THE KINGDOM OF GEORGIA NOTES OF TRAVEL IN A LAND OF WOMEN, WINE, AND SONG TO WHICH ARE APPENDED HISTORICAL, LITERARY, AND POLITICAL SKETCHES, SPECIMENS OF THE NATIONAL MUSIC, AND A COMPENDIOUS BIBLIOGRAPHY By OLIVER WARDROP WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON Limited St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. 1888 TO PROFESSOR JAMES BRYCE, M.P., These Notes are Dedicated (By permission), WITH HEARTFELT GRATITUDE AND PROFOUND RESPECT. PREFACE. There were four of us--two Frenchmen, an Italian, and an Englishman. We had ridden from Damascus to Baalbek, and had seen the ruins; after dinner, we were lying on heaps of cushions on the floor, in a hostelry little known to Europeans. For some minutes the bubbling of our narghilés was the only sound that broke the stillness of the night. Then the ex-cuirassier spoke out in a strong voice--the voice of a man accustomed to command--"Gentlemen! I propose that we solemnly pass a vote of censure on the late M. de Lamartine." "Bravo!" was our unanimous cry; and the vote was carried, nemine contradicente. A rider was added, to the effect that poets should be discouraged from writing books of travel. "Surely a strange proceeding!" says the reader. Let me explain. We had been shut up in Damascus for a long time by heavy snow-storms which blocked the roads; the most interesting book we had was Lamartine's "Voyage en Orient," and we had read the long description of Baalbek over and over again, until we almost knew it by heart. Need I say that the reality disappointed us? If we had never read Lamartine's book, we should have been delighted with the place; but having read it, we wanted the poet's eyes in order to see the temples as he saw them. But what has all this to do with Georgia? Simply this: the following pages are not written by a poet, and, gentle sir, if you ever pass a vote of censure on the writer of them, it will not be for the reason that he has painted things and places in a rose-coloured atmosphere. In publishing these notes I have had but one object--to excite the curiosity of my fellow-countrymen; the means of gratifying this curiosity are indicated in the bibliographical section. Georgia is practically unknown to the British public; well-educated people know that the country is famous for its beautiful women, but they are not very sure whether those charming creatures live under Persian, Turkish, or Russian rule, while not one person in a thousand knows that the Georgians and Circassians are distinct peoples.