Sir a Henry Layard, G C B , D C L

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III OVERLAND JOURNEY TO CONSTANTINOPLE It chanced. that Mr Edward Ledwich Mitford, a young Englishman who had been connected with a mercantile house at Mogador in Morocco, and who had made some interesting excursions through little known parts of that dangerous country, desired to establish himself...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III OVERLAND JOURNEY TO CONSTANTINOPLE It chanced. that Mr Edward Ledwich Mitford, a young Englishman who had been connected with a mercantile house at Mogador in Morocco, and who had made some interesting excursions through little known parts of that dangerous country, desired to establish himself in Ceylon as a coffee-planter. He had made the acquaintance of my uncle, Mr Charles Layard, who introduced him to me. Like myself, he wished to leave England as soon as possible; but being of an adventurous disposition, and dreading the sea, he had formed a plan for going to Ceylon by land through Europe, Central Asia, and India. He proposed to me that we should perform the journey together. I was much struck by this grand idea. It coincided entirely with my love of travel and adventure, and, if carried out, would enable me to visit many of the most interesting parts of the East, and to realise the dreams that had haunted me from my childhood, when I had spent so many happy hours over the Arabian Nights. I willingly accepted his proposal, and it was agreed that we should leave England without delay. I now busied myself with the preparations for my journey. My relations looked upon the scheme as a somewhat insane one, and were alarmed at the dangers 1839] REASONS FOR LEAVING ENGLAND 103 that I should have to incur in traversing the unknown and perilous regions of Central Asia. Even my good friend, Crabb Robinson, shook his head, and feared that I was about to enter upon what is vulgarly called a wild-goose chase. But my mind was fully made up, and nothing could shake my resolution. My distaste for the profession of an attorney and solicitor was so great, and my position in England seemed to me so hopeless, and caused me so much misery, that I thought only of ge...