graeme
In the steps of the master
Posted on: 08/29/2012 17:41
When I was fourteen, I adored travel books by a Brit named HVMorton. He was a very popular travel writer of the 20s and 30s who had a knack of seeing a living past around him everywhere he went - and he could bring that life to the reader. I read his In Search of England, In search of Scotland, etc. I suspect it was the first step in me deciding to become an historian.
I learned on a later visit to Britain that he brought a powerful romanticism to scenes that really didn't have it - or, at least, didn't without some pretty firm knowledge of the really interesting and absorbing bits of h istory that went with them.
I thought, many years ago, I had outgrown Morton. Romantic stuff. Kid stuff. And, anyway, long out of style. Then, yesterday, I was at a cottage on the shore of Northumblerand Strait, escaping from the hottest, driest summer on record. I really had to get away from it with a little frolic on the sandbars and in the salt water. So there I stood in the window, looking at PEI on the horizon with nothing between it and me but a wall of cold air and rain.
Then I noticed an old book. HVMorton. In the Steps of the Master. Suddenly, I was fourteen again, and I settled back to Morton's tracing of the travels of Jesus. And, you know, it was just as if one were walking with Jesus - not really in a religious sense, but in being a part of the time and the reality of 2000 years ago.
There was wonderful detail about places that are still there just as they were in the time of Jesus and even just as recorded in The Bible - and pictures of scenes, as of fishermen with their nets in Galilee, just as they must have been 2 millenia ago.
I can't vouch for the accuracy of all he says. But I can see the intimacy of it breathing life into a sermon. You might find it worth a look.
Comments
Arminius
Posted on: 08/30/2012 10:49
Hi graeme:
Years ago, a film crew re-traced the Steps of HV Morton, visited and filmed all the places he mentioned in the book, and showed Morton's pictures together with the contemporary film clips and a running commentary on the book. I saw the film on Knowledge Network. Fascinating!
graeme
Posted on: 08/30/2012 14:27
I'm sorry I missed that. It's amazing howwhose books have stuck in my mind for so many years.
He speaks of the toad the Samaratin walked on, and the inn he would have taken the traveller to. Indeed, he has a photo of it. I don't know how accurate it all is - but it's a gripper. And I can well see the use of that passage for a sermon on the parable.
MikePaterson
Posted on: 09/01/2012 13:56
Morton gave me the travel bug at a young age. Now I find him a bit naive, racially insenstive and somehow dull compared with going to the places he described… "flaws" of his times and upbringing, I guess. But he certainly could write and certainly lit fires in my aspirations that I've been happy to fan.
graeme
Posted on: 09/06/2012 20:04
I've been learning that a lot of the starts of my early reading have faded. You're quite right about Morton's faililngs. More recently, i tried a blast from the past by reading Somerset Maugham. It was a great disappointment. I have a suspicion I would now feel the same about George Bernard Shaw, a bright light of my teens.
The thing that stands out about those travel writers of the 1920s, is that the world was a far safer place then. They could travel just about anywhere they wanted to.
Rev. Steven Davis
Posted on: 09/06/2012 20:33
I have that book. A very old copy I picked up somewhere. Inscription on the front cover suggests it was given to someone as a gift in 1935. You've intrigued me, graeme. When I have time, I'll have to read it. Let's see.
"I have attempted to put down in this book the thoughts that come to a man as he travels through Palestine with the New Testament in his hands."
I've now read the first sentence.
Thank you for drawing my attention to it.
graeme
Posted on: 09/07/2012 13:35
I've made you a better man.
MikePaterson
Posted on: 09/07/2012 15:35
Hi Steven: you might like a more recent travel narrative with a faith base: Paul William Roberts' 'Journey of the Magi' — it's a great read, full of ideas and research that's a bit more interesting than Morton's account.
Pilgrims Progress
Posted on: 09/09/2012 05:48
My favourite travel writer is Paul Theroux (This possibly will not impress you, Graeme, - as Theroux is from the USA).
I've travelled widely over a long life, and Theroux captures the mood and the cultural personality traits of those of a country, from the perspective of a foreigner abroad, better than most travel writers.
I worked in the UK for a year - so thought his "Kingdom By the Sea" was an acute observation form the point of view of someone from the "new" world looking at the "old" - in this case the UK.......
Elderly couples going for a Sunday drive - perched on a hill-top - and sharing a thermos of tea without leaving the car ------ priceless!