SOURCE: "A New Art of Travel," in Fortnightly Review, Vol. 95, No. 8, March 1, 1911, pp. 470-92.

In the following essay, Robins recounts a trip she took with Bell to Arabia and discusses Bell's writings on Arabia.

There is a natural freemasonry among travellers. Even he whose journeying has been brief, and scarce beyond the borders of his native land, will nevertheless come home with a better knowledge, not of other places only, but of his own relation to his fellow-man; so little can the best-equipped carry with him, so much at every turn does he find himself in need of the knowledge and goodwill of those he meets.

No amount of couriers or maps will relieve the traveller of dependence upon those, he goes amongst. The situation in which he finds himself, abroad, sets in a high, clear light certain facts that only the stay-at-home may disregard.

I am moved...