

Rock, Sea, and Siege

Forester’s account of the 1421 siege of Bonifacio is a set-piece that reveals his method. He describes a “terrible shower of stone balls” hurled by engines, arrows from ships’ towers, and “leaden acorns” from hand-bombards. The detail is forensic: he notes that artillery had been used at Crécy seventy years earlier. But the siege narrative is also a moral tableau. The women of Bonifacio, we are told, “offered their breasts” to sustain the wounded, and even made cheese from their milk to send to the king. Forester does not question the source; he presents the anecdote as evidence of extreme resourcefulness. The scene is framed by the rock itself—the town perched on a cliff, the small vessel lowered by ropes, the sea as both barrier and lifeline. Throughout the work, such moments of extremity are anchored to physical geography: the height of the rock, the narrowness of the harbour, the storm that delayed the Genoese fleet for three months.

Movement Between Islands

The book’s structure is a series of rambles, not a systematic survey. Forester moves from Corsica to Sardinia and back, often without clear transitions. The reader is left to infer the route from place names and dates. This looseness mirrors the author’s stated purpose: to record what he saw and heard, not to produce a comprehensive guide. The excerpts show him shifting from a description of a mountain pass to a historical account of a siege, then to a note on local customs. The effect is cumulative rather than linear. Forester’s voice is that of a Victorian gentleman traveller—curious, opinionated, and prone to digression. He assumes his audience shares his interest in antiquities and military history, and he does not pause to explain basic context. The result is a text that rewards patient reading but can frustrate those seeking a clear itinerary.

Recurring Images of Endurance

Certain images recur across the excerpts: rocks, walls, breasts, milk, ropes, and fire. The women of Bonifacio appear twice in the siege narrative, first offering their breasts to the wounded, then again as the crew departs. The repetition suggests a motif of maternal sustenance in extremis. Forester also returns to the idea of the island as a “Ultima Thule”—a remote, almost mythical place. The preface calls Corsica a “region of romance and sentiment,” but the siege scenes undercut that romance with grim detail. The reader is left with a tension between the picturesque and the brutal. Forester does not resolve this tension; he simply presents both. The effect is to make the islands seem both alluring and dangerous, a place where history repeats its patterns of siege and survival.

The Author’s Historical Method

Forester relies heavily on earlier historians, particularly Corsican chroniclers. In the siege of Bonifacio, he quotes a “Corsican historian” for the description of leaden acorns. He does not name the source, nor does he question its reliability. This is typical of his approach: he synthesizes multiple accounts without critical apparatus. The reader must decide how much weight to give these embedded narratives. Forester also inserts himself into the text through first-person observations, but these are rare in the excerpts. More often, he is a compiler of stories, arranging them around his own travel framework. The result is a hybrid work—part travelogue, part history, part anthology of local legends. For a modern reader, the value lies in the juxtaposition of these elements, which together evoke a 19th-century British view of the Mediterranean as a stage for heroic endurance.

Forester’s rambles are best approached as a series of vignettes rather than a continuous narrative. The reader may wish to follow the author’s own method: pause at each historical digression, note the recurring images of rock and sea, and accept that the journey is as much through time as through space. The book rewards those who enjoy piecing together a landscape from fragments of siege, scenery, and anecdote.

That Forester book stayed with me like the taste of salt—all those bones under the rock, the sea refusing to forget. It made me think of walking, of how a path itself becomes a kind of memory. Pilgrim Trails: A Plymouth-to-Provincetown Sketchbook — A Reader’s Guide has that same quiet endurance, only softer, like footprints in sand. Both left me quieter than I started.