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[Illustration: NIGHT OVER THE BLACK SEA]
1913
This book was written chiefly whilst tramping along the Caucasian andCrimean shores of the Black Sea, and on a pilgrimage with Russianpeasants to Jerusalem. Most of it was written in the open air, sittingon logs in the pine forests or on bridges over mountain streams, bythe side of my morning fire or on the sea sand after the morning dip.It is not so much a book about Russia as about the tramp. It is thelife of the wanderer and seeker, the walking hermit, the rebelagainst modern conditions and commercialism who has gone out into thewilderness.
I have tramped alone over the battlefields of the Crimea, visited thecemetery where lie so many British dead, wandered along the Black Seashores a thousand miles to New Athos monastery and Batum, have beenwith seven thousand peasant pilgrims to Jerusalem, and lived theirlife in the hospitable Greek monasteries and in the great Russianhostelry at the Holy City, have bathed with them in Jordan where allwere dressed in their death-shrouds, and have slept with them a wholenight in the Sepulchre.
One cannot make such a journey without great experiences bothspiritual and material. On every hand new significances are revealed,both of Russian life and of life itself.
It is with life itself that this volume is concerned. It is personaland friendly, and on that account craves indulgence. Here are thesongs and sighs of the wanderer, many lyrical pages, and the veryminimum of scientific and topographical matter. It is all writtenspontaneously and without study, and as such goes forth—all that aseeker could put down of his visions, or could tell of what he sought.
There will follow, if it is given to the author both to write and topublish, a full story of the places he visited along the Black Seashore, and of the life of the pilgrims on the way to the shrine of theSepulchre and at the shrine itself. It will be a continuation of thework begun in Undiscovered Russia.
Several of these sketches appeared in the St. James's Gazette, twoin Country Life, and one in Collier's of New York, being sent outto these papers from the places where they were written. The authorthanks the Editors for permission to republish, and for their courtesyin dealing with MSS.