A GAEDEN DIAEY 



SEPTEMBER i, 1899 



" A WANDERER is man from his birth," and 

 ** some of us who have done comparatively 

 little wandering in our own persons, have done 

 our full share of those less palpable divagations 

 which may be performed within a very small 

 compass of the earth's surface, nay even within 

 the radius of a single garden chair. 



The gipsy dies hard in many people, and the 

 dreams which have fluttered round our youthful 

 fancy flutter round it still, though youth may 

 have become a memory, and the chances of 

 any serious explorations be reduced to a scarce 

 perceptible minimum. To be a traveller in the 

 real and heroic sense is a very great and 

 a very stirring ambition. To have the hope of 

 wandering far and fruitfully ; of bringing home 

 the results of those wanderings ; such a hope 

 and such an aspiration is one of the biggest 

 things that can be set before a youthful ambition. 

 With a disregard of probabilities, which, looking 

 back, I can only characterise as magnificent, such 



