WALKER, Theodore. Wanderings Eastwards. Diary of Travels in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Greece, in 1885. London, Partridge & Co., [1886].
8vo. Original black cloth, ornamented in blind, front cover lettered in gilt; pp. 146, 8 wood-engraved plates; front inner hinge strengthened, offsetting fro endpapers, otherwise a very good copy.
Scarce first edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on front fly-leaf and dated 1886. Walker leaves Northern Palestine after having visited Lake Merom (Hula Valley) and Mount Hermon, before riding to Damascus and crossing the Anti-Lebanon. He then visits Baalbek, reports on Druzes and Maronites, rests in Zahlé, 'a large town, the most flourishing in the Lebanon, beautifully situated on a hill slope, up a glen. It contains 16,000 people, nine-tenths of whom are Christians' (p. 95). 'The villages in the Lebanon are very thriving, and the various sects very numerous' our tourist remarks and rides into Beirut in style, i.e. at top speed ('to gallop full speed into a big city is no joke' he comments on his Dragoman's idea of a dashing entrance). After the 500-mile ride Walker enjoys Beirut and visits Western-influenced educational establishments. The section on Lebanon and Syria is found on pages 85 to 95.
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