Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-09-10

By the Booklorev.

| sketched by Fl. A. L. Fisher. warden
Of New College, Oxford, in his biog-
raphy, James Bryce" one of the most
attractive Is Bryce as traveller and
mountain climber. Bryce's interest
In travel began early. when he was
| II years old, long before he had
crossed the English Channel, he knew
most of the peaks of the Bernese
| Overland and the PENNIES from pic
lures and descriptions and could have
| given the height of many of them"
The wild glens of Antrim, near his
| north Ireland home, were his haunts
| from earliest childhood. The long
| Summer holidays while he was a stu
dent in Glasgow College were spent
either on the Irish or Scotch coast
or in the Scotch highlands, where
he Swan, and boated, and fished, and
climbed mountains, often alone"
During his Oxford vacations he en-
joyed walking tours in the Killarney
region, in Scotland, Wales and
Switzerland, and in 1863 went to
Heidelberg for a. semester of study.
Following the publication of 1.-THE
| Holy Roman Empire" in 1864, he
visited Italy and his letters to his
mother and sisters record Ibis Italian
impressions and incidentally
q vivid picture of Rome during the
| declining years of the papal state.
To the historian of The Holy
Roman Empire bringing to Italy all
the enthusiasm generated by his wide
knowledge and recent researches, the
past was more living than the present,
and the present chiefly significant as
throwing backward light upon the
past" In the Summer Of 1866 he
| spent holiday with Leslie Stephen
| In pennsylvania, where he assembled
the Csaltho, in the Carpathians. In
1870, the year of his appointment as
reglus professor Of civil law at Oxford,
he paid his first visit to the United
States.
| One of Bryce's most adventurous
Journeys was made in 1872 to Ice.
land, where he crossed the central
desert by a difficult route, (which
mad not been tried for Is years or
So and was known to but one man
IN the country. The year 1874
| brought travels in Norway, Spain and
Portugal. Travels through the eau.
casus in 1876 brought the welcome
| opportunity to ascend Mount Ararat.
about which the persistent supersti.
ton existed that it was inaccessible.
After leaving his friend Mackay, who
had decided to halt at 200 feet, and
being deserted by his Cossack guards
ana kurd carriers. Bryce continued
| alone TO the summit, where "a puff
| of wind blew the mists aside and
showed the Araxes Plain at an
abysmal depth below" In 1887 and
1883 Egypt and India drew him. In
| the former his chief interest was in
| the ruined temples, particularly those
| OF Ihebes; In the latter, the modern
lie and the effect of the caste system.
with Its superstitions, on the Anglo.
lndlan government. He comments in
a letter. Although caste and Hindu.
ism seem slightly shaken so far. thew
are being undermined and may come
ooWn with a run before so years."
Marriage in 1889 put an end to
Bryce's solitary travels, but Mrs.
bfyce was also good traveller and
the Two made many tours together.
IN 1879 they visited South Africa and
made journey of 1900 miles in a
mule wagon, unarmed and accom-
panied only by a Dutch driver and a
native Cape boy, through the lonely
country between Mafeking and Fort
salisbury. Undeterred by the repu.
tation Of its pestilential shores, thew
navigated the shallow and turbid
waters OF the Pungwe, partly con.
soled for the shyness of the crocodiles
py the gambols of the river horses.
they climbed Machache u1,OO0 feet).
In Basutoland, and Table Mountain
$500 feet, in Cope Colony" In 1909.
when Ambassador to the United
states, Bryce applied for double leave
In order to visit South America. He
had a passionate desire to see the
whole world before he died" Expe.
riences and impressions of this trip
are recorded in his book, South
America" In connection with the
projected book, Modern Democracies p"
the Bryces visited Australia and New
Zealand in 1912. One of the children
OF Lord Chelmsford, who entertained
tnem at Sydney, in describing a bota-
nlzing trip with the guests, said, you
know, Dad, he skipped from rock to
rock ike mountain goat and never
missed his footing" He was "a at
that time. In 1913, just before com.
pieting his seventy-fifth year. Bryce
resigned as Ambassador to the United
States and he and Mrs. Bryce made
tnelr journey home by way of China.
Japan and Siberia. In 1914, shortly
before the outbreak Of the World War
tney visited Palestine and Syria.
-
Bryce's mountaineering record
SHOWS his love of that sport. At
the tlme OF his election to the Alpine
SIun IN 1879 he had climbed the
Scnreckhorn, Monte Rosa, the Pelno
and the Marmolata in the Dolomites
Hekla in Iceland, Ararat in Armenia
the Maladetta and the VignemaIe in
the Pyrenees, and the cliffs of the
Iatra on the border Of Transatlantic.
Later climbs included Mauna Loa. in
the Hawaiian Islands, Machache in
Basutoland, Myogisan in Japan. and
an the rocky hills of Mount Desert.
Maine. Nor was his interest in a
mountain confined, as is the case with
some excellent climbers, to the char.
acter of the climb itself, the state
of the rock. ice or snow, the nature
of the handholds or footholds, or the
discovery, in the case Of a new
ascent. OF the easiest route to the
top. A mountain provided other in.
terests, notably geological, upon
erted."
Among the writer's who have made
East and South Africa a. land of
dreams and magic through fiction,
DR.. Francis Brett Young combines
real knowledge with romantic treat
ment. He was country doctor In a
Devonshire fishing village when the
World War began, and in 1915, as a
medical officer, Joined the army of
Gen. Shuts in Africa. There he
served long enough, before he was
invaded home. to learn much about |
the vast south-equatorial continent. |
During his convalescence he began |
the attempt to make use of his ex-
pertences in fiction. Marching on
Tanga" is war novel with African |
setting. The three African novels |
which followed, however. show Fran.