108  JOVnyAL  OP  nCRTIGULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER.  July  so.  ifese. 
A  TRAVELLER’S  NOTES.* 
Readers  of  this  Journal  who  are  also  reader*  of  The 
GardeMrs'  Chronicle  will  have  freshly  within  their  recollection 
certain  articles  of  Mr  James  H.  Veitch  which  appeared  inter¬ 
mittently  in  the  columns  of  the  latter  paper  during  a  period  of 
some  two  years,  and  which  -etailed  in  terse  and  agreeable  style 
some  of  the  experiences  of  Mr.  Veitch  in  his  toar  round  the  world. 
These  contributicns  Mr.  Veitch  has  now  collected  and  embodied  in 
a  volume  entitled  “  A  Traveller’s  Note*,”  the  first  edition  being 
restricted  to  private  circulation  among  the  friends  and  well- 
wishers  of  that  family  whose  name  has  been  identified  so  prominently 
with  the  progress  of  English  horticulture  during  two  generations. 
As  the  fortunate  recipients  of  a  copy  of  this  sumptuous  and 
instructive  volume  we  are  impelled  to  give  some  publicity  to  its 
exceptional  excellence.  We  are  fortunately  powerless,  however, 
to  afford  any  adequate  conception  of  its  wealth  of  illustration  and 
panoramic  completeness,  and  hence  many  will  be  spared  an  impotent 
longing  for  the  possession  of  the  unattainable. 
This  i*  *aid  to  be  an  age  of  travel,  and  truly  there  is  much 
locomotion.  More  people  go  to  Margate  and  more  to  Mongolia 
than  wa*  the  case  a  century  ago.  But  if  one  consults  Elizabethan 
literature  it  will  be  seen  that  even  three  centuries  since  a  goodly 
proportion  of  our  restless  island  population 
wandered  far  from  the  shadow  of  their 
parish  steeples,  and  often  laid  their  bones 
to  rest  in  a  foreign  soil.  The  genesis  of 
the  United  States  is  sufficient  evidence  of 
this  propensity.  Nowadays  the  energetic 
and  inquisitive  Briton,  not  enjoying  so 
extensive  a  home  as  the  American,  is  still 
obliged  to  walk  over  the  edge  of  his  native 
plot  and  scour  the  outlying  regions  of  the 
earth. 
This  growing  expansion  is  to  be  noted 
in  every  business,  science,  and  art.  Ever 
since  the  days  of  Sir  Joseph  Banks  the 
passion  to  extend  the  frontiers  of  botanical 
and  horticultural  knowledge  has  been 
continually  growing  with  the  increasing 
facilities  of  communication  and  the  advance 
of  our  national  flag  in  remote  seas.  There 
are  some  now  living  who  can  recollect  the 
enthusiasm  with  which  the  Chinese  ex¬ 
periences  of  Robert  Fortune  were  greeted 
in  London,  and  how  he  became  the  lion  of 
a  London  season.  Since  those  days  the 
knowledge  of  China  and  Japan  and  of 
their  fauna  and  flora  has  become  vastly 
amplified  owing  to  the  efforts  of  men  who 
differed  nothing  from  Fortune  except  that 
their  discoveries  lacked  the  flavour  of 
romance  which  attends  upon  early  novelty 
and  the  revelation  of  the  unknown. 
In  the  generation  that  succeeded 
Fortune,  to  none  did  there  seem  to  be 
opening  out  a  brighter  career  than  to  John  Gould  Veitch,  the 
father  of  the  author  of  the  book  now  under  review.  But 
the  zeal  of  the  explorer  grows  by  what  it  feeds  upon,  and  with 
the  vicissitudes  of  climate  is  apt  to  consume  those  physical  con¬ 
stitutions  which  are  not  of  exceptional  strength,  otherwise  English 
botany  and  horticulture  would  not  now  deplore  the  absence  of  one 
who  promised  to  be  its  chief  orientalist. 
We  learn  from  “A  Traveller’s  Notes”  that  after  reaching 
Ceylon  by  way  of  the  Red  Sea  Mr.  Veitch  proceeded  northwards 
through  the  Madras  and  Bombay  Presidencies,  and  having  pene¬ 
trated  a*  far  as  Lahore  returned  to  Calcutta.  Leaving  India  he 
touched  at  Rangoon,  passing  on  through  the  Straits  of  Malacca 
to  Singapore.  From  this  point  he  visited  Batavia,  and  returning 
continued  to  Hong  Hong  and  China.  Making  Hong  Kong  a  fresh 
centre  of  excursion  Mr.  Veitch  struck  north  for  Japan,  whence, 
deviating  from  the  beaten  track  of  tourists,  he  crossed  over  to 
Korea.  Retracing  his  course  to  Hong  Kong  he  now  took  steamer 
for  Sydney,  and  having  traversed  some  2000  miles  of  the  Australian 
coast  as  far  west  as  P erth  returned  to  Sydney,  and  thence  set  out 
for  New  Zealand.  Here  he  concluded  his  active  explorations, 
embarking  for  England  and  coming  home  by  way  of  Cape  Horn 
and  Rio  Janeiro. 
It  is,  we  regret  to  say,  impossible  for  us  to  do  anything  like 
justice  to  Mr.  Veitch’*  book  within  the  limited  space  at  our 
disposal.  We  may,  however,  truthfully  assert  that  it  has  only 
to  be  seen  and  perused  to  be  appreciated.  Where  in  the  effort 
*  By  Mr.  James  H.  Veitch,  F.L.S.,  F.lt.H.S.,  and  published,  ‘‘  tor  private 
circulation,”  by  Messrs.  J.  Veitch  &  Sous,  Royal  Exotic  Nursery,  Chelsea. 
I  not  to  be  too  prolix  the  text  is  curtailed,  the  imagination  is 
1  assisted  by  frequent  illustrations.  These  are  photogravures  of 
j  the  most  consummate  execution,  and  they  will  form  an  inexhaustible 
source  of  pleasure  and  instruction  to  those  who  delight  in  works  of 
travel.  One  of  the  most  effective  of  these  subjects  it  is  our  good 
fortune  to  be  able  to  place  before  our  readers  owing  to  the  courtesy 
of  the  Editor  of  The  Gardetiers'  Chronicle  in  which  it  appeared  ; 
but  no  ordinary  periodical  can  hope  to  rival  the  perfection  of 
execution  peculiar  to  the  original  work. 
In  quoting  certain  characteristically  interesting  paisages  from 
Mr.  Veitch’s  book  we  have  selected  those  in  the  chapters  on  China, 
Korea,  and  Japan.  Curiously  enough,  shortly  after  his  visit, 
Korea,  owing  to  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  there,  became  the 
cynosure  of  political  eyes,  and  the  focus  of  a  new  Eastern  question. 
Though  the  scene  of  political  excitement  has  »ince  changed 
hi=t  description  of  that  quaint  and  remote  land  will  still  be  perused 
with  interest.  We  will  now  let  Mr.  Veitch  speak  for  himself  : — 
The  famons  Examination  Hall  [at  Canton],  containing  11,016  cells,  is 
situated  in  a  hnge  courtyard  flanked  on  either  side  by  rows  of  cells  5^  feet 
long  by  feet  wide,  in  which,  with  a  wooden  board  for  a  bed,  the  students 
are  locked  until  the  time  allotted  for  answering  a  paper  has  elapsed.  The 
examination  occapica  three  sessions  of  three  days  each,  and  only  about 
130  are  passed  for  Government  service.  The  execution  ground,  used  as 
a  potter’s  field,  is  a  small  triangular  piece  of 
ground  only  75  feet  long  and  25  feet  broad  at 
the  widest  end.  The  average  number  of 
annual  beheadings  (an  operation  performed 
with  great  celerity  and  dexterity)  is  300,  in 
batches  of  ten  to  twenty  at  a  time.  Against 
the  wall  lean  several  wooden  crosses,  on  which 
offenders  of  the  worst  description  are  tied  and 
put  to  death  with  attendant  horror*.  I  also 
visited  a  species  of  police  court,  where  my 
presence  aroused  much  interest.  A  row  of 
minor  officials,  little  boys,  and  hangers-on 
collected  in  front,  and  discussed  “  the  red¬ 
headed  barbarian.”  The  texture  of  my  over¬ 
coat  was  examined,  and,  I  was  gratified  to 
notice,  apparently  approved  of.  On  my  arrival 
the  court  was  not  sitting.  In  a  yard,  the 
lower  end  of  which  was  roofed  over,  were  three 
small  wooden  tables,  with  two  chairs  on  each 
side.  On  a  bench  close  by  lolled  what  appeared 
to  be  minor  officials ;  against  two  post*  squatted 
two  wretched,  unkempt,  heavily  chained, 
animal-like  looking  men  ;  whilst  a  third  was 
huddled  up  in  a  basket,  having  had  to  be 
carried  into  the  place.  After  waiting  some 
time,  four  more  or  less  richly  dressed  ofldcials 
appeared  and  seated  themselves  at  one  of  the 
tables.  One  of  the  prisoners  was  led  forward, 
and  grovelled  on  his  knees.  He  was  cross- 
examined  (witnesses  are,  I  believe,  unknown), 
but  refusing  to  answer  he  was  tied  to  a  form 
by  his  great  toes,  thumbs  and  pigtail,  and 
placed  against  a  post,  resting  on  his  knees 
alone,  to  think  it  over.  The  position  was 
uncomfortable,  but  to  Chinese  coolies  certainly 
not  torture,  as  what  they  can  endure  without 
flinching  or  uttering  a  sound  is  extraordinary.  Another  prisoner  was 
then  led  forward  and  his  cross-examination  began,  the  one  in  the  basket 
being  asleep  all  the  while,  the  whole  thing  evidently  rather  boring  him 
than  otherwise.  The  high  oflBcials  now  had  refreshments — plates  of 
little  sweets  and  hot  tea,  after  which  they  smoked  a  kind  of  double- 
barrelled  metal  pipe,  refilled  by  a  servant  for  every  p»ff,  one  filling  of 
tobacco  only  giving  one  puff  of  smoke.  The  two  prisoners  under 
examination  were,  I  was  told,  accused  of  burning  twenty  houses  and 
killing  three  people.  The  system  pursued  is  to  get  them  to  confess 
under  the  bastinado,  hitting  on  the  jaws  with  heavy  flaps  (all  of  which 
hang  on  the  court-wall  ready  for  immediate  use),  or  by  some  other 
torture,  and  then  by  cross-examination  either  to  break  down  or  support 
the  confession. 
^  *  * 
In  March,  1892,  I  landed  at  Yokohama,  the  chief  treaty  port  of 
Japan,  and  thought,  with  some  amazement,  of  the  difference  thirty 
years  had  wrought  since  the  day  when  my  father,  John  Gould  Veitch, 
first  set  foot  on  the  same  spot.  At  times  he  went  armed,  and,  with  one 
exception,  seemtd  never  to  have  considered  it  safe  to  leave  the  settle¬ 
ment  for  more  than  a  few  miles.  The  exception  referred  to  was  an 
ascent,  or  partial  ascent,  of  Fuji-yama,  when  the  British  authorities 
supplied  him  with  a  guard  of  tea  men.  At  the  present  time  it  i*  almost 
needless  to  say  one  moves  in  perfect  safety  amongst  these  people,  who 
have  surprised  the  world  by  the  rapidity  with  which  they  have  adopted 
Western  ways  and  customs.  In  tWs  respect  the  educated  classes  have 
been  wonderfully  successful,  whilst  the  great  mass  of  the  people  look 
gocd-humouredly  on,  neither  desiring  nor  encouraging  such  drastic 
changes.  On  every  side  one  is  met  with  that  courteous  kindness  and 
williugness  to  help  characteristic  of  the  Jap— qualities  which  always 
make  a  visit  to  his  country  a  pleaiint  one.  The  port  of  Yokohama  was 
but  a  small  fishing  village  until  it  was  selected  by  the  American,  on 
Fia.  20.— MR  JAMES  H.  VEITCH. 
