My sojourn extended over several months, and I never during all that time
neglected any opportunity of studying the natives, giving my observations
as they were made a permanent form by the aid both of pen and of brush. I
was afforded specially favourable chances for this kind of work through
the kind hospitality shown me by the Vice-Minister of Home Affairs and
Adviser to the King, Mr. C.R. Greathouse, to whom I feel greatly indebted
for my prolonged and delightful stay in the country, as well as for the
amiable and valuable assistance which he and General Le Gendre, Foreign
Adviser to His Corean Majesty, gave me in my observations and studies
among the upper classes of Corea. I am also under great obligations to
Mr. Seradin Sabatin, Architect to His Majesty the King, and to Mr. Krien,
German Consul at Seoul, for the kindness and hospitality with which they
treated me on my first arrival at their city.

The illustrations in this book are reproductions of sketches taken by me
while in the country, and though, perhaps, they want much in artistic
merit, I venture to hope that they will be found characteristic.

For literary style I hope my readers will not look. I am not a literary
man, nor do I desire to profess myself such. I trust, however, that I
have succeeded in telling my story in a simple and straightforward
manner, for this especially was the object with which I started at the
outset.

A. HENRY SAVAGE-LANDOR.




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