Now the capital city of North Ossetia, the town was originally founded by the Russian government as a fortress against the people of the Caucasus. Since antiquity, a bridle path had led from here across the Greater Caucasus, which was eventually improved by the Russian army for its campaigns; it was called the Georgian Military Road from then on. Anne asked the military for directions to the postal stations so as to find accommodation, horses and escorts along the way. They also got hold of brake shoes for the kibitkas and exchanged their banknotes, which would be of no value any further south, for hard silver roubles. Snowfall delayed their departure. Anne used the time to write her journal, noticing she had forgotten it was a leap year. Instead of correcting all the dates, starting with 29 February 1840, she inserted a second 6 April.
They began the strenuous ascent into the mountains on the foggy morning of 8 April; each kibitka was pulled by six horses rather than the usual two or three. They reached Lars (1,122 m) at midday and the famous eight-mile Darial Gorge. Cliffs stand on both sides like parallel walls,24 wrote a very impressed Alexander Pushkin, who had visited eleven years previously. Anne found it is like a ‘Chaos’, sublimely wild and desolate.25 These days, heavy Russian, Turkish and Georgian trucks thunder along the gorge on the relatively well-maintained Georgian Military Road. By the evening, the group reached Stepantsminda (1,750 m) at the foot of the 5,047-metre Kazbek,26 the mountain to which Prometheus was chained as punishment for bringing men fire, according to Greek mythology. As with Pushkin before her, the weather did not grant Anne a view of the famous peak. Stood gazing till I could see nothing and my eyes ached towards Mt Kasbek. The monastery full in view for some minutes then clouded over again. No modern-day Georgian tourist brochure would be complete without a photo of the Tsminda Sameba Church against the backdrop of Mount Kazbek’s snow-covered volcanic rock.
On the second day, the road became steep and dangerous; the courier wanted us to alight. [...] No guard, we might easily slip off the side of the narrow road into the river, [...] little frozen small snow flying about as we toil up to higher ground. After a night in the nice little whitewashed inn27 in Kobi (1,981 m), the next morning they took an extra sledge and 17 men to help us over the mountains, the Cross Pass, the highest elevation on the Georgian Military Road; a very useful precaution as it turned out, and 3 mounted Cossacks to take care of us. [...] All our men formed a very picturesque group over the snowy mountains. The snow was so deep that Anne and Ann soon had to leave their kibitka on wheels for the sledge. Very cold, cold wind in our faces. [...] At 7:55 we were at the difficulties, steep narrow pitches up hill that almost set fast the 5 horses to each kibitka. At 8:50 on the narrow road along precipitous mountain-side. All deep snow here. They reached the Cross Pass (2,379 m) at nine. At 9:20 steep narrow descent with tremendous precipice close right. Worst part of the road and here meet traineaux and laden horses and Tcherkess peasants. [...] The terrible road led them to a long very steep descent at an awful perpendicular height above the Aragna. I alight at 2:35 and walk to the bottom of this part (Ann was crying and would not alight). Once they arrived in the beautiful valley, the worst was behind them. They reached the inn in Passanauri (1,050 m) at 4:50 that afternoon, and bade farewell to their many helpers. Despite the hard day, Ann Walker found a place to sketch while Anne went for a walk; the white, rapidy river, the fine forms of the mountains – beautiful scene.28
Via Ananuri (712 m), they reached Mtskheta two days later, one of the most ancient cities of Asia, the ancient capital of Georgia prior to Tbilisi and the country’s spiritual centre to this day. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city disappointed Anne, who saw at first glance only rubble and a neglected village. At second glance, though, she discovered traces of the past in the people, their clothing and customs. How this savours of remote antiquity! [...] The houses, ovens sunk in the floor, cattle-skin bottles of wine let out at one of the legs, boats scooped out of the trunks of trees, are surely the same as in the days of Homer.29 They continued to Tbilisi that same evening. It was 12 April 1840. Since leaving Moscow, they had been on the road for two months and one week.
They planned to stay a while and recover their strength in the Oriental-style city with its fifty thousand inhabitants, including more Armenians than Georgians, many Cherkessians and Persians, Pietists from Württemberg and a handful of Russians, mainly military men and civil servants. However, the rooms at their inn were unheated and damp; they had six windows with cold airs blowing about in all six directions.30 They sent back the food they were brought from a cook-shop. Ann Walker improvised soups, eggs and rice on their spirit cooker. Cold and rain kept them inside for the first week. Ann was physically and mentally exhausted. Anne was too tired to write her diary, only reporting their arrival in Tbilisi to Princess Sophia Radzivill. All is rose-coloured for us here, but nothing can make me forget the very happy hours I spent with you. [...] Did you receive my little farewell note? It at least has the merit of being true. I have only a single little letter with me – that from Saint Sophia. That was a lie, as was all the rest. Adieu!31
A letter of recommendation from Countess Panina to her cousin, the wife of the Russian governor general, improved their situation. Mme Golovina took up the two women’s cause, had a working stove installed in their accommodation, sent them meals and showed them around town in her coach. The Russian rulers had declared Tbilisi capital of the newly conquered territories in the Caucasus, which also included large parts of Azerbaijan and Armenia. The full and busy bazaar next to the bridge across the Mtkvari instantly became our favourite place.32 They went on through the sulphuric baths district of Abanotubani to the picturesque gorge, at the foot of the ancient Narikala fortress, which was at that time being converted into the Botanical Garden, which still exists today. 25 minutes sauntering to the top and then the door opened and what a panorama! It is a long narrow ridge or promontory of rock on which the old castle and fortifications stand, dividing the town from the ravine of the garden – Magnificent! Gazed in mute admiration – the river, the circular opening-out for the German colony, the town throttled at the bridge, and the range of snow-covered mountains and Kasbek. How fine! How new and Asiatic to us.33 In a letter to Mariana, Anne made a first summary of their crossing of the Caucasus. At the Pyrenees the transition from France to Spain is sufficiently striking; but here it is from Europe to Asia. [...] My expectations are exceeded.
Thanks to Mme Golovina, Anne and Ann were invited to the homes of the Russian military and Georgian aristocracy. We everywhere find an agreeable and polished society. A ball given by the commander in chief here (a very viceroy) is like a ball in London, or Paris, with the additional interest of Georgian beauty, and a picturesque mixture of Georgian costume with the dernièrs modes de Paris.34 Anne and Ann were particularly impressed by two sisters, still legendary in Georgia today, a perfectly Europeanised specimen of Georgian ladies, très comme il faut,35 Nino Chavchavadze and her sister, Princess Ekaterina Dadiani, jeune, jolie, et très gracieuse.36 The latter invited Anne and Ann to visit her palace in Zugdidi.
But Anne wanted to continue to Tehran and Baghdad. Everyone they met declared such a journey impossible. They might get as far as Tabriz in their kibitkas but they would have to switch to mules after that, for which the ladies would have to wear men’s clothing. Persian servants and interpreters would be essential. The only way to travel from Tehran to Baghdad was by caravan, and they would have to wait up to a year for an opportunity to return. None of this shocked Anne. 37 Phyllis Ramsden sums up the situation as: AW very put out – accuses AL of selfishness abt travel programme.37 In the end, Anne had to admit defeat for financial reasons, especially as the trip had already gone over budget. No Persia for the present.38 As it was, they had to contact their banker in Moscow and ask him to tap into their emergency fund in Hamburg.
To make up for missing out on Persia, Anne at least wanted to see the Caspian Sea. The regular Russian post road went as far as Baku and she was determined to get that far. Thi
s led to a disagreement with AW, who doesn’t want to go further afield,39 but Anne got her way as usual. Only Domna was granted leave, being pregnant. With reduced luggage, they set off for Azerbaijan on 13 May, a month after their arrival in Tbilisi. George Tchaikin was with them, as well as four mounted Cossacks and an officer for their protection. For a time, they also had to add four Tartars to their escort, as the road ran through contested territories.
It took them five days to get to Baku. There were as few bridges as in Hanover; they used ferries to cross the rivers, swollen with melted snow. On the way, they visited homes dug deep into the earth. 5 women, their chemises open so as to show their flabby pendant breasts and great part of the stomach. Curiously examined our clothes, admired Ann’s green silk wadded bonnet lined with pink. They spent a night with a caravan of forty camels, a delightful tranquil scene. I stood some minutes with the camels, a few browsing, some chewing their cud, some sleeping, their faces on the ground, doglike, and their hind legs curiously bent under them in the oriental sitting fashion.40 At the bazaar in Shemakhi, Anne Lister – who was beginning to go grey – was interested in henna, a yellow-green powder with which they dye their beards black. They tried the local specialities with curiosity, a veritable plum cake. i.e. of plums dried and a dish of eggs poached in oil and eaten with cake. Half dozen men at one dish – dipped in the cake and took out the egg with their finger and one of the men held out a bit for me to taste. I ate it off his finger and found it very eatable.41
Baku, located on a steep hill, was surrounded at that time by a double wall. The Russian city commandant, Colonel Tchekmarev, allocated the two women accommodation in a house lowish in the town, not far from the sea. 1 large, 1 small room and a balcony looking over the sea. Close to the principal mosque and very near the Commandant’s house, well-situated and quiet. Mme Tchekmareva took care of the unexpected guests of the smallest and most remote military post in the Russian Empire. She sent them cream and bread and a marinade of fowl (Ann never enjoyed any meat so much in Russia),42 to which Ann added rice, eggs and vegetables cooked on her spirit cooker, as in Tbilisi.
Ann Walker became particularly friendly with Mme Tchekmareva. She admired her loose Turkish-style doublet, which was more suitable for the increasingly hot season than the English ladies’ fashion Anne Lister felt obliged to wear. I could not stand this climate unclothed!43
Ann, however, bought Persian silk and sewed airy dresses for herself with Mme Tchekmareva’s aid. She also got along well with a naval adjutant who sketched like her and had interesting things to say about the shells of the Caspian Sea. Despite her reluctance to come along in the first place, she was more cheerful and relaxed in Baku than usual. Anne Lister, too, found much to enjoy. For the second time on their trip, she visited a harem, this time that of the Persian jeweller Hadji Baba; were so much amused among the women that there we sat till after 8, about an hour I should think. We found the floor covered with handsome carpetting and 3 chairs placed at the head of the room for us, and women standing all round the room, perhaps about 20, enough to quite fill the room. Hadji’s son (a youth with sprouting beard) and a woman servant handed tea and sweetmeats and pistachios. [...] Two or three of the women were handsome, the rest not at all. Wide silk trousers hardly distinguishable from petticoats (generally red or crimson) and belaced or bejewelled jackets and veils. Necklaces and bracelets, and head ornaments, and large Chinese-looking earrings, and 3-inch-diameter round brooches stuck on the middle of the chest in front, full of rubies, emeralds, etc. mounted in enamel and gold. [...] They danced at our request the Georgian dance danced at Tiflis, but much better, much more naturally – especially one rather older girl (perhaps aged 20) who was quite taken with us. She hugged and embraced Mme Tchekmarev for 2 or 3 minutes, and me for half as long, at parting, and promised to come and see us in spite of their Prophet! How she managed the bonny wriggle-and-lifting petticoat I know not, but it was well done, and the animated eye and strong cracking of thumbs bespoke the interest she evidently felt. All cracked or struck their hands together in cadence with the dance, and so did I, and to their apparently great delight I made as much ‘handy’ noise as any of them. On leaving, just went up to Hadji and the Commandant and one or 2 more men. They had had sweetmeats, but had probably been less amused than we.44
After Anne and Ann had viewed the ruins of the Shirvanshahs’ Palace and the Maiden Tower, their new friends took them on an excursion to the oil-rich Absheron peninsula. A few decades before the oil boom, the crude oil near the surface was still being drawn by hand from eighty-five wells and used as naphtha for lamps, lubricant for wheels or a sealant for boats. Natural gas, which was abundant here, one only has to dig for it,45 burned as an eternal flame in Zoroastrian temples. As the region was converted to Islam, their places of worship were converted to mosques; the Ateshgah temple, close to the oil and gas field, was the last one remaining. Singular place, like a fortress-foundry. A low entrance gate led to a courtyard, surrounded on all four sides by twenty-one windowless chambers. There were (and still are) 4 fire chimneys in the square open tower temple, where gas was burned. In the middle of the building was a square well about 5 ft x 3 ft and 3 ft deep with strong flame forever burning, but one of the Indians extinguished it with cold water and then immediately lighted it again for our amusement. Because the temple also attracted Hindus, it was put into good repair by an Indian in 1825 – and recently made even ‘better’ by the Azerbaijani government. Anne and Ann also saw a ceremony being performed. The high priest was signed on his forehead with a red tongue between 2 yellow lines (the sign of fire), but called himself a worshipper more especially of Krishna. He and 2 others did the duty, very serious and pious-looking. In a neat little carpeted and divanned room for strangers with two small flames of its own, they were served dinner, cold meat and quass and wine. They were back at their accommodation by eleven in the evening. Tea, and sat whistling until 1 ½ am.46
A week after their arrival, they departed in gratitude and regret, equipped by Mme Tchekmarev with a giant meat pie, a bottle of white naphta, bag of rice (best kind) containing 10 or 12 lbs at least, 18 hardboiled eggs, fowl, cake of bread and 2 bottles of Baku white wine.47 Anne had actually wanted to return via Armenia for a spot of gazing on the berceau of mankind, the sacred Ararat.48 None of the high-ranking military men of her acquaintance would issue a pass for the conquered but by no means pacified region, however, so they had to return to Tbilisi the way they had come. In very picturesque Ganja – now the second-largest city in Azerbaijan – the caravanserai must have been handsome in its day, now a heap of ruins inside, all the rooms but 6 or 7 roofless and more or less filled with rubbish. [...] Could not sleep for heat and fleas. The next day, too, they were much bit even during the day. Have not had such a flea-hunt since Italy in 1827 when I frequently caught at night 30 or more. Poor Ann’s legs were absolutely in blisters – got her to take her over-stockings off and leave her boots unbuttoned at the top.49 On 1 June they were back in Tbilisi, back at our old quarters (same room, same price).50
They found the banknotes from Moscow on arrival and their acquaintances exchanged them for silver coins. Talking over journey and money matters and as usual this latter subject never ends happily. We have had in foreign money six hundred and fifty of the thousand pounds in circulars, and they had also tapped into the Hamburg emergency fund to the tune of £85. After this financial stocktaking, Ann Walker urged that they return home immediately. Anne Lister, however, thought that they had enough money left and that the season was good for travelling. She wanted to see more of the Caucasus and the Black Sea and only then go quickly home.51 For their return journey, Anne ordered another £200 to be taken out of their emergency fund in Hamburg via Moscow.
It took Anne three hot summer weeks to organize the next leg of their journey. As well as George and Domna, the Cossack officer who had accompanied them to Baku was to travel with them again. He spoke Turk, which is indispensable here, almost all the Georgians speak Tatar
as well as their own ancient language.52 They had an escort of three mounted Cossacks. Anne took directions from her new travel bible, Frédéric Dubois de Montpéreux’s Voyage autour du Caucase (1839). They headed west along the Mtkvari valley. The vegetation grew more and more lush, and two days after they set out, on the dot at 12:40 beauty begins. Wood on our right, good green valley about a mile wide, hills wooded left.53 They stayed in Gori for three nights; from there, they rode to the Ateni Sioni Church with its impressive frescoes and to the ancient town of Uplistsikhe, carved out of the rock high above the Mtkvari River, boasting pillars and Roman coffered ceilings. Ann Walker instantly whipped out her sketchbook and even Anne Lister made a few of her rare sketches in her diary.
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