In the Middle Ages, an Armenian king traveled to London in a fruitless attempt to reconcile the warring kingdoms of France and England. Since then, many English diplomats, merchants, missionaries, geographers, journalists, and spies have traveled to Armenia and written of their impressions. Many others (like the historians Edward Gibbon and Arnold Toynbee, and the poet Lord Byron) have written about Armenia and Armenians without having set foot on Armenian soil. Christopher Walker discusses and quotes from all of them, including some (like Sir John Mandeville) who may never have existed. The result is an absorbing and eminently readable compendium. The stress is on English-language writers (a more accurate title would have been English Visions of Ararat), and we find here a veritable gallery of often brilliant and occasionally eccentric observers whose prose is as fresh as if it were written by a contemporary.

Here is Sir Robert Ker Porter (1777-1842), identified by Walker as "an artist, soldier, author and diplomat" (p. 36), writing about the ruins of the fabulous city of Ani, the medieval capital of Armenia that is said to have had one thousand and one churches:

"On entering the city, I found the whole surface of the ground covered with hewn stones, broken capitals, columns, shattered but highly ornamental friezes; and other remains of ancient magnificence. Several churches, still existing in different parts of the place, retain something more than ruins of their former dignity; but they are as solitary as all the other structures, on which time and devastation have left more heavy strokes. . . .

In short, the masterly workmanship of the capitals of the pillars, the nice carvings of the intricate ornaments and arabesque friezes, surpassed anything of the kind I had ever seen, whether abroad, or in the most celebrated cathedrals of England" (pp. 37-38).

Among the other writers selected and discussed are James Morier, W.E. Gladstone, G.N. Curzon, F.C. Conybeare, H.F.B. Lynch, Noel Buxton, Lord Bryce, W.E.D. Allen, and one of my favorite contemporary Armenophiles, Philip Marsden, whose Crossing Place was published as recently as 1993.

Kitchener, Ontario, Canada