The notebook covering the Transylvanian leg of my journey was lost for 50 years and only restored a few years ago by a great stroke of luck It has been a great help to me in reconstructing that period and committing it to print but not the unfailing prop it should have been For in Transylvania I found myself having a much easier time of it than I had planned drifting from one hospitable country house to another often staying for weeks When I came to a standstill during those long halts writing stopped too as I was keeping a journal of travel I wrongly thought there was nothing to record I was often slow to take it up again when I moved on and even then jotted notes sometimes took the place of sustained narrative