500 Count Yay de Vaya and Lushod [April 15, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, April 15, 1904. 



Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D. LL.D. F.R.S., Treasurer 

 and Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The Eight Hon. and Right Rev. Monsignor 

 The Count Vay de Vaya and Luskod, D.P.H.H. K.C.I.C. 



First Impressions of Seoul. 

 (Fragment op Lecture on "Korea and the Koreans.") 



.... At last I arrive safely in Seoul. It is eventide and the 

 moon is just appearing. In the dimness the most desolate imperial 

 residence in the world seems still more desolate, more wretched, 

 miserable and deserted. 



My sedan chair is being carried through a long street, or rather 

 road. 



Small houses stand on either hand, but houses they cannot be 

 called — those I have seen up to the present can at the best be termed 

 " hovels" — at last we reach the walls of the inner city ; for till now 

 we have been merely in the outer town. The wall is ragged and 

 thorny. In front stand a number of roofed and painted gates, I 

 almost imagine myself back in Peking, for the picture is a replica, 

 but in miniature. However, I am unable in the dusk to see how 

 much smaller it is. The general effect is the same, imprinted with 

 the familiar Chinese characteristics. 



The moon is now shining brightly, but it shows nothing new in 

 the aspect of the road within the walls. The main street of Seoul is 

 as deep in clay and mud as it was at the Creation, when the " waters 

 dried up." Its houses have not altered ; they are no more than the 

 clay huts of prehistoric man, his protection against cold or heat. 



I requested the bearers of my chair to walk slowly ; I did not 

 wish to lose my first impression. The first sight of an unknown 

 country stamps itself on our minds in a manner unique. There is a 

 fascination in the unknown — a wonderful interest attached to the 

 unexpected. Our wanderings amongst strange peoples in the streets 

 of a strange city are not for the pen to describe. 



Everything that is uncommon is mysterious until reality tears 

 aside the veil ; and as long as it is built up by our imagination and 

 peopled by her fantastic creations, so long does it remain a City of 

 Dreams. 



The streets are getting broader and the clay huts grow even more 



