was going on around him.

His death robbed me of one who had been a very kind and upright elder
brother rather than a father; and so strongly have I felt his influence
still present, living and working, as I believe for better within me,
that I did not hesitate to copy the epitaph which he saw in the Musical
Bank at Fairmead, {1} and to have it inscribed on the very simple
monument which he desired should alone mark his grave.

* * * * *

The foregoing was written in the summer of 1891; what I now add should be
dated December 3, 1900. If, in the course of my work, I have
misrepresented my father, as I fear I may have sometimes done, I would
ask my readers to remember that no man can tell another's story without
some involuntary misrepresentation both of facts and characters. They
will, of course, see that "Erewhon Revisited" is written by one who has
far less literary skill than the author of "Erewhon;" but again I would
ask indulgence on the score of youth, and the fact that this is my first
book. It was written nearly ten years ago, _i.e_. in the months from
March to August 1891, but for reasons already given it could not then be
made public. I have now received permission, and therefore publish the
following chapters, exactly, or very nearly exactly, as they were left
when I had finished editing my father's diaries, and the notes I took
down from his own mouth--with the exception, of course, of these last few
lines, hurriedly written as I am on the point of leaving England, of the
additions I made in 1892, on returning from my own three hours' stay in
Erewhon, and of the Postscript.

CHAPTER II: TO THE FOOT OF THE PASS INTO EREWHON

When my father reached the colony for which he had left England some
twenty-two years previously, he bought a horse, and started up country on
the evening of the day after his arrival, which was, as I have said, on
one of the last days of November 1890. He had taken an English saddle
with him, and a couple of roomy and strongly made saddle-bags. In these
he packed his money, his nuggets, some tea, sugar, tobacco, salt, a flask
of brandy, matches, and as many ship's biscuits as he thought he was
likely to want; he took no meat, for he could supply himself from some
accommodation-house or sheep-station, when nearing the point after which
he would have to begin camping out. He rolled his Erewhonian dress and
small toilette necessaries inside a warm red blanket, and strappe