Page:Letter from T.H. Barker to his wife Mary, 27 November 1903.pdf/6

 Station and found there was an express, to leave at 6.50pm, so that I shall leave by it for Taiga junction for Tomsk. I am paying from here to Peterbourg and the total fares from Newchwang to Petersburg, will only have amounted to £21 a wonderfully cheap ride considering the accommodation. The ticket is available for 17 days, and I shall only just be in time to spend Christmas with you. Jim had better inquire about the Holt Steamer, which is bringing my purchases and see they are brought from London in time for our Annual Christmas Show. I hope you have got the dresses by now, and that you will have the crepe made up for an X’mas present, being grey you can wear it for mourning. I think I shall return from Peterbourg by Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Hamburg. It will be cheaper than through Berlin by “train de luxe”.

I must now conclude as I have calls to make. I like Irkutsk very much. It is very picturesque, and not at all outlandish. The Russian architecture is classic or Byzantine and has a stateliness or picturesque dignity about it. What an experience I am having. It is worth years of labour, and my knowledge of languages has been invaluable, and I am slowly picking up Russian. It is smooth and rather hard to catch.