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PREFACE. xi of Lord Byron in a rhyming letter to his London bookseller, written from Venice in the summer of 1818.
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Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
PREFACE. xi
of Lord Byron in a rhyming letter to his London bookseller,
written from Venice in the summer of 1818. '^
Forty years passed before the first work which professed to
give any adequate outline of the contents of General Gordon's
Diary, as a whole, began to issue from the press of Moscow.^
It followed Stritter's ill-planned version, so far as that went.
But the editor, Dr. Posselt, carefully collated the original, re-
stored many passages which Stritter had curtailed or omitted,
illustrated the text by valuable notes, and supplied the two great
chasms in the Journal by information gleaned from other sources.
From June, 1692, where his own translation began, he allowed
the narrative to run, as in the original, in the first person.
Dr. Posselt's work could scarcely fail to awaken interest in
the land of the adventurer whose story it told. It was reviewed,
in terms of just praise, in our two chief critical journals,^ and both
urged the publication of at least portions of the Diary in the
language in which it was written. The earlier of these reviews
was from the lively and accomplished pen of the late Earl of
^ In a bantering excuse for the delay of don, wahrend seiner Kriegsdienste unter den
the fourth canto of Childe Harold, Lord Schweden und Polen vom Jahre lGo5 bis
Byron enumerates other works which Mr, 1661, und seines Aufenthaltes in Russland
Murray is preparing to publish : — vom Jahre 1661 bis 16G9, zum ersten
'Then you've General Gordon, vollstandig veroffentlicht durch Furst M. A.
Who girded his sword on, Obolenski und Dr. phil. M. C. Posselt.
To serve with a Muscovite master, Erster band : Moskau, 1849. Zwciter band :
And help him to polish St. Petersburg, 1851. Dritter band: St.
A nation so owlish Petersburg, 183.3.
They thought shaving their beards a The name of Prince Obolenski is dropped
disaster.' from the title pages of the second and third
(Byron's Poetical Works, vol. ii., pp. 394, volumes, for which we are indebted to Dr.
395, edit. Lond. 1855.) It was, no doubt, Posselt alone. That gentleman bore also the
an advertisement of this intended work that chief share in editing the first volume,
led to the belief in Russia that a Life of ■* In the Quarterly Review for ALirch,
General Patrick Gordon had been published 1852, (no. clxxx., vol. xc, pp. 314-332);
at London. in the Edinburgh Review for July, 1856,
' Tagebuch des Generals Patrick Gor- (no. ccxi., vol. civ., pp. 24-51.)
Gordon was brought up and remained a lifelong Roman Catholic, at a time when the Church was being persecuted in Scotland. At age of fifteen, he entered the Jesuit college at Braunsberg, East Prussia, then part of Poland. In 1661, after many years experiences as a soldier of fortune, he joined the Russian army under Tsar Aleksei I, and in 1665 was sent on a special mission to England. After his return, he distinguished himself in several wars against the Turks and Tatars in southern Russia. In recognition of his service he was promoted to major-general in 1678, was appointed to the high command at Kiev in 1679, and in 1683 was made lieutenant-general. In 1687 and 1689 he took part in expeditions against the Tatars in the Crimea, being made a full general. Later in 1689, a revolution broke out in Moscow, and with the troops under his command, Gordon virtually decided events in favor of Peter the Great against the Regent, Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna. Consequently, he was for the remainder of his life in high favor with the Tsar, who confided to him the command of his capital during his absence from Russia. In 1696, Gordon's design of a "moveable rampart" played a key role in helping the Russians take Azov. One of Gordon's convinced the Tsars to establish the first Roman Catholic church and school in Muscovy, of which he remained the main benefactor and headed the Catholic community in Russia until his death. For his services his second son James, brigadier of the Russian army, was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1701. At the end of his life the Tsar, who had visited Gordon frequently during his illness, was with him when he died, and with his own hands closed his eyes. General Gordon left behind him a uniquely detailed diary of his life and times, written in English. This is preserved in manuscript in the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow. Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries (1635–1699) was printed, under the editorship of Joseph Robertson, for the Spalding Club, at Aberdeen, Scotland, 1859.
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