NOTES OF A JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD: Made in 1875, By Thomas Coote., Jun., And Dr. Falding.

Sheffield: Leader and Sons, Printers, "Independent" Office., 1876. First Edition (& 1st printing). Octavo, original grey fine-diaper cloth, front panel bordered and lettered in blind, pale yellow endpapers. 208 pp. Previous owner's ink name & address stamp on front free endpaper, hairline crack to inner rear hinge. Small worn spot to cloth near base of spine, a few small marks to the cloth; a very good clean copy.

¶ Frederick John Falding, (1818-1892), English independent minister; professor of divinity. Sometime Principal and Professor of Divinity in the Theological College, Rotherham, Yorkshire; afterwards Principal of Yorkshire United College, Bradford. "The following rough notes of travel were written, many of them hastily and all of them under difficulties, mostly in steamboats and
hotels, with no other purpose than to interest personal friends and readers of the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent."

Chapter 1: England to Cairo
Chapter 2: Cairo to Jerusalem
Chapter 3: The Pyramids - Suez - Aden
Chapter 4: Ceylon, Madras & Bombay
Chapter 5: Departure From India - Impressions of Country - Burmah
Chapter 6: The Straights Settlements - Arrival in Hong Kong
Chapter 7: China
Chapter 8: Japan
Chapter 9: The Western World (San Francisco, California)
Chapter 10: California Lakes - Virginia City and Silver Mines
Chapter 11: The White Mountains - Lake Champlain - Boston - Plymouth Rock - Philadelphia - Washington - New York.

SUPPLEMENT: Additional Letters
1) A Sunday in Jerusalem
2) A Sunday Amongst The Mormons at Salt Lake City
3) The Yosemite Valley and Big Trees of California


The author, a Doctor of Divinity, describes in fairly intricate detail the local colour of the many places he visits; including an opium den in Hong Kong and a visit to the Mormon City of Salt Lake City, where he describes Mormon life in an unflattering way.

"There is a room with a number of couches or divans, by the side of each of which is a small stool or low table, on which stands a small lamp and the materials for smoking. The smoker lies down to his indulgence. He has a pipe of peculiar construction, the bowl or receptacle for the opium being nearly in the middle of a long tube. He holds in one hand a long needle; first he dips the point of his needle into a small tin which contains the black paste, and takes up a very small quantity of it. He then holds this bit of opium over the flame of the lamp, by which it is swollen, turning it about frequently until its size is again reduced. He then puts it into the bowl of the pipe, pressing it into the small aperture with his needle; then holding the pipe to the flame, he breathes the smoke into his lungs, getting only a whiff or two for each time he charges his pipe. This goes on as long as the smoker can afford, for each whiff costs about ten cents, or as long as his inclination continues, or until he can no longer manipulate his pipe, when he turns over from the side on which he has been leaning, and sleeps or dreams until the effects are over. The owner of the shop very readily acknowledged to us that it was an evil practice, and a trade injurious to the community. It is rarely found that a man who once begins to smoke opium can leave it off. It is very rarely the case that the habit does not grow upon the victim until it ruins health and destroys life."

On Mormonism:
A SUNDAY AMONGST THE MORMONS AT SALT LAKE CITY, pp 192-204
(12 pages).

Falding describes approaching Salt Lake City through the villages of Kaysville, Canterville, Farmington and Bountiful, 'all Mormon settlements'. He describes the city in all it's beauty and wonder, but states that "Already, the outside world, or 'the Gentiles', are gaining upon the Mormons in numbers and influence, and the time cannot be far distant when the peculiar institution of the Saints will depart before the presence of a higher moral sentiment..." He visits a Mormon Sunday-school, and comments on the Mormon children, and asks about laws pertaining to liquor sales; he is then handed over to another and much older and more official-looking person, whether elder, or evangelist, or bishop I know not" Questioned about his visit and his motives, he is told of the history of the Mormons, of the departure from Nauvoo, the settlement of the city; of Joseph Smith, 'a lad of 14 or 15' and the visit of the angels, the gold plates and the Book of Mormon. Impatiently Falding asks the man "But what of polygamy?". He is told that "a man might be commanded by God to add to the number of his wives, and he must, though relectant, obey, or he might be permitted, as a signal favour, if he were a particularly good man, to do it; and every prudent father who had daughters would willingly give them to a good man who had obtained favour of the Lord, rather than to a spendthrift or vicious man, who was not worthy to have a wife at all - not even one."

Faldon later describes the great tabernacle, unfinished, and seeing Mormon Church President Brigham Young: "the Temple may be completed in the year 2000, but by that time what will have become of the Mormons? Already as a semi-religious communistic body they are approaching dissolution. Brigham Young, who I saw in his carriage, driving with two of his many wives from the railway station to his house on the Sunday evening, is becoming feeble and incapable. He yields to ungovernable bursts of passion, and is fast losing the control over other which he can no longer exercise on himself. Schisms and divisions have arisen among the Mormons...". He ends with the appeal: "How comes it to pass that such a development as that of Mormonism is possible in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, and in the midst of the civilization of Europe and America?"