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February 26, 2025 · 6:56 pm

Saints Alive!

Another HV Morton arrived in the mail today, from the UK. This one is entitled In Search of Ireland, and it was published in 1930. Eagerly inspecting the photos, I came across one depicting the town (village?) of Glendalough, a place associated with St. Kevin, one of the patron saints of Ireland. How the world has changed since 1930. I wish I could return to that time, if only to see the places Morton saw before they were ruined by cars, roads, wars, developers and overgrowth. What would this view show us today?

*Glendalough, the place* – *with 2 lakes*

I’ve never had the pleasure of visiting the Emerald Isle, so for now I will content myself with the book. Morton brings to life the places he visits, which explains the fact that this volume is from the 16th printing in 1943. It is not an autograph edition, at least not by the author, but autographed nevertheless, by Lt. L.W.H. Pollard, R.N.R. He must have been proud of his rank, that chap.

In keeping with the design themes that Morton’s books followed, this book is bound in green cloth and has a shamrock cluster embossed on the front cover. How Irish!

I wonder what the girls of Connemara look like today? Ripped jeans, leaning on a Tesla?

Last Christmas I bought my wife a bottle of Glendalough Irish Whiskey, and that is how I learned about St Kevin. History from whiskey bottles. I used to read cereal boxes, but they didn’t have much to teach, and never anything about saints.

Every Morton book of travel includes maps showing where he went. In this case he went all around Ireland, hitting most of the well known spots. Ireland isn’t that large, so I suppose Morton could scarcely have done less travelling and gotten enough material for a book.

Now to finish up reading Morton’s “In The Steps of St Paul”, so I can delve into Ireland of 1930!

Where Did the Saints All Go?

In this time of trouble (is there ever none?), I bury my nose in books and try to forget that the world is overrun with madness. One writer whose books I find most fascinating is H.V. Morton, the once famed English writer. Morton seems to be almost forgotten now, but in the 20th century, he was as famous as it gets for a writer. He was a trusted friend of Churchill, who invited Morton along to report when he met FDR in secret to discuss how to proceed together to save the world. Morton was a reporter, and a good one. He is best known, however, for books in which he brings the reader along on his travels, which ranged from London, his home, to Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt, and lots of places in between. He was intrepid, to say the least, and he had a gift with words that have few equals in the genre. Not only that, he was an expert photographer, carried a modern Leica camera, and filled his books with remarkable photographs. He wrote about photography too and extolled his Leica. The lenses he had then are still renowned. See my post below for several photos taken with a similar model.

So, what is this getting to? I received a new old volume of Morton today by post from England, that’s what! I had to buy it twice, due to the postal strike here. My first purchase was cancelled, but I bought the book again six weeks ago and today it landed on the doorstep, literally. Having read his previous volumes about the Holy Land, I am sure this one is going to be great. But why is this worthy of a blog post? Because now I have an autographed Morton. Morton held this very book in his hands and inscribed it to one HS Burgess (?), whoever they were, dated October 1936. So far I’ve read two of his travel yarns about the Near East; In the Steps of the Master, and Through the Lands of the Bible. Both were ripping great reads and totally relevant even now, just for the history that he brings to life. Much of what I learned from Morton was entirely new, even with four years of Sunday School! My wife, with a degree in theology, learned a great deal of background on the life of Jesus by reading Morton. One would expect this depth of knowledge from a Professor, but Morton was no such thing.

Morton was a devout man, and he wrote about the people of the Bible with remarkable insight on the times. Whether one is a believer or not, the writing is marvellous, informative, and not at all preachy. His sincerity comes though as deeply honest and often moving. He had the good fortune to travel in the Near East (his words) in times when it was possible to go there and not risk one’s life at every turn. How tragic that it is now impossible to do as Morton once did, or to go where he went in peace.