Preface
In offering this little book to the public, I want to admit at once that it is in no sense intended as a literary effort, but is merely a record, gathered up from journals and notes of our everyday life and journeys which have occupied the last five years.
My excuse for offering it is that I have been specially fortunate in having opportunities and privileges of travelling about a little bit of the world where few Englishmen have been; and though sorely handicapped by very limited scientific knowledge, I have tried always to keep eyes and ears open.
Only a short time ago, I read these words, written by a wise man, on this very subject—
‘But the best way of travelling is to ride on a horse through country where there are no railways, and no roads, and where, accordingly, the people are rooted and untroubled in mind, and do as little work as they can. Such travelling, it is not to be questioned, makes the best books.’
In the hope that he is right—for, as I have said, he is a wise man—I send my little book forth, to take its chance. The last few chapters, I am aware, should belong to a separate volume, and they were never intended for publication in this form. But they are the outcome of actual experience, and not generalizing from hearsay. Most of them, indeed, were written originally in 1902, but they have been revised, corrected, and corrected again, as time showed me my mistakes and failures. In manuscript form they had been read by many of my friends who pronounced them ‘good,’ and it is by their request that these chapters are included here. It is to these friends that I offer my grateful thanks for the majority and the best of my illustrations. I also have to acknowledge the kindness of the Editors of Chambers Journal and the Pall Mall Gazette in permitting the reproduction of articles published by them at different times.
CONSTANCE LARYMORE.