, 1878-02-22
A Thousand Years Ago.

/ thousand years ago (says DR.. Roho,,
Brown, in his new work, "The Couptrias
of the World and for long after ,Ls
world was not all the geologized, botan.
lied, zoologi1ed, and mapped out ear,bI,
/ hall il is now. There it lay, accord;ny
To the imagination of the men and WIS
en- of those days-Or rather. accprd;n.
to the ideas OF the monks; for the men
and far less the women, of those dis,sn,
times troubled themselves very T,,Io
about matters of this kind, but ief, !, -
the churchmen to meddle with such d.n
gerous booklcarning-a flat plain, full of
things mysterious and unknown. and ,,,
OF the four corners, through the cans Of
four mountain ranges, which were uiaca5
there to, keep it steady, blew the fonr
winds of Heaven! Of course, the cep,rs
of it all was the little town, aud county,
parish, manor, barony, or kingdom wbers
they d"elt; but outside of that was no
mans land. 1t was looked upon by onr
remote forelathers in much the same liobt
as 1t is by the Chinese, who, while mall.
ing maps of the Flowery Land on a scala
so large as to show the ground plan ns
every town and village, mark all the coun.
tries outside that magic boundary Of
theirs as inhabited by barbarians." aIt
was the land of the intidel," the peonle
said, AS they piOusly crossed themselves
at the thought All was mysterious to
Che travellers of that age. The unknown
lands were full Of dragoons and giants
rocs, ores, witch-wales, griifns, chimerss
enchanters, Paynims, Saracens, Emirs and
Sultan's ksiSers Of Constanlinople, of
Ind, and Cathay, and Cipango. What
choice was there then for young traveller.
a good knight, and a proper man withal
If he had mind he could steer his wav
to Lapland, where (as all the world knew
dwaris forged chain armor of magic
links, and where witch-whales and lea
mountains roamed about the chilly sea:
or, to go south, and join the Varaugers
guard IN Constantinople; or, beard the
Turk in Palestine; or, into Egypt, and
win the Kings daughter by killing
great dragon, as did st. George; or, down
to Cordova, where there were dire ma.
glcians; or, into the forests of Brittany
where beauteouS fairies sported-kindiy
immortals, who loved to be welded to
mortality--who emptied his water jars
at night and filled them with good Rhine
wine ere dawn of day. He might even
marry one, as did st. Lancelot, and pass
few years in Fairyland Even in our
own dull old prosaic land, the geogra-
pliers of thousand years ago reported
wonders to be seen for the travelling.
Dragons were in the land, and giants
storked all over Cornwall; so that, like
Hereward, you could go into the land of
Tin, kill an ogre and save king daugh-
ter In these days there were lands to
discover and take possession of, and
wonders and strange things to be seen
wherever you turned. The fairies have
now hidden farewell to all accessible
places, and if you wish to win them you
must 60 very far afeld to places where
there are no books and no schools-for
these elf-maidens like not letters, and flee
before them like ghosts before the cock
crow; If you wish wine now, you may
gather the grapes-aye, and tread them
out, too. Then think how easy it was to
travel in those barbarous times; no philo-
sophicai instruments were in demand,
only a big OK horn to engrave your map
on, and if you we're very learned trav-
eer, and ink horn and parchment to
write your notes on; though, generally
speaking, travellers in those days did not
trouble themselves much with writing,
but drew freely on their imaginations.