Charles Roach Smith (1806-90) had a prosperous career as a druggist. His shop was in the City of London, then undergoing major excavation and redevelopment, and he began to collect the artefacts being uncovered around him. With a widening interest in all aspects of the past, Smith began to publish notes on his collection as well as antiquarian observations. (His Illustrations of Roman London is also reissued in this series.) This pamphlet, intended as a guide for travellers, was published in 1851, because 'no opportunity should be omitted to draw attention to the ancient remains of neighbouring countries, in order to understand properly our own'. He had spent the summer of 1850 travelling on foot and by coach through the Roman-founded cities of the Rhine and Moselle valleys. His descriptions and drawings of the often spectacular remains are interspersed with comments on the present-day inhabitants of the Rhineland.