RAMBLES IN ISTRIA, DALMATIA,
AND
MONTENEGRO.
CHAPTER I.
A CONVERSATION—WHERE SHALL WE GO FOR A HOLIDAY TRIP—ATTRACTIONS OF LAPLAND—REMINISCENCES OF ITALY—THE GRAND TOUR IN FORMER DAYS—HOW TO STUDY HISTORY—DIFFICULTY OF FINDING NEW GROUND FOR TRAVEL—AN INTERESTING COUNTRY WITHIN FIVE DAYS OF TEMPLE BAR.
"LET us go to Lapland!" was the exclamation which rang on my ear, as I was entering my club, one fine morning in the early part of June, 1873.
"Lapland!" said I, "what put that into your head?"
"Yes," replied my friend M—, in his rich, good-humoured voice, slightly flavoured with Hibernian Doric. "I hear that somebody has written a book about it. I have been everywhere else in Europe—and it is quite the place to go to now, you know. We shall pic-nic on Cape North and then drive across to Spitzbergen in reindeer sledges on the ice, it will be awfully jolly!" and his joyous laugh echoed through the hall. "Do come, like a good fellow," said he, "there will be just the four of us, R—, C—, yourself, and I, and you really must not say no, for we none of us can speak a word of anything but English, while you speak every language under the sun. So agree to it at once; let us all meet here to dinner, to-morrow at six, and then off by the mail to Calais."