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THE  LETTERS  OF  JOHN  B.  S.  MORRITT 


J.    B.   S.    MORRITT 


Frontispiece 


THE    LETTERS    OF 
JOHN  B.  S.  MORRITT 

OF    ROKEBY 

DESCRIPTIVE    OF    JOURNEYS    IN    EUROPE 
AND  ASIA  MINOR  IN  THE  YEARS  1794-1796 


EDITED    BY   G.    E.    MARINDIN 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS 


LONDON 

JOHN  MURRAY,  ALBEMARLE  STREET,  W. 

1914 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


PREFACE 

THE  writer  of  these  letters  was  the  eldest  son  of  John 
Sawrey  Morritt  of  Rokeby  Park,  a  place  noted  for  the 
beauty  of  its  surroundings,  in  Yorkshire,  between 
Richmond  and  Barnard  Castle,  on  the  Durham  border, 
at  the  junction  of  the  little  river  Greta  with  the  Tees. 
He  was  born  in  1772,  and  became  owner  of  the 
Rokeby  estate,  and  of  a  considerable  fortune  besides, 
at  his  father's  death  in  1790.  He  was  educated  at 
St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  and  took  his  B.A. 
degree  in  1794.  Immediately  after  this,  towards  the 
end  of  February  in  that  year,  he  started  on  the  travels 
which  are  described  in  these  letters.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  imagine  a  better  traveller.  He  was  a  good 
scholar,  well-read  in  Greek  and  Latin  literature,  and 
had  already  developed  a  considerable  taste  for  anti- 
quarian research  :  he  found  interests  at  all  points, 
whether  in  the  movements  of  the  French  armies, 
which  he  had  a  way  of  avoiding  just  in  time,  or  in 
the  struggle  of  Polish  patriots ;  in  the  society  of 
Vienna,  or  in  studying  the  people  of  all  classes  and 
many  countries  with  whom  he  came  in  contact;  or 
in  visiting  the  remains  of  cities  and  temples  renowned 
in  Greek  history  and  literature,  which  it  was  his  main 
object  to  explore.  The  letters  will  show  how  thorough 
for  those  days  was  his  investigation  of  famous  sites 
in  Asia  Minor  and  Greece,  and  how  little  he  was 


206G906 


vi  PREFACE 

deterred  or  troubled  by  hardships  or  by  reported 
dangers. 

He  reached  home  in  1796  and  settled  down  as  an 
influential  country  squire  and  admirable  landlord, 
in  Yorkshire:  high  sheriff  in  1806;  and  M.P.  for 
Beverley  in  1799,  for  Northallerton  in  1814,  and  for 
Shaftesbury  in  1818-20. 

At  the  time  when  these  letters  were  written,  fresh 
from  the  University,  he  was  evidently  rather  in- 
dependent in  politics,  railing  somewhat  against 
"aristocrats,"  but  still  more  against  "sansculottism"; 
not  at  all  inclined  to  agree  with  Fox,  but  not  quite 
in  agreement  with  Pitt,  either;  and  wholly  against 
the  continuance  of  war — which,  it  must  be  remembered, 
was  not  being  waged  with  much  credit  or  success 
on  land  by  Great  Britain  in  1794^-6.  But  with  the 
responsibilities  of  his  position  came  more  settled 
politics,  and  he  sat  as  a  Tory  in  three  Parliaments. 

He  published  little — a  political  pamphlet  "Advice  to 
the  Whigs,  by  an  Englishman  in  1810"  and  "A  Letter 
to  R.  Bethell,"  in  1826,  in  favour  of  the  claims  of  the 
Roman  Catholics  (for  which  certain  expressions  in 
many  of  these  early  letters  would  not  prepare  us) ;  he 
published  in  1798  also  "  A  Vindication  of  Homer  and 
of  the  Ancient  Poets  and  Historians  who  have  recorded 
the  Siege  and  Fall  of  Troy,"  in  answer  to  Jacob  Bryant ; 
and  the  controversy  went  on  for  a  year  or  two. 
Scott  inserted  Morritt's  ballad  "  The  Curse  of  Moy  " 
in  the  third  part  of  the  "  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish 
Border." 

His  taste  for  art  and  literature  and  antiquities 
remained  with  him  throughout  his  long  life — he  lived 
till  1843 — and  he  made  many  later  additions  to  the 
Rokeby  collection  of  sculptures  and  paintings :  among 
them  the  picture  known  as  the  Rokeby  Venus,  which 


PREFACE  vii 

has  had  a  remarkable  history.  It  was  a  happy  circum- 
stance that  in  1808  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  introduced  by  Scott's  old  friend,  Lady 
Louisa  Stuart.  They  were  congenial  spirits,  and  the 
friendship  became  more  and  more  delightful  to  both 
as  years  went  on.  Lockhart,  speaking  of  their  first 
acquaintance,  bears  high  testimony :  that  "  from  this 
time  Scott  communicated  his  thoughts  and  feelings 
to  one  of  the  most  accomplished  men  that  ever 
shared  his  confidence." 

Morritt  paid  visits  to  Scott,  and  Scott  to  Morritt. 
In  a  letter  to  George  Ellis  in  1809  Scott  gives  his 
impressions  of  Rokeby,  which  he  already  designed  to 
make  the  scene  of  the  poem  published  three  years 
later.  "  We  .  .  .  lingered  a  little  while  at  Rokeby  Park, 
the  seat  of  our  friend  Morritt,  and  one  of  the  most 
enviable  places  I  have  ever  seen,  as  it  unites  the  rich- 
ness and  luxuriance  of  English  vegetation  with  the 
romantic  variety  of  glen,  torrent,  and  copse  which 
dignifies  our  northern  scenery.  The  Greta  and  Tees, 
two  most  beautiful  and  rapid  rivers,  join  their  currents 
in  the  demesne.  The  banks  of  the  Tees  resemble, 
from  the  height  of  the  rocks,  the  glen  of  Roslin,  so 
much  and  so  justly  admired." 

According  to  Lockhart  the  secret  of  the  authorship 
of  "  Waverley  "  was  at  first  confided  by  Scott  to  James 
Ballantyne,  Erskine,  and  Morritt  alone.  In  his  diary 
of  May  30,  1828,  Scott  writes  thus  of  his  friend:  "I 
had  great  pleasure  in  finding  myself  at  Rokeby,  and 
recollecting  a  hundred  passages  of  past  time.  Morritt 
...  is  now  one  of  my  oldest,  and,  I  believe,  one  of  my 
sincerest  friends ; — a  man  unequalled  in  the  mixture 
of  sound  good  sense,  high  literary  cultivation,  and 
the  kindest  and  sweetest  temper  that  ever  graced  a 
human  bosom." 


Vlll 


PREFACE 


The  original  letters  are  in  the  possession  of  Miss 
Spedding :  and  I  have  been  asked  to  arrange  them 
for  publication.  It  was  advisable  to  reduce  somewhat 
the  bulk  of  the  volume,  and  I  have  omitted  whole 
letters  or  parts  of  letters  which  discussed  purely 
family  matters  of  no  permanent  interest,  or  which 
repeated  what  had  been  written  to  another  corre- 
spondent. I  judged  that  a  few  introductory  notes 
on  the  events  of  the  time,  and  on  the  archaeological 
researches,  might  be  useful  in  some  of  the  chapters, 
and  I  have  added  a  few  footnotes ;  but  only  where 
a  name  or  an  allusion  really  seemed  to  need  explana- 
tion at  the  present  day.  Several  sketches  by  the 
Viennese  "  draughtsman  "  whom  Morritt  took  with  him 
on  his  travels,  were  preserved  with  the  letters.  Most 
of  them  were  in  a  condition  unsuitable  for  repro- 
duction ;  but  six,  belonging  to  the  year  1795,  have 
been  inserted. 

G.  E.  MARINDIN. 


CONTENTS 


FACE 


PREFACE    v 

CHAPTER 

I.    JOURNEY  FROM  OSTEND  TO  DRESDEN.        .        i 
II.    VIENNA — THE  POLISH  INSURRECTION.        .      21 

III.  JOURNEY  FROM  VIENNA  TO  CONSTANTINOPLE, 

WITH  SOME  DIGRESSIONS  ABOUT  VIENNA 
AND  STYRIA 38 

IV.  CONSTANTINOPLE 73 

V.    TRAVELS  IN  ASIA  MINOR  AND  SAMOS        .      98 

VI.  THE  TROAD  AND  THE  SITE  OF  THE  HOMERIC 
TROY  :  THE  ISLANDS  OF  CHIOS  AND 
LESBOS 128 

VII.    FROM    ATHOS    AND    SALONICA    THROUGH 

THESSALY  AND  BOEOTIA:  ATHENS         .     155 

»  VIII.  THROUGH  THE  MOREA,  INCLUDING  THE 
TERRITORY  OF  THE  MAINOTES  IN  LA- 
CONIA 182 

ix 


x  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  FACE 

IX.    AEGEAN  ISLANDS:  CRETE  210 


X.    OLYMPIA  AND  THE  IONIAN  ISLANDS    .        .    241 
XI.    NAPLES         .        .        .        .        .        .        .    259 

XII.    FROM  ROME,  THROUGH  TRIESTE  AND  VIENNA, 

TO   CUXHAVEN          „  .  .  .      292 

INDEX  ...  .  .313 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

JOHN  B.  S.  MORRITT        .        .        .        .        ,.        Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

ROKEBY 4 

CORINTH.    PARNASSUS  AND  HELICON  IN  THE  DISTANCE  .     184 
TRIPOLIZZA       .........     184 

VIEW  IN  NAXOS 196 

TEMPLE  OF  APOLLO  AT  BASSAE        .        .        .        .        .196 

TEMPLE  AT  MELASSO  (MYLASA) 222 

DOORWAY  OF  TEMPLE  OF  DIONYSOS  IN  NAXOS        .        .222 
MAP  OF  THE  PLAIN  OF  TROY 146 


LETTERS    OF    MR.    MORRITT 
.  OF    ROKEBY 

CHAPTER  I 
JOURNEY  FROM  OSTEND  TO  DRESDEN 

A  FEW  notes  on  the  position  of  affairs  in  Europe  when 
Morritt  started  on  his  travels,  at  the  end  of  February 
1794,  may  help  to  an  understanding  of  some  allusions 
in  his  letters. 

In  France  the  destruction  of  the  Girondists  four 
months  before  had  left  the  various  Jacobin  parties 
in  power,  and  Robespierre  was  engaged  in  removing 
his  rivals — the  extreme  party  of  the  Hebertists  on  the 
one  side,  and  the  less  immoderate  section  headed  by 
Danton  on  the  other.  The  month  of  March,  just  as 
Morritt  reached  Dresden,  saw  the  overthrow  and 
execution  of  both  Hebertists  and  Dantonists,  leaving 
the  supreme  power  for  the  time  in  the  hands  of  Robes- 
pierre and  nis  coadjutors,  St.  Just  and  Couthon, 
acting  through  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety.  The 
Terror  was  at  its  height. 

The  frontier  warfare  had  surged  backwards  and 
forwards.  More  than  a  year  earlier,  in  November  1792, 
Dumouriez's  victory  at  Jemappes  had  opened  all 
Belgium  (still  the  Austrian  Netherlands)  to  the 
French,  who  occupied  Brussels  and  other  Belgian 
towns  through  the  winter ;  but  with  the  spring  cam- 
paign came  reverses.  The  Prince  of  Coburg  in  March 
1793  moved  forward ;  the  siege  of  Maestricht  was 
raised ;  the  French  army  was  driven  beyond  the 
Meuse,  routed  near  Liege,  fell  back  on  Tirlemont  and 
then  on  Lou  vain.  On  March  18  Dumouriez  suffered 


2         JOURNEY  FROM  OSTEND  TO   DRESDEN   [CH.  i 

a  severe  defeat  at  Neerwinden ;  and,  by  a  convention 
of  March  21,  the  French  evacuated  Brussels  and  fell 
back  towards  their  own  frontier.  Dumouriez  was 
intriguing  with  the  Austrians,  partly  from  a  genuine 
disapproval  of  the  Jacobin  excesses,  and  partly  be- 
cause he  foresaw  that  want  of  success  in  any  cam- 
paign would  lead  to  the  guillotine,  as  was  found  by 
Custine  and  Houchard  not  long  afterwards.  He  failed 
to  carry  over  his  troops,  and  was  forced  to  take  refuge 
with  the  Austrians.  The  French  armies,  still  further 
discouraged  and  disorganised  by  his  desertion,  retired 
to  Valenciennes,  Lisle  and  Conde,  within  the  French 
frontier.  They  also  formed  an  entrenched  camp  at 
Famars,  about  three  miles  to  the  south  of  Valenciennes 
commanded  by  General  Dampierre,  who  attempted  an 
advance,  but  was  driven  back  to  his  camp.  The  camp 
of  Famars  itself  was  stormed  three  weeks  later  by  a 
combined  British  and  German  army;  Valenciennes 
was  taken  ;  and  it  appears  that  only  the  jealousies  and 
separate  interests  of  the  Allies  prevented  a  march 
upon  Paris. 

The  tide  then  turned  again.  Carnot,  "  the  Organiser 
of  Victory,"  became  military  member  of  the  Committee 
in  August  1793.  In  the  same  month  the  British,  under 
the  incapable  Duke  of  York,  sat  down  before  Dunkirk, 
and  narrowly  escaped  destruction  when  Houchard 
defeated  the  Hanoverian  troops  under  Freitag  at 
Hoondschoote  on  September  8.  But  Houchard 
failed  in  the  decision  which  would  have  completed 
his  success,  and  paid  for  the  failure  with  his  head. 
Jourdan,  his  successor,  defeated  the  Austrians  at 
Wattignies  in  October,  and  so  compelled  Coburg  to 
raise  the  siege  of  Maubeuge.  This  marked  the  end 
of  the  Austrian  advance.  They  retired  into  winter 
quarters  across  the  Sambre,  while  the  French  armies 
were  encamped  for  the  winter  on  the  Belgian  frontier. 

Such  was  the  position  of  the  armies  in  the  North 
when  Morritt  travelled  from  Ostend  to  Dresden — in 
sixteen  stages,  as  his  diary  shows.  The  chief  places 
on  his  route  were  Ghent,  Brussels,  Tirlemont,  Liege, 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  Diisseldorf,  Cassel,  Erfurt,  Leipzig. 
It  will  thus  be  seen  that  much  of  the  country  over 
which  he  travelled  had  been  fought  over  in  the  previous 
year,  as  he  describes  in  some  of  his  letters.  Later  in 
the  same  year  it  was  again  overspread  by  French 


1794]  START   FROM   ENGLAND  3 

armies  within  ten  or  twelve  weeks  of  Morritt's  pas- 
sage. 

At  Dresden  Frederick  Augustus,  Elector  of  Saxony, 
had  his  Court.  He  was  grandson  of  Augustus  III., 
King  of  Poland,  and  great-grandson  of  Augustus  II., 
Elector  of  Saxony,  and  afterwards  King  of  Poland, 
surnamed  "  The  Strong,"  who  formed  the  famous 
collection  of  art  treasures  which  Morritt  found  at 
Dresden.  Frederick  Augustus  abstained  as  much  as 
possible  from  war  against  France,  and  only  took  up  arms 
when  he  was  called  upon  to  furnish  a  contingent  for 
the  defence  of  the  German  Empire.  After  Jena  he 
made  peace  with  Napoleon,  and  received  the  title  of 
King  of  Saxony  in  1806,  as  a  member  of  the  Confedera- 
tion of  the  Rhine. 

SlTTINGBOURNE, 

February  27,  1794. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

Though  I  did  not  trouble  you  with  any  descrip- 
tions of  London  and  its  environs  (for,  to  say  the  truth, 
the  subject  has  been  so  fully  treated  of  by  Master 
Jacky  Curious  in  his  letters  to  his  mamma  that  I 
thought  it  needless),  yet  now  I  have  begun  my  tour 
you  may  depend  upon  hearing  regularly  from  me. 
However,  to  give  some  account  of  London,  which  the 
afore-mentioned  writer  has,  I  believe,  omitted,  you  may 
tell  Anne  that  Bond  Street  is  as  gay  as  usual,  the 
dear  Mount  undeserted  by  any  of  its  adherents,  and 
Warren's  Hotel  frequented  by  all  the  beau-monde  of 
the  present  day,  amongst  whom  I  first  enumerate 
Mr.  Bert  Champneys,  who,  in  his  pretty  way,  desired 
his  very  best  compliments. 

Stockdale  and  I  set  off  to-day  at  three  o'clock  on  our 
journey  after  having  amused  our  friends  in  Pall  Mall 
with  our  mode  of  packing,  and  setting  off  for  such  a 
tour,  not  a  little.  Augusta  and  Elizabeth  came  in  with 
Mrs.  J.  Stanley  just  before  we  set  out,  and  send  their 
love.  We  are  now,  after  supper,  or  in  reality  dinner, 
at  the  inn  at  Sittingbourne,  and  I  take  the  opportunity 
of  his  being  in  a  comfortable  nap  to  write  to  you  and 


4         JOURNEY  FROM  OSTEND  TO   DRESDEN   [CH.  1 

tell  you  of  our  motions.  We  shall  arrive  at  Dover 
to-morrow,  and  sail  at  twelve  o'clock  at  night  for 
Ostend,  from  which  place  you  shall  certainly  have  a 
note  from  me  to  say  I  am  safe,  though  not  a  very  long 
letter,  unless  I  write  it  at  Dover,  as  I  did  the  last  time 
I  toured.  We  have  got  all  sorts  of  letters,  and  have 
been  presented  to  the  Mussulman,  so  we  are  more 
determined  on  our  Grecian  tour  than  ever,  especially 
as  we  have  met  with  men  who  themselves  have  made 
it  and  who  represent  the  dangers  of  it  as  entirely 
imaginary. 

I  was  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  letters  you  got 
me,  though,  as  we  do  not  mean  to  stop  before  we 
arrive  at  Dresden,  they  will  many  of  them  be  useless. 
I  left  all  my  papers  and  worldly  concerns  with  Walton, 
so  you  will  hear  all  that  sort  of  thing  from  him.  Per- 
haps you  would  hear  he  has  for  some  days  been 
extremely  ill,  though  he  was  much  better  when  I  left 
town. 

I  must  tell  you  the  character  we  go  in  to  the 
Sublime  Porte,  as  it  will  give  you  some  idea  of  the 
understandings  of  the  Faithful.  The  Ambassador 
asked  Mr.  Frederick  North  if  we  as  Englishmen  were 
not  very  well  acquainted  with  the  art  of  fortification, 
as  he  would  give  us  letters  to  his  own  brother,  the 
Grand  Master  of  the  Ordnance  in  Turkey,  whom  he 
hoped  we  should  enrich  with  some  very  valuable 
secrets  about  European  tactics.  Mr.  North  repre- 
sented us  as  great  engineers,  and  says  that  they  know 
so  little  of  the  matter  that  we  may  keep  up  our 
character  with  ease  out  of  an  old  German  almanac  on 
fortified  towns,  so  do  not  be  surprised  if  you  hear  of 
General  Stockdale  and  me  fortifying  the  Dardanelles. 
We  shall  very  soon,  I  hope,  be  equal  to  the  Duke  of 
Richmond  in  making  batteries  against  buckram  men, 
and  ramparts  with  nothing  to  defend.1  I  believe  the 
Duke  of  York  sails  at  the  same  time  we  do  to-morrow, 

1  The  third  Duke  of  Richmond  was  Master- General  of  the  Ordnance, 
1782-95. 


1794]  PASSAGE  TO   OSTEND  5 

and  I  only  hope  the  kind  wishes  that  attend  his  return 
may  not  endanger  us  in  a  storm,  for  never  man  was 
half  so  hated  by  his  brother  officers  ;  tell  Frances  this 
is  not  democrat  intelligence,  but  the  general  cry  of 
them  all.  I  left  Henry  in  London  very  well  this 
morning,  and  Edwardiki  also.  As  this  is  the  most 
interesting  intelligence  I  have,  I  shall  conclude  with 
Stockdale's  respects  and  my  love  to  you  all.  I  will 
write  constantly.  Adieu. 

Your  affectionate  son, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

Tell  Burgh  not  to  forget  me  or  be  idle,  but  do  his 
lessons  like  a  good  boy.  I  meet  Bootle  and  Wilbraham l 
at  Vienna.  Old  Bootle  is  better,  for  he  makes  jokes  as 
usual.  Emma  and  Eliza  a  t  ordinaire.  Direct  Dresden, 
poste  restante. 


DEAR  MOTHER, 

I  just  stop  one  moment  longer  here  to  tell  you 
that  we  arrived  safe  last  night  at  eleven  o'clock,  with- 
out danger,  fatigue,  or  sea-sickness,  after  a  voyage  of 
about  twelve  hours.  We  are  setting  off  for  Brussels 
instead  of  going  by  Antwerp,  as  there  is,  I  hear, 
almost  as  much  to  see,  and  Antwerp  is  less  likely  to  be 
in  the  hands  of  the  French  at  our  return. 

We  are  in  high  health  and  spirits,  and  you  shall 
some  of  you  hear  again  very  soon.     Adieu. 

Your  affectionate  son, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

OSTEND, 

March  2, 

Sunday  morning: 

1  These  two  friends  of  Morritt,  who  appear  often  in  the  letters,  and  who 
gained  some  repute  as  travellers,  were  brothers,  sons  of  Richard  Wilbraham 
Bootle,  of  Lathom  House,  Lancashire,  who  had  assumed  the  name  of  Bootle 
with  the  Lathom  property.  His  second  son  Randle  retained  the  name 
Wilbraham.  The  elder  at  this  time  was  Edward  Bootle,  but  he  afterwards 
resumed  the  name  of  Wilbraham,  and  was  created  Lord  Skelmersdale. 
2 


6         JOURNEY   FROM   OSTEND   TO   DRESDEN   [CH.  i 

BRUSSELS, 

May  4,  1794. 

DEAR  ANNE, 

Though  I  told  you  all  from  Ostend  we  were 
safely  arrived  in  the  Continent,  yet,  as  I  promised  to 
write  you  an  account  of  everything  queer  we  meet 
with,  I  can't  do  less  than  give  you  some  account  of 
our  proceedings  at  Brussels.  We  travelled  post  from 
Ostend  here  in  two  days,  being  sixty-eight  miles,  a 
distance  which  in  Germany  is  about  equal  to  two 
hundred  between  London  and  York,  for  the  more  you 
scold  in  French  the  more  the  postillions  smoke,  a 
Flemish  answer  to  all  sorts  of  language. 

We  got  here  on  Tuesday  evening,  and  have  employed 
two  days  in  gapeweed,  of  which  here  is  plenty.  The 
ridiculous  melange  of  English,  French,  and  Austrian 
manners  here  is  completely  laughable.  "  Venez  ici  si 
vous  voulez  voir  nos  manieres  et  nos  modes  etrange- 
ment  travestiees  par  des  maladroits  singes  et  des 
gauches  poupees,"  for  we  went  last  night,  being  the 
last  of  the  carnival,  to  what  they  call  a  Ridotto  and 
Grand  Bal  at  the  theatre,  dressed  a  la  mode  de 
Londres,  and  were  not  a  little  amused  to  find  half  the 
room  in  boots,  slouch  capes,  and  hunting  coats  by  way 
of  being  a  FAnglaise  in  an  evening,  all  walking  in  the 
true  slang  step  and  taking  us  for  emigre's,  I  dare  say, 
because  we  had  cocked  hats  on.  On  the  contrary, 
another  half  of  the  room  abounded  with  Croix  of 
St.  Louis,  dirty  laced  ruffles  and  bags,  muffs,  and 
cockades — I  never  wished  so  much  for  Bunbury  in  my 
life.  We  stayed  till  one  o'clock,  but  though  there 
needed  no  introduction  to  ask  a  lady  to  dance  on  this 
side  of  the  water,  yet  none  of  the  Flemish  ladies  were 
charming  enough  to  overcome  our  national  modesty, 
so  we  walked  out  again  after  quizzing  the  ball  a  little, 
without  sporting  a  toe  among  such  clodhoppers. 

We  were  surprised  to  find  everything  as  we  came 
along  so  flourishing  and  so  little  damaged  by  the 
French  as  it  has  been.  Tell  Mrs.  Frances  nothing  in 


1794]  MODERATION  OF  DUMOURIEZ  7 

the  whole  way  here  announces  the  late  seat  of  war. 
At  Brussels  all  the  French  had  taken  from  the  churches 
was  restored  before  they  evacuated  the  place  (by 
Dumouriez),  and  all  the  furniture  and  ornaments 
of  which  they  had  stripped  the  palace  were  sold  to 
individuals  of  whom  the  Court  have  again  bought 
them,  so  that  the  whole  is  just  as  it  was  before. 
Indeed  Dumouriez,  by  their  accounts,  seems  to  have 
had  nothing  to  do  but  to  counteract  the  folly  and 
violence  of  his  army,  and  to  restore  what  they 
plundered.  We  are  now  within  forty  miles  of  the 
French  army,  and  within  about  thirty  of  that  of  the 
Allies,  yet  all  here  is  just  as  gay  and  as  quiet  as  they 
are  in  London.  I  can't  help  thinking  how  your  Aunt 
Mary  would  feel  if  General  Van  Damme  was  at 
Catterick.  We  have  been  all  yesterday  and  to-day 
employed  in  seeing  some  very  fine  pictures  in  different 
churches  and  cabinets  here,  particularly  some  by 
Rubens,  Vandyck,  and  Rembrandt.  Pictures  can't  be 
described,  but  the  Rubens  here  give  you  a  much 
better  idea  of  his  skill  in  drawing  than  any  I  have 
seen,  and  are  equal  to  almost  any  pictures  I  know. 

One  picture,  however,  I  will  describe  to  you  as  it 
was  described  to  me  this  morning.  The  subject  was 
Abraham,  Sarah,  and  the  three  angels — "Voila, 
Monsieur,  un  tableau  qui  represente  Jacob  et  les  trois 
anges.  On  lui  dit  que  Sarah  sa  femme  deviendra 
grosse  (elle  en  rit,  voyez-vous),  et  on  lui  commande 
de  faire  baptiser  son  enfant  par  Saint  Jean  le  Baptiste" 
This  will  give  you  some  idea  of  their  accuracy  in 
Bible  chronology.  The  rest  of  the  things  we  have 
seen  are  a  beautiful  chateau  of  the  Archduke's  a  league 
from  the  town,  the  rooms  charmingly  fitted  up,  and  I 
think  as  good  as  the  best  English  houses ;  and  what 
is  not  very  'common  here,  the  walks  are  crinkum- 
crankum,  as  Lord  Ogleby  says,  with  many  fountains 
or  lead  statues.  There  is  a  large  coffee-house  here 
filled  with  French  aristocrats,  who  choose  to  stay  here 
at  other  people's  expense  while  the  Austrians  and 


8         JOURNEY  FROM  OSTEND  TO  DRESDEN   [CH.  i 

English  fight  their  battles,  within  thirty  miles  of  them. 
But  they  are  the  same  here  as  in  England,  and  wage 
no  war  but  in  the  coffee-room.  Our  laquais  de  place 
recommended  us  to  go  there  "  parce  qu'il  y  avait  des 
Archeveques,  des  fiveques,  et  tons  les  diables"  We 
presented  Mrs.  Gore's  letter  to  the  Princesse  de  Home, 
but  she  was  ill,  so  we  did  not  see  her;  the  Countess 
Ferrari  is  at  Vienna,  which  will  be  better  for  us. 
As  our  stay  here  is  so  short,  we  had  no  need  of  letters, 
and  did  not  even  call  at  the  Ambassador's.  To- 
morrow we  hope  by  early  rising  to  reach  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  sixty-nine  miles,  but  I  have  great  doubts ; 
then  through  Diisseldorf  to  Dresden.  I  do  not  pass 
near  Weimar,  where  Miss  Gore  is,  so  shall  send  her 
letter  by  the  post,  from  the  nearest  place  to  Frankfort. 
The  weather  is  as  fine  for  us  as  possible,  everything 
in  our  favour,  and  I  saw  two  magpies  immediately  on 
setting  off ;  so  if  we  do  not  get  to  Greece  the  devil's 
in  it.  I  shall  receive  no  letters  from  you  till  we  get 
to  Dresden,  where  I  am  heartily  anxious  to  be  now. 
We  shall  stop,  however,  one  day  at  Dusseldorf  to  see 
our  old  acquaintance  in  the  gallery  there.  I  have 
seen  nothing  very  pretty  to  be  bought  either  living 
or  dead,  so  have  not  begun  either  of  our  collections 
yet.  Give  my  best  love  to  my  mother  and  aunts ; 
we  are  both  ivery  well,  and  you  may  depend  upon 
hearing  constantly  from  your  affectionate  brother, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


NAUMBERG, 

March  19,  1794. 

DEAR  FRANCES, 

Though  we  have  been  rolling  on  so  long,  yet 
we  are  not  yet  arrived  at  our  journey's  end,  for 
of  such  travelling  you  cannot  have  any  idea.  An 
English  heavy-loaded  wagon  is  sometimes  flying,  if 
compared  with  the  pace  we  come  in  parts  of  our 
journey,  and  in  the  very  best  we  hardly  go  four  miles 
an  hour.  But  though  I  am  tired  of  our  trailing,  I 


1794]  THE   FRENCH   IN   BELGIUM  9 

will  endeavour  to  get  you  on  through  part  of  our 
journey  more  pleasantly.  So,  to  begin,  after  we  left 
Brussels,  we  came  forward  through  Liege  and  Aix- 
la-Chapelle  by  St.  Tron,  Tongres,  and  Tirlemont,  all 
names  which  you  recollect  pretty  much  talked  of  in 
English  newspapers  in  the  summer;  but  we  were  a 
good  deal  surprised  at  the  perfect  composure  of  the 
people,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  country,  though  the 
French  were  within  twenty  miles,  and  it  had  been 
the  scene  of  so  many  engagements  already. 

The  camp  of  Famars  is  not  far  off  Tirlemont,  I 
believe,1  so  there  had  been  pretty  hot  work ;  we  were 
shown  a  hillwhere  the  French  encamped,  when  Prince 
Coburg  drove  them  from  Louvain,  but,  excepting 
some  broken  and  overturned  crosses,  the  country 
looked  as  little  damaged  as  any  part  of  England  by 
either  army,  and  I  believe  forage,  etc.,  sells  so  high 
they  rather  gain  by  being  the  seat  of  war,  by  selling 
at  so  good  a  market  as  the  camps  are.  1  wonder  the 
French  ever  were  suffered  by  the  Brabanters,  for  they 
committed  continual  outrages  upon  their  churches, 
though  little  upon  private  property;  and  I  think  it 
completely  shows  the  influence  and  share  their  monks 
had  in  stirring  them  up  against  the  Emperor,  for  they 
let  a  good  deal  of  their  property  alone — so  that  the 
Brabanters  opposed  the  Emperor  when  he  tried  to 
destroy  the  convents,  without  ever  minding  the  French, 
who  were  pulling  down  their  very  altars. 

DRESDEN. 

I  was  obliged  to  leave  off  here  by  the  arrival  of 
supper,  and  have  never  had  half  an  hour's  time  to 
take  up  my  pen  again  till  now.  We  arrived  here 
yesterday  ;  that  varlet  Abney,  not  receiving  any  of  my 
letters  (by  what  accident  I  cannot  imagine),  only 
stayed  here  two  days,  went  to  Berlin,  from  which  he 
sets  off  in  about  a  week  for  Hanover,  and  afterwards 

1  Here  he  is  misinformed :  it  was  more  than  seventy  miles  from  Tirlemont. 
See  p.  2. 


io       JOURNEY   FROM   OSTEND  TO   DRESDEN   [CH.  i 

for  England.  You  may  be  sure  we  were  a  good  deal 
disappointed.  Lord  Porchester,  however,  is  here, 
and  stays  some  months ;  we  have  been  introduced 
to  Elliot,1  the  Envoy,  by  him,  and  mean  to  stay  here 
and  look  about  for  a  week  or  two.  Not  any  of  our 
letters  from  England  have  arrived  here  yet;  but  as 
the  post  is  very  slow,  I  hope  they  will  still  arrive 
soon,  as  I  long  to  hear  of  you  all.  We  have  not  yet 
begun  to  hunt  lions  in  Dresden,  for  we  arrived  only 
yesterday,  and  have  been  busy  in  settling  and  pre- 
senting our  letters  to  the  Envoy,  etc.  This  I  hear  is 
a  very  fine  show-place,  particularly  for  pictures,  of 
which  we  have  not  yet  seen  enough  to  be  tired. 

We  did  not  explore  anywhere  as  we  camefrom  Cassel 
here  except  for  a  few  hours  at  Leipzig,  which  is  like 
all  trading  towns  almost,  very  rich  with  nothing  to 
see;  when  I  say  nothing  I  mean  it  literally,  for  I 
cannot  tell  you  one  single  thing  worth  notice.  The 
roads  from  Diisseldorf  to  Cassel,  and  indeed  to 
Leipzig,  beggar  all  description ;  they  often  go  through 
a  pretty  country,  but  more  frequently  over  wide 
downs,  or  through  thick  forests.  The  quantity  of 
wood  is  inconceivable  ;  you  travel  between  hills 
covered  with  it  for  days  sometimes,  and  in  summer 
it  must  in  places  be  beautiful.  Tell  Mrs.  Mary  that 
we  were  often  in  roads  which  she  would  not  like ; 
indeed,  we  broke  our  springs,  and  bruised  our  carriage 
strangely;  however,  we  have  not  been  overturned, 
though  more  than  once  on  the  balance  with  the 
wheels  in  the  air. 

Dresden  is  indeed  beautifully  situated  in  a  large 
plain  on  the  Elbe,  bounded  with  pretty  cultivated 
hills  and  vineyards.  The  drollery  and  absurdity  of 
the  figures  and  equipages  here  exceed  anything  I 
ever  saw,  and,  like  true  Englishmen,  we  have  been 

1  Hugh  Elliot  was  Minister  at  the  Court  of  Saxony  from  1792  to  1802. 
Greater  interest  attached  to  his  diplomatic  work  previously  in  Sweden  in 
the  reign  of  Gustavus  III.,  and  subsequently  at  Naples  1803-6.  His  last 
public  office  was  the  governorship  of  Madras. 


1794]  IMPRESSIONS   OF   DRESDEN  n 

employed  all  the  morning  in  quizzing  the  natives. 
However,  it  is  hardly  worth  while,  for  it  quite  fails 
of  its  effect  with  a  German,  as  if  you  were  to  spit 
in  a  man's  face  here  he  would  only  wipe  it  off.  I 
always  thought  what  I  had  heard  of  the  phlegm  and 
sleepy  temper  of  these  people  exaggerated ;  but  it  is 
enough,  I  assure  you,  to  look  at  them,  and  see  the 
scenes  we  sometimes  do  :  you  would  swear  the  whole 
nation  was  asleep.  The  composure  with  which  they 
let  you  scold  them  is  inconceivable  ;  and  when  we 
have  done  we  might  have  better  held  our  tongues, 
as  a  German  is  never  in  a  hurry,  and  I  believe  cannot 
conceive  anybody  else  is.  Voltaire  somewhere  calls 
them  the  old  men  of  Europe ;  and  it  is  drawing  their 
picture  at  once.  Some  of  my  friends  I  know  will  not 
agree  with  me,  but  I  like  the  French  better  by  half, 
having  a  natural  propensity  and  partiality  for  folly  in 
preference  to  stupidity.  We  shall  be  presented  to 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Saxony  as  soon  as  possible ;  and  when 
we  see  what  the  higher  society  is  you  shall  hear  more 
what  we  think  about  it,  though  by  the  accounts  we 
hear  from  Lord  Porchester  it  is  exactly  the  same. 

I  have  hardly  left  myself  room  to  tell  you  that  when 
you  answer  this  you  must  direct  a  la  paste  restante, 
Vienne,  for  our  letters  are  so  long  in  going  that  it  is 
most  probable  we  shall  have  left  Dresden.  Indeed, 
we  must  not  attempt  to  have  a  question-and-answer 
correspondence,  but  write  as  often  as  we  feel  inclined. 
I  will  in  a  day  or  two  write  again  to  my  mother  or 
sister.  Make  Burgh  remember  his  promises,  and  give 
my  best  love  to  the  whole  circle,  Rover  not  excepted. 
We  are  both  as  well  and  in  as  good  spirits  as  possible  ; 
and  every  inquiry  confirms  our  Grecian  schemes. 
Believe  me,  my  dear  aunt, 

Most  affectionately  yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

DRESDEN, 
March  22. 


12        JOURNEY  FROM   OSTEND  TO   DRESDEN   [CH.  i 


DRESDEN, 

Saturday,  March  29. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

By  the  letter  I  wrote  my  Aunt  Frances  some 
days  since,  you  would  see  I  was  arrived  safe  and 
sound  at  Dresden ;  as  we  are  now  established  there, 
I  will  give  you  some  farther  account  of  our  motions. 
Abney,  from  never  receiving  my  letters,  which  arrived 
here  but  two  days  since,  though  I  sent  them  in 
January,  had  only  stayed  here  two  days,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  Berlin  in  his  road  home,  where  he  means 
to  arrive  in  the  course  of  next  month ;  and  if  he 
travels  through  Westphalia,  as  we  did,  he  had  better 
set  off  directly  to  accomplish  that. 

Read  the  account  of  Baron  Thundertentronck's 
chateau  in  "  Candide,"  you  have  no  bad  idea  of  the 
country  there.  In  the  villages 
the  houses  are  built  upon  the 
adjoined  plan;  there  is  not  a 
chimney  in  all  Westphalia,  and 
the  smoke  goes  out  at  the  win- 
dows. If  you  only  observe  the 
vicinity  of  the  house  and  cow 
stable,  I  think  you  will  give  Anne 
a  comfortable  idea  of  a  West- 
phalian  bedchamber;  the  cows 
have  their  heads  very  often  through  the  partition,  and 
indeed  Lord  Porchester  found  a  white  cow  one  night 
in  his  bedroom ;  do  not  you  think  Anne  would  have 
passed  a  comfortable  night  if  she  had  made  the  same 
discovery  ? 

Saxony,  however,  at  least  that  part  of  it  which  lies 
near  Dresden,  is  a  very  fine  and  beautiful  country. 
The  Elbe,  which  is  here  a  large  and  rapid  river,  runs 
through  the  town;  the  plain  is  very  extensive,  and 
bounded  by  pretty  hills,  and  towards  Bohemia  by 
very  bold  and  craggy  mountains.  The  society  here 
is  small  in  the  higher  orders,  and  consists  entirely 
of  the  Court  and  Corps  Diplomatique.  Mr.  S.  Milnes 


§  «    8 

*J    M 

cow 

HOUSE 

H 

H 

Z 
< 

H 

CO 

D 

0 

H 

H 

C 

E 

a 

• 

H 

1794]  THE  COURT  AT  DRESDEN  13 

wrote  for  letters  for  us  to  the  old  Countess  Bentinck, 
who,  however,  has  not  yet  sent  them,  and  the  post  is 
so  slow  and  uncertain  we  possibly  shall  not  receive 
them  until  we  are  tired  of  Dresden.  Elliot,  however, 
who  is  our  Envoy  here,  has  been  very  civil  to  us. 

I  was  presented  at  Court  last.  Sunday  to  about  thirty 
or  forty  people ;  so  have  had  engagements  ever  since 
in  plenty.  The  chief  meetings  here  are  card  assem- 
blies and  suppers,  and  one  o'clock  dinners,  which  do 
not  at  all  suit  my  taste.  Yesterday  I  dined  at  Court, 
which  is  a  pretty  awful  ceremony.  I  sat  next  the 
Electress,  and  I  must  say  found  her  more  chatty  and 
pleasant  than  I  thought  sovereigns  were  in  general. 
Conceive  me  going  about  here  dining  at  one  o'clock, 
in  a  bag  and  sword,  for  you  go  almost  everywhere  in 
full  dress ;  and  I  cannot  say  but  I  feel  a  very  great 
quiz  in  my  striped  velvet. 

A  German  dinner  lasts  about  three  hours  and  a  half, 
for  when  you  are  all  seated  round  the  table  it  is  con- 
ceived you  are  all  much  too  great  people  to  make  use 
of  your  hands,  or  to  carve;  so  every  dish  is  cut  up 
by  the  servants  at  a  sideboard,  and  handed  round  on 
plates  one  after  the  other,  an  excellent  contrivance  for 
getting  the  meat  perfectly  cold  and  prolonging  a  great 
beastly  party,  when  you  have  nothing  to  say.  I  speak 
very  feelingly,  as  I  have  just  returned  with  Lord 
Porchester  from  dining  with  one  of  their  Ministers, 
and  have  just  been  stripping  off  my  fine  things  in 
no  very  good  humour  with  them.  I  am  going  to 
Court  again  to-morrow,  and  dine  with  the  Spanish 
Ambassador,  but  I  hope  we  shall  not  be  quite  so 
stupid  there  as  with  the  natives.  I  go  to-night  to 
the  Bavarian  Minister's,  who  has,  I  hear,  the  best 
society  in  the  place,  so  I  hope  the  supper  will  make 
some  amends  for  the  dullness  of  the  dinner. 

The  principal  lion  here  is  the  Picture  Gallery, 
which  is  the  best  in  Europe  out  of  Italy,  and,  I  hear, 
many  say  fully  equal  to  any  there.  I  will  never  tease 
you  however,  by  attempting  to  describe  pictures:  I 


14        JOURNEY  FROM   OSTEND   TO   DRESDEN    [CH.  i 

feel  too  strongly  how  very  little  language  can  do 
justice  to  some  I  have  seen  here.  There  are  five 
Correggios  which  are  esteemed  his  best  works,  and 
the  finest  Raphael  I  have  yet  seen ;  judge,  then,  if  I 
can  give  you  any  idea  of  what  we  felt  on  seeing  them. 
At  Court  here  there  is  not  much  form  (for  a  Court, 
that  is),  and  the  Elector  and  Princes  seem  pretty 
affable,  to  strangers  particularly;  he  talked  to  me  a 
great  deal  yesterday  about  England  and  the  alarms 
there,  for  he  seems  to  know  everything  that  is 
going  on. 

As  for  business,  will  you  tell  Walton  I  will  thank 
him  to  lodge  six  hundred  pounds  in  Hammersley's 
hands,  and  tell  him  to  transmit  me  the  sum  in  circular 
notes  to  Vienna  through  his  agent  there.  It  is  not 
that  I  suppose  I  shall  want  so  great  a  sum,  but  I 
would  wish  to  make  sure  of  not  being  stopped  in  the 
Greek  Isles,  where  I  can  get  no  remittances.  Tell 
Ward,  too,  that  on  second  thoughts  I  would  have  him 
sell  the  horse  I  bought  at  Doncaster,  if  he  can  get 
sixty  guineas  for  him,  but  to  ask  eighty.  I  do  not 
think  he  will  quite  suit  me.  He  must  pay  no  Cam- 
bridge bills;  all  of  them  are  about  40  per  cent,  too 
dear  and  ought  to  wait.  Best  love  to  all  at  York.  I 
will  write  again  in  a  day  or  two. 

Believe  me,  affectionately  yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

DEAR  ANNE, 

I  was  just  taking  my  pen  to  give  you  a  little 
intelligence  of  our  motions,  when  a  letter  arrived  from 
you  in  answer  to  my  Brussels  gazette.  This,  you 
may  be  sure,  did  not  stop  me,  especially  as  Dresden 
is  altogether  as  ridiculous  as  Brussels ;  and  while  there 
are  quizzes  in  the  world  there  will  always  be  subjects 
for  a  letter  to  you. 

I  told  you  in  my  mother's  letter  part  of  the  agree- 
ments of  this  place,  such  as  Court-going  and  dining  at 
one  o'clock.  I  visit  about  a  good  deal,  as  you  would 


1794]  DRESDEN  SOCIETY  15 

see,  and  of  course  meet  with  some  figures  which,  walk- 
ing up  St.  James's  Street,  would  be  most  numerously 
escorted.  To  be  sure,  Court  figures  (like  Court  cards) 
are  ridiculous  enough  in  England  as  elsewhere,  but 
we  have  not  yet  discovered  the  luxury  of  walking  in  a 
morning  with  our  hair  full  dressed  and  our  hats  under 
our  arm,  neither  are  we  fully  sensible  of  the  happiness 
of  a  coat  without  a  cape  or  a  bag  and  sword.  I  often 
wished  that  I  had  you  with  me  to  take  a  walk  on  the 
great  bridge,  which  is  here  the  principal  walk,  but 
oftener  that  I  could  by  magic  convey  them  all  into 
Bond  Street  for  half  an  hour.  As  that  may  hardly  be, 
I  will  just  give  you  some  idea  of  a  few  characters  in 
our  society.  Imprimis,  an  Italian  count,  much  the 
figure  of  my  friend  Townley,  with  a  voice  like  Lord 
Arundel's.  You  would  take  him  for  a  buffoon:  point 
du  tout,  he  would  tell  you  himself  he  has  too  much 
feeling  to  be  ever  happy,  and  is  deeply  in  love  with  a 
woman  that  laughs  at  him  to  his  face.  She,  clever, 
elegant,  and  lively,  you  would  think  meant  to  do  any- 
thing rather  than  marry  him  ;  au  contraire,  he  has  eight 
thousand  a  year,  and  she  is  determined  to  have  him. 
This,  however,  is  common  enough,  you  will  say,  in 
England.  Secondly,  a  lady  that  asked  me  after  Eng- 
lish fashions,  and  thought  herself  a  PAnglaise.  She  is 
a  good  deal  like  Miss  Kitty  Catterick  in  person  and 
face,  and  she  wears  a  riding-habit  jacket  with  a 
coloured  calico,  muslin,  or  cotton  petticoat ;  item  a  hat 
and  feather  morning  and  evening,  and  I  believe  she 
sleeps  in  it.  I  hear  she  has  fifteen  suits.  Thirdly, 
her  friend  and  companion,  who  is  sentimental,  and 
never  sees  anything  that  is  not  singulier,  superbe, 
charmant,  magnifique,  or  delicieux.  Fourthly,  a  figure 
exactly  like  our  friend  Mr.  Constable,  who  walked  in 
at  my  aunt's  one  night,  only  he  always  has  on  a  sword 
and  striped  velvet  coat,  and  though  hardly  broader 
than  a  penknife,  is  indebted  for  that  little  substance  to 
a  tin  belly  and  a  pair  of  false  calves.  He  is  the  gallant 
man  of  the  party 


i6        JOURNEY  FROM   OSTEND   TO   DRESDEN   [CH.  i 

Were  I  to  describ  all,  there  would  be  no  end  of 
them ;  the  women  here  are  all  free-and-easy,  and 
among  the  rest  of  their  agreements  all  take  snuff  and 
spit  about  the  room  they  sit  in.  I  must  say  that,  take 
the  party  all  together,  they  are  excellent ;  but  though 
nasty  enough  often  for  French  women,  they  have 
neither  their  liveliness  nor  their  manners.  Many  of 
them  are  content  with  holding  their  tongues  and  walk- 
ing about  staring  at  you,  and  I  begin  to  be  of  the  mind 
of  a  lively  little  woman  (the  only  one  of  the  party)  who 
asked  me  last  night  if  I  did  not  think  "  qu'on  montoit 
bien  les  automates  dans  ce  pays-ci."  You  will  see  by 
this  that,  however  charmed  I  am  with  pictures  and 
statues,  I  do  not  admire  the  living  figures  much 
here,  and  as  my  opinion  is  backed  by  that  of  all  the 
foreigners  that  I  meet  here,  I  suppose  it  is  right;  for 
Elliot,  who  has  been  here  these  three  years,  says  that 
they  are  just  as  stiff  and  stupid  to  him. 

We  do  not  make  any  great  advances  in  talking 
German,  for  all  the  higher  ranks  here  speak  French, 
and  of  course  we  do  not  hear  much  of  the  other. 
Indeed,  I  can't  say  I  regret  it  much,  for  the  language 
is  very  difficult,  and  as  their  books  are  in  general 
books  of  information,  not  of  amusement,  you  lose  little 
pleasure  by  reading  them  in  a  translation.  Amongst 
other  pictures  I  have  seen  in  the  road  here  there  was 
one  of  our  Saviour  at  Brussels  which  is  undoubtedly 
very  curious.  It  was  painted  by  Rubens,  from  an 
original  painting  by  St.  Luke,  burnt  at  Antwerp  in  1768. 
This  was  the  account  we  heard  of  it  there.  Don't  you 
think  their  believing  such  a  story  delightful?  His 
highness  of  Banbury  at  Hornby  Castle  quite  yields  to 
the  picture  history  of  foreign  parts,  you  see.  How- 
ever, I  wish  I  could  only  give  you  an  idea  of  the 
pictures  we  have  admired,  as  well  as  of  those  we 
laugh  at ;  but  when  I  think  of  describing  a  picture  of 
Raphael's  we  have  seen  here,  and  find  no  words  to 
express  myself  with  but  beautiful,  graceful,  fine,  etc., 
etc.,  I  give  up  the  cause  in  utter  despair. 


t794]  THE  SISTINE  MADONNA  *7 

I  am  nevertheless  studying  attitudes,  and  as  I  always 
admired  Mrs.  Hart,  and  Mrs.  Parsons  her  eleve,  J  do 
not  give  up  all  hopes  of  being  able  to  represent  by  my 
figure  and  drapery  ye  Madonna;  and  I  hope  Abney 
and  Stockdale  will  remember  enough  of  the  group  to 
play  Pope  Sixtus  and  St.  Barbara,  who  are  adoring 
her.  As  I  can't  draw,  this  will  be  the  only  way  I  can 
tell  you  of  the  sights  we  have  seen  when  I  come  back  ; 
so  I  desire  you  will  prepare  all  sorts  of  shawls  and 
flowing  robes,  as  there  is  a  great  deal  of  very  fine 
drapery  to  be  represented,  and  many  of  the  figures  are 
really  in  old-fashioned  drapes,  for  I  take  it  that  your 
remark  on  the  fashionable  dress  for  figures  holds  here 
as  well  as  in  the  Orleans  Gallery. 

My  best  love  to  all  the  York  party,  and  I  hope  this 
will  find  Henry  with  you  at  York.  You  seem  very 
much  alarmed  about  his  going  abroad  ;  it  is  a  circum- 
stance both  he  and  we  should  make  up  our  minds  to, 
as  it  is  both  very  probable,  and  inseparable  from  his 
profession.  I  think  it,  and  I  hope  he  does,  much 
more  respectable  than  being  a  holiday  soldier,  and 
I  own  I  also  think  it  less  dangerous  for  him,  a  great 
deal,  than  London.  We  are  very  well  and  very  happy, 
but  wish  to  hear  often  from  you.  Adieu. 

Your  very  affectionate  brother, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

DRESDEN, 

1794. 


DRESDEN, 
April  12,  1794. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

Be  assured  that  we  run  no  dangers,  notwith- 
standing the  alarms  English  people  have  about 
outlandish  tours.  Mr.  Elliot,  the  Envoy  here,  and 
his  Secretary,  Mr.  Grey,  have  both  been  at  Con- 
stantinople and  encourage  us  in  our  schemes  very 
much.  We  have  received  infinite  civilities  from  the 
first  during  the  whole  of  our  stay,  and  a  very  agree- 
able man  he  is. 


1 8       JOURNEY  FROM  OSTEND  TO  DRESDEN   [CH.  i 

Our  mornings  have  been  spent  generally  in  seeing 
pictures  and  statues  or  the  country,  which  is  charm- 
ing. We  have  an  English  mess  with  Lord  Porchester, 
a  Mr.  Ferguson  (Scotch)  and  a  Baron  de  Roldkirk 
(a  young  Prussian  who  has  lived  in  England  and 
speaks  very  good  English),  at  three  every  day,  unless 
we  are  engaged  out  to  dinner :  after  dinner  we  play 
billiards,  go  to  the  coffee-house,  walk,  and  at  eight  or 
nine  I  go  to  the  Bavarian  Minister's,  who  opens  his 
house  every  night,  and  assembles  the  little  society 
there  is  here  to  cards  and  supper.  They  have  no 
idea  in  the  circles  here  of  meeting  in  an  evening  to 
cards  or  tea  with  supper,  as  they  had  in  France,  by 
which  means,  as  they  are  often  poor,  very  few  people 
open  their  house  to  society  at  all.  Elliot  talks  soon 
of  setting  the  fashion  of  conversaziones,  but  it  is  a  bold 
attempt,  for  German  intellects  are  great  enemies  to 
innovation.  The  manners  here  are  but  dull  to '  a 
stranger,  and  I  think  in  about  a  week  we  shall  set 
off  again  for  Vienna  ;  in  a  day  or  two  we  are  to  make 
a  party  to  KOnigstein,  a  small  fortress  about  fifteen 
miles  from  this  place  :  it  is  on  the  summit  of  a  high 
rock,  and  so  inaccessible  from  situation  that  the  King 
of  Prussia,  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  left  it  behind  him 
blocked  up,  as  he  despaired  of  taking  it,  though  only 
defended  by  about  300  Saxons.  Perhaps  it  and 
Gibraltar  are  the  only  really  impregnable  fortresses, 
as  sieges  are  now  conducted.  It  is  a  state  prison,  and 
an  Irish  Captain  Brown,  in  the  Saxon  service  (who 
was  confined  there  a  small  time),  goes  with  us  to  do 
the  honours  of  the  party,  but  vivent  les  Paddy  for 
forgetting  those  little  anecdotes. 

The  weather  here  has  been  as  fine  as  possible,  and 
is  quite  spring.  Very  few  days  we  have  had  any  rain, 
and,  even  at  this  time  of  the  year,  three  or  four  days 
without  literally  seeing  a  speck  in  the  air  like  a  cloud. 
We  often  walk  on  the  promenade  after  supper  at  twelve 
or  one  o'clock,  ladies  and  all,  so  you  may  think  it  is 
very  fine.  Tell  Mrs.  Frances  that  the  story  Strickland 


i794]  A   CLEVER  ADVENTURER  19 

told  us  of  Major  Sample  is  literally  true.  He  now 
calls  himself  M.  de  Lille,  and  by  some  means  has 
got  brevets  and  commissions  in  the  Dutch  service. 
He  served  in  Flanders,  was  detected  by  some  English- 
men, afterwards  was  a  spy  for  Prince  Coburg,  came 
over  to  Leipzig,  attempted  to  swindle  Lord  Porchester 
and  Lord  Riversdale,  who  is  also  there,  but  fortunately 
failed ;  he  has  since  been  here,  cheated  through  almost 
all  Germany,  and  is  at  last  in  limbo  again  in  Bavaria, 
where  he  has  been  introduced  at  Court,  and  showed 
off  so  well  that  he  was  hand-and-glove  with  the 
Elector.  Elliot,  who  saw  him  here,  knows  him  very 
well,  and  always  lends  him  some  money  by  way  of 
getting  rid  of  him. 

After  being  discharged  of  our  hulks  (for  he  was  not 
sent  to  Botany  Bay)  he  went  to  Russia,  rose  by  his 
wits  at  Court,  and  showed  forged  recommendations  to 
everybody,  for  he  knows  all  the  world.  Being  in 
great  favour  with  Potemkin,  and  through  him  with 
the  Empress,  he  persuaded  them  that  the  English 
companies  of  light  infantry  never  wore  their  hair 
behind,  and  looked  much  more  martial  for  being 
close  trimmed.  By  these  representations  he  got 
orders  to  go  round  and  cut  off  all  the  tails  of  the 
light  infantry  in  the  service.  If  the  colonels  were 
addicted  to  the  old  fashion  enough  to  ransom  their 
soldiers'  queues  with  a  handsome  present,  he  let  their 
heads  alone  ;  if  not,  he  docked  them  all,  and,  having  an 
amazing  quantity  of  good  hair,  he  shipped  it  off  from 
Petersburg  to  Paris,  where  the  barbers  at  that  time 
gave  a  great  price  for  it;  and  received  at  the  same 
time  a  present  from  the  Empress  for  the  improvement 
he  had  suggested  in  her  military  establishment.  He 
really  is  so  ingenious  one  begins  to  respect  him,  and 
I  think  it  is  a  great  pity  swindling  is  contrary  to  law, 
^  as  it  would  sharpen  our  wits  so  very  much. 

The  Russian  story  is  Elliot's,  so  I  give  you  my 
authority ;  however,  I  was  highly  amused  with  it. 
There  is,  I  see  by  the  papers,  great  bustle  about 


26       JOURNEY  FROM  OSTENt)  TO  DRESDEN    [CH.  i 

expected  invasion  in  England ;  tell  me  in  your  next 
what  is  re.ally  true  about  it,  and  if  you  are  very  much 
afraid  I  will  not  be  saucy  now.  The  reviews  at 
Berlin  are  on  the  i5th  of  next  month,  but  it  will  throw 
us  so  late  at  Vienna  that  I  do  not  think  we  shall  go  to 
them.  They  are,  to  be  sure,  prodigious  by  all  accounts, 
but  as  I  am  no  judge  of  military  manoeuvres  (notwith- 
standing my  service  in  the  Royal  Lancashires)  I  do 
not  think  they  are  so  well  worth  going  to  see.  Per- 
haps we  should  be  something  like  an  English  gentle- 
man, who  was  there  last  year,  and  being  told  with  a 
sneer,  by  a  great  Prussian  officer,  "  qu'il  n'y  avoit 
rien  comme  cela  en  Angleterre,"  answered  very  com- 
posedly, "  C'est  vrai,  mais  j'aime  mieux  la  chasse  du 
Renard."  Adieu,  once  more ;  tell  Anne  I  wrote  to  her 
the  other  day,  and  depend  upon  it  you  shall  hear  from 
me  constantly. 

Believe  me  most  affectionately  yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITTV 


CHAPTER    II 
VIENNA — THE  POLISH  INSURRECTION 

MORRITT  reached  Vienna  early  in  May  1794,  to  find  the 
Polish  insurrection  at  its  height.  The  iniquitous  Parti- 
tions of  1772  and  1793  left  the  Poles  no  hope  of  preserv- 
ing any  remains  of  independence,  except  by  an  armed 
rising.  The  titular  king,  Stanislaus  Poniatowski,  was 
Catherine's  nominee,  and  had  acted  as  a  mere  puppet 
in  her  hands.  All  the  hopes  of  the  patriotic  party 
were  fixed  on  Thaddeus  Kosciusko,  the  one  man  who 
could  rouse  his  countrymen  and  keep  them  together. 
He  had  some  military  experience;  for  he  had  been 
trained  in  France,  and  then  had  served  under  Wash- 
ington and  Gates  in  the  American  war ;  and  he  had 
shown  his  powers  at  Dabienka  in  1792,  when  with  4,000 
Poles  he  held  his  post  against  18,000  Russians.  The 
order  for  disbanding  Polish  regiments,  in  March  1794, 
was  the  signal  for  revolt.  Madalinski  marched  off  his 
brigade  from  Pultusk,  and  formed  a  nucleus  for  the 
insurgents.  Kosciusko  returned  from  Dresden  to 
Cracow,  was  proclaimed  General-in-Chief  on  March  24, 
and  defeated  a  Russian  force  at  Raclawisze  on  April  4. 
On  April  18,  Warsaw  was  in  the  possession  of  the 
insurgents,  and  a  few  days  later  the  citizens  of  Wilna 
rose,  and  killed  or  made  prisoners  all  the  Russian 
garrison.  At  Grodno  the  same  thing  happened,  and 
all  the  Polish  regiments  deserted  the  Russian  service 
and  joined  Kosciusko.  In  May,  therefore,  all  seemed 
to  be  going  well ;  but  before  Morritt  left  Vienna  there 
was  a  change  for  the  worse.  The  King  of  Prussia  had 
withdrawn  most  of  his  troops  from  the  French  war  to 
co-operate  with  Russia.  On  June  15  the  Prussians 
occupied  Cracow,  and  Austria  also  began  to  send 
troops  against  the  Polish  insurgents.  After  a  few 

?  21 


22        VIENNA— THE  POLISH   INSURRECTION    [CH.  rt 

trifling  successes  Kosciusko  was  defeated  in  the  fatal 
battle  of  Maccejowica  on  October  10,  and  himself 
wounded  and  taken  prisoner.  This  was  the  real 
"  Finis  Poloniae,"  though  the  struggle  was  kept  up  for 
a  few  weeks,  until,  with  the  storming  of  Praga  and 
the  capitulation  of  Warsaw  on  November  8,  and  the 
defeat  at  Radoczya  ten  days  later,  the  insurrection 
came  to  an  end. 

In  the  months  of  May  and  June  1794  the  French 
armies  of  the  Sambre  and  Meuse  and  of  the  Rhine  had 
made  considerable  progress,  thanks  in  great  measure 
to  the  vigour  with  which  Carnot  reinforced  them  and 
pushed  them  forward.  After  severe  fighting  on  the 
river  Sambre,  the  successes  of  the  French  in  the  engage- 
ment at  Turcoing  on  May  17,  and  still  more  the  victory 
of  Fleurus  on  June  26,  resulted  in  the  fall  of  Charleroi 
and  the  retreat  of  the  Austrians  from  Flanders  and 
beyond  the  Meuse,  while  the  English  under  the  Duke 
of  York  retired  to  Antwerp.  But  in  the  early  part  of 
the  campaign  the  Allies  had  had  a  temporary  success 
on  April  26,  when  a  force  composed  of  the  British 
under  the  Duke  of  York  and  some  Austrian  troops 
repulsed  the  French  near  Cambrai.  The  news  of  this 
reached  Vienna  on  May  3,  and  Morritt  refers  to  it 
when  he  writes  of  the  French  being  "  drubbed  "  and  of 
English  bravery  being  praised  at  Vienna.  Another 
apparent  success  noticed  in  the  letters  was  the  capture 
of  Landrecy  on  April  30,  the  French  having  left  that 
siege  unrelieved,  for  the  sake  of  a  more  important  plan 
of  campaign.  There  is  no  reference  in  the  letters  of 
this  year  to  Lord  Howe's  naval  victory  of  June  i. 

May  4  /  believe, 
1794. 

DEAR  ANNETTE, 

Stockdale  and  I  are  at  last  got  to  Vienna.  Just 
when  we  were  going  to  leave  Dresden  arrived  Wil- 
braham  and  Inge  in  their  road  to  Petersburg  from 
Vienna,  which  you  may  be  sure  induced  us  to  defer 
our  departure  for  a  day  or  two.  Old  English  friends 
are  not  the  less  agreeable  for  exportation,  and  very 
happy  we  were.  When  I  got  here  I  met  Bootle,  to 
whom  of  course  I  introduced  myself.  From  letters 


1794]  KOSCIUSKO'S   SUCCESSES  23 

having  miscarried,  etc.,  he  had  just  missed  his  brother, 
who  expected  his  coming  to  Dresden,  from  thinking 
Poland  impassable.  Bootle,  however,  has  taken  the 
Polish  route,  and  come  near  Warsaw  here,  where  he 
equally  expected  to  find  Wilbraham.  As  Polish  news 
of  any  authority  is  not  to  be  had  even  here,  I  must  tell 
you  the  particulars  he  himself  saw,  and  heard.  When 
he  was-  near  Warsaw,  within  six  miles,  the  town  was 
in  a  state  of  the  utmost  insurrection.  Nobody  could 
come  out  or  in  by  the  gates.  He  was  at  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Prussian  troops  near  the  place,  and 
saw  some  Russians,  who  escaped  from  the  town.  The 
citizens  and  people  had  risen  and  massacred  the 
Russian  garrison,  of  which  very  few  had  escaped. 
The  place  in  consequence  is  once  more  in  the  hands 
of  the  Poles.  Their  army,  under  Kosciusko,  has  twice 
beat  the  Russian  troops,  and  was  advancing  to  War- 
saw, which  will  now  perhaps  fall  into  their  hands. 

We  heard  at  Dresden  before  he  had  with  him  about 
10,000  men,  and  another  army  of  about  8,000  in 
another  part  of  the  country  has  declared  for  him. 
Many  of  these  are  the  regular  Polish  army,  which  the 
Russians  had  in  part  disarmed  and  disbanded.  The 
peasants  from  all  sides  were  flocking  to  the  insurgents, 
and  their  only  want  was  arms  for  them,  which  if  they 
get  to  Warsaw  they  will  have.  Kosciusko,  who  com- 
mands them,  bears  the  highest  character  both  as  a  man 
and  a  general.  He  left  Dresden  just  before  we  got 
there  to  go  and  make  this  stand  once  more,  and  what 
everybody  at  first  thought  a  mere  riot  amongst  the 
peasantry  has  proved  a  serious  insurrection  by  his 
abilities.  The  Poles  are  as  unanimous  as  possible 
now,  for  they  who  last  year  opposed  them  are  now 
chiefly  with  Kosciusko,  thanks  to  Russian  oppression. 
He  was  the  man  who,  before  the  King  gave  up  the 
cause,  performed  such  wonders,  and  not  Poniatowski ; 
Bootle  says  the  Prussian  officers  speak  of  him  in  the 
highest  terms,  though  an  enemy,  and  the  Poles  to  a 
man  adore  him.  In  the  last  short  war  with  4,000  men 


24         VIENNA— THE  POLISH   INSURRECTION    [CH.  n 

he  drove  before  him  from  the  Vistula  a  corps  of  20,000 
Russians,  and  has  always  beat  them  hitherto. 

You  know  it  was  the  fashion  in  England  to  talk  of 
the  hard  fate  of  the  poor  King  of  Poland.  Having  heard 
from  revolutionary  Poles,  and  others  here  and  at 
Dresden,  the  whole  of  the  affair,  I  must  undeceive  you. 
The  King  was  never  sincere  from  the  first,  and  has  all 
along  played  a  collusive  game  with  the  Empress.  The 
Poles  at  the  end  of  the  last  war  had  more  advantages 
over  their  enemies  than  ever,  and  were  in  a  strong 
state  of  defence  along  their  frontier.  They  called  on 
him  to  head  them  and  join  the  camp.  He  made  all  the 
parade  that  a  hypocrite  sovereign  could  on  taking  the 
field,  and  formed  a  camp  near  Warsaw  by  withdrawing 
the  troops  from  the  frontiers,  which  he  left  exposed  to 
the  Russians.  The  consequence  was  they  advanced 
into  the  country,  and  he  then  had  an  opportunity  of 
saying  with  truth  that  all  hopes  were  over,  and 
making  the  disgraceful  truce  [July  23,  1792]  which  has 
ended  in  the  slavery  of  himself  and  his  country.  It 
was  an  entire  mistake  to  suppose  the  Poles  unable  to 
hold  out  any  longer  at  that  time,  and  it  was  owing 
to  his  want  of  honesty  that  they  were  deserted.  At 
present  they  will,  I  fear,  only  irritate  the  rascals  that 
plunder  them,  but  their  commanders  are  sincere,  and 
they  are  in  the  right,  so  nous  verrons. 

You  see,  I  am,  a  Vordinaire,  wild,  but  don't  wonder 
at  it,  I  dare  say ;  if  they  succeed  it  will  perhaps  make 
the  Empress  Catharine  and  the  King  of  Prussia  feel 
that  oppression  is  not  the  safest  way  of  governing  a 
newly  conquered  country  ;  if  not — 

By  fairy  hands  their  knell  is  rung, 
By  forms  unseen  their  dirge  is  sung. 

I  saw  a  letter  from  a  noble  Pole  to  a  friend  in 
Dresden,  in  which  the  expressions  were  very  san- 
guine ;  he  says :  "  Vous  voyez  nos  greniers  sont  les 
magasins  de  Kosciusko,  et  tous  nos  biens  sont  ses 


1794]  POLISH   GRIEVANCES  25 

tresors."  With  this  spirit  they  all  talk,  and  act ;  so 
drink  their  healths,  as  we  do.  If  you  think  all  this 
a  bore  I  beg  your  pardon ;  but  as  the  facts  even  here 
are  not  generally  known,  and  I  dare  say  misrepre- 
sented both  here  and  in  England,  I  cannot  help 
sending  you  the  story  as  it  is,  not  so  much  for  you 
as  j'our  mother  and  Frances,  who  are,  I  believe, 
glad  to  hear  good  news  of  these  poor  people.  I  am 
sure,  if  bad  usage  gives  men  a  claim  to  pity,  none  have 
it  more,  for,  backed  by  the .  Empress,  the  insolence 
of  the  Russian  troops  had  gone  to  seizing  on  private 
property  just  as  they  liked.  It  is  a  real  fact  that  their 
officers,  if  they  saw  a  fine  horse  or  anything  of  the  sort, 
made  no  scruple  of  taking  it  as  plunder  in  a  country 
where  they  entered  under  the  pretence  of  alliance. 
Can  these  men  succumb,  or  will  they  fight  like  men  ? 
If  they  do  not  I  am  sure  men's  hearts  are  changed 
lately,  or  a  just  cause  does  not  make  men  fight  as  it 
used  to  do.  We  just  heard,  too,  yesterday  of  the 
French  being  drubbed,1  and  have  the  pleasure  of 
hearing  English  bravery  recorded  at  Vienna  in  the 
highest  terms.  I  am  as  glad  of  this  as  of  the  other, 
for  I  hate  oppression  either  from  kings  or  sans- 
culottes. In  my  next  you  shall  hear  something  more 
about  Vienna,  and  ourselves ;  in  the  meantime  tell 
my  mother  that  we  are  as  well  as  possible  if  she 
will  take  our  words  for  it,  though  she  may  not  see 
anybody  that  has  seen  us.  I  shall  make  a  trip  to 
the  mines  in  Hungary  at  Schemnitz  and  Cremnitz  ; 
they  are  both  gold  and  silver  mines.  We  return  here, 
and  soon  after  proceed  to  Constantinople.  Direct 
here,  and  I  shall  leave  directions  to  forward  my  letters 
wherever  I  may  be.  My  mother  shall  hear  from  me 
very  soon  ;  in  the  meantime  be  easy  about  us,  for  the 
humbugs  one  hears  about  dangers  by  an  English 
fireside  are  too  ridiculous.  The  passage  from  hence 
to  Constantinople  is  as  regular  as  from  Edinburgh 
to  London,  and  as  safe,  and  almost  as  commonly 

1  See  page  22. 


26        VIENNA— THE  POLISH   INSURRECTION    [CH.  n 

travelled ;  rather  worse  roads,  but  I  believe  nowhere 
so  dangerous  as  over  Finchley  common. 

Your  very  affectionate  brother, 
J.  B.  S.  M. 


SCHEMNITZ,  HUNGARY, 

May  22,  1794. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

Though  I  date  my  letter  from  the  mines  of 
Hungary,  we  shall  probably  return  to  Vienna  before 
I  can  put  it  into  the  post,  so  do  not  wonder  if  it  is 
rather  long  upon  the  road. 

To  take  up  our  story  where  I  left  off,  I  wrote  to 
Anne  an  account  of  our  arrival  at  Vienna,  but  we  had 
seen  too  little  to  give  you  any  account  of  the  place. 
We  had  been  there  about  a  fortnight  when  we  set  out 
on  our  present  expedition,  and  flatter  ourselves  we 
can  give  a  most  excellent  and  accurate  description 
of  it  Perhaps  of  all  the  great  towns  I  ever  was 
in  Vienna  is  the  very  pleasantest,  particularly  at 
this  time  of  the  year.  The  number  of  people  of 
fashion  who  reside  here,  the  ease  with  which  we  were 
introduced,  and  the  many  places  of  public  lounging, 
are  beyond  those  of  any  town  we  have  seen  on  the 
Continent.  Bootle  introduced  us  to  some  friends  he 
had  been  acquainted  with  at  Petersburg  who  hap- 
pened to  be  here,  and  we  presented  our  letters  to 
Stratton,  the  charge  d'affaires.  Such  an  introduc- 
tion for  an  Englishman  is  quite  sufficient,  as  the  only 
question  ever  asked  about  you  is,  "Est-il  aimable?" 
which  I  presume  is  the  reason  why  Lord  Porchester 
preferred  Dresden,  as  there  can  otherwise  be  no  com- 
parison. A  few  evenings  after  our  arrival  we  were 
carried  to  a  great  ball  at  a  Madame  de  Saldaignac's ; 
as  she  had  assembled  everything  that  was  gay 
amongst  the  haute  noblesse  here,  we  began  in  a  fair 
way.  The  dances  in  vogue  here  are  the  walses,  and 
English  country  dances,  so  Heaven  be  praised  we  need 
not,  as  in  France,  torture  our  legs  into  cotillons,  or 


1794]  GAIETIES  AT  VIENNA  27 

have  a  dancing-master  to  teach  us  to  hold  up  our 
heads.  The  walse,  however,  we  have  not  yet  dared 
to  attempt.  I  showed  Anne  one  day  how  it  was 
danced,  and  if  she  has  forgot  Martignier  can  tell  her ; 
but  in  doing  it  the  other  day  as  part  of  a  country 
dance  I  gave  my  partner  such  a  kick  that  we  were 
very  near  both  falling  together.  They  dance  them 
so  well  here  that  I  assure  you  it  was  a  great  subject 
of  lamentation  to  us  that  we  could  not  join  in  them. 
The  night  after  we  were  at  another  ball,  which  was 
given  in  a  superbe  bosquet  in  the  middle  of  Prince 
Lichtenstein's  garden,  but  which,  choosing  unfortu- 
nately to  be  vastly  rural,  was  extremely  cold.  What 
with  a  German  play  and  Battel  given  in  an  alley  of 
the  garden,  all  lighted  with  lamps,  it  was  very  magni- 
ficent, but  we  were  obliged  to  teach  the  natives  to 
dance  Country  Bumpkin  by  way  of  keeping  ourselves 
warm.  Besides  the  plays  in  German,  and  an  Italian 
opera,  there  are  more  public  places  of  resort,  and  more 
frequented,  than  in  any  town  I  have  seen.  There  are 
lounges  for  every  hour  of  the  day,  almost  equal,  I 
think,  to  Bond  Street.  In  the  different  public  walks 
and  drives  of  the  Prater  and  Schonbrunn  there  are 
great  public  saloons  and  coffee-rooms,  where  people 
of  all  ranks  breakfast,  dine,  or  sup,  and  where  there 
are  traiteurs,  and  refreshments  of  ice,  etc.,  at  all  hours. 
You  here  meet  everybody,  for  the  weather  has  been 
uncommonly  fine,  and  people  here  dare  amuse  them- 
selves, because  it  is  not  thought  vulgar.  In  London 
it  would  be  certainly  thought  rather  odd,  but  in  a 
broad,  open  street  like  St.  James's  Street  I  have  seen 
women  of  fashion,  and  even  princesses  with  a  hundred 
thousand  quarterings,  sitting  eating  ice  at  a  coffee- 
house door  after  ten  o'clock  at  night. 

The  history  of  our  day  was  in  general  this :  After 
breakfast  we  went  seeing  sights,  or  playing  tennis, 
or  walking  in  the  gardens,  which  occupations  lasted 
till  dinner.  If  not  engaged  out  we  always  dined  with 
Bootle  and  his  friend  at  three.  At  five  go  in  our 


28        VIENNA— THE   POLISH   INSURRECTION    [CH.  11 

carriage  to  the  Prater,  the  Hyde  Park  here,  but  much 
prettier,  and  walk  about  seeing  our  friends,  or  playing 
the  fool  in  swings  and  merry-go-rounds,  with  which 
the  place  abounds.  We  afterwards  go  to  the  opera 
sometimes,  or  on  the  ramparts,  where  there  are  music, 
ices,  and  another  assemblage  of  everything  that  is 
gay  till  ten  o'clock,  when,  if  we  do  not  contrive  in  the 
course  of  the  day  to  be  asked  to  a  ball  or  a  supper, 
we  march  home,  and  shut  up  shop.  The  Emperor 
not  being  here  there  is  no  Court,  so  our  bags  and 
swords  are  unemployed,  as  we  did  not  choose  to  be 
presented  at  Prince  Kaunitz's  dinners,  which  are  very 
stupid,  and  not  necessary  unless  you  mean  to  stay. 
There  is  less  form  of  that  sort  here  than  in  any 
metropolis  except  London,  and  in  most  places,  as  in 
England,  you  cannot  be  too  undressed  to  be  genteel. 

Indeed,  if  an  Englishman  wore  his  shoes  on  his  head 
I  believe  he  would  have  imitators  here,  as  we  are  in 
high  vogue  and  received  with  great  cordiality.  We 
presented  Mrs.  Philips's  letters  to  Madame  Ferrari 
and  the  Bishop  of  Nancy,  and  met  with  much  civility, 
and  offers  of  more  if  we  stayed.  I  was  so  extremely 
tired  of  being  quizzy  in  a  dress  coat  that  I  followed  the 
example  at  last  of  every  single  Englishman  I  have  met, 
and  made  up  once  more  my  uniform.  As  it  is  a 
custom  in  most  corps  here  for  a  man  to  be  allowed  to 
wear  any  uniform  he  has  once  had,  though  he  is  no 
longer  in  the  corps,  there  is  nothing  improper  in  it. 
However,  don't  tell  Stanley,  as  he  makes  a  fuss 
about  these  things.  Elliot  and  everybody  advised  me 
to  do  it,  and  I  found  that  all  foreigners,  English  and 
others,  make  a  practice  of  it  with  less  right  than  I 
have.  Stockdale  has  sported  a  grave  black  dress  coat, 
and  looks  Doctor  Stockdale  at  least.  I  only  wish  you 
could  see  either  of  us  full  dressed,  as  our  figures  are 
excellent. 

We  have  now  been  from  Vienna  about  a  week,  and 
are  returning  to-morrow  from  a  tour  to  the  mines  of 
Hungary.  So  take  up  your  map  and  follow  us.  I  left 


1794]  THE   HUNGARIAN   MINES  29 

off  here  to  go  and  see  the  mines,  and  have  not  had 
time  to  take  up  my  pen  till  now  I  am  again  at  Vienna, 
May  27.  The  mines  we  have  been  to  see  are  in  the 
north  part  of  Hungary,  at  Schemnitz  and  Cremnitz, 
and  no  trace  of  history,  I  believe,  ascertains  how  long 
they  have  been  worked.  We  passed  through  Pres- 
burg,  the  capital  of  this  province,  where  there  is  a 
large  palace,  in  which  the  Emperor's  son  or  brother,  as 
Palatine  of  Hungary,  sometimes  keeps  his  Court.  It  is 
built  on  the  Danube,  which  is  here  very  broad  and 
handsome,  and  which  we  crossed  on  one  of  the  ponts 
volants  or  boat  bridges  you  have  heard  me  mention  as 
on  the  Rhine.  Presburg  is  not  large,  and  stands  along 
the  river  under  a  steep,  prominent  hill,  on  which  is  the 
castle.  The  country  from  here  to  near  Schemnitz  is 
not  interesting,  but  made  us  reflect  a  little  on  the 
situation  of  all  kingdoms  that  are  not  themselves 
the  seats  of  government ;  for  the  great  rambling 
chateaux  of  the  noblesse  are  everywhere  almost 
deserted,  and  often  put  me  in  mind  of  our  drive  to 
Scarborough  from  Doncaster.  Some  old  frontier 
castles  and  woody  hills  adorned  the  Danube  near 
Presburg,  but  the  county  in  general  is  a  large,  flat 
plain,  sometimes  marsh,  or  down,  but  more  generally 
covered  with  corn.  All  over  it  are  great  well-con- 
ditioned convents,  and  their  inhabitants  are  the  only 
people  in  the  country  that  seem  to  live  comfortably. 

The  national  dress  of  the  Hungarian  nobles  is  a 
handsome  one,  and  they  seem  very  much  attached  to 
it,  as  few  of  them  lay  it  aside,  even  in  the  circles  of 
Vienna.  Hussar  breeches,  boots  and  spurs ;  an 
Hussar  cap  with  a  long  tassel  at  the  point  hanging 
down  their  back,  a  waistcoat  and  jacket  edged  with 
sables  and  adorned  with  small  round  buttons  and 
Brandenburgs.  The  Emperor  has  a  guard  of  them,  all 
nobles,  and  each  attended  by  his  servant,  which  seems 
as  fine  a  body  of  men,  I  think,  as  the  Royal  Lancaster. 
In  revenge,  however,  for  all  this  dressing,  the  common 
people  are  almost  naked,  and  all  beggars.  Near 


30        VIENNA -THE  POLISH   INSURRECTION    [CH.  n 

Schemnitz  the  country  is  beautiful,  and  all  the  tour  by 
Cremnitz  to  Roden  the  same.  These  mountains  are 
very  high,  and  covered  with  a  profusion  of  different 
wood  ;  bold  rocks,  like  those  on  the  edge  of  Ulles- 
water,  often  rise  out  of  it,  and  here  and  there  we 
remarked  a  ruined  castle.  These  hills  are  the  famous 
mines,  chiefly  lead,  silver,  and  gold.  The  two  last  are 
generally  mixed  together,  and  are  in  greater  or  less 
quantities ;  they  also  find  a  quantity  of  coal  in  the 
lead.  The  immensity  of  the  works  struck  us  very 
much.  You  will  have  some  conception  of  them  when 
I  tell  you  that  at  Cremnitz  they  go  to  the  depth  of 
300  fathoms  in  one  part,  and  that  parts  of  them  are 
joined  by  subterraneous  passages  of  twelve  and  fifteen 
English  miles. 

We  went  into  one  of  the  mines  to  the  depth  of 
172  fathoms.  The  descent  is  (unless  you  choose  to  be 
let  down  in  a  bucket)  down  long  ladders  tied  end  to 
end,  and  often  perpendicular  or  bent  inwards.  They 
afford,  however,  such  good  hold  for  your  hands  that 
we  preferred  them  to  the  bucket.  Little  boys  go  just 
before  each  person  with  candles,  and  the  darkness  of 
the  rest  prevented  the  height  from  having  any  effect 
on  our  heads.  You  sometimes  go  down  six  or  eight 
ladders  together  before  you  arrive  at  a  landing-place. 
The  old  works  are  easily  distinguished,  having  been 
cut  with  iron  instruments ;  but  since  the  invention  of 
powder,  blasting  has  been  found  a  speedier  method. 
At  Cremnitz  is  the  Imperial  mint,  where  we  saw  the 
whole  process  of  coining  the  gold  and  silver.  As  I 
believe  it,  however,  nothing  more  than  our  own,  and 
inferior  indeed  in  machinery,  as  they  everywhere  are, 
1  will  not  describe  what  you  may  get  better  elsewhere. 
They  separate  the  gold  from  the  silver  after  smelting 
off  all  the  drops  and  scoria  from  the  ore,  by  applying 
aquafortis,  which  absorbs  the  silver,  and  precipitates 
the  gold.  They  afterwards  detach  the  acid  from  the 
silver  by  applying  an  alkali,  but  both  these  are 
common  chemical  processes. 


I794J  SCHOOLS  OF  MINING  31 

The  names  and  richness  of  the  different  streams  of 
ore,  of  which  there  are  five  at  Schemnitz  constantly 
worked,  I  wrote  down  in  my  journal,  but  they  will  not 
be  very  interesting  here.  We  were  told  these  mines 
employed  13,000  people;  they  are  divided  into  dif- 
ferent departments,  and  very  well  regulated.  Every 
one  who  is  a  candidate  for  an  employment  here  is 
obliged  to  enter  at  an  academy  which  the  Emperor 
maintains  at  both  Schemnitz  and  Cremnitz.  He  is 
instructed  by  the  professors  for  three  years  in  the 
practical  part  of  mineralogy,  and  then  if  he  can  get  an 
appointment  as  superintendent  of  any  part  of  the 
departments,  he  is  salaried  accordingly ;  this  is  a  great 
resource  for  some  of  the  inferior  noblesse  here.  The 
appearance  of  the  ore  in  the  mine  is  little  more  than 
that  of  a  different  coloured  stone,  except  the  lead, 
which  is  so  broad  and  so  full  of  ore  as  to  have  a  very 
pretty  effect  by  our  lamps.  For  the  machinery  and 
dresses,  I  have  drawn  them  in  my  journal,  but  could 
not  make  you  otherwise  understand  them  by  descrip- 
tion. The  mechanism  is,  however,  I  think,  much 
inferior  to  some  in  England.  The  language  here  being 
the  Wallach,  and  totally  different  from  German,  one 
often  had  a  difficulty  in  being  the  least  understood.  We 
found,  however,  that  almost  every  peasant  understood 
Latin,  which  is  in  many  parts  here  almost  the  common 
language  of  the  country,  so  we  contrived  to  make  them 
comprehend  what  we  wanted,  though  our  pronunciation 
made  it  a  different  language.  Is  it  not  singular  that  a 
place  the  Romans  knew  but  little  of,  and  which  was  so 
early  ravished  from  them  by  the  northern  hive,  should 
retain  at  this  day  their  language  as  a  vulgar  tongue, 
when  it  is  lost  in  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Italy?  The  Hun- 
garians and  Austrians  seem  almost  to  have  as  great  an 
antipathy  as  the  Scotch  and  the  Irish.  I  must  add  a 
sheet,  or  you  will  never  read  this. 

Is  it  not  a  curious  subject  of  reflection  that  nations 
under  the  same  government,  instead  of  being  more 
united,  almost  everywhere  hate  one  another  ?  How- 


32        VIENNA— THE   POLISH   INSURRECTION    [CH.  11 

ever,  perhaps  here  the  jealousy  may  have  some  cause, 
as  the  Austrians,  who  are  really  a  flourishing  and  well- 
conditioned  people,  occupying  the  seat  of  government, 
do  seem  to  draw  a  good  part  of  their  riches  from  their 
neighbours.  As  the  aristocracy,  both  of  the  sword 
and  the  gown,  seems  to  be  a  good  deal  more  aggres- 
sive in  Hungary,  and  the  people  more  bigoted, 
ignorant,  and  poor,  the  difference  of  opinion  may  have 
its  effect.  Can  anything  be  more  striking  than  the 
perpetual  conjunction  of  superstition  and  poverty  that 
prevails  in  many  parts  of  the  Continent?  The  poor 
wretch  with  nothing  to  comfort  him  on  earth  has 
recourse  to  his  beads  and  ave-Marys,  which,  in  their 
turn  occupying  all  his  thoughts  and  industry  like  a 
dream,  continue  that  misery  whose  pains  they  alleviate. 
In  the  Prussian  and  Saxon  dominions,  on  the  con- 
trary, at  least  in  parts  of  them,  industry  and  activity 
are  seen  in  their  villages,  which  are  clean  and  com- 
fortable even  under  an  arbitrary  government,  so  that 
despotism  borrows  part  of  its  effect  from  religious 
opinions. 

The  Emperor  Joseph,  who  is  here  almost  adored  by 
those  whom  he  governed,  did  suppress  many  of  the 
convents  in  Bohemia  as  well  as  Brabant  and  Flanders, 
and  seems  to  have  meant  to  bring  forward  his  subjects 
there  to  a  level  with  the  industry,  etc.,  of  the  Protestant 
states.  His  enemies  charge  him  with  sansculottism, 
but  is  that  possible  in  his  situation?  You  will  see  my 
English  ideas  don't  change  much,  and  I  can  still  say 
with  J.  J.  Rousseau,  "  Heureux  si,  en  voyant  d'autres 
constitutions,  je  trouve  des  nouvelles  raisons  pour 
aimer  celle  de  ma  patrie."  We  are  now  returned  to 
Vienna,  which  we  find  as  pleasant  as  ever,  and  last 
night  were  at  a  great  ball  to  which  all  the  strangers 
subscribed,  and  which  was  magnifique.  To  give  you 
some  idea  of  etiquette,  we  admitted  none  but  the  first 
noblesse — for  here  they  are  divided  into  first  and  second. 
The  first  must  have  at  least  thirty-two  undisputed 
quarterings.  Does  not  this  put  you  in  mind  of  Baron 


1794]  VIENNESE   BALLS  33 

Thundertentronck  ?  We  have  been  dancing  and 
laughing  till  eight  this  morning,  though  at  first  the  ball 
was  rather  threatened  with  destruction  from  the 
entrance  of  two  actresses,  pretty  notorious,  to  whom 
their  chers  amis  had  given  tickets.  As  none  were 
admitted  without  thirty-two  quarterings  they  got 
handed  out,  and  the  whole  went  on  very  well. 

I  have  just  received  a  great  parcel  of  letters,  in 
which  are  two  from  you  and  one  from  Anne,  which, 
being  very  differently  dated,  shows  how  regular  the 
post  is.  She  talks  of  her  partiality  to  her  own  dear 
countrywomen ;  tell  her  if  she  will  come  here,  I  can 
show  her  as  pleasant,  as  pretty,  and  as  good  and  well- 
behaved  girls  as  ever  she  saw  in  her  life,  and  that  I 
wish  some  of  my  English  acquaintances  were  here,  as 
they  might  hear  "T'other  young  women  speak  civilly 
to  us,"  as  that  wag  Ben  says.  Our  great  adorations  at 
present  are  two  Princesses  de  Ligae,  sisters  to  the 
poor  Prince  Charles,  who  was  killed  last  year  in 
Flanders,  and  with  whom  we  have  all  of  us  been 
making  the  agreeable  at  the  ball,  and  I  have  learnt 
several  pretty  pastimes,  such  as  pied  de  bceuf,  etc., 
though  not  absolutely  in  the  way  I  taught  her  it ; 
however,  it  improves  a  ball-room  infinitely.  On  our 
return  here  we  found  Wilbraham,  who  had  come  to 
join  his  brother,  so  we  are  extremely  pleasant  indeed, 
and,  what  I  am  sure  you  will  all  congratulate  me  upon, 
he  accompanies  us  to  Constantinople.  I  have  just 
seen  a  most  alarming  letter  from  Mrs.  Bootle,  who, 
under  the  idea  that  the  whole  Continent  is  in  com- 
motion, wants  them  at  home.  Now,  lest  you  should 
take  the  same  imaginations,  I  can  only  assure  you 
we  have  never  been  so  quiet  in  England  for  a  year  or 
two  as  matters  are  here  at  present,  and  seem  likely 
to  be. 

You  bid  me  tell  you  our  plans  from  hence ;  they 
are  as  followeth.  In  about  ten  days  I  think  we  shall, 
if  possible,  leave  this  charming  place  for  Constanti- 
nople. We  send  off  our  carriage  and  all  our  heavy 


34        VIENNA— THE   POLISH   INSURRECTION    [CH.  n 

baggage  to  Trieste,  there  to  stay  till  further  orders  for 
Italy.  From  hence  across  Hungary  and  Servia  there 
is  an  established  post,  so  we  buy  a  German  carriage, 
which  we  shall  sell  there.  The  country  about  Bel- 
grade being  at  present  dangerous  on  account  of 
banditti,  we  take  the  road  by  Buda,  Temesvar,  and 
Bucharest,  though  I  regret  very  much  missing 
Belgrade.  The  other  road  is,  besides,  near  two 
hundred  miles  round  about.  After  we  are  in  the 
Turkish  dominions  we  shall  be  obliged  to  ride  all 
the  way,  though  you  will  believe  there  is  no  very 
mighty  matter  in  the  journey  when  I  tell  you  there  is 
a  regular  post  twice  a  month  from  here  to  Constanti- 
nople. You  who  laugh  at  my  general  mode  of 
travelling  in  England  would  be  highly  amused  to 
see  us  driven  here.  The  man  who  drives  has  a  long 
rein  fastened  to  the  near  horse  before,  by  which  of 
course  he  has  no  command  over  the  leaders  but  to 
stop  them.  In  consequence  of  this  liberty,  they  often 
beg  leave  to  turn,  regardless  of  his  voice,  to  the  right 
instead  of  the  left,  etc.,  but  notwithstanding  the  hourly 
inconvenience  of  having  to  get  off  merely  to  turn  the 
horses,  they  have  not  the  sense  to  use  a  double  rein. 
Mr.  Burke  would  delight  in  a  German  :  he  never  makes 
innovations.  A  pipe  of  tobacco,  a  long  queue  and 
whiskers,  and  a  pace  of  three  miles  and  a  half  per 
hour  make  him  happy.  As,  in  many  parts  of  our 
last  trip  into  Hungary,  there  was  not  a  regular  post, 
we  frequently  had  to  sit  in  our  carriage  above  an  hour 
while  the  postmaster  was  mustering  all  the  horses  in 
the  village — and  all  sometimes  were  not  five,  which 
was  our  number.  In  this  part  of  our  tour,  even  though 
we  rose  at  six,  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  was  our 
utmost  stretch  of  travelling. 

I  will  reserve  my  future  remarks  on  the  dress  and 
style  of  driving  till  we  get  through  Hungary,  only  it 
always  strikes  me  as  one  of  those  things  my  Aunt 
Mary  would  not  like.  We  shall  take  the  first  oppor- 
tunity of  adding  to  our  suite  a  man  who  understands 


i794]  LANGUAGES   OF  AUSTRIA  35 

Turkish  and  modern  Greek,  though  Italian  on  the 
coasts  of  all  the  Archipelago  is  so  universal  that  we 
shall  meet  with  little  difficulty,  as  we  can  already  make 
ourselves  completely  understood  in  it,  and  shall  very 
soon  speak  it  with  ease.  I  must  add  one  remark  here 
which  has  been  often  made  at  Vienna,  that  there  is 
no  town  where  languages  are  so  much  understood. 
Most  people  of  fashion  here  understand  four  or 
five,  and  many  more.  Everybody  speaks  French  and 
Italian  amongst  the  tradesmen,  even,  and  the  higher 
ranks  almost  all  speak  English  and  perhaps  Hun- 
garian, Polish,  or  Greek;  for  the  Poles,  Russians, 
Bohemians,  and  Carinthians,  I  believe,  all  speak 
different  dialects  of  Sclavonian,  a  perfectly  distinct, 
and  more  ancient  language  than  the  German,  I 
believe,  and  which,  though  I  have  heard  that  it  is 
very  difficult,  certainly  sounds  far  more  soft  and 
agreeable  to  the  ear  than  that  detestable  grunting ; 
for  1  cannot  bring  myself  to  bear  German,  and  only 
wonder  the  language  is  not  changed  by  agreement. 
Wilbraham  has  just  been  making  me  laugh  with  an 
account  of  his  accommodations  on  his  road  to  Dresden. 
He  passed  by  Hungary  and  crossed  the  Crapack 
(Carpathian)  mountains.  In  the  room  where  he  slept 
one  night  the  company  consisted  of  himself,  Inge,  their 
two  servants,  the  innkeeper,  his  wife,  two  postillions, 
three  children,  an  ass,  a  sow  and  pigs,  two  turkeys, 
and  a  hen  and  chickens.  As  far  as  these  agreements 
go,  however,  I  can't  say  we  any  of  us  affect  being  very 
fine,  though  we  have  once  or  twice  remarked  with 
Touchstone,  "  Now  are  we  in  Germany,  more  fools  we; 
when  we  were  at  home  we  were  in  a  better  place." 

I  have  hitherto  chattered  away  so  much  on  what  I 
have  seen  and  heard  that  I  have  hardly  taken  any 
notice  of  your  letters. 

So  Henry  is  at  last  in  Flanders.  When  I  look  at  the 
very  small  list  of  officers  that  have  suffered,  I  hope  we 
have  but  little  to  fear,  and  I  am  sure  that  real  service 
of  this  kind  will  conduce  more  than  anything  in  the 


36          VIENNA— THE   POLISH   INSURRECTION  [CH.  n 

world  to  make  him  a  steadier  and  more  manly 
character.  We  must  make  up  our  minds  to  that 
danger  which  immediately  results  from  the  very 
nature  of  his  profession,  and  in  our  present  victorious 
state  l  I  hope  we  shall  soon  have  less  to  apprehend. 

1  am  glad  to  hear  your  apprehensions  of  an  invasion 
are  rather  got  over.  I  used  to  be  rather  saucy  about 
them,  but  as,  in  London,  the  colonel  of  the  Royal 
Lancaster  was  so  much  greater  an  alarmist  than  your- 
self, I  began  to  entertain  a  more  respectful  opinion  of 
your  courage  than  I  had  done  before  the  comparison. 
If  he  and  Mrs.  Bootle  were  besieged  in  Lathom  Hall, 
I  very  much  doubt  if  old  Lady  Derby's  memory  would 
be  very  much  disgraced  by  her  descendant  and  suc- 
cessor. 

Peisse  was  so  sure  we  could  not  get  to  Constanti- 
nople, he  bet  Stockdale  five  guineas  against  it,  which 
in  about  a  month's  time  we  hope  to  write  and  claim. 
You  can  really  not  have  a  notion  how  ridiculous  these 
bugbear  journeys  are  as  you  approach  nearer  to  them. 
You  see  a  great  many  more  Greeks  and  Turks  here 
than  you  do  Irishmen  in  London,  so  the  communi- 
cation, you  may  be  sure,  is  nothing  either  very  difficult 
or  dangerous.  We  have  been  inquiring  after  a 
draughtsman,  and  I  hope  we  have  heard  of  one  who 
will  suit  us.  As  we  have  not  yet  settled  anything, 
however,  about  him,  you  shall  have  particulars  in  my 
next  letter,  as  1  will  write  to  Frances  in  a  few  days. 
Our  best  way  of  receiving  letters  from  you  will  still  be 
by  the  post.  Direct  your  letters  to  me,  "  Aux  soins 
de  Monsieur  le  Comte  Fries,  Vienne."  He  is  our 
banker,  and  will  forward  them  to  Constantinople, 
from  whence  I  shall  easily  order  them  to  Athens  or 
wherever  we  are  by  Mr.  Liston's  2  assistance.  I  am 
heartily  glad  the  country  in  England  has  given  such 
general  proofs  of  its  loyalty  and  sense ;  I  must  own  I 

1  See  p.  22. 

2  Afterwards    Sir   R.   Liston.     He    was   Ambassador  at   Constantinople, 

1793-6- 


1794]     EMISSARIES  FROM  FRENCH  REPUBLIC         37 

never  had  any  fear  of  the  contrary  myself,  for  I  do  not 
and  cannot  believe  that  any  great  part  of  our  people 
can  ever  be  in  a  French  interest.  There  have  been 
reports  of  their  emissaries  making  great  attempts  on 
the  minds  of  the  lower  classes  here,  and  an  honest 
Irishman,  Captain  O'Connel,  told  us  the  other  day 
that  to  his  sartin  knowledge  the  national  assembly 
had  for  a  year  past  employed  above  thirty  emissaries 
here  in  making  prostitutes,  meaning  probably  proselytes ; 
but  it  was  a  very  good  Irish  reading. 

I  will  give  a  more  detailed  account  of  the  lions  here 
in  my  letter  to  Frances,  but  the  chief  object  is  what 
I  have  so  much  enlarged  upon — the  society.  I  cannot 
say  that  I  would  encourage  you  or  her  to  come  here 
for  adoration,  for  since  Lady  Mary  Wortley's  time  so 
many  English  costumes  have  got  here  that  I  do  not 
think  embonpoint  so  much  admired  as  it  used  to  be ; 
but  if  you  will  proceed  to  Turkey  you  may  still  have 
a  chance  of  passing  for  beauties,  as  they  tell  me  the 
Ambassador  in  London  was  struck  with  nobody  so 
much  as  Mrs.  Hobart. 

Believe  me,  my  dearest  mother, 

Your  ever  affectionate  son, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


CHAPTER  III 

JOURNEY  FROM  VIENNA  TO  CONSTANTINOPLE,  WITH  SOME 
DIGRESSIONS  ABOUT  VIENNA  AND  STYRIA 

KECSKEMET,  ' 

June  24,  1794. 

DEAR  FRANCES, 

You  will  wonder  from  my  date  where  the  deuce 
I  have  got  to,  and,  indeed,  so  do  I  myself;  however,  it 
is  a  small  town,  alias  village,  where  we  are  changing 
horses  between  Buda  and  Temesvar.  We  left  Vienna 
some  days  ago,  and  have  come  through  Buda.  How- 
ever, as  I  have  given  you  a  very  imperfect  account  of 
our  stay  and  trips  at  Vienna,  I  have  much  previous 
debt  to  discharge  before  I  describe  our  present  situa- 
tion, and  this  letter  will,  I  suppose,  set  out  from 
Temesvar.  My  mother  would  show  you  an  account  I 
sent  her  of  our  tour  to  the  Hungarian  mines,  and  some 
sketch  of  Vienna.  Of  this  latter  I  will  now  attempt 
a  more  minute  description.  Vienna,  though  it  stands 
on  a  very  considerable  space,  contains  but  about 
32,000  inhabitants  ;  this  is  owing  to  the  suburbs,  which 
are  larger  even  than  the  town  itself,  being  separated 
by  the  ramparts  from  it,  which  take  up  near  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  in  breadth.  Parts  of  it  are  well  built  and 
neat,  though  I  cannot  say  there  are  any  squares  or 
streets  like  those  of  London  and  Paris ;  but  then,  in 
return,  there  are  no  streets  like  our  City  lanes,  or  those 
of  the  faubourgs  St.  Marcel.  The  Court  and  the 
principal  places  of  amusement  are  within  the  ramparts, 
on  which  account  everybody  endeavours  to  have  a 

1  In  Hungary,  south-east  of  Buda-Pest,  on  the  present  Orient  line. 

38 


1794]        SIMPLICITY   OF   AUSTRIAN   COURT  39 

house  or  lodgings  in  the  town,  while  the  faubourgs 
are  occupied  by  tradesmen  and  mechanics  of  all  sorts, 
as  for  these  reasons  they  are  considerably  cheaper 
lodgings.  We  all  (viz.  Bootle,  Wilbraham,  and  our 
two  selves)  lived  at  Wolfs,  a  great  house  where  all 
the  English  lodge  almost,  as  you  are  well  treated  and 
pay  a  good  deal.  The  Court  at  Vienna,  though  perhaps 
one  of  the  most  active,  is  one  of  the  least  noisy  in 
Europe.  The  present  Emperor,  who  is  now  returned 
from  Flanders,  keeps  up  scarce  any  sort  of  state,  no 
levees  or  drawing-rooms  but  three  or  four  great  days 
in  the  year,  and  he  frequently  walks  out  in  the  town 
or  on  the  ramparts  without  attendants.  The  Empress 
seems  as  much  averse  to  state  as  he  is,  and,  if  one  may 
now  place  any  confidence  in  the  attachment  of  subjects, 
he  has  but  little  occasion  for  guards,  as  he  seems  to  be 
extremely  beloved  by  all  ranks  of  people,  at  least  all 
we  have  been  able  to  converse  with. 

Notwithstanding  this,  however,  it  is  certain  there 
have  been  conspiracies  detected  here  too,  and  several 
persons  arrested,  though  with  such  privacy  nobody 
knows  any  particulars  about  them,  and  whatever  the 
danger  may  have  been  there  is  neither  alarm  nor 
bustle  in  the  town,  as  except  once  or  twice  we  never 
heard  it  mentioned.  As  to  the  town  of  Vienna  itself, 
it  does  not  abound  in  fine  buildings  or  lions  of  that 
species,  but  the  public  walks  about  it  and  the  general 
situation  is  delightful.  These  were  most  of  them 
parks  of  the  Emperors,  and  were  thrown  open  by  the 
Emperor  Joseph,  with  an  inscription  on  one  of  them 
which  does  him  infinite  honour :  "  A  place  of  amuse- 
ment thrown  open  for  all  men  by  their  friend."  The 
Augarten,  which  is  one  of  the  principal  ones,  is  a  large 
garden  laid  out  in  shady  walks,  with  a  fine  saloon, 
where  anybody  may  dine  or  sup,  and  where  there  is 
music,  and  the  people  go  there  to  take  refreshments 
from  six  in  the  morning.  Schonbrunn,  at  about  a 
league  from  the  town,  is  a  large  palace  of  the  Emperor's, 
where  he  resides  during  the  summer  months ;  never- 


40           FROM  VIENNA   TO   CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

theless  the  walks  here,  which  are  very  extensive,  and 
really  pretty  though  formal,  are  open  to  everybody, 
and  there  is  a  coffee-house  on  the  same  plan  as  that  of 
the  Augarten.  There  are  the  lounges  in  the  morning 
and  at  dinner  for  those  who  have  nothing  else  to  do. 
In  the  evening  about  five  everybody  assembles  in  the 
Prater,  a  large  park,  very  shady,  with  long  avenues, 
where  the  fine  folks  display  their  equipages  and  the 
Jemmy  folks  their  riding,  in  favour  of  which  I  cannot 
say  much.  Here  everybody  walks  about,  takes  coffee, 
ices,  etc.,  and  there  is  so  great  a  mixture  of  people  that 
if  the  fine  people  (as  fine  people  sometimes  will) 
should  happen  to  be  stupid  there  are  always  others 
who  love  fun.  In  consequence  of  this  the  place  is 
filled  with  ups-and-downs,  merry-go-rounds,  swings, 
etc.,  etc.,  and  very  pretty  little  masters  we  were  more 
than  once,  all  of  us  having  (thank  Heaven)  no  bad 
knack  at  playing  the  fool.  Here  are  what  I  never 
saw  elsewhere,  a  quantity  of  stags  and  wild  boars,  which 
however  from  good  living  and  being  taken  care  of  are 
as  tame  as  any  other  pigs. 

Whilst  we  were  at  Vienna  there  were  fireworks 
given  in  the  Prater  twice,  one  of  which  represented 
the  siege  of  Landrecy  l  and  was  pretty  enough.  From 
the  Prater,  which  is  about  a  mile  from  the  town,  the 
people  go  off  to  the  theatres ;  there  are  Italian  operas 
here  for  five  times  a  week,  and  one  of  the  theatres  is 
pretty,  the  singing  very  good.  There  is  a  German 
theatre,  which  of  course  we  did  not  frequent  much,  not 
understanding  the  language.  Indeed,  though  German 
is  the  universal  language,  yet  French  is  so  much  the 
language  of  the  higher  classes  that  you  often  hear  of 
a  person  talking  good  or  bad  German  as  you  would  of 
an  acquired  tongue.  Italian  is  also  generally  spoken, 
and  with  the  intercourse  they  have  with  Hungary, 
Bohemia,  Russia,  and  England,  Vienna  is  a  perfect 
Babel,  and  you  meet  with  many  men  and  women  who 
can  speak  five  or  six  languages,  and  almost  all  three — 

1  See  p.  22. 


1794]        AUSTRIAN   POLICE   REGULATIONS  41 

French,  German,  and  Italian.  In  the  evening  after  the 
theatres  all  the  town  assemble  on  the  ramparts,  where 
there  is  music,  ice,  etc.  They  stay  till  ten,  and  very 
often  afterwards  walk  or  sit  in  the  Graben,  a  broad, 
open  street,  eating  ices  at  the  coffee-house  doors  ;  and 
this  is  not  scrupled  by  people  of  the  first  fashion. 
There  are  in  the  evening  many  private  assemblies 
and  balls.  So,  with  all  these  places  of  public  resort, 
Vienna  is  one  of  the  gayest  scenes  in  the  world. 
Another  pleasant  circumstance,  at  least  in  the  public 
places,  is  the  great  strictness  of  their  police,  which 
keeps  the  people  perfectly  quiet :  and  you  here  see 
nothing  of  that  riot  and  confusion  which  infests  the 
doors  of  all  our  public  places.  There  are  also  very 
severe  penalties  for  all  sorts  of  riot ;  every  one  who 
strikes  a  blow  would  have  to  pay  forty  florins  (about 
four  guineas),  and  for  discharging  a  pistol  within  a 
certain  distance  about  two  hundred  florins.  You  will 
easily  perceive  these  laws  would  be  very  inefficacious 
with  our  ideas  about  quarrels,  but  the  Germans,  who 
are  used  to  subordination  and  even  corporal  punish- 
ments, are  by  no  means  so  nice  about  the  point  of 
honour  between  men  as  we  or  the  French  were; 
so  that  I  believe  a  man  might  pay  his  fine  for  a  beating 
without  being  called  to  account  in  any  other  way. 
However,  though  in  some  respects  perhaps  agreeable, 
I  can't  help  thinking  this  extreme  police  very  bad  in 
its  effects. 

It  encourages,  like  that  of  Venice,  a  system  of  spies 
and  informers,  of  which  there  are,  1  am  told,  several  in 
every  place  of  public  resort ;  it  has  likewise  a  further 
and  still  worse  effect  on  the  manners  of  the  people, 
for,  supported  by  the  soldiery,  and  armed  with  entire 
power  over  them  by  the  Government,  it  keeps  them 
unenterprising,  mistrustful,  and  phlegmatic.  It  is  true 
our  mobs  are  unruly,  but  amongst  our  common 
people  we  find  marked,  active  characters,  and  all 
that  spirit  and  activity  of  mind  which  is  destroyed 
in  a  German  by  this  one  principle  of  perpetual 


42          FROM  VIENNA  TO  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

subordination.  Their  military  turn  encourages  this 
still  more,  for  the  Austrians  are  all  soldiers,  and 
almost  every  postmaster  and  innkeeper  is  an  officer 
in  the  army.  Perhaps  I  have  some  grudge  against 
the  police  for  keeping  us  a  whole  day  at  Vienna  to 
get  our  passports  signed,  which  they  must  be  by  all 
of  them,  or  we  should  have  risked  being  stopped  on 
our  journey.  All  our  representations  could  not  prevail 
upon  them  to  make  the  least  haste  either  with  ours 
or  our  servants'.  For  our  draughtsman,  who  is  a 
native  of  Vienna,  I  was  obliged  to  be  surety  in  two 
hundred  florins  that  he  should  return  in  two  years. 

In  society  the  Viennois  are  rather  French  in  their 
manners,  and  still  more  so  in  their  morals,  which 
are  pretty  licentious.  No  woman  here  loses  her 
character  in  society  for  what  would  in  England 
banish  her  from  it  even  now.  The  frequency  of 
intrigue  proceeds,  too,  from  the  same  cause,  for  like 
the  French  they  are  often  married  without  being  the 
least  consulted,  and  nothing  is  more  common  than 
living  separate  by  mutual  consent ;  they  are  also 
ridiculously  nice  in  their  ideas  about  nobility  and 
descent,  and  the  men  are,  amongst  most  of  the  first 
noblesse,  themselves  an  excuse,  or  at  least  a  reason, 
for  the  infidelity  of  their  wives.  The  Court,  I  am 
told,  is  now  much  better  in  this  respect  than  it  was 
ten  or  twelve  years  ago ;  but  it  is  not  confined  to  the 
Court,  as  these  ideas  seem  to  prevail  through  the 
whole  people,  and  there  are  few  women  who  are  not 
provided  with  a  loveror  two,  and  that  pretty  avowedly. 
As  in  France,  too,  Madame  here  is  everything  and 
Monsieur  is  a  very  subordinate  character.  Indeed,  how 
it  should  be  better  I  do  not  know,  for  the  men  are 
certainly  as  stupid  a  set  as  I  ever  saw ;  and  really  the 
women,  where  they  deviate  from  the  above  system, 
and  the  young  ones  who,  from  not  being  married, 
have  not  begun  it,  are  some  of  them  very  amiable. 

In  the  way  of  sights,  the  chief  ones  we  saw  were 
the  cabinets  of  modern  and  ancient  coins  and  medals ; 


1794]  MUSEUMS  AT  VIENNA  43 

the  modern  ones  were  very  complete,  and  arranged 
from  the  earliest  times.  Of  the  antique  ones  I  will 
not  give  any  description,  as  Bootle  has  been  so  kind 
as  to  take  charge  of  a  book  for  you  which  will  do 
it  better.  I  could  not  get  you  any  sulphurs,  as  they 
do  not  make  them  here.  There  is  a  cabinet  of  fossils, 
which  I  do  not  much  understand,  and  a  very  fine  and 
large  library,  which  we  walked  over,  and  in  which 
there  is  a  room  open  to  everybody,  where  you  may 
go  and  call  for  any  book  you  please  at  certain  hours, 
but  you  cannot  take  them  out  of  the  library.  This  is 
common  with  the  library  at  Dresden  and  others. 
I  wonder  the  King  has  never  adopted  so  liberal  a 
system  in  our  libraries.  Amongst  other  curiosities, 
they  possess  here  every  book  that  was  printed  in 
Germany  from  the  beginning  of  printing  in  the  year 
1448  to  the  year  1500.  Most  of  them,  according  to 
the  taste  of  the  times,  are  doctors  and  divines,  but 
there  are  some  curious  editions  of  the  Classics.  There 
is  a  very  curious  priory  here,  with  a  clock  of  which 
all  the  motions  correspond  with  those  of  the  planets 
they  represent,  and  the  clock  has  all  the  various 
movements  for  the  month,  year,  etc.  This  machine, 
however  complicated,  was  the  work  of  a  common 
labourer  near  Vienna,  who  afterwards  was  mechanist 
to  the  Court,  and  enjoyed  a  well-deserved  pension 
from  Joseph  as  a  reward  for  his  ingenuity. 

At  the  Belvedere,  a  palace  built  by  Prince  Eugene, 
the  Emperor  has  a  good  collection  of  pictures,  though 
not  equal  to  the  electoral  one  at  Dresden,  by  any 
means.  I  cannot  describe  pictures,  so  you  must 
excuse  this  ;  but  the  curious  part  is  a  large  collection 
of  specimens  of  the  very  old  German  masters,  such 
as  Alb.  Dlirer,  Holbein,  etc.,  which  are  very  ugly  but 
striking,  as  they  show  the  progress  of  the  art. 

There  is  a  finer  collection  at  Prince  Lichtenstein's, 
who  has  a  great  house  here,  particularly  in  Guidos 
and  Vandycks.  This  family  is  the  most  considerable 
of  any  in  Vienna,  where  they  possess  richer  and  finer 


44          FROM   VIENNA  TO   CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

palaces  than  the  Emperor  himself.  I  am  (told  Prince 
Louis  Lichtenstein  is  not  worth  less  than  £100,000 
per  annum.  There  are  three  or  four  brothers  and 
cousins ;  of  one  of  them,  Charles,  we  heard  a  very 
honourable  story.  He  had  been  in  great  favour  with 
the  late  Emperor;  after  his  death  being  not  equally 
so.  After  some  time  the  present  Emperor  sent  to 
tell  him  "he  had  heard  his  father  had  offered  him 
considerable  advantages,  and  that  it  was  his  desire 
to  fulfil  his  intentions."  The  Prince's  answer  was, 
with  equal  generosity,  "  that  he  had  never  received  or 
solicited  a  promise  during  the  whole  of  his  favour." 

Another  great  man  here  is  the  Prince  Esterhazy, 
who  has  about  the  same  income.  He  commands  the 
guard  of  Hungarian  nobles  which  is  the  Emperor's 
own,  and  consists  of  about  four  hundred  young  men 
of  the  first  families  in  Hungary,  all  noblesse.  Their 
uniform  is  a  scarlet  Hussar  uniform,  their  boots,  caps, 
and  clothes  embroidered  beautifully  in  silver,  with  a 
tiger's  skin  over  their  left  shoulder;  their  housings 
and  horse-furniture  superb,  and  each  attended  by  a 
servant  in  the  Hungarian  dress,  also  on  horseback. 
The  whole  are  the  finest  body  of  men  I  ever  saw. 
Except  three  or  four  great  houses,  the  rest  in  Vienna 
are  all  let  in  lodgings ;  they  are  built  in  separate 
stories,  with  a  common  staircase  of  stone  through 
the  house,  and  one  family  hires  a  story.  This  is 
common  in  Dresden,  and  indeed  in  almost  every 
town  in  Germany.  Here  whole  streets  belong  to 
individuals,  and  within  the  ramparts  are  a  very 
considerable  fortune.  So  much  for  Vienna.  (Patience !) 

I  have  filled,  as  you  see,  one  sheet  with  Vienna 
alone,  and  shall  never  get  on  through  my  Styrian 
expedition,  which  took  place  about  a  week  before 
I  left  it,  till  I  send  off  this  letter,  as  we  are  now  at 
Szegedin,  and  slept  last  night  at  Telegyhaza.  I  can't 
help  putting  down  these  names  for  the  good  of  your 
teeth  and  pronunciation.  I  will  endeavour  to  give 
you  an  account  of  ourselves  since  we  set  off  from 


1794]  START   FOR  CONSTANTINOPLE  45 

Vienna,  and  will  reserve  my  other  trip  for  another 
letter,  which  shall  be  put  on  the  stocks  for  some  of 
you  immediately,  and  launched  from  Hermanstadt 
perhaps.  On  Saturday  last,  then,  being  determined 
at  all  events  to  leave  Vienna,  we  set  out,  after  fussing 
all  day  at  the  police  about  our  passports,  at  ten  o'clock 
at  night,  for  Constantinople.  A  violent  storm  of 
thunder  and  lightning  accompanied  our  exit,  which 
was  of  course  very  majestic.  You  will  now  begin 
to  think  that  I  shall  never  travel  like  other  people  ; 
however,  it  was  no  bad  plan  for  getting  forward,  as 
we  lost  nothing  by  travelling  all  night,  having  seen 
the  country  as  far  as  Presburg  before  on  our  Hungarian 
tour.  Our  party  consists  of  Wilbraham,  ourselves,  a 
draughtsman,  and  two  servants. 

Near  Attesburg,  in  a  cornfield  about  eight  miles 
from  Presburg,  is  an  old  ruined  arch  extremely  in 
decay,  without  inscription,  which  was  built  by 
Germanicus.  About  six  miles  from  Presburg  the 
high  road  to  Buda  turns  off  to  the  right,  and  continues 
through  a  rich,  cultivated  country  or  extensive  flat 
wolds  as  far  as  Buda ;  about  which  place  it  is  hilly, 
and  varied  though  not  mountainous.  However,  though 
the  parts  of  the  landscape  were  not  bad,  they  every- 
where wanted  what  Mr.  Gilpin  would  call  composition. 
The  harvest  was  everywhere  in  hand,  June  22  and 
23,  and  we  also  have  passed  through  immense  plains 
of  Turkey  wheat. 

The  Danube,  when  you  have  a  view  of  it,  is  a  fine 
feature  in  the  prospect,  sometimes  spreading  its 
branches  amongst  islands  covered  with  wood,  some- 
times stretching  out  in  a  fine,  bold  sheet  of  water  not 
narrower  than  the  Thames  at  Westminster.  He 
changes  his  bed  perpetually,  and  seems  quite  the 
master  of  the  plain  he  runs  through.  This  is  the  only 
instance,  I  suppose,  in  Europe  of  a  river  so  large  at 
this  immense  distance  from  the  sea.  Raab  and 
Comorn  were  the  only  two  towns  we  passed  through, 
and  I  do  not  know  whether  in  England  they  would 


46          FROM   VIENNA  TO   CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  HI 

be  honoured  with  that  name,  at  least  Raab  ;  the  other 
stages  are  positively  villages.  About  that  part  the 
country  is  nothing  but  sandy  wolds  for  some  way, 
and  very  thinly  peopled ;  near  Buda  it  is  more 
populous.  The  race  of  people,  though  the  men  are 
fine  figures,  are  in  general  ugly  and  poor.  The 
villages  are  collections  of  huts  in  long  lines  on  each 
side  of  the  road,  with  the  gable  ends  towards  the  road, 
and  each  a  little  stoneyard,  or  garden,  between  them. 

To  give  you  some  idea  of  the  great  authenticity  of 
news  in  this  part  of  the  country;  at  Gonyos,  about 
six  miles  from  Raab,  where  we  changed  horses,  the 
postmaster  informed  us  that  there  was  a  general 
revolution  in  England,  and  Mr.  Pitt  was  guillotined ; 
but  that  though  he  was  not  quite  sure  of  this,  we  might 
depend  upon  it  there  was  an  insurrection  in  Poland. 
This  country  is  wild,  and  over  the  heaths  the  road 
is  not  made ;  however,  it  is  very  smooth  and  good  in 
summer,  the  rest  a  fine  turnpike  road— and  they  drive 
like  the  wind.  Where  the  country  is  cultivated  it 
seems  very  fertile,  and  there  are  vines  on  the  hills, 
though  the  wine  is  not  of  a  good  quality.  (Temesvar, 
June  27.) 

Buda  and  Pest  are  large  towns,  situated  along  a 
broad  part  of  the  Danube,  and  joined  in  summer  by 
a  bridge  of  boats,  in  winter  by  a  flying  bridge.  I 
should  think  they  contained  together  about  50,000 
inhabitants,  and,  though  not  strikingly  built,  no  one 
can  help  admiring  them  from  the  river,  which  is  here 
broader  than  the  Thames,  and  very  rapid.  We 
employed  one  morning  here  in  seeing  the  Turkish 
baths,  which,  as  the  ruined  mosques  are  now  pulled 
down,  are  the  only  remains  of  the  Turkish  occupation 
here.  There  are  three  sets  of  them ;  two  about  a  mile 
from  the  town  and  one  in  it.  The  water  is  naturally 
warm ;  we  did  not  try  it  with  a  thermometer,  but  found 
it  so  hot  that  we  could  hardly  bear  our  hands  in  it 
near  the  spring.  Indeed  I  never  felt  any  so  hot,  and 
I  believe  it  is  slightly  impregnated  with  sulphur. 


1794]         TURKISH    BATHS   AT   BUDA-PEST  4? 

The  plan  of  their  baths  is  the  same  in  all  three, 
though  the  Kaiserbad,  or  bath  of  the  Emperor,  is  the 
largest  and  neatest.  There  is  one  large  circular 
room  arched  over  with  a  dome,  and  a  large  bath 
where  any  one  may  bathe,  and  where  we  found  about 
twenty  men  and  women  of  all  ages  washing  and 
bathing,  or  lying  round  in  the  steam,  for  rheumatisms, 
etc.  Besides  this,  there  are  several  smaller  baths  for 
solo's,  likewise  arched,  and  painted  in  fresco,  with 
grotesque  ornaments.  In  many  of  these  they  have 
brought  a  pipe  with  cold  water  so  you  may  make 
it  hot  or  cooler  to  your  own  taste.  The  common 
people  are  bathing  here  all  day  long,  and  seem  very 
fond  of  the  custom,  which  I  suppose  has  at  first  been 
Turkish.  Bootle  had  found  it  a  very  general  one  in 
Russia  and  Siberia,  where,  after  a  violent  steam  bath, 
they  would  run  out  and  roll  in  the  snow. 

When  we  had  got  about  six  miles  (one  German 
mile)  from  Buda,  the  face  of  the  country  was  entirely 
changed.  In  the  Danube  is  a  large  island  of  sand, 
spotted  here  and  there  with  a  few  evergreens, 
extending  for  miles,  and  resembling  an  African  desert. 
The  country  one  great  plain  of  thin  corn  or  Turkey 
wheat,  often  without  a  tree,  without  a  hut  or  a  human 
being  for  miles,  except  a  few  poor  devils  hoeing  the 
Turkey  corn  here  and  there ;  then  you  pass  some 
way  over  wide  wolds  or  low,  swampy  grounds,  and 
then  again  come  to  a  plain  of  corn  extending  every 
way  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach.  These,  however, 
grow  less  and  less,  till  about  twenty  miles  from  Buda 
the  country  becomes  a  perfect  plain,  without  any 
covering  but  a  short  wold  grass,  except  perhaps 
immediately  about  the  villages,  and  extends  in  this 
state,  literally  without  any  rise  or  wave  in  the  whole 
as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  for  three  days'  journey, 
to  near  Temesvar,  about  130  or  150  miles. 

The  whole  way  from  Buda  there  is  no  road  made, 
though  the  way  across  this  country  in  summer  is 
better  than  any  turnpike,  and  you  are  driven  as 


48          FROM   VIENNA   TO   CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

quickly  as  in  England.  They  are,  however,  so  very 
long  in  changing  horses,  we  could  only  make  from 
fifty  to  sixty  miles  in  a  day.  In  all  this  plain  there  are 
but  a  few  miserable  villages,  and  I  think  Szegedin 
and  Telegyhaza  are  the  only  two  as  large  as 
Barningham.  The  post  is  established  as  far  as  Her- 
manstadt,  and  the  post-house  is  often  one  poor  soli- 
tary hut  with  a  few  horses  turned  loose  on  the 
common. 

You  cannot  have  an  idea  of  the  singularity  of  this 
immense  plain,  where  you  often  see  nothing  but  it  and 
the  sky,  without  a  tree  or  a  bush  in  the  whole 
prospect.  Over  the  whole  of  it  are  a  number  of 
hillocks,  the  remains  of  the  Turkish  wars,  where  the 
dead  of  each  army  have  been  buried  in  heaps.  Where 
you  do  not  see  these  there  is  not  a  rise  in  the  whole 
country. 

This  part  of  Hungary  and  the  Bannat  are  allotted  for 
the  residence  of  the  French  prisoners.  At  Szegedin 
there  are  about  two  hundred  of  their  officers  shut  up 
in  the  fortress.  They  at  first  had  the  liberty  of  going 
about  the  town,  but,  having  made  a  bad  use  of  it,  were 
confined  to  the  castle,  where  they  have  a  large  court, 
and  the  ramparts  to  walk  on.  We  attempted  to  get 
into  the  place,  by  a  present  to  the  sentinels,  but  we 
were  only  permitted  to  stand  in  the  entrance  and  see 
them,  but  could  not  speak  to  them.  There  were 
several  in  the  red  cap,  and  some  very  fine-looking  men 
among  them ;  and,  in  the  true  French  style,  they 
seemed  very  merry  and  happy.  At  Temesvar  there  are 
about  six  hundred  more,  most  of  them  common  soldiers. 
The  Bannat  in  winter  is  very  swampy  and  marshy, 
and  we  were  told  at  Vienna  that  one  reason  why  they 
were  sent  here  was  that  in  this  unwholesome  climate 
they  died  off  very  quick.  This  I  was  sorry  to  hear  in 
some  measure  confirmed  by  an  Irish  officer  at  Buda, 
who  said  that  out  of  a  body  of  fifteen  hundred  he  had 
escorted  there,  he  only  found  four  hundred  living  a 
short  time  after.  If  this  is  really  true  it  can  only  be. 


1794]  PEASANTS   IN   PLAIN  OF  THEISS  49 

equalled  by  the  late  bloody  decree  of  the  Convention 
against  the  English  and  Hanoverians. 

In  our  day's  journey  from  Telegyhaza  we  observed 
the  villages,  and  huts  which  were  absolutely  nothing 
more  than  holes  in  the  ground,  with  a  thatched  roof 
over  them,  the  light  admitted  at  one  end  through  a 
square  hole.  The  people,  poor  and  dirty,  more  like 
savages  than  anything  else,  made  us  fancy  ourselves  in 
another  part  of  the  world  from  Europe.  The  only  dress 
the  men  wear  is  a  short,  coarse  shirt  reaching  to  their 
waist  and  a  pair  of  very  wide  open  trousers  to  the 
knees,  with  a  pair  of  jack-boots  and  spurs,  which  they 
never  quit,  and  which  may  be  the  remains  of  some 
Tartar  custom,  when  they  wandered  over  these 
plains  on  horseback.  What  induces  me  more  to  think 
so  is  that  these  huts  and  these  figures  are  exactly  the 
same  as  those  of  the  Crimea  and  the  South  of  Russia, 
as  we  were  told  by  Wilbraham's  servant,  who  had 
been  with  Bootle.  All  the  other  Hungarians,  almost, 
wear  boots,  even  the  women  north  of  Presburg.  The 
Hungarian  nobles  have  short  Hussar  boots  and 
always  wear  them,  even  at  Vienna,  except  they  choose 
to  be  a  FAnglaise  at  the  balls.  Though  there  are  very 
few  huts  for  many  score  miles,  yet  do  not  think  these 
deserts  thinly  inhabited. 

Besides  weasels,  which  run  about  all  over  them 
exactly  like  rabbits  in  a  warren,  there  are  birds  of 
prey,  and  water-birds  innumerable  near  the  swamps 
and  streams,  where  there  by  chance  are  any.  We 
saw  several  vultures,  cranes,  herons,  hawks,  storks, 
and  some  birds  we  did  not  know  upon  the  water,  with 
long,  sharp  bills,  resembling  woodcocks.  We  had  no 
shot  with  us,  so  our  gun  was  not  very  useful,  and  we 
were  not  good  shots  with  a  pistol,  though  we  now  and 
then  tried  our  skill.  Their  sheep,  of  which  they  have 
a  peculiar  breed,  have  straight,  sharp,  spiral-twisted 
horns,  but  seem  poor  and  bad.  They  have  a  very  fine 
race  of  large  sheepdogs,  high  and  white,  with  woolly 
hair  and  very  fierce.  You  see  few  huts  without  a 


5o          FROM   VIENNA  TO   CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

breed  of  these  dogs  in  all  this  country.  The  cattle 
are  almost  all  a  dusky  grey,  with  long,  upright  horns ; 
and  they  have  a  very  good  breed  of  horses  throughout, 
much  lighter  and  nearer  the  blood  horse  than  those 
of  Germany,  and  some  wild  horses. 

In  these  plains,  too,  are  several  plants  which  are 
not  in  England,  or  only  grow  in  gardens;  but  I  am 
no  botanist,  so  all  this  amusement  is  for  Stockdale. 
The  race  of  people  here  are  handsomer,  though  not  so 
numerous  as  in  the  north  of  Hungary.  Near  Temesvar 
you  do  see  something  like  hills  at  about  thirty  miles' 
distance,  and  the  country  has  some  small  woods,  and 
appearance  of  cultivated  fields.  The  town  is  small 
though  not  ill  built,  and  very  strongly  fortified.  We 
stay  a  day  here  as  a  resting-place,  and  I  am  employing 
it  in  this  long  prose,  for  which  you  will,  I  hope,  not 
grudge  the  postage,  as  I  foresee  I  have  not  near 
finished.  We  have  here  the  luxury  at  last  of  clean 
water,  which  for  several  days  we  have  not  had.  Here 
are  no  springs,  and  the  wells  are  as  thick  as  a  ditch 
bottom  in  the  deserts,  for  they  are  nothing  else.  We 
even  met  caravans  of  eight  or  ten  wagons,  who  for 
want  of  accommodations  stopped  all  night  on  the 
wold,  and  the  people  slept  while  the  horses  grazed 
round  them,  guarded  by  great  dogs  in  the  true  caravan 
style. 

The  heats  you  have  no  notion  of,  and  would  laugh 
heartily  at  our  figures  in  consequence  of  them.  The 
thermometer  in  our  room,  with  windows  and  doors 
open,  is  about  ninety  degrees,  and  I  am  at  this  moment 
without  either  coat  or  waistcoat,  in  a  loose  pair  of 
linen  trousers  and  slippers,  and  can  scarce  bear  to 
write.  We  all  are  equipped  with  linen  trousers  and 
jackets,  wear  socks  and  no  stockings,  straw  hats 
against  the  sun,  and  gauze  veils  against  the  dust  and 
gnats.  We  have  beautiful  sheet  lightning  every  even- 
ing, and  have  had  for  above  a  week.  Last  night,  on 
entering  the  town,  we  saw  several  French  prisoners, 
who  are  permitted  to  go  about  guarded,  and  seemed 


1794]  PANDOUR   PATROLS  51 

both  in  good  order  and  very  lively  and  merry. 
Indeed,  had  I  not  known  the  French  pretty  well  I 
should  have  thought  them  the  guard,  and  the  others 
the  prisoners.  There  are  a  great  many  Greeks  too, 
in  the  town,  and  we  have  seen  women  in  the  Grecian 
dress,  which  is  beautiful.  The  languages  spoken 
here  are  Hungarian,  Wallach,  Sclavonian,  and  a  little 
German.  The  Hungarian  is  really  harmonious,  and 
with  many  vowels.  The  people,  too,  are  evidently 
less  phlegmatic,  and  livelier  than  the  Austrians  or 
Saxons.  Whiskers  are  a  great  fashion  here,  and 
Stockdale  and  Wilbraham,  who  cherish  theirs,  begin 
to  look  very  fierce ;  for  my  part  I  find  my  pretty  face 
sufficiently  hot  without  them. 

At  Buda  we  were  told  there  were  banditti  beyond 
Temesvar  who  would  render  an  escort  necessary ;  at 
Temesvar  they  are  beyond  Hermanstadt,  and  I  fancy 
at  Hermanstadt  will  again  fly  before  us.  However, 
escorts  are  easily  procured,  and  we  risk  nothing.  The 
truth  is,  three  years  ago  there  were  some  thousands, 
who  infested  all  this  country,  but  they  have  been  all 
cleared  away  by  the  army,  many  of  whom  were  sent 
down  for  that  purpose,  and  are  now  kept  off  by  the 
Panctours,  a  sort  of  independent  Militia,  who  ride 
separately  all  over  the  country.  We  saw  one  yester- 
day, and  I  wish  I  could  give  you  an  idea  of  his  figure. 
A  tall,  immense  man,  with  a  dirty  cocked  hat  slouched 
over  his  shoulders,  an  old  soldier's  coat,  and  wooden 
boards  with  stuffing  for  a  saddle,  a  small  grey,  lean 
pony,  jack-boots,  whiskers,  a  brace  of  pistols,  powder- 
horn,  pipe,  and  tobacco-pouch  in  his  cross-belt,  and 
a  brass  battle-axe  at  his  saddle-bow.  I  have  now 
finished  my  narrative,  and  will  say  something  about 
other  things  on  a  separate  sheet. 

Anne  told  me  in  her  last  that  Hall  Wharton  was 
arrested.  Is  it  for  high  treason,  or  only  sedition  ? 
for  she  does  not  say.  If  your  eyes  have  got  so  far  as 
this,  I  will  now  be  generous  and  release  them ;  so 
make  my  love  to  your  whole  fireside,  or  rather  hearth- 


52          FROM   VIENNA  TO   CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

side  in  this  weather,  and  believe  yourself  sincerely 
beloved 

By  your  affectionate  nephew, 
J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

TEMESVAR,  BANNAT, 
June  27. 

IZASVAROS,  TRANSYLVANIA, 
July  I. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

I  write  to  you  at  present  from  a  small  inn 
between  Temesvar  and  Hermanstadt,  where  we  are 
stopping  to  dine  and  change  horses.  We  have  now 
made,  in  ye  vulgar  tongue,  a  considerable  hole  in  our 
journey,  and  I  hope  soon  to  write  to  you  from  Con- 
stantinople. En  attendant,  I  will  give  you  some 
account  of  our  present  and  past  motions.  I  wrote 
to  my  aunt  from  Temesvar,  and  gave  her  a  very 
minute  detail  of  all  we  had  seen  and  observed  at 
Vienna,  and  in  our  road  thence  to  Temesvar.  For 
these  reasons,  as  you  have,  I  suppose,  seen  that 
elaborate  composition,  I  will  not  go  over  my  ground 
again,  but  attempt  to  give  you  some  account  of  a  tour 
we  made  in  Styria  about  a  week  before  we  came  away, 
and  which  was  productive  of  so  much  pleasure  in 
the  execution  that  I  hope  you  will  have  some  in  the 
history  of  it. 

We  set  off  in  a  large  party,  viz.  Wilbraham, 
Bootle,  Parkinson,  a  friend  and  companion  of  B.'s, 
Stockdale,  and  myself.  Styria,  as  you  will  see  in 
your  maps,  lies  to  the  south  of  Austria,  and  is  the 
eastern  extremity  of  the  Alps,  which  here  decrease 
into  the  fertile  plains  of  Southern  Austria.  The 
object  chiefly  proposed  in  our  pilgrimage  was  Maria- 
Zell,  a  church  on  the  Loretto  plan,  in  a  charming 
situation,  and  a  great  object  of  pilgrimage  to  all  this 
country,  as,  like  her  sooty  sister,  I  suppose  she  can 
upon  occasion  perform  miracles.  As  we  did  not,  how- 
ever, expect  to  see  any  of  these,  we  went  rather  to 
see  the  country,  I  believe,  than  her. 


1794]          SCENERY  OF   NORTHERN  STYRIA  53 

The  first  day  of  our  tour  we  only  went  to  Baden  ; 
indeed,  we  did  not  set  out  till  after  dinner,  as  we 
meant  only  to  go  there  that  night.  Baden  is  a  small 
watering-place  about  twelve  miles  from  Vienna,  where 
we  were  that  night  to  have  a  very  pleasant  ball  in  the 
rooms,  which  was  attended  by  all  the  gay  people  of 
Vienna,  and  of  course  was  very  charmant,  delicieux, 
etc.  Balls  being,  however,  balls  everywhere,  I  shall 
not  say  what  dances  were  called  or  who  called  them. 
The  next  day  we  set  forward  on  our  tour. 

The  country  beyond  Baden  grows  immediately 
picturesque,  for  you  there  leave  the  plain  and  go 
between  two  very  woody  hills  with  a  torrent  in  the 
bottom.  Beyond  this,  as  in  every  hilly  country,  the 
scene  changes  continually,  and  the  eye  commands 
sometimes  a  very  varied  scene  of  hills,  fields,  and 
woods,  and  at  others  you  travel  along  deep  dells  with 
every  beauty  rock,  wood,  and  water  can  produce.  The 
rocks  vary  more  than  I  ever  saw  them,  I  think,  some- 
times standing  out  of  the  wood  in  bold  crags,  sometimes 
hanging  over  the  torrent,  and  sometimes  in  immense 
scars  forming  grotesque  battlements  round  the  tops  of 
very  high  mountains.  One  great  beauty  in  all  these 
scenes,  which  in  other  places  is  often  the  greatest 
blemish,  is  the  style  of  building  the  cottages  and 
villages.  You  remember,  perhaps,  two  little  pictures 
by  Ruysdael  in  the  Orleans  Gallery,  of  cottages,  and 
trees  with  water,  and  Alpine  scenery ;  these  cottages 
might  have  sat  for  the  picture. 

The  low-raftered  walls,  the  very  overhanging  eaves, 
the  roof  covered  with  shingles,  and  the  modest  brown 
colour  with  red  tiles  or  white  plaster,  make  them  not 
only  inoffensive  objects,  but  often  extremely  pic- 
turesque, as  whoever  has  seen  the  two  pictures  above- 
mentioned  will  easily  conceive.  Their  villages,  which 
are  all  built  in  the  same  way,  sometimes  adorned  with 
a  neat,  plain  church,  and  placed  along  the  banks  of  the 
torrent  aforesaid,  produce  an  effect  you  can  easier 
conceive  than  1  describe,  till  the  variety  of  language 
5 


54          FROM  VIENNA  TO   CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

shall  correspond   better  than    it   does   with   that    of 
nature. 

There  are  likewise,  here  and  there,  ruined  fortresses 
on  the  hills,  which,  though  but  tolerably  picturesque 
in  themselves,  yet  acquire  still  further  beauties  from 
their  situation  ;  for  monasteries,  which  in  England  are 
our  most  beautiful  ruins,  are  here,  like  their  owners, 
in  very  excellent  and  unpicturesque  conditions.  As 
you  proceed  in  the  mountains  towards  Maria-Zell  the 
scenes  grow  more  and  more  bold  ;  that  is,  the  dells  are 
deeper,  the  rocks  higher,  the  wood  more  mixed  with 
firs  and  pines,  and  the  stream  more  rapid.  At  last 
you  see  hills  at  distance,  with  patches  of  snow  on 
them. 

At  and  near  Maria-Zell  we  met  quantities  of  pil- 
grims, and  processions  with  banners,  crosses,  saints, 
and  Heaven  knows  what  to  amuse  them  on  their 
journey  to  and  from  the  chapel.  The  Virgin  here  is 
in  very  great  repute,  and  receives  visits  from  the  very 
first  company,  both  at  Vienna  and  still  greater  dis- 
tances ;  however,  when  we  saw  her,  her  Court  was 
rather  numerous  than  brilliantly  attended.  She  is  a 
fat,  chubby,  black  figure,  in  a  massy  silver  shrine. 
Round  this  are  people,  as  at  Loretto,  walking  about  on 
their  knees.  We  saw  a  procession  (which  consisted  of 
some  five  hundred  of  all  ages,  both  men  and  women) 
make  their  entree  ;  two  leading  troops  were  crowned 
with  little  green  wax  crowns,  just  on  the  middle  of  their 
head.  They  chanted  in  turns  something  we  of  course 
did  not  understand,  made  the  tour  of  the  church  once, 
then  went  in,  all  kissing  the  top  step,  which  must,  of  . 
course,  be  very  pleasant  to  those  that  came  in  last — 
made  their  obeisance  to  different  saints,  and  then 
assembled,  singing  in  the  three  aisles  before  the 
shrine,  which  they  address  individually  afterwards, 
some  on  their  knees  with  tapers,  some  on  their  faces, 
some  walking  on  their  knees  ;  in  short,  1  think  almost 
every  way  but  walking  on  their  heads,  which  I  can't 
say  I  saw  practised. 


1794]        PEOPLE   AND   SHRINES   OF  STYRIA  55 

On  Whit-Sunday  there  were  here  about  16,000 
people  on  this  errand  ;  they  generally  stay  here  four- 
and-twenty  hours,  praying  to  all  the  saints  and  figures 
in  the  neighbourhood.  Indeed,  so  holy  are  the  figures 
here  that  (whether  by  mistaking  it  for  a  saint  or  not  I 
do  not  know)  I  saw  one  poor  fellow  pay  most  devout 
addresses  to  a  stone  lion,  which  was  an  ornament 
over  the  churchyard  gateway.  Many  parade  out  of 
church  on  their  knees,  and,  like  the  junto  in  the 
"  Critic,"  exeunt  praying. 

I  bought  a  coloured  print  of  the  town  and  environs, 
which  will  give  you  a  better  idea  of  them  than  I 
can,  and  which  you  will,  I  hope,  some  time  see. 
The  country  all  around  is  delightfully  romantic,  and 
we  travelled  short  journeys,  having  taken  four  voi- 
turiers  from  Vienna.  We  crossed  two  or  three  steep 
mountains,  where  our  horses  were  taken  off  and 
oxen  put  to  the  carriages,  and  where  we  saw  the 
small  Alpine  huts  for  summer  habitations,  with  ex- 
cellent milk,  etc.  This  part  of  the  country  ends  in 
a  perfect  Swiss  scene  of  mountains,  rocks,  snow  all 
round,  and  in  the  bottom  a  little  peaceful  valley  like 
that  of  Grasmere,  only  without  the  lake.  We  then 
returned  by  a  different  part  of  the  mountains,  which, 
though  very  fine,  would  only  admit  of  the  same 
kind  of  description  I  have  already  exhausted,  and 
which,  though  various,  in  reality  is  very  much  the 
same  upon  paper. 

The  country  is  poor  and  the  huts  small ;  the  people 
seem,  however,  handsome,  and  a  strong  race.  Their 
dress,  like  that  of  the  Tyrolese,  is  a  green  jacket, 
large-brimmed,  shallow  green  hat,  green  pantaloons 
and  waistcoat,  with  short  boots.  The  roads  are 
everywhere  good,  as  in  Austria  and  Bohemia.  They 
are  made  entirely  by  the  army,  and  it  employs  them 
in  time  of  peace  better  than  ours  are  near  London, 
in  either  idling  or  robbery.  When  you  leave  the 
mountains  you  return  to  the  wide,  fertile  plain  of 
Vienna,  which,  like  those  Sterne  notices,  are  more 


56          FROM  VIENNA   TO   CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

pleasing  to  the  traveller  than  the  travel  writer  or 
reader.  We  met  no  dancing  Nannettes  on  ours,  so 
cannot  show  our  talents  at  sentimental  descriptions. 
In  about  seven  days  from  our  setting  out  we  returned 
to  Vienna,  and  went  on  for  a  week  longer  in  our  old 
track  of  gaiety  before  we  set  off  for  Constantinople. 

Now  for  our  journey  from  Temesvar  here,  for  all 
which  you  must  make  up  your  mind  to  a  double 
letter.  In  the  evening,  while  I  wrote  my  aunt's  letter, 
Stockdale  and  Wilbraham  walked  over  to  see  the 
French  prisoners  walk  about,  and  found  the  guard 
civil  enough  not  to  hinder  their  talking  to  them.  They 
had  been  taken  under  Dumouriez,  and  were  not  ac- 
quainted with  anything  that  had  since  happened. 
They  by  no  means  conversed  irrationally,  and  were 
much  less  violent  than  we  expected.  They  passed  a 
tacit  censure  upon  the  conduct  of  their  countrymen 
since,  particularly  with  regard  to  the  late  bloody 
decree  about  English  prisoners;  they  would  not  be- 
lieve it  possible. 

Dumouriez  was  not  popular  amongst  them,  and  they 
said  he  sacrificed  many  lives  unnecessarily.  They 
were  allowed  but  about  three-halfpence  a  day,  and 
lodge  in  casemates  under  the  hospital,  both  very 
dirty,  low,  and  unwholesome.  They  spoke  with  great 
gratitude  of  the  people  of  Temesvar,  though  they  said 
the  Government  did  not  treat  them  well.  They  here, 
every  evening,  hold  a  convention  in  form,  and  debate 
on  different  revolutional  topics.  The  order  of  the  day 
when  we  were  there  was  about  the  conditions  of 
peace,  and  one  of  them  very  much  insisted  on  was  the 
exchange  of  prisoners. 

You  will  not  wonder  at  this,  though  you  will  be 
concerned  to  hear  it  for  the  sake  of  common  humanity 
when  I  tell  you  they  assured  us  that  out  of  5,000  sent 
here  a  year  ago  only  700  remained.  Some  of  them 
seemed  very  decent  men,  and  better  informed  than  in 
their  rank  of  life  men  usually  are.  Beyond  Temesvar 
we  saw  with  joy  the  country  become  a  little  uneven, 


1794]    THROUGH  TRANSYLVANIA  TO  FRONTIER     57 

and  here  and  there  varied  with  underwood,  though 
I  think  it  was  many  miles  before  it  acquired  the  un- 
evenness  of  the  Crofts  at  York,  or  the  picturesque 
beauties  of  Poppleton  fields ;  however,  with  hills  in 
the  distance  it  appeared  to  us  a  perfect  paradise  after 
the  flats  we  had  crossed.  Before  the  evening,  how- 
ever, our  fields  grew  cultivated  and  varied,  and  (what 
we  could  have  dispensed  with  here)  our  last  stage 
improved  from  underwood  to  an  immense  forest  near 
Tarzed,  where  we  slept.  Where  the  forest  was  not 
timber  trees  you  saw  hills,  and  plains  of  underwood 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  and  where  there  was 
timber  we  saw  the  finest  oaks  possible  for  miles. 

As  the  night  came  on  we  perceived  the  air  and  the 
bushes  sparkle  all  round  as  with  fire,  and  found 
it  proceeded  from  fireflies,  which  flew  all  round  us 
in  quantities ;  at  last  we  arrived  safe  at  our  night's 
lodging  in  a  violent  storm  of  thunder  and  lightning, 
which  we  have  either  seen  at  a  distance  or  felt  near 
for  many  days  past.  Beyond  Tarzed  the  forest  con- 
tinues for  about  eighteen  miles,  over  considerable 
hills,  which,  with  such  wood,  are  of  course  fine.  Near 
Dobra  (for  which  consult  your  maps)  we  change  them 
for  a  rich,  cultivated  vale,  with  a  fine,  broad  river, 
along  which  the  road  winds  under  shady  or  cultivated 
mountains  on  the  right,  with  the  river  on  the  left, 
beyond  this  a  fine  plain  and  mountains  like  the  former. 
At  Deva,  where  we  slept,  is  a  fine  old  castle  of  the 
Emperor's  of  which  I  have  a  drawing  by  our  draughts- 
man, as  of  several  other  scenes  of  our  journey.  You 
may  imagine  how  much  we  enjoyed  such  a  country 
after  our  journey  on  the  other  side  of  Temesvar. 
The  vale  now  grows  wider,  and  more  cultivated  than 
woody ;  beyond  Szarvaros  it  becomes  open,  and  after- 
wards hilly  without  trees  or  high  cultivation. 

Between  Muhlenbach  and  this  place  (Hermanstadt) 
we  ascend  a  fine  woody  hill  with  a  pretty  village  in 
the  bottom,  and  the  town  here  stands  on  the  other 
side  of  it  in  an  open,  large  plain.  It  is  old,  and  part 


58          FROM   VIENNA  TO  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

ill-built,  though  larger  than  Temesvar— no  great 
matter,  however,  and  not  finer  or  larger  than  Newark 
or  Retford.  We  arrived  here  yesterday,  to-day  being 
Thursday,  July  3,  and  have  just  now  returned  to  our 
inn  from  the  playhouse,  where  we  have  been  showing 
ourselves  and  seeing  the  beau-monde  of  Hermanstadt ; 
the  theatre  is  large  and  not  ill-built,  much  better  than 
we  expected,  or  than  suited  the  company ;  the  play 
German.  We  have  here  been  told  that  the  dangers 
we  had  heard  of  on  our  road  beyond  this  place  to 
Bucharest  were  just  as  imaginary  as  those  near 
Temesvar.  Indeed,  nothing  is  so  ridiculous  as  the 
exaggeration  of  all  these  things,  for  we  have  all  along 
at  a  hundred  miles'  distance  heard  of  dangers  which 
always  vanished  as  we  approached  nearer.  The  only 
thing  that  has  ever  put  us  out  of  our  way  is  the 
cheating  and  extreme  rascality  of  the  postmasters ; 
these  places  are  often  given  to  the  poorer  officers  in 
the  Austrian  service,  or  Hungarian  noblesse;  so,  pre- 
tending to  be  something  like  gentlemen,  they  take 
every  opportunity  to  plunder  and  cheat  you.  You 
have  frequently  to  wait  two,  three,  or  four  hours  while 
they  send  for  their  horses  from  fields  three  or  four 
miles  off;  often  pretend  there  are  hills  to  make  you 
take  more  horses,  and  at  the  next  post  insist  on  your 
continuing  to  take  the  same  number.  Your  only 
redress  is  applying  to  the  postmaster-general  at 
Vienna,  which  is  always  more  trouble  than  the  object 
is  worth,  for  the  punishment  of  one  is  nonsense  when 
they  are  all  alike. 

The  peasants  in  Transylvania  and  the  Bannat  are 
poor  beyond  description,  often  wearing  literally 
nothing  but  a  shirt  and  trousers.  Their  shoes  are 
nothing  but  a  coarse  piece  of  leather  tied  with  thongs 
round  their  feet  and  ankles.  They  are  a  livelier 
people  than  the  Germans,  but  seem  almost  like 
savages,  with  a  vacant  idiot  laugh,  and  senseless 
beyond  conception.  Their  language  here  changes 
from  Hungarian  to  Wallach,  which  is  very  like  Italian 


1794]        PRECAUTIONS   AGAINST   INVASION  59 

in  sound-pronunciation,  and  from  which  it  takes  many 
words.  Indeed,  with  Italian  you  will  often  be  under- 
stood. Farther  on  they  talk  Greek  and  Turkish,  so 
between  Vienna  and  Constantinople  the  language 
changes  six  times,  viz. :  German,  Sclavonian,  Hun- 
garian, Wallach,  Greek,  and  Turkish,  which  I  do 
not  suppose  happens  in  so  short  a  space  in  any  other 
part  of  the  world.  Transylvania  is  certainly  a  fine,  and 
might  be  a  fertile  province,  but,  being  a  frontier  one 
exposed  to  the  Turks,  is  not  cultivated  as  it  might  be, 
and  the  Turks  have  hardly  any  commerce  with  them. 

I  shall  now  (having  travelled  thus  far)  talk  about 
England  to  you.  And  first  let  me  thank  you  with 
all  my  heart  for  subscribing  in  my  name  for  the 
internal  defence  of  the  country.  As  you  have,  I  hope 
nobody  will  tell  you  again  I  am  a  democrat,  in  the 
present  sense  of  the  word.  Be  assured  I  shall  always  be 
glad  as  an  Englishman  to  act  as  you  have  done  for  me, 
since  I  look  upon  the  views  of  our  present  democrats 
to  be  the  destruction  of  all  we  ought  to  hold  dear; 
and  I  can  never  think  that  my  opinions,  however 
represented,  can  be  supposed  to  coincide  with  them. 
But  you  know  as  well  as  anybody  my  ideas  on  this 
subject,  so  I  am  sure  you  cannot  act  wrong,  as  I  know 
how  much  our  opinions  coincide.  As  for  the  danger 
of  England,  I  hope  it  will  be  found  that  the  pre- 
ventive measures  which  have  been  taken  will  in- 
crease our  security  though  they  heighten  our  alarm. 
If  anything  serious  happens  I  would  return,  that  is 
in  case  of  invasion ;  but  of  that  I  have  and  can  have  no 
idea.  In  the  meantime  I  should  be  extremely  sorry 
to  give  up  a  tour  of  such  pleasure  for  anything  less, 
as  I  have  now  nothing  less  in  view  than  a  complete 
seeing  of  Greece  and  the  islands,  and  hope  to  have 
infinite  satisfaction  from  it.  Tell  Anne  that  I  have 
not  yet  begun  my  collection  of  pretty  things  for  her, 
having  seen  nothing  of  the  sort  yet  but  living  creatures, 
which  I  think  were  expressly  barred  in  the  com- 
mission. My  only  purchase,  I  think,  except  a  book  or 


60          FROM   VIENNA  TO   CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

two,  has  been  a  black  little  Hungarian  terrier,  the 
beauty  of  all  ugliness.  I  am  at  present  anxious 
beyond  measure  for  English  news,  as  I  have  not  heard 
a  syllable  since  I  left  Vienna,  and  shall  not  possibly 
before  I  arrive  at  Constantinople,  where  I  hope  my 
letters  from  Vienna  will  have  arrived  before  me. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

I  write  to  you  from  Bucharest,  where  we  are  all 
arrived  perfectly  safe  and  well.  You  will  be  surprised 
at  the  shortness  of  this  letter,  but  I  am  in  the  very 
hurry  of  packing  off  to  go  to  Constantinople. 
Since  we  left  Hermanstadt  we  have  been  travelling  in 
a  Greek  country,  and  the  whole  scene  is  so  new,  so 
extraordinary  that  we  are  afraid  we  are  dreaming  out 
of  the  "Arabian  Nights'  Entertainments."  On  arriving 
here  we  were  fortunate  enough  to  find  the  couriers 
for  Constantinople  just  setting  off,  and  have  agreed 
with  them  to  take  us.  We  ride  the  whole  way,  and 
are  accompanied  by  two  janissaries,  who  have  the 
care  of  us.  We  pay  them  here  for  everything  (a 
great  price,  to  be  sure),  but  they  procure  us  eating, 
homes,  and  everything  we  want  the  whole  way  with- 
out our  taking  any  trouble  or  having  an  interpreter. 
We  hope  to  be  at  Constantinople  in  about  nine  days ; 
in  a  carriage  it  is  about  fifteen,  and  very  bad  road. 
There  is,  we  are  told,  no  danger,  as  merchandise  and 
other  things  go  every  day,  so  I  hope  very  soon  to 
write  to  you  from  thence.  My  only  reason  for  writing 
now  is  that  you  may  not  think  us  lost,  and  if  my  letters 
are  in  future  long  in  arriving,  remember  the  posts  only 
leave  Constantinople  once  a  fortnight  and  are  not 
quite  so  certain  as  on  the  Boroughbridge  road.  How- 
ever, be  assured  that  I  will  write  as  much  as  I  can. 
If  I  have  not  been  able  on  my  road  from  Hermanstadt, 
the  reason  is  we  have  hardly  ever  entered  a  house, 
even  to  eat ;  for  the  villages  and  huts  are  so  poor  we 
have  always  slept  in  our  carriages  or  under  a  tree 
rather  than  take  a  bench  (for  beds  are  unknown)  and 


1794]     ARRIVAL   AT   THE   SEA   OF   MARMORA          61 

be  covered  with  vermin.  To-night  we  are  to  go  to 
bed,  but  our  inn  at  Bucharest  is  about  on  a  par  with 
Boggle  House.  We  are  in  high  glee,  however,  and 
have  seen  scenes  so  new  they  make  amends  for 
everything,  and  we  do  nothing  but  laugh  and  jaw. 
Adieu.  Voila  Cessentiel,  and  I  have  not  time  for  more. 
Stockdale's  and  Wilbraham's  best  regards. 
Believe  me, 

Your  affectionate  son, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 
BUCHAREST, 
July  9  (I  believe),  1794. 


ZYORLU,  ON  THE  SEA  OF  MARMORA, 
July  25,  1794. 

DEAR  ANNE, 

I  write  to  you  in  rather  an  extraordinary  situa- 
tion, being  at  this  moment  on  the  steps  of  a  Turkish 
inn  in  a  small  town  some  way  beyond  Adrianople, 
surrounded  by  Turks  and  infidels,  all  astonished  at 
my  writing  apparatus,  and  fingering  every  part  of  it. 
I  have  just  rescued  my  pen  from  their  paws,  and  as 
everything  about  me  is  very  ridiculous  I  can't  have 
a  better  time  for  writing  to  you.  Wilbraham  and 
Stockdale  are  trying  to  sleep,  for  we  were  up  about 
half-past  two,  and  the  heat  now  (about  two  in  the 
afternoon)  is  intolerable.  I,  however,  have  had  my 
nap,  and  don't  feel  inclined  to  renew  it,  as  in  the 
street  (where  I  now  am)  the  figures  promise  me  some 
amusement.  My  letter  will  probably  be  sent  from 
Constantinople,  and  so  you  no  doubt  expect  a  longer 
than  my  last. 

Since  I  wrote  my  mother  an  account  of  our  proceed- 
ings from  Hermanstadt,  we  have  been  almost  con- 
stantly moving.  You  will  see  by  your  map  that  very 
soon  afterwards  we  left  Transylvania,  and  entered  the 
Turkish  dominions.  Wallachia,  which  is  the  first 
province  belonging  to  the  Porte,  is  under  the  immedi- 
ate government  of  the  Prince  of  Wallachia,  and  is 


62           FROM  VIENNA  TO  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

entirely  Christian,1  no  Turk,  by  the  treaty  of  alliance, 
being  allowed  the  exercise  of  his  religion  or  to  bring 
his  wives.  Wallachia  extends  from  where  we  entered 
it  at  the  pass  of  Rotherturm,  through  Bucharest  to 
Sistova,  where  we  left  it,  about  three  hundred  miles, 
of  which  the  pass  through  the  mountains  from 
Transylvania  is  the  only  part  that  can  possibly  amuse 
anybody.  It  is  about  twenty-five  miles,  or  thirty, 
of  picturesque  rock  and  wood  scenery.  Through  this, 
however,  there  was  no  way  of  getting  our  carriages  but 
by  oxen,  and  we  were  about  two  days  in  going  it.  The 
rest  of  Wallachia  is  a  miserable,  barren,  flat  country, 
which,  except  its  being  here  and  there  overrun  with 
brambles  and  thistles,  would  be  exactly  another 
Bannat.  Our  road  to  Bucharest  was  through  the 
towns  of  Arjis  and  Pitesti,  which  you  will  perhaps  see 
marked  on  your  map,  though  they  are  neither  of  them 
larger  than  Bowes.  On  leaving  Transylvania  we  bid 
adieu  to  beds,  tables,  and  chairs,  the  Wallachians,  who 
are  Greek  Christians,  as  well  as  the  Turks,  never  sitting 
on  a  raised  seat,  and  always  sleeping  on  carpets  in 
their  clothes. 

To  give  you  some  idea  of  the  manners  of  the  country, 
I  will  give  you  an  account  of  our  reception  one  night 
at  a  village  near  Arjis  where  we  slept.  There  was  no 
inn  or  alehouse  in  the  village,  and  we  were  driven  to 
a  noble  Wallachian's  country  seat,  much  such  a  house 
as  Hanby's.  The  gentleman  of  the  house  was  at 
Bucharest,  and  we  were  received  by  his  lady.  She 
was  seated  on  a  low  board  sofa  which  filled  the 
whole  of  one  side  of  the  room,  surrounded  by  five  or 
six  Greek  slaves  in  great  state.  As  this  was  the  first 
specimen  I  saw  of  the  Greek  dress  of  which  you  have 
heard  so  much,  I  will  describe  you  hers.  Her  gown 

1  Wallachia  (like  Moldavia)  was  at  this  time  a  vassal  State  of  Turkey, 
having  a  semi-independence  under  its  own  Rouman  Prince,  but  tributary  to 
the  Turkish  Sultan,  by  whom  the  ruling  prince  was  nominated.  It  was  not 
until  1 86 1  that  the  Rouman  States  of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia  formed 
themselves  into  a  single  State  as  the  Principality  of  Roumania ;  and  not  until 
1878  that  Rouraania  became  completely  independent  of  Turkey. 


1794]        A  WALLACHIAN   COUNTRY   HOUSE  63 

was  long-sleeved,  coming  up  before  no  higher  than 
her  cestus,  which  was  tied  a  la  Campbell.  It  was 
gathered  round  her  ankles  and  legs  like  trousers,  and 
was  made  of  a  spotted  light  muslin.  On  her  head  she 
wore  a  flat-topped  high  cap  with  a  gold  tassel  on  the  top, 
and  a  shawl  handkerchief  round  her  forehead,  her 
hair  hanging  loose  about  her  shoulders.  Over  her 
gown  she  wore  a  long  light  blue  silk  pelisse  edged 
with  fur,  with  half-sleeves ;  on  her  feet  she  had  thin 
yellow-leather  boots,  with  slippers,  which  she  left  at 
the  side  of  the  sofa  to  put  up  her  feet,  for  they  all 
sit  cross-legged,  a  la  Turque.  Over  her  bosom  she 
wore  a  thin  fold  of  muslin  which  fastened  under 
her  cestus ;  and  I  assure  you,  though  not  of  the 
premiere  jeunesse,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  more 
elegant  figure. 

We  had  not  dined,  and  she  sent  into  the  village  for 
everything  we  wanted  which  she  had  not  in  the  house, 
and  after  dinner  two  servants  walked  round  with  a 
basin  and  a  pitcher,  to  pour  water  on  our  hands.  She 
had  a  little  child  about  four  years  old  with  her,  with 
whom  we  made  a  great  friendship.  She  also  showed 
us  a  little  boy  of  about  a  year  older,  whom  she  had 
bought  of  the  Turkish  soldiers  during  the  last  war  with 
the  Austrians,  and  after  supper  and  a  little  conversation 
through  means  of  an  interpreter,  she  left  us  in  peace- 
able possession  of  the  sofa,  on  which  we  slept  very 
luxurious^,  as  it  was  about  six  foot  broad  and  as  long 
as  the  room.  In  the  morning  she  came  in  with  her 
little  boy,  bringing  each  of  us  a  teaspoonful  of  conserve 
of  roses,  the  best  I  ever  tasted,  which  is  a  constant 
custom  amongst  them.  We  were  not  suffered  to  pay 
for  anything  but  what  we  had  from  the  village,  and 
left  the  house  delighted  with  the  novelty  of  the  scene 
and  the  hospitality  we  had  experienced.  This,  how- 
ever, was  but  one  day  of  the  many  we  spent  in 
Wallachia,  and  of  the  rest  I  have  nothing  amusing  to 
say;  even  Bucharest  is  not  worth  noticing;  indeed, 
Constantinople  includes  every  other  town.  At  Bucha- 


64          FROM   VIENNA  TO   CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  m 

rest  we  quitted  our  carriages  and  proceeded  on  horse- 
back under  the  care  of  the  janissaries  who  conduct 
the  post. 

On  entering  Bulgaria  at  Sistova  we  bid  adieu  to 
Christianity,  and,  having  been  told  there  was  consider- 
able danger  on  the  road,  were  surprised  at  the  hardi- 
ness of  our  guides,  who  travelled  with  us  till  one  in 
the  morning  the  first  day ;  but  indeed  we  found  every- 
where that  the  dangers  so  much  talked  of  were 
excessively  exaggerated,  though  there  certainly  are 
robbers  in  these  hills,  as  our  servants  who  went  with 
the  post  in  another  party  saw  several,  who,  however, 
did  not  offer  to  molest  them.  As  our  party  seldom 
consisted  of  less  than  eight  or  nine  men  well  armed,  we 
did  not  think  we  had  much  to  fear,  and  our  confidence 
did  not  deceive  us. 

On  examining  my  journal  I  find  so  many  uninterest- 
ing days  that  I  will  not  detail  them,  but  just  mention 
what  struck  us  as  most  worth  notice. 

(Pera,  July  28.)  The  Danube  at  Sistova,  where  we 
crossed  it  from  Wallachia,  is  not  less  than  a  mile  and  a 
half  across,  and  runs  down  in  one  large,  majestic  sheet 
of  a  great  depth.  I  fancy  this  is  far  the  greatest 
breadth  of  any  European  river  at  the  distance  of  about 
two  hundred  miles  from  the  sea,  and  that  a  sea  where 
there  are  no  tides,  for  the  Danube  is  entirely  a  sweet- 
water  river.  Sistova  stands  prettily  along  the  banks 
of  it,  ornamented  with  orchards,  and  an  old  frontier 
castle  on  the  side  of  a  slope  that  overhangs  the  river, 
and  relieves  the  eye  considerably  after  the  tiresome 
flats  of  Wallachia.  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  tell  you  that 
this  was  the  place  the  last  peace  was  concluded,  in 
1791,  between  Austria  and  Turkey  and  Russia.1 

We  arrived  at  Tirnova  very  late,  as  I  have  already 
mentioned,  after  a  ride  of  about  six  hours.  It  was  a 
clear,  full  moon,  and  our  ride  (though  we  were  tired) 
was  continued  delightfully  through  a  close  lane  over- 

1  The  peace  between  Russia  and  Turkey  was  concluded  in  the  following 
year  at  Jassy,  fixing  the  Dniester  as  the  boundary  of  Turkey.     See  page  73. 


1794]  CROSSING   THE   BALKANS  65 

hung  with  the  largest  and  finest  oaks.  On  our  right 
was  a  bank  of  fine  wood  crowned  with  rocks,  and 
lighted  up  by  the  moon  ;  below  us  on  the  left  a  winding 
river,  which,  ornamented  with  many  trees,  reflected  her 
light  partially,  and  opposite  a  bank  of  wood  and  rock 
like  the  former,  but  in  deep  shade.  This  scene  con- 
tinued several  miles,  and,  with  the  moon  playing 
through  the  thick  foliage  that  overhung  our  lane,  it 
is  difficult  to  conceive  a  more  enchanting  effect. 

The  second  day  was  through  one  of  those  rich,  varied 
countries  we  admired  between  Doncaster  and  Rother- 
ham,  without  great  features,  but  always  pleasing  from 
variety  of  objects  and  richness  of  landscape,  though 
the  most  difficult  of  any  to  describe.  But  we  were 
approaching  classic  ground.  We  slept  at  the  foot  of 
a  mountain,1  which  we  crossed  the  next  day,  which 
separates  Bulgaria  from  Romania  (the  ancient  Thrace), 
and  which,  though  now  debased  by  the  name  of  Bal. 
Kan,  is  no  less  a  personage  than  the  ancient  Haemus. 
Few  scenes  can  equal  the  beauty  of  this  ascent,  which 
is,  however,  very  rapid  and  escarpe,  presenting  at 
every  turn  the  richest  and  most  ornamented  views 
over  the  country  below,  which  is  extremely  uneven 
and  varied.  We  sat  for  about  half  an  hour  on  the  top, 
imagining  parks  and  houses  formed  on  the  different 
slopes,  and  laying  out  the  ground  very  prettily,  only 
always  stipulating  that  it  should  be  wheeled  into 
England,  for  which  we  all  retain  a  sneaking  kindness. 
The  descent  on  the  other  side  was  still  steeper,  and 
winded  down  a  side  of  the  mountain  without  any  trees 
or  variety,  but  deep,  gravelly  ravines  worn  away  by 
the  torrents  in  winter.  It  was  noonday,  and  you  can 
have  no  conception  of  the  heat. 

The  next  day  we  arrived  in  the  plain  on  the  banks 
of  a  broad  torrent  now  called  the  Maritza,  which 
accompanied  us  all  the  way  to  Adrianople  ;  this  river, 
which  is  now  almost  an  unknown  stream,  was  the 
Hebrus,  so  famous  for  the  unfortunate  story  of  Orpheus, 

1  The  Shipka  Pass. 


66          FROM   VIENNA  TO   CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

when  it  carried   down   his  head  and  lyre,  after  the 
Bacchanals  in  these  mountains  had  torn  him  to  pieces. 

We  did  not  see  any  Bacchanals,  or  hear  an}'  poets 
singing  on  its  banks;  but  we  did  not  wonder  at  its 
being  a  favourite  haunt  of  the  former  when  we  found 
at  Adrianople  some  of  the  finest  wine  ever  tasted,  for 
which  all  this  district  is  famous.  How  Orpheus  came 
to  wander  on  its  banks  I  do  not  know,  for  I  should 
as  soon  think  of  trotting  along  the  Ayre  and  Calder 
navigation  for  any  poetical  beauties  I  could  find. 

Adrianople  is  a  large  old  town  with  a  great  many 
ruins,  but  evidently  Turkish  ones,  except  an  old  wall 
which  bounds  the  peninsula  between  the  Maritza  and 
Tangia,  another  small  river  and  which  may  have  been 
the  original  boundary  of  the  ancient  town.  At 
Adrianople  are  two  large  mosques  which  we  went  to 
see.  These  buildings  are  great  ornaments  to  the 
town,  and  are,  as  you  know,  their  churches.  The 
principal  one  at  Adrianople  is  very  magnificent. 
You  enter  first  a  large  court  about  180  feet  square, 
round  which  runs  a  row  of  cloisters  supported  by 
pillars,  and  roofed  in  small  domes ;  the  court  flagged 
with  white  marble,  and  with  a  white  marble  fountain 
in  the  centre.  Before  you  is  the  mosque,  an  immense 
and  light  circular  building  with  a  large  cupola,  sur- 
mounted with  a  glittering  gilt  crescent.  The  portico 
was  supported  by  six  columns,  each  of  a  single  piece  of 
granite  about  thirty  feet  high,  and  the  two  ends  of  the 
front  were  bounded  by  high  minares.  These  are 
immense  columns,  like  the  Monument  at  London,  with 
three  small  galleries  on  the  outside  from  which  at 
stated  hours  the  priests  call  the  people  to  prayers, 
bells  never  being  used  here.  There  are  four  minares 
round  the  church  at  equal  distances ;  their  tops  are 
short  spires  covered  with  tin,  or  gilt,  and  adorned 
with  gilt  crescents.  The  inside  of  the  mosque  is 
octagon,  about  one  hundred  feet  diameter,  and  the  dome 
is  supported  by  eight  arches  and  as  many  pillars.  If 
(according  to  our  id§as)  there  is  little  architecture  in 


1794]  CIVILITY   OF  THE  TURKS  67 

these,  which  are  painted  exceedingly  gay  in  grotesque 
fresco,  yet  from  the  size  of  the  mosque  and  the  liveli- 
ness of  the  colours  the  ensemble  has  the  most  pleasing 
effect,  as  you  will  suppose  when  I  tell  you  it  reminded 
us  of  Ranelagh.  The  floor  is  matted,  and  as  the 
Turks  always  sit  upon  it,  the  effect  is  not  spoiled  by 
pews,  benches,  etc. 

On  entering  we  took  off  our  shoes  and  saw  the 
whole  of  it  with  much  less  molestation  than  I  have 
frequently  experienced  in  Roman  Catholic  churches, 
though  we  were  only  attended  by  our  Turkish  janis- 
sary and  had  no  permissions  or  anything  of  the  sort. 
They  even  made  us  taste  of  a  fountain  which  there 
is  in  the  centre  of  the  church  for  the  purposes  of 
ablutions,  etc.,  and  of  which  we  found  the  water 
excellent.  So  misrepresented  are  they  with  regard 
to  their  intolerance  and  the  insults  put  upon  Christians. 
Indeed,  so  far  from  ever  having  been  ill  treated,  I 
must  say  we  have  everywhere  met  with  the  greatest 
goodwill  from  them,  and  they  seem  a  very  ignorant  but 
a  very  harmless  people.  Once  or  twice  a  child  or  two 
has  saluted  us  with  the  gentle  appellation  of  jawr,  that 
is  devil ;  but  could  any  men  in  England  travel  in  a 
Turkish  or  other  foreign  dress  without  ten  times  the 
insult?  They  are  very  curious,  particularly  about  your 
arms,  which  they  themselves  are  never  without,  and  we 
seldom  came  to  a  village  without  having  them  all 
looked  over  by  the  people  that  flocked  round  us.  A 
knife  of  mine,  with  several  blades  and  instruments, 
was  a  great  object  of  curiosity.  You  never  meet  a 
Turk,  even  after  the  plough,  without  pistols  or  a  great 
sword  in  his  girdle,  which  makes  him  look  very 
formidable.  The  inns  all  over  Turkey  are  such  as 
you  have  no  idea  of.  The  Turks  always  sleep  in 
their  clothes,  and  you  never  find  other  beds  than  a 
mat  carpet,  spread  generally  out  of  doors  at  this  time 
of  the  year. 

We  were  thirteen  days  in  riding  from  Bucharest ; 
generally  travelled  from  two  or  three  in  the  morning 


68          FROM   VIENNA   TO   CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  in 

till  ten  or  eleven,  and  lay  by  during  the  day,  when  the 
heat  was  intense.  The  fatigue  is,  to  be  sure,  very 
great,  especially  from  Adrianople,  after  which  the 
country  continues  bare  and  uninteresting  the  whole 
way.  For  a  few  of  the  last  stages  from  Silivria  the 
road  goes  along  the  Sea  of  Marmora  (the  Propontis), 
but  its  forms,  though  good,  want  accompanying  orna- 
ments. All  our  fatigues,  however,  were  at  length 
repaid  by  arriving  at  Pera,  the  faubourgs  of  Con- 
stantinople, where  we  all  live  now,  and  from  which 
I  have  written  most  of  this  letter.  You  have  no  doubt 
read  a  great  deal  about  the  situation  of  Constantinople, 
and  know  the  raptures  in  which  it  is  generally 
described.  I  employ  my  draughtsman  all  day  in 
taking  views  of  it,  and  I  assure  you  I  think  it  baffles 
almost  as  much  his  pencil  as  my  pen.  It  really  is  a 
wonderful  thing,  and  what  I  do  not  suppose  is 
equalled  by  any  view  in  the  world.  I  will  describe 
it  as  it  appears  on  entering  the  Bosphorus  from  the 
Sea  of  Marmora. 

Before  you  runs  the  Bosphorus,  an  arm  of  the  sea 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  broad,  whose  varied  edges  are 
covered  with  villages,  orchards,  and  Turkish  burying- 
grounds,  the  most  picturesque  of  objects,  which  I  will 
soon  describe,  and  bounded  with  rich  and  bold  hills. 
On  your  right  is  the  village  of  Scutari,  in  Asia, 
beautifully  situated  at  the  foot  of  these  rich  hills,  and 
opposite,  on  your  left,  the  canal  of  Constantinople, 
about  half  a  mile  or  a  mile  broad,  covered  with  vessels, 
and  narrowing  as  it  recedes  into  the  land.  Along 
the  eastern  side  of  this  stand  Pera  and  Galata  on  a 
high  promontory  covered  with  buildings  to  the  water 
edge,  and  nearer  you  on  the  opposite  shore. 

The  whole  point  between  the  Sea  of  Marmora  and 
the  canal  is  covered  with  Constantinople.  It,  like  all 
Turkish  towns,  owes  infinite  beauty  to  the  number 
of  trees  scattered  through  it,  besides  orchards  and 
gardens.  Their  burying-grounds  are  the  prettiest 
things  in  the  world :  they  are  large  spaces  not  spoiled 


1794]  VIEW  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE  69 

by  glaring  mausoleums  and  monuments,  but  shadowed 
with  large  and  gloomy  groves  of  the  most  beautiful 
cypress.  On  the  point  of  the  promontory  on  your 
left,  surrounded  by  high  walls,  rises  the  palace  and 
gardens  of  the  Seraglio,  a  large,  scattered,  irregular 
building  glittering  with  domes  and  crescents  em- 
bosomed in  wood.  Behind  it,  higher  up,  the  glittering 
domes  and  minares  of  Santa  Sophia,  and  the  mosque 
of  Sultan  Achmet.  Along  the  water,  to  the  western 
end  of  the  seven  towers,  runs  a  long,  ruinous  wall,  the 
ancient  boundary  and  fortification  in  the  time  of 
Constantine.  On  the  top  of  this  are  innumerable 
kiosks  or  summer-houses,  behind  which,  on  its  seven 
hills,  glittering  with  minares  and  crescents,  and  shaded 
by  beautiful  trees,  rises  the  town,  which  covers  the 
edges  of  the  sea  and  the  canal  for  five  or  six  miles. 
On  all  sides  of  you  the  sea  is  covered  with  boats  and 
other  vessels,  and  whichever  way  you  turn  the  scene 
is  enchantment 

Towards  the  west  opens  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  the 
Asiatic  coast,  now  on  your  left,  covered  with  hamlets 
and  groves,  backed  with  hills  rising  boldly  from  the 
water ;  Constantinople  on  your  right ;  and  before  you 
the  Prince's  Islands,  which  are  mountains  of  the  boldest 
and  most  picturesque  kind,  rising  out  of  the  sea,  and 
forming  with  it  the  most  beautiful  background  ima- 
ginable. On  a  clear  day  you  see,  beyond  these,  a 
range  of  high  mountains  in  Asia,  towards  Brusa  and 
Olympus.  Eastward  the  Bosphorus  winds  between 
its  rich,  high  shores,  presenting  a  succession  of  scenery 
only  found  on  its  banks,  and  scarcely  to  be  described. 
Northward  runs  the  canal  (a  broad  arm  of  the  sea), 
whose  banks  are  covered  with  Constantinople  on  one 
side  and  Pera  on  the  other;  on  the  right  with  the 
shady  cypress  groves  near  Pera,  on  the  left  with  the 
beautiful  point  of  the  Seraglio ;  and  the  distance 
"  formed  by  high  hills  at  the  end  of  the  canal. 

Now,  to  take  off  a  little  from  all  these  raptures,  I 
must  describe  the  inside  of  this  Elysium.  Imagine, 
6 


70          FROM   VIENNA  TO  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  m 

then,  the  whole  town  built  (both  it  and  Pera)  of  old 
wood  houses,  the  streets  about  the  breadth  every- 
where of  Water  Lane,  York,  or,  if  they  rise  sometimes 
to  Little  Alice  Lane,  it  is  not  above  two  streets  in  th« 
place.  Of  course  there  is  not  a  carriage  or  even  a 
chair  in  the  place,  the  pavement  worse  than  I  can 
describe,  covered  with  filth  and  numbers  of  dogs, 
which,  by  their  religion,  they  never  kill,  and  which 
belong  to  nobody,  but  lie  as  they  can,  and  are  often 
starving  in  the  streets.  The  most  singular  thing  is 
that,  notwithstanding  their  numbers  and  the  excessive 
heat  of  the  air,  yet  mad  dogs  are  unknown  here,  which 
puzzles  the  naturalists  not  a  little.  You  often  see 
twenty  lying  together,  and  at  night  are  obliged  to 
walk  with  a  great  stick,  for  they  will  not  get  up 
otherwise  till  trod  upon,  and  perhaps  bite  you  for  your 
pains.  Besides,  you  can't  see  them  unless  your  servant 
happens  to  have  a  flambeau,  for  lamps  are  unknown. 

Fires  here  are  common  to  a  degree.  The  very  night 
of  our  arrival  there  was  one  in  Galata  consumed 
above  a  thousand  houses,  and,  two  nights  after, 
another  destroyed  about  three  hundred,  which  was 
spoken  of  as  nothing.  When  these  are  frequent  they 
are  said  to  arise  from  the  people's  being  discontented 
with  the  government ;  but  in  winter,  when  they  use 
their  charcoal  stoves,  it  happens  almost  every  other 
night.  The  plague,  their  other  great  scourge,  has 
now  let  them  alone  for  above  these  two  years,  and 
they  are  perfectly  free.  There  were  reports  of  it 
where  we  passed  in  Bulgaria  and  Adrianople,  but,  I 
believe,  without  foundation,  though  we  often  were  in 
rooms  that  had  been  smoked  to  purify  them. 

About  other  dangers  (whether  the  manners  are 
changed  or  not)  I  do  not  know ;  but  certain  it  is  we 
find  none,  and  walk  about  the  streets  amongst  the 
Turks  in  our  own  dress  just  as  quietly  as  we  should 
in  London.  I  have  been  ruining  myself  in  shawls  and 
embroidered  handkerchiefs,  which  they  make  here 
admirably  4  and  if  you  smell  anything  on  this  letter  I 


1794]    SUMMER   HEAT  AT  CONSTANTINOPLE          71 

must  tell  you  it's  perfumed,  as  is  all  my  paper,  with 
otto  of  roses,  of  which  I  have  cargoes.  The  only 
remains  of  antiquit}7  at  Constantinople  are  the  old  wall 
I  have  mentioned,  some  old  windows,  porches,  and 
buttresses  which  remain  in  it  and  are  part  of  the 
palace  of  the  later  Greek  Emperors,  and  a  stadium 
entire,  which  was  the  place  where  races  were  run. 
It  is  now  called  the  Ahmeidan,  and  there  are  in  it  two 
large  entire  obelisks  which  have  served  to  mark  the 
goal.  One  of  these  is  an  entire  stone  of  about  fifty 
feet  in  height  by  about  five  at  the  bottom.  It  is 
Egyptian.  On  the  pedestal  bas-reliefs,  but  much 
damaged.  It  dates  from  the  lower  Greek  Empire. 
There  is  also  a  high  old  pillar  built  by  Trajan,  which 
has  been  of  the  finest  workmanship,  but  of  which  the 
outside  has  been  so  often  damaged  with  fire  that  few 
traces  of  its  beauty  remain. 

Santa  Sophia  we  have  not  yet  seen,  though  I  hope 
to  be  able  to  add  an  account  of  it  in  a  letter  to  my 
mother,  or  aunt,  before  this  goes  off,  as  it  is  some 
days  to  wait  for  the  post.  We  live  in  a  small, 
uncomfortable  inn  kept  by  Italians  here,  for  Liston, 
who  is  fitting  up  the  palace,  had  no  room  for  us  till 
his  furniture  arrived,  which  it  has  not  yet  thought 
proper  to  do,  being  either  detained  at  Smyrna  by  the 
winds,  or  lost.  With  him  we  found  some  very 
pleasant,  intelligent  men,  and  having  a  general  invita- 
tion to  his  house  at  all  hours,  our  time  passes 
agreeably  enough.  We  generally  'rise  at  five  or  six 
when  we  mean  to  make  any  excursions  to  Constanti- 
nople or  elsewhere ;  in  the  heat  of  the  day  we  keep  as 
quiet  as  possible,  which  you  will  believe  when  I  tell 
you  the  glass  stands  every  day  at  eighty-seven  to 
ninety  in  the  shade,  a  regular  heat  of  which  you  can 
have  no  idea.  In  the  evening  we  again  lounge  out, 
though  there  is  no  walking  with  any  comfort  in 
these  streets — the  only  walk  is  through  them  to  the 
Campo  dei  Morti,  a  large  burying-ground  overlooking 
the  Bosphorus  and  the  Propontis,  from  which  the 


72          FROM  VIENNA  TO  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  HI 

evening  views  are  charming.  Au  reste,  the  heat  is 
so  violent  that  both  Stockdale  and  I  threw  ourselves 
into  fevers  in  coming  here,  owing  to  coups  de  soleil, 
but,  God  be  thanked,  I  am  and  have  been  some  days 
quite  well,  and  he  is  very  near  so,  though  the  heat  has 
a  little  prolonged  his  illness.  Before  the  end  of  this 
month  the  great  heats  are  over,  and  we  are  arranging 
our  plans  for  a  tour  of  Greece  and  the  Islands. 

You  may  look  upon  me  now  as  returning  home, 
having  got  to  the  greatest  distance  I  shall  ever  be 
from  you,  and  when  I  get  into  Italy  I  shall  feel  next 
door  to  you  myself.  The  heat  here  in  the  night  is 
scarce  ever  less  than  eighty-one  or  two,  and  about  ten 
or  eleven  in  the  day  often  reaches  ninety.  After  that 
time  there  is  generally  a  cool  breeze  from  the  sea,  till 
the  heats  again  return  after  sunset.  They  have,  how- 
ever, here  ice  in  plenty,  for  which  they  bring  the  snow 
from  Mount  Olympus,  near  Brusa,  in  Asia,  not  the 
Grecian  Olympus.  One  of  their  great  luxuries  is 
the  iced  sherbet,  made  here  in  quantities,  and  sold  in 
every  street  in  Constantinople. 

As  I  mean  to  write  another  letter  to  one  of  you  by 
this  post,  I  shall  not  now  say  more  in  this  than  that 
I  hope  my  long  proses  have  in  some  measure  enter- 
tained you ;  when  I  do  begin  to  travel  you  see  what 
you  are  to  expect,  and  on  my  return  the  comments 
by  word  of  mouth  will  be  full  as  copious  as  the  text. 
The  English  courier  has  arrived  ;  no  letters,  but  bad 
news  about  Ostend,  which  I  suppose  is  the  reason  of 
it.  You,  too,  will  think  me  disposed  of,  as  we  were 
thirteen  days  from  Bucharest  here  instead  of  nine,  and, 
arriving  when  the  post  had  just  gone,  could  not  write 
for  above  a  fortnight.  This  must  teach  you  patience 
about  my  letters.  My  fellow-travellers,  Stockdale  and 
Wilbraham,  desire  their  kindest  remembrances.  Best 
loves,  and  Greece  for  ever.  Huzza!  God  bless  you  ! 

Believe  me  ever  your  affectionate  brother, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

August  2. 


CHAPTER  IV 
CONSTANTINOPLE 

WHEN  Morritt  reached  Constantinople  the  Sultan 
Selim  III.  had  been  reigning  about  five  years.  He 
was  disposed  to  friendship  with  the  French  Republic 
rather  than  with  either  Austria  or  Russia  or  their 
allies  ;  and  this  was  only  natural,  since  Russia  had 
extorted  from  his  father  the  humiliating  treaty  of 
Kainardji,  which  gave  up  the  Crimea,  in  1774;  and  he 
himself  had  been  at  war  with  Austria  and  Russia 
combined.  His  army  was  disastrously  defeated  by 
Suwarrow  in  1789,  and,  after  the  accession  of 
Leopold  II.,  he  made  peace  with  the  Austrians, 
through  the  mediation  of  Prussia,  at  Sistova  in  August 
1791. 

The  war  with  Russia  continued  until  pressure  from 
Great  Britain  and  Prussia  brought  about  the  peace  of 
Jassy  in  January  1792,  by  which  Russia  gained  Oczakow 
and  the  territory  between  the  rivers  Bug  and  Dniester, 
on  which  Odessa  was  built.  On  the  one  hand,  there- 
fore, he  had  a  feeling  of  animosity  against  Austria  and 
Russia,  and  on  the  other  he  regarded  France  as  likely 
to  prove  a  powerful  ally.  Already,  while  Morritt  was 
still  at  Constantinople,  the  French  armies  of  the  North 
had  cleared  the  French  frontier  and  all  Belgium,  and 
were  advancing  upon  the  Rhine ;  and  the  invasion  of 
Italy  was  beginning.  French  officers  and  French 
workmen  were  welcomed  at  Constantinople.  A  com- 
pany of  artillery  which  was  coming  to  the  Sultan  from 
Toulon  at  this  time  was  blockaded  by  the  British  fleet, 
and  only  a  p£rt  reached  Constantinople  by  land. 
This  friendly  attitude  towards  France  continued  till 
Napoleon  invaded  Egypt  in  1798  ;  nor  did  the  Sultan 
take  any  overt  action  against  the  French  until  after 

73 


74  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  iv 

their  defeat  at  the  battle  of  the  Nile.  Hence  it  was 
that  the  ports  of  the  JEgean  were  still  open  to  French 
men-of-war,  and  remained  so  until  the  seas  were 
cleared  by  Nelson's  victory.  It  is  evident  that  Morritt 
ran  no  small  risk  of  capture  by  French  ships  on  the 
voyages  described  in  the  two  following  chapters, 
though  he  makes  light  of  the  danger  to  avoid  alarming 
his  family  at  Rokeby. 


PERA,  CONSTANTINOPLE, 

August  7,  1794. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

I  can't  help  writing  another  letter,  though  I 
know  it  will  go  off  by  the  same  post  as  the  one  to  my 
sister;  but  naturally,  liking  a  prose,  and  travelling  not 
diminishing  that  propensity,  I  must  talk,  though  at  the 
distance  of  two  thousand  miles  and  more,  and  I  only 
hope  you  will  find  I  have  something  to  say.  As  I 
have  given  Anne  a  long  description  of  Constantinople, 
indeed,  such  as  I  cannot  enlarge  on  till  I  show  you 
my  drawings,  I  shall  not  add  any  more  about  its 
situation.  I  will,  however,  add  something  on  our 
manner  of  living  and  the  appearance  and  demeanour 
of  the  different  people  that  compose  this  Babel,  as  far 
as  they  have  fallen  under  my  observation. 

Of  the  inside  of  the  Turkish  houses  you  see  nothing 
at  all ;  they  chiefly  inhabit  Constantinople,  though 
there  are  several  in  Pera  and  Galata.  Of  their  ideas 
and  manners,  by  all  that  we  can  make  out,  I  take  the 
"  Arabian  Nights'  Entertainments "  to  give  the  most 
exact  and  minute  description.  Of  their  indolence, 
which  you  have  so  often  read  of,  the  accounts  are  not 
exaggerated.  They  are  fond  of  news,  and,  notwith- 
standing the  little  part  they  can  any  of  them  take  in 
State  affairs,  are  great  talking  politicians,  as  we  are 
told.  In  Pera  and  Constantinople  are  innumerable 
coffee-houses,  where  they  drink  sherbet,  coffee,  ices, 
etc.,  and  you  see  them  sitting  with  their  long  pipes  at 
the  door  of  these,  motionless  from  morning  till  night. 
Those  who  are  in  office  about  the  Seraglio,  whose 


1794]  TURKISH   PASHAS  75 

names  and  offices  are  sufficiently  detailed  in  a  thousand 
publications  you  have  met  with  in  England,  generally 
ride  through  the  streets  of  Constantinople  on  horses 
or  mules  with  bridles  embossed  with  gold  or  silver 
and  immense  housings  more  or  less  rich  according  to 
the  quality  of  the  station.  Two  or  three  slaves,  some- 
times twelve  or  fifteen,  run  before  and  on  each  side  of 
these  horses,  to  which  you  always  give  way.  Indeed, 
to  folks  who  like  staring  about  them,  as  you  know 
some  people  do,  there  is  certainly  a  risk  of  being  run 
over,  for  a  Turk  is  much  too  great  a  man  to  speak  to 
you,  and  if  you  do  not  see  him  a  good  shove  is  the 
only  notice  of  his  approach. 

The  Pashas  or  commanders  of  provinces  and  the 
public  officers  are  almost  the  only  people  you  ever  see 
mounted  or  any  way  distinguished  by  dress  or  appear- 
ance from  the  multitude.  These  very  often  carry 
purses  full  of  money  on  their  horses,  and  distribute  it 
as  presents  to  any  one  whose  appearance  they  like  by 
handfuls.  A  chaplain  of  Sir  Robert  Ainslie's,  who 
was  here  looking  one  day  at  the  Grand  Signer  as  he 
passed,  was  called  to  him  and  given  a  handful 
of  above  seventy  ducats  as  a  present.  We  have 
not  had  any  such  good  luck,  but  have  heard  of 
it  from  Englishmen  here  as  no  uncommon  thing;  you 
must  never  refuse  it,  for  as  to  any  delicacy  or  honour, 
the  Turks,  who  have  none  of  it  themselves,  could 
never  comprehend  it  in  others.  The  people  here 
pay  no  regular  taxes  of  any  sort,  the  coffers  of  the 
Grand  Signer  being  filled  by  the  presents  and  extor- 
tions of  the  Pashas  and  by  seizing  the  confiscated 
property  of  the  rich  Greek  or  American  merchants  • 
when  found  out,  which  is  no  inconsiderable  source  of 
revenue.  There  are  many  here,  we  are  told,  who 
possess  very  considerable  riches,  but  their  appear- 
ance and  that  of  their  houses,  so  far  from  displaying 
it,  are  studiously  calculated  to  avoid  its  being  sus- 
pected. It  is  a  curious  circumstance,  and  what  we 
have  hardly  an  idea  of,  though  very  common  here,  for 


76  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  iv 

a  Greek  or  American  subject  of  the  Porte  engaged  in 
trade  to  pay  a  considerable  sum — as  much  as  5,000 
piastres,  about  £350 — for  a  protection  from  any  foreign 
Ambassador  which  secures  his  property  from  his  own 
government. 

On  particular  days,  too,  I  believe  the  Grand  Signer 
receives  presents  in  state  from  his  loving  subjects. 
These  are  very  common  all  over  the  East  still,  and 
very  ancient,  being  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  and  very 
frequently  noticed  by  Homer.  A  visit  is  never  made 
to  a  great  Turk  without  reciprocal  presents  being 
exchanged,  and  a  visit  to  a  Pasha,  we  have  been  told, 
does  not  cost  less  than  £100,  though  you  receive  as 
much,  for  they  by  no  means  want  generosity.  I  find 
in  my  journal  one  note  on  Pashas  communicated  by  a 
very  intelligent  Greek  here,  who  is  interpreter  (Drago- 
man) to  the  Embassy.  You  know  these  in  England 
are  as  frequently  called  Bashas,  which  is  a  totally 
different  word.  Basha  is  a  Turkish  word,  and  means 
no  more  than  Sir  or  Mr. — indeed,  not  so  much,  as  it  is 
generally  used  if  speaking  to  an  inferior.  The  other 
he  apprehends  to  be  Arabic,  and  originally  Persian,  in 
which  language  Pa  signifies  foot  and  Shah  sovereign, 
the  Foot  of  the  Sovereign  being  no  bad  designation  of 
his  viceroys,  which  these  are. 

There  are  few,  if  any,  manufactures  at  Constanti- 
nople, or  any  active  merchants,  except  among  the 
Greeks  and  foreigners,  notwithstanding  the  astonishing 
advantages  of  their  situation,  which  unite  on  the 
shores  of  the  Black  Sea  the  finest  productions  of  the 
East  to  those  of  Europe  and  the  Mediterranean.  The 
bazaars  or  shops  at  Constantinople  are  excellently 
managed  for  convenience.  They  are  in  several  long 
streets  in  a  central  part  of  the  town,  arched  over  in 
many  parts  with  stone,  and  everywhere  so  shaded 
with  penthouses  that  you  may  find  it  cool  even  here, 
which  is  no  easy  matter.  Here  the  shops  for  every 
article  are  classed  all  together  on  each  side  of  the 
streets  in  open  booths,  with  great  shop-boards,  on 


1794]  BAZAARS   AND   POLICE  77 

which  the  master  of  the  shop  sits  cross-legged  ready 
to  help  you  to  what  you  want.  The  number  of  these 
shops  is  very  great,  and  the  appearance  of  some  rows 
of  them  quite  splendid,  particularly  those  where  they 
sell  embroidered  handkerchiefs  and  veils.  In  these  we 
shall  ruin  ourselves,  to  a  certainty,  for  they  are  as 
cheap  as  possible,  and  the  beauty  of  the  embroidery 
a  temptation  beyond  what  we  can  withstand. 

Almost  at  every  turn  as  you  walk  along  you  find, 
too,  a  shop  where  they  sell  sherbet.  This  is  made  of 
raisins,  sugar,  and  water,  which  they  give  you  in  a 
large  cup,  into  which  they  put  snow  from  Mount 
Olympus.  It  is  sold  everywhere,  and  makes  the  drink 
very  agreeable  when  you  are  heated  with  walking. 
This  is,  I  fancy,  their  favourite  substitute  for  wine, 
as  they  have  no  malt  liquors  or  ciders,  which  I  think 
is  strange  under  such  a  prohibition.  To  do  them 
justice,  however,  I  have  seen  several  who  were  not 
the  least  scrupulous  about  it. 

The  wines  of  the  country  near  Adrianople  are 
incomparable,  and  here  the  Ambassador  treats  us 
with  some  wine  from  Troy,  which  accounts  fully 
for  the  spirit  with  which  the  Ten  Years'  War  was 
carried  on.  A  measure  near  Adrianople  containing 
about  two  bottles  costs  about  fourpence  of  our  money. 
Fruit,  too,  of  all  sorts  is  sold  here  in  a  profusion  you 
have  no  notion  of.  A  pound  and  a  half  of  grapes 
costs  a  penn3r,  and  everything  else  in  proportion. 

Notwithstanding  the  bad  management  of  the  interior 
of  Constantinople,  there  is  a  very  strict  and  numerous 
watch  kept  up  throughout  the  town,  which  interferes 
on  every  disturbance;  yet  from  the  building  of  the 
town,  the  cut-throat  corners  and  alleys  through  every 
part  of  it,  and  the  total  want  of  lights,  it  is  often, 
I  have  heard,  a  scene  of  assassination  and  robbery, 
not  so  much,  however,  in  the  footpad  way  as  in  that 
of  housebreaking.  This  is  sometimes  so  bad  that 
since  we  have  been  here  the  servants  at  the  English 
Ambassador's  have  been  obliged  to  keep  guard 


78  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  iv 

all  night  sometimes  from  apprehensions  of  a  band 
of  robbers  in  the  neighbourhood.  You  will  not 
wonder  at  this  when  I  tell  you  that  amongst  the 
soldiery  here  no  other  discipline  is  kept  up  than 
that  of  merely  attending  parade  once  or  twice  a  week. 
At  night  in  quarters  and  at  any  other  time  no  notice 
or  inquiry  is  made  amongst  them,  so  that  it  is  no 
great  wonder  if  they  are  rather  banditti  than  any- 
thing else. 

Private  and  summary  punishments  are  still  the  mode 
under  this  government.  The  janissaries,  bostangis 
(gardeners),  and  all  the  Court  officers  are  favoured 
(though  not  so  frequently  as  formerly)  with  private 
exhibitions  of  the  bow-string.  They  have  sometimes 
at  Constantinople  executions  in  the  very  streets,  if 
a  baker  is  convicted  of  selling  false  weights  of  bread ; 
and  many  other  crimes  of  the  same  nature  are  punished 
by  beheading,  and  the  carcases  are  left  for  days  in 
the  streets.  Indeed,  nothing  is  removed  from  the 
streets  here  by  the  Turks ;  dead  dogs,  cats,  and  filth 
of  all  sorts  remain  till  carried  away  by  eagles,  hawks, 
and  a  large  kind  of  white-bellied  vulture,  of  all  which 
there  are  numbers  constantly  flying  about  over  the 
town,  which  are  held  in  such  regard  that  you  would 
be  very  ill  treated  by  the  common  people  if  seen  to 
kill  one.  You  will  agree,  too,  that  they  merit  certainly 
great  regard,  as  they  are  the  only  scavengers  of  the 
town.  Of  the  eagles  you  see  multitudes,  which  at 
first  astonished  us  a  good  deal ;  the  vultures,  which 
are  still  more  common,  the  Turks  call  ak  babas  or 
white  daddies. 

In  the  provinces,  where  rebellion  is  not  unfrequent, 
their  mode  of  quelling  it  is  to  send  down  a  Pasha 
with  a  certain  number  of  soldiers,  who,  if  strong 
enough,  takes  off  as  many  heads  and  inflicts 
as  many  other  punishments  as  he  pleases.  Par 
exemple,  there  had  been  one  near  Adrianople  this 
spring,  and  in  the  south  of  Bulgaria  and  in  this  neigh- 
bourhood we  passed  by  nine  gentlemen  impaled,  not 


1794]  TURKISH   WOMEN  79 

counting  heads,  which  abounded,  and  which  we  con- 
cluded, like  Catharine  Hayes's  justices,  had  had  bodies 
to  them.  These  had  all  been  the  affairs  of  about  six 
weeks,  for  there  were  none  when  Liston  passed.  Only 
one  of  these,  who  was  a  great  ringleader,  had  suffered 
alive  the  punishment  of  impaling.  Of  the  Greeks 
I  shall  say  more  when  I  know  more  of  them ;  they 
are  a  very  different  race  from  the  Turks,  and  with 
every  similarity  of  dress  have  a  totally  different 
appearance. 

Their  women  are  the  only  ones  who  here  have 
any  liberty,  the  Armenians  being  almost  as  strict 
with  their  wives  as  the  Turks.  All  you  see  of  either 
when  you  meet  them  in  the  streets  is  their  eyes  and 
nose,  a  handkerchief  being  tied  round  their  heads  as 
high,  or  sometimes  over,  their  nose,  and  another 
covering  their  forehead  and  eyebrows.  Their  whole 
person  is  muffled  in  a  long  cloth  gown  made  very 
loose,  the  shape  almost  of  a  nun's  in  a  Roman  Catholic 
country,  which  hides  their  shape  entirely.  When  the 
Turkish  women  are  permitted  to  go  out  you  see  them 
in  great  parties  in  boats  and  the  walks  about,  often 
amusing  themselves  like  children  with  escarpolettes 
or  merry-go-rounds,  but  always  totally  secluded  from 
the  society  of  men ;  nor  would  a  Turk  pay  the  least 
attention,  or  speak  even  to  his  wife,  if  he  met  her  in 
the  street.  By  all  these  restrictions,  the  prohibition 
of  wine,  the  discouragement  of  arts  and  commerce, 
Mahomet  certainly  meant  to  make  his  followers  a 
nation  of  warriors;  but  what  with  their  bad  govern- 
ment and  their  want  of  ingenuity  and  improvement 
even  in  the  art  of  war,  which  they  are  most  addicted 
to,  they  are  as  much  behind  the  Europeans  in  it  as 
in  everything  else.  A  Turk  has  no  idea  of  society 
out  of  doors,  and  at  home  1  have  been  told  by  the 
Grecian  and  Frank  ladies  here  who  had  any  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Turkish  women  that  from  their  education 
and  way  of  life  there  were  very  few  who  were  any- 
thing better  than  overgrown  children. 


8o  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  iv 

We  of  course  live  here  almost  entirely  with  the 
English  and  Corps  Diplomatique,  to  many  of  whom 
we  had  letters  from  Vienna,  and  amongst  whom  we 
have  found  some  very  pleasant  people.  When  we 
have  no  other  engagements  we  dine  always  with  the 
English  Ambassador,  who  has  been  extremely  civil, 
and  at  whose  house  we  have  met  a  very  pleasant 
society. 

Most  of  the  Corps  Diplomatique  reside  during  the 
heat  of  the  summer  at  Buyuk  Dere,  a  village  on  the 
Bosphorus  about  sixteen  miles  off.  To  this  we  went 
some  days  ago  with  Liston,  and  were  presented  to 
the  other  Ministers  by  him. 

You  cannot  form  an  idea  of  the  beauties  of  this 
canal,  of  which  I  hope  to  bring  you  some  drawings 
which  will  do  it  more  justice  than  my  description.  Its 
banks  are  cultivated  and  peopled.  There  are  two  or 
three  palaces  of  the  Sultan  and  his  sister  along  its 
banks.  The  Turkish  buildings  are  more  in  the  taste 
of  the  Chinese  than  of  our  architecture ;  they  are 
built  of  wood  in  general,  and  much  ornamented  with 
painting  and  gilding. 

In  the  women's  apartments  all  the  windows  are 
latticed,  and  landscapes  or  grotesque  designs  painted 
on  the  lattice-work ;  the  whole,  though  irregular, 
looking  gay  and  clean ;  and  though  sometimes  too 
gaudy,  yet  they  certainly  add  to  the  scene,  mixed  as 
they  are  with  trees  and  gardens,  and  adorned  with 
domes  and  crescents.  At  one  place  there  is  a  very 
fine  large  building,  which  is  a  palace  of  the  Sultan's 
sister,  and  at  one  end  of  it  a  small  building  consisting 
of  about  three  or  four  rooms  as  plain  as  possible, 
which  are  her  husband's  apartments ;  for  when  a 
subject  here  marries  a  lady  of  the  blood-royal  this  is 
always  the  etiquette,  and  she  remains  quite  the  head 
of  the  house.  In  reality  it  is  often  the  policy  of  the 
Porte  to  give  their  ladies  in  marriage  to  subjects  who 
are  too  rich  or  considerable,  as  they  can't  refuse  the 
honour  and  are  almost  ruined  by  the  presents  they 


1794]  THE  BOSPHORUS  81 

make,  and  the  expense  they  are  at  on  these  occasions. 
The  lady  in  question  is  married  to  the  Capoudan 
Pasha  or  High  Admiral. 

Nearer  the  Euxine  are  some  old  towers  which  have 
served  to  guard  the  passage,  and  now  ornament  the 
banks  they  once  defended,  and  beyond  Buyuk  Dere 
two  built  as  modern  fortifications  by  Baron  de  Tott, 
which  I  am  told  would  not  be  bad  defences  if  the 
Turks  understood  them,  but  their  strength  remains 
to  be  proved  by  the  Empress's  Euxine  fleet.  The 
Asiatic  one  is  in  the  situation  where  stood  an  ancient 
temple  of  Jupiter  Urius,  "  the  giver  of  prosperous 
winds,"  which  is  mentioned  by  Bartb'Memy  in  his 
"Voyages  d'Anacharsis,"  of  which,  howi  r,  there  are 
now  no  traces,  I  believe ;  but  we  mean  i  possible  to 
have  a  look  at  the  situation.  Buyuk  Dere  is  a  pretty 
village  with  a  long  quay  upon  the  Bosphorus,  in  a 
very  pretty  part  of  it,  where  it  is  rather  more  broad. 
We  only  stayed  one  day,  which  was  of  course  merely 
employed  in  visiting  Ambassadors,  and — would  you 
believe  it? — a  ball  here  in  the  dog-days.  I  own  I 
did  not  dance  many  dances,  as  you  can  have  no  idea 
of  the  heat.  It  was  given  by  the  Russian  Ambassador, 
who,  I  fancy,  thought  he  was  at  Petersburg.  I  had 
letters  to  him  from  some  friends  at  Vienna,  and  he 
has  been  so  civil  as  to  offer  us  quarters  in  his  country 
house,  which  we  mean  soon  to  accept,  and  see  from 
thence  the  environs  of  Buyuk  Dere  towards  the 
Black  Sea. 

We  have  not  as  yet  examined  the  neighbourhood 
as  we  wish ;  for  poor  Stockdale  has  been  by  no 
means  well,  and  has  hardly  stirred  out  at  all  from  a 
very  bad  fever,  and  subsequent  weakness,  of  which, 
thank  God,  he  is  almost  entirely  well.  It  was  owing 
to  the  heat  and  fatigue  of  the  latter  part  of  our 
journey.  I  was  rather  ill  for  the  day  or  two  after  my 
arrival,  but  recovered  immediately,  almost,  and  am 
once  more  as  strong  as  a  horse.  The  heat  is  already 
a  good  deal  lessened,  the  thermometer  being  only  about 


82  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  iv 

eighty-five  from  above  ninety,  and  it  generally  subsides 
towards  the  end  of  this  month,  so  our  tour  promises 
to  be  very  pleasant  and  well  timed  ;  for  winter  does 
not  begin  till  December.  I  wish  it  was  as  well  timed 
in  other  respects,  but  we  have  learnt  that  the  English 
squadron  is  leaving  the  Archipelago,  and  if  the  French, 
who  have  three  frigates  there,  remain  masters  of  these 
seas,  our  trip  to  the  Islands  will  be  impracticable, 
and  we  shall  be  confined  to  a  land  tour  of  Troy, 
Thessaly,  Attica,  Greece,  and  the  Morea,  which  I 
understand  will  be  by  no  means  impracticable.  No 
armed  vessel  enters  the  Dardanelles,  so  we  are  safe 
as  far  as  Troy  by  sea.  The  number  of  French  is 
here  very  great,  and  that  of  their  friends  still  greater, 
the  Porte  taking  no  open  part  in  acknowledging  or 
favouring  them,  but  rather  inclining  that  way  till 
very  lately.  They  sport  here  cockades  and  red 
caps,  and  have  a  tree  of  liberty  in  the  yard  of  their 
Ambassador,  who  is  not,  however,  openly  acknow- 
ledged by  the  Porte.  The}-  dance  their  carmagnole 
round  this  on  any  good  news,  and  to-morrow  we 
expect  to  see  a  most  superb  exhibition  of  this  kind, 
as  it  is  their  famous  tenth  of  August. 

We  have  not  yet  been  able  to  see  the  inside  of 
Santa  Sophia,  so  I  must  defer  this  subject,  and  the 
Seraglio  if  we  can  see  it,  to  my  next  letter.  The 
Seven  Towers,  which  seems  a  large  fortress  sur- 
rounded by  the  old  walls  of  the  city,  is  equally  shut 
up ;  that  is,  though  one  might  manage  to  get  in,  it 
would  be  by  no  means  so  clear  you  could  get  out. 
This  is  the  western  extremity  of  the  city  along  the 
sea ;  beyond  it,  retiring  from  the  shore,  the  walls  are 
beautiful ;  they  are  triple,  extremely  ruined,  and 
covered  with  vines,  figs,  ivy,  and  a  profusion  of 
greens  and  cypress  groves  :  along  them  is  a  long  line 
of  towers  equally  broken,  and  covered  with  green, 
presenting  each  a  perfect  ruin  for  a  picture,  and 
still  more  set  off  by  the  many  beautiful  foregrounds 
provided  by  the  orchards  and  bury  ing-groves  of  some 


1794]  CHALCEDON  83 

neighbouring  villages.  We  this  morning,  August  9, 
crossed  over  to  Asia,  to  a  point  west  of  Scutari, 
where  stands  a  miserable  village,  the  remains  of  the 
ancient  Chalcedon.  A  few  old  foundations  and  bits 
of  wall  are  all  that  is  left  of  it.  A  little  to  the  east 
on  another  point  stand  the  relics  of  an  old  Seraglio, 
which  is  at  this  moment  pulling  down. 

The  gardens  are  large,  full  of  shady  walks  of  cypress, 
the  finest  I  ever  saw,  and  oriental  planes,  which  are 
beautiful ;  they  command  charming  points  of  view 
towards  Constantinople  and  Pera  across  the  water. 
Further  east  still,  and  opposite  Pera,  is  the  village  of 
Scutari,  on  a  bold,  high  shore  backed  with  ye  Asiatic 
hills.  I  have  got  from  my  draughtsman  a  very  good 
view  of  the  bay,  village,  and  points  of  Chalcedon, 
from  near  the  old  Seraglio. 

Our  last  courier  brought  us  a  great  deal  of  bad 
public  news,  and  no  letters  from  England,  owing,  I 
suppose,  to  the  evacuation  of  Ostend.  Since  that  we 
have  had  nothing  but  reports  of  good  tidings,  though 
I  fear  nothing  authentic  enough  to  raise  our  spirits. 
I  long  for  another  post,  that  I  may  hear  something 
about  you ;  I  am  sorry  when  I  think  how  long  an 
interval,  too,  will  pass  between  your  receiving  my 
last  intelligence  from  Bucharest,  and  these  letters,  but 
it  could  not  be  helped,  so  you  must  be  patient  at  these 
distances.  Wilbraham  stays  with  us  here  still,  and  as 
he  is  waiting  for  a  servant  his  brother  is  sending  him 
from  Vienna  (his  own  having  behaved  so  as  to  be  turned 
away),  he  will  accompany  us  to  Troy  and  perhaps 
farther.  The  farther  the  better,  I  still  say,  as  the 
more  I  know  him  the  more  I  like  him,  and  our  tour 
here  has  been  very  pleasant  and  nonsensical  the 
whole  way,  the  party  having  agreed  at  Vienna  to  be 
as  great  fools  as  they  possibly  could,  which  those 
who  know  our  talents  will  own  to  be  a  good  deal. 
*  In  short,  we  should  be  by  no  means  what  you  would 
call  good  travelling  company,  as  our  tongues  were 
scarcely  still  for  a  moment  the  whole  month. 


84  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  iv 

Now  as  to  my  own  business,  with  which  I  must 
treat  you.  My  money  is  at  present  in  very  good 
plight,  seeing  I  possess  about  £400;  but  I  am  so 
apprehensive  of  any  extra  expense  for  escorts  or 
vessels,  that  I  will  be  much  obliged  to  you  to  lodge  in 
my  banker's  hands,  to  be  forwarded  to  his  corre- 
spondent at  Constantinople  for  me,  a  couple  of  hundred 
pounds,  which  I  would  not  draw  on,  but  for  fear  of 
looking  foolish  on  finding  my  pockets  empty.  After- 
wards, when  Ward  has  received  my  rents,  he  shall 
send  a  few  more  which  will  last  me  as  far  as  Naples, 
I  hope ;  if  what  I  have  does  not  prove  sufficient,  as  I 
hope  it  will. 

It  will  when  this  arrives  be  almost  hunting  season 
in  England.  Tell  George  he  must  get  Sling  into 
order,  and  that  he  must  go  often  out  with  the  hounds, 
whether  they  throw  off  far  or  near,  for  I  must  have 
him  made  a  thorough  hunter,  and  run  no  longer  risks 
of  breaking  my  neck.  In  the  spring  he  must  break 
in  my  young  roans,  and  tell  Anne  (that  in  the  list  of 
squirish  commissions  no  four-footed  beast  may  be 
forgotten)  I  beg  Rover  may  not  be  made  fat  and  idle, 
but,  if  he  discovers  those  propensities,  may  be  sent  out 
a-sporting  with  the  gamekeeper. 

Adieu,  my  dear  mother,  and  believe  me  ever 
Sincerely  and  affectionately  yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

CONSTANTINOPLE, 

August  20,  1794. 

DEAR  AUNT, 

I  write  still  from  Constantinople,  and,  not 
having  directed  a  letter  to  you  for  a  long  time,  I  will 
this,  though  I  suppose,  except  by  the  difference  of  a 
day  or  two,  it  is  much  the  same  whether  they  are 
addressed  to  you  or  the  Rookabites,  as  I  have  no  doubt 
but  such  elaborate  compositions  are  communicated  for 
the  benefit  of  the  whole  party.  I  do  not  believe  my 
letter  will  get  over  more  than  one  sheet  this  time, 


1794]  PALACE   OF  AMURATH  85 

as  I  have  almost  said  all  I  have  to  say  about  Con- 
stantinople in  my  two  last  letters.  However,  I  am 
not  yet  quite  at  a  stand,  so  I  will  give  you  a  history 
of  our  motions  since  I  last  wrote,  including  that  of 
my  sights  and  observations.  As  they  are  rather  in  an 
irregular  order,  you  will  consider  them  as  a  part  of 
my  journal,  where  I  put  down  things  as  I  see  them. 

At  Chalcedon,  which  is  opposite  part  of  Constanti- 
nople, and  which  we  visited  in  a  morning's  sail  some 
days  after  I  wrote,  there  is  nothing  remaining  of  its 
ancient  grandeur  (for  it  had  once  considerable  com- 
merce) except  an  extent  of  orchard  and  garden  over 
the  promontory  where  most  of  the  town  stood,  a 
small  village  retaining  the  name  of  Chalchi,  and  great 
masses  here  and  there  of  old  ruined  walls  or  founda- 
tions which  have  fallen  into  the  sea.  There  were 
here  and  there  marble  shafts  of  columns  in  the  walls 
of  the  houses  or  by  the  shore,  as  in  many  villages 
about  this  place,  but  they  seemed  chiefly  either 
Turkish  or  of  the  lower  Greek  Empire.  A  little  to 
the  east  of  Chalchi,  between  it  and  Scutari,  is  an  old 
Seraglio,  called  that  of  Sultan  Mourat  (Amurath).  It 
was  the  palace  the  Grand  Signer  occupied  before  he 
resided  at  that  of  Constantinople.  The  workmen  are 
now  pulling  it  down,  and  so,  the  whole  being  open, 
1  got  a  view  of  the  inside,  both  of  the  gardens  and 
palace.  The  first  consist,  however,  of  nothing  but 
long  avenues  and  clumps  of  cypress,  which,  however 
beautiful,  are  gloomy  without  the  mixture  of  livelier 
greens,  and  the  palace  is  a  cluster  of  low,  ill-propor- 
tioned rooms,  with  a  profusion  of  beautiful  marble. 
The  doorcases,  windows,  fireplaces  were  all  orna- 
mented with  it,  and  there  were  marble  fountains  in 
many  of  the  rooms.  All  these  the  workmen  were 
taking  up,  and  with  true  Turkish  indifference  de- 
molishing, by  express  order  of  the  Sultan,  who  did 
not  choose  that  other  people  should  have  what  had 
served  to  adorn  a  royal  palace.  One  could  not  help 
regretting  the  fine  pieces  of  marble  thus  sacrificed  to 
7 


86  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  iv 

his  stupid  pride.  On  all  this  shore  the  views  are 
beautiful ;  it  is  broken  into  bays  by  the  different 
points  of  Scutari,  Chalchi,  and  others,  and  I  think  I 
have  already  mentioned  that  the  shores  of  Asia  are 
here  much  richer,  bolder,  and  more  varied  than  those 
of  Europe. 

A  few  days  after  our  sail  we  made  a  party  for  one 
day  to  see  the  Princes  Islands  in  the  Propontis,  which 
are  about  twelve  miles  distant  on  the  Asiatic  coast. 
There  are  four  of  them,  which  go  by  the  names  of 
Prote,  Antigone,  Chalke,  and  Prinkipos,  of  which  the 
two  last  are  the  most  considerable.     They  are  all 
entirely  inhabited  by  Greeks,  who  have  here  two  or 
three  large  monasteries,  which  receive  strangers.     We, 
however,  only  staying  to  dinner,  took  our  chance  at 
the  inn,  such  as  it  was,  and  did  not  avail  ourselves 
of  their  hospitality.     We  passed  by  the  two  first  of 
these  islands,  which  are  little  more  than  bare  hills, 
and  landed  at  Chalke.     It  has  its  name  from  an  ancient 
Greek  word,  Burgh  will  tell  you,  meaning  brass  or 
copper,  and  the  remains,  not  only  of  copper  ore  but 
of  ancient  works,  are  still  perceivable  here  in  part  of 
the  island,  though   they  do  not   seem  to  have  been 
great.     It  is  about  five  miles  in  circumference,  and  the 
walk  round  it  is  perhaps  as  beautiful  as  any  in  the 
world.     Every  turn  shows  you  a  new  prospect,  and 
the  eye,  sometimes  wandering  over  an  extensive  sea, 
sometimes  over  the  high  mountains  of  Bithynia  and 
the  shores  of  Asia,  at  others  confined  to  the  narrow 
canals  which  separate  the  islands  from  each   other, 
and  the  beautiful  little  creeks  that  adorn  them,  is  never 
wearied  with  this  inexhaustible  variety. 

The  island  itself  is  covered  with  underwood,  and 
in  parts  with  some  large  trees,  which  in  general,  how- 
ever, it  rather  wants.  That  of  Prinkipos,  which  is 
larger,  and  lies  between  it  and  part  of  the  Asiatic 
coast,  is  better  furnished,  and  is  beautiful  to  look  at, 
though  not  more  so  to  look  from  than  the  other.  On 
these  are  the  monasteries,  which  are  situated  as  usual 


1794]      SULTAN'S  PROCESSION  TO  THE  MOSQUE      87 

in  the  most  beautiful  parts  of  the  island,  without, 
however,  containing  anything  worthy  of  particular 
notice.  The  inhabitants  live  chiefly  by  the  produce 
of  their  orchards  and  gardens,  which  they  sell  to 
Constantinople,  as  also  by  their  fishery.  In  the 
evening  we  returned  late,  and  amused  ourselves  with 
remarking  a  phenomenon  not  uncommon  in  any  sea, 
but  very  common  here,  the  extremely  shining  light 
of  the  sea,  when  struck  by  our  oars,  or  anywhere 
agitated,  that  seems  almost  like  fire,  and  which  sticks 
in  sparkles  to  the  oars ;  it  is  produced,  as  you  know, 
by  an  innumerable  quantity  of  small  insects,  but  1 
had  never  seen  it  so  strong.  We  coasted  along  the 
Asiatic  shore  on  account  of  the  wind  and  current,  and 
were  shown  near  Chalcedon  the  rock  from  which 
ladies  were  from  time  to  time  thrown  into  the  sea  in 
sacks  on  particular  occasions,  such  as  running  away 
from  their  husbands  or  masters,  infidelity,  particularly 
for  favours  shown  to  a  Christian,  in  which  case  also 
their  lover  is  impaled. 

The  day  after  our  return  we  went,  it  being  Friday, 
the  Turkish  Sabbath,  to  see  the  Sultan  go  to  mosque. 
He  went  to  one  in  our  neighbourhood  on  horseback, 
and  returned  by  water.  He  is  attended  by  about  one 
hundred  officers  in  the  different  dresses  of  their 
stations,  all  very  fine,  and  some  covered  with  gold 
and  silver  cloths,  but  which  I  can  neither  describe 
nor  you  understand  if  I  did.  He  rides  last,  with  in- 
cense burning  round  him  ;  his  horse  is  almost  covered 
with  cloth  of  gold  and  gilt  ornaments,  and  when  he 
alights  a  carpet  is  spread  for  him,  and  he  is  held  up 
on  each  side  under  the  arms  by  two  officers.  In 
about  half  an  hour  he  came  out  again,  and  rode  in 
the  same  kind  of  procession  to  his  boat,  which  is 
rowed  by  about  twenty  men,  and  is  covered  with  gold 
and  silver.  The  balustrade  that  supports  the  awning 
»  is  of  silver,  and  the  gilding  on  the  oars,  etc.,  is  in- 
conceivably rich.  He  has  two  boats  of  this  sort,  in 
one  of  which  he  goes,  and  those  of  his  train  in  the 


88  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  iv 

other.  He  himself  has  a  fine  countenance,  and  ap- 
pears well ;  he  is  not  older  than  thirty. 

Stockdale  having  now  got  perfectly  stout  and  well 
with  trailing  about,  we  thought  of  more  expeditions, 
and  accepted  an  invitation  we  had  had  from  the  Russian 
Ambassador  of  taking  up  our  quarters  in  the  Russian 
palace  at  Buyuk  Dere,  of  which  you  know  the  geo- 
graphy from  my  former  letters.  As  I  described  the 
beauties  of  the  canal  (Bosphorus)  in  them,  1  will  add 
nothing,  though  again,  if  possible,  more  gratified  by 
them  than  ever.  On  the  narrowest  part  of  it,  about 
eight  miles  from  Constantinople,  are  two  old  castles ; 
which,  however,  would  serve  but  little  the  purposes  of 
defence,  and  are  more  adapted  to  what  they  are  like- 
wise used  for,  that  of  prisons.  In  these,  very  frequently, 
four  or  five  are  strangled  in  an  evening  and  thrown 
into  the  Bosphorus,  under  this  mild  government, 
without  ever  troubling  anybody  but  the  executioner. 
Near  these  (we  found  from  our  books  and  remembered 
with  pleasure)  was  the  place  Darius  marched  across 
on  a  bridge  of  boats  with  700,000  men  on  his  Scythian 
expedition,  as  a  prelude  to  his  Grecian  one.  These 
remembrances  are  almost  all  that  remain  here  of  former 
times,  as  few  monuments  withstand  the  Turks  so  near 
Constantinople. 

At  Buyuk  Dere  our  friend  the  Russian  Minister 
received  us  very  cordially  and  gave  us  for  lodgings 
a  charming  saloon,  and  chambers  at  the  end  of  his 
garden  with  a  view  of  the  bay.  We  were  here  quite 
our  own  masters,  and  made  several  trips,  sometimes 
with  him,  sometimes  by  ourselves ;  for  he  was  hospit- 
able enough  not  to  do  the  honours,  but  leave  us  to  our 
own  inventions,  so  we  were  perfectly  comfortable  and 
at  liberty.  Buyuk  Dere  is  about  seven  miles  from  the 
opening  of  the  Bosphorus  into  the  Euxine,  to  which 
we  made  our  first  expedition.  The  shores  of  the 
Bosphorus  are  still  bold  and  beautiful.  On  a  high  hill 
in  Asia  are  the  ruins  of  an  old  Genoese  castle,  built 
when  this  part  of  the  world  was  in  their  hands.  It 


1794]  SHORES   OF  THE   BOSPHORUS  89 

was  in  this  situation  that  stood  formerly  the  famous 
temple  of  Jupiter,  of  which  there  are  now,  however, 
no  remains  below  it;  and  opposite  are  two  new  for- 
tresses built  by  the  Turks ;  and  several  batteries  are 
run  up  along  the  shore — I  fancy  through  dread  of  the 
Empress,  who  is  making  herself  very  formidable  in 
the  Euxine,  where  she  has  now  not  less  than  twenty- 
one  sail  of  the  line,  and  indeed  many  think,  from  the 
ignorance  and  awkwardness  of  the  Turks,  that  their 
batteries  would  be  insufficient  to  prevent  her  from 
forcing  the  passage,  if  she  pleased  to  set  about  it, 
as  it  is. 

Near  the  mouth,  or  rather  the  head,  of  the  Bos- 
phorus  the  shores  are  very  wild.  You  go  along  under 
high,  black  rocks,  against  which  the  water  dashes  with 
great  violence.  There  are  no  trees  or  verdure  on 
them,  and  their  appearance,  if  the  sea  was  in  a  storm, 
must  be  most  tremendous;  the  swell  here  is  always 
violent,  however,  and  the  noise  of  the  sea  breaking 
amongst  their  different  caverns  is  peculiarly  awful 
and  striking.  A  little  beyond  the  opening  on  the 
European  side  is  a  small  village,  with  a  lighthouse 
on  a  high  point,  corresponding  to  one  in  Asia ;  and 
opposite  it  a  high  rock  rises  out  of  the  sea,  with  an 
old  marble  altar  upon  it,  to  which  we  scrambled.  It 
is  called  the  Pillar  of  Pompey,  but  is  evidently,  I 
think,  an  altar,  and  not  the  remains  of  a  column : 
that  you  may  be  of  the  same  opinion,  I  draw  you 
the  design  of  it  here.  You  see  it  is  adorned  with 
the  ox's  head,  festoons,  and  small  annulets,  which 
I  do  not  believe  an  ornament  for  the  lower  part 
of  a  column.1 

On  the  altar  was  once,  I  understand,  an  old  inscrip- 
tion, which  is  not  now  legible,  partly  owing  to  time 
and  partly  to  the  modern  inscriptions  of  simple  travel- 
lers who  are  very  fond  of  writing  their  own  sweet 
names ;  so  that,  in  some  hundred  years,  I  should  not 
wonder  if  some  learned  antiquarian  discovered  that 

1  The  drawing  being  indistinct,  it  is  omitted.     The  text  explains  sufficiently. 


9o  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  iv 

the  altar  was  inscribed  to  Mr.  Thomas  Dickens  or  any- 
body else  of  equal  note.  As  for  Pompey,  he  most 
probably  had  nothing  at  all  to  do  with  the  pillar,  any 
more  than  Ovid  had  with  a  tower  near  this  place 
which  goes  by  his  name,  and  where  they  say  he  was 
exiled.  The  tower  is,  I  am  told,  Genoese  ;  and  besides, 
Ovid's  banishment  was  on  the  Danube.  The  rock  on 
which  the  altar  stands  hangs  over  the  sea,  and  is  so 
steep  I  was  obliged  to  take  off  my  shoes  to  be  able 
to  climb  it.  Below  the  spray  flies  with  great  violence, 
and  adds  no  little  to  its  terrors. 

Another  of  our  trips  from  Buyuk  Dere  was  to  a 
place  on  the  Asiatic  side  called  the  Giant  Mountain ; 
it  is  marked  in  the  ancient  maps,  singularly  enough, 
the  Bed  of  Hercules.  On  landing  you  follow  a  long 
plain  called — I  do  not  know  why — the  Grand  Signer's 
ladder,  where  he  often  comes  a-pleasuring.  It  is 
adorned  with  some  immense  and  beautiful  plane  trees, 
the  two  largest  of  which  I  measured,  and  though  they 
yielded  in  size  to  one  in  the  meadow  of  Buyuk  Dere, 
their  sizes  were  9  yards  18  inches  and  10  yards  5  inches 
in  circumference ;  and  when  in  this  state  the  plane  is 
one  of  the  most  picturesque  trees  possible.  The  moun- 
tain is  covered  with  wood,  and  the  ascent  commands 
the  most  beautiful  views  in  the  world — of  the  canal 
and  mountains  round.  At  the  top  is  an  old  mosque  or 
Mahommetan  chapel,  in  the  yard  of  which  we  were 
gravely  shown  a  long  bank,  like  a  grave,  20  yards  in 
length,  said  to  be  the  tomb  of  a  giant  from  which  the 
mountain  has  its  name.  For  fear,  too,  that  the  giant 
should  not  appear  large  enough,  it  seems  only  half 
of  him  is  buried  here,  and  the  rest,  equally  long,  is 
interred  at  Scutari.  At  the  end  of  the  town  of  Buyuk 
Dere,  too,  is  a  beautiful  plain,  which  it  takes  its  name 
from,  meaning  "great  meadow,"  and  where  all  the 
world  ride  and  walk. 

To  describe  all  these  scenes  would  but  tire  you  ;  so 
wait  till  you  see  my  drawings,  which  I  have  in  abun- 
dance. I  must  write  over  another  sheet,  I  find,  not 


I794]  SANTA   SOPHIA  91 

having  half  done ;  so  rest  yourself  a  moment,  and  I  go 
on  with  my  story. 

After  having  spent  some  days  in  this  charming  spot, 
and  in  the  pleasantest  manner,  amongst  the  diplomatic 
people,  from  whom  we  received  great  civility,  we  re- 
turned to  Constantinople.  In  a  walk  we  made  there 
the  other  morning  we  saw  the  famous  mosque  of  Santa 
Sophia.  The  outside  has  nothing  remarkable,  and  is 
heavier,  and  I  think  inferior,  to  that  of  many  of  the 
other  mosques,  as  it  was  rather  a  patchwork  between 
the  form  of  the  old  Greek  church  and  that  of  a  mosque, 
according  to  their  taste.  The  inside  is  large,  and  its 
great  ornament  is  a  very  fine  dome.  The  measures  of 
all  these  I  have  not  now,  but  will  send  them  in  another 
letter.  The  dome  is  not  so  large,  by  any  means,  as 
that  of  St.  Paul's;  but  it  is  a  very  wonderful  effort, 
when  we  consider  that  it  was  built  about  the  year  540. 

The  chief  feature  in  this  church,  however,  is  cer- 
tainly not  so  much  the  symmetry  or  beauty  of  the 
building  as  the  richness  of  its  ornaments  and  the 
beauty  of  its  columns.  Of  these  there  are  numbers, 
each  of  an  entire  piece  of  verd  antique  marble.  The 
lower  ones  are  about  20  feet,  the  higher  about  15  feet, 
in  height ;  and  I  fancy  the  same  quantity  of  that 
marble  does  not  now  exist  anywhere.  The  floors,  both 
below  and  in  the  galleries,  are  entirely  of  marble,  with 
which  also  the  walls  are  overlaid,  excepting  the  roofs, 
which  are  ill-painted,  after  the  Turkish  taste.  The 
dome,  however,  has  been  beautiful.  It  is  adorned  in 
mosaic  with  a  composition  resembling  glass,  but  much 
harder,  in  which  is  a  sheet  of  leaf-gold  that  gives  it 
the  appearance  of  the  most  beautiful  gilding.  In  parts 
it  has  been  broken  and  disfigured,  to  gratify  their  taste 
for  destruction  or  supply  the  pockets  of  the  men  who 
show  the  building,  and  who  sell  pieces  of  it.  I  bought 
some,  and  mean  to  set  one  of  the  largest  pieces  in 
a  ring,  as  it  takes  a  very  good  polish.  In  one  of  the 
windows  we  remarked  a  large  slab  of  transparent 
white  marble,  which  is  also  very  rare. 


92  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  iv 

The  architecture  is  that  of  the  lower  Greek  Empire, 
and  is  not  very  fine,  and  what  chiefly  takes  off  from 
the  effect  of  the  marble  is  the  dirty  manner  in  which 
they  keep  it ;  for  if  washed  and  clean  I  know  few 
things  that  would  be  so  beautiful.  I  have  much  more 
to  say,  but  news  comes  that  the  packets  are  closing, 
so  if  I  do  not  send  my  letter  it  will  not  go  off  for  a 
fortnight.  Adieu.  Love  to  you  all,  and  do  not 
be  impatient,  for  on  Wednesday  we  set  off  (with 
Wilbraham  still)  for  a  tour  in  Asia,  to  Nicomedia, 
Brusa,  Mount  Olympus,  Smyrna,  Ephesus,  Miletus, 
Halicarnassus,  Rhodes,  Cos,  Chios,  Samos,  Lesbos, 
and  all  the  coast  to  the  Troad :  so  you  may  not  hear 
again  for  a  month  or  six  weeks.  When  you  do  it  will, 
you  see,  be  a  brimming  letter,  so  console  yourselves, 
and  believe  me 

Your  affectionate  nephew, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


SMYRNA, 
September  29,  1794. 

DEAR  AUNT, 

I  have,  notwithstanding  my  last  long  letter,  still 
something  to  tell  you  about  Constantinople,  which  I 
therefore  send  to  you,  though  Anne  stands  the  next 
on  my  list.  At  the  same  time  that  we  saw  Santa 
Sophia,  we  walked  to  see  some  other  lions  in  Con- 
stantinople. Having  a  janissary  with  us,  we  were 
admitted  (paying,  that  is  to  say,  a  piastre  or  two)  to 
enter  the  Seraglio.  This  building,  which  with  its 
gardens  covers  entirely  the  promontory  it  stands 
upon,  is  walled  completely  off  from  the  town,  and 
the  wall  is  so  high  and  so  situated  that  there  is  no 
point  from  whence  you  command  the  least  view  of  the 
inside  of  the  palace.  It  is,  indeed,  a  little  town  by 
itself  rather  than  a  single  building,  consisting  of  a 
suite  of  courts  one  within  another,  inhabited  by  the 
servants  and  attendants  of  the  palace,  who  here  are 
the  great  men  of  the  Empire.  We  were  not  admitted 


1794]  THE   SERAGLIO  93 

beyond  the  first  court,  so  can  only  speak  of  it  as  a 
large  area  surrounded  by  low,  heavy  buildings  of 
which  we  did  not  see  the  inside,  except  the  mint, 
where  we  were  admitted.  We  were  here  shown,  as  a 
great  curiosity,  several  stamps  of  different  sizes  for 
the  different  coins,  and  some  were  struck  off  before 
us,  but  though  very  curious  for  them,  yet  to  any  one 
who  had  seen  the  same  as  we  had  done  elsewhere, 
they  appeared  exceedingly  behindhand,  as  indeed  they 
are  in  everything  that  requires  any  knowledge  in  the 
arts  of  mechanism.  Indeed  our  going  in  was  rather 
that  we  might  say  we  had  been  in  so  remarkable  a 
place  as  the  Seraglio  than  for  any  other  reason,  as 
no  one  is  ever  admitted  beyond  this  court,  and  there 
is  very  little  remarkable  in  it.  Indeed,  the  Seraglio 
with  its  gardens,  like  all  their  other  piles  of  building, 
is  seen  to  infinite  advantage  as  an  object  from  the 
water,  and  on  the  outside,  but  makes  certainly  but  a 
poor  figure  within.  A  little  way  from  it  is  a  large 
subterraneous  place  where  there  is  now  a  manu- 
factory of  silk-spinners.  It  is  a  great  area  about 
two  hundred  yards  square,  vaulted  and  supported  by 
above  three  hundred  columns,  as  we  were  told  by 
a  gentleman  that  has  published  on  Constantinople. 
This  immense  structure  is  still  about  thirty-five  or 
forty  feet  in  height,  though  the  ground  at  the  bottom 
is  on  a  very  different  level  from  what  it  originally  has 
been.  It  was  built  by  Justinian,  or  one  of  the  later 
Emperors,  as  a  cistern  to  supply  the  whole  city  with 
water,  and  aqueducts  for  that  purpose  made  from  the 
mountains  near,  communicating  with  it.  The  Turks 
have  also  built  several  other  aqueducts  since,  so  that 
I  suppose  the  use  of  the  cistern  has  ceased ;  but  in  a 
dry  season  like  this  they  are  now  often  reduced  to 
great  straits  for  water,  as  the  springs  and  fountains,  of 
which  they  have  numbers  everywhere,  were  almost 
all  dried  up,  and  the  want  of  water  so  great  that  it  was 
carried  about  the  streets  in  leather  vessels  on  horses, 
and  sold. 


94  CONSTANTINOPLE  [cu.  iv 

We  saw  the  aqueducts  on  another  tour  we  made  to 
Belgrade,  the  beautiful  village  of  which  Lady  M. 
W.  Montague  talks  so  much.  Near  the  village 
of  Bourgas,  about  an  hour's  ride  from  Constantinople, 
the  narrow  and  romantic  little  valley  it  stands  in  is 
crossed  by  a  high  and  still  perfect  aqueduct  built  by 
Justinian.  Of  this  I  have  drawings,  and  in  de  Guys, 
a  book  that  gives  some  accounts  of  these  countries, 
there  is  the  plan  and  elevation  of  it  at  length.  He 
speaks  of  it  as  a  superior  work  of  this  nature  to  any 
that  now  remain  elsewhere.  Soliman  II.  repaired 
it,  a  work  in  which  he  employed  Greek  architects. 
It  is  of  a  double  row  of  arches  one  above  the  other, 
and  has  this  singularity,  that  between  the  larger 
arches  the  architect  has  pierced  the  piers  with  lesser 
arches  at  three  different  heights  so  well  that  they, 
without  diminishing  the  strength  of  the  structure, 
add  a  great  lightness  to  its  appearance,  and  save  a 
great  expense  in  masonry.  Another  thing  in  which 
he  says  it  is  different  from  all  others  is  that,  through 
the  upper  row  of  arches,  is  pierced  a  passage  by  which 
you  walk  along  the  first  row  as  over  a  bridge,  with  the 
second  row  over  you.  The  length  of  this  fine  work 
is,  below,  420  feet ;  above,  where  it  is  lengthened  with 
lesser  arches  to  be  on  a  level  with  the  water,  it  is 
720  feet  in  length.  There  are  eight  great  arches, 
four  above  and  four  below.  Each  of  the  lower  ones  is 
47  feet  in  height  by  53  feet  in  span,  the  upper  ones 
39  feet  in  height  by  41  feet  in  span,  and  the  whole 
aqueduct  is  107  feet  in  height  from  the  bottom. 

Farther  on,  in  passing  through  the  village  of 
Bourgas,  our  journey  was  enlivened  by  a  Greek  fair, 
where  all  the  people  of  the  village  were  out  dancing 
and  playing.  A  little  way  beyond  Bourgas  begins 
the  extensive  wood  or  another  forest  of  Belgrade. 
The  hills  before  you  and  on  each  side  are  covered 
with  fine  oak  and  beech,  through  which  we  rode  for 
miles;  we  passed  again  by  an  old  aqueduct  of  very 
solid  workmanship  and  two  rows  of  arches,  most 


1794]  TURKISH   AQUEDUCTS  95 

picturesquely  overhung  with  bushes  and  embosomed 
in  wood.  On  our  right  and  before  us  we  saw  two 
large  and  very  long  Turkish  aqueducts  crossing  the 
valleys  near;  for  though  infinitely  behindhand  in 
other  respects,  they  pay  very  great  attention  to  water- 
works, and,  I  am  told,  understand  their  theory  and 
practice  very  well.  They  have  no  less  than  three  or 
four  very  large  works  of  this  sort  in  this  neighbour- 
hood, of  which  the  water  is  conveyed  to  Constanti- 
nople. As  you  approach  Belgrade  the  road  winds 
through  a  beautiful  and  thick  wood  ;  a  brook  on  the 
right,  dammed  up  for  a  reservoir,  seems  here  a  small 
lake.  With  this  in  the  foreground,  and  two  rich  and 
beautiful  banks  of  wood  for  side-screens,  I  procured 
a  charming  view  of  Belgrade,  a  plain,  pretty  village 
rising  on  a  bank  covered  with  trees,  and  sloping  down 
opposite  one  to  the  water,  in  this  village  the  English 
and  Dutch  Ambassadors  have  houses,  as  have  some 
of  the  English  merchants ;  but  the  most  fashionable 
summer  resort  is  Buyuk  Dere,  of  which  I  have  said 
so  much.  This  is  certainly  a  much  quieter  and  more 
retired  scene,  but  it  is  not  in  so  grand  a  style  of 
scenery  as  the  banks  of  the  Bosphorus.  Yet  here  a 
person  might  go  in  summer  to  retire  (which  is  as 
seldom  the  case  here  as  in  England) : 

His  wayward  length  at  noontide  might  he  stretch 
And  pore  upon  the  brook  that  babbles  by. 

Buyuk  Dere,  though  in  a  beautiful  situation,  is 
nothing  but  a  long  row  of  handsome  houses  built 
along  a  quay  on  the  Bosphorus,  and  is  as  far  removed 
from  peace  and  privacy  as  the  Strand  at  Scarborough 
or  Weymouth.  It  is  the  opinion  here  that  from  the 
woods  and  standing  water  the  situation  of  Belgrade 
is  unwholesome,  fevers  being  very  common  there. 
There  may  be  some  foundation  for  this,  but  I  was 
told  by  a  gentleman  who  lives  there  very  much 
that  it  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  want  of  caution  with 


96  CONSTANTINOPLE  [CH.  iv 

which  foreigners  lived  in  this  climate,  exposing  them- 
selves to  the  violent  heat  in  exercise,  and  then  sitting 
still  during  a  damp  evening ;  when  every  cold  in  this 
climate  immediately  becomes  a  fever.  You  will  see 
I  do  not  like  to  detract  from  the  beauty  of  the  place 
by  telling  you  of  its  inconveniences ;  and  I  assure  you, 
if  you  had  seen  the  extensive  and  romantic  woods, 
with  the  number  of  retired,  sweet  walks  round  it,  you 
would  have  agreed  with  Lady  Mary  Wortley  in  its 
eulogium. 

The  next  thing  I  find  mentioned  in  my  notes  are 
the  dervishes,  whom  I  went  to  see  just  before  we  left 
the  place.  They  are  pretty  numerous  both  in  Galata 
and  Scutari,  where  they  have  dances,  and  public  meet- 
ings on  Monday  and  Friday  at  Galata,  on  Tuesday 
and  Thursday  at  the  other.  We  were  shown  into 
a  large  room,  round  which  sat  on  the  mats  the 
spectators.  The  middle  was  railed  in  like  the  circus 
at  Astley's,  and  in  a  gallery  above  was  some  music 
consisting  chiefly  of  flutes  and  drums.  About  twenty 
of  the  dervishes  below  sat  round  this  inner  circle,  and 
the  president  recites  something  aloud  in  a  singing 
tone,  which  they  join  in  with  all  the  mummery  of 
prostrating  themselves,  etc.  The  music  strikes  up 
slowly,  and  they  walk  round  the  room  some  time ; 
when  the  music  grows  brisker  they  take  off  their 
upper  garments,  and,  clothed  in  nothing  but  a  vest 
with  sleeves  and  a  very  long  cloth  petticoat,  begin 
the  dance.  The  first  turns  round  to  the  second, 
and  bowing  first  to  the  president  and  then  to  him, 
begins  to  whirl  round  like  a  child  making  himself 
giddy.  His  petticoats  with  the  velocity  of  the  motion 
spread  out  and  leave  him  exactly  the  figure  that,  if  I 
recollect,  is  drawn  in  the  religious  ceremonies.  The 
second  follows  his  example,  and  in  this  manner  the 
whole  whirl  round  and  round  for  more  than  half  an 
hour  with  their  arms  extended,  then  prostrate  them- 
selves, walk  about,  and  begin  again.  How  they  can 
,by  any  practice  bring  themselves  io  be  able  to  do  it 


1794]  DANCING   DERVISHES  97 

without  falling  from  giddiness  I  cannot  conceive. 
I  am  sure  you  will  agree  with  me  in  thinking  it  a 
great  religious  acquirement,  and  not  wonder  when 
I  tell  you  we  returned  to  our  house  extremely  edified 
and  improved  by  it. 

At  Scutari  they  are  still  more  determined  to  get  to 
paradise,  for  during  the  dance  they  amuse  themselves 
by  cutting  their  arms  and  bodies  with  sharp  knives 
till  the  blood  spurts  out,  holding  hot  irons  in  their 
teeth  and  mouth,  with  many  other  feats  of  this  sort. 
We  did  not  see  them ;  and  as  these  exploits  can  be 
easily  conceived,  and  they  do  not  in  other  respects 
differ  from  what  we  were  present  at,  I  cannot  say 
I  much  regret  missing  so  disgusting  a  sight,  as  you 
will  easily  suppose  it  was. 

I  think  I  have  now  with  great  success  got  through 
the  chief  things  that  struck  us  during  our  stay  at 
Constantinople,  having  little  more  to  add  upon  any- 
thing we  saw  there  but  what  will  be  best  supplied 
from  my  journal  some  other  time,  with  explanatory 
remarks  by  word  of  mouth.  I  only  will  mention  one 
remark  for  Anne's  benefit,  as  she  heard  considerable 
accounts  on  the  subject  from  Miss  Stanley's  Italian 
trip,  which  is  that  scorpions  are  here  much  more 
common  than  even  in  Italy,  so  that  she  might  have 
frightened  herself  all  day  long.  In  an  evening,  in  the 
Ambassador's  garden,  we  frequently  found  several 
under  the  dried  bark  of  some  old  trellises.  Mr.  Listen 
himself  was  one  day  stung  by  one  of  them ;  but  on 
applying  oil  and  camphorated  spirits  did  not  suffer 
much  from  it.  The  largest  I  saw  with  its  tail  and  all 
was  not  above  two  inches  long,  but  I  believe  there 
are  larger. 


CHAPTER  V 
TRAVELS  IN  ASIA  MINOR  AND  SAMOS 

FOR  his  guide  to  the  ancient  sites  which  he  visited  in 
Asia  Minor  and  Greece,  Morritt  relied  chiefly  on  the 
recently  published  works  of  Richard  Chandler ;  but 
he  uses  his  own  judgment  and  sometimes  expresses 
a  different  opinion.  Chandler  had  been  sent  out  by 
the  Dilettanti  Society,  and  travelled  in  1764-6.  He 
published  "Ionian  Antiquities,"  1769;  "  Inscriptiones 
Antiquae,"  1774;  and  "Travels,"  1775-6. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Morritt  uses  the  names  of 
Latin  deities,  Jupiter,  Minerva,  etc.,  instead  of  Zeus, 
Athene,  etc. ;  but  this  was  customary  in  his  time,  and 
not  a  mark  of  scrappy  or  superficial  scholarship. 

IS-MIT    (NlCOMEDIA), 

September  3,  1794. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

I  write  to  you  from  the  Turkish  town  of  Is-mit, 
once  Nicomedia.  .  .  .  We  took  our  leave  of  Con- 
stantinople two  days  ago,  and  set  sail  for  this  place, 
accompanied  by  Wilbraham,  and  a  Mr.  Dallaway, 
chaplain  to  Mr.  Listen,  who  is  a  very  agreeable 
addition  to  our  party,  as  he  is  both  pleasant  and 
well-informed.  We  set  sail  with  a  fair  wind  and  a 
delightful  evening  at  four  o'clock,  and  arrived  that 
evening  at  the  larger  of  the  Princes  Islands  (which  I 
mentioned  already),  called  Prinkipos.  The  manner 
of  travelling  here,  which  is  generally  pursued  and  is 
certainly  most  convenient,  is  this.  You  are  always 
attended  by  a  janissary,  with  whom  you  are  furnished 
by  the  Ambassador,  as  every  one  of  the  Corps 

98 


1794]  METHOD   OF  TRAVELLING  99 

Diplomatique  have  a  certain  number  whom  they 
employ  as  expresses,  etc.,  and  on  these  occasions  we 
make  a  bargain  to  be  furnished  with  the  necessary 
number  of  horses  and  conveyances  through  the  route 
we  mean  to  take ;  all  side-steps  and  extra  peregrina- 
tions are  of  course  not  counted.  We  have  taken  a 
Greek  servant  as  an  interpreter,  who  besides  his  own 
language  speaks  Turkish,  Italian,  and  French,  so  we 
now  shift  for  ourselves  with  regard  to  eating  and 
drinking,  which  our  janissary  from  Bucharest  had  cut 
us  rather  short  of,  and  I  think  you  would  imagine 
that  did  not  much  suit  either  Wilbraham  or  myself. 
We  mean  to  keep  our  Greek,  therefore,  the  whole  of 
our  tour,  though  before  it  is  finished  I  hope  to  have 
made  a  very  pretty  proficiency  in  modern  Greek 
myself,  as  I  find  it  extremely  resembling  the  ancient 
language ;  and  the  principal  difficulty  is  want  of  habit, 
especially  in  the  pronunciation,  which  is  totally 
different  from  our  own. 

We  are  at  present  much  better  equipped  for  a 
Turkish  expedition  than  we  were  before  our  arrival 
at  Constantinople,  as  we  have  procured  ourselves 
thick  quilts  to  sleep  upon,  and  blankets,  as  the  heats 
are  now  over  and  sleeping  al  fresco  is  not  quite  so 
delightful  as  it  was.  As  to  inns,  I  told  you  before 
you  only  meet  with  small  coffee-houses,  and  never 
with  any  other  bed  than  a  carpet  or  a  low  sofa.  You 
would  delight  in  Turkey,  for  the  seats  (which  are 
beds  at  night)  are  never  so  high  by  half  as  your  own 
dressing-room  sofa,  with  thick,  broad  cushions  ;  indeed, 
when  I  return  I  mean  to  fit  up  the  tea-room  a  la 
kiosk,  that  is,  like  a  Turkish  summer-house,  for  your 
own  self,  as  I  am  sure  it  would  suit  you. 

The  island  of  Prinkipos  is  as  beautiful  as  1  have 
already  described  that  of  Chalchi,  and  in  the  same 
style.  After  sleeping  there  we  proceeded  in  our  boat 
to  Nicomedia,  which  your  maps  will  tell  you  is  at  the 
end  of  a  long  gulf  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  at  the 
mouth  of  which  are  some  small  desert  islands,  or 


ioo      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR   AND   SAMOS    [CH.  v 

rather  naked  rocks  rising  out  of  the  sea.  The  whole 
of  the  coast  of  Asia,  of  which  you  never  lose  sight, 
is  very  bold  and  fine,  but  more  particularly  in  the 
Gulf  of  Is-mit.  On  your  left  hand,  near  the  point  as 
you  enter  it,  are  the  ruins  of  a  large  ancient  fortress 
and  castle,  not  far  from  which  is  the  obscure  village 
of  Gheibize,  once  Libissa,  where  Hannibal  finished  his 
life.  There  are  several  remains  of  old  towns  on  or 
near  the  shores  of  the  gulf,  but  nothing,  as  we  have 
heard,  remarkable.  Opposite  Nicomedia  the  gulf  is 
about  two  miles  broad,  and  ends  a  little  higher  up. 
I  can  conceive  few  mountains  bolder  or  more  beau- 
tiful than  the  opposite  shore,  which  is  part  of  the 
branches  of  the  Olympus.  The  hills  are  very  high, 
extremely  varied,  and  at  a  small  distance  appear  rich 
and  clothed,  though  I  do  not  know  how  to  trust  any- 
thing that  looks  like  cultivation,  which  is  most  pro- 
bably only  browned  by  the  sun.  The  ridges  are 
rough  and  steep,  and  the  shape  of  the  shore  only 
excelled  by  the  shores  we  had  left  at  Constantinople. 

The  town  is  ill-built,  like  all  Turkish  towns,  and 
yet,  like  them,  looks  beautiful  on  the  side  of  a  steep 
hill  mixed  with  trees.  There  are  very  few  remains 
here ;  the  only  one  we  have  seen  worth  notice  is  the 
remains  of  an  old  palace,  which  covers  the  top  of  a 
small  elevation,  and  of  which  a  square  building  yet 
remains  entire  all  but  the  roof.  It  is  built  of  very 
large  hewn  stone,  and  floored  with  marble,  and  seems 
to  have  been  a  very  magnificent  room ;  it  is  now  filled 
with  bushes  and  shrubs  that  make  it  a  very  pic- 
turesque ruin.  There  is  little  doubt  but  it  has  been 
an  ancient  palace,  and  the  Turks  give  it  the  name  of 
Eski-Sera,  or  the  old  palace. 

The  people  here  are  so  ignorant  that  we  could  not 
make  anything  certain  out  from  their  accounts.  One 
of  them  told  us  it  was  an  old  palace  of  the  Sultan's, 
another  that  it  was  built  by  the  Genoese.  As  there 
was  nothing  architectural  about  it  we  could  not  make 
it  out  to  be  antique.  It  had  certainly  been  in  the  use 


1794]  PROPOSED   ROUTE  101 

of  the  Turks,  judging  by  the  paintings,  which  remained 
in  some  parts,  but  might  nevertheless  have  been  built 
long  before  them.  I  have  made  my  draughtsman  take 
some  very  good  views  of  it,  and  shall  read  a  further 
lecture  upon  it  when  you  see  them. 

There  is  in  the  town  also  an  old  fountain  with  a 
Greek  inscription  over  it,  which  was  not  to  be  read, 
however,  and  some  old  column  shafts,  friezes,  etc.,  in 
the  walls,  which  were  antique.  We  are  lodged  here 
in  a  small  room  of  a  Greek  monastery,  where  I  am 
writing,  and  where  there  are  six  poor  Greek  monks 
living.  To  give  you  some  idea  of  their  notions  of 
curiosities,  I  must  tell  you  what  just  happened  to  us. 
I  asked  this  morning  if  there  were  any  medals  or 
engraved  stones  ever  found  near  here,  as  there  often 
are  in  this  part  of  the  world ;  and  I  wished  to  see  if 
there  were  any  worth  buying.  I  had  my  expectations 
much  raised  by  a  man's  telling  me  that  in  effect  he 
had  some  very  curious  coins ;  but  was,  as  you  will 
suppose,  a  little  surprised  when  he  returned  to  me 
with  a  handful  of  German  halfpence.  As  I  had  never 
heard  of  Joseph  or  Maria  Theresa  among  the  royal 
race  of  Bithynia  I  did  not  bargain  for  any. 

We  are  now  proceeding  by  Brusa  to  Smyrna,  and 
after  visiting  everything  to  be  seen  on  the  coast  of 
Asia  shall  finish  with  the  Troad  ;  go  in  October  and 
November  by  Cavallo  and  Mount  Athos  to  Salonica  ; 
cross  Macedonia  and  Thessaly  through  the  vale  of 
Tempe,  etc.,  by  land  to  Larissa,  then  by  Thermopylae 
to  Livadia,  see  Thebes,  Boeotia,  Phocis  and  Parnassus, 
and  winter  till  February  at  Athens.  In  spring  see 
the  Morea,  and  cross  to  Sicily. — N.B.  With  common 
precautions  all  this  can  be  done,  and  the  bugbears 
we  amuse  ourselves  with  of  robbers,  etc.,  though 
founded  in  reality,  may  be  very  well  avoided  by 
common  prudence.  The  Morea  has  hardly  ever  been 
visited  except  near  Olympia.  I  know  that  at  present 
it  is  all  visitable  with  trouble  and  resolution,  and 
I  hope  before  I  return  to  have  seen  many  places  we 
8 


162      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR   AND   SAMOS   [CH.  V 

have  scarce  an  idea  of.  Do  you  not  envy  me  our 
winter's  plan  at  Athens,  where  we  mean  to  keep 
house,  and  send  wine  and  English  porter  from 
Smyrna.  I  shall  bring  home  drawings  of  every  hill 
and  grove  in  Greece ;  you  know  I  am  now  and  then 
an  enthusiast.  I  assure  you  the  comfort  and  satisfaction 
I  have  in  my  present  tour,  the  odd  scenes  we  meet 
with,  the  fun  we  have,  and  the  pleasure  I  feel  all  day 
long,  especially  in  Wilbraham's  company,  can  only  be 
equalled  by  the  satisfaction  I  shall  have  in  returning 
at  the  end  of  it.  W.  leaves  us  at  the  Dardanelles,  as 
he  does  not  mean  to  make  the  tour  of  Greece  at 
present.  Adieu.  I  am,  you  will  easily  see,  in  my 
usual  good  spirits;  Stockdale  says  I  am  made  on 
purpose  to  travel  with ;  he  and  W.  beg  their  best 
respects.  That  Anne  may  not  call  us  Irishmen,  to 
travel  through  Tempe  to  the  beautiful  parts  of  Greece 
so  late  in  the  year,  I  beg  leave  to  add  that  winter 
here  never  begins  till  after  Christmas,  and  the  month 
of  November  is  generally  one  of  the  finest  in  the 
year.  Adieu. 

Believe  me  sincerely 

Your  affectionate  son, 
J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

SMYRNA, 

September  29,  1 794. 

We  passed,  on  our  road  from  Nicomedia,  a  village 
still  called  Evakli ;  one  of  the  remains  of  antiquity  in 
this  part  of  the  world.  It  was  once  Heraclea,  and  is 
situated  on  a  promontory  that  runs  out  into  the  sea  ; 
though  I  believe  the  ancient  town,  or  at  least  the 
citadel,  stood  farther  off  in  the  situation  of  a  smaller 
village  now  called  Jawr-Erakti,  and  inhabited  by 
Greeks.  It  is  on  the  summit  of  a  conical  hill  covered 
with  wood  and  backed  by  a  high,  dark  purple  range 
of  crags  and  rock,  whose  bases  are  likewise  richly 
clothed.  This  view  from  the  sea,  with  the  beautiful 
cedars  of  a  Turkish  burying-ground  before  it,  was 


1794]  FALL   OF   ROBESPIERRE  103 

so  very  perfect  a  landscape  that  we  stopped  to  take 
a  sketch  of  it.  Indeed,  to  have  an  idea  of  colouring, 
this  is  certainly  the  finest  landscape  country  in  the 
world  ;  for  though,  as  Gilpin  observes,  it  is  with  us 
that  the  sunsets  are  most  beautifully  adorned  by  the 
richness  and  glow  of  the  clouds  that  always  attend 
them,  yet  whoever  has  seen  the  sunset  over  these 
seas  or  the  Bay  of  Smyrna  must  own  that  the  absence 
of  the  clouds  (though  that  is  not  always  the  case)  is  more 
than  compensated  by  the  warm  glow  over  the  whole 
ether,  the  extreme  bright  purple  of  the  western  hills, 
and  the  dark  and  decided  blue  of  those  at  a  greater 
distance  from  the  illumination.  It  is  not  here  that 
a  sunset  is  improved  by  a  Claude  Lorrain's  glass. 
Nature  has  given  the  effect  in  a  much  superior 
manner  in  Claude's  own  colouring.  Indeed,  I  do  not 
at  all  wonder  that  we  are  so  apt  to  accuse  Italian 
masters  of  forced  colouring,  for  had  these  scenes  been 
given  with  their  full  effect  upon  canvas,  we  who  are 
accustomed  to  a  colder  and  more  watery  sky  should, 
I  am  sure,  imagine  them  exaggerated.  It  is  not  here 
that  "  evening  grey  "  would  have  been  mentioned  by 
Milton,  at  least  at  this  time  of  year.  I  must  tell  you 
I  was  stopped  in  my  prose  here  by  the  arrival  of  an 
English  courier  with  a  number  of  letters  from  all  of 
my  friends,  among  the  rest  one  from  you,  which  I 
assure  you  gave  me  no  small  pleasure. 

As  for  politics,  I  hope  that  in  some  measure  the 
change  is  for  the  better  everywhere.  The  news  of 
Robespierre  &  Co.  having  been  beheaded 1  is  just 
arrived  here — with  furious  reports  and  histories  of 
counter-revolutions.  As  to  the  decapitation,  I  am 
happy  it  is  so  well  authenticated  ;  for  the  rest,  I  do 
not  believe  a  word  of  it.  However,  I  think,  I  hope 
they  will  establish  some  kind  of  government  with 
which  their  neighbours  may  be  at  peace.  I  find  here 
that  our  fears  about  getting  to  the  Islands  were  very 
premature,  as  the  merchants  here  all  assure  us  there  is 

1  Oh  July  28 — two  months  earlier. 


104      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR  AND  SAMOS    [CH.  v 

not  the  most  distant  reason  for  apprehension,  and 
that  we  may  go  everywhere  in  the  boats  of  the 
country  perfectly  safe.  There  has  been  sent  from 
Constantinople,  in  consequence  of  the  manly  and 
spirited  remonstrances  of  Listen  to  the  Porte,  a 
squadron  of  Turkish  vessels  sufficiently  strong  to 
over-awe  the  French,  who,  by  our  squadron  under 
Montgomery  having  sailed,  are  again  at  sea  with  their 
remaining  frigates.  They  have,  however,  never 
attacked  or  annoyed  passengers,  and  still  more  avoid 
offering  an  insult  to  the  Turks  at  present ;  under 
their  convoy,  therefore,  we  are  perfectly  safe,  as  we 
have  from  the  Porte  a  very  strong  firman  or  travel- 
ling order. 

SMYRNA, 

September  30,  1794. 
(Dying  with  heat.) 

DEAR  ANNE, 

Though  Heaven  knows  whether  I  can  possibly 
finish  this  before  the  post,  or  at  least  before  we  set 
out,  yet,  as  I  am  determined  to  try  though  I  write  all 
night,  I  will  begin.  The  courier  has  just  brought  me 
a  long  packet  from  Listen  containing  letters  from  you 
all ;  you  can't  think  with  what  pleasure  I  have  been 
devouring  them.  You  are  all  excellent  correspondents, 
for  a  post  never  comes  without  a  tolerable  parcel  for 
me.  However,  though  infinitely  grateful  for  your 
diligence  in  writing,  I  must  say  I  never  read  in  my 
life  a  much  more  saucy  and  impertinent  composition 
than  your  last  letter,  which  was  dated  Scarborough. 
You  have  toured  to  a  fine  purpose,  I  must  say,  and 
I  wish  I  was  only  with  you  half  an  hour  to  make  you 
a  little  pretty  behaved  and  sensy.  Notwithstanding 
my  gravity,  however,  as  a  tourist,  and  the  long 
accounts  I  have  to  give  you  of  my  late  motions,  I  feel 
much  more  inclined  to  talk  nonsense  if  I  had  time  and 
paper  to  throw  away  upon  it.  I  have  just  finished 
a  letter  of  prosation  to  my  Aunt  Frances  in  which, 
however,  I  have  not  told  her  half  of  what  we  had  seen 


1794]  NICAEA  105 

and  heard,  so  I  will  go  on  with  my  story,  and  you 
may  piece  it  together  with  her  letter  and  my  mother's 
which  I  wrote  from  Nicomedia. 

After  two  days' journey  from  Nicomedia  we  came 
in  the  evening  to  Nicaea,  now  called  Is-nik.  In  the 
plain  where  it  stands,  at  the  end  of  a  large  and 
beautiful  lake,  was  the  scene  of  the  last  great  battle 
between  Tamerlane  and  Bajazet,  which  ended  in  the 
latter  being  put  into  a  cage  as  a  canary  bird,  and 
shown  about  to  be  stared  at,  pretty  much  as  we  are 
in  travelling  through  any  place  here,  i.e.  as  a  show  of 
wild  beasts  in  England.  I  do  not  recollect  whether 
you  are  alarmed  at  thunder  and  lightning  amongst  the 
rest  of  your  fears ;  if  you  are,  you  would  not  much 
have  enjoyed  our  entree  into  Nicaea.  The  old  wall  is 
still  standing,  and  encloses  a  space  three  times  as 
large  as  the  town.  We  passed  through  a  hole  in  an 
old  ruined  tower  by  way  of  entrance.  The  night 
was  excessively  dark,  and  just  before  we  arrived 
began  one  of  the  most  violent  storms  of  lightning  I 
ever  saw  in  my  life.  The  light  the  repeated  flashes 
threw  upon  these  ruins  had  an  effect  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  describe  ;  you  can  imagine  it  from  having 
seen  the  Eidophusikon,  and  I  wish  it  had  been 
possible  for  Loutherbourg 1  to  have  been  of  our  party. 

Not,  however,  having  the  least  inclination  to  be  wet 
through,  we  were  not  at  all  sorry  to  arrive  at  our 
quarters  for  the  night.  In  the  course  of  it  the  storm 
continued  with  greater  fury  than  ever,  with  slight 
shocks  of  an  earthquake  ;  at  least,  this  is  what  all  my 
fellow-travellers  vouch  for.  To  say  the  truth,  I  was 
laid  very  snug  in  a  corner  of  the  room,  and  never 
opened  my  eyes  till  morning.  As  far  as  eating  and 
sleeping  go,  I  believe  few  travellers  ever  went  on  with 
more  success. 

As  there  are  many  curious  remains  to  be  seen  at 
"  Nicaea,  we  stayed  there  some  days.  I  wish  you  could 

1  Royal  Academician,  1781.  His  Eidophusikon  was  a  sort  of  diorama, 
showing  the  changing  effects  in  calm,  storm,  moonlight,  etc. 


106      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR   AND   SAMOS    [CH.  v 

only  have  seen  our  lodging.  It  was  in  a  deserted  house 
belonging  to  a  Greek.  There  was  nothing  that  the 
least  resembled  furniture,  either  Turkish  or  Christian. 
The  roof  of  our  principal  room  let  in  the  rain  through 
so  many  places  that  we  were  put  to  our  invention  to 
find  out  a  dry  spot.  Having  accomplished  this,  and 
made  ourselves  sofas  a  la  Turque  with  our  bedding,  and 
tables  with  our  books,  we  found  the  necessity  of  caution 
in  moving,  as  the  floor  was  rotten  and  in  pieces.  Our 
servants  cooked  our  dinner  on  a  bit  of  packthread  in 
one  corner,  and  we  wrote  remarks  like  Yorick's  in  the 
other,  and  very  curious  ones  they  are. 

The  town  itself  is  very  old,  and  in  as  much  decay 
as  our  chateau.  It  was  famous,  you  know,  for  the 
council  that  made  the  Nicene,  or  really  Nicaean,  Creed, 
of  which  we  found  (as  we  thought  we -made  out)  some 
mention  in  the  ancient  inscriptions  that  abound  here. 
It  was,  however,  most  flourishing,  as  all  the  cities  in 
this  part  of  the  world  were,  during  the  time  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  The  walls,  which  have  been  bung- 
lingly  repaired  by  the  Turks,  still  remain.  They  were 
originally  a  beautiful  and  well-built  work,  entirely 
built  of  hewn  stone,  with  a  suite  of  square  towers  at 
equal  distances.  The  Genoese,  and  afterwards  the 
Turks,  have  almost  hid  or  destroyed  these  by  great 
fortifications  in  brickwork,  into  which  they  have 
heaped,  pell-mell,  broken  columns,  friezes,  inscrip- 
tions— indeed,  whatever  they  found  that  would  make 
a  wall. 

When  we  left  this  place  we  went  to  Brusa,  where 
we  stayed  some  time.  This  town  is  now,  in  a  manner, 
the  capital  of  Asia  Minor.  It  is  also  of  the  highest 
antiquity.  Tradition  says  that  it  was  built  as  early  as 
Croesus  by  a  king  at  war  with  him.  It  was  in  later 
times  the  residence  of  the  Sultans  before  they  took 
Constantinople,  but  now,  though  one  of  the  largest 
and  most  populous  towns  of  the  Turks,  it  has  few 
remains  of  antiquity.  What  makes  it  most  worth 
notice  is  the  great  beauty  of  its  situation.  The  incon- 


1794]       ASCENT  OF  THE  MYSIAN   OLYMPUS          107 

ceivable  richness  and  fertility  of  the  plain  in  which  it 
stands,  the  different  slopes  and  heights  on  which  its 
houses  and  mosques  are  grouped,  and  the  ruined 
remains  of  its  old  fortress  on  a  high  rock,  made  a 
beautiful  picture  when  combined  with  Mount  Olympus, 
which  rises  finely  behind  it,  ending  above  in  bold 
crags  and  forests  without  end. 

This  mountain,  which  is  shaped  something  like 
Skiddaw,  forming  therefore,  like  it,  one  grand  object, 
is  about  three  times  as  high,  and  covered  with  forests 
and  rocks.  The  lake  is  wanting,  as  the  little  stream 
that  waters  the  valley  is  not  of  consequence  in  a  scene 
where  the  other  features  are  so  large.  We  went  one 
day  to  the  top  of  Olympus.  I  got  some  views  of  the 
different  parts  of  the  ascent.  Au  reste,  the  tops  of  all 
hills  are  alike,  except  that  this  was  even  now  covered 
with  snow  in  this  climate,  and  after  so  hot  a  summer ; 
and  was  so  cold  we  absolutely  were  starving.  The 
gods  were,  however,  lodged  like  gentlemen,  and  we 
should  have  been  very  glad  to  have  made  an  acquaint- 
ance with  any  of  them,  but  they  did  not  please  to 
appear. 

We  were  here  in  very  classical  ground.  The 
Arganthus,  a  mountain  opposite,  was  the  scene  of  the 
story  of  Hylas,  and  in  Ghio,  a  village  on  the  end  of 
the  Gulf  of  Mondania,  and  at  the  foot  of  it,  is  all  that 
remains  of  Cius,  a  city  founded  by  Jason's  companions 
at  the  time  of  the  argonautic  expedition.  On  this 
mountain  games  were  annually  celebrated  in  honour 
of  Hercules  and  Hylas.  We  went  afterwards  to 
Apollonia,  where  we  again  found  some  inscriptions 
and  broken  remains  of  grandeur,  though  entirely  in 
the  last  stage  of  ruin.  The  town  is  on  a  peninsula  in 
the  middle  of  a  most  charming  lake,  whose  islands, 
covered  with  woods  and  villages,  have,  thank  God, 
had  no  Turkish  Pocklingtons  *  to  improve  them.  A 
more  lovely  scene  of  the  sort  I  never  saw.  The  Swiss 
lakes,  you  know,  have  few  islands,  and  those  of  ours 

1  Pocklington's  Island  on  Derwentwater  had  been  spoilt  by  recent  buildings. 


io8      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR   AND  SAMOS    [CH.  v 

that  have  are  almost  spoiled.  The  hills  round  the 
lake  are  seldom  very  near  it,  so  that  the  view  in  its 
character  is  rather  riant  than  bold,  but  when  we  saw 
it,  a  sky  that  would  have  been  a  favourite  with  Gilpin 
threw  such  beautiful  tints  on  the  lake  and  islands,  that 
they  appeared  everything  that  was  lovely.  I  have 
drawings  of  it  which  explain  the  matter  better,  I 
hope. 

The  country  from  hence  to  Smyrna  is  a  succession 
of  mountains  more  extensive  than  I  think  I  ever  saw. 
In  fact,  the  different  chains  of  them  cover  the  whole  of 
Asia  Minor.  In  consequence  of  this,  I  never  saw,  I 
think,  a  country  so  rich  and  grand  in  its  distances,  but 
there  are  very  few  really  pleasing  views,  as  the  fore- 
ground is  everywhere  bad,  and  there  is  seldom  even  a 
good  middle  distance.  The  springs  being  everywhere 
dried  up,  nothing  like  verdure  was  to  be  seen  excepting 
the  trees  (for  the  herbage  was  as  brown  as  possible 
where  there  was  a  spare  blade  of  it),  and  the  country 
was  seen  under  every  disadvantage.  We  amused 
ourselves,  however,  pretty  well  on  our  journey,  at 
Loubad,  a  small  town  on  the  other  end  of  the  lake  of 
Apollonia. 

We  on  our  arrival,  as  the  cafe  was  very  bad,  sent  to 
desire  lodgings  at  the  Greek  priest's.  He  excused 
himself,  as  it  was  a  Greek  feast,  and  all  the  villagers 
of  the  country  were  assembled  in  his  house  and  yard ; 
but  of  course  we  desired  to  be  admitted  to  so  gay  a 
party,  and  attended  in  the  evening.  Imagine  to  your- 
self a  large  court  with  sheds  round  it,  men  and  women 
of  all  ages  dressed  as  I  have  already  described  the 
Greek  dress,  sitting  in  circles  cross-legged  under 
these,  eating  and  drinking,  children  in  their  cradles 
swinging,  tied  to  the  beams  of  the  shed;  crazy  bag- 
pipes, flutes,  etc.,  playing  the  most  dismal  Greek  tunes, 
which  are,  I  must  say,  anything  but  music.  Their 
wine  was  better;  so  we  sat  down  cross-legged 
amongst  them,  and  were  very  merry. 

You  will,  of  course,  ask  me  if  the  praises  travellers 


1794]       BEAUTY   OF  THE   PEASANT  WOMEN          109 

generally  favour  Greek  beauties  with   are  deserved. 
Indeed  they  are;  and  if  you  had  been  present  with  us 
you  would,  I  think,  have  allowed  that  the  faces  of  our 
village   belles  exceeded  by  far  any  collection  in  any 
ball-room  you  had  ever  seen.    They  have  all  good 
eyes  and    teeth,    but    their  chief   beauty  is  that  of 
countenance.     Of  this  you  really  cannot  have  an  idea. 
It  is  an  expression  of  sweetness  and  of  intelligence 
that  I  hardly  ever  saw,  and  varies  with  a  delicacy  and 
quickness  that  no  painter  can  give.    I  am  sure,  to  have 
an  idea  of  a  countenance  being  thoroughly  lighted  up, 
you  ought  to  have  seen  them ;   and  this  beauty  ex- 
tended itself  through  almost  all  the  party.      Besides 
this,  their  appearance  in  their  elegant  dress  did  not 
give  us  the  least  idea  of  peasants,  and,  joined  to  the 
gracefulness  of  their  attitudes  and  manners,  we  began 
to  think  ourselves  among  gentlewomen   in  disguise. 
The  married  women  as  a  distinguishing  mask  wear 
veils  (turned  back,  that  is  to  say).    The  girls  have  a 
still  more  curious  custom  :  amongst  the  tresses  of  their 
hair  they  string  long  chains   of  a  small   silver  coin 
about  the  size  of  a  silver  penny.     They  marry  ex- 
tremely early,  and  with  good  reason,  if  the  men  have  any 
eyes,  as  a  woman  of  twenty-four  or  twenty-five  begins 
here  to  grow  old.    The  men,  too,  have  a  custom  which, 
I  believe,  is  very  ancient :  those  who  are   betrothed 
wear  a  wreath  of  flowers  on  their  head.     Of  these, 
there  were  several  who  were  very  busy  in  showing  us 
their  brides  and  hearing  how  much  we  admired  them. 
That  you  may  trace  us  in  your  maps,  we  went  from 
thence  to  Jelembeh,  and  then  to  Magnisa,  the  ancient 
Magnesia,  near  Mount  Sipylus.     It  is  situated  just  like 
Brusa,  but  the  town  is  not  so  handsome  or  the  plain 
so  rich.     The  Sipylus,  though  less,  is  steeper  than  the 
Olympus,  and  the   part   beyond  the  town  is  a  per- 
pendicular and  high  crag,  too  steep  for  trees  or  foliage. 
The  plain  before  it  is  large,  and  famous  for  the  victory 
over  Antiochus,  by  which  L.  Scipio  got  the  surname 
of  Asiaticus.      Mount  Tmolus  and  Sardis,  the  capital 


no      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR    AND  SAMOS    [CH.  v 

of  Lydia,  and  the  residence  of  Croesus,  with  the 
Pactolus,  are  in  sight,  though  at  considerable  dis- 
tance. The  Hermus,  which  poets  tell  us  was  so 
famous  for  its  golden  sands,  runs  also  by  Magnisa.  It 
is  a  dirty,  muddy  river,  and  has  not  one  claim  to  atten- 
tion but  what  its  gold  has  bought — comme  tant  d'autres, 
but  I  hoped  ancient  Greeks  had  not  been  so  venal.  I 
need  not  add  that  Sipylus  was  the  country  of  Tantalus 
and  Niobe.  Of  the  phenomenon  Chandler  speaks  of 
we,  however,  saw  nothing.  There  are  no  remains  at 
Magnisa  but  an  old  Seraglio,  now  nearly  ruined,  and 
the  Genoese  fortress.  The  next  day  we  crossed  a 
very  wild  range  of  Mount  Sipylus  to  the  plain  of 
Smyrna.  We  have  stayed  here  about  a  week,  and 
received  many  hospitalities  from  the  English  settled 
here. 

Chandler  gives  a  very  minute  account  of  Smyrna 
and  the  remains  there.  What  little  there  still  existed 
of  antiquity  is  almost  destroyed  now,  but  we  were 
delighted  with  the  Meles,  Homer's  favourite  stream. 
It  winds  along  in  a  deep  and  narrow  valley,  and  is  a 
clear,  pretty  rivulet.  Its  bed  is  overgrown  with 
bushes  and  flowering  shrubs,  and  over  it  are  two 
ruined  aqueducts.  When  down  at  the  side  of  the 
stream  the  confined  scene  round  is  as  pretty  as 
possible,  and  might  assist  Homer  in  his  meditations  as 
much  as  any  place  I  know.  We  walked  along  it  and 
had  views  taken  of  its  whole  course.  Indeed,  I  agree 
with  you  so  much  in  your  idea  of  having  views  of  the 
country  as  well  as  of  the  buildings,  that  I  have  mul- 
tiplied sketches  of  almost  every  pretty  spot  in  it.  I 
own  I  always  expected  more  pleasure  from  a  country 
than  from  the  ancient  buildings  in  their  present  ruined 
state,  and  when  an  author  gives  me  a  long  account  of 
old  stones  and  rubbish  without  containing  one  remark 
on  a  country  interesting  on  account  of  great  actions, 
and  the  birthplace  of  the  first  men  of  the  world,  I 
think  him  perhaps  a  good  antiquarian,  but  certainly 
not  a  classical  traveller,  My  letter  to  my  aunt  F.  will 


1794]  VISIT  TO   EPHESUS  in 

tell  you  our  plans,  and  future  direction  ;  we  mean  to 
winter  at  Athens.     Do  not  you  long  to  be  with  us  ? 
Your  affectionate  brother, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


T/iursday,  October  II,  1794. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

Guess  a  hundred  times,  and  you  will  never 
imagine  from  whence  I  write  to  you — so  I  must  tell 
you.  I  am  in  a  large  cave  by  the  sea-shore  at  the  foot 
of  Mount  Mycale.  The  sea,  which  washes  to  the 
mouth  of  it,  is  at  present  flying  with  a  thunderstorm, 
which  has  prevented  our  setting  sail,  as  we  intended, 
for  Samos.  At  the  mouth  of  our  cave  is  a  small  creek, 
in  which  is  anchored  the  open  boat  we  meant  to  go  in. 
We  have  now  made  a  considerable  tour  from  Smyrna, 
and  are  on  our  return  through  the  islands  of  Samos 
and  Scio.  Our  first  expedition  was  to  Ephesus.  The 
country  as  far  as  there  is  not  interesting.  The  ridges 
of  Mount  Coressus  are  high,  and  covered  with  low 
shrubs,  the  effect  of  them  not  striking  except  by  the 
morning  and  evening  skies,  of  which,  in  this  country, 
the  lights  are  surprising.  The  plain  beyond  which 
Ephesus  stands  is  washed  and  has  been  formed  by 
the  Cayster ;  it  is  flat  and  morassy,  and  the  river 
winds  along  it  like  the  Maeander,  making  a  thousand 
windings  along  the  whole  plain.  This  river,  as  well 
as  the  Maeander,  too,  was  famous,  you  know,  for  its 
vocal  swans.  Of  these  I  can't  say  we  saw  any,  but 
after  passing  it  can  answer  at  Aiasaluk  for  a  most 
excellent  goose  or  two,  which  were  devoured  with  no 
small  satisfaction.  Such  is  the  difference  between 
poetry  and  matter  of  fact. 

You  will  see  a  long  and  accurate  account  in  Chandler 
of  this  place  and  of  Ephesus,  so  I  will  only  mention 
what  I  think  he  omits  and  tell  you  that  we  stayed  here 
two  days  examining  the  ruins,  which  are  very  exten- 
sive, and  making  unsuccessful  attempts  to  bribe  the 
Aga  and  persuade  him  to  let  us  bring  off  the  beautiful 


ii2      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR   AND   SAMOS    [CH.  v 

alto-rilievo  Chandler  mentions  over  the  gate  at  Aiasa- 
luck.  In  the  ruins  of  Ephesus  the  architecture  is 
completely  destroyed  and  on  the  ground  ;  the  remains 
as  they  lie  are  some  of  them,  however,  magnificent, 
especially  the  large  fluted  columns  Chandler  supposes 
those  of  a  temple  built  by  Augustus.  The  Corinthian 
friezes  and  capitals  that  are  scattered  near  are  of 
the  finest  workmanship  and  most  elegant  design.  We 
thought,  too,  that  we  discovered  evident  traces  of  two 
temples,  one  opposite  the  stadium,  the  other  small  and 
behind  the  town  on  a  hill,  which  are  not  noticed  by 
Chandler.  The  bases  of  the  columns  remain  very 
evident,  and  the  line  of  them  is  traceable.  There  are 
scattered  in  the  same  place  capitals  which  show  they 
were  Corinthian,  and  of  the  largest  remains  still  a 
great  line  of  frieze,  and  cornice  beautifully  ornamented. 
These  I  measured,  and  have  got  the  drawings  of. 

The  gymnasium  which  he  speaks  of,  behind  the 
town,  we  had  heard,  and  have  found  every  reason  to 
believe,  was  really  the  famous  temple  of  Diana.  There 
are  many  strong  proofs,  I  think,  of  this ;  its  size, 
situation  with  respect  to  the  marble  quarries,  the 
marshiness  of  the  place,  every  part  of  its  character 
agrees  with  it.  The  ruins  are  immense,  and  the  build- 
ing has  stood  on  a  great  extent  of  ground.  I  was  also 
convinced  that  the  sea  had  in  former  times  come 
entirely  round  the  mountain  to  the  temple,  for  it  stood 
at  the  head  of  the  sacred  port,  which  Chandler  himself 
mentions  from  Strabo  as  distinct  from  the  city  port, 
and  the  whole  plain  on  this  side  is  a  low  morass  over- 
grown with  reeds. 

The  Cayster  is  mentioned  by  authors  as  remarkable 
for  forming  new  land  at  its  mouth,  and  not  unde- 
servedly, for  Ephesus,  which  was  on  the  shore,  is  now 
full  three  miles  from  it.  The  buildings,  too,  on  this 
side  of  the  hill  are  remarkably  in  favour  of  the  idea, 
having  been  built  with  high  vaults  and  a  narrow 
terrace  that  is  walled  strongly  in  front,  and  exactly 
resembles  a  staith  or  small  quay  to  land  goods.  The 


1794]  PRIENE  AND   LATMOS  113 

very  streets  are  still  traceable.  The  building  we  sup- 
pose the  temple  still  bears  the  very  remarkable  name 
of  Kislar  Serai,  the  Palace  of  the  Virgins. 

The  country  beyond  Ephesus  is  fine,  especially  when 
we  came  to  the  banks  of  the  sea,  with  views  of  Samos, 
a  high,  black,  mountainous  island,  separated  from  the 
grand,  rocky  range  of  Mycale  by  the  narrow  strait  of 
three-quarters  of  a  mile,  so  famous  for  the  last  great 
triumph  of  Grecian  liberty.  The  south  side  of  Mycale, 
which  we  afterwards  rode  along,  is  bold,  high,  and 
craggy.  Round  its  points  we  saw  several  eagles 
skimming  round  in  circles,  and  sometimes  sitting  on 
its  crags  and  screaming,  which  gave  what  Mr.  Gilpin 
would  call  infinite  character  to  the  scene.  In  the  large 
plain  on  the  left  we  had  the  Maeander ;  it  resembles 
that  of  the  Cayster,  but  is  much  larger,  and,  like  it  too, 
has  been  formed  by  the  river.  Priene,  once  a  seaport, 
is  now  four  or  five  miles  from  the  shore,  and  Myus 
still  further. 

The  ruins  of  the  temple  at  Priene  are  a  great  and 
splendid  heap  of  architectural  fragments,  all  on  the 
ground ;  the  blocks  of  marble  are  immense,  and  the 
worked  stones  very  elegant.  The  walls  under  it,  of 
which  part  remain,  and  those  of  the  city,  which  do  not 
seem  likely  to  fall,  gave  us  the  highest  idea  of  the 
ancient  skill  in  masonry.  After  looking  at  the  ruins, 
talking  over  Bias  and  old  stories,  we  turned  across  the 
plain  to  the  Maeander.  The  sun  was  now  setting,  the 
sky  in  a  glow  with  its  rays,  and  the  islands  and  moun- 
tains round  us  glorious.  Opposite  us  was  the  woody 
ridges  and  summits  of  Latmos,  and  more  to  the  left  a 
high,  conical  mountain  whose  outline  was  everywhere 
broken  with  crags  and  glittering  in  the  parting  lights 
of  the  sun.  The  moon  over  it  grew  brighter  as  the 
sun  set,  and  when  the  evening  came  on — in  memory,  I 
suppose,  of  Endymion — did  the  honours  of  Mount 
Latmos  gloriously. 

We  at  last  ferried  over  the  Maeander  to  the  ruins  of 
Miletus  here.  There  is  only  a  Turkish  hut  or  two, 


ii4      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR   AND   SAMOS    [CH.  v 

already  full  of  their  own  inhabitants,  not  counting 
fleas,  bugs,  etc.,  so  we  made  our  beds  under  a  tree  and 
slept  in  open  air,  though  now  in  October.  I  despair 
of  giving  you  an  idea  of  this  climate.  Its  mildness 
and  the  beauty  of  its  mornings  and  evenings  exceed 
what  I  could  have  conceived.  Barthelemy  in  "  Anach- 
arsis  "  makes  his  hero  speak  of  himself  as  "  assis  sur 
les  bords  du  Meandre,  ne  pouvant  se  rassasier  ni  de 
cet  air  ni  de  cette  lumiere  dont  la  douceur  egale  la 
purite."  It  cannot  be  more  spiritedly  or  more  justly 
described.  The  theatre  at  Miletus  still  remains  pretty 
perfect — that  is  to  say,  the  shape  of  it  in  the  side  of  the 
hill,  one  or  two  of  the  marble  seats,  and  the  entrance  ; 
the  communications  with  the  seats  and  the  upper 
passages,  though  a  good  deal  filled  with  dirt,  are  very 
tolerably  perfect. 

Among  the  ruins  are  several  Turkish  ones,  and  two 
palm  trees,  the  only  ones  we  have  seen,  which  looked 
very  oriental.  We  went  on  southward  over  Mount 
Latmos,  which,  being  a  charming  hill  for  hunting,  was 
chosen  by  Endymion  for  the  scene  of  his  amusements, 
and  where  he  fell  asleep  for  Diana's.  In  four  hours 
we  came  to  a  poor  village,  with  ruins  of  the  famous 
temple  of  Apollo  at  Branchidae.  Three  columns  are 
standing,  two  still  support  the  architrave  and  frieze. 
They  are  about  forty  feet  high,  fluted,  and  of  the  most 
beautiful  Ionic  proportions.  The  area  of  the  temple 
has  been  immense,  and  from  two  points  of  the  rising- 
ground  it  stands  upon  the  sea  opens.  A  setting  sun, 
when  we  saw  it,  shone  full  on  the  temple  ;  beyond,  the 
sea  was  as  smooth  as  a  mirror,  and  the  eye  wandered 
over  the  neighbouring  islands,  or  fancied  distant  ones. 
Samos,  Icaria,  Patmos,  Leros,  Calymna,  and  some 
smaller  islands  near  us,  were  all  scattered  over  it,  and 
you  can  hardly  conceive  a  more  delicious  scene.  The 
moon  at  night,  and  the  sun  at  daybreak  the  day  after, 
showed  it  off  still  more,  in  new  lights  and  equal 
beauty. 

We  attempted  to  sleep  in  a  miserable  mud  cottage, 


1794]          THUNDERSTORM   OVER   MYCALE  115 

but  before  midnight  turned  out  with  a  legion  of  fleas 
and  vermin  and  again  took  our  station  in  open  air, 
where  we  should  have  managed  very  well  if  we  could 
have  left  all  our  fleas  behind.  Yesterday  we  returned 
in  hopes  of  getting  here  time  enough  to  sail  for  Samos. 
We  had  been  on  the  point  of  embarking  before,  where 
the  passage  was  longer  ;  we  thank  our  stars  some  acci- 
dent made  us  ride  forwards,  because  the  boat  could  not 
very  well  get  to  shore,  and  we  did  not  like  being  carried 
to  it,  I  believe,  and  a  man  happened  to  say  the  wind 
was  rather  against  us.  We  crossed  the  plain  of  the 
Maeander,  when  the  wind  rose  to  a  storm  you  can 
scarce  conceive.  The  clouds  gathered  over  Mount 
Mycale,  along  which  they  swept,  casting  a  shade  like 
night ;  the  promontories  out  at  sea  and  the  whole  sky 
in  that  part  were  as  black  as  ink.  It  was  worth  being 
wet  through  to  see  the  scene.  The  effect  of  Mount 
Mycale's  summits  and  promontories  as  the  cloud 
advanced  was  inconceivably  grand.  At  last  it  burst 
over  us  in  such  a  storm  of  thunder  and  lightning  as  I 
never  in  my  life  witnessed.  The  sea  flew  on  one  side 
of  us,  the  thunder  roared  like  a  cannonade,  almost 
deafening  us  with  the  sound  among  the  tops  of  the 
mountain.  The  lightning  was  forked  and  continual, 
often  followed  immediately  by  the  thunder. 

Suppose  every  effect  you  can,  you  will  never  imagine 
a  sublimer  scene.  We  were  very  wet,  and  took  refuge 
in  a  Greek  village ;  the  storm  lasted  above  five  hours. 
Thunder  in  England  is  a  perfect  popgun  to  it.  We 
were  very  glad  of  our  lucky  escape,  for  had  we  put 
to  sea  there  is  no  doubt  you  would  have  read  that 
disagreeable  paragraph  Abney  talks  of,  as  how  Mr. 
Morritt,  a  most  amiable  and  accomplished  youth,  had 
with  such  and  such  companions  been  most  classically 
shipwrecked  and  drowned  off  Mount  Mycale.  No  open 
boat  could  have  stood  it.  This  morning  we  rode 
*  here  where  the  boat  is  lying — being  detained,  have 
cooked  some  fish  and  our  dinner  in  the  cave  whilst 
I  am  writing,  my  draughtsman  taking  views  of  and 


n6      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR   AND  SAMOS    [CH.  v 

from  the  cave,  and  the  weather  is  cleared  up.  So  now 
we  have  only  to  dine,  and  are  within  about  an  hour's 
sail  of  Samos,  where  we  shall  sleep  to-night.  Adieu 
till  then. 

I  thought  I  had  taken  my  leave  of  you,  but  it  is 
now  night,  and  the  scene  is  still  the  cave.  After  we 
had,  dined  and  dismissed  our  horses,  the  Greeks  here 
very  honestly  asked  an  enormous  price  for  the  boat, 
and  1  believe,  having  something  of  their  own  to  do,  as 
honestly  refused  to  set  sail  till  morning.  Being  in  a 
pet  is  of  no  avail,  so  here  we  are  till  three  or  four 
o'clock,  for  we  are  grown,  by  miracle,  very  early 
risers.  How  you  would  laugh  at  us  if  you  saw  us, 
or  perhaps  be  tender-hearted  enough  to  pity  us,  which 
we  don't  deserve,  for  we  shall  do  very  well.  I  am 
writing  in  one  corner  by  the  light  of  a  lanthorn,  on 
my  English  writing-desk ;  Stockdale  and  the  rest,  laid 
down  on  our  mattresses,  in  another ;  a  fire  in  another 
part,  with  a  collection  of  Greeks  and  our  janissary 
smoking  round  it ;  saddles,  heaps  of  cotton,  corn,  etc., 
to  be  shipped  the  first  opportunity :  so  that  it  is  not  at 
all  a  bad  representation  of  Gil  Bias'  cave,  and  1  believe 
we  are  not  in  much  better  company.  The  moon  has 
risen,  and  shines  beautifully  at  the  mouth  of  it,  and  the 
scene  round  us  is  romantic  to  a  degree.  After  what  we 
have  already  gone  through,  all  difficulties  vanish,  and 
I  shall  soon  be  as  sound  asleep  as  you  will  in  your 
beds  at  Rokeby. 

You  see  I  am  not  tired  of  my  tour ;  a  more  satisfac- 
tory one  you  cannot  conceive.  Every  hill  I  see  here  is 
interesting,  and  seems  an  old  friend  after  what  one 
has  read  about  them;  I  am  more  mad  about  Greece 
than  ever,  and  look  forward  to  the  time,  when  I  shall 
make  the  whole  family  as  mad  as  myself  by  bringing 
drawings  of  every  hill  and  dale  in  the  country.  Except 
when  on  horseback  I  am  reading  or  writing  all  day 
long,  and  only  regret  the  not  receiving  Burgh's  notes, 
which  will  certainly  be  written  in  vain  ;  pray  beg  him 


i794]  THE   ISLAND   OF  SAMOS  117 

to  direct  them  to  Zante,  and  if  I  receive  them  at 
Athens  they  may  still  be  of  some  use,  as  I  shall  from 
thence  make  a  long  tour  to  the  islands  and  Morea. 

I  left  off  here  to  write  doggerel  to  Anne,  and  am 
now  continuing  my  letter  from  Samos. 

We  sailed  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  from  the  cave, 
crossed  the  straits  between  Samos  and  the  Continent, 
which  in  its  narrowest  part,  more  to  the  north,  is  not  a 
mile  over.  We  were  three  hours  crossing  in  this  part 
below  the  island,  and  anchored  in  the  Bay  of  Tigagna, 
once  that  of  Samos.  The  morning  was  again,  as  usual, 
beautiful.  We  took  up  our  quarters  at  Cora,  a  Greek 
village  about  a  mile  from  the  shore,  from  which  I  am 
writing.  You  would  have  laughed  heartily  if  you  had 
seen  our  party  yesterday  setting  out  to  visit  the 
temple  of  Juno  and  ruins  of  Samos.  There  are  no 
horses  in  the  village,  and  we  were  mounted  on  mules. 
The  Greeks,  almost  as  obstinate  as  their  beasts,  would 
hardly  be  persuaded  to  let  us  saddle  or  bridle  them, 
and  indeed  the  animals  seemed  much  more  used  to  a 
bare  back  and  a  halter.  When,  with  much  driving 
behind  and  leading  before,  we  contrived  to  get  them 
out  into  the  fields  they  took  so  many  side-steps,  chose 
so  many  roads  in  preference  to  the  right  one,  and  often 
entered  such  strong  protests  against  going  forward  at 
all,  that  we  must  have  been  an  excellent  spectacle  to 
a  bystander.  I  was  glad  to  hear,  from  Wh — 's  con- 
duct, that  Mr.  Pitt  managed  his  mules  better,  and  can 
only  regret  that  my  stick  could  not  produce  so  great 
an  effect  as  the  Secret  Committee.1 

We  got  at  last  to  the  remains  of  the  famous  temple  of 
Juno,  near  a  small  village  called  Myles.  The  stream 

1  The  Committee  of  Secrecy  was  appointed  by  the  House  of  Commons,  in 
the  summer  of  1794,  to  examine  the  papers  and  books  of  two  revolutionary 
societies.  The  result  of  its  reports  was  that  Pitt  brought  in  a  bill  for  the 
suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act.  It  was  strongly  opposed  by  Fox's 
party,  which  included  Whitbread ;  but  was  passed  by  a.  large  majority.  The 
Government  prosecutions  for  treason  which  followed  later  in  the  year,  and  after 
the  date  of  this  letter,  ended  in  an  acquittal. 

9 


ii8      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR   AND   SAMOS    [CH.  v 

of  the  Imbrasus  runs  near,  and  the  temple  is  not  far 
from  the  sea-shore.  There  is  only  standing  one  column 
of  white  marble.  Its  diameter  is  not  less  than  six 
feet,  without  a  capital,  and  about  thirty  feet  in  height ; 
the  base  is  buried  in  the  ground  almost,  and  the 
capital,  which  has  been  thrown  off,  lies  not  far  from  it. 
It  stands  on  a  large,  irregular  oblong  space  that  seems 
raised  above  the  rest  of  the  plain  by  the  ruins  of  the 
fallen  temple,  now  covered  with  earth  and  overgrown. 
This  temple  was  in  Herodotus's  time  the  largest  of  all 
antiquity.  Traditionally  it  was  first  built  before  the 
Trojan  war ;  and  afterwards,  when  architecture  was  in 
a  very  early  state,  it  seems  to  have  been  the  first 
improvement  after  the  Doric  and  before  the  Ionic  was 
brought  to  perfection,  as  it  is  different  from  any  I 
ever  saw;  so,  as  Master  Jacky  Curious  says  in  his 
elaborate  work,  that  you  may  judge  for  yourself,  see, 
here  it  is. 

We  next  persuaded  our  mules,  with  much  difficulty 
and  various  modes  of  argument,  to  proceed  round  the 
end  of  the  bay  to  the  ruins  of  Samos.  In  these  we  were 
disappointed,  as  nothing  is  standing  or  hardly  trace- 
able. It  stood  along  the  shore  and  the  side  of  a  steep 
hill  that  rises  at  some  distance  from  it.  There  remain 
some  pieces  of  strong  wall  that  seem  to  have  belonged 
to  a  considerable  building.  The  foundations  of  the 
city  wall  and  an  old  tower  run  up  the  side  of  the  hill ; 
we  could  also  make  out  the  stadium,  the  arcade  under- 
ground that  formed  the  slope  for  the  seats,  and  the 
communication  with  them.  It  seems  to  have  no  range 
of  seats  on  the  side  towards  the  sea  to  which  it  runs 
parallel.  We  saw  no  other  remains,  though  Tourne- 
forte  mentions  the  theatre.  We  afterwards  walked  to 
the  top  of  the  hill  to  a  small  Chapel  of  the  Virgin, 
where  there  is  a  deep  cave,  at  the  end  of  which  are  two 
cisterns  full  of  cold  water  from  the  rock,  great  objects 
of  veneration  to  the  Greeks,  who  are  extremely  super- 
stitious now,  and  attribute  to  these  fountains  a  thous- 
and curious  properties.  We  found  in  the  chapel,  and 


1794]  POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  119 

copied  down,  some  ancient  Greek  inscriptions,  which 
repaid  our  trouble  better  than  the  cave  and  fountain. 
We  returned  to  our  chateau  at  Cora,  which  is  a 
Greek  house  of  which  the  master  has  turned  out  for 
us.  This  morning  some  great  Turks  coming  here 
seized  all  the  mules  in  the  village,  and  the  wind  being 
northerly  makes  it  impossible  to  sail  up  the  straits,  so 
here  we  are  for  another  day.  I  am  the  more  sorry  for 
it  as,  having  seen  all  there  is  to  see,  1  have  nothing  to 
do ;  a  great  grievance  when  you  have  been  used  to 
doing  a  great  deal,  as  we  have  for  some  time  past. 

All  my  letters  from  England,  as  well  as  some  of  yours, 
are  so  full  of  politics  I  am  tempted  to  rejoice  with  you 
that  I  am  not  there,  beset  as  you  say  by  party  people. 
I  think  a  man  at  my  age  had  better  be  making  observa- 
tions, to  form  his  opinions  upon  them,  than  acting 
strongly  on  what  he  can't  be  master  of.  Everything 
to  me  seems  in  these  times  to  run  so  much  in  extremes, 
that  an  acting  man,  especially  if  a  young  man,  would 
not  find  it  easy  to  preserve  his  character  as  a  moderate 
one,  the  only  honest  one  anywhere. 

The  present  crisis  over,  the  question  will  no  longer 
be  agitated  between  riot  on  the  one  side  and  aris- 
tocratism  on  the  other,  as  it  now  is  universally.  The 
war  will  perhaps  be  over,  in  which  I  am  convinced  we 
are  defending  ourselves  against  cut-throats,  and  are 
allied  with  pickpockets.  The  French  have  knocked 
up  the  name  and  idea  of  liberty  so  effectually  that  my 
only  hopes  are  to  see  her  rise  from  her  ashes  in 
Poland.  They  had  been  successful,  by  our  last  news.1 
You  asked  me  once  (or  my  sister,  perhaps)  if  I  did 
not  think  they  were  growing  democrat,  a  la  Fran$aise. 
I  firmly  believe,  to  tell  you  the  truth,  that  their  being 
so  (though  with  them  that  was  pardonable)  was  so  far 
from  the  truth  that  it  was  completely  an  aspersion 
invented  by  their  enemies  effectually  to  overthrow 
*  their  cause.  A  more  artful  or  a  more  wicked  lie  never 
came,  I  believe,  from  the  head  of  an  aristocrat,  which 

1  See  above,  p.  21. 


i2o      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR   AND   SAMOS   [CH.  v 

is  saying  as  much  as  I  can  say ;  I  only  hope  that  they 
will  continue  as  they  began,  and  not  relinquish  their 
first  principles  as  the  French  did,  that  there  may  be 
at  least  one  nation  you  may  wish  well  to,  without 
disgust  at  their  conduct.  I  assure  you,  however,  my 
opinion  of  the  French  or  the  Poles  may  alter,  as  it  has 
done  with  the  first ;  my  opinion  of  their  opponents 
on  the  Continent  never  will.  That  England  may  get 
well  rid  both  of  her  allies  and  her  enemies  is  my 
prayer.  En  attendant,  till  things  go  quieter  on  one 
side,  and  more  honestly  on  the  other,  John  Bull  is  but 
ill  off.  I  think  I  shall  contrive,  by  what  I  see  and 
hear,  to  hate  both  sides.  So  much  so  that  I  shall 
return  as  English  as  I  set  out ;  that  I  may  is  the 
sincere  wish  of  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 
CORA, 
October  IO,  1794. 


Thursday,  October  n,  1794. 

Scene — A  CAVE  IN  MOUNT  MYCALE 

NONSENSE  and  another  friend  of  yours  writing  this  stuff 
in  a  corner,  by  a  lanthorn;  other  folks,  both  TURKS 
and  CHRISTIANS,  asleep  round  them. 

INDEED,  dear  Anne,  though  strange  'tis  true, 
Lately  my  Muse  has  grown  a  slattern  ; 
She  never  writes  heroics  now, 
So  take  this  nonsense  as  a  pattern. 

A  Muse !  you  cry.    Can  she  be  such, 
Who  dogg'rel  stuff  in  rhyme  rehearses? 
Indeed  she  is,  and  just  as  much 
As  when  she  wrote  sublimer  verses. 

So,  when  a  girl  in  beauty's  bloom 
Has  graced  a  Duke's  connubial  clutches, 
Grown  old,  and  married  to  the  groom, 
Her  Grace  is  still  my  Lady  Duchess. 


1794]  A  LETTER   IN  VERSE  121 

Her  titles  proved,  she  now  goes  on, 
Though,  faith,  with  little  more  to  say 
Than  what  by  you  has  long  been  known, 
And  felt  by  me  before  to-day. 

To  wit — that  wheresoe'er  I  wander, 
Whether  I'm  with  you  or  without  you, 
Whether  by  Greta  or  Maeander, 
I  talk,  and  write,  and  think  about  you. 

A  party  round  me  jabbering  Greek 
Might  interrupt  a  nicer  bard  ; 
Stockdale's  asleep — I  cannot  speak  : 
To  tie  my  fingers  would  be  hard. 

Then  say,  dear  Anne,  in  such  a  case, 
If  I  can  scrawl  a  foolish  letter, 
Could  any  mortal  in  my  place 
Employ  a  tiresome  evening  better  ? 

One  letter  finished,  to  my  mother, 
Has  told  you  all,  I  think,  in  prose  ; 
And  now  that  I've  begun  another 
How  'twill  be  filled  no  mortal  knows. 

Yet  'tis  a  secret  in  our  trade, 
Whenever  Sense  is  at  a  stand, 
To  call  in  Nonsense  to  our  aid, 
And  always  find  her  near  at  hand. 

Come  then,  dear  Folly,  here  descend, 
To  eke  out  dogg'rel  rhymes  so  clever ; 
I'm  sure  I  send  them  to  a  friend 
Who  loves  us  both  as  well  as  ever. 

By  you  supported  I  have  run, 
Fearless  of  Bugaboos  and  frights  ; 
Have  often  had  a  world  of  fun, 
And  seen  a  thousand  curious  sights. 


122      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR   AND   SAMOS    [CH.  v 

The  tour  to  Greece  so  very  dreadful, 
It  even  made  my  Colonel  tremble, 
When  once  of  you  I  had  a  head  full, 
Was  nothing  to  a  man  so  nimble. 

Militia  captains  all  the  war 
Convinced  me  danger  was  a  sham  ; 
With  you,  dear  nymph,  I  laughed  at  fear, 
So  off  I  came,  and  here  I  am. 

Then  till  we're  tired  of  one  another, 
Folly,  we'll  both  together  trudge  it, 
Make  with  our  tour  a  deal  of  pother, 
And  come  to  England  with  the  Budget. 

There  seated  by  some  Yorkshire  fires, 
We'll  talk  as  every  traveller's  trade  is  ; 
You'll  pass  for  wisdom  with  the  squires, 
And  I  for  learning  with  the  ladies. 

Then  the  adventures  of  our  cave — 
Lord,  how  they'll  make  the  natives  stare ! 
Anne  shall  herself  for  once  look  grave, 
And  think  us  better  where  we  are. 

'Tis  true,  I  own,  we  might  be  better, 
Than  seated  in  this  cave  of  sorrow ; 
Yet  we  can  write  a  nonsense  letter, 
So  hope  for  better  things  to-morrow. 

We  yawn — dear  Folly,  let  us  free  her, 
And  fearing  she  should  do  so  too, 
Remember  we  shall  some  time  see  her, 
So  wisely  drop  the  subject  now. 


VATHI,  SAMOS, 

October  14,  1794. 

The  above,  really  written  entirely  in  an  Asiatic  cave 
under  Mount  Mycale,  show  to  what  a  height  genius 


i794]  A   VENETIAN  CONSUL  123 

may  be  carried  in  any  situation,  however  disagreeable. 
After  having  given  such  a  loose  to  my  imagination, 
I  shall  not  gallop  away  over  any  more  paper  in 
rhyme,  but  condescend  to  write  some  observations 
in  prose. 

I  am  now  in  the  port  of  Vathi,  in  the  island  of 
Samos,  waiting  till  to-morrow  morning  to  cross  again 
into  Asia  Minor.  We  came  here  from  Cora  to-day,  a 
cavalcade  on  mules,  the  most  stupid  and  disagreeable 
devils  that  ever  were  mounted — nous  voila,  however. 
You  will  imagine  how  we  jumped,  just  as  we  arrived, 
on  the  appearance  of  a  Venetian  consul,  who  spoke 
to  us  in  broken  English.  He  has  taken  very  good 
care  of  us  in  procuring  us  a  lodging  for  to-night 
and  a  boat  for  to-morrow,  and  we  have  just  been 
hauling  down  a  Venetian  flag  from  a  staff  on  his 
roof,  and  hoisting  the  Union  Jack,  which  he  had  in 
his  house,  with  three  cheers ;  so  now  the  Greeks 
are  properly  informed  of  our  arrival.  His  wife  we 
found  a  nice  ninny-nonny  hoddy-doddy  old  girl 
about  seventy,  who  was  born  of  English  parents  at 
Smyrna,  and  of  course  held  a  long  prose  with  us 
in  English. 

To  us  who,  thank  Heaven,  are  tolerably  national, 
these  adventures  are  rather  pleasant,  I  assure  you ; 
and  I  think  you  who  have  never  been  out  of  England 
do  not  know  the  beauty  of  the  English  language,  nor 
how  pretty  a  sound  it  has  on  these  occasions.  I  have 
since  been  bargaining  for  some  coins  found  here  with 
a  Greek,  who,  a  V ordinaire,  asked  a  guinea  and  a  half, 
and  took  five  shillings.  I  flatter  myself  I  have  got  a 
bargain,  and  am  extremely  delighted  with  my  wonder- 
ful collection.  I  dare  say  if  anybody  that  knew  anything 
about  the  matter  saw  it,  I  should  find  it  had  as  pretty 
a  set  of  trash  as  a  gentleman  need  have.  I  certainly 
have  some  that  would  admit  of  a  very  learned  dispute 
whether  they  were  the  Jupiter  Tonans  or  the  Venus  of 
Paphos. 


124      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR   AND   SAMOS   [CH.  v 

SEGI  GECK, 

October  1 6. 

From  Vathi  we  set  sail  to  the  ruins  of  Claros,  once 
the  famous  oracle  of  Apollo.  We  arrived  late,  but  in 
time  to  walk  over  the  ruins,  which  are  very  old,  Claros 
having  been  almost  emptied  to  people  Ephesus  so 
early  as  Alexander.  We  discovered  the  cave  of  the 
oracle,  or,  of  course,  supposed  we  did,  but  though 
our  intellects  were  most  delightfully  feasted,  our 
carcases  fared  but  very  ill.  There  is  nothing  here  but 
an  unwholesome,  damp  cave,  to  which  we  preferred 
our  boat. 

As  to  your  own  account  of  your  journey,  you  do  not 
tell  me  anything  of  Fountain's  Abbey,  which  I  have 
never  seen,  and  want  to  hear  something  sensy  about, 
as  all  the  masters  and  misses  I  ever  asked  about  it 
could  tell  me  no  more  than  that,  like  your  walk  of 
onions,  it  was  a  sweet  place.  I  suppose,  by  the 
description  you  give  of  the  Pocklingtonisms  about  it, 
that  the  blue  gates  and  Queen  Elizabeth  maintain  their 
ground  ;  if  they  wish  still  to  keep  up  this  style  of 
beauty,  I  hope  when  Queen  Elizabeth  grows  old  she 
will  be  replaced  by  a  statue  of  Miss  Lawrence  in  her 
black  satin  and  slippers,  which,  besides  being  equally 
Gothic  ornament,  will  have  the  merit  of  being  a 
family  thing.  Apropos  of  Miss  Lawrence  (for  she 
puts  me  in  mind  of  Richmond  Races,  and  they 
of  York),  I  expect  in  your  next  a  full,  true,  and 
particular  account  of  the  latter,  a  list  of  all  the 
horses,  etc.,  and  everything  that  could  put  me  in 
mind  of  England,  and  Yorkshire  in  particular ;  for, 
as  a  native  of  the  county,  I  retain  a  dash  of  vermin, 
you  know,  about  horse-racing,  though  not  so  much  as 
you,  I  do  believe.  In  two  days  from  hence,  I  hope  to 
write  Abney  an  account  of  the  flourishing  state  of  his 
possessions  in  Scio,  where  we  go  next.  As  for  this 
place,  it  was  consecrated  to  Bacchus,  and  the  birth- 
place of  Anacreon ;  would  you  believe  that,  notwith- 


1794]  A   TURKISH   FORTRESS  125 

standing  very  accurate  researches  (made  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  learning,  and  totally  without  ideas  of 
following  Anacreon's  example),  we  have  not  been  able 
to  get  a  drop  of  wine  or  even  brandy  in  the  whole 
place  ?  We  walked,  however,  to  the  ruined  temple  of 
Bacchus,  which  is  still  seen  near  here,  and  I  only  hope, 
like  the  Englishman  who  addressed  Jupiter  in  the 
capitol,  that  if  ever  he  gets  the  better  of  Mahomet 
again,  he'll  remember  we  took  notice  of  him  in  his 
adversity. 

We  have  just  had  a  curious  adventure  with  the 
Turks,  which  I  must  tell  you.  It  is  now  evening  (for 
my  letter  has  been  interrupted  for  a  walk  to  the  ruins 
of  Teos).  This  is  a  small  town,  with  an  old  fortification 
round  it ;  as  the  Turks  have  a  garrison  here  they  keep 
about  as  great  a  fuss  with  it  as  if  it  was  Breda  or  Berg- 
op-Zoom,  and  understand  about  as  much  of  the  matter 
as  little  Robert.  Our  poor  painter,  when  the  gates 
were  locked,  happened  to  be  on  the  wrong  side.  In 
great  dismay  at  finding  himself  shut  out  he  came  to 
the  gate  and  jabbered  German  by  wholesale  ;  we  sent 
to  the  porter,  the  keys  were  carried  to  the  Aga  (the 
Commandant  here) ;  we  applied  to  him,  but  as  he  was 
a  great  officer,  he  would  not  risk  opening  the  gates  to 
the  enemy.  In  vain  we  talked  of  our  firman  from  the 
Porte  ;  there  was  only  one  way  of  opening  the  gate,  a 
bribe,  and  to  this  we  had  some  objections.  To  com- 
plete the  history,  the  poor  fellow  on  the  outside,  in  an 
amazing  fright  about  robbers  if  he  stayed  out,  very 
quietly  finished  the  dispute  by  climbing  over  the  wall 
these  warriors  made  such  a  fuss  about,  and  is  just 
come  in  grinning.  If  the  Turks  find  out  he  is  an 
Austrian,  I  should  not  be  astonished  if  they  took  him 
up  after  this  as  a  spy  of  the  Emperor's.  A  number  of 
them  round  us  are  smoking  their  pipes  and  are  in 
some  amazement  at  seeing  him  here;  I  believe  they 
rather  think,  by  the  potcrooks  I  am  now  making,  that 
I  brought  him  in  by  magic. 

I  hope  by  the  time  this  gets  to  England  you  will  be 


i26      TRAVELS   IN   ASIA   MINOR   AND   SAMOS    [CH.  v 

expecting  at  least  Henry's  return  from  his  Flanders 
campaigns  ;  I  long  almost  as  much  to  hear  his  histories 
as  I  do  to  talk  about  my  own,  which,  for  a  traveller,  is 
saying  a  great  deal.  His  tour  to  the  Continent  will  be 
a  good  deal  shorter  than  mine,  but  the  French  are  not 
such  agreeable  travelling  company  as  Stockdale  and 
Wilbraham ;  so  I  think  the  sooner  he  gets  back  the 
better.  There  are  many  French  at  Smyrna,  settled  as 
merchants,  who  sport  the  cockade,  and  two  frigates  in 
the  harbour,  to  the  no  little  annoyance  of  our  trade  there. 
Why  no  English  ones  are  sent  to  protect  it  when  our 
fleet  is  superior  everywhere  else,  is  one  of  those  secrets 
that  I  believe  nobody  can  understand,  for  no  English 
vessel  can  without  the  greatest  risk  enter  the  harbour. 
The  sailors  in  the  French  vessels  all  wear  the  cockade 
or  bonnet  rouge,  and  amuse  us  with  national  airs  all 
day  long ;  however,  they  are  now  very  orderly  and 
well  behaved  there,  thanks  to  Mr.  Listen,  who  bullied 
the  Turks  till  they  checked  them.  The  English 
vessels  have  twice  or  thrice  lately  escaped  their 
clutches,  and  made  them  quite  outrageous  about  it. 
They  had  about  a  month  ago  received  their  new 
colours,  which  was  some  trifling  alteration  in  the  flag, 
and,  instead  of  cruising,  were  in  harbour  dancing 
round  the  tree  of  liberty  and  celebrating  a  grand 
national  fete.  Just  at  that  moment  arrived  safe  an 
English  merchant  ship  they  had  been  in  quest  of  for  a 
fortnight,  and  dropped  anchor  just  before  them.  So 
much  for  the  news  of  this  quarter  of  the  world.  With 
you,  I  suppose,  frights  and  fears  of  internal  com- 
motions being  over,  an  invasion  is  hourly  expected,  as 
it  was  before,  when  the  French  were  in  Holland.  If 
they  get  to  Richmond  or  Catterick,  1  beg  you  will 
write  me  word  immediately. 

I  now  finish  my  letter  from  Chisme,  a  small  town 
on  the  edge  of  the  sea,  opposite  Scio,  for  which  we 
are  going  to  set  off  immediately  almost.  I  have  been 
riding  this  morning  from  near  Vourla,  and  thinking 
of  you  the  whole  way.  I  felicitated  myself  heartily, 


1794]  CHISME  127 

I  assure  you,  that  Rokeby  was  not  in  the  climate  of 
Asia  ;  we  have  travelled  for  hours  through  lanes  of 
such  beautiful  myrtle  yesterday  and  to-day  that  I  am 
sure  if  they  fell  in  your  way  there  would  not  be  a 
window  in  the  whole  house  without  a  bush  in  it. 
I  shall  to-morrow  write  Abney  a  long  account  of  his 
farm  here,  and  tell  him  how  his  fences  and  game  are 
situated,  whether  he  has  many  vagrants,  and  all 
information  which  one  justice  ought  to  communicate 
to  another  on  these  occasions.  I  fear  his  neighbour- 
hood here  is  almost  as  thin  of  gentlefolks  as  that  of 
Linley  and  Measham ;  however,  there  are  fewer  hare- 
hunting  parsons  and  attorneys,  and  the  shrubbery 
walk  is  much  superior,  so  I  don't  know  whether  I 
shan't  counsel  a  removal.  We  have  for  half  an  hour 
been  making  puns,  and  flatter  ourselves  that  by  good 
pronunciation  it  will  make  no  bad  story  for  Miss  Bering 
that  when  I  was  in  this  part  of  Asia  several  Greek 
ladies  came  over  from  Scio  to  Chisme. 

Yours  very  sincerely  and  affectionately, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

CHISME, 

October  18,  1794. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  TROAD  AND  THE  SITE  OF  THE  HOMERIC  TROY  : 
THE  ISLANDS  OF  CHIOS  AND  LESBOS 

MORRITT  visited  the  Troad  with  a  book  by  Lechevalier 
in  his  hand.  Lechevalier  (called  Chevalier  in  his 
letters)  had  been  secretary  in  the  years  1784-6  to 
Count  Choiseul-Gouffier,  the  French  Ambassador  at 
Constantinople.  His  researches  in  the  Troad  attracted 
much  notice  in  England  as  well  as  on  the  Continent ; 
and  Morritt  adopts  with  enthusiasm  the  theory  that 
the  Homeric  Troy  was  on  the  heights  of  Bali  Dagh, 
near  Bunarbashi.  The  question  had  been  discussed 
at  intervals  for  some  2,000  years.  The  natural  belief 
that  the  Greek  colony  of  Ilium  Novum  stood  on  the 
site  of  the  Homeric  Ilium  had  been  disputed  as  early 
as  200  B.C.,  when  Demetrius  of  Scepsis  argued  that  the 
true  site  was  at  a  place  called  the  "  village  of  the 
Ilians"  further  inland,  from  some  idea,  apparently 
ill-founded,  that  the  sea  had  receded  since  the  Homeric 
age.  This  site  is  in  a  marsh  and  has  little  to  recom- 
mend it,  and  most  writers  of  the  Roman  Empire  and 
afterwards,  until  1784,  reverted  to  the  Ilium  Novum 
(i.e.  the  hill  known  as  Hissarlik)  as  the  true  site. 
Lechevalier's  arguments  for  the  site  near  Bunarbashi 
were  the  commanding  position,  and  the  two  springs, 
hot  and  cold,  mentioned  in  the  Iliad,  which  he  thought 
that  he  had  found  at  that  spot.  His  view  was  almost 
universally  adopted  for  the  next  hundred  years,  so 
that  Morritt  cannot  be  accused  of  hasty  conversion. 
But  since  the  discoveries  from  Schliemann's  famous 
excavations  in  1871-9  at  Hissarlik,  confirmed  as  they 
seem  to  have  been  by  still  more  thorough  investiga- 
tions, especially  those  of  Dorpfeld,  most  scholars  have 
returned  to  the  old  belief  that  the  sites  of  Old  Troy 

128 


1794]  SITE  OF  THE  HOMERIC  TROY  129 

and   New  Troy  were  the  same.     It  must,  of  course, 
be    assumed    that    the    Homeric    descriptions    were 
written  with  accurate  knowledge  of  the  local  features  : 
for  there  is  nothing  to  discuss  if  this  is  not  assumed. 
Objections     may    be    raised    to    either    theory,    and 
advocates  of  each  may   sometimes  have  overstrained 
the  correspondence  in  minute  details  ;  but  the  objec- 
tions to  the  Bunarbashi  site,  which  Morritt  describes, 
are  by  far  the  stronger — for  instance,  its  distance  from 
the  sea-coast ;  nor  has  the  spade  revealed  any  pottery 
or   other   remains   which    would    suit    the    Homeric 
period.     On  the  other  hand,  the  proof  from  the  two 
springs,  on  which  Morritt's  letters  lay  so  much  stress, 
seems  to  be  now  discounted.    Mr.  Leaf,  one  of  the  most 
learned  Homeric  scholars,  who  has  visited  the  Troad 
more  than  once,  writes  in  a  book  on  Troy  published 
in   1912  :  "  It  is    no  longer  possible  to  use  this  as 
evidence  ;  no  such  combination  of  hot  and  cold  springs 
now  exists  in  the  plain.     All  the  sources  have  been 
tested :    some    are    warmer    than    others ;    but    the 
difference  is  in  no  case  great,  and  nowhere  are  two 
springs  of  perceptibly  different  temperature  near  one 
another."     Morritt  himself,  as  will  be  seen,  confesses 
to  being  rather  disappointed  by  the  amount  of  warmth 
in  the  so-called  hot  spring.     It   may  safely  be  said 
that  the  more  recent  and  more  complete  excavations 
and  discoveries  tend  to  confirm  Schliemann's  choice 
of  Hissarlik  ;  but  it  is  never  wise  to  dogmatise  on  any 
antiquarian  subject.   Sir  Richard  Jebb,  in  his  "  Homer," 
written  after  Schliemann's  researches,  still  adhered  to 
Bunarbashi  and    rejected   Hissarlik ;   though   it   may 
perhaps  be  questioned  whether  he  would  have  done 
so  after  the  more  recent  spade-work  of  DOrpfeld  and 
others,  and   with   the  light  which   has  been  thrown 
upon  Homeric  history  and  Homeric  art  not  only  by 
the   discoveries   at    Mycenae   and   Tiryns,   but   more 
especially  by  the  recent   work  of  Sir  Arthur  Evans 
and  others  in  Crete. 


KOUM^KALEH, 

November  12,  1794. 

DEAR  AUNT, 

I  write  to  you  at  last  from  the  heart  of  Homer's 
country,  from  the  shore  of  the  Troad.    The  Simois 


130         THE  SITE  OF  THE   HOMERIC  TROY    [CH.  vi 

runs  across  the  plain  near  us,  and  we  are  surrounded 
with  the  monuments  of  his  heroes.  You  will  imagine 
it,  of  course,  rather  difficult  to  talk  of  anything  else. 
However,  I  have  a  good  deal  of  prose  before  I  get 
so  far,  and  must  give  up  at  least  this  sheet  to  bring  up 
my  account  of  our  tour  so  far.  I  left  off  my  story,  I 
think,  in  the  island  of  Samos.  We  sailed  next  to 
Claros,  now  Zille.  It  is  on  the  sea-shore,  and  was 
famous  for  an  oracle  of  Apollo.  We  landed  in  the 
evening,  and  found  no  reception  but  a  large,  solitary, 
damp  cave,  with  a  spring  in  it.  Not  a  hut  is  now 
standing,  though  the  walls  are  still  traceable,  and 
contain  a  ruined  theatre  scooped  in  the  hill-side, 
which  has  been  built  of  brown  stone ;  many  columns 
of  porphyry,  now  completely  crumbled  away  into 
earth  and  small  stones  by  exposure  to  the  weather; 
and  the  foundations  of  an  immense  temple.  On  a  hill 
near  is  a  fountain  with  marble  steps  into  it,  where 
Chandler  supposes  the  oracle  to  have  been.  I  refer 
you  to  his  account  of  it,  which  is  accurate,  but  I  doubt 
very  much  the  placing  of  the  oracle.  Besides  the 
cave  I  have  already  mentioned,  we  saw  among  the 
ruins  of  this  temple  a  large  subterraneous  hole  of 
which  the  mouth  is  in  the  centre  of  the  foundations 
which  remain.  This  induced  us  to  suppose,  I  think 
with  some  reason,  that  this  temple,  like  that  at 
Delphi,  had  been  built  over  the  oracular  cavern,  and 
there  appear  to  be  subterraneous  communications 
under  the  whole. 

The  situation  has  been  delightful.  It  covered  the 
top  of  a  broad,  flat  promontory  whose  bays  on  each 
side  made  two  secure  ports  ;  high  rocks  lift  it  above 
the  sea,  and  the  little  valley  of  the  Halys,  behind  it,  is 
a  pleasant,  quiet  scene,  well  wooded  and  fertile.  We 
had  the  luck  to  be  here  when  the  sun  was  setting,  and 
enjoyed  it  with  the  addition  of  the  beautiful  forms  of 
this  vast  bay,  bounded  southwards  by  the  cliffs  of 
Mycale  and  Samos,  and  northwards  by  the  peninsula 
opposite  Scio.  I  have  already  mentioned  the  beautiful 


1794]  THE   ISLAND   OF  CHIOS  131 

colours  of  the  evening  here,  and  the  effect  of  them 
over  the  islands  ;  you  really  cannot  conceive  anything 
more  beautiful.  I  told  Anne  in  my  last  letter  the 
accidents  of  our  voyage. 

We  slept  on  the  shore  here,  and  coasted  the  day 
after  by  the  situation  of  Lebedos,  which,  however,  is 
uncertain  as  well  as  that  of  Colophon.  A  calm  drove 
us  again  to  the  necessity  of  sleeping  on  the  shore 
under  some  rocks,  and  the  next  day  we  arrived  at  the 
port  of  Teos.  The  situation  of  Teos  was  on  the 
isthmus  of  a  high  promontory,  in  a  rich  plain  with 
hills  on  each  side  and  the  sea  before  and  behind  it — 
in  front,  to  the  walls  ;  behind,  at  the  distance  of  about 
two  miles,  where  was  the  port,  Gerae,  now  Segi  Geek. 
Chandler  describes  it,  and  so  accurately  that  I  can  add 
nothing  to  his  account  except  that  the  trees  on  it  are 
almost  all  covered  with  a  vine,  which  the  time  of  the 
year  did  not  show  to  him  with  the  same  advantage ; 
but  I  could  not  help  thinking  their  festoons,  loaded 
with  grapes,  a  classical  as  well  as  a  picturesque 
ornament  to  a  ruined  temple  of  Bacchus.  We  then 
crossed  the  passes  of  Mount  Mimus,  of  which  shrubs  are 
the  only  ornament,  to  Chisme,  and  embarked  for  Scio. 

You  will,  I  know,  partake  our  pleasure  when  I  tell 
you  we  here  found  an  English  merchantman  in  the 
harbour,  whose  captain  invited  us  constantly  on  board 
to  treat  us  with  roast  beef,  potatoes,  and  porter,  articles 
all  unknown  to  this  part  of  the  world.  In  Scio  the 
modern  Greeks  are  seen  to  the  best  advantage ;  they 
are  less  molested  by  the  Turks,  enter  much  into  trade, 
and  are  richer,  easier,  and  more  flourishing  than  in 
any  part  of  the  Empire.  The  country  for  some  miles 
from  Scio  is  covered  with  houses,  and  having  been 
built  by  the  Genoese,  they  are  of  stone,  and  much 
superior  to  any  we  had  seen.  They  have  each  a  large 
orangery  behind  them,  so  the  valley  has  the  air  of  a 
k  perfect  garden.  The  mountains,  however,  which  rise 
behind  it  are  barren  and  ugly,  for  the  island,  at  least 
this  side,  is  little  more  than  one  continued  high  range 


i32          THE   SITE  OF  THE   HOMERIC  TROY     [CH.  vi 

of  brown  rock,  on  which  what  little  verdure  it  might 
have  had  was  destroyed  by  the  heat  of  the  weather. 

We  then  sailed  to  Chisme  and  to  Smyrna  by  land. 
As  we  went  exactly  Chandler's  route,  I  refer  you  to 
him,  for  he  is  very  exact,  and  1  shall  fill  my  paper 
better  than  by  telling  you  what  you  know  already. 
What  little  remained  of  Homer's  school  (as  it  is  called) 
in  the  island  of  Scio  is  now  totally  destroyed,  for  the 
goddess  and  her  lions,  which  he  talks  about,  in  the 
centre  is  nothing  more  than  a  bit  of  stone  about  two 
feet  high,  all  broken,  rising  from  a  flat,  square  area, 
into  which  form  the  top  of  a  low  rock  is  chiselled. 
His  living  beauties,  however,  are  not  the  least  im- 
paired, for  we  happened  to  see  all  Scio  walking  on 
the  shore  one  fine  Sunday  evening,  and  a  more  hand- 
some  assemblage   of  girls   I   never  saw  in   my  life. 
Every  young  woman  is  a  beauty ;  but,  in  revenge, 
no  woman  is  young  after  twenty.     I  do  not  know 
whether  you,  however,  would  allow  them  pretty ;  for 
in  spite  of  very  fine  natural  complexions  they  have 
a  rage  for  paint,  still  more  generally  than  with  us 
or  our  mad  neighbours,  for  not  even  a  servant-maid 
stirs  without  it.     Another  oddity  is  their  wearing 
over  their   shoulders  a  coloured    garment    stiffened 
with  wood,  or  bone,  in  the  exact  shape  of  a  bell-hoop ; 
their  arms  come  through  the  pocket-holes,  and  give 
them  very  much  the  air  of  a  turtle  on  its  hind  legs. 
They  are  just  as  "  familiar  "  as  they  were  in  Chandler's 
time,  though,  without    being  very  prudish   or  cen- 
sorious, he  might  have  called  it  by  a  stronger  term. 
However,  notwithstanding  the  oddity  of  their  appear- 
ance, it  is  impossible  not  to  remark  that  they  are  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  sets  of  women  in  the  world,  and 
I  never  saw  a  ball-room  that  compared  with  the  quay 
at  Scio. 

We  only  stayed  a  few  days  at  Smyrna,  and,  having 
bargained  for  horses  to  the  Dardanelles,  sallied  out 
again  with  our  light  troops,  much  of  the  baggage  and 
heavy  armour  being  sent  off  to  wait  our  arrival  at 


i794]  PERGAMUS  133 

Athens.  The  weather  had  now  broken  up,  and  some 
rains  had  made  the  grass  spring,  and  the  weather 
cooler.  You  can't  think  the  relief  it  was  to  us  to  see 
a  grass  field,  for  we  had  not  beheld  such  an  object 
for  months.  It  was  now  quite  a  second  spring,  the 
weather  clear,  open,  and  cool.  In  this  delightful  way 
we  crossed  the  plains  of  the  Hermus  and  Caicus,  at 
the  ends  of  which  the  irregular  and  varied  gulfs  and 
promontories  afforded  us  delightful  sea  views.  Your 
maps  will  show  you  how  uneven  a  coast  Asia  is. 
This,  with  a  western  aspect,  makes  the  evening  scenes 
always  delightful,  and  when  in  almost  every  one  of 
these  bays  we  recollect  the  situation  of  a  Grecian 
colony,  how  much  it  strikes  you  to  pass  through  Ionia 
for  days,  and  scarcely  see  a  few  miserable  villages ! 
North  of  Smyrna,  however,  the  case  is  better.  The 
country  as  far  as  Ida  is  in  the  hands  of  Kara  Osman, 
one  of  the  most  powerful  Agas  of  the  Empire.  His 
possessions  are  hereditary,  and  partly  by  his  own 
sense,  partly  by  that  of  his  ancestors,  he  has  intro- 
duced a  cultivation  and  plenty  throughout  them  very 
different  from  the  southern  part  of  the  country.  He 
has  very  greatly  protected  the  Greeks  and  Franks 
in  this  country,  so  that  everything  is  on  a  better 
footing.  We  remarked  a  number  of  villages  along 
these  valleys,  and  twenty  or  thirty  ploughs  at  work, 
a  sight  we  had  not  seen  for  a  long  time.  At  a  small 
village  in  the  plain  of  the  Caicus  I  found  some  in- 
scriptions, and,  inquiring  where  they  came  from,  we 
were  directed  to  the  shore.  We  here  found  a  few 
architectural  remains,  seemingly  those  of  an  Ionic 
temple,  though  no  foundations  or  appearance  of  a 
town,  and  a  broken  colossal  trunk  that  by  its  pro- 
portions seemed  that  of  a  Hercules. 

We  went  up  the  valley  next  to  Pergamus,  still 
Bergamo.  You  remember  how  famous  this  city  was 
in  the  later  times  of  Greece,  under  the  descendants 
of  Attalus,  and  the  Empire  of  Rome.  All  the  remains 
here  in  any  perfection  are  either  Christian  or  Roman. 

10 


134          THE  SITE  OF  THE   HOMERIC  TROY     [CH.  vi 

The  common  sewers,  through  which  a  small  river  is 
directed,  run  under  the  whole  of  the  town,  and  are 
an  arched  vault  about  thirty  feet  high,  and  near  as 
many  broad.  This  great  and  useful  work  was  a 
favourite  one  with  the  Romans  in  all  their  towns,  and 
was  a  greater  addition  to  their  comfortable  living  than 
the  ornaments  of  their  predecessors.  We  here  saw 
a  large  theatre,  of  which  the  two  side-wings  and  the 
scoop  of  the  hill,  with  arches  at  the  top,  still  remain ; 
these  are  more  or  less  perfect,  but  in  every  town  the 
same.  This  was  built  of  good  solid  brown  stone ;  the 
Grecian  ones  we  had  seen  were  all  of  marble.  There 
are  here  great  ruins  of  the  Church  of  St.  John  the 
Evangelist,  established  in  the  early  ages  of  Christianity. 
It  is  a  large  brick  building  without  a  roof,  stripped 
of  all  its  ornaments  but  a  frieze  from  some  ancient 
building  inserted  in  the  wall.  It  is  bowed  at  the  end 
where  the  shrine  was,  and  on  each  side  of  it  are  two 
detached  rotundas  about  ten  yards  across,  and  thirty 
high,  with  a  cupola  roof.  These  have  probably 
served  as  chapter-houses,  etc.  That  you  may  have 
an  idea  of  the  present  enlightened  state  of  Christianity 
here,  a  Greek  told  me  that  the  church  had  been  built 
above  four  thousand  years ;  and  that  a  small  mosque 
near  it  had  fallen  down  every  time  the  Turks  at- 
tempted to  build  it,  not  the  least  finding  out  that  the 
church  might  have  exerted  its  magic  powers  to  much 
better  purpose  in  keeping  up  its  own  walls  than  in 
destroying  those  of  its  rival.  We  were  here,  too, 
agreeably  surprised  with  many  remains  we  had  not 
heard  of. 

In  a  dale  behind  the  present  town  the  two  hills 
which  form  its  side  are  scooped  out  into  an  amphi- 
theatre, of  which  some  of  the  seats  still  remain.  The 
circle  of  the  amphitheatre  is  continued  round  by  high 
arches,  and  a  strong  wall  of  stone  work  as  high  as 
the  rest  of  the  hill ;  on  the  top  of  these  are  some 
arches  of  an  arcade  that  has  run  all  round  as  com- 
munications for  the  seats,  and  retreat  in  case  of  rain. 


i794]  PERGAMUS  135 

These  are  each  about  thirty  feet  high,  as  1  should 
judge  by  the  eye,  and  are  built,  as  well  as  the  wall, 
in  the  most  solid  manner.  Below  a  stream  of  water 
was  admitted  under  long  vaults,  in  which  we  were 
able  to  remark  the  contrivance  to  stop  the  stream  with 
flood-gates  in  order  to  float  the  amphitheatre  for  the 
amusements  of  the  Naumachia,  or  sham  sea-fights. 
There  are  lesser  arches  to  carry  off  the  water  at  a 
certain  height,  and  the  same  contrivance  to  stop  the 
stream  above  when  they  emptied  and  cleared  the 
theatre. 

Behind  the  town  is  a  very  high,  conical  hill,  on 
which  has  been  the  citadel  and  a  great  part  of  the 
ancient  city.  This,  having  been  since  used  by  the 
Genoese  and  Turks,  is  now  one  hodge-podge  of  fine 
remains  jumbled  pell-mell  into  walls  and  fortifications. 
Of  the  ancient  walls  and  citadels,  a  few  of  the  lower 
courses  of  stone  and  the  foundations  remain,  very 
distinguishable  from  the  buildings  raised  upon  them. 
Amongst  the  numbers  of  foundations,  we  distinguished 
some  of  baths,  and  saw  quantities  of  broken  Doric 
friezes  and  columns  lying  over  the  whole  hill.  A 
causeway  of  ancient  work  remains  in  part  up  to  the 
castle,  and  is  in  many  places  formed  of  rows  of 
ancient  marble  columns  laid  across  and  covered  with 
earth.  Many  of  these  the  whimsical  engineers  that 
placed  them  have  bored  into  cannon,  and  raised  the 
causeway  into  a  battery.  I  should  think,  however, 
if  fired,  they  would  do  much  more  harm  to  their 
neighbours  than  to  the  enemy. 

When  we  left  Bergamo  we  crossed  the  plain  north- 
ward, and  leaving  it,  embarked  for  Lesbos  opposite 
Mitylene.  At  the  little  town  where  we  embarked, 
and  afterwards  in  Lesbos  and  the  Troad,  we  had  an 
opportunity  of  seeing  more  of  the  higher  sort  of 
^Turks,  and  in  a  manner  which,  for  their  honour,  I 
must  mention. 

Being  ill-lodged,  we  sent  our  servant  to  the  Aga, 
or  governor,  desiring  him  to  inform  us  of  a  better 


i36         THE  SITE  OF  THE   HOMERIC  TROY    [CH.  vi 

place.  He  instantly  offered  to  receive  us  in  the  most 
hospitable  manner,  gave  us  a  room,  ordered  us  a 
good  dinner  to  be  dressed  in  his  harem,  provided 
us  by  inquiring  of  our  servants  our  usual  breakfast, 
and  never  thought  of  any  return  but  what,  in  the 
custom  of  the  country,  we  pleased  to  give  his  ser- 
vants. In  Lesbos  we  one  day  sent  to  beg  at  a 
country  house  a  room  to  eat  in ;  we  received  the 
same  civility.  The  dinner  was  immediately  dressed  ; 
the  master  even  had  the  attention  to  send  us  some 
excellent  Cyprus  wine,  and  pressed  us  earnestly  to 
spend  the  evening  and  night  there,  and  to  walk 
about  where  we  pleased.  These  we  thought  singular 
adventures,  but  having  since  repeated  the  experiment 
with  the  same  success,  I  begin  to  think  there  are 
gentlemen  in  all  nations. 

These  Agas  live  very  comfortably.  Their  houses 
are  large,  good,  and  well  adapted  to  the  climate. 
They  are  chiefly  of  wood,  painted,  roofed  like  the 
Chinese,  very  deep,  and  with  large,  open  porticoes, 
sometimes  all  round.  They  have  many  horses,  are 
fond  of  shooting  and  hawking,  and  have  often,  with 
their  agricultural  servants,  not  less  than  three  or  four 
hundred  attendants. 

Before  we  get  to  Lesbos  you  will  ask  me  what  is 
become  of  Cuma,  the  capital  of  ancient  Aeolia.  Its 
situation — and  we  hear  nothing  more  exists — is  a 
small  village  called  Chandilar.  Mitylene  has  scarce 
had  a  better  fate.  Its  two  ports  mentioned  in  Strabo, 
and  the  present  town  of  the  same  name,  convinced 
us  of  its  situation,  but  nothing  remains  of  the  birth- 
place of  Sappho  except  a  few  broken  columns  scat- 
tered in  the  Turkish  burying-grounds  as  gravestones, 
and  the  marks  of  foundations  in  a  hill  near  it.  No 
traces  of  public  buildings  or  temples,  unless  a  hollow 
scoop  in  the  hill,  much  like  a  gravel-pit,  was  the 
theatre,  as  I  imagined  from  its  form  and  situation, 
though  Stockdale  says  he  can  make  out  better  theatres 
near  Acomb. 


1794]  LESBOS  137 

We  crossed  the  island  of  Lesbos  in  hopes  of  finding 
remains  of  its  other  cities.  The  country  on  the  south 
is  one  continued  forest  of  olives,  which  grow  almost 
without  cultivation,  except,  where  the  ground  is  steep, 
keeping  the  earth  with  low  walls  round  the  roots, 
and  which  are  a  great  article  of  trade  to  all  this  part 
of  the  world.  Intermixed  with  other  trees,  the  hills, 
which  are  steep  and  craggy,  have  a  picturesque 
appearance,  and  in  two  places  the  sea,  running  in 
through  narrow  straits,  spreads  like  a  lake  into  an 
immense  and  beautiful  basin,  surrounded  by  these 
hills,  and  perfectly  land-locked.  At  the  head  of  one 
of  these  ports  was  the  ancient  Pyrrha ;  nothing 
remains  of  its  glory  but  some  broken  columns 
and  capitals  in  a  field,  probably  part  of  its  ruins. 
Methymna  is  now  called  Thymnia,  but  I  heard  there 
were  no  traces  of  antiquity.  The  north  of  the  island 
is  a  barren  rock,  and  the  villages  on  it  are  situated  on 
its  crags  in  the  most  fantastic  manner. 

There  is  a  very  ancient  custom  in  Lesbos  still,  which 
derives  from  their  Grecian  ancestors  there,  and  which 
I  tell  you  as  an  advocate  for  petticoat  independence. 
When  any  one  dies,  his  estate  descends  to  his  eldest 
daughter,  a  singularity  which  I  don't  believe  exists  in 
any  other  country  in  the  world. 

On  quitting  Lesbos  we  sailed  to  the  southern  part 
of  Mount  Ida,  and  landed  near  the  village  of  Narla, 
where  our  horses  were  to  meet  us  at  about  three  in 
the  morning,  after  being  becalmed.  We  lay  down 
round  a  fire  of  sticks  on  the  shore  till  they  came,  and 
then  crossed  Ida  to  the  ruins  of  Alexandria  Troas. 
We  were  near  the  situation  of  the  ancient  Gargara, 
and  for  two  days  crossed  one  of  the  most  romantic 
countries  I  ever  saw.  The  southern  branches  of  Ida 
are  beautiful,  rocky  points  and  deep  dells  covered  with 
wood  of  all  sorts,  and  when  you  are  satiated  with 
*them,  uneven  plains  open  out  on  each  side  in  the  most 
agreeable  manner.  I  cannot  give  you  a  better  idea  of 
them,  though  you  will  say  I  am  partial,  than  by  telling 


i38          THE  SITE   OF  THE   HOMERIC   TROY     [CH.  vi 

you  they  put  me  much  in  mind  of  the  country  between 
Richmond  and  Kirby  Hill,  especially  the  look-out  over 
the  plains. 

At  Alexandria  we  found  the  walls  much  more  ruined 
than  Chevalier  represents  them.  There  are  some 
foundations  of  temples,  though  stripped  of  their  orna- 
ments, and  the  ruins  of  a  theatre  and  stadium.  The 
principal  remain,  and  which  he  mentions,  is  a  large 
square  building  of  coarse  granite.  Its  front  consists 
of  three  arches,  the  middle  one  larger  than  the  other 
two  ;  a  low  row  of  arches,  which  on  one  side  are  open, 
run  all  round  the  other  three  sides.  The  front  has 
been  adorned  with  a  fine  cornice  with  ova  and  den- 
telles.  You  will  see  that  Chandler  and  Chevalier  dis- 
agree about  this  building — the  first  calling  it  a  gym- 
nasium, the  other  baths.  It  seems  to  me  very  likely 
that  the  gymnasium  might  contain  baths,  but  I  am  not 
acquainted  enough  with  ruins  to  talk  about  it.  I  can 
only  say  that,  seen  through  the  beautiful  trees  which 
now  cover  the  ground  of  the  city,  it  seemed  as  pic- 
turesque a  ruin  as  I  could  imagine.  I  have  accurate 
drawings  of  both  the  inside  and  the  out. 

We  rode  to  some  warm  baths  near,  though  all  the 
marble  sarcophagi  near  them  mentioned  by  Chevalier 
have  long  been  taken  awa}'  to  adorn  fountains  for  the 
Turks  or  serve  as  cannon-ball  at  the  Dardanelles.  We 
then  rode  towards  Troy,  and  slept  just  by  the  monu- 
ment of  Aesyetes,  in  the  house  of  the  Captain  Pasha, 
which  Chevalier  mentions. 

The  next  day  we  crossed  the  Scamander,  the  Simois, 
and  the  plain  of  Troy  in  a  heavy  shower,  when,  as  I 
saw  nothing,  I  say  nothing  ;  for  we  hurried  to  the  Dar- 
danelles, about  twenty  miles  higher  up  the  Hellespont, 
and  it  rained  the  whole  way.  Yesterday  being  also  a 
disagreeable  day,  we  stayed  there  in  the  house  of  a 
Jew  who  is  English  Consul,  and  only  saw  the  Turkish 
castle,  some  large  cannon,  and  a  manufactory  of  coarse 
earthenware.  There  is  another  castle  opposite,  the 
straits  being  only  about  a  mile  broad.  Above  it  we 


1794]  SITE  OF  THE   GREEK   CAMP  139 

this  morning  perceived  a  small  artificial  barrow, 
exactly  resembling  those  in  the  Troad.  The  cities  of 
Madytus  and  Kcelos  still  exist  above  it  in  the  villages 
of  Maith  and  Kcelia ;  this,  then,  was  the  situation  of 
the  Cynossema,  the  promontory  where  Hecuba  was 
buried.  Surely  this  is  a  strong  corroboration  of  the 
reality  of  the  other  tombs.  You  see  I  am  already 
half  mad,  and  begin  to  conjecture,  but  1  have  not 
been  over  the  Troad  yet,  and  you  will  have  much 
more  to-morrow. 

We  this  morning  ran  up  the  Hellespont  to  discover 
the  situation  of  Abydos.  There  are  no  remains  but 
some  small  pieces  of  old  wall ;  traces  of  regular  slopes 
in  the  hill-side,  and  a  ground  covered  with  stones,  leave 
no  room  to  doubt  of  its  situation.  The  narrowest 
point  where  Xerxes  passed  with  his  army  is  a  little 
higher  up  the  strait.  If  I  had  been  a  Grecian  I  should 
have  looked  for  the  place  where  he  came  back.  This 
was  also  the  place,  you  know,  so  famous  for  the  pretty 
story  of  Leander.  Sestos  is  not  immediately  opposite 
Abydos,  but  a  little  more  up  the  stream.  After  taking 
drawings  of  the  straits,  both  up  and  down,  we  ran 
down  with  a  charming  wind  to  Koum  Kaleh,  a  Turkish 
village  and  castle  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hellespont,  an 
hour  and  a  half,  where  we  now  are.  This  is  the  exact 
situation  of  the  Grecian  camp ;  the  Simois  runs  near 
it ;  the  Sigean  promontory  and  the  tombs  of  Achilles 
and  Patroclus  are  a  mile  off  towards  the  Aegean.  But 
all  this  to-morrow  when  I  have  seen  them.  You  see  I 
am  half  crazy ;  would  you  believe  it  ?  I  am  writing 
now,  at  near  midnight,  and  my  friends  have  been 
snoring  round  me  these  three  hours  ?  Good-night. 

BUNARBASHI, 

November  12. 

I  now  begin  with  great  pleasure  to  tell  you  what  we 
have  seen  in  the  Troad.  The  plain,  at  the  part  where 
we  slept  last  night,  is  about  three  miles  broad.  Its 
broadest  part  may  be  five,  its  length  fourteen,  from 


140          THE  SITE  OF  THE   HOMERIC  TROY    [CH.  vi 

above  Bunarbashi,  from  promontory  to  promontory. 
It  is  flat  and  fertile,  but  near  the  sea  and  the  banks  of 
the  Simois  is  in  many  places  marshy  and  covered  with 
reeds  and  osiers.  We  set  out  first  in  an  eastward 
direction,  and,  crossing  the  Simois,  rode  to  the  pro- 
montory of  Rhoeteum  and  the  tomb  of  Ajax.  The 
Simois  is  here  a  broad,  rapid  torrent  full  of  mud  and 
sand,  evidently  extremely  variable,  as  in  summer  it  is 
often  dry  and  in  winter  very  considerable,  much  at 
present,  in  size  and  character,  like  the  Tees  about 
Middleton.  The  plain  ends  in  a  long,  low  range  of 
hills  running  from  the  Hellespont  towards  Ida,  and 
changing  their  direction  eastward  about  the  middle  of 
the  plain. 

On  the  promontory  is  another  conical  barrow.  The 
top  of  this  has  been  dug  away,  and  there  now  appear 
in  it  great  semi-circular  walls  that  seem  to  have  served 
as  foundations.  A  low  semi-circular  arch  is  open  at 
the  side,  into  which  we  crept.  It  goes  into  the  centre 
of  the  monument,  and  is  a  long  vault  almost  filled  up. 
This  is  exactly  similar  to  all  the  sepulchres  we  had 
seen,  and  shows  at  least  that  this  is  a  monument  for  a 
single  person,  and  not  a  heap  of  earth  thrown  up  in 
the  later  wars  over  a  number.  It  is  remarkable  that 
Strabo  mentions  the  monument  of  Ajax  as  having  been 
violated  by  Mark  Antony,  and  also  the  existence  of  a 
small  shrine  consecrated  to  him  on  the  promontory. 
The  foundations  we  saw  might  be  those  of  this  shrine, 
but  I  cannot,  I  own,  entertain  a  doubt  of  the  existence 
of  his  tomb,  as  it  exactly  resembles  the  other  tombs,  is 
situated  precisely  where  ancient  authors  place  it,  and 
has  evidently  been  opened.  We  got  from  hence  a 
drawing  of  the  coast  and  station  of  the  Grecians.  We 
then  crossed  southward  over  the  low  ranges  of  hills, 
which  here  put  forward  into  the  plain.  We  soon  after 
came  to  the  valley  of  Thymbra,  now  called  Thymbrek. 
It  is  much  less  than  that  we  had  left,  and  runs  east- 
ward from  it. 

In  a  Turkish  burying-ground  and  village,  on  the 


1794]  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  SIMOIS  141 

banks  of  the  stream  that  runs  down  it,  we  saw  a  great 
number  of  columns,  some  architectural  ornaments,  and 
an  inscription  too  much  defaced  to  be  made  out.  These 
are  the  remains  of  a  temple  near,  of  which  we  could 
not  discover  the  exact  site.  Chevalier  mentions  more 
about  it,  and  supposes  it  that  of  Apollo  Thymbrius, 
with  much  appearance  of  reason  from  inscriptions  he 
found  there.  Northwards,  near  Chiblak,  a  Turkish 
village,  we  were  a  good  deal  surprised  by  finding  a 
hill  covered  with  remains  of  buildings,  apparently  of 
considerable  extent,  and  several  shafts  of  columns 
nearly  half  buried  in  the  earth,  but  still  standing. 
They  are  of  a  grey  granite,  but  stripped  of  their 
capitals  and  architecture.  I  should  not  be  surprised  if 
this  had  been  the  original  situation  of  the  remains  we 
had  just  seen  in  Thymbrek.  At  least,  these  have  not 
been  mentioned  in  any  book  of  the  Troad  I  have  seen. 
We  found  a  buried  altar  or  pedestal,  with  part  of  an 
inscription  in  Greek.  We  stayed  above  an  hour  to 
get  a  spade  and  pickaxe,  and  hoped  by  clearing  it 
to  find  out  the  name  of  the  place.  It  was  after  all, 
however,  too  much  broken  to  make  anything  of,  but 
from  the  mention  of  Julius  Caesar  we  found  it  was  of 
a  later  date. 

We  soon  after  came  into  the  valley  of  the  Simois 
again.  Bunarbashi  was  opposite  us  on  the  other 
side.  The  valley  here  is  really  very  fine ;  the  hills 
that  rise  round  it,  and  on  which  some  small  villages 
and  Bunarbashi  are  situated,  are  green,  cultivated 
and  ornamented  with  trees.  Those  on  the  left  are  the 
beautiful  hills  of  Callicolone  mentioned  in  Homer; 
they  have  not  in  the  least  lost  their  character.  We  at 
last  crossed  the  Simois  again,  and  by  a  short  and  easy- 
ascent  came  to  Bunarbashi.  We  mean  to  visit  its 
tombs  and  the  sources  of  the  Scamander  to-morrow. 
At  present  I  can  only  say  that  its  situation  in  every 
"respect  is  a  probable  one  for  that  of  ancient  Troy,  and 
is  in  itself  a  very  pleasing  one.  Chevalier's  Scamander 
rises  a  little  below  it  out  of  a  grove  of  beautiful  trees, 


i42          THE  SITE  OF  THE   HOMERIC  TROY    [CH.  vi 

and  out  of  our  windows  on  the  other  side  we  see  the 
barrows  of  the  Trojan  chiefs,  one  of  which  he  supposes 
Hector's. 

We  are  here  again  well  lodged  in  a  Turkish  gentle- 
man's house,  who  has  received  us  very  civilly,  and  you 
will  not  wonder  that  I  have  set  a  negotiation  on  foot 
for  permission  to  open  these  tombs.  I  dare  not  hope 
to  succeed,  but  there  is  at  least  no  harm  in  trying. 
You  see  how  much  we  are  at  home  among  the  Turks. 
I  assure  you  I  shall  never  believe  in  dangers  again. 
Do  not  you  envy  me  in  such  circumstances  the  plea- 
sure of  fancying  myself  at  the  Scaean  gate  and  seeing 
everything  round  me  correspond  with  Homer's  own 
account  of  it?  Nothing  can,  I  think,  be  more  accurate 
than  he  is  in  the  description  of  this  country,  and  it  is 
by  no  means  difficult  to  trace  most  of  the  scenes  in  the 
Iliad. 

Independent  of  the  pleasure  our  tour  has  already 
afforded  us,  the  gaining  a  clear  idea  of  this  country  is, 
I  think,  worth  almost  the  whole  tour,  besides  the 
visionary  satisfaction  that  a  person  who,  like  me,  is 
mounted  on  a  pretty  unmerciful  hobby-horse  must 
feel  in  treading  over  the  steps  of  old  favourites. 
To-morrow  we  sleep  at  the  Sigean  promontory,  now 
Yeni  Shehr,  and  I  shall  have  to  add  an  account  of  the 
Scamander  and  the  other  tombs.  If  Chevalier  deceives 
me  about  the  first,  with  his  story  of  the  warm  spring 
and  old  channel,  I  am  sorry  to  say  I  shall  be  cruelly 
disappointed.  I  have  as  yet,  however,  no  reason  to 
suspect  him,  except  a  natural  fearfulness  in  trusting  a 
French  author.  If  not  more  agreeably  detained  by  the 
tombs  here,  I  shall  tell  you  more  of  this  to-morrow. 
In  the  meantime,  good-night. 

YENI  SHEHR,  THE  SIGEAN  PROMONTORY, 
November  13. 

I  now  shall  finish  my  history  of  the  Troad,  which  is 
justly  your  due,  as  Chevalier's  book,  which  you  once 
lent  me,  was  as  great  an  incentive  to  my  touring  as 


1794]  THE   TWO   SPRINGS  143 

any  I  had  read.  I  am  sure  you  will  be  delighted  to 
hear  from  me  the  very  strongest  confirmation  of  his 
truth  in  essentials,  and  that  1  have  no  longer  any  doubt 
about  the  situation  of  Troy  or  the  geography  of  Homer. 
We  were  this  morning  so  full  of  the  Scaean  gate  and 
sources  of  the  Scamander  that  though  it  afterwards 
lay  in  our  road  our  first  sally  was  down  to  the  springs. 
They  gush  from  under  a  hill  below  the  house  where 
we  slept,  surrounded  with  willows,  poplars,  and 
beeches. 

The  warm  spring  rises  at  some  distance  from  the 
others.  It  had  rained  violently  all  night ;  there  is  but 
a  small  spring,  and  its  waters,  received  into  a  large 
basin,  are  exposed  so  to  the  cold.  In  such  circum- 
stances Chevalier  ought  not  to  be  blamed  if  we  did  not 
find  its  waters  so  warm  as  we  expected.  In  the  part 
of  the  basin  where  they  rose  they  were  much  warmer ; 
and  we  were  told  that  in  frost  they  were  very  sensibly 
heated.  Their  temperature  at  present  was  about  the 
heat  of  Bristol.  This  was  sufficient  to  convince  us 
that  if  the  stream  in  question  ever  had  joined  the 
Simois,  it  had  at  least  the  properties  of  the  Scamander. 

We  next  rode  to  the  hill  behind  Bunarbashi.  I  saw 
a  hill  covered  with  stones  and  grey-wethers,  but 
could  not  make  out  many  of  the  foundations  he 
mentions.  We  were  told  by  the  Turks  there  had 
been  some  remains  there,  and  I  believe  I  saw  some 
traces.  Above  Bunarbashi,  near  a  mile  on  the 
highest  part  of  the  hill,  are  four  tombs,  exactly  like 
the  others,  which  he  supposes  with  reason  to  be  those 
of  the  Trojan  heroes.  They  were  thus  on  a  con- 
spicuous point  exposed  to  the  view  and  respect  of  the 
whole  plain,  as  the  Grecians  were  to  the  Hellespont. 
Beyond  these  the  hill  finishes  on  three  sides  in  an 
abrupt  precipice,  the  Simois  winding  below  entirely 
round  it,  hemmed  in  by  rocks  in  a  beautiful  defile. 

We  must  agree  with  Chevalier  that  Troy  could  not 
exist  higher  up  the  Simois  than  this ;  and  so  the 
Scamander  and  Troy  must  be  sought  for  lower  down 


i44          THE  SITE  OF  THE  HOMERIC  TROY    [CH.  vi 

than  this,  for  it  is  not  possible  that  a  long  range  of 
mountains  and  defiles  should  really  exist  between 
the  camp  and  the  city,  unmentioned  by  Homer,  who 
always  places  his  battles  in  the  plain,  and  who  would 
have  certainly  varied  his  battles  with  all  the  circum- 
stances of  a  mountainous  country  if  such  had  existed. 
But  below  this  point  the  Simois  receives  no  streams 
but  the  Thymbrius,  near  its  mouth,  which  is  suffi- 
ciently marked  by  the  name  of  Thymbrek.  Chevalier 
therefore  showed  his  judgment  in  searching  for  an 
old  bed  to  some  other  stream. 

When  we  descended  the  hill  we  passed  again  by  the 
sources  of  the  Scamander;  and  after  taking  a  view 
of  the  situation  of  its  sources  went  on  along  the  west 
side  of  the  plain,  near  its  course.  We  observed  on 
the  ground  we  at  first  passed  over  great  traces  of 
building,  and  I  should  not  at  all  wonder  if  the  city 
had  existed  on  this  side  more  in  the  plain  than 
Chevalier  supposes.  The  hot  springs  and  the  Scaean 
Gate  are,  I  have  no  doubt,  where  he  places  them ;  but 
supposing  the  city  not  to  have  existed  so  high  as  the 
precipices  I  have  mentioned,  the  circumstances  of 
Hector's  flight  round  the  city,  which  he  does  not, 
I  think,  get  cleverly  over,  remain  in  this  case  pos- 
sible ;  and  the  monuments  were  out  of  the  walls  and 
behind  the  city — as  he  himself  acknowledges,  more 
customary  with  the  ancients — and  there  was  certainly 
no  reason  for  burying  Hector  within  the  walls,  having 
a  twelve  days'  truce  to  do  it  in  unmolested  by  the 
Greeks. 

I  have,  however,  no  doubt  of  the  situation  of  the 
Scaean  Gate;  the  hill  of  wild  fig  trees,  though  now 
not  so  covered,  is  near  it.  The  heights  above  Troy 
command  a  most  extensive  view  of  the  plain,  as  far 
as  the  Sigean  promontory  and  the  Hellespont.  As  for 
the  Scamander,  it  now  is  certainly  not  so  beautiful  a 
stream  as  Chevalier  would  have  you  suppose  it  is, 
except  that  its  waters  are  very  clear  and  pure,  even 
in  this  extremely  wet  weather,  agreeing  strikingly 


1794]  THE   SCAMANDER  145 

with  Homer's  account  that  it  admitted  no  increase 
from  floods  or  diminution  from  drought,  which  is  the 
very  contrary  with  the  other  streams  in  the  plain.  It 
winds  for  a  long  way  through  an  extensive  marsh,  not 
unlike  Cradock's  Bottoms  near  Rokeby.  At  the  end 
of  these,  below  the  tomb  of  Aesyetes,  it  runs  off  in 
its  present  channel  to  the  sea.  This  is  as  evidently 
artificial  as  possible — the  course  straight  and  the 
banks  thrown  up.  We  rode  to  the  beginning  of  this, 
and  perceived  immediately  evident  marks  of  a  channel 
running  into  the  Simois.  It  is  now  dry,  but  is  per- 
fectly traceable,  and  leaves  no  doubt,  I  think,  of  the 
stream  having  originally  run  in  this  direction.  Perhaps 
the  stopping  of  it  may  in  part  have  occasioned  the 
marsh.  The  Scamander  in  size  contains  about  the 
same  quantity  of  water  as  the  Foss,  perhaps  more ;  but 
it  is  more  uniform  in  its  depth,  and  a  much  stronger 
stream  ;  it  is  everywhere  clear,  a  quality  Homer 
notices  in  a  thousand  places. 

We  then  rode  on  to  the  Greek  village  of  Yeni  Shehr, 
where  we  now  are,  on  the  Sigean  promontory.  This 
you  know  was  the  station  of  Achilles — his  tomb,  with 
that  of  Antilochus  and  Patroclus,  is  very  near  here, 
towards  the  shore.  We  were  disappointed  in  our 
hopes  of  opening  the  tombs  at  Bunarbashi.  The 
Aga  gave  us  leave  to  work,  indeed ;  but  as  he  ran  a 
risk  in  so  doing,  would  only  let  us  try  in  the  night, 
and  would  not  furnish  us  with  more  than  two  men 
for  fear  of  committing  himself;  he  could  only  give  us 
permission  for  one  night ;  and  on  such  terms  it  is 
easy  to  conceive  we  should  not  have  been  able  to 
make  much  progress  in  a  structure  of  earth  and  great 
stones,  which  these  are.  We  gave  it  up  on  this  account, 
and  came  away. 

The  weather  has  now  broken  up,  and  I  fear  the 
winter  has  set  in.  It  has  for  several  days  been  little 
but  constant  rains  and  stormy  weather.  This  is  very 
much  against  us,  who  in  a  day  or  two  are  to  sail  for 
Lemnos  and  Greece.  To-morrow  we  go  if  possible 


146          THE   SITE   OF  THE   HOMERIC   TROY    [CH.  vi 

to  Tenedos,  and  hoped  to  stay  no  longer  than  to  see 
the  island,  and  immediately  set  off  for  Lemnos. 

November  14. 

I  continue  my  letter  from  the  Sigean  promontory, 
where  we  have  the  ill-luck  of  being  detained  by  the 
south  wind.  Patience  is  an  excellent  recipe  for  any- 
body that  has  to  do  with  wind  and  weather,  so  here 
we  are  in  a  dirty  room  full  of  fleas  still.  We  shall 
have  the  amusement,  if  we  please,  of  showing  our 
learning  by  deciphering  the  Sigean  inscription,  which, 
as  well  as  the  basso-rilievo  Chandler  mentions,  is  in 
the  church  here.  The  Greeks,  who  are  as  super- 
stitious as  Chevalier  represents  them  in  supposing 
these  stones  remedies  for  the  ague,  are  obstinate 
about  preserving  them  to  the  last  degree. 

Firmans  have  been  repeatedly  given  by  the  Porte 
to  different  people  to  empower  them  to  take  the 
inscription  stone,  but  the  superstition  of  the  Greeks 
has  even  resisted  the  will  of  the  Porte.  The  famous 
Hassan  Pasha  attempted  to  carry  it  off,  but  the  Greeks 
told  him  that  before  he  did  he  must  take  off  the  head 
of  every  man.  As  he  was  a  Turkish  Pasha,  permitted 
by  the  Porte,  I  only  wonder  he  did  not  take  them  at 
their  word ;  and  perhaps  they  almost  deserved  it  for 
their  stupid  resistance,  for  in  their  hands  the  stones 
are  only  wearing  out  by  patients  rolling  on  them  for 
the  ague. 

Theirs,  however,  is  not  the  only  instance  of  these 
sort  of  remains  being  kept  here  from  mere  spirit  of 
stupidity,  as  at  Bunarbashi  we  saw  a  broken  basso- 
rilievo  of  two  figures,  not  ill-executed,  which  an 
Englishman  had  brought  from  Alexandria  Troas, 
and  which  the  Aga  here  refused  to  let  him  carry 
off,  though  he  offered  four  or  five  guineas  for  the 
permission.  It  now  lies  in  a  dirty  garden,  with  the 
carved  side  downwards.  The  Englishman  deserved 
his  disappointment  for  being  so  stupid  as  not  to  ship 
it  directly  for  Tenedos  and  the  islands,  which  he 


Map   of  the 

PLAIN   OF  TROY 

English  Miles 


//  'alter  &  Boutall  sc. 


I46] 


1794]  MOUNT  ATHOS  147 

might  have  done  from  the  shore,  and  put  it  beyond 
the  reach  of  Agas. 

You,  who  are  probably  now  shivering  over  a  large 
coal  fire,  will  think  my  description  of  a  pretty  country, 
if  we  happen  to  see  one  in  Thessaly,  the  work  of  fancy 
at  this  time  of  the  year ;  but  I  beg  to  observe  that  we  in 
all  probability  shall  see  it  in  the  highest  advantage  with 
the  colours  of  autumn.  For  at  present  the  trees  have 
not  begun  to  turn  here,  and  have  hardly  lost  a  leaf 
yet,  notwithstanding  high  wind ;  and  as  the  rain  has 
made  all  the  grass  spring,  we  shall,  I  hope,  see 
Tempe  in  full  beauty,  if  we  can  but  contrive  to  get 
a  fine  gleam  to  see  it  in. 

Believe  me 

Most  affectionately  yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


MONTE  SANTO,  CARES, 

December  6,  1794. 

DEAR  ANNE, 

I  very  probably  shall  not  at  present  write  above 
five  lines,  but  a  beginning  is  always  something.  From 
my  date  you  will  have  some  difficulty  in  finding  out 
where  we  are.  In  old  times  this  was  Mount  Athos.  I 
have  yesterday  and  to-day  thought  so  often  about  you, 
and  so  often  wished  I  had  you  trotting  by  my  side  on 
Asphodel,  that  though  1  can  only  scrawl  while  the 
horses  are  getting  ready,  yet  I  cannot  help  scribbling 
to  you.  You  no  doubt  feel  infinitely  obliged  to  me 
for  my  kind  wishes,  and  think  yourself  as  well  trotting 
round  the  banks  of  the  Tees.  For  my  part,  I  am  again 
in  one  of  my  crazy  fits,  and  am  delighted  with  the 
country  round  me.  You,  I  dare  say,  recollect  a  good 
deal  of  what  you  have  heard  me  say  about  Switzer- 
land and  its  beauties.  Put  it  all  together,  with  the 
*  richness  and  luxuriance  of  a  warmer  climate,  and  more 
habitations,  and  you  will  not  exaggerate  those  of 
Mount  Athos.  You  will,  however,  before  I  tell  you 
what  we  have  seen  here,  be  perhaps  not  sorry  to  know 


i48         THE  SITE  OF  THE   HOMERIC  TROY     [CH.  vi 

how  we  got  here.  As  Mr.  Vellum  observes  that  in 
business  there  is  nothing  like  method,  I  will  for  once 
in  my  life,  at  least,  follow  his  advice,  and  begin  where 
I  left  off;  though  I  can't  say  our  mode  of  travelling  at 
all  suits  so  methodical  an  account  of  it. 

My  account,  then,  shall  be  twofold  :  firstly,  how  we 
got  to  Monte  Santo ;  and  secondly,  what  we  have  seen 
there.  For  though  I  know  you  are  a  little  maddish 
yourself,  yet  it  ill  becomes  the  dignity  of  a  travelled 
man  to  tell  his  story  so  confusedly.  After  we  left  the 
Troad,  and  paid  due  honour  to  its  heroes,  we  sailed  to 
Tenedos.  It  is  a  small  island  cultivated  with  vineyards, 
and  with  more  cultivation  than  we  often  have  seen  in 
Turkey.  Some  small  villages,  and  a  little  town  with  a 
harbour  and  an  old  Turkish  fortress,  is  all  we  saw 
there,  so  that  as  we  were  detained  six  or  seven  days 
we  began  to  be  heartily  tired  of  our  stay  there.  Our 
different  grievances  were  at  any  other  time  ridiculous 
enough.  We  had  hired  a  boat  to  sail  for  Lemnos  the 
first  fair  wind,  and,  after  waiting  some  days  for  one, 
were  ready  to  embark  with  the  wind  in  our  favour 
when  a  French  frigate  came  and  dropped  anchor  at 
the  mouth  of  the  harbour.  As  we  heard  she  would 
have  certain  intelligence  of  our  motions  from  her  spies 
here,  we  thought  it  rather  prudent  to  stay  on  shore,  not 
having  the  least  desire  to  finish  our  tour  by  a  trip  to 
France  at  present.  The  next  day  she  proceeded  on  her 
road,  and  when  we  thought  her  at  a  tolerable  distance 
we  set  out.  Our  boatman  in  the  evening  anchored  off 
the  island,  for  as  it's  a  considerable  distance,  and 
Lemnos  a  dangerous  shore,  they  never  leave  Tenedos 
till  after  midnight,  that  they  may  not  arrive  in  the  dark. 

Imagine  us,  then,  tossing  in  an  inconvenient  little 
bark,  with  no  place  to  creep  into  but  a  hole  at  the  end 
where  Stockdale  and  I  could  just  lay  down  in  case  of 
rain.  As  the  devil  would  have  it  a  heavy  storm  just 
then  came  on ;  the  wind  blew  with  such  violence  that 
we  every  instant  expected  out  boat  to  slip  or  break 
her  cable  and  drive  out  to  sea.  We  had  the  most 


1 794]  TENEDOS   AND   LEMNOS  149 

violent  thunder  and  lightning,  and  blessed  ourselves 
not  a  little  that  we  had  not  persuaded  our  boatmen, 
as  we  had  endeavoured  to  do,  to  cross  at  once.  We 
tossed  about  all  night,  and  in  the  morning  the  wind 
blew  directly  from  Lemnos,  and  we  sneaked  back 
again  to  Tenedos  after  as  pleasant  a  twenty-four  hours' 
jaunt  as  we  could  desire.  We  at  last,  however,  got 
over ;  the  distance  is  about  thirty  miles  to  the  island, 
and  about  twenty  more  along  the  south  coast  of  it  to 
the  port  where  we  stopped.  This  you  may  be  sure 
we  did  not  accomplish  without  keeping  a  very  sharp 
look-out  after  the  French  frigate. 

At  Lemnos  we  stayed  some  days.  The  island  is 
very  curious ;  a  high  point  in  the  middle  of  it  has  been 
a  volcano,  and  the  whole  island  is  a  heap  of  pointed 
crags  and  stone.  The  south  coast  is  a  chain  of 
rocky  promontories  and  points  standing  as  small 
islands  in  the  water,  that  have  a  very  fantastic  appear- 
ance. There  is  hardly  a  single  tree  on  the  whole 
island,  and  they  even  fetch  their  firing  from  Mount 
Athos.  We  found  no  antiquities  here,  and  should  not 
have  stayed  except  for  fair  winds. 

To  give  you  some  idea  of  this  happy  government, 
we  called  upon  the  Aga,  who  before  had  not  been  very 
civil  to  our  servant,  whom  we  had  sent,  and  desired, 
when  we  had  drunk  our  coffee  in  form,  he  would 
permit  us  to  hire  a  house.  He  very  soon  ordered  us 
to  be  received  into  one,  and,  as  we  had  asked  him,  sent 
a  man  the  next  day  to  order  us  mules  and  show  us 
whatever  we  wished  to  see  in  the  country.  The  mule- 
teers made  a  price  with  our  servant  for  their  cattle, 
which,  unfortunately  for  them,  coming  to  the  ears  of 
our  guide,  he  gave  them  a  hearty  thrashing,  seized  their 
mules,  and  said  he  had  the  Aga's  orders  not  to  let  us 
pay  for  anything.  He  would  not  even  accept  anything 
himself,  so  we  travelled,  a  la  Turque^  at  other  folks' 
expense.  The  Aga  had  been  piqued  by  some  English- 
man passing  here  who  had  not  called  on  him ;  but 
after  our  visit  was  determined  to  do  the  honours. 


150         THE  SITE  OF  THE   HOMERIC  TROY    [CH.  vi 

We  found  him  very  busy  building  a  large  frigate,  and 
on  inquiring  what  it  was  for,  were  told  it  was  destined 
for  the  Grand  Signer  at  Constantinople;  this  Aga,  it 
seems,  had  in  the  course  of  his  life  got  very  rich,  and 
the  Court,  a  P ordinaire,  sent  with  their  compliments  to 
behead  him.  He  very  naturally  made  a  few  objections 
to  the  scheme,  and  proposed  instead  to  build  them  a 
ship.  As  the  offer  was  accepted  he  kept  his  head  on 
his  shoulders,  and  his  ship  is  easily  built  here,  for  he 
employs  the  Greeks,  and  I  dare  say  pays  them  little  or 
nothing. 

We  at  last  got  away  from  Lemnos.  Mount  Athos 
which  you  see  from  it,  is  one  of  the  grandest  single 
objects  I  ever  saw.  It  rises  in  a  high,  conical  form 
directly  from  the  sea,  and  as  you  here  don't  see  the 
continuation  of  the  land,  the  end  of  the  promontory, 
being  towards  the  island,  is  very  striking.  The 
mountain  is  extremely  high,  and,  rising  immediately 
from  the  water  with  no  surrounding  objects,  seems 
still  higher.  We  had  a  passage  of  above  sixty  miles, 
for  we  ran  a  long  way  up  the  coast,  and  were  above 
twenty-four  hours  on  the  water.  We  had  thought  of 
going  to  Thasos,  but  it  was  a  good  deal  out  of  our 
way,  and  we  heard  that  there  were  pirates  from 
Cavallo  in  these  seas.  We  were  becalmed  and  had  a 
very  slow  passage,  but  saw  no  danger.  We  arrived 
at  shore  about  three  in  the  morning,  and  landed  in  a 
harbour  near  a  great  Greek  monastery  here.  Everybody 
was  fast  asleep,  so  we  stopped  in  a  poor  open  summer- 
house,  under  which  was  a  fountain.  We  thought 
ourselves  very  uncomfortable,  and  sat  down  muffled 
up  in  our  great-coats  to  wait  for  morning.  Through 
the  broken  boards  of  our  summer-house  we  saw  a  chip 
fire,  and  heard  a  groan  or  two.  This  was  very  terrible, 
you  will  say,  and  we  thought  it  pretty  much  so  when 
we  walked  down,  for  we  found  the  boatmen  of  a  small 
skiff  in  the  harbour,  who  had  that  very  morning  fallen 
in  with  pirates,  been  stripped  to  their  shirts  and 
trousers,  and  two  of  them  were  severely  wounded 


1794]  MOUNT   ATHOS  151 

with  ball.  We  now  thought  ourselves  very  well  off 
ashore,  and  our  summer-house  improved  very  much 
upon  second  thoughts.  As  soon  as  it  was  light  our 
eyes  were  amused  with  one  of  the  finest  countries  I 
had  ever  seen.  All  the  mountain  is  covered  with 
Greek  convents,  of  which  there  are  not  less  than 
twenty  scattered  over  its  sides  in  the  most  picturesque 
points  of  view  you  can  conceive.  One  of  these,  em- 
bosomed in  wood,  was  above  us  at  a  little  distance 
from  the  shore.  Its  turrets  and  high,  battlemented 
walls,  mixed  with  tall,  thick  cypresses  and  surrounded 
with  wood,  had  an  air  completely  monastic ;  farther 
up  the  hill  was  another,  equally  venerable.  The  bank 
on  which  they  stand  is  uneven  in  the  extreme,  covered 
with  wood,  and  now  with  all  the  beauty  of  autumn 
colouring. 

As,  besides  the  greatest  profusion  of  oaks,  chestnuts, 
and  oriental  planes,  the  mountain  is  covered  with 
shrubs  and  evergreens,  you  can  hardly  conceive 
anything  so  rich  and  varied.  We  stayed  one  day 
at  this  monastery,  and  saw  with  wonder  the  comfort 
in  which  they  live  here.  In  the  courtyard  of  the 
monastery  is  a  thick  orchard  of  oranges  and  lemons, 
now  full  of  the  finest  fruit  I  ever  ate.  They  gave  us 
some  very  good  wine,  and  I  can  really  say  these  were 
the  first  convents  I  ever  thought  did  any  good  in  the 
world,  but  in  this  inhospitable  place  an  institution 
that  receives  strangers,  and  where  every  passenger 
that  calls  of  every  sort  has  a  right  to  a  loaf  of  bread, 
is  really  a  very  useful  establishment.  We  rode  from 
hence  about  twelve  miles  towards  the  point  of  Mount 
Athos.  After  gaining  the  top  of  the  hill  above  the 
convent,  the  road  lays  westward  along  the  side  of  a 
slope,  terminated  to  the  left  by  the  sea,  and  in  front 
by  the  summit  of  the  mountain  ;  on  this  slope,  which 
waves  in  every  direction,  the  road  winds  at  one 
instant  through  thick  and  beautiful  woods,  at  another 
along  lawns  or  open  fields,  commanding,  besides  this 
lovely  foreground,  views  of  the  sea  and  the  different 


152         THE  SITE   OF  THE   HOMERIC  TROY    [CH.  vi 

islands  of  Thasos,  Samothrace,  Imbros,  and  Lemnos, 
or  the  coast  of  Macedonia,  with  a  high  range  of 
distant  mountains. 

Athos  itself,  before  us,  is  a  still  more  magnificent 
object ;  its  sides,  which  are  covered  with  wood, 
terminate  in  a  high,  pointed  crag,  of  an  amazing 
height,  which  catches  the  lights  of  the  sun,  and  re- 
flects it  in  the  softest  and  most  brilliant  colouring,  both 
in  the  morning  and  evening.  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
saying  that,  accustomed  as  I  have  been  to  beautiful 
scenery,  this  surpasses  any  I  had  ever  seen,  for  the 
details  of  it  were  everywhere  as  lovely  as  the  ensemble. 
At  every  step  clear  springs,  rising  out  of  beds  of 
verdure,  dash  across  the  road ;  at  every  step  you  pass 
trees  covered  with  ivy,  every  one  of  which  would 
make  a  picture ;  several  villages,  monasteries,  and 
other  decent  houses,  surrounded  each  by  tufts  of 
trees,  or  rising  out  of  banks  of  wood,  are  seen  in  the 
most  picturesque  points  of  view  ;  the  sea  below  forms 
a  thousand  bays,  over  which  the  trees  hang  on  the 
water  edge;  the  mountain  itself,  more  uneven  than 
I  ever  saw,  gives  you  a  fresh  view  at  every  turn. 
By  this  means  the  scene  unites  every  beauty  of  the 
wildest  and  grandest  sort  to  those  of  the  finest  and 
most  fertile  countries.  The  retired  scenes  of  rock 
and  wood  are  as  perfect  as  the  effect  of  the  grand 
prospects  of  the  country  and  the  islands,  and  the 
forest  is  at  the  same  time  full  of  the  finest  trees,  now 
in  their  greatest  beauty,  and  a  thick  bed  of  shrubs 
and  flowers.  The  grass,  which  had  just  sprung  from 
the  late  rains,  had  the  verdure  of  spring,  and  the 
weather  was  as  warm  as  it  is  with  us  in  the  beginning 
of  September. 

Delighted  with  the  scene,  we  arrived  at  Cares,  and 
lodged  in  another  small  monastery.  From  it  we 
returned  eastward  again :  the  road  ascends  the  ridge 
of  the  promontory  ;  the  southern  side  of  it  terminates 
also  in  the  sea,  and  is  covered,  if  possible,  with  still 
thicker  foliage.  The  change  of  the  leaf  gave  these 


1794]         MONASTERIES   OF   MOUNT   ATHOS  153 

banks  a  richness  I  had  no  notion  of,  and  the  evergreen 
oak  mixed  with  them,  here  an  immense  forest  tree,  is 
so  light  a  green  as  not  to  have  the  wintry  effect  of 
our  firs  and  spruce.  The  road  winds,  as  if  on  purpose, 
first  on  one  side  of  the  ridge  and  then  on  the  other, 
as  if  to  give  us  the  full  view  of  both  seas  ;  sometimes 
it  continues  along  the  top  with  a  valley  on  each  side, 
open  to  the  two  seas.  We  stared  and  talked  till  we 
had  exhausted  every  bit  of  our  admiration,  and  were 
obliged  to  stare  in  silence.  The  southern  view,  in- 
cluding also  some  small  islands,  is  bounded  by  the 
high  ridge  of  the  opposite  promontory  of  Cape  Falso. 
Its  woods  are  still  richer  than  the  other,  and  the  view 
in  general  is  more  confined.  It  has  not  such  variety 
of  objects,  but  some  old,  large  monasteries  placed 
among  its  woods,  of  which  you  see  the  turrets  and 
battlements  among  the  trees,  seem  the  very  temples 
of  solitude  and  retirement.  If  I  talk  romantically  you 
must  lay  it  to  the  account  of  the  place,  for  I  can't 
describe  it  in  other  terms. 

We  descended  a  steep  zigzag  for  a  little  way,  to  a 
large  monastery  below.  When  we  were  at  it,  we 
looked  round  on  an  amphitheatre  covered  with  wood  ; 
through  the  middle  of  it  runs  a  clear  torrent,  in  most 
parts  hid  by  the  shrubs  and  trees  that  hang  over  it. 
On  one  side  on  the  slope  the  monastery  stands,  a 
plain,  large,  venerable  pile,  made  more  so  by  the 
cypresses  and  large  trees  that  rise  amongst  its  walls. 
We  were  admitted  into  a  large,  clean,  and  comfortable 
room,  and  for  the  first  half-hour  were  fixed  at  the 
window,  and  agreed  very  cordially  in  pitying  all  you 
poor  people  that  stay  at  home ;  I  have  no  hesitation 
in  preferring  it  to  everything  I  ever  saw,  even  in 
Switzerland,  and  will  never  again  suppose  I  have 
seen  the  finest  thing  in  the  world,  for  there  is  no  limit 
to  beauties  of  this  sort.  The  view  of  a  double  sea, 
adorned  to  such  a  degree  with  islands  and  shores, 
was  what  I  had  not  a  notion  of.  The  variety  of  these 
islands  is  another  beauty.  Thasos,  a  very  mountain- 


154          THE  SITE  OF   THE   HOMERIC   TROY     [CH.  vi 

ous  island,  wooded  and  cultivated.  Samothrace,  a 
high,  craggy,  barren  mountain,  with  the  boldest  out- 
line rising  from  the  water.  Imbros  and  Lemnos  low 
and  broken  lines. 

Now  I  have  described  our  lodgings  and  situation, 
I  will  our  company.  Imagine  one  thing  more  dirty, 
sycophantish,  and  ignorant  than  another,  you  will 
have  a  faint  idea  of  a  Greek  papa.  This  is  the  title 
of  their  priests.  One  or  two  of  the  superiors  look 
sometimes  rather  cleaner,  but  are  all  equally  ignorant. 
In  one  of  the  convents  we  were  so  popular  that  a 
papa  proposed  to  attend  my  lordi  as  cook,  and  another 
told  Stockdale  we  were  all  much  too  young  to  travel 
together,  and  proposed  to  attend  us  to  take  care  of 
the  party.  I  was  highly  flattered  with  the  compliment, 
but  we  rather  objected  to  a  Greek  travelling  tutor. 


CHAPTER  VII 

FROM  ATHOS  AND  SALONICA  THROUGH  THESSALY  AND 
BOEOTIA  :  ATHENS 

SALONICA, 
December  6. 

I  FINISHED  this  part  of  my  letter  at  different  times 
and  places  in  my  road  here,  and  am  now  comfortably 
settled  in  an  Englishman's  house,  who  is  our  Consul 
here.  I  will,  however,  as  usual,  go  on  with  my  story. 
The  last  great  monastery  I  have  mentioned  was  that 
of  St.  George,  where  they  pretend  to  show  the  tomb 
of  their  patron ;  we  paid,  of  course,  high  reverence 
to  them  as  Englishmen.  The  country  eastward,  after 
a  short  and  romantic  ride  through  a  wood  of  oak, 
with  fine  rocks  and  torrents,  grows  less  beautiful ; 
the  isthmus  that  joins  Athos  to  the  Continent  is  a  low 
neck  of  land  not  more  than  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
across.  It  was  here  Xerxes  cut  a  road  through  for 
his  navy,  but,  notwithstanding  the  fuss  the  "  old 
ancients  "  make  about  him,  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater 
is  certainly  a  much  greater  workman.  There  are  now 
little  or  no  remains  of  his  ditch  ;  in  the  part  we  crossed 
it  was  not  traceable,  but  I  thought  there  was  some 
appearance  of  it  near  the  seas. 

From  hence  to  Salonica  is  a  tiresome  journey  of 
three  days.  Our  first  design  was  to  have  visited 
Amphipolis,  but,  besides  there  being  some  risk,  we 
could  not  discover  that  there  were  any  remains  would 
repay  our  trouble  in  those  parts.  At  Thasos  are 
many,  but  you  conceive  we  had  no  great  desire  to 
go  there.  We  went,  on  these  accounts,  directly  to 

'5$ 


156        THROUGH   THESSALY   AND   BOEOTIA    [CH.  vn 

Salonica,  and  passed  a  country  by  much  the  worst 
and  most  inhospitable  I  have  found  in  Turkey. 

The  few  miserable  villages  we  passed  through  are 
entirely  inhabited  by  Greeks  or  Jews.  The  Greeks 
here  have  the  power  in  their  hands,  and  exercise  it 
in  so  rascally  a  manner  that  we  inquired  after  Turks 
as  eagerly  as  we  should  elsewhere  after  Englishmen. 
What  makes  the  people  worse  is,  that  in  consideration 
of  their  working  mines  of  iron  and  silver,  of  which 
there  are  many  here,  their  enormities  are  connived  at, 
and  even  protected,  by  the  Porte.  Everything  you 
have  to  buy  or  order  in  these  villages  is  a  signal  for 
the  whole  body  to  unite  in  cheating  you.  No  redress 
from  a  Greek  Aga ;  he  only  cheats  higher  than  the  rest. 
I  assure  you  the  Turks  are  so  much  more  honourable 
a  race  that  I  believe,  if  ever  this  country  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  Greeks  and  Russians,  it  would  be  hardly 
livable.  The  country  being  here  unsafe,  from  ban- 
ditti, we  had  everywhere  escorts  from  two  to  seven 
men,  armed  with  muskets  and  pistols.  With  this 
formidable  force,  and  our  own  arms,  we  passed  very 
quietly.  After  a  tiresome  journey  we  got  safe  here, 
where  we  found  a  very  hospitable  reception  at  an 
English  merchant's,  and  are  refitting  to  go  on  through 
Larissa  and  Thermopylae  to  Athens.  The  road,  we 
find,  is  very  practicable,  and  so  we  can  execute  our 
whole  scheme.  To-morrow  we  mean  to  make  a  short 
trip  in  Macedonia,  and  then,  after  seeing  Salonica,  we 
shall  set  out. 

After  our  perils  by  land  and  water,  however,  we 
are  safe  here,  and  likely  to  continue  so,  and  I  hope  my 
next  letter  will  be  from  Athens,  if  I  do  not,  however, 
write  another  from  hence  by  this  post  to  my  mother. 
All  my  letters,  as  we  were  long  in  getting  here,  have 
gone  forward  to  Athens;  and  as  the  last  post  from 
England  seems  to  have  missed  here,  we  are  quite  in 
the  dark  here  about  what  you  are  all  doing.  Great 
reports  are  circulating,  however,  about  a  separate 
peace  of  the  Prussians  and  Austrians  with  France ;  but 


1794]  REFUGEES   FROM   FRANCE  157 

merchants'  news  is  generally  a  trade  trick,  as  the  peace 
raises  or  lowers  the  sale  of  cotton. 

I  am  just  now  writing  a  good  deal  in  a  way  you 
would  if  you  were  here,  with  a  pretty  little  child  of 
the  Consul's  on  my  knee,  as  witness  her  mark.  So, 
you  see,  I  am  improved  by  my  travels ;  but  my  little 
friend  is  so  pretty,  and  talks  such  nice  Greek,  that  I 
have  been  amused  with  talking  to  her. 

The  French  are  here,  as  in  every  other  port  of  the 
Levant,  in  great  numbers,  and  of  all  sorts.  All,  how- 
ever, except  one  or  two,  have  quitted  their  cockades. 
Society  is  in  these  places  a  curious  and  not  un- 
pleasant medley.  You  hear  as  many  languages  at 
once  as  you  see  men,  and  at  present  as  many  opinions 
as  languages.  What  I  have  most  inquired  of,  as 
having  no  bad  opportunity,  was  the  effects  of  the 
Revolution  in  the  provincial  towns  of  France,  from 
which  the  emigres  had  escaped  at  different  times.  The 
private  history  of  it  is,  I  think,  both  more  interesting 
and  more  dreadful  than  the  public,  which  is  little  more 
than  the  news  of  Paris.  The  sufferers,  too,  are  more 
to  be  pitied,  as  they  are  not  of  the  detestable  class  of 
aristocrats  whose  crimes  and  infamy  raised  the  spirit 
in  their  country,  but  merchants  and  people  of  the 
middle  rank  of  life,  the  most  virtuous  in  every  country, 
and  the  most  exposed  to  plunder  in  their  own. 

I  was  much  pleased  with  an  expression  of  a  poor 
young  man  here,  whose  father  is  imprisoned  at  Mar- 
seilles, without  accusation,  for  he  has  had  no  part  in  the 
government  of  either  side.  He  said,  "  II  n'y  a  centre 
nous,  que  1'honnetete,  et  les  richesses — crimes  chez 
le  gouvernement  revolutionnaire."  Another  object  of 
still  more  interest  here  is  a  poor  young  lady,  whose 
father  has  been  guillotined  by  these  brutes,  obliged, 
with  horror  in  her  heart,  to  wear  the  cockade  amongst 
»  her  black  ribbons,  that  she  may  not  expose  the  rest 
of  her  relations  to  the  same  fate.  I  have  just  seen  her 
walking  about  with  a  party  of  them,  and  I  own  I  almost 
joined  with  Edmund  Burke  in  regretting  the  Age  of 


158        THROUGH   THESSALY   AND  BOEOTIA    [CH.  VH 

Chivalry.  The  higher  sort  of  them,  however,  are  here 
less  scrupulous  of  declaring  their  sentiments  at  this 
distance  from  their  enemies ;  and  of  those  who  wear 
the  cockade  there  are  scarce  any  who  do  not  execrate 
the  present  government,  though  they  temporise  to 
save  their  property.  One  or  two  of  them  have  given 
us  letters,  and  assisted  us  at  different  times,  with 
more  liberality  than  we  expected ;  but  envy,  hatred, 
and  malice  are  considerably  weakened  by  their  long 
journey  from  their  headquarters  at  Paris,  and  before 
men  here  they  begin  to  feel  as  men. 

We  have  been  walking  over  the  town  here ;  it  is 
very  poor  and  dirty,  even  in  comparison  with  Smyrna 
and  Constantinople. 

Adieu,  and  believe  me,  as  usual,  your  affectionate 
brother, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

SALON  ic  A, 
December  17,  1794. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

I  write  still  from  Salonica,  though  we  very  soon 
mean  now  to  continue  our  journey  to  Athens  ;  indeed, 
you  will  wonder,  after  my  letter  to  Anne,  that  we 
should  still  be  here.  We  have  been  making  so  many 
inquiries  about  the  road,  and  have  been  obliged  to 
dawdle  so  much,  that  we  are  still  here.  We  are,  how- 
ever, at  last  in  a  moving  condition,  and  talk  of  setting 
off  to-morrow  or  the  day  after.  Two  days  after  I 
wrote  to  Anne  we  set  off  on  an  expedition  I  told  her 
of  to  Pella.  It  is  a  ride  of  about  twenty  miles  from 
Salonica,  across  a  large  flat  Bannat-like  plain,  covered 
at  this  time  of  the  year  with  marshes  and  water,  which 
put  me  very  often  in  mind  of  the  dear  country  from  Cam- 
bridge to  Ely.  About  half-way  we  crossed  the  Axius, 
an  extremely  broad  river,  at  least  now,  over  a  wood 
bridge,  which,  being  in  a  most  crazy  condition,  we 
thought  proper  to  lead  our  horses  across.  The  river 
is,  as  I  said,  considerable,  not  less  than  four  hundred 


1794]  BIRTHPLACE  OF  ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT    159 

yards  over,  and  one  of  the  most  rapid.  Of  all  the 
towns  I  have  yet  seen  built  by  the  ancients,  Pella  is 
certainly  placed  in  the  worst  situation ;  at  least  in 
winter.  The  present  village  of  the  name  is  at  some 
distance  from  the  ancient  situation. 

We  were  lodged  here  in  the  house  of  the  Turkish 
governor,  and  were  received  with  their  usual  hos- 
pitality. We  rode  down  to  the  ruins,  at  about  a  mile 
from  the  village.  The  town  was  situated  at  the  end  of 
a  marsh,  and  almost  in  it.  At  present  nothing  remains 
but  a  square  old  wall  in  ruins,  which  may  have  been 
anything ;  another  with  a  strong,  clear  spring  in  the 
middle,  which  is  warm  in  winter,  a  few  traces  of  the 
city  wall,  and  some  catacombs.  Every  other  trace  of 
antiquity  has  been  destroyed  by  time  and  the  Turks, 
or  sunk  in  the  marsh.  We  wondered  less  at  it  when 
we  saw  the  place,  as  it  is  little  more  than  a  quagmire 
in  winter.  We  stayed  a  day  here,  and  issued  a 
proclamation  for  medals  by  the  town  crier,  and  got 
several,  particularly  of  Philip  and  Alexander.  The 
greatest  curiosity  here  is  a  number  of  small  heads 
found  all  over  the  ancient  situation  in  ploughing  or 
digging,  which  I  have  not  heard  of  anywhere  else. 
They  are  small  and  made  of  hardened  clay,  most  of 
them  women's  heads,  with  a  great  variety  of  ancient 
head-dresses.  We  only  found  amongst  them  one 
whole  figure  of  a  man  in  armour,  ill-made  enough,  and 
found  above  sixty  heads,  so  it  put  me  very  much  in 
mind  of  your  island  of  sheep's  heads.  One  or  two  of 
them  were  well  preserved  and  finished,  and  seemed  to 
be  taken  from  very  pretty  originals.  What  these  can 
have  been  I  am  not  antiquarian  enough  to  say,  or  why 
they  are  only  found  at  Pella. 

I  cannot  make  out  that  there  was  any  temple  here 
where  such  offerings  were  deposited,  as  I  thought  at 
first  probable,  in  a  temple  of  Aesculapius  or  Apollo,  for 
cures  performed.  They  are  found  in  great  numbers, 
and  seem  most  of  them  Roman.  I  have  bought, 
too,  a  little  bust  in  alto-rilievo  on  a  square  bronze 


160        THROUGH   THESSALY   AND   BOEOTIA    [CH.  vn 

medallion,  of  which  the  work  is  not  bad,  and  is  well 
preserved.  Don't  tell  anybody,  as  it  will  depreciate 
my  collection,  but  it  cost  me  twopence,  and  is 
certainly  no  worse  than  that.  The  figure  seems  a 
Diana  with  a  quiver  at  her  back ;  the  drapery  is 
Roman,  I  believe.  In  our  return  home  we  were  very 
near  stopped  by  the  swelling  of  a  torrent,  and  our 
servant,  who,  being  a  Frenchman,  is  a  little  Gasconishly 
inclined,  chose  to  ride  into  it;  by  which  means  he 
came  in  for  a  good  ducking,  and  returned  as  wise  as 
he  went  in. 


LEVADIA  or  LEBADEA, 

January  3,    1795. 

MY  DEAR  MOTHER, 

I  write  to  you  again  as  I  promised  you  in  my 
letter  from  Salonica;  we  are,  as  you  will  see,  pretty 
well  advanced  on  our  road  to  Athens,  from  which  I 
shall  send  you  this  letter,  and  I  hope  you  will  find  in 
it  some  specimens  of  the  genuine  Attic  salt :  if  the  first 
part  happens  to  be  dull,  you  must  also  remember  it 
was  begun  in  Boeotia.  You  will  be  anxious,  no  doubt, 
to  hear  what  we  have  seen  in  the  interesting  country 
we  have  crossed,  and  though  I  cannot  say  we  have 
met  with  many  remains,  yet,  as  our  account  of  situation 
will  remind  you  of  places  you  have  read  of,  it  cannot 
but  interest  you  as  it  has  done  us.  We  left  Salonica 
at  last  and  crossed  the  gulf  to  a  village  opposite, 
cutting  offa  tedious  land  journey  at  this  time  of  the  year, 
over  the  swampy  plains  of  Macedonia.  The  principal 
town  here  now  is  St.  Catherina,  a  small  place  where 
the  Aga  lives  who  commands  most  of  that  district. 
We  took  strong  letters  of  recommendation,  and  a 
dozen  bottles  of  rum  still  stronger,  which  were  very 
graciously  received,  and  we  were  furnished  with  meat 
and  lodging  while  we  stayed  and  horses  when  we 
went,  at  the  expense  of  the  town. 

The  town  is  just  on  the  beginning  of  that  part  of 
Macedonia    which    rises    towards    Olympus.      This 


1795]  THE   VALE   OF  TEMPE  161 

mountain,  or,  rather,  this  chain  of  mountains,  is  high, 
and  of  a  bold  outline,  now  covered  with  snow,  and 
resembling  the  Swiss  hills,  but  long  before  the  bottom 
it  was  perfectly  free  from  it.  We  coasted  the  sea 
eastward  along  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  and  were  at 
last  stopped  by  a  large  overflowed  plain  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Peneus,  and  crossed  some  high  ridges  of 
Olympus  into  the  famous  Vale  of  Tempe.  Will  you 
believe  that  we  crossed  it  and  arrived  upon  the  oppo- 
site mountain,  Ossa,  before  we  knew  where  we  were, 
and  should  not  have  found  out  if  a  Greek  merchant  at 
the  town  where  we  slept  had  not  informed  us  ?  Don't 
think  us  stupid,  but  believe  me  Tempe  is  (now  at 
least)  by  no  means  handsomer  than  many  dales  about 
Rokeby,  and  not  so  handsome  as  some.  It  does  not 
therefore  follow  that  the  ancients  have  told  lies ;  but 
the  woods  which  they  celebrate  it  for  are  now  almost 
all  destroyed.  The  valley  itself  is  pretty,  but  the  hills 
on  each  side  are  bare  and  barren.  The  river,  which  in 
summer  is  very  clear,  was  now  muddy  and  over- 
flowed ;  and  in  this  climate  it  must  be  a  wonderful 
charm,  when  the  heat  is  so  great  as  to  dry  up  all  the 
springs  round  it.  The  evergreens,  bowers,  etc.,  we 
did  not  see,  and  can  only  say  that  it  has  several  fine 
trees,  some  groves,  and  many  pretty  villages  on  its 
banks,  but  is  not  at  all  the  superior  scene  we  expected, 
and  far  inferior  to  Athos  or  Mount  Ida.  Below,  as 
ancient  authors  describe,  the  river  runs  in  a  deep 
gorge  between  the  two  mountains,  which  both  rise 
over  it  perpendicularly  in  immense  rocks.  By  this  we 
should  have  entered  the  valley,  but  the  overflowing 
of  the  river  prevented  us.  The  next  day  we  arrived 
at  Larissa.  Thessaly  is  a  singular  country,  and 
exactly  what  ancient  authors  describe  it. 

Immense  plains  of  the  greatest  and  most  surprising 
fertility,  separated  by  chains  of  mountains  of  the 
greatest  barrenness  and  boldness,  and  which,  as 
Barthelemy  so  well  observes,  presented  such  natural 
boundaries  to  its  first  inhabitants  that  Thessaly  con- 


162        THROUGH   THESSALY  AND   BOEOTIA    [CH.  vn 

sisted  of  almost  as  many  nations  as  it  contained 
valleys.  The  country,  however,  is  nowhere  pictur- 
esque, except  just  in  the  passes  of  the  mountains,  as 
it  everywhere  wants  trees,  and  has  an  air  not  unlike 
the  beautiful  plains  of  Cambridge  and  Huntingdon. 
The  modern  Larissa  is  a  large  Turkish  town,  neat 
and  clean,  built  along  the  banks  of  the  Peneus,  over 
which  it  has  a  bridge  of  stone  arches.  The  ancient 
town  was  considerably  higher  up  the  river.  As  we 
mean  to  cross  this  part  of  Greece  again  at  a  better 
season  of  the  year,  we  were  deterred  by  a  rainy  day 
from  visiting  the  ancient  situation.  We  crossed 
Thessaly  southwards,  and  slept  the  night,  after  leaving 
Larissa  at  Pharsalia,  still  called  Pharsala.  The  plain 
of  the  famous  battle  lays  below  it,  for  it  is  situated  on 
the  slope  of  a  hill,  with  the  citadel  on  its  top.  The 
walls  of  the  citadel  remain  in  many  parts,  and  you 
see  in  the  fortress  large  cisterns  to  supply  the  garrison 
with  water.  The  plain,  you  will  not  be  surprised  to 
hear,  is  like  all  other  plains,  and  more  interesting  to 
see  than  to  describe.  In  the  mosque-wall  we  saw 
here  a  bas-relief  which  I  should  have  been  glad  to 
carry  off.  It  represents  an  Augur  with  the  divining 
rod  in  his  hand,  seated  and  holding  conversation  with 
a  bird  (I  believe  a  raven)  perched  on  an  atlas  before 
him. 

This  is  the  country  of  Achilles.  About  six  miles 
from  Pharsala,  we  passed  the  ruins  of  a  large  town 
I  believe  to  be  Phthia ;  at  least  it  is  on  a  river  which 
answers  the  character  of  the  Apidanus,  and  is 
evidently  ancient.  It  has  no  remains  but  the  wall, 
which  in  parts  is  pretty  perfect.  We  afterwards 
passed  the  remains  of  some  less  remarkable  towns  at 
Thaumaci,  Hypata,  and  Lamia,  all  situated  in  Mount 
Othrys,  through  the  passes  of  which  we  came  into  the 
valley  of  the  Spercheius.  Oeta,  which  is  on  the  other 
side  of  the  valley,  is  a  most  magnificent  object,  I  think 
the  most  so  of  any  mountain  we  have  seen.  It  now 
was  capped  with  snow,  but  in  the  valley  the  leaves 


1795]  THE   PASS  OF   THERMOPYLAE  163 

were  on  the  trees,  and  it  looked  like  a  summer  view- 
The  gulf  of  Malia  and  the  view  of  Euboea  are  good  in 
this  descent,  but  as  you  approach  the  plain  it  looks 
barren,  swampy,  and  covered  with  marshes.  The 
day  after  we  crossed  it,  and  in  two  hours  came  to 
Thermopylae.  From  the  mud  brought  down  by  the 
Spercheius,  the  sea  is  now  much  filled  up  in  this  part, 
and  the  marshes  at  the  entrance  of  the  defile  would  be 
no  longer  impassable.  The  road,  however,  is  the  same. 
At  the  entrance  of  the  pass  it  is  about  ten  or  twelve 
yards  across,  and  continues  so  for  a  short  way.  A 
steep  but  low  rock  overhangs  it  the  whole  way. 
Beyond  this  the  road  opens,  and  the  hills  on  the  right 
slope  gradually  up  towards  Oeta. 

It  was  here  the  Grecians  had  their  camp,  and  here 
the  Spartans  retired  with  the  body  of  Leonidas,  and 
died  defending  it.  The  hot  springs  from  which  it 
had  its  name  gush  out  at  every  step,  and  a  low  hill 
near  the  entrance  of  the  pass  was  that,  I  believe,  to 
which  the  Spartans  retired,  and  where  their  tombs 
were  erected  afterwards.  The  hot  springs  are 
sulphurous,  and  taste  a  good  deal  like  Harrogate 
water.  Beyond  them  the  road  is  again  very  narrow, 
and  the  hills  over  it  are  steep  and  covered  with  wood. 
On  part  of  them  is  a  guard-house,  established  to 
prevent  robberies,  of  which  I  will  by  and  by  tell  you 
the  system  in  these  parts.  We  gave  them,  however, 
every  chance,  for  we  stopped  to  draw  the  view,  and 
afterwards  lost  our  road,  and  wandered  up  the 
mountain.  We  slept  at  Pountonitza,  once  Opus,  the 
capital  of  the  Locri  Opuntii.  Since  that  we  crossed 
into  Boeotia,  passed  the  little  village  of  Chaeronea, 
which  I  detest  even  more  than  Pharsalia;  we  next 
paid  our  devoirs  to  Trophonius  at  Lebadea,  and  called 
upon  Pindar  and  Epaminondas  at  Thebes,  whom  we 
mean  to  visit  again  ;  so  shall  now  only  send  their 
best  respects.  Nous  voila  at  Athens,  and  here  I  could 
go  on  for  ever,  like  Father  Shandy  at  Auxerre. 

I  assure  you  it  is  well  worth  the  whole  tour  for  the 


164        THROUGH   THESSALY  AND   BOEOTIA   [CH.  vn 

moment  you  are  here  and  look  round  you :  the  world 
seems  just  to  have  rolled  back  some  thousand  years, 
and  you  are  in  the  midst  of  all  you  have  read  about. 
Was  it  not  for  meeting  a  Turk  or  two  under  the 
temple  of  Theseus  or  the  citadel,  you  would  be 
tempted  to  think  it  really  was  so.  I  will  not  cram 
into  the  end  of  a  letter,  however,  what  I  have  to  say 
about  Athens,  but  after  1  have  finished  my  sheet 
shall  begin  another  to  Anne  containing  particulars. 
Our  mode  of  travelling  in  this  country  is  this :  We 
took  from  St.  Catherina  a  janissary  belonging  to  the 
Pasha  of  Joannina  in  Epirus,  at  the  recommendation 
of  the  Aga  of  St.  Catherina.  The  robbers  that  infest 
the  whole  of  this  country  are  almost  all  subjects  of 
the  Pasha  of  Joannina,  who  connives  at  them  and 
shares  the  profits.  They  are  Albanian  Turks,  and 
differ  in  language,  dress,  and  manners  from  the  others, 
whom  they  despise.  They  are  a  very  lawless,  des- 
perate gang,  with  much  the  same  virtues  and  honour, 
however,  among  them  as  that  of  Captain  Rolando  in 
14  Gil  Bias."  They  are,  many  of  them,  perfectly  inde- 
pendent in  some  districts,  live  on  divided  plunder, 
stand  by  each  other  faithfully,  and  set  at  defiance 
both  the  power  of  the  Sultan  and  of  their  Pashas. 
In  other  parts  the  Pashas  themselves  support  and  are 
supported  by  them,  and  Ali  Pasha,  of  Joannina,  has 
so  numerous  a  Court  and  such  power  over  his  sub- 
jects that  he  may  be  considered  as  a  perfectly  separate 
government  from  the  Sultan,  who  acts  entirely  under 
his  direction  here,  to  avoid  an  open  rupture,  which 
would  show  only  his  own  weakness  and  the  strength 
of  his  antagonist.  The  Pashas  of  Scutari  have  had 
a  perpetual  war  with  the  Porte  for  four  or  five 
generations,  and  are  still  unhurt,  and  as  formidable 
as  ever.  The  Pasha  of  Joannina  is  still  more  powerful, 
and,  though  not  in  name,  is  in  reality  commander  of 
almost  all  Greece,  for  he  has  seized  by  his  guards  all 
the  passes  of  the  mountains,  and,  under  pretence  of 
guarding,  stops,  plunders,  or  murders  any  passenger 


1795]  THE   PLAGUE   AT  SMYRNA  16$ 

he  pleases.  With  one  of  his  janissaries,  and  our- 
selves disguised  in  Turkish  dresses  as  janissaries 
likewise,  we  passed  perfectly  safe,  but  the  least 
ostentation  or  appearance  of  riches  would  have  ex- 
posed us  very  much.  In  summer  the  way  we  have 
come  is  almost  impassable,  but  now  the  robbers  are 
much  dispersed  and  cannot  so  easily  keep  the  field, 
so  that,  with  a  good  deal  of  caution  and  inquiry,  we 
have  been  able  to  come.  You  shall  hear  more  about 
our  friends  the  Albanians  when  we  have  seen  Joannina, 
which  is  in  a  manner  their  capital,  and  where  we  mean 
to  pay  a  visit  to  Ali  Pasha. 

On  arriving  here  we  had  hoped  to  find  all  our  letters 
from  England,  as  everything  that  came  for  us  to  Con- 
stantinople was  to  be  forwarded  here  to  us  through 
Smyrna  or  Salonica.  Our  packets  from  Salonica, 
which  had  been  sent  off  before  our  arrival  there,  have 
somehow  miscarried,  and  at  Smyrna  the  plague,  which 
had  begun  when  we  left  it,  has  declared  itself  with 
violence ;  everything  is  of  course  shut  up,  and  God 
knows  what  has  become  either  of  our  letters  or  the 
greatest  part  of  our  goods  and  chattels  which  we  left 
there,  and  which  I  suppose  are  still  lying  in  the  ware- 
house of  the  English  Consul.  We  are  here,  then, 
without  anything  but  just  our  bedding  and  travelling 
clothes,  with  a  few  of  our  books  ;  we  know  little  or 
nothing  about  England  or  you,  and  have  some  uneasi- 
ness about  Wilbraham,  whom  we  left  at  Smyrna.  If 
he  stayed  long  he  is  in  no  danger,  as  he  is  in  the  house 
of  an  Englishman,  who  understands  well  enough  how 
to  prevent  the  plague  from  entering,  but  he  will  very 
probably  be  shut  up  till  it  ceases,  which  may  not  be 
for  many  months.  We  got  away  just  in  time,  or 
should  very  probably  have  had  the  same  fate ;  he  is 
particularly  unfortunate  if  it  is  so,  as  the  plague  is 
scarce  ever  known  to  break  out  in  the  winter,  and 
the  deaths  that  happened  while  we  were  there 
were  ascribed  to  fevers,  etc.  At  present,  however, 
the  plague  rages  there  certainly,  and  as  I  have  not 

23 


166        THROUGH   THESSALY  AND    BOEOTIA    [CH.  VH 

heard  from  him,  I  can  only  hope  he  followed  our 
example,  and  left  the  place  in  time. 

The  only  news  we  have  heard  about  England  is  that 
she  is  left  to  finish  the  war  alone,  and  that  all  her 
faithful  allies  have  made  peace.  At  least,  she  won't 
pay  any  more  subsidies  to  His  Majesty  of  Sardinia,  or 
be  cheated  by  the  King  of  Prussia ;  the  war  will,  I 
hope,  be  a  naval  one,  and  alors  nous  verrons.  I  never 
fail  drinking  her  good  health,  and  Rule  Britannia,  for 
I  think  we  are  in  a  much  fairer  way  without  such 
allies  than  with  them.  With  all  this  stuff,  however, 
I  don't  know  one  particular,  so  you  will  possibly  laugh 
at  my  intelligence  and  stare  at  my  opinions.  I  am 
anxious  beyond  measure  to  hear  something  about  you 
all,  but  I  will  at  least  take  care,  if  possible,  that  you 
shall  not  have  the  same  anxiety  about  me,  as  I  will 
write  constantly  ;  but  don't  be  surprised  if  some  of  my 
letters  are  long  in  coming,  as  they  have  to  pass 
through  a  curious  sort  of  post  before  they  arrive  at 
England. 

We  have  taken  a  house  here,  and  mean  to  stay  some 
weeks,  both  to  see  Athens  more  perfectly  and  to  wait 
for  the  spring  before  we  again  open  the  campaign. 
The  two  last  days  are  almost  the  only  cold  ones  we 
have  experienced,  and  they  have  been  so  clear  and 
fine  that  the  cold  only  makes  walking  pleasanter. 
When  the  wind  is  in  the  north  the  air  is  frosty,  and 
snow  appears  on  the  hills  ;  if  it  changes  southwards, 
the  weather  is  like  our  April  or  May,  and  you  can 
have  no  idea  of  anything  so  pleasant.  The  soil  of 
Attica  is  the  driest  imaginable ;  the  olives  which  still 
cover  it  are  here  perfectly  evergreen,  and  are  now 
in  as  full  leaf  as  in  summer. 

You  will  imagine  the  mildness  of  the  climate  when 
I  tell  you  that  a  vine  in  the  yard  of  the  English 
Consul's  house,  where  I  am  writing,  has  not  yet  lost 
its  leaves,  and  that  almost  everybody  we  have  met 
brought  us  little  bits  of  ice,  as  a  great  curiosity,  which 
you  will  imagine  is  not  a  very  great  one  to  us.  There 


1795]  ATHENS  167 

is,  in  fact,  no  winter  here,  and  a  sky  always  pure  and 
healthy  makes  Athens  the  finest  situation  I  ever  saw. 
The  proverbial  fogs  of  Boeotia  we  were  witnesses  of, 
and  the  climate  is  so  different  in  Attica  that  I  imme- 
diately, in  my  own  mind,  justified  ancient  writers,  who 
notice  the  difference,  which  I  had  before  imagined 
fanciful  from  their  very  great  vicinity.  The  hills 
which  separate  them  shelter  Attica  to  the  north.  The 
soil  is  uncommonly  dry  after  the  heaviest  showers, 
the  air  is  always  clear;  and  were  I  to  choose  my 
winter's  residence,  I  would  certainly  prefer  Athens  to 
any  place  I  ever  was  at. 

You  see  narcissi  and  stocks  in  flower  every- 
where, and  oranges  or  lemons  in  every  garden  in  the 
town.  The  country,  covered  with  olives  in  leaf,  has 
quite  a  summer  aspect,  and  the  view  of  the  bay  and 
islands  of  Salamis  and  Egina  is  delightful.  We  walk 
out  every  day,  and  you  will  envy  me  when  I  tell  you 
that  our  morning's  walk  has  to-day  been  to  the  famous 
Academy,  still  called  "  Academia."  Two  low,  small 
hills,  commanding  the  view  of  Athens,  the  Piraeus, 
and  the  whole  country,  have  been  the  situation  of 
these  famous  walks.  I  do  not  wonder  at  Plato's 
choosing  such  a  situation  for  his  lectures ;  it  is  one  of 
the  prettiest  in  the  country.  There  remains  nothing 
ancient  but  the  name. 

We  recollected  in  our  return  that  the  tombs  of  the 
Athenians  killed  in  battle  were  on  each  side  the  road 
to  the  Academy,  and  you  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  in 
looking  attentively  about  we  saw  in  the  fields  a  low 
semi-column,  such  as  they  placed  over  their  tombs, 
inscribed  with  the  name  of  an  Athenian,  Theodotus, 
and  which  I  have  no  doubt  is  one  of  them.  Those  of 
Marathon  were  buried  on  the  spot  they  fought  on,  but 
afterwards  the  Athenians  always  brought  their  dead 
here,  and  the  road  to  the  Academy  and  to  the  Piraeus 
was  the  place  where  they  were  buried.  We  found 
one  or  two  of  these  semi-columns  without  inscrip- 
tions, most  likely  from  time.  The  most  of  them  have 


168^      THROUGH   THESSALY  AND    BOEOTIA    [CH.  vn 

been  taken  away  to  adorn  Turkish  burying-grounds, 
or  stuck  pell-mell  into  the  walls  of  any  building  that 
happens  to  be  near. 

Believe  me, 

Most  sincerely, 

Your  affectionate  son, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

ATHENS, 
January  n. 

ATHENS, 
January  18  to  22,  1795. 

DEAR  ANNE, 

I  begin  a  letter  to  you, as  I  promised  my  mother 
I  would,  with  some  account  of  our  proceedings  at  and 
about  Athens.  I  will  first  preface  it,  however,  by 
telling  you  we  have  been  made  very  happy  by  re- 
ceiving this  evening  some  news  of  you,  as  a  letter 
of  my  mother's  has  contrived  to  reach  us,  though  of 
so  old  a  date  as  September  24. 

Her  letter  brought  us  the  most  pleasing  account  of 
Henry's  conduct  and  health.  I  have  heard  nothing 
from  him,  at  which  I  am  not,  however,  surprised,  for 
it  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  correspond  when  we  are 
both  of  us  in  motion.  I  fear  his  motions  have  lately 
been  neither  so  voluntary  nor  so  unmolested  as 
mine ;  however,  I  hope  they  have  been  as  safe.  If 
the  allied  troops  have  gone  on  with  their  system  of 
being  beat,  he  might  have  had  a  chance  of  making 
a  tour  through  Holland  at  His  Majesty's  expense,  as 
he  had  through  Flanders. 

The  French  here  are  in  great  glee  at  some  news 
they  have  of  the  English  under  the  Duke  of  York 
having  received  a  terrible  check.  We  hear  no  par- 
ticulars now,  and  when  we  do  they  are  hardly  ever 
to  be  depended  on,  as  a  Frenchman's  imagination  is 
not  the  least  active  weapon  of  the  fiers  republicans. 
I  only  trust  in  God  that  our  dear  Henry,  if  not  in 
England  before,  has  at  least  not  been  involved  in 
the  disasters  of  the  army.  We  hear  more  and  more 


1795]  APPROACH    TO  ATHENS  169 

that  peace  is  declared,  only  exclusive  of  England, 
and  if  so,  our  land  forces  at  least,  and  he  among  the 
rest,  will,  I  hope,  when  you  receive  this,  be  most  of 
them  safe  and  well  in  old  England,  if  our  worthy 
allies  have  really  had  the  conscience  to  include 
Holland,  though  they  give  up  Flanders. 

I  can  imagine  a  charming  party  at  Colton  Lodge 
when  we  all  get  back  again,  for  as  Henry  has  learnt 
to  smoke  of  the  Dutchmen  for  his  health,  we  have 
learnt  it  of  the  Turks  from  civility.  The  first  thing 
that  is  offered  us  on  entering  a  Turk's  house  is  a 
long  pipe  and  a  dish  of  coffee,  and  I  often  wish  you 
could  see  us  sitting  in  form  with  our  legs  crossed  (a  la 
Cath.  Stanley),  on  a  sofa,  making  the  agreeable  to  an 
Aga.  Don't  let  Christopher  hear  of  it,  as  I  mean 
to  surprise  him  some  day  by  a  complete  Turkish 
smoking  apparatus.  I  am,  indeed,  at  this  instant  of 
writing  to  you,  such  a  figure  that  I  do  not  believe 
you  would  know  me  if  you  saw  me.  My  English 
dresses  having  quite  done  all  that  could  be  expected 
from  them,  I  am  at  this  moment  a  la  Turque,  and  have 
been  for  some  weeks. 

I  shall  alarm  you  by  telling  you  that  your  shawl 
makes  me  a  magnificent  turban  ;  but  don't  be  afraid  I 
shall  pass  it  at  the  custom-house  by  swearing  to  it  as 
part  of  my  dress.  A  fine  ermine  pelisse,  with  my 
other  long  robes,  makes  a  very  smart  Turk  of  me, 
and  I  strut  about  the  streets  of  Athens  with  great 
effect. 

To  leave  off  this  nonsense  and  tell  you  something 
about  what  we  have  seen  :  We  came  into  Attica  across 
the  Asopus  and  Mount  Parnes,  which  separate  it  from 
Boeotia.  The  mountain  is  almost  entirely  rock,  and  in 
general  uninteresting,  but  its  branches  towards  Attica 
are  covered  with  firs,  broken  into  dells,  and  resemble 
strikingly  some  of  the  scenes  about  the  Tees  and 
Greta.  A  ruined  ancient  fortress  covers  the  top  of  an 
insulated  rock  that  stands  up  grotesquely  in  the  middle 
of  one  of  these  dells  and  caught  our  attention  from  the 


170        THROUGH    THESSALY   AND   BOEOTIA    [CH.  vn 

irregularity  of  its  situation,  which  hardly  admits  a 
pathway  up  to  it.  From  this  the  plain  continues  to 
Athens,  which  we  saw  in  the  descent,  and  which  is 
about  ten  miles  distant.  The  plain  is  cultivated  and, 
as  formerly,  covered  with  olives.  They  grow  here  in 
the  greatest  abundance,  and  their  oil  is  still  famous. 
The  plain  is  large,  dry,  and  not  too  dead  a  flat ;  several 
hills  rise  out  of  it  on  all  sides,  rocky  and  steep,  but  not 
very  high. 

We  soon  had  a  full  view  of  Athens,  the  approach  to 
which  throws  your  mind  quite  back  to  ancient  times 
The  first  object  that  strikes  you  on  approaching  the 
town  from  every  side  is  the  citadel.  Its  present  walls, 
built  by  the  Venetians  on  the  ancient  foundations, 
enclose  the  top  of  a  high  insulated  rock,  containing 
eight  or  ten  acres.  Over  these  domineer  the  remains 
of  the  temple  of  Minerva,  of  which  the  front  is  entire 
and  most  of  the  other  pillars  standing,  from  the  side  by 
which  we  came;  the  smaller  pillars  of  another  little 
temple  (of  Erechtheus)  are  also  seen  in  the  citadel. 
The  road,  about  a  mile  from  Athens,  passes  a  small 
hill,  where  was  the  famous  Academy  ;  beyond  these  we 
could  see  the  whole  town,  which  is  still  considerable, 
and  the  remains  and  monuments  round  it.  Its  situa- 
tion, independent  of  beauty,  is  the  driest  and  best 
chosen  I  can  conceive,  sloping  every  way  from  the 
rocks  of  the  citadel  and  covering  the  sides  of  some 
other  low  hills  near,  in  a  clear  climate  and  a  gravelly 
soil.  The  object  which,  next  to  the  citadel,  embellishes 
it  most  is  the  little  [so-called]  temple  of  Theseus  on  a 
low,  green  hill  at  the  end  of  the  town.  It  is  absolutely 
entire,  and  is  at  present  a  modern  Greek  church.  The 
only  changes  it  has  undergone  is  in  roofing  the  inside, 
which  was  in  the  ancient  temple,  I  believe,  open,  and 
the  unroofing  of  the  portico  between  the  pillars  and 
the  body  of  the  temple,  where  the  people  assisted  at  the 
sacrifices. 

These  make  no  alteration  in  its  form ;  it  is  oblong, 
built  entirely  of  marble.  It  is,  I  believe,  about  sixty 


1795]  ICONOCLASM  171 

feet  in  length  and  half  that  in  width,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  entrance  are  two  columns  supporting  a  beautiful 
frieze  in  basso-rilievo.  The  sculptures  representing 
the  combats  of  Theseus  with  the  Amazons,  and  different 
circumstances  of  his  life,  are,  I  believe,  as  well  as  those 
in  the  citadel,  the  work  of  Phidias.  The  heads  of  all 
are  mutilated,  and  it  must  have  taken  some  pains  to 
destroy  them  so  much.  Indeed,  I  hear  they  were 
destroyed  prior  to  the  Turks,  in  the  barbarous  ages 
of  Christianity,  and  by  order  of  the  Greek  Emperors, 
who,  adopting  the  zeal  of  the  iconoclasts,  broke  them 
as  idolatrous ;  and,  indeed,  the  Turks,  though  they 
repair  nothing,  generally  don't  give  themselves  much 
trouble  to  destroy  things  placed  so  high  as  these  are, 
which  seems  rather  to  have  required  the  animation  of 
bigotry,  as  well  as  the  blindness  of  barbarism.  Would 
you  believe,  however,  that  the  Turks  have  lately  been 
breaking  up  part  of  the  white  marble  flags  that  sur- 
round the  temple,  merely  to  burn  into  lime,  because  it 
is  nearer  at  hand  than  most  other  limestone  ? 

We  walk  about  constantly  here ;  at  first  we  lodged 
with  the  Consul,  who  is  poor  and  a  Greek,  two  circum- 
stances which  together  always  make  a  man  a  scoundrel. 
Finding  we  were  cheated  by  everybody  we  employed, 
we  left  him  and  took  a  house  of  our  own,  so  we  are 
now  Athenians.  Our  stay  is  made  more  satisfactory 
by  the  acquaintance  of  a  Frenchman  established  here 
for  the  last  eight  years.  He  is  a  painter,  and,  having 
been  employed  much  by  Choiseul-Gouffier,1  has  added 
to  his  talents  a  great  knowledge  of  architecture  and 
connoisseurship,  with  some  acquaintance  with  antiqui- 
ties. He  has  dug  much  about  Attica  and  found  many 
valuable  marbles  and  remains  since  his  stay  here,  and 
he  has  given  us  much  information  about  the  antiquities 
worth  seeing  in  the  country. 

He  lately  dug  in  the  plain  of  Marathon,  and  in  a 
small  island,  now  surrounded  by  a  marsh,  discovered 
several  ashes  and  small  tiles,  on  which  were  inscribed 

1  French  Ambassador  at  Constantinople  1784-92. 


172        THROUGH   THESSALY  AND   BOEOTIA    [CH.  vir 

in  Greek,  "  Of  an  Athenian."  Such  is  the  situation 
in  which  were  buried  the  conquerors  of  Darius.  A 
small  hillock,  consisting  of  larger  bricks  and  stronger 
masonry,  was  the  tomb,  probably,  of  the  generals 
Callimachus  or  Stesilas,  who  fell  in  the  action.  What 
makes  this  remarkable  is  that  the  tombs  of  Marathon 
were  unknown  till  he  discovered  them  by  accident 
in  searching  for  statues,  having  found  three  busts  of 
Hadrian,  Antoninus,  and  L.  Verus  buried  in  another 
part  of  the  plain.  As  he  knew  Chevalier  and  Choiseul, 
I  inquired  about  the  urn  and  Minerva,  etc.,  found  in 
the  tomb  of  Achilles.  The  Comte  Choiseul  gave  him 
at  Constantinople  the  broken  pieces  of  copper  which 
had  been  really  found  there,  and  of  which  one  piece, 
resembling  a  spear-head,  was  to  be,  no  doubt,  the 
spear  of  Achilles.  Another,  with  something  like 
grapes  on  it,  was  the  famous  urn  Bacchus  gave  Thetis, 
etc.,  etc. 

On  cleaning  them  completely  and  putting  them 
together,  it  appeared  they  all  together  formed  a  single 
figure.  The  spear-head  became  a  female  figure  whose 
two  feet,  being  joined  and  pointed  with  a  spike  below, 
had  a  slight  resemblance.  The  boiling  of  part  of  the 
copper  in  the  fire  had  swelled  little  knots  of  rust  and 
verdigris,  which  were  made  into  bunches  of  grapes. 
A  flat  plate  of  copper  supported  by  two  horses,  into 
which  her  feet  were  fixed,  was  the  car  of  Minerva; 
au  reste,  the  figure  was  antique  and  curious  enough. 
On  her  head  is  a  verde  Ionic  capital,  and  on  her 
shoulders  are  two  sphinxes.  This  I  describe  from 
a  cast  he  made  of  it,  and  mean  to  employ  him  to  make 
one  for  me,  as  it  certainly  was  found  in  this  tomb,  and 
he  conjectures  it  to  have  been  the  remains  of  the  mad 
ceremonies  which  Caracalla,  in  imitation  of  Alexander, 
paid  there.  Round  it  was  found  much  charcoal,  mixed 
with  ashes  of  victims  and  some  apparently  human 
bones.  He  has  opened  a  tomb  near  Athens,  described 
by  Pausanias  as  that  of  the  Amazon  Antiope,  mistress 
of  Theseus.  He  found  here  also  ashes,  and  in  it,  and 


1795]      THE   PROPYLAEA   AND   PARTHENON          173 

in  some  others  which  he  searched,  small  vases  resem- 
bling Etruscan,  with  only  the  outlines  of  the  figures 
roughly  marked  in  red  on  a  white  ground.  They  were 
usually  a  part  of  the  offering  to  the  dead  on  these 
occasions,  and  either  did  or  were  supposed  to  contain 
the  tears  of  their  friends.  These  searches,  however, 
leave  no  doubt  of  the  barrows  in  all  this  country  being 
really  tombs.  We  have  several  times  paid  Minerva  a 
visit  in  the  citadel,  and,  indeed,  go  up  there  almost 
every  day. 

In  the  way  after  passing  through  the  town  you 
mount  along  the  north  side  of  the  rock  towards  the 
Propylaea,  which  are  at  the  west  end  of  it.  Above, 
on  the  left,  a  small  cave  about  four  feet  deep  is  the 
famous  grotto  of  Pan.  The  Propylaea,  or  Gateway 
to  the  Citadel,  is  beautiful,  though  built  up  between 
its  pillars  by  shabby  buildings  and  Venetian  fortifi- 
cations. As  I  shall  procure  plans,  it  is  not  worth 
giving  you  a  very  particular  description  of  these 
buildings.  Of  their  effect  I  shall  say  that  they  are 
entirely  built  of  large  blocks  of  marble.  As  you  enter 
you  have  the  remains  of  a  portico  of  six  Doric 
columns  in  front,  of  a  great  size.  Two  square  wings 
project  on  each  side,  adorned  with  Doric  columns 
facing  inwards,  and  in  front  with  pilasters  and  a 
Doric  frieze.  Over  the  square  gateways  in  the  portico 
the  top  is  composed  of  single  blocks  of  marble  of  an 
immense  size.  To  see  the  different  parts  of  it  you 
are  obliged  to  walk  to  every  different  corner  of  it, 
as,  besides  many  of  the  pillars  being  gone,  the  rest 
are  so  built  up  as  to  produce  no  effect.  We  could 
judge,  however,  of  what  it  had  been,  and  the  chaste 
and  simple  architecture,  with  the  nobleness  of  the 
design,  distinguish  so  sufficiently  the  age  and  hands 
that  built  it. 

Having  passed  this  on  the  right,  below  is  a  large 
theatre  ;  but  the  front  of  the  temple  of  Minerva,  rising 
over  some  miserable  huts  built  before  it,  immediately 
strikes  you.  It  is  much  on  the  plan  of  the  temple 


174        THROUGH  THESSALY  AND  BOEOTIA    [CH.  vn 

of  Theseus,  but  far  larger,  and  with  more  columns. 
I  mean  to  bring  home  if  possible  not  only  drawings 
but  models  of  all  these  remains,  as  our  French  ac- 
quaintance models  very  well,  and  has  already  finished 
part  of  it  upon  the  exact  proportions.  The  building 
is  Doric,  and  the  outward  colonnade  has  consisted 
of  forty-six  columns.  In  the  front  the  colonnade  is 
double ;  and  over  the  portico  before  the  pediment  still 
remain  some  mutilated  figures,  of  which  the  drapery 
and  limbs  have  been  of  the  most  exquisite  workman- 
ship. Between  the  triglyphs  the  alto-rilievos  are 
on  this  side  almost  entirely  defaced.  Above  the  inner 
row  of  pillars  and  round  the  whole  body  of  the  temple 
runs  a  row  of  alto-rilievos.  The  sides  are  not  entire, 
for,  a  bomb  thrown  by  the  Venetians  having  fired  a 
powder  magazine  here,  the  explosion  destroyed  the 
roof,  and  threw  down  great  part  of  the  colonnade  on 
each  side.  Most  of  the  marble  pavement,  of  the  finest 
white  marble,  remains.  The  walls  within,  of  which 
great  part  remains,  were  also  of  white  marble,  and 
have  been  covered  by  the  later  Greeks  with  Christian 
saints  and  angels,  luckily  now  almost  washed  out  by 
the  rain. 

In  the  middle  of  this  fine  building  the  Turks  have 
built  a  small,  shabby  mosque,  and  even  that  set 
awry  towards  Mecca,  to  look  still  worse.  The  back 
part  is  the  same  as  the  other,  but  only  with  one  row 
of  columns;  of  the  second  row  there  is  only  one 
remaining.  Over  the  remaining  columns  on  the  south 
side  the  alto-rilievos  are  less  defaced.  They  repre- 
sent the  combat  of  the  Centaurs  and  Lapithae,  and  in 
each  department  is  represented  a  Centaur  with  his 
antagonist.  Fifteen  remain,  and  in  these  nothing  can 
exceed  the  variety  and  imagination  of  the  attitudes, 
or  the  brilliancy  and  exactness  of  the  execution.  You 
cannot  really  conceive  the  life  and  spirit  with  which 
every  figure  is  designed,  though  there  is  scarce  one 
unbroken  in  some  manner.  I  wish  I  may  be  able  to 
bring  you  some  as  specimens.  In  the  ruins  below 


i79S]  THE  ACROPOLIS   OF  ATHENS  175 

are   laid    a    thousand   other   basso-rilievos,   some    of 
which  I  probably  shall  procure. 

I  left  off  here  last  night,  and,  having  been  employed 
all  the  morning  in  the  citadel,  can  at  last  add  with 
some  pleasure  that  my  negotiations  have  succeeded 
with  the  commandant  of  the  castle,  and  that  to-morrow 
will  I  hope  put  me  in  possession  of  one  at  least,  if  not 
more,  of  the  alto-rilievos  of  Phidias  which  are  over 
the  grand  colonnade.  I  shall  also  try  to  bring  off 
some  of  the  basso-rilievos  below  which  are  broken 
parts  of  the  interior  frieze,  and  which  are  of  the  same 
hand.  Do  not  you  think  I  shall  make  a  pretty  addi- 
tion to  the  marbles  at  Rokeby  ?  I  dare  hardly  be  too 
sure  of  my  prize  yet,  and  tremble  lest  he  should  still 
change  his  mind.  However,  the  moment  I  have  them 
I  shall  take  the  precaution  to  ship  them  for  some  of 
the  Islands,  and  as  this  letter  will  not  be  closed  till 
after  to-morrow  you  shall  hear  how  I  go  on.  I  leave 
you  to  imagine  the  beauty  of  such  a  building  entirely 
of  white  marble ;  and  the  regret  we  had  in  seeing 
the  flags  which  remain,  and  the  large  square  blocks, 
which  have  been  thrown  down  by  the  powder,  broken 
in  pieces  to  make  paltry,  ugly  gravestones  in  a 
Turkish  burying-ground,  or  miserable  ornaments  for 
their  doorways. 

Near  the  temple  of  Minerva  is  another  small  one 
of  Erechtheus,  still  very  perfect.  It  is  an  oblong  Ionic 
building,  with  pillars  only  at  the  two  ends.  The 
Ionic  ornaments  are  continued  over  the  two  sides ; 
but  without  columns.  It  has  been  divided  into  two, 
and  contained  the  shrines  of  Minerva  Polias  and  of 
Erechtheus.  The  little  square  on  the  left  side  was  the 
shrine  of  Pandrosos,  the  young  lady  who  did  not  peep 
into  Erechtheus's  cradle  when  her  sisters  were  so 
curious  as  to  open  it.  The  square  on  the  right,  I  am 
assured  by  our  French  acquaintance,  has  been  nothing 
more  than  a  large  portico  serving  as  entrance.  We 
could  not  examine  it  as  we  wished,  for  the  Turks 
have  now  some  magazines  there,  and  we  only  ex- 


176        THROUGH   THESSALY   AND   BOEOTIA  [CH.  vn 

amined  the  outside  of  it.  The  entrance,  however, 
has,  I  believe,  been  there  ;  for  the  pillars  in  front  at 
this  end  are  raised  on  a  high  wall  of  marble,  and  have 
no  steps  up  to  them,  so  have  not  served  as  a  portico. 
There  is  a  little  staircase  descending  into  the  temple 
through  the  shrines  of  Pandrosos.  This  little  shrine 
is  so  perfect  that  the  very  ceiling  still  remains.  It 
consists  of  single  marble  blocks,  which  lie  across  the 
whole  roof,  and  are  worked  so  admirably  within  that 
I  have  seen  few  ornaments  of  stucco  in  England  so 
light  and  finished.  In  the  wall  are  four  female  figures, 
instead  of  pillars,  of  the  most  beautiful  design ;  they 
are  colossal,  each  about  seven  feet  high,  and,  having 
been  elevated  some  height  from  the  ground,  are  not 
delicately  carved,  but  boldly  touched  to  effect ;  the 
drapery,  however,  is  exquisite.  Their  arms  are  broken, 
their  noses  and  eyes  much  defaced,  and  they  are  built 
up  in  a  shabby,  rough  wall ;  but  originally  the  spaces 
between  them  have  been  open,  and  they  supported 
the  roof.  These,  if  you  talk  learnedly,  you  must  call 
the  Caryatides.  The  pillars  are  all  Ionic,  but  the 
capitals  extremely  ornamented,  and  the  scroll  round 
the  whole  seems  worked  in  filigree,  from  the  delicacy 
and  lightness  it  is  carved  with.  I  never  saw  the 
Ionic  order  more  beautiful,  and  begin  really  to  think 
the  ancient  Grecians  were  inspired  by  some  genius 
of  elegance  and  taste  that  has  since  given  over  busi- 
ness, for  we  do  not  make  any  more  of  these  kind  of 
miracles  now.  We  spend  whole  mornings  in  the 
citadel,  and  have  now  been  here  a  fortnight  without 
a  moment  of  ennui  (i.e.  since  we  got  a  house  of  our 
own). 

We  have  a  thousand  other  things  to  see  in  the 
neighbourhood,  but  cannot  satiate  ourselves  with  ad- 
miring those  in  the  town.  How  much  more  wonder- 
ful it  is  when  we  recollect  that  these  buildings  were 
chiefly  made  by  a  people  whose  whole  territory  is  not 
so  large  as  half  Yorkshire,  and  built,  under  Pericles  at 
least,  in  the  time  of  an  unsuccessful  war!  I  shall  never 


1795]  SUBURBS  OF   ATHENS  177 

talk  at  the  Quarter  Sessions  about  a  county  bridge  as 
long  as  I  live.  When  I  read  my  letter  over  I  don't 
know  whether  it  will  entertain  you.  On  paper  a 
pillar  is  a  pillar,  and  there  is  no  conveying  to  your 
mind  the  effect  they  produce  upon  mine ;  you  may 
therefore  find  it  very  dull  reading  about  what  I  have 
seen  with  great  pleasure,  and  my  head  is  so  full  of  all 
these  things  that  I  can  talk  of  nothing  else,  for  I  have 
read  of  nothing  else,  heard  of  nothing  else,  and  seen 
nothing  else  worth  talking  about.  In  short,  my  whole 
mind  is  entirely  in  Athens,  and  all  my  ideas  are  gone 
back  some  two  thousand  years,  so  I  shall  perhaps  not 
be  so  amusing,  though  more  instructive  company  than 
I  generally  am.  With  this  apology  I  go  on  with  my 
story. 

We  walked  out  some  days  ago  to  the  stadium,  which 
is  still  to  be  seen  at  some  distance  from  the  modern 
town,  though  close  to  the  wall  of  the  ancient.  Our 
house  is  towards  the  north  side  of  Athens  ;  going  out 
eastward  we  passed  the  situation  of  the  famous 
Lycaeum,  of  which  a  few  old  stones  are  the  doubtful 
remains.  On  the  left  is  Mount  Hymettus,  below 
which,  across  the  Ilissus,  is  the  stadium.  It  is  a  long 
space  scooped  in  the  hill,  which  is  raised  round  it  to 
a  level  for  the  seats,  and  except  being,  I  think,  larger, 
has  nothing  more  remarkable  than  many  we  had  seen. 
Near  the  end  is  a  subterraneous  arched  passage  through 
which  it  is  said  the  unsuccessful  candidates  escaped 
the  hisses  of  the  people.  Perhaps  it  served  as  an 
entrance  to  the  performers  also,  separate  from  that  of 
the  rest.  The  bridge  over  the  Ilissus  has  been  a 
pretty  strong  piece  of  masonry,  now  entirely  broken  ; 
not  however,  I  should  think,  from  the  violence  of  the 
stream,  for  could  you  imagine  that  the  famed  Ilissus 
even  now  in  winter  contains  generally  not  one  drop  of 
water?  I  believe  a  small  stream  runs  underground 
under  the  bed  of  it  as  it  rises  up  nearer  the  sea,  but 
really,  except  for  an  hour  after  the  melting  of  snows,  the 
ditch  in  the  west  pasture  is  much  more  considerable, 


1 78        THROUGH   THESSALY   AND    BOEOTIA  [CH.  vn 

and  I  do  not  believe  a  minnow  will  live  in  it.  "  The 
fields  that  cool  Ilissus  laves"  are  therefore  much 
cooler  than  it,  and  it  is  much  as  true  in  poetry  as 
"  Maeander's  amber  waves,"  which  are  muddier  than 
any  horsepond ;  I  could  certainly  make  a  better  river 
with  a  gravy  spoon,  and  I'll  back  Robert  against  the 
God  Ilissus  for  making  a  stream  at  any  time. 

Turning  back  from  the  stadium  along  the  narrow 
gutter  down  which  the  river  Ilissus  should  run,  we 
remarked  a  few  stones,  once  the  ruined  temple  of 
Ceres ;  a  little  island  that  should  be  where  I  believe 
were  the  Ilissiad  Muses  ;  and  near  the  town  the  more 
majestic  remains,  which  some  call  Hadrian's  Pillars, 
some  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Olympius.  Whatever  they 
were,  you  will  like  better  to  hear  what  we  saw  than 
what  we  think  about  them.  There  has  been  here,  then, 
a  large  building  with  three  front  rows  of  columns  at 
least.  Twelve  of  these  only  remain  now,  nine  in  three 
rows  at  one  end  and  three  in  a  line  with  one  of  the 
rows  at  the  other.  They  are  Corinthian,  and  of  an 
immense  height.  This  you  will  suppose  when  I  tell 
you  that  my  head  reaches  no  higher  than  the  base,  and 
that  they  are  (as  Wheler  measured)  seventeen  feet  nine 
inches  round,  or  five  feet  eleven  inches  diameter.  We 
then  came  into  the  city  (after  remarking  the  immense 
terrace  raised  before  these  columns  and  supported  by 
strong  masonry),  through  a  little  Corinthian  gateway 
built  by  Hadrian,  and  with  the  inscription  on  it  men- 
tioned by  several  authors.  On  one  side  is  written, 
towards  the  town :  "  This  is  Athens,  once  the  city  of 
Theseus"  ;  on  the  other,  "  This  is  the  city  of  Hadrian, 
and  not  of  Theseus."  I  tell  you  what  you  may  read 
in  fifty  books — however,  I  tell  you  what  I  see ;  so  I  at 
least  have  the  merit  of  letting  you  know  other  people 
don't  tell  lies. 

Turning  through  the  town  northwards  we  called 
in  our  road  on  our  French  friend  Monsieur  Fauvel. 
He  lives  in  a  deserted  convent  of  Capucins,  in  the 
wall  of  which  is  the  little  rotunda  of  Lysicrates,  called 


1795]  COLLECTING   ANTIQUITIES  179 

foolishly  the  lanthorn  of  Demosthenes.  It  is  sur- 
rounded by  Corinthian  columns  and  cupolaed,  and  it 
has  supported  a  tripod,  won  by  Lysicrates  and  his 
tribe  in  the  Athenian  contests  of  music,  and  con- 
secrated as  usual  in  a  little  building  of  marble.  It  is 
now  built  up  in  white  mortared  walls,  but  has  been  very 
elegant.  Round  the  frieze  are  represented  Bacchus 
and  his  fauns  turning  the  Tyrrhenian  mariners  into 
dolphins,  and  the  sculpture  is  of  the  best  kind.  The 
figures  are  about  a  foot  high,  and  delicately  treated. 
We  looked  over  the  statues,  medals,  and  drawings 
Fauvel  is  surrounded  with,  and  returned  home  by  the 
little  tower  of  the  winds.  I  will  not,  however,  describe 
more  buildings ;  they  shall  be  for  another  letter,  as 
I  am  sure  they  must  tire  you. 

It  is  very  pleasant  to  walk  the  streets  here.  Over 
almost  every  door  is  an  antique  statue  or  basso-rilievo, 
more  or  less  good  though  all  much  broken,  so  that  you 
are  in  a  perfect  gallery  of  marbles  in  these  lands. 
Some  we  steal,  some  we  buy,  and  our  court  is  much 
adorned  with  them.  I  am  grown,  too,  a  great  medal- 
list, and  my  collection  increases  fast,  as  I  have  above 
two  hundred,  and  shall  soon,  I  hope,  have  as  many 
thousands.  I  buy  the  silver  ones  often  under  the 
price  of  the  silver,  and  the  copper  ones  for  halfpence. 
At  this  rate  I  have  got  some  good  ones,  and  mean  to 
keep  them  for  the  alleviation  of  Sir  Bilberry's  visits, 
as  they  will  be  as  good  playthings  as  the  furniture  and 
pictures  for  half  an  hour  before  dinner.  Don't  you 
think  the  whole  family  much  indebted  to  me ;  I  am 
sure  you  are  sensible  of  the  obligation.  The  con- 
jecturing on  defaced  medals  is  very  ingenious,  and 
I  begin  to  grow  quite  a  connoisseur.  Thus  employed, 
guess  with  what  spirit  our  tour  goes  on  ;  I  really  fear 
I  shall  never  get  out  of  Greece.  Our  house,  to  be  sure, 
is  not  so  good  as  Rokeby,  but  what  signifies  a  house 
here,  where  I  am  now  really  writing  at  ten  o'clock  at 
night  without  a  fire,  with  half  my  clothes  off  because 
they  were  too  hot,  though  our  windows  and  door  are 


i8o        THROUGH   THESSALY   AND   BOEOTIA  [CH.  vn 

half  an  inch  open  at  every  chink.  This  is  the  case 
whenever  the  south  wind  blows,  and  the  weather  is 
really  like  May.  We  live  here  most  luxuriously  in 
other  respects,  and  our  larder  contains  hares,  wood- 
cocks, and  wild  ducks  in  abundance.  We  had  two 
days  ago  eighteen  woodcocks  together,  some  of  which 
fell  by  our  own  hands  on  a  shooting-party.  Amongst 
our  other  delicacies  I  must  mention  the  famous  honey 
of  Hymettus,  which  is  better  than  1  can  describe  or 
you  imagine  easily,  without  I  could  enclose  you  some. 
We  are  very  well  with  the  Turks  here,  and  particularly 
with  the  governor  of  the  town,  who  has  called  on  us, 
sent  us  game,  made  coursing-parties  for  us,  offered  us 
dogs,  horses,  etc.,  and  is  a  very  jolly,  hearty  fellow. 
We  often  go  and  smoke  a  pipe  there,  and  are  on  the 
best  of  terms.  1  shall  really  grow  a  Mussulman.  If 
they  are  ignorant  it  is  the  fault  of  their  government 
and  religion,  but  I  shall  always  say  I  never  saw  a 
better  disposed  or  manlier  people.  Their  air,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  is  that  of  lords  and  masters,  as 
they  are,  and  their  civility  has  something  dignified 
and  hearty  in  it,  as  from  man  to  man ;  while  I  really 
have  English  blood  enough  in  me  almost  to  kick  a 
Greek  for  the  fawning  servility  he  thinks  politeness. 
They  salute  you  by  putting  their  hand  to  their  heart ; 
and  I  should  not  have  mentioned  this  trifle  but  that,  as 
some  of  them  do  it,  it  has  the  most  graceful  air  in 
the  world. 

The  Greeks  are,  you  will  see,  in  tres  mauvaise  odeur 
with  us;  and  I  would  much  rather  hear  that  the 
Turks  were  improving  their  government  than  hear 
that  the  Empress  had  driven  them  out,  for  I  am  sure, 
if  left  to  the  Greeks  in  their  present  state,  the  country 
would  not  be  passable.  We  have  just  breakfasted, 
and  are  meditating  a  walk  to  the  citadel,  where  our 
Greek  attendant  is  gone  to  meet  the  workmen,  and  is, 
I  hope,  hammering  down  the  Centaurs  and  Lapithae, 
like  Charles's  mayor  and  aldermen  in  the  "School  for 
Scandal."  Nothing  like  making  hay  when  the  sun 


1795]  MARBLES   FOR  ROKEBY  181 

shines,  and  when  the  commandant  has  felt  the  pleasure 
of  having  our  sequins  for  a  few  days,  I  think  we  shall 
bargain  for  a  good  deal  of  the  old  temple. 

Thank  my  mother  for  the  advice  she  sent  me  from 
the  Archbishop.  I  shall  be  proud  to  answer  His 
Grace's  learned  questions  anent  Grecian  antiquities, 
and  to  give  Miss  Markham  any  hints  in  my  power  on 
the  varieties  of  Grecian  dress,  of  which  I  shall  bring 
a  pattern  from  the  Islands.  I  must  observe,  however, 
that  the  English  ladies  were  very  accurate  in  the  shape 
of  it,  though  the  belles  Grecques  are  much  less  exposed 
than  my  Lady  Charlotte. 

I  am  wanted  by  the  Centaurs  and  Lapithae.  Good- 
bye for  a  moment.  Scruples  of  conscience  had  arisen 
in  the  mind  of  the  old  scoundrel  at  the  citadel ;  that 
is  to  say,  he  did  not  think  we  had  offered  him  enough. 
We  have,  however,  rather  smoothed  over  his  difficulties, 
and  are  to  have  the  marble  the  first  opportunity  we  can 
find  to  send  it  off  from  Athens.  I,  only  being  sensible 
of  the  extreme  awkwardness  of  Grecian  workmen, 
tremble  lest  it  should  be  entirely  broken  to  pieces  on 
taking  it  out ;  if  any  accident  happens  to  it  I  shall  be 
quite  crazy,  as  now  there  is  nothing  damaged  but  the 
faces  and  one  of  the  hands.  If  I  get  it  safe  I  shall  be 
quite  happy,  and  long  to  show  it  you  at  Rokeby. 

Yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THROUGH  THE  MOREA,  INCLUDING  THE  TERRITORY  OF 
THE  MAINOTES  IN  LACONIA 

TRIPOLIZZA,  MOREA, 

March  26,  1795. 

DEAR  FRANCES, 

I  write  to  you  once  more  from  the  very  centre 
of  the  Peloponnesus,  and  with  a  pleasure  you  have 
scarce  an  idea  of.  My  head  is  full  of  what  we  see  and 
hear,  and  so  I  will  try  to  make  you  in  some  measure 
a  partaker  of  our  tour,  and  shall  recall  you  so  much 
to  ancient  times  that  you  will  possibly  think  me  dream- 
ing, and  that  I  see  things  as  they  were  a  thousand 
years  ago,  when  I  talk  of  towns  and  places  which  you 
have  considered  as  ancient  names,  vanished  entirely 
in  the  course  of  time. 

We  set  out  from  Athens  on  the  iQth,  and,  passing 
by  Eleusis,  slept  at  Megara.  There  we  found  a  little 
statue,  half  buried  in  the  ground,  which  we  dug  up. 
You  will  laugh  at  me  when  I  tell  you  that  it  had  no 
head,  and  its  arms  were  broken ;  however,  it  was  a 
female  figure,  and  the  drapery  and  attitude  pleased  me 
so  much  that  I  took  the  trouble  of  packing  it  off  on 
a  mule  for  Corinth,  and  so  to  Zante.  If  I  can  get  it 
well  restored  in  Italy,  it  will  figure  in  the  Rokeby  col- 
lection ;  and  its  greatest  charm  perhaps  will  be  that  I 
found  it  myself.  At  least,  it  was  not  expensive ;  for, 
giving  half  a  crown  to  a  priest  that  belonged  to  a 
chapel  near  it,  we  pretended  to  have  a  firman,  and 
carried  it  off  from  the  Greeks  in  triumph. 

182 


1795]  CORINTH  183 

We  went  by  land  to  Corinth  ;  but  not  by  the  famous 
Scironian  rocks,  of  which  the  road  is  now  entirely 
destroyed.  On  the  isthmus,  after  passing  a  tedious 
range  of  mountains,  we  rode  along  admiring  the  beauty 
of  the  two  seas,  and  afterwards  coasting  the  western 
one.  The  attempts  to  cut  the  isthmus  are  still  trace- 
able, and  one  or  two  canals  have  been  formed,  but 
stopped  by  the  rocks.  The  Grecians,  for  want  of 
powder  to  blast  these,  have  not  been  so  good  canalists 
as  His  Grace  of  Bridgwater,  who  would,  I  think,  have 
succeeded.  Nothing  surpasses  the  situation  of  Corinth, 
and  the  extent  of  the  ancient  buildings  shows  that  it 
has  been  a  favourite  one  of  the  ancients.  It  is  cer- 
tainly the  most  considerable  ancient  town  we  have 
seen,  and  its  walls,  altogether,  cannot  have  been  less 
than  ten  or  twelve  miles  in  circuit.  At  present  it  is  a 
small  place,  backed  by  the  high  rock  of  the  Acropolis, 
and  sloping  gently  into  a  plain  covered  with  corn. 

We  stayed  here  three  days  at  a  Greek's  house 
who  is  protected  by  the  English,  and  met  with  great 
attention  from  the  Aga,  as  usual.  We  saw  the  ruin 
Chandler  mentions,  and  supposes  the  Sisypheum.  It 
has  eleven  Doric  columns,  and  is  so  exactly  on  the  plan 
of  a  temple  that  I  really  think  the  opinion  of  the 
country  much  more  probable,  that  it  was  the  temple 
of  Neptune.  Near  it  are  remains  of  some  antique 
baths,  and  a  fountain.  Burgh  will  tell  you  how  much 
this  agrees  with  Pausanias. 

The  castle  we  did  not  visit,  as  the  Turks  are  shy  of 
permitting  you.  It  is  Venetian,  and  we  had  less  regret 
as  we  were  assured  there  was  not  a  trace  of  antiquity. 
Pirene  now  is  almost  dry  above,  but  the  spring  by 
which  the  waters  descend  in  the  town  remains, 
stripped,  however,  of  its  ancient  ornaments.  The 
water  was  formerly  famous  ;  it  is  even  now  the  best  I 
ever  drank,  and  has  the  lightness  of  Bath  water,  but  is 
cold,  and  as  pure  as  possible.  We  visited  Sicyon  the 
second  day  of  our  stay.  It  is  a  poor  village,  called 
Basilico.  The  plain  that  leads  to  it  is  as  fertile  as  can 


184  THROUGH  THE   MOREA  [CH.  vm 

be,  and  the  ground  under  the  olive  grove  so  covered 
with  beautiful  flowers  that  it  accounts  for  the  descrip- 
tions of  ancient  poets,  and  the  enthusiasm  with  which 
they  speak  of  spring.  Ours  sometimes  copy  them  so 
exactly  that  when  we  feel  March  winds  and  April 
showers  we  are  apt  to  think  they  rather  wrote  from 
their  fireside  (when  poets  have  firesides)  than  from 
the  pleasing  plains  of  Yorkshire,  or  Teviotdale,  where 
nature  gives  them  flatly  the  lie  till  towards  the 
beginning  of  May.  Sicyon  is  on  a  large  plain,  raised 
like  a  platform,  by  a  long  breastwork  of  rock,  above 
the  plain,  which  runs  along  the  sea-shore. 

We  found  in  being  some  sepulchres  in  the  rock,  the 
destroyed    foundations   of   two  temples,   the   theatre 
stripped  of  its  stonework,  the  stadium,  and  a  large 
brick    building,    which,    from    the    goodness  of   the 
masonry,  I  believe  Roman,  but  of  the  use  of  which  I 
am  absolutely  ignorant.     It  is  built  more  like  a  house 
of  one  story  than  anything  else,  and  runs  round  three 
sides  of  a  court,  the  windows  looking  into  it.     It  is 
possibly  of  a  later  date.     We  found  in  the  peasants' 
nouses  a  quantity  of   ancient  coins   of  Sicyon   and 
Corinth,  and  discovered  a  fountain  distilling  from  a 
cave  near  the  gate,  mentioned  by  Pausanias.     The  day 
after  we  rode  to  Cenchreae,  the  port  of  Corinth  on  the 
eastern  side  ;  we  found  it  entirely  ruined,  though  still  a 
port.     A  few  foundations  are  scarce  worth  mentioning, 
but  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  bay  we  had  the  pleasure 
of  finding  a  salt  spring  mentioned  by  Pausanias,  and 
called  the  bath   of  Helen.      Nothing  can  exceed  his 
exactness ;  and  Paterson's  book  of  post  roads  is  not  a 
better  guide  in  England  than  he  is  in  Greece.     Under 
his  guidance,  the  next  day  we  left  Corinth.     1  ought  to 
add,  however,  upon  the  salt  spring  one  remark,  that  it 
seems  a  great  confirmation  of  the  gulf  of  Lepanto 
being  higher  than  that  of  Sarone,  into  which  it  runs, 
no  doubt,  by  this  channel.     It  is  slightly  warm  in 
winter  only,  but  this  may  proceed  from  the  ground  it 
springs  from  here. 


. 

f  al.  •  JS 


CORINTH.      PARNASSUS   AND   HELICON    IN   THE   DISTANCE 


TR1POLIZZA 


184] 


1795]  MYCENAE  185 

We  passed  in  our  road  from  Corinth  by  the  situation 
of  Cleonae  ;  here  are  two  small  barrows  mentioned  as 
tombs  by  Pausanias.  He  then  passes  to  the  cave  of 
the  Nemean  lion,  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Nemea. 
Chandler  places  this,  I  do  not  know  why,  beyond 
Nemea.  I  can  assure  you,  however,  that  in  this  very 
place  in  the  hills,  at  this  distance  from  Nemea,  we 
found  a  deep,  large  cave,  remarkable  as  there  was  an 
artificial  niche  beside  it  in  the  rock  that  had  contained 
a  statue  or  tablet,  and  another  a  little  above  it.  This 
leaves  me,  I  own,  no  doubt  but  that  this  was  the  cave 
supposed  the  lion's,  and  that  it  had  attracted  since  the 
veneration  of  the  people.  We  then,  on  leaving  the 
mountains,  recollected  Mycenae.  A  country  labourer 
led  us  to  the  place.  You  remember  Mycenae  has  not 
been  in  being  since  its  destruction  by  the  Argives  two 
thousand  years  ago ;  and  has  hardly  flourished  since 
Agamemnon.  Owing  to  this  entire  desertion,  the  place 
has  changed  very  little  since  Pausanias.  We  found  in 
the  walls  a  gate  he  mentions.  It  is  composed  of 
enormous  stones,  as  are  the  walls  beyond,  and  over  it 
we  found  with  pleasure  a  basso-rilievo  of  two  lions, 
supporting  a  plain  column.  They  are  rudely  carved, 
which  you  will  certainly  not  wonder  at  when  you 
recollect  that  they  were  supposed  the  work  of  the 
Cyclopes,  and  that  they  and  the  walls  were  of  the  days 
of  Proetus  and  Danaus.  The  pillar  is  curious  from 
the  state  of  architecture  in  that  time.  Without  a  base, 
extremely  short,  a  capital  plainer  than  common  Doric, 
and  for  entablature  it  supports  an  ornament;  in  this 
form  perhaps  you  will  call  the  bottom  of  this  a  base, 
but  it  is  so  disproportioned  it  is  rather  a  pedestal.  The 
breastwork  of  the  hill  on  which  the  citadel  has  stood 
is  of  the  same  massive  work,  and  of  the  same  hands. 

A  little  beyond  this  is  a  very  extraordinary  ruin. 

,We  had  observed  twice  in  our  way  the  foundations 

of  buildings  similar  to  that  at  Orchomenos,  which 

I   supposed    the  famous    treasury.1    They  are   little 

1  Now  known  as  the  "  bee-hive  "  tombs. 


i86  THROUGH  THE  MOREA  [CH.  vin 

rotundas  entered  by  a  single  doorway,  and  seem  all  to 
be  ruined  by  the  falling  in  of  earth.  The  plan  of  them 
is  as  follows : 

The  passage  part  of  this  building  is  covered  by  one 
immense  stone.  I  had  already  noticed  the  size  of  that 
at  Orchomenos,  which  was  of  marble.  We  soon  after 
came  to  one  of  these  entire  ;  an  entrance  was  in  the  side 
of  a  kind  of  barrow,  and  was  almost  choked  by  the 
top  part  having  fallen.  We  crept  under  and  found 
ourselves  in  a  large  rotunda,  built  of  immense  stones, 
and  ending  above  in  a  kind  of  point.  The  size  of  the 
stone  over  the  entrance  was  beyond  anything  we  had 
seen ;  it  was  in  length  about  thirty  feet,  in  thickness 
four  feet,  and  in  breadth  full  sixteen  feet.  As  it  was  in 
a  very  uneven  situation,  the  machines  the  ancients 
must  have  used  to  remove  this  immense  mass  exceed 
all  belief.  The  area  within  is  about  fifteen  paces 
diameter.  Without,  it  is  an  earthen  barrow,  and  over 
the  entrance  it  is  held  up  by  a  wall ;  both  sides  come 
forward.  Some,  I  hear,  who  have  seen  it,  suppose  it 
the  tomb  of  Agamemnon,  which  was  here.  One 
remarkable  circumstance  makes  us  doubt  it.  The 
treasuries  of  Atreus  and  his  sons  were  here  in 
Pausanias's  time,  and  were  subterraneous ;  I  have  no 
doubt  besides  of  their  being  the  same  building  which 
we  saw  at  Orchomenos,  and  so  they  confirm  one 
another.  However,  you  will  say  they  may  be  both 
tombs.  If  they  are,  they  are  the  only  tombs  I  have 
seen  into  which  an  entrance  was  left,  unless  they  had 
been  opened.  The  tombs  of  Ajax,  Achilles,  Hector, 
and  all  in  the  Troad  are  plain  barrows  without  any 
entrance  but  where  they  had  been  opened ;  therefore, 
I  am  really  inclined  to  believe  them  the  treasuries  of 
Minyas  at  one  place,  and  of  Atreus  and  the  Aloidae  in 
the  other.  However,  as  I  tell  you  facts  as  well  as 
opinions,  you  and  Burgh  may  talk  over  the  matter 
and  settle  it  for  us,  as  we  are  not  very  certain,  and 
have  not  yet  made  up  our  minds.  We  slept  at  Argos 
that  night.  There  is  (you  will  see)  little  there,  but 


1795]  TRIPOLIZZA  187 

I  wonder  Chandler,  who  inquired,  said  there  were  no 
traces  of  the  theatre,  as  we  who,  meaning  to  return, 
paid  but  slight  attention  to  it,  this  time  saw  it  on  the 
road  to  Tripolizza  yesterday,  almost  immediately  on 
turning  the  end  of  the  houses. 

Directly  after,  from  the  foot  of  a  hill,  a  rapid  river 
gushes  out  in  several  parts.  It  has  three  beds,  the 
largest  about  eight  yards  over ;  but  being  of  an  even 
depth,  and  flowing  with  the  greatest  rapidity,  it  dis- 
charges as  much  water  as  the  Tees  at  least.  This  is 
the  Erasinus,  which  rises  at  Stymphalus  in  Arcadia,  is 
absorbed,  and  springs  afresh  here  from  subterraneous 
channels ;  from  thence,  a  little  way  on  the  left,  is 
Lerna,  and  the  situation  of  the  marsh  of  the  dragon, 
etc. ;  but,  as  Hercules  dried  it  up,  it  is  no  wonder  that 
we  did  not  see  it.  We  then  crossed  the  Parthenius, 
a  long,  tedious  hill,  and  descended  into  the  plain  of 
Tripolizza,  between  Tegea  and  Mantinea.  It  is  a 
Turkish  town,  not  upon  the  site  of  any  other,  and 
therefore  has  no  antiquities  except  the  stones  it  has 
stripped  from  Tegea,  which  the  Turks  chip  and  whiten 
so  that  inscriptions  and  basso-rilievos  vanish  for  ever. 
This  is  the  capital  of  the  Morea,  which  is  governed 
by  a  Pasha  of  three  tails,  who  has  married  the 
Sultan's  sister,  and  who  resides  here ;  he  is,  of  course, 
a  very  great  man,  and  we  have  stayed  here  to-day  to 
get  his  protection,  without  which  our  firmans  from 
the  Porte  would  here  be  little  regarded. 

To-morrow  we  visit  the  ruins  of  Tegea.  It  is  now 
the  Ramazan  of  the  Turks,  in  which  they  eat  at 
night,  and  therefore  sleep  in  the  day.  For  this  reason 
we  can't  visit  him  till  the  evening.  However,  I  hear 
he  is  a  very  good  sort  of  man,  as  all  the  great  Turks 
are  that  we  have  seen,  and  I  dare  say  we  shall  be 
very  well  received.  We  last  night  visited  an  Aga 
here,  who  received  us  with  the  greatest  kindness. 
We  had  letters  from  the  Aga  of  Corinth,  and  he  has 
desired  us  to  consider  ourselves  as  his  strangers,  and 
to  apply  to  him  while  we  shall  stay.  We  find  the 


i88  THROUGH  THE  MOREA  [CH.  vni 

Morea  even  better,  instead  of  worse,  than  the  rest  of 
European  Turkey,  and  have  hitherto  travelled  with 
the  greatest  security. 

We  have  at  last  been  to  the  Pasha's.  As  this 
is  the  grandest  ceremony  of  the  sort,  I  will  give 
you  some  account  of  it,  that  you  may  imagine 
the  style  of  an  ancient  Satrap.  We  called  in  the 
morning  on  his  Greek  dragoman  or  interpreter ;  he 
is  in  effect  one  of  the  rulers,  as  he  has  the  ear  of 
the  Pasha,  and  during  favour  (which  is  often  during 
their  want  of  him)  everything  he  does  is  well  done. 
He  is  a  fine-looking,  middle-aged  man  with  a  most 
venerable  beard.  He  hears  and  adjusts  all  com- 
plaints, and  we  found  him  surrounded  by  villagers 
and  ignorant  people,  and  were  struck  with  the 
patience  and  readiness  with  which  he  got  through 
his  business.  He  is  well  informed  on  many  subjects. 
He  appointed  an  hour  in  the  evening  to  be  presented 
to  the  Pasha. 

We  went  in  the  evening,  and  found  an  immense 
and  mean-looking  range  of  buildings  round  a  large 
court,  which  was  the  Pasha's  palace.  The  court  was 
lighted  very  well  by  'pans  of  blazing  tar  set  up  on 
poles.  We  found  an  amazing  number  of  Turks  of  all 
ranks  walking  in  a  dirty  gallery  behind  the  house, 
open,  with  sheds  like  a  booth,  to  the  court.  We  went 
to  the  dragoman's  office  attended  by  ours,  for  his  only 
speaks  Greek  and  Turkish.  While  we  were  here  a 
Turkish  buffoon  came  in  to  make  us  laugh,  as  he  did 
the  Pasha,  and  danced,  imitating  lameness,  etc.,  with 
a  thousand  grimacings  and  face-makings  of  this  same 
style.  The  dragoman  gives  him,  and  almost  all  the 
lower  people  of  the  house,  money  every  week,  and 
the  other  greater  officers  do  the  same  ;  this  is  the  way 
a  Pasha's  servants  are  paid.  After  coffee  and  pipes 
we  went  to  the  Kiaya,  or  second  under  the  Pasha. 
He  received  us  in  a  large  room  sofa'd  round  with  a 
red  carpet  of  cloth.  On  entering  his,  or  indeed  any 
room,  you  take  off  your  slippers,  and  walk  in  short 


1795]  THE   PASHA  OF  THE  MOREA  189 

yellow-leather  socks,  which  are  a  part  of  a  Turkish 
dress.  We  here  found  our  friend  the  Aga  we  had 
been  with  before,  sat  down,  and  drank  our  coffee, 
which  is  brought  always.  Our  dragomans  and  all 
the  people  that  attend  on  the  Kiaya  stood  while  we 
stayed.  We  then  returned  to  the  dragoman's  again 
to  wait  till  the  Pasha  was  ready.  It  is  sometimes  a 
mark  of  his  dignity  to  make  you  wait  a  long  time. 

We  at  last  were  introduced,  and  took  our  seats  on 
the  low  sofa,  everybody  besides  standing  in  the  room. 
Two  boys  brought  us  round  a  very  fine  covered  vase 
of  china  and  a  spoon ;  we  concluded  the  sweetmeats 
must  be  excellent,  but  unfortunately  it  was  nothing 
but  a  little  pounded  sugar.  The  sweetmeats,  we 
supposed,  had  been  changed  by  the  boys  that  have 
the  serving  them,  and  taken  for  themselves.  We  then 
had  coffee  ;  our  dragoman  presented  our  firmans,  and 
he  assured  us  of  his  protection,  and  that  we  might  go 
safely  throughout  the  Morea.  In  fact,  he  is  an  old, 
superannuated  hoddy-doddy  animal,  and  we  were  very 
much  obliged  to  the  dragoman  for  our  passports.  We 
waited  for  them  in  the  dragoman's  room,  and  were 
amused  by  some  other  Turks,  who  came  and  played 
the  buffoon  in  their  taste,  and  one  who  is  kept  in  the 
house  for  the  valuable  talent  of  playing  cup-and-ball. 
Indeed,  the  Pasha  has  in  his  dependence  at  least  a 
thousand  men,  who  have  each  their  different  offices, 
of  course  most  of  them  equally  laborious. 

We  are  delayed  at  Tripolizza  day  after  day  for  want 
of  horses  and  different  excuses,  so  I  shall  hold  a  little 
more  prose  with  you.  We  have  visited  the  ruins  of 
Tegea  and  Mantinea,  where,  however,  we  found 
nothing  worth  seeing.  We  had  some  satisfaction  in 
riding  over  the  famous  plain,  the  scene  of  the  victory 
and  death  of  Epaminondas,  but  the  tombs,  forests, 
and  trophies  of  antiquity  have  long  been  stripped 
from  it.  Of  Mantinea,  the  foundations  and  lower  parts 
of  the  wall  remain ;  it  is  about  three  miles  round,  and 
almost  circular.  Tegea  is  covered  with  earth,  and, 


I9o  THROUGH  THE  MOREA  [CH.  vin 

though  marbles  are  found,  in  digging  above  ground 
there  is  scarce  anything.  The  country  is  extremely 
destitute  of  wood  here,  and  the  mountains  are  bare  and 
ugly;  so  the  poetical  beauties  of  Arcadia,  if  ever  it 
had  any,  are  now  much  vanished,  at  least  on  this 
side.  Mount  Maenalus  is  at  the  north  end  of  the 
valley,  and  the  country  towards  Cyllene  is  as  high 
and  rough  as  Switzerland.  The  "  mild  Arcadians  ever 
blooming"  do  not  give  me  the  most  pastoral  ideas  in 
the  world,  and  I  am  by  no  means  in  danger  of  setting 
up  a  shepherd's  establishment  and  languishing  for 
the  Phyllidas  on  the  banks  of  the  Alpheus. 

We  have  dedicated  our  time  here  to  making  inquiries 
about  the  rest  of  our  tour  in  the  Morea,  and  have 
found  with  great  pleasure  that  there  are  along  the 
whole  south  side  of  it  many  remains  which  have, 
many  of  them,  never  been  visited  by  travellers,  de- 
terred once  by  real  danger,  and  afterwards  by  the 
bad  repute  of  the  neighbourhood.  There  is,  however, 
as  we  find  on  approaching  it,  little  or  no  risk,  and 
the  country,  excepting  the  province  of  Maina,  is 
perfectly  safe.  This  is  south  of  Sparta,  and  includes 
the  two  promontories  of  Malea  and  Taenarum.  It  is 
inhabited  by  Greeks,  the  real  descendants  of  the 
Lacedemonians,  and  they  have  in  this  corner  resisted 
all  the  efforts  of  the  Turks,  to  whom  they  pay  neither 
tribute  nor  obedience,  and  who  dare  not  approach 
the  country.  They  are  all  robbers,  or  rather,  pirates, 
and  infest  these  seas  with  small  armed  boats,  which 
pillage  all  the  small  craft  from  port  to  port. 

In  their  country  a  total  stranger  is  sure  to  be 
stripped  of  everything  he  has,  though  they  seldom 
murder;  but  we  understand  that  by  applying  at 
Calamata,  a  town  near  them,  we  may  get  such  pro- 
tection as  to  be  able  to  visit  anything  to  be  seen  there 
in  perfect  safety,  as  they  acknowledge  the  guards  of 
these  chiefs,  and  never  molest  them.  I  heard  there 
are  many  curious  remains  there,  from  some  of  the 
natives  of  the  country  whom  we  have  met;  and  I 


T795]  CRITICISM  OF  CHANDLER  191 

hope  we  shall  find  it  practicable  to  go  there,  as  we 
shall  have  the  honour  of  being  certainly  the  first  who 
have  gone. 

My  mother,  I  remember,  mentioned  in  one  of  her 
letters  the  walls  of  Tiryns  near  Argos ;  we  mean  to 
go  there  on  our  way  to  the  Isles.  In  the  meantime 
I  can  tell  you  that  they  certainly  exist  as  much  as 
ever,  and  that  they  are  in  the  place  the  ancients 
assign  them.  An  Englishman  we  have  met  in  our 
tour,  and  know  very  well,  wrote  a  letter  some  days 
since  mentioning  them,  and  adding  that  they  were 
still  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world.  This  will 
convince  you,  as  many  other  circumstances  have  us, 
of  the  superficial  manner  Chandler  saw  this  country 
in.  He  strikes  me  as  a  college  fellow  turned  fresh 
out  of  Magdalen  to  a  difficult  and  somewhat  fatiguing 
voyage,  for  which  he  was  as  unfit  as  could  be ;  and 
though  very  good  at  an  inscription,  was  sure  to  go 
in  the  beaten  track,  and  be  bugbeared  by  every  story 
of  danger  and  every  Turk  that  pleased  to  take  the 
trouble. 

As  we  have  pretty  well  got  over  the  bugaboos — 
which  in  authors  are  often  an  excuse  for  not  seeing 
so  much  as  they  ought,  in  some  ignorance  of  the 
manners,  and  in  many  fear  of  the  Turks — I  think  we 
shall  see  what  is  to  be  seen  here,  which  is  the  more 
important  to  do,  as  these  parts  are  not  the  least 
known  or  mentioned  by  modern  authors ;  and  one 
great  advantage  of  travelling  is  seeing  what  one 
cannot  read  about. 

We  hear  of  nothing  but  successes  of  the  French : 
Amsterdam  taken,  etc.  As  the  Turks  always  judge 
of  nations  by  their  success,  they  are  all  sansculottes. 
The  Greeks,  for  this  reason,  are  all  on  the  other  side ; 
and  after  what  I  have  said  of  their  honesty  and  con- 
duct, I  am  sure  you  will  rejoice  in  so  honourable  a  set 
of  allies.  They  are  much  of  a  piece  with  some  other 
of  our  continental  friends,  only  they  are  not  subsidised. 
You  will  be  surprised  at  a  Turk's  being  a  sansculotte, 


i92  THROUGH   THE   MOREA  [CH.  vm 

but  the  reason  is  not  very  paradoxical.  There  is  a 
great  deal  of  equality  amongst  them,  for  the  Sultan  is 
sole  master  of  every  life  and  fortune  in  his  dominions. 
The  rest,  therefore,  are  all  more  or  less  free  with 
respect  to  one  another,  and  approach  the  French  a 
good  deal — for  having  only  one  ruler  is  the  next  thing 
to  having  none  at  all,  and  complete  anarchy  is  more 
like  complete  despotism  than  extremes  usually  are. 

I  believe  Hood,  the  gallant  captain  that  sailed  for 
Anne's  cotton,  and  who  since  made  so  happy  a  figure 
in  cruising  for  commissaires  into  Toulon  harbour,  is 
commandant  of  the  small  squadron  sent  to  keep  the 
French  in  awe  at  Smyrna.  I  have  the  greatest  hopes 
that  I  shall  meet  him  in  the  Isles ;  you  will  feel 
what  pleasure  we  shall  have  at  shaking  an  English 
acquaintance,  especially  a  sailor,  by  the  hand  in  this 
part  of  the  world;  though  to  have  a  perfect  idea  of 
it  you  must  be  absent  from  England  as  long  as  we 
have. 

We  have  great  obligations  to  this  squadron.  It  has 
blockaded  two  of  the  French  frigates  at  Smyrna,  in 
which  harbour  they  swing  lamicably  with  ours,  side 
by  side,  and  do  not  make  any  more  cruises.  A  third 
is  at  Chisme,  an  awkward  little  bay  opposite  Scio, 
where  they  must  amuse  themselves  in  a  barren 
country,  and  one  that  did  not  produce  a  dinner  suf- 
ficient for  our  travelling  party.  Their  enemy,  the 
English  frigate,  is  at  Scio,  opposite,  where  our  men 
and  officers  must  be  as  agreeably  situated  as  at  any 
place  in  the  Levant.  We  left  an  English  merchantman 
there  blocked  up,  who  received  us  on  board  with  the 
utmost  hospitality,  and  where  we  passed  more  than 
one  happy  evening.  The  captain,  like  a  true  John 
Bull,  on  the  arrival  of  the  English  ships,  hoisted  his 
colours,  fired  his  guns,  and  sallied  forth  to  Smyrna 
in  full  triumph. 

We  are  in  no  danger  therefore  now  of  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  Carmagnoles  in  our  voyages,  and  we 
shall  take  a  boat  respectable  enough  to  overawe  the 


1795]  MEGALOPOLIS  193 

corsairs  of  the  country.  We  shall  hear  nothing  more 
of  you  now  till  we  arrive  at  Zante,  where  we  have 
desired  our  letters  may  be  kept ;  so  we  hope  you  keep 
well,  and  are  not  in  danger  of  falling  into  the  hands 
of  General  Pichegru.  (So  far  Tripolizza.  March  29.) 


CARITINA, 

April  i. 

We  are  stopped  in  our  road  at  an  Aga's  to-day, 
partly  by  rain,  partly  for  want  of  horses,  as  the 
Turkish  post  is  not  so  well  served  as  that  on  the 
North  Road  in  England.  Yesterday  we  visited  Megalo- 
polis, the  famous  city  of  Epaminondas.  We  found 
few  remains,  but  were  gratified  with  tracing  the 
exactness  of  Pausanias's  description  of  the  situation, 
and  the  hills  in  and  about  it.  We  found  the  theatre 
curious,  as  being  the  largest  of  ancient  Greece.  It  is 
a  grand  semicircle,  as  they  all  are,  measuring  in  area 
from  horn  to  horn  174  feet,  by  about  87  feet  in  depth. 
The  slope  on  which  the  seats  ranged  was  scarce  less 
than  60  feet  in  height,  measuring  along  the  slope. 
The  marble  of  Megalopolis  has  been  the  most  beau- 
tiful possible — a  deep  red  with  white  veins,  which, 
when  fresh,  must  have  had  a  charming  appearance. 

I  retract  all  the  abuse  I  bestowed  on  Arcadia,  which 
is  all  to  be  laid  to  the  account  of  the  side  next  Argolis. 
The  country  at  Leondari  is  as  beautiful  as  any  we 
have  seen.  The  Alpheus,  a  clear,  fine  stream,  its 
banks  beautifully  adorned,  and  the  valleys  bounded 
by  high  mountains,  and  covered  with  wood  and 
verdure.  The  country  from  Leondari  here  puts  us 
often  in  mind  of  that  between  Rotherham  and  Sheffield, 
and  we  more  than  once  thought  ourselves  in  England. 
The  little  river  Helisson,  on  which  Megalopolis  stands, 
has  a  beautiful  course.  The  Alpheus,  near  Caritina, 
quits  the  valley,  and  runs  in  a  deep,  narrow  bed, 
hemmed  in  by  two  romantic  rocks :  above  the  one  to 
the  south  rises  Mount  Lyceus,  and  above  the  other 


194  THROUGH  THE  MOREA  [CH.  vm 

a  high  point  with  the  town  and  fortress  of  Caritina. 
These  are  modern  and  shabby.  Over  the  Alpheus  is 
a  very  high  old  ivied  bridge,  in  a  most  romantic  place, 
of  which,  if  the  rain  does  not  continue,  my  painter 
shall  take  a  drawing.  It  is  the  only  river  I  have  seen 
that  can  compare  with  those  of  northern  climates; 
and  all  the  others,  almost,  are  torrents  in  winter,  and 
gravel-beds  in  summer. 

The  large  ones  in  Asia  are  muddy  and  filthy ;  and 
we  thought  often  how  much  the  ancient  poets  would 
have  said  if  they  had  had  to  celebrate  the  rivers  of 
Scotland  or  the  lakes.  Arcadia  is,  however,  really 
charming;  and  if  the  Vale  of  Tempe  had  been  half 
as  pretty,  we  should  not  have  been  so  much  dis- 
appointed. Both  countries  are  infested  and  dan- 
gerous, but  the  precautions  we  take  free  us  from  all 
anxiety.  The  robbers  are  chiefly  in  league  with  the 
Agas,  and  we  take  the  strongest  recommendations. 
From  Tripolizza  our  letters  to  the  Bey  of  Calamata 
(the  suspicious  party)  suggest  that  he  is  to  conduct 
us  where  we  want  to  go  with  a  suitable  escort,  and 
that  if  the  least  misfortune  happens  to  us  or  our 
baggage,  his  head  will  not  be  thought  a  sufficient 
reparation. 

Love  to  you  all,  and  believe  me  most  affectionately 

Yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


KITRIS,  MAINA, 

April  1 8,  1795. 

DEAR  ANNE, 

We  have  at  last  got  into  a  country  which,  for 
your  consolation,  everybody  before  we  came  here, 
both  Turks  and  Greeks,  told  me  was  impassable,  and 
that  we  run  the  risks  of  true  Englishmen  in  attempt- 
ing to  see  it.  If  I  see  any  danger  of  not  getting  out 
of  it,  it  is  not  from  banditti,  but  from  the  hospitality 
and  goodness  of  its  inhabitants,  and  we  really  have 


1795]  THE  MAINOTES  195 

thoughts  of  domiciliating,  and  staying  in  Maina.  We 
are  in  the  territory  of  Sparta,  and  have  found  the 
descendants  of  the  ancient  Spartans  the  terror  of  all 
their  neighbours,  and  free  in  the  midst  of  slavery.  I 
am  sure  you  will  think  me  romancing,  especially  when 
I  tell  you  that  I  write  to  you  from  the  house  of  a 
Spartan  lady  to  whom  we  brought  recommendations; 
that  we  have  lived  here  since  yesterday,  to-day  being 
Easter  Sunday,  and  have  found  a  reception  from  her, 
and  manners  so  different  from  all  we  have  seen,  and 
so  charming,  that  we  begin  to  think  ourselves  in  the 
enchanted  tower  of  some  fair  princess,  and  stare  about 
us  with  all  the  surprise  of  knights  errant  not  yet 
used  to  adventures. 

You  will  like  to  know  how  we  arrived  here,  how- 
ever, though  I  can  hardly  turn  my  ideas  back  from  my 
present  situation,  as  we  are  quite  full  of  ancient  and 
modern  Lacedemon.  We  crossed  Arcadia  and  Mes- 
senia  to  Port  Cyparissus,  now  Arcadia,  and  thence  to 
the  ancient  Messene  and  the  modern  town  of  Cala- 
mata,  near  it.  You  know  how  famous  Arcadian 
pastorals  always  were.  We  found  the  country  still 
as  beautiful  as  possible  throughout,  and  still,  as  usual, 
covered  with  sheep  and  shepherds,  though  not  the 
opera  kind  of  pastorelli  which  one  admires  at  the 
Haymarket.  The  people,  indeed,  disgrace  the  country, 
being  a  parcel  of  poor,  miserable  savages  employed  by 
the  Turks,  who  are  here  few,  but  absolute. 

Near  a  small  village  called  Andripena,  about  two 
hours'  ride  in  the  mountains,  anciently  Cotylum,  we 
saw  the  remains  mentioned  by  Chandler  from  Mr. 
Bocher's  tour,  the  temple  of  Apollo  at  Bassae,  near 
Phigalia.  Its  thirty-six  columns  and  the  whole  ruin 
is  still  in  the  state  he  saw  it.  It  is  in  a  little  basin 
formed  by  the  higher  summits  of  one  of  the  highest 
mountains  of  the  Peloponnesus,  and  from  which  the 
eye  wanders  over  most  of  its  southern  provinces. 
How  the  temple  got  to  so  inconvenient  a  place  is 
curious  to  consider.  It  certainly  was  strictly  wor- 


196  THROUGH  THE  MOREA  [CH.  vm 

shipping  in  the  high  places,  but  if  I  had  been  the 
priest  I  should  not  often  have  expected  a  full  con- 
gregation. 

The  ruin  has  a  fine  effect,  and  its  dimensions  and 
plan  are  easily  taken  from  what  remains.  We  took 
with  a  cord  the  principal  ones,  which  I  have  got  in  my 
journal.  The  pillars  are  Doric,  and  the  architect,  who, 
you  will  see  in  Chandler,  was  also  the  architect  of  the 
temple  of  Theseus,  has  followed  the  same  bold  and 
fine  proportions.  They  are  slenderer  than  the  temples 
of  Paestum  and  the  old  columns  we  saw  at  Corinth, 
but  far  stronger  than  our  modern  Doric,  being  in 
height  only  about  five  and  a  half  diameters.  The 
slender  proportions  now  used  have  but  a  mean  effect 
compared  with  the  chaste  and  manly  simplicity  of  the 
ancient  architecture,  and  least  of  all  agree  with  the 
strength  and  massy  plainness  of  the  Doric,  which  has 
suffered  more  from  the  corruption  than  any  of  the 
lighter  orders. 

I  assure  you  the  columns  at  Corinth,  which  are 
only  three  and  a  half  diameters  in  height,  are  far 
grander  than  those  at  Nemea,  which  are  of  a  late  date, 
and  are  slenderer  than  the  Athenian  proportions.  But 
you  will  say  this  is  not  interesting  to  you,  who  have 
not  seen  them. 

The  south  part  of  Arcadia,  then,  we  found  beautiful 
beyond  any  country  we  had  seen,  except  Monte  Santo. 
The  foliage  of  spring,  and  the  mixture  of  its  light 
greens  with  the  sober  brown  of  the  olive  and  the  dark 
verdure  of  the  evergreens,  heightened  its  beauties. 
The  quantity  of  shrubs  resembles  Monte  Santo,  and 
they  were  now  all  in  flower,  and  the  ground  covered 
with  grass  and  every  sort  of  blossom.  The  scenery  is 
a  suite  of  little  retired  valleys,  with  clear  streams  or 
rocky  rivers  down  them,  the  sides  ornamented  with 
wood,  which  only  opened  to  discover  glades  covered 
with  flowering  shrubs  and  verdure.  Near  these  the 
scenes  were  perfect ;  their  defect  was  that,  seen  from 
above,  the  higher  hills,  which  below  were  hid,  appeared 


. 

iHM 
.-^  -         • 


VIEW    IN    NAXOS 


TEMPLE   OF   APOLLO   AT    BASSAE 


196] 


1795]  ARCADIAN   SCENERY  197 

bare  and  not  picturesque.  The  views,  therefore,  are 
confined,  but  so  sweet,  still,  and  agreeable  that  I  often 
wished  you  and  Asphodel  were  by  my  side,  and 
recollected  with  pleasure  how  often  we  had  together 
enjoyed  scenes  of  the  same  sort. 

Were  I  to  draw  any  parallel  between  Arcadia  and 
Monte  Santo,  I  should  say  that  they  were  both  de- 
signed by  nature  for  what  they  have  served,  the 
first  as  a  secluded  rural  country  of  shepherd  lads  and 
lasses,  the  other  for  the  retirement  of  monastic  con- 
templation. A  monk,  you  will  tell  me,  however,  never 
was  designed  by  nature,  in  which,  as  I  perfectly  agree 
with  you,  we  must  suppose  it  designed  for  your 
system  of  Irish  solitude  in  russet  gowns  and  pink 
ribbons;  but  as  it  now  is,  it  has  been  strangely 
perverted  from  its  intention.  Perhaps  my  different 
ideas  of  the  two  places  arise  a  good  deal  from  having 
seen  the  one  in  spring,  the  other  in  autumn  ;  they 
were  quite  the  allegro  and  penseroso  in  the  way  of 
landscape. 

At  Arcadia  we  found  some  very  hearty,  good  Turks. 
They  were  Lalliots,  who  were  originally  Greek  rene- 
gades, and  have  little  of  the  dignity  and  form  of  the 
Asiatic  Turks,  though  their  independence  cures  them 
of  the  fawning  Greek  character.  Along  all  this  part 
of  Messenia  we  rode  through  an  uneven,  fine  country, 
covered  with  forests  of  oak,  till  we  approached  the 
ancient  Messene.  We  found  remaining  in  it  little 
but  the  walls  and  one  of  the  gates,  which  is  a  large 
rotunda  of  eighteen  yards  across,  forming  a  kind  of 
bar.  The  stones  over  the  doorway  are  extremely 
large,  and  some  of  the  towers  remain  extremely  well 
built.  Burgh  will  tell  you  that  they  were  the  strongest 
walls  Pausanias  saw  in  Greece. 

The  plain  of  the  river  Pamisus,  which  extends  from 
hence  to  Taygetus,  is  as  fertile  and  as  well  cultivated 
as  any  part  of  England,  near  Calamata  and  Nisi.  Its 
products  are  figs,  oil,  and  silk  chiefly ;  they  have  very 
large  plantations  of  mulberry  for  the  worms  that  pro- 
14 


i98  THROUGH  THE  MOREA  [CH.  vm 

duce  the  latter.  At  Calamata  we  found  a  rich,  pretty 
town  inhabited  by  Greeks,  who  have  improved  in  our 
opinion  very  much,  as  independence  to  a  certain 
degree  had  made  men  of  them.  Our  letters  there  were 
in  so  strong  a  strain  of  recommendation  that  the  chiefs 
of  the  town  disputed  the  honour  of  lodging  us.  We 
stayed  very  comfortably,  and  took  measures  to  pro- 
ceed. We  were  the  only  English  who  had  been  here 
in  the  memory  of  the  oldest  residents,  and  as  it  cannot 
rain  but  it  pours,  just  as  we  were  setting  off  we  were 
joined  by  two  others,  whom  we  had  known  intimately 
at  Constantinople. 

This  naturally  detained  us  another  day,  which  was 
passed  in  recounting  our  adventures  and  comparing 
notes  very  pleasantly.  They  had  passed  over  partly 
the  same  country,  and  it  was  with  pleasure  I  found  we 
had  left  nothing  unseen.  We  were  now  in  the  con- 
fines of  Maina,  of  which  I  will  give  you  some  account 
before  I  continue  my  journey.  Though  the  Turks 
made  a  prey  of  Greece  and  the  Grecian  Islands  in 
general,  yet  it  is  not  commonly  known  that  one  little 
district  has  always  resisted  all  their  efforts.  What  is 
still  more  interesting  is  that  this  district  is  the  ancient 
Laconia,  and  that  the  men  who  have  defended  their 
freedom  are  the  descendants  of  the  heroes  of  Greece, 
for  there  is  no  place  where  families  are  less  mixed  or 
have  gone  on  for  generations  more  than  here. 

Their  soil,  which  includes  the  two  promontories 
of  Malea  and  Taenarum  (Matapan),  is  a  barren  rock ; 
but  this  circumstance  makes  their  country  defensible, 
and,  notwithstanding  the  fertility  of  the  adjacent  plains 
of  Messenia,  they  have  had  the  sense  to  perceive  the 
superiority,  like  the  country  mouse,  of  "a  hollow  tree, 
a  crust  of  bread,  and  liberty."  They  have  never  had 
a  Turk  amongst  them  but  as  an  enemy  or  a  prisoner, 
and  as  they  never  admit  any  Turks,  and  supply  the 
barrenness  of  their  country  sometimes  by  a  freebooting 
war  all  round  them,  their  name  is  a  terror  to  the  whole 
country,  and  the  Turks,  who  consider  them  as  rebels, 


1795]  THE   MAINOTES  199 

endeavour  to  hide  their  fear  of  them  by  their  detesta- 
tion, especially  as  they  have  not  quitted  the  Greek 
religion.  As  they  are  under  little  government,  and 
part  of  them  ignorant  and  poor,  those  who  inhabit 
the  promontory  of  Taenarum  sometimes  commit  such 
plunder  out  of  their  own  territories  that  at  Calamata 
they  are  dreaded  beyond  measure.  The  primates  who 
were  to  answer  for  our  safety  entreated  us  not  to  go  ; 
as  we  found  that  we  could  go  a  little  way  safely  we 
were  determined  not  to  stop  till  we  could  go  no 
farther,  and  now  we  find  we  can  go  the  whole  tour  we 
wanted  to  do,  report  as  usual  telling  stories,  or  at  least 
exaggerations.  Our  friends  at  Calamata  are  in  terrors 
about  us,  and  we  are  living  with  the  people  here  with 
all  the  heartiness  and  good-fellowship  possible. 

To  see  patriarchal  and  primitive  manners,  a  traveller 
should  visit  Maina.  Their  order  of  government  is 
this.  The  land  is  still  parcelled  out  in  districts  on 
Lycurgus's  own  plan ;  on  every  one  of  these  lives  a 
family,  supported  by  the  villagers  and  people  of  that 
district,  who  are  as  free  as  their  masters,  with  their 
guns  on  their  shoulders;  and  thus  the  head  family 
commands  about  four  miles  round  about,  and  is  indul- 
gent to  the  others,  who  would  otherwise  either  destroy 
or  desert  it.  These  rulers  often  make  war  on  one 
another,  and  the  plunders  then  committed  bring  them 
into  the  bad  repute  their  neighbours  give  them.  They 
acknowledge  one  man  as  Bey,  who  is  united  by  family 
to  many  of  them,  and  if  Attacked  by  the  Turks  take 
their  guns,  retire  to  the  mountains,  and,  with  a  force 
of  six  thousand  or  seven  thousand  men,  carry  on  a  war 
that  is  the  terror  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  They  some- 
times make  peace  with  the  Turks,  and  pay  tribute,  if 
their  country  does  not  produce  corn  enough  without 
importation,  but  if  they  can  live  they  never  submit  to 
this  humiliation.  To  give  you  some  idea  of  their  con- 
fidence in  their  own  strength,  and  of  the  complete 
weakness  of  their  enemies  :  a  party  of  three  hundred 
wanted  to  pass  into  Roumelia  across  the  Morea  to  join 


200  THROUGH  THE  MOREA  [CH.  vm 

some  Pasha  then  at  war.  All  the  Agas  opposed  their 
passage,  in  consequence  of  which  they  had  their 
villages  plundered  and  their  troops  beat.  They  sent 
to  the  Pasha  of  Tripolizza  to  give  them  free  passage. 
He  opposed  them,  and  with  this  small  force  they 
marched  to  Tripolizza  and  besieged  him  for  seven 
days  in  his  very  capital ;  then  cut  their  way  forward, 
and  joined  the  Aga  in  Roumelia,  where  they  wanted  to 
go  at  first.  This  you  will  say,  I  think,  was  no  way 
unworthy  their  ancestors,  and  it  will  convince  us  what 
their  laws  must  have  been,  which  gave  a  spirit  to  the 
country  it  has  not  yet  lost,  while  all  the  rest  of  Greece  is 
sunk  and  degraded.  1  will  go  even  so  far  as  to  say  that 
the  very  first  step  in  the  country  is  enough  to  convince 
you  of  the  freedom  of  it ;  the  rocks  and  sides  of  the 
Taygetus,  which  is  by  nature  as  barren  as  ever  moun- 
tain was,  are  cut  into  terraces  to  support  the  little 
earth  there  is,  and  covered  with  corn  springing  even 
from  the  very  stones.  The  agriculture  is  clean,  well 
kept,  and  resembling  any  country  more  than  Turkey  ; 
they  have  so  completely  made  the  most  of  nature  that 
scarce  a  foot  of  ground  is  lost,  and  it  reminded  us  of 
Switzerland  ;  and  everything  shows  that  the  corn  and 
wine  spring  for  themselves,  and  not  for  an  absent 
master. 

Having  thus  in  some  measure,  I  hope,  interested 
you  in  the  country,  I  will  tell  you  how  we  have  come 
into  it  and  how  we  travel  across  it.  We  entered  it 
yesterday,  and  soon  came  to  one  of  the  towers  of  its 
chiefs,  to  whom  we  had  letters.  We  found  a  spirited, 
hearty  fellow,  who  received  us  with  open  arms,  wel- 
comed us  to  the  country,  and  entered  into  a  very 
interesting  and  animated  conversation  on  the  present 
state  of  it.  We  naturally  inquired  about  the  safety  of 
it ;  he  said  the  wars  that  had  made  it  dangerous  were 
now  finished,  and  that  the  country  had  suffered  much 
misrepresentation  from  them.  He  said  certainly  there 
were  bad  men  in  all  countries,  and  that,  added  to  the 
enormities  of  these,  many  corsairs  from  Cephallenia 


1795]  A  MAINOTE  CASTLE  201 

and  Corfu  had  infested  the  coast,  which  were  all 
included  in  the  bad  reputation  thrown  by  the  Turks 
on  the  Mainotes.  He  talked  to  us  of  antiquity,  and 
walked,  with  all  his  suite,  to  some  ruins  about  a 
mile  off. 

He  then  took  leave  of  us,  and  one  of  his  men, 
armed,  walked  before  us  to  the  fair  lady's  castle, 
where  we  now  are — another  battlemented  tower,  with 
portholes  on  all  sides  in  case  of  defence,  surrounded 
by  a  small  village  on  the  shore.  At  our  approach,  an 
armed  man  came  out  to  know  our  business,  and 
walked  with  our  other  guard  before  us  to  the  house. 
We  were  received  by  her  uncle,  the  late  governor  of 
the  country,  to  whom,  as  well  as  to  her,  we  had  strong 
letters.  The  lady  is  about  twenty-eight ;  her  husband, 
who  governed  here,  is  dead,  and  she  is  mistress  of  the 
territory.  You  will  remember  the  freedom  of  the 
ancient  Spartan  women,  and  the  fine  answer  of  the 
wife  of  Leonidas  when  told  "  they  were  the  only 
women  who  governed  the  men,"  and  she  replied,  "  Be- 
cause we  are  the  only  women  who  produce  MEN."  While 
the  sex  is  degraded  at  three  hours'  distance,  they  are 
here  free,  simple,  and  happy.  By  what  I  am  told  they 
are  very  virtuous,  and  it  is  the  only  instance  in  the 
Levant.  For  all  this  they  are  as  beautiful  as  angels  ; 
it  was  a  new  thing  to  us  to  have  audience  of  a  fine 
woman,  attended  by  a  train  of  damsels,  most  of  them 
pretty,  and  her  sister,  who  was  about  eighteen,  and  as 
beautiful  as  you  can  conceive. 

CARDAMYLA,  iz/A. 

I  left  off  here  to  talk  with  our  friends,  and  resume 
my  letter  here,  if  possible  still  more  pleased  with  the 
Mainotes.  The  lady's  castle  was  really  enchantment ; 
her  uncle,  a  hearty,  fine  old  man,  dined  and  supped 
with  us,  and  we  were  waited  on  by  beautiful  girls,  in 
the  true  mode  of  patriarchal  times.  He  lived  in  one 
tower  with  four  daughters  and  his  wife.  Two  of  his 


202  THROUGH  THE   MOREA  [CH.  vin 

daughters  were  children,  and  visited  us — they  were 
beautiful  beyond  measure ;  and  of  his  older  daughters 
one  was,  I  think,  the  handsomest  woman  I  ever  saw. 
To  give  you  some  idea  of  their  style  of  dress :  On 
their  heads  is  a  plain  small  circle,  either  of  shawl 
worked  with  gold  or,  sometimes,  a  red  or  green  velvet 
cap  embroidered  round  with  gold,  forming  a  coronet. 
Over  this  floats  a  long  veil  of  white  embroidered 
muslin.  One  end  hangs  over  their  right  shoulder 
behind,  and  the  other,  hanging  loose  across  their  breast, 
is  thrown  also  over  the  right  shoulder.  They  wear  a 
tight,  high  camisole  of  red  silk  and  gold,  buttoned  with 
coloured  stones  across  the  breast.  A  short  waistcoat, 
which  is  cut  quite  low,  and  clasps  tight  round  their 
waist,  is  made  of  muslin  and  gold,  with  small  globe 
buttons.  A  red  sash  and  long  flowing  robes  of  white 
muslin  and  gold  are  below.  Over  these  they  wear 
a  red,  green,  or  light-blue  silk  gown,  cut  straight, 
and  entirely  open  before,  embroidered  in  the  richest 
manner,  the  long  sleeves  sometimes  of  different 
colours.  On  their  neck  are  rows  of  gold  chains  in  the 
English  mode  exactly.  They  do  not  wear  trousers  so 
low  as  the  women  in  the  other  parts  of  Turkey.  This 
is  chiefly  the  description  of  the  lady  of  the  house ;  you 
will  suppose  the  colours  are  varied  for  different  tastes 
and  different  ranks.  The  contour  of  the  dress  is  much 
the  same,  and  as  the  women  are  naturally  lovely,  with 
complexions  you  would  suppose  born  in  the  coldest  of 
climates,  you  may  imagine  the  enchantment  of  the 
place,  and  will  conceive  how  we  regretted  leaving  our 
lodging. 

My  draughtsman  had  taken  two  figures  for  me,  one 
of  the  old  man  of  the  house,  the  other  of  one  of  the 
women.  As  I  showed  it  the  old  man  he  was  so  much 
pleased  with  the  compliment  that  our  painter's  fame 
spread  over  the  house ;  he  drew  the  little  girl,  his 
daughter,  and  the  mistress  of  the  house  gave  us  per- 
mission to  take  her  picture.  The  old  man,  who 
thought  it  improper,  hindered  his  going,  when,  like  a 


1795]  THE   LADY   OF   THE   CASTLE  203 

true  woman  determined  to  be  mistress  in  her  own 
house,  she  sent  for  him  to  give  her  uncle  the  slip,  shut 
herself  up  with  her  women  and  him,  and  planted  four 
or  five  men  at  the  door  till  her  picture  was  finished, 
as  she  was  determined  to  see  how  a  picture  was 
drawn ;  and  she  chose  we  should  remember  her  after 
we  were  gone.  The  old  man  found  out  our  trick ; 
but  the  lady  had  quite  got  the  better  for  this  time, 
and  he  would  not  say  anything  further.  He  aston- 
ished us  while  we  stayed  by  the  superiority  of  his 
reading  to  any  we  had  long  been  used  to.  The  first 
book  I  found  in  the  house,  to  my  astonishment,  was 
Belisarius  translated  into  modern  Greek ;  he  had  also 
Rollin's  ancient  history  in  the  same  language.  He 
talked  to  us  a  vast  deal  about  ancient  Greece,  of 
which  he  knew  the  whole  history  as  well  or  better 
than  us ;  he  was  particularly  well  acquainted  with 
the  different  colonisation  of  the  country,  and  his  eyes 
sparkled  with  pleasure  when  he  talked  of  the  ancient 
Spartans. 

Everything  we  see  reminds  us  of  Switzerland :  the 
same  cultivation  in  a  most  barren  country,  the  same 
freedom  of  mind,  the  same  simplicity  of  manners. 
Their  compliments  are  only  the  warm  expressions  of 
friendship  and  interest,  and  they  do  not  tease  you 
with  fulsome  or  fawning  civility.  "  Sans  facon  "  was 
the  only  French  our  old  friend  knew,  and  he  had  a 
perfect  idea  of  the  comfort  of  the  maxim.  Indeed, 
I  have  not  often  been  more  at  my  ease  than  we  are 
in  this  country,  and  as  want  of  ceremony  is  always 
an  increase  of  gaiety,  we  talked  and  laughed  all  day. 
We  have  met  with  as  warm  a  reception  at  Cardamyla, 
a  small  village  of  the  same  style  that  retains  its 
ancient  name.  We  came  on  mules  by  a  road  im- 
passable for  horses,  and  enjoyed  not  a  little  being 
stopped  by  our  guides  in  some  of  the  villages  with 
an  apology  that  the  Mainotes  had  never  seen  a 
stranger,  and  they  wished  to  show  their  friends  so 
new  a  sight. 


204  THROUGH  THE  MOREA  [CH.  vm 

MlSITRA 

We  have  at  last  got  out  of  the  Maina,  and  I  will 
finish  my  long  letter.  We  went  in  it  as  far  as  Vitulo, 
and  then  crossed  to  Marathonisi.  These  you  will 
find  in  any  good  ancient  map  as  Oetylos  and  Gythium  ; 
in  modern  ones  they  are  little  known.  Since  that  we 
left  the  Maina,  and  are  now  near  the  situation  of 
Sparta.  We  still  talk  with  pleasure  of  the  Mainotes ; 
we  passed  through  the  heart  of  their  country,  and 
saw  them  thoroughly.  I  have  given  you  most  of  the 
good  traits  of  their  character ;  their  vices  and  virtues 
are  those  of  a  half-civilised  nation,  and  they  are  the 
direct  contrast  of  the  other  poor  slaves  who  have 
fallen  under  the  Turks,  and  suffer  from  their  cor- 
ruption and  over-refinement.  The  one  is  a  nation 
never  made  the  most  of,  the  other  a  people  worn  out. 

Before  Cardamyle  the  country  is  governed  more 
strictly  by  the  chiefs  than  it  is  beyond,  and  the 
common  people  are  better  off,  as  the  land  is  less 
barren.  Afterwards  we  were  struck  with  the  sight 
of  a  range  of  mountains,  which  I  can  compare  to 
nothing  but  Kendal  Falls,  which  was  scattered  all 
over  with  thin  corn,  springing  from  little  terraces  of 
earth  scraped  together,  often  not  larger  than  a  table. 
The  people,  in  consequence  of  dearth,  besides  exer- 
cising their  industry  in  this  way,  plunder  everything 
that  approaches  them ;  and  without  the  protection 
of  their  chief  every  village  is  a  band  of  robbers  to 
those  who  pass  them.  At  the  same  time  they  have 
such  an  idea  of  hospitality  that  the  houses  of  rich  and 
poor  are  open  to  strangers  in  the  worst  places,  and 
the  very  men  who  would  strip  you  to  the  skin  as  an 
enemy,  if  unknown,  will  if  you  claim  the  rights  of 
hospitality  give  you  every  assistance,  and  stake  their 
lives  and  families  to  defend  and  protect  you  as  a 
friend.  We  were  the  only  strangers,  literally,  that 
the  oldest  people  had  ever  seen,  excepting  Turkish 
fugitives  and  deserting  soldiers  in  the  Russian  war. 


1795]  MAINOTE   PATRIOTISM  205 

You  can  hardly  imagine  with  what  ceremony  and 
satisfaction  we  were  received,  every  one,  as  we  were 
under  the  protection  of  their  friends,  doing  all  in  his 
power  to  assist  us  and  pass  us  safely,  many  owning 
themselves  that  though  they  could  pass  us  in  safety 
they  were  astonished  at  our  venturing,  and  compli- 
menting the  whole  nation  of  English  as  being  the 
first  that  has  ventured  among  them. 

In  case  of  an  attack  upon  their  country  they  arm 
both  men  and  women,  and  their  whole  force  amounts 
to  about  fifteen  thousand.  You  would  never  do  for  a 
Mainote  lady.  It  would  be  a  disgrace  for  them  to  stay 
behind  when  their  husbands  and  sons  are  in  danger. 
Every  little  district  is  united  by  all  the  ties  of  kindred, 
and  they  are  all  brothers,  sisters,  and  cousins  in  these 
villages.  Fighting  side  by  side,  and  with  their  wives 
and  children  around  them,  can  you  conceive  a  more 
formidable  corps  than  the  smallest  clan  so  animated  ? 
I  must  allow  that  the  ladies,  beautiful  as  they  are,  are 
rather  farouches  in  their  ideas  of  honour,  as  at  one 
captain's  where  we  had  a  ball  they  apologised  for  not 
having  better  music,  as  a  favourite  fiddler  having  made 
too  free  either  with  the  person  or  reputation  of  a  fair 
lady  here  aroused  the  vengeance  of  the  softer  sex,  and 
she  shot  him  through  the  head  upon  the  spot.  The 
gentlemen,  too,  would  have  rather  alarmed  you  as 
partners,  for  each  of  them  danced  with  a  large  brace 
of  loaded  pistols  in  his  belt,  and  by  way  of  enter- 
taining the  ladies  a  shot  was  fired  out  of  the  window 
about  every  ten  minutes  to  enliven  the  dance.  At 
Cardamyle  we  saw  the  ladies  exercise  at  throwing 
stones,  in  which,  though  comparisons  are  odious,  they 
succeed  better  than  your  attempts  generally  do.  We 
were  often  put  in  mind  of  the  female  gymnasia  of 
Lycurgus,  and  the  Spartan  ladies  running  and  wrest- 
ling. With  all  this  they  are  beautiful,  and,  as  far  as 
I  hear,  very  virtuous,  so  their  education  spoils  neither 
their  persons  nor  their  minds.  Such  is  the  state  of 
the  ladies. 


206  THROUGH   THE   MOREA  [CH.  vm 

Of  the  men  what  I  have  already  said  will  convince 
you  that  they  have  many  interesting  traits  of  char- 
acter, and  all  the  virtues  of  poverty  and  independence. 
Their  vices  are  violence  in  their  enmities  as  in  their 
friendships,  fierte,  turbulence,  and  revenge.  In  our 
whole  passage  I  saw  no  traces  of  the  thieving  or 
pilfering  tricks  and  ways  of  cheating  we  had  so  often 
noticed  in  every  other  class  of  Greeks.  Their  spirits 
are  open  and  high  ;  their  robbery  open  war,  but  never 
under  the  mask  of  friendship,  which  with  them  is  a 
most  sacred  name.  We  liked  them  more  the  more 
we  stayed,  and  if  we  had  pleased  should  have  spent 
much  time  there,  for  we  never  entered  a  house  without 
being  pressed  to  stay  there,  and  never  left  it  but  with 
the  regret  that  we  should  not  be  able  to  return  ex- 
pressed by  the  whole  house.  We  were,  as  you  will 
suppose,  highly  gratified  with  our  tour,  and  with  the 
people  we  saw  ;  the  more  so  as  nobody  else  had  seen 
them,  and  their  manners  and  spirit  are  very  different 
from  those  of  all  the  other  nations  here.  In  point 
of  antiquities  we  were  able  to  fix  the  geography  and 
ancient  situations  of  most  part  of  the  coast  towns. 
We  found  but  few  remains,  and,  indeed,  where  corn  is 
wanted,  you  may  be  sure  the  men  of  the  country  will 
blow  up  old  stones,  and  plough  over  the  ground.  For 
the  poor  ancients,  therefore,  "  deep  harvests  bury  all 
their  pride  has  planned,"  and  the  situations  of  their 
towns  are  only  recognised  by  an  old  wall  or  two,  and 
the  slight  corruption  of  the  names  of  places.  They 
survive  here  in  a  nobler  manner,  since  certainly  these 
people  retain  the  spirits  and  character  of  Grecians 
more  than  we  had  ever  seen,  and  their  customs  and 
language  are  transmitted  with  greater  purity. 

We  made  stops  at  two  or  three  houses  from  being 
pressed  to  stay  for  a  day,  so  are  rather  later  than  we 
wished  in  our  tour.  I  will  not  tire  you  by  dragging 
you  step  by  step  with  us ;  you  shall  some  time  read  it 
in  my  journal.  We  came  here  from  Gythium,  now 
Marathonisi,  and,  meeting  our  English  friends  again 


1795]  AMYCLAE  207 

here,  we  rode  together  to  Sparta  yesterday.  We  found 
literally  no  remains  worth  mentioning  but  the  theatre, 
which  is  very  large,  and  of  which  almost  all  the  stones 
are  removed.  We  stayed  to-day  in  hopes  of  bringing 
off  two  pieces  of  sculpture  we  found  at  Amyclae  which 
are  very  curious,  but  we  fear  we  shall  not  be  able. 
They  are  two  square  marbles  with  a  Lacedemonian 
lady's  toilet  carved  upon  them — the  slippers,  combs, 
mirrors,  essence  bottles,  e'futs,  etc. — which  are  in  very 
good  preservation,  and  would  be  a  very  great  acquisi- 
tion if  we  could  get  them  to  England.  We  therefore 
shall  do  all  in  our  power,  though,  I  fear,  we  have  no 
great  hopes. 

So  much  for  ourselves  and  our  motions.  I  was 
surprised  yesterday  by  a  large  packet  of  letters  from 
England,  which  had  travelled  up  and  down  the  Pelo- 
ponnesus after  us ;  I  leave  you  to  judge  whether 
agreeably  or  not.  It  contained  so  much  good  private 
news  that  it  was  read,  I  assure  you,  more  than  once, 
and  with  more  pleasure  than  you  can  imagine ;  being 
with  you  so  well  and  happy,  and  promising  so  fair  to 
make  you  all  so,  gives  me  a  satisfaction  I  can  hardly 
express.  I  am  sure  from  your  accounts  that  Henry's 
profession  is  the  one  he  ought  to  have  chosen,  as  it 
was  chosen  for  him  by  nature,  and,  as  a  fighting  officer 
who  does  not  talk  of  his  victories  is  rather  a  respect- 
able character  at  present,  I  have  no  doubt  of  his 
making  a  good  figure  both  in  Flanders  and  by  an 
English  fireside,  where,  notwithstanding  my  talents 
for  rambling,  I  should  not  dislike  to  be  seated  with 
you  and  the  noble  captain.  We  would  talk  over  our 
travels  in  Holland  and  Greece,  and  should  expect  you 
to  pay  great  attention.  Tell  him  in  a  letter  my  packet 
contained  I  hear  that  a  favourite  Opposition  toast  for 
some  months  has  been  "  The  brave  followers  of  the 
Duke  of  York."  The  pun  is  not  bad,  though  some- 
what sansculotte. 

I  have  only  one  complaint  to  make  of  your  letter ; 
you  seldom  send  Rover's  compliments,  and  I  know  the 


2o8  THROUGH  THE  MOREA  [CH.  vm 

poor  dog  does,  only  he  is  not  clever  enough  to  write. 
I  have  always  favourites,  you  know.  My  poor  little 
Hungarian  tired  of  his  tour,  and  ran  away  at  Smyrna. 
I  replaced  him  two  days  ago  with  a  pet  of  the  true 
Spartan  breed.  He  is  a  whelp,  but  means  to  be  about 
the  size  of  Trusty.  I  train  him  to  follow  our  horses 
and  guard  our  baggage.  In  Italy  I  mean  to  make  him 
follow  and  take  care  of  our  carriage,  as  1  think  a  dog 
from  Sparta  will  have  a  fine  effect  in  England,  and 
keep  up  what  Stockdale  calls  the  "  hum  "  of  our  tour. 
For  the  rest  of  our  "  hums,"  I  have  added  a  tolerable 
bust  found  at  Gythium  to  my  collection,  and  my 
medals  flourish ;  so  Sir  Robert  and  John  Yorke  will 
frequent  Rokeby  on  my  return.  As  for  John,  he  is 
such  an  amateur  of  female  beauty,  I  think  when  he 
hears  our  stories  he  will  travel  to  Maina,  for  neither 
Lady  Coventry  nor  the  Venus  de  Medicis  are  much 
superior  to  some  there.  You  were  in  great  danger  of 
losing  us,  for  we  were  very  often  asked  to  marry  and 
settle,  and  think  we  should  have  made  excellent  cap- 
tains of  a  Mainote  band.  I  have  bespoke  a  very  hand- 
some Mainote  lady's  dress,  which  I  hope  will  meet  us 
at  Cerigo  (Cythera),  and  which,  as  I  shall  not  always 
wear,  I  will  lend  you  when  I  do  not  want  it,  as  you 
will  look  very  well  in  a  muslin  chemise  and  a  blue 
silk  pair  of  trousers.  We  will  attend  Ranelagh  as 
Mainotes  when  my  Wakefield  friends  give  the  second 
exhibition  of  Annette  and  Lubin.  I  leave  off  my  letter 
for  a  visit  from  a  Turk,  who  has  sent  word  that  he 
wished  to  be  allowed  to  see  us ;  you  see  we  are  quite 
lions  here.  .  .  . 

Our  Turk  is  gone.  He  was  an  attendant  on  the 
Aga  on  whom  we  had  called  this  morning,  and  his 
message  was  not,  as  I  have  written,  so  much  to  see  us 
as  that  we  might  see  him,  for  it  is  the  beginning  of  the 
Bairam,  or  Turkish  carnival,  and  he  had  on  his  gala 
clothes,  which  were  covered  with  breastplates  and 
harnessing  of  gold  and  silver,  so  that  he  really  was  a 
sight. 


1795]  NAUPLIA  209 

NAPOLI  [NAUPLIA], 
April  28. 

Safely  arrived  at  the  Sign  of  the  Bear.  We  are  in  a 
scrape  here,  which  I  know  you  will  be  wicked  enough 
to  laugh  at ;  it  is  quite  dans  notre  genre.  We  have 
contrived  in  Maina  and  our  route  to  spend  all  our 
money  in  buying  medals,  etc.,  and  cannot  get  a 
farthing  for  our  drafts  on  Smyrna  or  Constantinople. 
We  have,  indeed,  found  nobody  who  had  any  trade 
there,  and  of  consequence  nobody  who  would  take  our 
word  for  a  farthing,  so  we  are  obliged  to  borrow  a 
few  shillings  of  the  Consul  and  hope  to  find  some  at 
Argos — about  five  miles  off.  If  nobody  gives  us  any 
there,  we  must  stay  here,  for  we  are  very  comfortable 
in  the  Consul's  house.  We  little  expected  to  find 
money  so  scarce,  or  we  could  have  had  it  at  Tripo- 
lizza.  At  present,  like  good  Irishmen,  now  that  we 
have  got  out  of  the  land  of  robbers,  we  have  nothing 
for  anybody  to  steal ;  while  we  were  there  we  had 
money  enough.  Adieu.  My  love  to  all  at  home,  and 
believe  me 

Your  sincerely  affectionate  brother, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


CHAPTER  IX 

AEGEAN  ISLANDS:  CRETE 

SOME  readers  may  be  puzzled  by  Morritt's  remarks 
about  the  paucity  of  remains,  "  nothing  to  see,"  etc., 
at  Argos  and  Sparta.  This  was  true  until  a  very  few 
years  from  the  present  time.  Within  the  last  two 
decades  the  labours  of  the  various  "  schools  "  of  Athens, 
English,  American,  French,  and  German,  have  un- 
covered much  that  was  entirely  concealed  for  nearly 
a  century  after  Morritt's  visit. 

Similarly  in  Crete  he  finds  no  evidence  of  its  former 
greatness.  At  Gortyna  he  writes,  "There  is  little 
here";  and  of  the  palace  of  the  Minoan  kings  there 
was  nothing  visible  of  the  vast  remains  uncovered  in 
1900  and  the  subsequent  years  by  Sir  Arthur  Evans 
and  his  followers,  which  have  thrown  entirely  new  light 
on  the  history  of  "Aegean"  peoples  and  civilisation, 
even  while  the  inscriptions  are  still  unknown  language, 
Yet  Morritt  (see  p.  240)  was  much  nearer  the  truth, 
through  his  study  of  ancient  accounts,  than  most  who 
have  discussed  the  question  until  a  century  after  his 
time,  when  he  rejected  the  current  belief  that  the 
famous  labyrinth  was  merely  the  quarry  at  Gortyna, 
on  the  ground  that  the  labyrinth  belonged  to  Gnossus 
and  not  to  Gortyna,  and  supposed  it  to  have  been  "  a 
subterranean  palace "  there.  The  recent  spade-work 
in  Crete  has  fairly  established  the  truth  that  the  laby- 
rinth was  the  great  palace  of  the  Minoan  kings  at 
Gnossus,  whose  multiplicity  of  rooms  and  passages 
has  been  uncovered ;  and  there  is  much  plausibility  in 
the  view  that  the  name  itself  comes  from  the  labrys  or 
double-headed  axe,  which  was  sculptured  as  a  sacred 
emblem  in  the  palace.  This  implies  that  Morritt  was 

2IO 


1795]  TIRYNS  211 

mistaken  in  his  opinion  that  the  Cretan  labyrinth 
was  derived  from  the  Egyptian.  The  great  Egyptian 
temple  of  the  twelfth  dynasty  at  Hamara  was  probably 
rather  earlier  in  date  than  the  Minoan  "  labyrinth," 
which  is  not  at  present  placed  earlier  than  2000  B.C.  ; 
but  it  would  seem  that  the  name  was  transferred  by 
Greek  writers  from  the  Cretan  palace  to  the  many- 
chambered  Egyptian  temple. 

NAXOS, 

June  4-5,  1795. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

We  went  to  Argos  from  Napoli.  In  the  plain 
are  the  ruins  of  Tiryns,  which  you  mentioned  to  me 
in  a  letter,  and  of  which,  to  give  you  an  idea,  I  need 
only  translate  Pausanias,  who  seems  to  have  found 
them  in  the  very  state  they  now  are,  and  probably  will 
remain  for  ages  to  come.  They  are  the  rudest  speci- 
men of  architecture  in  Greece,  and  form  a  breastwork 
and  parapet  to  a  little  hill  which  contained  the  houses 
of  Tiryns.  The  stones  are  not  cut ;  they  are  a  collec- 
tion of  rough  fragments  of  rocks  heaped  one  on  the 
other,  the  hollows  filled  with  smaller  stones  to  give 
solidity  to  the  fabric.  When  the  Archbishop  men- 
tioned to  you  that  many  were  thirty  feet  long,  I 
suspect  he  has  found  somewhere  the  measure  given 
in  Greek,  and  has  reduced  it  to  English  measures  from 
the  most  received  opinions  of  the  relative  measures ; 
of  which  reduction  I  have  more  than  once  doubted  the 
accuracy,  as,  in  many  instances,  it  makes  ancient  stories 
scarcely  possible.  Pausanias  is  more  exact.  He  says 
the  smallest  of  these  stones  (not  counting  those  in  the 
crevices)  could  not  be  drawn  by  a  yoke  of  two  mules, 
which  I  believe  true;  the  largest  I  saw  were  ten  or 
eleven  feet  in  length  by  five  or  six  in  breadth  and 
thickness.  We  had  seen  other  buildings  of  which  the 
stones  were  almost  as  large,  but  the  striking  thing  in 
these  is  the  extreme  rudeness  of  the  masonry,  which 
carries  with  it  the  marks  of  the  very  remote  and 
early  times  of  Greece,  and  one  can't  help  seeing  with 


212  AEGEAN   ISLANDS:  CRETE  [CH.  ix 

pleasure  and  wonder  a  wall  which  the  Greeks  them- 
selves ascribed  to  the  Cyclopes. 

At  Argos  we  found  few  remains :  the  walls  of  the 
citadel,  built  up  with  more  modern  ones;  forms  of 
buildings  in  the  rocks;  that  of  the  theatre,  notwith- 
standing what  Chandler  says ;  and  fragments  of  archi- 
tecture, with  some  broken  statues,  in  the  churches. 
Of  the  famous  temple  of  Juno,  common  to  it  and 
Mycenae,  we  could  hear  no  tidings ;  it  seems  to  have 
entirely  disappeared,  and  a  small  church  near  the 
situation  is  adorned  with  the  only  fragments  of  it  that 
are  left,  probably.  We  got  at  Argos,  however,  some 
money  for  our  draft  on  Constantinople,  which  was  the 
most  agreeable  thing  we  found  at  the  place.  The 
next  four  days  were  employed  in  a  fool's-pace  journey 
through  the  Argolis.  We  endeavoured  to  persuade 
our  guides  (one  of  whom  weighed  about  twenty  stone) 
to  go  faster,  and,  indeed,  horsewhipped  them  a  little ; 
by  which  means  we  very  near  lost  our  horses  entirely, 
and  were  glad  at  last  to  go  at  any  rate.  We  slept  in 
villages  as  miserable  as  possible. 

The  objects  that  made  some  amends  for  the  desagre- 
ments  of  our  journey  were  the  remains  of  the  temple 
and  buildings  sacred  to  Aesculapius,  near  Epidaurus. 
Chandler  gives  a  detailed  account  of  them.  The 
theatre,  in  particular,  remains  the  most  perfect  of  any 
we  had  seen ;  almost  all  the  marble  seats  are  in  their 
places — we  counted  above  fifty  rows;  the  passages 
between  them,  and  the  communication  through  the 
body  of  the  theatre,  are  still  seen.  We  had  often  been 
struck  before  with  the  shape  of  these  seats — they  are 
very  broad  and  low,  and  they  rise  like  steps  one  from 
another.  It  makes  us  think  that  the  ancients  sat  then 
as  their  descendants  often  do  now,  with  their  legs 
under  them  a  la  Turque;  if  they  did  not,  they  must 
kick  one  another's  dernieres  during  the  whole  repre- 
sentation, which  I  do  not  find  mentioned  in  any  book 
of  the  times.  Five  miles  from  this  is  the  city  of 
Epidaurus,  now  a  village  of  about  five  mud  houses. 


1795]  VOLCANIC  ACTION  213 

Nothing  but  a  little  old  rubbish,  overgrown  with 
weeds,  remains.  The  situation  is  fine,  and  partly  on 
a  small  promontory  jutting  into  the  sea,  and  forming 
a  convenient  port  for  the  town.  Aegina  lies  before  it, 
and  the  sea-view  is  beautiful.  We  now  continued 
along  the  Argolis,  leaving  Troezene  on  our  left,  and 
came  in  a  day  and  a  half  to  Hermione.  The  country 
is  uneven,  wild,  and  uncultivated,  though  naturally 
very  fertile ;  I  believe,  however,  that  throughout  it,  and 
particularly  near  Troezene,  the  air  is  unwholesome  in 
the  great  heats,  and  the  water  bad. 

You  know  the  whole  coast  has  been  changed  by 
earthquakes  and  volcanoes,  and  several  small  islands 
have  been  thrown  up  by  them ;  we  saw  near  Didymos 
(a  little  village  in  the  inland  part  of  Troezenia)  a 
curious  effect  of  them.  The  fire  having  consumed  the 
earth  below,  the  undermined  surface  has  in  two  places 
fallen  in,  and  forms  two  regular  circular  basins  in  the 
middle  of  the  plain,  the  least  near  forty  yards  in  depth 
and  eighty  or  ninety  diameter.  The  sides  are  an 
upright  wall  of  brown  rock,  and  so  regular  we  could 
hardly  believe  them  natural.  In  the  bottom  is  a  little 
chapel  and  some  vineyards.  The  largest  is  on  the 
side  of  a  hill,  by  consequence  not  so  regular.  The 
people  of  the  village  find  much  saltpetre  in  it,  of  which 
they  make  a  little  commerce.  Near  Hermione  we  had 
the  pleasure  of  riding  along  a  stream  between  two 
high  winding  screens  of  rock  covered  with  foliage, 
particularly  pine  and  firs.  The  scenery,  of  course, 
was  gloomy  and  picturesque,  and  when  we  had  got 
through  this  defile,  which  is  about  four  miles  long,  we 
crossed  a  fine  plain,  much  cultivated  and  wooded,  to 
Hermione  (now  Castri),  which  is  in  a  beautiful  situa- 
tion, with  one  of  the  best  ports  in  Greece.  The  isle  of 
Hydra  is  opposite,  and  screens  the  road  between  them 
*  from  wind  and  weather. 

At   Hermione  we  found  the  broken-up  seats  of  a 
small  theatre  on  the  shore.    They  are  different  from 
any  we  had  seen,  as  they  are  a  stucco  of  small  stones 
15 


214  AEGEAN   ISLANDS :   CRETE  [CH.  ix 

and  mortar,  and  the  whole  theatre  has  been  almost  in 
one  piece.  We  found  the  foundations  of  some  of  the 
principal  temples,  and,  near  that,  we  suppose,  of  Ceres, 
a  hole  in  the  ground  which  has  made  a  great  figure  in 
story.  It  conducted  to  hell,  which  was  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, and  was  the  road  by  which  Hercules 
dragged  Cerberus  to  earth,  and  by  which  Pluto 
dragged  Proserpine  to  hell.  I  found  a  ridiculous 
story  in  one  of  our  books  in  speaking  of  this  place. 
The  people  of  Hermione  were  so  persuaded  of  their 
nearness  to  the  infernal  regions,  and  of  the  neigh- 
bourly friendship  of  their  inhabitants,  that  they  did 
not  in  their  burials  put  Charon's  pay  in  the  mouth  of 
their  dead,  as  the  old  boatman  carried  his  next-door 
neighbours  for  nothing.  The  boatmen  in  that  neigh- 
bourhood do  not  go  for  nothing  now,  as  we  found  at 
Hydra,  where  all  the  boats  have  lately  gained  so  much 
in  their  corn  trade  to  France  and  Genoa  that  they  won't 
go  on  any  other  business. 

Hydra  is  a  considerable  town,  built  on  an  island, 
the  pasturage  of  which  would  hardly  feed  a  horse. 
The  whole  is  a  barren  rock,  and  the  port  was  some 
years  ago  a  nest  of  pirates.  Commerce  and  applica- 
tion have  made  it  a  respectable  town  ;  the  port  is  full  of 
boats,  and  even  ships ;  they  are  the  best  sailors  in  the 
Archipelago,  and  the  town  is  neat ;  though  built  on 
the  side  of  so  steep  a  hill,  the  houses  rise  over  each 
other  in  steps.  They  have  nothing  to  eat  but  what 
they  import ;  a  little  mutton  was  the  only  thing  we 
got  there,  and  every  sort  of  garden  stuff  is  totally 
unknown  except  a  vessel  is  driven  by  accident  to 
Athens  or  Corinth  and  thinks  it  worth  while  to  bring 
a  few  cabbages  or  turnips.  The  people,  enriched  by 
hard  application  to  commerce,  have  no  idea  but 
money,  and  we  regretted  our  stay  there,  which  was 
prolonged  by  a  foolish  holiday,  during  which  they 
would  not  stir. 

In  sailing  from  it  to  Cape  Sunium  we  were  driven 
by  weather  to  Poros.  We  rested  a  little  while  in  a 


1795]  THE  CYCLADES  215 

cave  and  then  ran  to  Zea,  with  a  very  rough  sea,  or, 
in  plain  English,  a  storm,  and  arrived  late  at  night. 
The  next  morning  we  went  to  the  town,  about  three 
miles  from  the  port.  Here  began  our  tour  of  the 
Cyclades.  We  are  woeful  sailors,  for  as  sure  as  ever 
we  are  in  our  boat  one  of  three  events  takes  place, 
viz.  a  calm,  a  storm,  or  a  contrary  wind.  The  Greek 
islands,  which  are  generally  the  beaten  track  in  a  tour 
through  the  Levant,  are  just  the  part  of  it  that  offer 
the  fewest  objects  of  antiquity  or  curiosity.  The 
reason  is  very  obvious  :  they  are  much  more  inhabited 
and  much  frequented  by  merchants ;  the  inhabitants 
pull  to  pieces  old  buildings  and  build  new  ones,  and 
the  merchants  carry  off  statues  and  marbles  when 
worth  the  trouble ;  but  in  return  the  modern  state  of 
the  Isles  is  much  more  agreeable,  and  a  man  finds 
much  more  amusement  and  better  fare  than  in  the  rest 
of  Turkey. 

The  Cyclades  and  all  the  islands  in  that  part  are 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  Greeks,  and  the  Turks  make 
them  pay  an  annual  tribute,  and  give  them  very  little 
other  trouble.  At  Zea,  Tenos,  and  Mycone  we  saw 
very  few  remains  of  antiquity  worth  notice  ;  they  are 
barren  and  rocky,  but,  from  the  peace  and  freedom 
they  live  in,  are  much  cultivated,  and  Tenos  particu- 
larly is  covered  with  villages  and  gardens.  Their 
great  trade  is  silk,  and  all  the  Tenians,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  are  knitters  of  silk  stockings, 
gloves,  etc.,  which  is  for  such  an  island  no  inconsider- 
able branch  of  commerce.  As  we  were  detained  by 
weather  at  most  of  these  places,  we  kept  ourselves  in 
good  humour  by  giving  balls  to  the  belles  Grecques 
and  teaching  English  country  dances  and  waltzes  a  la 
mode  de  Vienne. 

You  hear  often  in  England  of  the  beauty  of  the 
Greek  women ;  I  assure  you  the  account  does  not 
exaggerate  it,  and  at  Tenos,  but  above  all  at  Mycone, 
no  account  can.  A  fiddle  is  a  general  point  de  rallie- 
ment  for  the  whole  town,  especially  as  at  the  Consul's 


2i6  AEGEAN   ISLANDS:   CRETE  [CH.  ix 

houses  we  were  usually  a  large  party  of  young  people 
and  had  our  partners  in  the  house,  as  most  of  them 
have  families.  You  will  conceive,  therefore,  that  when 
we  had  bad  weather  out  of  doors  we  had  generally 
very  good  within,  and  as  they  are  lovers  of  dancing, 
at  Tenos  particularly,  when  we  had  not  a  fiddle  we 
sang,  and  danced  from  morning  to  night  so.  We  make 
great  progress  in  modern  Greek,  and  begin  to  talk 
pretty  intelligibly,  so  that  we  at  least  gained  some- 
thing by  our  misfortunes. 

I  picked  up  two  small  statues  at  Tenos,  which  will 
figure  in  my  collection.  Delos  is  perfectly  desert,  and 
covered  with  old  broken  marbles ;  the  neighbouring 
islands  carry  off  marbles  for  ever,  and  its  columns  and 
stones  are  the  ornament  of  a  thousand  churches  about 
its  neighbourhood.  While  we  were  walking  over  it 
we  were  not  a  little  surprised  by  meeting  the  young 
Englishman  from  Smyrna  (Hayes),  to  tell  us  that  a 
French  corsair  was  in  search  of  us.  He  had  received 
the  news  at  Mycone,  and  kindly  followed  us  in  a  boat 
to  inform  us  that  we  might  be  on  our  guard.  It  proved 
a  false  report,  though  there  was  a  small  boat  at  Tenos 
which  had  occasioned  the  story.  As  it  was  only  a 
boat  of  four  or  five  men,  we  gave  ourselves  very  little 
trouble  about  it,  and  afterwards  heard  it  was  gone  on 
for  Smyrna.  It  was  manned  by  an  officer  and  three 
sailors  of  the  frigate  Captain  Paget  took  last  year  at 
Mycone,  which,  being  taken  in  a  neutral  port  and 
looked  upon  as  no  prize,  enraged  the  French  beyond 
measure.  We  were  shown  the  scene  of  action,  and  it 
was  certainly  a  proof  of  French  courage  by  sea  that 
they  durst  not,  with  equal  force,  near  twice  the  number 
of  men,  and  a  new  frigate,  sally  out  and  attack  the 
Romney,  which  is  an  old,  crazy  vessel. 

Besides  this,  on  Paget's  first  broadside,  instead  of 
standing  to  their  guns  half  the  crew  leapt  overboard. 
We  have  heard  a  story  still  more  honourable  for  the 
English  since,  which  has  done  us  much  good.  The 
three  English  frigates  had  blocked  the  Sensible,  of 


i79S]  BRITISH   AND   FRENCH   SHIPS  217 

thirty-two  guns,  at  Chisme,  and  challenged  her  to 
come  out  and  fight  any  of  them  singly.  The  French- 
man chose  for  his  antagonist  the  Dart,  a  sloop  of 
twenty-two  guns,  and  insisted  on  writings  being  drawn, 
that  if  the  others  took  any  part  in  the  engagement, 
the  ship  was  not  a  fair  prize.  These  writings  were 
signed  and  agreed  to  by  the  English  officers  and  the 
Turkish  governors  of  the  two  ports.  The  next  day 
the  shore  was  filled  by  Turks  to  view  the  engagement. 
The  Dart  sallied  forth  and  fired  a  signal.  As  the  other 
did  not  come  out  she  sailed  into  the  bay  at  Chisme 
and  made  another  signal,  and  the  French,  not  daring 
to  attack  her,  though  they  had  been  reinforced  by  the 
crews  of  their  other  sloops  at  Smyrna,  stayed  in  port, 
while  the  Turks  on  the  castles  and  the  English  sailors 
on  the  yardarms  hooted  them  for  their  cowardice. 
I  do  not  believe  there  is  a  ship's  crew  in  England 
but  would  have  thrown  their  captain  overboard,  if  he 
had  disgraced  them  in  such  a  manner.  Such  is  the 
vaunted  courage  of  the  mass  of  the  sansculottes, 
when  at  all  equally  matched  in  skill  or  numbers. 

The  Christians  at  Naxos  are  under  two  slaveries 
— that  of  the  Turks,  owing  to  their  weakness  and 
cowardice ;  and  that  of  their  priests,  from  their 
ignorance  and  bigotry.  If  the  first  were  taken  away 
the  other  would  have  the  power  in  its  hands,  and  by 
the  use  which  has  generally  been  made  of  it  elsewhere, 
I  think  one  may  conceive  the  country  would  not  be 
much  better  for  it.  You  see  what  a  vision  it  is  to 
think  of  seeing  the  ages  of  liberty  revived  here : 
driving  out  the  Turks  would  be  only  reviving  the 
Empire  of  the  East,  the  weakest  and  worst  of  all 
governments.  Upon  my  word,  but  for  the  Turks  I  do 
not  believe  the  country  would  be  fit  to  be  visited. 
The  Greeks  would  not  be  able  to  hinder  corsairs  and 
robbery,  would  cheat  with  more  impunity,  and  have 
no  masters  more  honest  than  themselves  to  appeal  to. 
The  only  remains  of  ancient  times  in  Naxos  is  the 
doorway  of  the  temple  of  Bacchus,  on  a  small  island 


2i8  AEGEAN  ISLANDS:  CRETE  [CH.  ix 

off  the  port.  It  is  composed  of  three  stones,  one  on 
each  side,  and  one  across  is  about  eighteen  feet  high 
and  of  the  most  beautiful  marble.  The  work  is  plain, 
and  the  size  gives  it  grandeur  and  simplicity.  The 
temple  is  ruined.  When  Orloff  was  here  he  tried  to 
carry  it  off  to  Petersburg,  but,  the  stones  being  too 
large,  wreaked  his  vengeance  by  firing  balls  at  it. 
This  is  a  good  deal  like  Xerxes  whipping  the  sea,  and 
the  stones  of  Mount  Athos  ;  and  gives  a  fine  specimen 
of  Russian  taste.  At  Paros  we  saw  specimens  of 
another  sort,  a  castle  built  entirely  of  old  marbles, 
columns  laid  crosswise,  inscriptions  topsy-turvy, 
friezes  sideways,  and  bas-reliefs  with  the  flat  side 
outwards.  Most  of  the  valuable  marble  has  been 
carried  off  from  this  place. 

At  Antiparos  we  saw  the  famous  grotto.  It  is  an 
immense  natural  cave,  very  deep  underground,  and 
most  beautifully  hung  with  spars  and  stalactites. 
The  light,  as  we  moved  about  with  our  flambeaux,  had 
a  thousand  pleasing  effects.  It  is  a  much  larger  space 
than  any  part  of  the  cave  at  Castleton,  and  the  spars 
infinitely  finer;  I  find,  however,  one  hole  in  the  ground 
so  like  another  that  I  have  given  up  grottos  for  the 
future,  as  none  can  be  finer  than  this,  and  they  are 
all  very  difficult  to  enter,  and  very  dirty  to  stay  in. 
My  future  answer  will  be  that  I  have  seen  the  grotto 
at  Antiparos,  as  superior  to  all  other  grottos  as 
Westminster  Bridge  is  to  ours  on  the  Tees. 

We  had  a  very  rough  sail  to  Amorgos,  and  slept  on 
the  shore  of  a  small  creek  in  Paros  the  first  night. 
At  Amorgos  we  saw  only  a  poor  town,  and  poorer 
country,  convents,  and  miracles,  about  which  you  will 
excuse  my  silence,  I  think.  We  stayed  one  day,  and 
then,  after  sleeping  again  on  the  sand,  set  off  to  Cos. 
We  arrived  that  night  at  Astypalaea.  How  shall 
I  describe  it  ?  You  have  been  in  Scotland  ;  but  you 
have  not  seen  Astypalaea.  As  the  old  woman  in 
"  Candide  "  tells  Cunegonde,  "  Vous  avez  vu  beaucoup, 
mais,  Mademoiselle,  avez-vous  jamais  eu  la  peste?" 


1795]  GREEK  ISLAND  TOWNS  219 

All  the  inhabitants  live  in  one  single  town  situated  on 
a  high  rock,  and  surrounded  with  a  high  wall.  The 
largest  streets  are  not  above  eight  feet  broad.  The 
staircases,  which  in  Greece  are  always  on  the  outside 
of  the  houses,  take  up  three  feet  on  each  side ;  the 
middle  is  taken  up  by  a  gutter  without  water,  which 
seems  the  general  receiver  of  all  the  filth  in  the 
neighbourhood.  In  this,  however,  we  were  un- 
deceived, as  we  found  in  the  first  house  we  entered 
a  chamber  without  a  door  adjoining,  and  open  to  the 
parlour,  contained  that  of  one  family  at  least.  Beds 
were  brought  for  us,  and  we  sat  with  patience  during 
their  making,  till  we  had  counted  fifty  bugs,  but  when 
we  advanced  upon  the  other  half-hundred  our  courage 
failed  us,  we  hurried  down  to  the  shore,  and  slept 
again  very  happily  on  the  sand.  Early  the  next  day 
we  set  off  and  arrived  safe  and  well  at  Cos.  What  a 
change !  Cos  is  certainly  by  much  the  finest  island 
we  have  seen.  The  view  of  it  from  the  sea  is  as  charm- 
ing as  the  view  of  any  town  I  have  seen.  It  is 
Turkish,  and  the  whole  is  varied,  and  enriched  with 
orchards,  spires  of  cypress,  palm  trees,  and  the  tall 
pillar  of  the  mosques  that  rise  up  from  a  bed  of 
foliage,  the  whole  town  being  full  of  gardens.  The 
plain  all  round  is  covered  with  a  forest  of  oranges, 
lemons,  pomegranates,  almonds,  and  figs.  The  large 
trees  are  planes,  and  nothing  can  be  more  beautiful. 

The  Greek  towns  are  by  no  means  so  beautiful : 
they  are  generally  a  flaring  heap  of  white  houses ; 
and  they  are  too  idle  to  have  the  luxuries  of  the 
climate.  A  Turkish  town  is,  on  the  contrary,  full  of 
fountains,  and  of  shade  where  a  tree  will  grow ;  they 
are  very  susceptible  of  these  luxuries,  and  spare  no 
pains  to  have  them.  I  have  seen  them  sit  under  a 
tree  in  the  streets  for  near  a  day  together,  and  enjoy 
the  open  air  sheltered  from  the  sun. 


220  AEGEAN   ISLANDS:  CRETE  [CH.  ix 

HALICARNASSUS  (Now  BOUDROUN), 
June  16. 

We  got  here  yesterday  with  a  passage  of  four  or 
five  hours ;  the  distance  is  about  fifteen  miles,  but  we 
had  no  wind.  The  present  town  here  is  a  poor 
Turkish  village,  much  scattered,  but  has,  notwith- 
standing its  poverty,  a  pretty  appearance  from  the 
entrance  of  the  port,  as  it  is  full  of  trees  and  gardens. 
We  are  eating  apricots  and  figs  by  thousands,  and 
you  will  imagine  fruit  is  in  plenty  here.  At  Naxia, 
lemons  are  in  such  plenty  they  are  sold  for  about 
ninepence  the  thousand ;  in  one  garden  belonging  to 
a  convent,  the  annual  product  is  150,000  oranges, 
25,000  lemons,  and  10,000  citrons. 

We  have  found  fewer  remains  here  than  we  ex- 
pected :  six  Doric  pillars  stand  near,  half  buried  in 
the  ground  which  has  accumulated,  and  support  their 
entablature.  It  seems  they  have  belonged  to  some 
portico,  the  ruins  being  longer  than  any  temple,  and 
not  in  that  shape.  Some  broken  ones  mark  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  line.  We  saw  the  theatre,  in  which 
many  rows  of  seats  remain ;  the  ancient  wall  is  trace- 
able behind  the  town,  enclosing  with  the  sea  a  space 
of  near  six  miles  circumference  at  least. 

A  report  is  come  here  from  Constantinople  that  we 
have  peace  with  France.  I  suppose  it  is  owing  to  its 
being  concluded  with  Spain  and  Prussia,  and  the 
Turks  know  no  difference.  We,  however,  parade 
these  seas,  the  English  flag  flying  at  our  mast-head, 
in  perfect  security,  as  the  French  have  no  vessels 
out.  The  constant  north  winds  that  reign  in  the 
Archipelago  during  this  season  have  made  our  voyage 
very  good,  since  we  could  take  advantage  of  them ; 
and  we  hope  to  get  to  Candia  very  well.  Our  short 
tour  on  horseback  threatens  the  most  fatigue.  You 
have  not  a  notion  of  the  heat  we  now  are  exposed 
to,  which  increases  every  day.  We  must  conform  to 
the  plan  of  the  country,  and  sleep  during  all  the 


1795]          SEARCH  FOR  THE  MAUSOLEUM  221 

middle  of  the  day,  travelling  only  very  early  and 
very  late. 

We  have  been  seeking  in  vain  for  the  Mausoleum 
here ;  it  has  entirely  vanished,  or  exists  only  in  some 
inconsiderable  and  irrecognisable  ruins.1 

June  17. 

My  prophecy  was  right — we  are  at  Boudroun  another 
day ;  at  this  rate  when  we  shall  arrive  at  the  end  of 
our  pilgrimage  I  do  not  know ;  we  have  been  so  sulky, 
as  very  near  to  order  our  boat  and  sail  to  Cnidus  and 
Rhodes  in  a  pet,  leaving  Mylassa  and  Stratonicea  for 
other  people ;  we  have,  however,  thought  better  of  it, 
and  shall,  I  suppose,  get  off  to-morrow.  Indeed,  if 
there  had  been  a  favourable  north  wind  it  might  have 
changed  our  expedition ;  but  one  good  reason  for  not 
taking  our  boat  is  there  being  a  dead  calm  just  at 
present. 

The  day  is  again  hotter  than  you  can  imagine ;  and 
if  I  walk  five  yards  I  melt,  like  Sir  John  Falstaff  in 
the  buck-basket. 

My  long  letter  is  full,  so  I  must  take  this  little  scrap 
of  room  to  bid  you  adieu,  and  say  how  sincerely  and 
affectionately  I  am  yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

Sent  from  Rhodes  by  Leghorn  July  i. 

DEAR  ANNE, 

I  begin  my  letter  from  Rhodes,  where  it  will 
very  possibly  be  almost  finished,  as  we  seem  rather 
to  be  fixtures  here,  and  in  no  very  agreeable  manner, 
from  our  party's  falling  ill.  Stockdale  and  I  are, 
thank  God,  now  well.  On  our  first  arrival  here,  our 
voyage  in  Asia  had  been  so  extremely  fatiguing,  and 
our  living  so  bad,  that  even  I  was  at  last  knocked  up, 

1  It  was  not  till  1857  that  Sir  Charles  Newton  discovered  in  situ  the 
remains  of  the  Mausoleum,  of  which  the  more  important  are  now  in  the 
British  Museum ;  and  from  these  and  the  descriptions  in  ancient  writers 
established  with  tolerable  certainty  the  form  and  character  of  the  building. 


222  AEGEAN   ISLANDS :   CRETE  [CH.  ix 

and  for  four  or  five  days  was  laid  up  with  a  slow 
fever,  which  has  now  left  me.  The  day  after  I  fell  ill, 
my  poor  draughtsman  and  my  servant  both  followed 
my  example,  so  we  were  a  pleasant  travelling  party. 
They  are  both  now  better,  but  as  they  were  worse 
than  me  they  mend  slower.  In  this  climate,  and  at 
this  time  of  the  year,  a  fever  is  not  an  illness  that 
trifles. 

Our  tour  in  Asia  (though,  as  I  tell  you,  it  made  us 
all  ill)  repaid  us  for  our  fatigues  in  some  measure  by 
the  monuments  we  saw  and  found ;  and  few  parts  of 
our  tour  have  been  more  interesting.  I  finished  my 
mother's  letter  from  Halicarnassus ;  it  is  a  two  days' 
ride  to  Melasso— that  is,  when  one  can  only  ride 
mornings  and  evenings,  and  go  on  the  beasts  of  the 
country,  which  are  never  suffered  to  go  out  of  a  slow 
foot's  pace.  The  country  is  in  parts  rather  pretty, 
in  general  hilly  and  uninteresting.  We  were  in  a 
caravan  composed  of  Jews,  Turks,  and  Greeks;  so  the 
different  ceremonies  in  the  party  were  sometimes 
ridiculous  enough.  At  Melasso  we  stayed  a  whole 
day  besides  the  evening  of  that  we  arrived  on,  and 
were  very  busy  the  whole  time.  It  was  anciently 
Mylasa,  one  of  the  principal  cities  of  Caria,  and 
belonged,  amongst  others,  to  the  famous  Artemisia; 
and  on  the  wall  of  a  large  square  marble  building 
here,  which  is  now  built  up  into  Turkish  houses,  we 
found  a  dedication  inscribed  by  Mausolus  to  his  father 
Hecatomnus.  We  made  here  a  famous  harvest  of 
inscriptions,  and  this  was  not  all.  About  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  from  the  town  we  saw  one  of  the  prettiest 
little  bijoux  of  a  temple  that  you  can  imagine.  It  is 
most  like  a  square  summer-house ;  the  lower  part  is  a 
plain  marble  cube  with  a  door  into  it,  and  a  bold,  plain 
cornice.  On  this,  as  on  a  pedestal,  is  an  airy  Corin- 
thian colonnade  of  four  columns  on  each  front,  that 
support  a  marble  ceiling  carved  on  the  inside  with 
a  richness  and  delicacy  I  cannot  give  you  an  idea  of. 
The  compartments  of  it  are  in  lozenges,  the  largest  in 


222] 


1795]  CARIAN  TEMPLES  223 

the  centre,  each  adorned  with  ovola  and  a  rich  scroll, 
and  all  this  remains  almost  as  entire  as  when  first  put 
up,  so  that  it  looks  like  a  pretty  pavilion  at  the  end  of 
a  modern  garden  more  than  an  ancient  ruin. 

The  whole  country  is  very  mountainous,  and  the 
chains  of  Latmus,  which  continue  as  far  as  here,  want 
neither  wood  nor  boldness  of  outline.  At  the  end  of 
our  ride  we  found  a  temple,  which  was  indeed  the 
object  of  it.  It  is  situated  on  one  side  of  a  fine  plain 
covered  with  groves  of  olives,  and  a  thousand  other 
trees  and  shrubs ;  bounded  on  the  south  by  woody 
hills,  and  on  the  north  by  a  bolder  chain,  with  very 
high  rocky  summits  in  the  distance,  all  softened  and 
tinged  by  a  setting  sun  whose  effects  here  even  paint- 
ing can  scarce  make  you  conceive.  The  ruin  is  shut 
in  by  a  woody  little  dell,  and  stands  under  steep 
banks  of  foliage.  Fifteen  columns  of  it  are  standing, 
and  a  part  of  the  doorway  of  the  cell,  of  most  exquisite 
workmanship.  The  rest  of  the  building  lies  in  a 
picturesque  heap  within  them,  overgrown  with  shrubs 
and  small  trees,  out  of  which  the  columns  seem  to  rise. 

It  is  in  its  present  state  as  beautiful  an  object,  as 
a  picture,  as  it  has  once  been  magnificent  in  the  pride 
of  its  architecture  and  the  brilliant  symmetry  of  its 
proportions.  These  columns  are  of  the  Corinthian 
order,  and  nothing  can  exceed  their  neatness  and  light- 
ness ;  they  are  about  twenty-seven  feet  high  with  their 
architraves,  which  remain  on  them.  The  cornice  and 
frieze,  which  remain  on  some,  are  about  three  feet  more. 
The  whole  is  of  the  same  white  marble  we  had  admired 
before  at  Melasso,  discoloured  a  little  by  the  air  and 
weather.  But  what  made  the  ruin  more  interesting 
is  that  the  columns  are  inscribed  with  the  name  and 
dedication  of  the  people  who  raised  them  ;  and  by  this 
means  we  date  them,  as  we  think,  to  the  time  of  Philip 
of  Macedon,  as  some  have  been  erected  by  the  mad 
Doctor  Menecrates,  that  called  himself  "  Jupiter,"  etc., 
and  who  was  famous  at  the  Court  of  Philip  for  his 
follies,  and  the  lessons  he  received. 


224  AEGEAN   ISLANDS:  CRETE  [CH.  ix 

The  country  beyond  Melasso  is  a  continuation  of 
higher  and  higher  chains  of  mountain  with  large,  rich 
plains ;  the  hills  are  covered  with  pines,  and  the  road 
is  pleasant ;  nothing  can  be  richer  and  more  pleasant 
than  some  parts  of  the  plains,  for  here  oranges,  myrtle, 
and  lemons  overrun  the  country,  and  round  some  of 
the  villages  it  has  the  air  of  a  perfect  suite  of  gardens. 
Nothing,  however,  can  equal  the  neglect  of  cultivation, 
and  the  consequent  misery,  depopulation,  and  poverty 
of  the  whole  of  it.  Do  you  want  a  dinner,  buy  a 
sheep,  or,  what  is  better  eating  here,  a  goose.  You 
must  send  after  it,  kill  it,  do  everything  yourselves ; 
not  a  soul  will  stir  for  money,  as  money  cannot  be 
eaten,  and  does  them  scarce  any  good.  We  had  no 
bread,  none  is  to  be  bought ;  the  people  make  a  bare 
provision,  and  that  very  bad,  if  they  are  fortunate 
enough  even  to  have  flour  to  make  it  of.  We  must  buy 
flour,  and  get  it  made  into  cakes  by  a  baker,  if  there 
is  one ;  if  not,  by  our  own  servants.  In  Moglah,  a  con- 
siderable town  towards  the  end  of  the  Gulf  of  Cnidus, 
we  could  not  get  bread  for  our  breakfast,  till  a  good- 
tempered  Turk  bullied  the  baker  out  of  a  loaf  or  two, 
which  would  in  better  times  have  scarce  served  me 
alone ;  and  the  inhabitants  were  on  an  allowance  of  so 
much  a  day,  as  if  the  town  had  been  besieged.  Would 
anybody  believe  this  possible  in  a  country  which,  if 
cultivated,  is  capable  of  supplying  half  Asia,  and  where 
once  nothing  was  seen  but  large,  flourishing  towns, 
ports  full  of  commerce,  and  every  necessity  and  luxury 
of  life  ? 

Such  are  the  real  Turks,  for  this  is  entirely  a 
Turkish  country — lazy,  ignorant,  poor,  and  labouring 
under  every  evil  their  horrible  government  can  create. 
Beyond  necessaries  nothing  is  ever  done ;  yet  the 
Turks  here,  with  all  their  prejudices  and  poverty,  are 
a  quiet,  brutish  people,  and  the  country  is  perfectly 
safe  and  uninfested  by  robbers,  which  abound  in 
every  part  of  the  European  dominions.  We  found 
them,  however,  more  bearish  and  uncivilised  than  the 


1795]  RHODES  225 

northern  parts  of  Asia,  where  we  had  admired  and 
liked  them  before,  and  we  were  often  suspected  of 
seeking  for  treasures,  and  still  oftener  of  being 
Russian  spies,  by  the  more  ignorant  part  of  them, 
that  is,  nine  out  of  ten. 

Approaching  the  end  of  the  gulf,  we  saw  higher 
and  higher  mountains  eastward,  many  capped  with 
perpetual  snow.  These  are  in  Lycia,  the  beginning 
of  the  chain  of  Taurus.  We  crossed  a  very  high 
mountain  the  evening  we  arrived  from  Moglah  to  our 
boat,  which  met  us  at  the  end  of  the  gulf.  For  three 
days,  with  a  contrary  wind,  we  beat  down  to  Cnidus. 
We  got  some  little  bread  at  a  village  one  day,  which 
we  had  to  send  to  at  two  hours'  distance ;  this  and  a 
little  ham  was  all  we  had,  and  every  day  made  our 
allowance  less.  We  more  than  once  wanted  water, 
and  when  we  arrived  at  Rhodes  had  slept  above  a 
week  in  the  open  air.  At  Cnidus  there  is  now  not 
a  house.  Many  columns  and  temples,  but  all  de- 
stroyed. The  walls,  the  two  ports,  the  ruined  theatre, 
are  all  that  remain.  The  next  day  we  ran  to  Rhodes, 
and  arrived  so  late  that  we  only  found  for  lodging 
a  shed  at  the  door  of  a  coffee-house  in  the  middle  of 
the  quay.  The  last  day  I  caught  a  coup  de  soleil  in 
the  boat,  which  had  given  me  the  headache,  and  this 
bad  night  finished  me  off  and  gave  me  the  illness  I 
am  just  getting  better  of.  At  Rhodes  we  have  yet 
seen  nothing  but  the  view  from  our  chamber  windows; 
the  town  is  large,  and,  though  commanded  by  the 
Turks,  and  entirely  inhabited  by  them  and  a  few 
Jews,  yet  is  more  comfortable  and  better  in  appearance 
than  most  of  their  towns.  We  have  only  been  out 
once  to  call  on  the  Pasha,  a  piece  of  civility  which 
procured  me  a  good  headache  and  fever  for  the 
evening ;  we  were,  however,  civilly  received. 

Parts  of  the  hills  and  the  shore  are  picturesque ; 
the  island  in  general  is  certainly  finer,  and  more 
favoured  by  nature,  than  any  we  have  seen,  but  is 
much  more  neglected  than  those  that  are  entirely  in 


226  AEGEAN   ISLANDS:   CRETE  [CH.  ix 

the  hands  of  the  Greeks,  and  yields  far  in  this  respect 
to  Chios,  Tenos,  and  Naxia,  though  naturally  superior 
to  any  of  them.  Lindos  is  a  Maltese-built  town,  and 
the  houses  are  neat  and  comfortable.  We  were  much 
disappointed  in  the  antiquities  we  expected  to  find 
there.  The  only  thing  we  saw,  besides  a  few  inscrip- 
tions, was  a  cave  in  the  rock,  before  which  a  row  of 
Doric  columns  had  been  hewn  out  of  the  natural 
stone,  in  which  above  remained  the  entablature,  with 
the  triglyphs,  and  some  indistinct  figures  which  had 
ornamented  the  cornice.  All  this  is  worked  in  the 
stone,  and  is  not  delicately  carved.  The  pillars  are 
broken  or  removed.  On  the  top  of  the  cornice  a  row 
of  large  marble  altars  has  stood,  one  of  which  is  up 
at  present ;  a  few  of  the  others  lie  overturned  before 
the  building.  They  are  ornamented  with  festoons,  and 
are  by  better  hands  than  the  rest  of  the  building.  A 
Turkish  castle  occupies  the  situation  of  the  ancient 
Acropolis,  and  contains  nothing  remarkable.  There 
are  two  small  ports,  which  were  good  for  ancient 
vessels,  but  make  no  figure  now. 

CANDIA. 

I  finished  my  first  sheet  at  Rhodes ;  I  begin  again 
from  Candia,  which  we  have  had  no  small  trouble  to 
arrive  at,  though,  now  we  are  here,  I  can't,  as  usual, 
say  "  More  fools  we,"  for  we  have  certainly  changed 
for  the  better.  We  stayed  at  Rhodes  some  days  after 
our  return  from  Lindos,  in  the  same  dull  manner ;  my 
servant  chose  very  near  to  kill  himself  by  having 
ideas  of  his  own,  as  all  Frenchmen  have,  when  they 
are  ill;  and  the  great  ass  was  so  determined  de  se 
rafraichir  that,  though  he  had  taken  James's  powder 
the  day  before,  and  we  had  twenty  times  told  him  the 
effects  of  it,  yet  the  first  thing  he  did  was  to  get  his 
head  washed,  and  eat  all  the  fruit  and  trash  he  could 
find.  I  leave  you  to  judge  what  a  state  it  brought 
him  to;  he  was  as  near  dying  as  possible.  We  are 
now,  however,  in  better  condition. 


i795]  VOYAGE  TO  CRETE  227 

GORTVNA. 

At  Rhodes,  as  I  told  you,  we  wished  to  find  some 
vessel  bound  towards  Zante ;  we  were  not  lucky 
enough,  and  were  at  last  obliged  to  take  Crete  in  our 
way.  We  hired  a  pretty  large  boat,  and  set  sail  as 
soon  as  our  people's  health  would  permit.  No  poor 
creatures  were  ever  more  unfortunate  by  sea.  After 
being  out  two  days,  a  storm  drove  us  to  the  little 
island  of  Chalchi ;  there  we  stayed,  the  storm  con- 
tinuing three  days,  scattered  along  the  shore,  and 
sleeping  among  the  rocks.  The  people  of  a  village 
about  two  miles  off  brought  us  our  eatables,  but  the 
village  was  so  miserable  we  preferred  sleeping  on  the 
shore.  Our  shelter  was  a  large  cave,  and  we  lived 
very  primitively,  in  the  true  taste  of  the  Golden  Age, 
which,  however,  is  very  far  from  being  mine,  notwith- 
standing the  practice  1  have  had. 

We  got  off  at  last,  and  aimed  to  anchor  in  the 
evening  at  Stagia,  another  little  islet  about  half-way 
to  Crete.  The  wind  was  so  strong  from  the  west  as 
to  drive  us  to  leeward  of  it,  and  oblige  us  to  stop  at  a 
small  desert  isle  off  Caxo.  Here  we  spent  two  more 
days,  and  though  only  about  twenty-five  miles  from 
Setia,  the  port  we  aimed  at  in  Crete,  we  were  three 
whole  days  more  in  beating  up  to  it,  so  that  for  a 
passage  which  may  easily  be  made  in  two  days  with 
a  tolerable  wind,  we  employed  ten,  and  found  in  our 
road  only  desert  shores  and  uninhabited  islands. 
Carpatho  and  Caxo,  along  which  we  passed,  are  like 
most  of  the  islands  in  these  seas,  bare  and  not  re- 
markable, extremely  rugged  and  stony. 

We  should,  I  believe,  have  got  sooner  to  Crete  if 
we  had  gone  all  night,  instead  of  running  down  to 
Caxo,  as  our  captain  wished  to  do;  but  Stockdale 
interposed,  being  what  Will  Horn  calls  "  ratherly 
shy  o'  t'  watter."  However,  we  arrived  safe.  The 
moment  we  could  get  ashore,  S.  and  I  left  the  boat 
to  make  the  best  of  our  way,  and  landed  about  twenty 


228  AEGEAN   ISLANDS:   CRETE  [CH.  ix 

miles  below  the  harbour,  on  a  promontory  to  which 
the  wind  drove  us.  We  began  our  tour  of  Crete  then 
by  a  walk  of  about  ten  miles,  with  a  sun  fit  to  broil  us. 
Our  Greek  servant  followed,  beseeching  pity ;  and, 
indeed,  a  pair  of  English  legs  show  the  natives  of  a 
hot  climate  no  little  play  when  they  come  in  com- 
petition. 

We  stopped  at  the  first  habitation  we  found,  where 
we  arrived  late.  It  was  a  Greek  monastery,  and 
pretty  comfortable,  but  the  whole  country  on  this 
long  promontory  is  exactly  like  our  moors — hilly,  stony, 
and  covered  with  heath  and  wild  thyme.  They  had 
a  pretty  little  garden,  where  we  passed  the  next  day, 
our  boat  not  being  able  to  make  the  harbour.  The 
next  day  we  got  mules  and  rode  about  ten  miles 
more  to  Setia,  where  our  boat  and  people  were  at 
last  arrived. 

In  the  time  of  the  Venetians  this  was  a  consider- 
able place  ;  there  are  now  only  a  few  warehouses  on 
the  quay,  the  whole  town  having  been  destroyed  by 
an  earthquake.  We  stopped  at  a  village  about  two 
miles  from  the  port,  which  is  at  the  bottom  of  a  bay 
formed  by  the  promontory  of  Spina  Longa  on  the 
west,  and  on  the  east  by  the  point  where  S.  and  I 
landed.  The  country  here  is  really  pretty  :  an  uneven 
and  narrow  valley  is  shut  in  on  every  side  but  where 
it  opens  to  the  sea  by  bold  hills,  whose  outlook  is  fine, 
and  which  only  want  a  little  more  wood.  The  valley 
itself  has  enough,  and  the  vines  with  which  it  is 
planted,  being  now  in  their  full  beauty,  more  than 
supply  the  place  of  pastures  and  meadows,  which 
are  not  beauties  of  a  warm  climate.  We  sent  the 
invalid  part  of  our  suite  to  Candia  by  the  boat,  and 
took  mules  to  Girapetra.  The  road  leads  up  this 
valley,  which  we  therefore  saw  in  its  whole  extent. 
Several  pretty  villages  are  seen  on  the  brows  of  low 
hills  or  mixed  amongst  the  trees,  which  are  chiefly 
planes.  There  are  besides  many  olives  and  oranges, 
which  often  make  a  pretty  mixture  among  the  greens, 


1795]  CORRUPTION  OF  PLACE-NAMES  229 

and  a  good  many  streams  of  no  small  beauty  or  comfort 
here. 

We  set  out  from  Setia  about  five  o'clock,  and  as  we 
had  a  full  moon  travelled  all  night,, except  for  about 
an  hour  and  a  half,  and  got  to  Girapetra  about  eight 
the  next  morning.  I  think  I  hear  a  certain  saucy 
person  observe : 

"  So  you  travel  all  night  by  way  of  seeing  a 
country ! " 

I,  in  answer,  shall  observe  that  a  full  moon  is  no 
bad  light  to  see  a  pretty  country  by,  and  that  it  is 
better  to  go  even  in  the  dark  than  by  the  sun,  of 
which  really  you  have  not  an  idea.  There  is  a  low 
chain  of  hills,  and  on  each  side  a  high  range  of  moun- 
tains, between  Setia  and  Girapetra.  This  last  is  the 
usual  name  in  maps  of  a  small  town  on  the  south- 
east part  of  the  island.  The  Greeks  have  preserved 
one  of  its  ancient  names,  and  call  it  Hiera  Petra, 
though  formerly  its  most  usual  name  was  Hiera- 
pytna. 

I  have  often  told  you  how  European  nations  and 
map-makers  have  confounded  and  disfigured  the  geo- 
graphy of  this  country  by  writing  down  the  names 
they  learnt  without  understanding  the  language,  and 
then  they  think  the  ancient  name  is  changed.  In  fact, 
the  ancient  names  are  in  general  preserved,  and  it  is 
usually  only  the  fault  of  not  understanding  the  pro- 
nunciation of  the  country,  which  in  many  instances 
has  at  least  as  fair  a  chance  of  being  right  as  ours. 
;«The  town  stands  on  a  large,  shallow  bay  of  the 
southern  shore,  and  the  country  round  it  is  remark- 
ably fine.  A  very  rich  plain  extends  behind  it,  and 
reaches  along  the  shore  of  the  bay.  Groves,  or  rather 
forests,  of  olives  are  scattered  all  over  it.  The  moun- 
tains, which  are  more  adorned  than  towards  Setia,  are 
on  the  west  and  north,  a  very  high  chain,  with  many 
crags  and  hollows,  besides  trees  that  break  the  lights 
and  shades  very  finely,  and  prevent  that  "  pleasing 
uniformity  of  tint "  which  you  and  I  admire  on  the 
16 


*3o  AEGEAN  ISLANDS :  CRETE  [CH.  ix 

high  moors.  The  plain  produces  corn,  vines,  and 
gardens ;  scarce  a  tree  in  it  but  supports  a  vine,  which 
I  think  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  objects  possible. 

The  ancient  town  was  nearly  on  the  situation  Gira- 
petra  now  stands  in.  We  found  one  of  its  temples,  that 
is,  a  foundation  with  some  finely  wrought  ornaments 
scattered  near  it,  in  a  field.  A  large  basin,  now  dry, 
was  the  ancient  port.  At  present  they  have  none, 
except  in  summer,  when  the  north  and  west  winds 
blow,  for  with  a  south  wind  the  bay  is  perfectly 
exposed.  We  saw  the  aqueduct  and  cisterns  that 
once  supplied  the  town,  and  are  now  in  ruins.  Some 
large  columns  thrown  down,  the  foundations  of  a  thick 
wall  round  the  port,  broken  pillars  and  bits  of  marble 
up  and  down  the  town,  voila  tout. 

We  lodged  at  a  Turk's,  the  commandant  of  the  town, 
and  as  all  houses  are  open  in  this  country,  had  men 
and  women  in  the  chamber,  on  the  stairs,  and  in  the 
yard  merely  to  stare  at  the  animals.  This  having 
since  happened  in  every  village  we  have  been  in,  we 
begin  to  be  more  accustomed  to  the  mode  of  the 
country  ;  but  though  we  had  been  a  good  deal  used  to 
this  before,  I  never  saw  curiosity  so  highly  raised  or 
so  disagreeable  as  among  the  natives  here,  for  we 
could  neither  eat  nor  walk  in  peace,  but  were  every- 
where followed  by  two  or  three  hundred  people. 

At  Girapetra  we  were  at  last  obliged  to  shut  the 
court  gates,  and  when  they  were  to  be  opened,  a  man 
held  his  arm  across  the  door  to  prevent  people  coming 
in,  as  the  street  was  full.  I  wish  you  could  have  seen 
us  there.  A  pack  of  cards  was  discovered  in  our 
suite,  and  we  had  a  most  amusing  game  of  Trente-et- 
Un  with  the  son  of  the  Aga  and  a  large  party  of  Turks 
and  Greeks  for  paras  (about  our  halfpence).  There  was 
not  one  of  the  party  could  count  but  by  the  fingers, 
and  so  the  thirty-ones  were  not  always  so  accurate  as 
to  have  been  allowed  at  Brookes's,  and  were  very  often 
revised,  to  their  no  small  annoyance.  The  young 
Aga,  who  was  rather  a  bon  vivant,  and  not  much  of  a 


1795]  THE  TURKS  OF  CANDIA  231 

Mussulman,  used  to  skip  up  from  the  party  when  his 
papa  came  in,  as  games  of  chance  are  a  scandal  to  the 
faithful,  and  a  very  sharp  look-out  was  kept  that  we 
might  not  be  surprised  by  any  of  the  graver  part  of  the 
village. 

Au  reste,  the  Turks  of  Candia  are  almost  entirely 
metamorphosed.  They  live  and  eat  with  Christians 
without  any  scruple,  almost  all  drink  as  much  wine 
as  they  can  get,  and  their  women,  instead  of  being 
in  prison  or  muffled  up,  walk  about  with  the  same 
dress  and  freedom  as  the  Greeks. 

In  Candia  (the  town)  they  are  more  like  the  rest  of 
Turkey,  but  in  the  villages  Mahomet  is  very  much  on 
the  decline,  and  the  Agas  we  saw  even  made  an  open 
joke  of  the  prohibition  of  wine,  and  were  not  more 
scrupulous  in  talking  about  their  women,  a  subject  on 
which  a  real  Turk  is  as  silent  as  a  Chartreux.  In 
revenge,  however,  we  found  much  cheating  and  black- 
guard behaviour  amongst  our  attendants  from  place  to 
place,  and  more  interestedness  than  we  had  generally 
met  with  amongst  them.  We  meant  to  take  the  ruins 
of  Gortyna  in  our  way  to  Candia,  and  were  hindered 
partly  because  we  had  not  been  presented  to  the 
Pasha,  who  is  at  the  town,  and  partly  by  our 
janissaries  and  guides,  who  cheated  us.  I  will  not 
give  you  an  account  of  our  squabbles ;  but  they 
finished  by  our  going  directly  to  Candia.  From 
Girapetra,  after  crossing  the  plain  westward,  we  were 
engaged  in  the  passes  of  the  fine  mountains  I  have 
talked  of.  Their  gloomy  clothing  of  firs,  the  olives, 
equally  gloomy,  in  the  plains  and  dells,  formed 
amongst  these  scenes  not  an  unpleasing  contrast  with 
the  rich  plain  we  left.  The  day  after  we  crossed  a 
high  mountain,  with  many  springs  and  cascades, 
verdure  and  foliage  in  the  dells,  and  an  amazing 
quantity  of  the  finest  myrtles  I  ever  saw. 

Candia  is  at  a  day's  journey  from  these  mountains, 
across  an  open,  fine  country,  though  not  cultivated  as 
it  might  be.  It  is  better,  however,  than  most  of 


232  AEGEAN   ISLANDS :  CRETE  [CH.  ix 

Turkey,  and  far  the  first  and  finest  of  the  Islands, 
which  have  no  pretensions  to  compare  with  it,  either 
for  picturesque  beauty  or  fertility.  Naxia  and  Cos 
have  the  most  of  the  first,  and  Rhodes  and  Paros  of 
the  latter,  but  Crete  is  far  superior  to  them  all.  We 
passed  the  ruins,  or  rather  the  situation  of  Cnossus, 
near  Candia,  and  saw  a  few  chambers  cut  out  in  the 
rock,  with  niches  for  urns  and  sarcophagi  where  the 
Cnossians  were  buried.  An  old  bit  or  two  of  wall  is 
what  remains  of  Cnossus ;  the  tomb  of  Jupiter  and 
other  monuments  we  inquired  for  in  vain. 

I  am  and  shall  be  very  well  content  with  the  frosts 
and  coal  fires  of  a  Rokeby  Christmas,  when  I  think 
how  little  the  summers  of  warmer  climates  are  to  be 
envied,  and  look  round  me  at  the  indolent,  enervated 
people  that  inhabit  here.  In  the  Turkish  language,  a 
French  author  observes,  there  is  no  term  for  promenade, 
or  a  walk  ;  and,  indeed,  they  have  not  an  idea  of  even 
stirring  from  a  sofa  unless  for  business.  There  they 
sit,  sipping  coffee  every  two  hours,  and  smoking  all 
day,  so  that  even  Stockdale,  who  does  not  fidget,  and 
much  more  I,  who  do,  are  objects  of  general  remark  in 
a  house,  for  they  have  no  notion  that  we  should  so 
often  stand  when  we  can  sit,  or  that  we  should  ever 
walk  backwards  and  forwards  in  a  room,  but  for  the 
sake  of  fetching  something.  The  heat  and  manner  of 
living  in  their  towns  is  such  a  hindrance  to  going  out 
that  when  we  are  detained  there  some  days  we  die 
for  want  of  exercise. 

I  have  got  an  old  book  in  my  travelling  library 
that  gives  an  account  of  the  Turks  in  the  time  of 
Soliman  II.,  when  they  extended  their  conquests  to 
the  gates  of  Vienna ;  it  was  written  by  Busbecq,  a 
German  employed  as  Ambassador  by  the  Emperor. 
Nothing  can  form  so  striking  a  contrast  as  what  he 
found  them  to  what  they  are  now,  and  I  have  been  a 
great  deal  amused  with  tracing  the  difference.  Their 
great  Sultan  was  then  at  the  head  of  an  army  of 
two  hundred  thousand  exercised  cavalry  and  a  veteran 


1795]  WEAKNESS  OF  TURKEY  233 

infantry  that  had  conquered  the  whole  of  Hungary, 
Wallachia,  Moldavia — in  short,  from  the  walls  of  Con- 
stantinople to  those  of  Vienna.  What  would  he  have 
said  if  he  could  now  see  the  soldiers,  a  parcel  of  law- 
less, armed  vagabonds,  without  discipline,  without 
honour,  and  without  courage,  formidable  only  to  their 
miserable  fellow-slaves,  and  successively  beaten  by 
the  Mainotes,  the  Albanese,  and  the  Russians  ?  The 
Pashas  and  Agas,  who  were  the  best  commanders  then 
in  Europe,  are  now  a  party  of  effeminate  men  without 
principle,  that  go  with  the  Vizier  merely  for  plunder, 
and  are  more  occupied  in  the  intrigues  of  the 
Seraglio,  and  in  ruining  each  other  to  enrich  them- 
selves, than  in  defending,  improving,  or  aggrandising 
the  country. 

Everything  is  some  hundred  years  behind  the  rest  of 
Europe,  and  war  more  than  any.  Their  blindness  and 
infatuation,  "  de  la  chute  des  Rois  funeste  avant- 
coureur,"  is  beyond  what  can  be  imagined.  They  all 
talk  and  ask  about  the  Russians  and  their  designs  with 
a  tone  that  betrays  their  fear  and  their  weakness. 
They  see  them  at  their  gates,  within  a  few  days'  sail 
of  Constantinople,  with  an  increasing  fleet  that  has 
always  beaten  them  and  without  anything  to  oppose  her 
but  two  small  fortresses  on  the  Bosphorus,  which  they 
do  not  know  how  to  defend  or  to  make  use  of.  For 
all  this  they  are  at  peace  with  her  now,  and,  instead  of 
employing  the  interval  to  strengthen  their  coasts  and 
restore  their  army  and  navy,  they  are  thinking  of  any- 
thing else,  irritating  us  and  every  other  nation  by  an 
open  and  shameless  breach  of  neutrality  in  favour  of 
the  French,  who  are  the  heroes  from  whom  they 
expect  assistance.  They  expect  a  French  fleet  in  the 
Black  Sea,  and  forget  that  it  is  blocked  at  Toulon, 
while  the  Russians  have  the  best  pretext  in  their  con- 
duct for  beginning  to  swallow  them  as  soon  as  ever 
they  have  digested  Poland. 

I  write  now  in  our  cabin  in  my  way  to  Zante.    The 
wind  is  not  favourable,  but  we  advance.     We  set  off 


234  AEGEAN  ISLANDS :  CRETE  [CH.  ix 

last  night,  and  slept  comfortably,  as  our  cabin  is 
fitted  with  beds  ;  and  we  are  now  (about  noon)  near 
the  island  of  Santorin.  Beyond  this,  we  expect  a 
north-east  wind  which  will  enable  us  to  make  Cerigo 
and  run  along  the  coast  of  the  Morea.  Candia  is 
almost  out  of  sight,  and  we  are  looking  for  the  rocks 
and  small  islets  about  Santorin  that  have  at  different 
times,  and  even  within  memory,  been  thrown  up  by 
volcanoes.  So  finishes  our  tour  in  the  Archipelago, 
which  has  quite  given  me  enough  of  sailing  for 
pleasure.  Adieu,  my  dear  Anne ;  you  know  how 
affectionately  I  am  always  3rours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


SHIP  OFF  MILO, 
August  27,  1795. 

DEAR  FRANCES, 

As  I  have  more  than  once  written  to  you  since 
I  left  you  for  your  amusement  (in  which  the  intention, 
you  will  own,  was  good,  whatever  the  success  was),  it 
is  but  fair  that  when  I  have  nothing  else  to  do  I  should 
for  once  write  to  you  for  my  own.  Indeed,  we  are 
now  in  prison,  cruising  between  the  isles  of  Milo  and 
Argentiera,  and  if  I  had  not  the  resource  of  holding  a 
little  prose  with  you  I  should  only  have  the  choice  of 
twirling  my  thumbs  upon  deck  or  going  to  sleep  in  the 
cabin,  both  which  you  know  very  well  are  not  at  all  in 
my  way.  The  few  books  that  are  in  our  party  I  can 
almost  say  by  heart,  so  I  will  venture  to  hold  a  little 
talk  with  you,  at  the  risk  of  having  very  little  to  say, 
especially  as  I  know  from  old  experience  that  in  the 
minster  yard  that  little  will  be  not  without  interest, 
though  it  should  tell  you  only  how  we  eat  and  sleep, 
and  what  squabbles  we  have  with  our  old  enemy 
Aeolus,  who  is  not  yet  tired  of  persecuting  us.  The 
interference  of  this  gentleman  has  often  made  a  figure 
in  sublimer  writings,  and  thwarted  sublimer  heroes 
than  us ;  and  as  we  have  no  interest  with  any  of  his 
superiors,  we  are  left  a  prey  to  his  ill  humours — and 


1795]  GALES   IN  THE  ARCHIPELAGO  235 

how  long  he  intends  us  to  be  in  our  road  to  Zante  I 
can't  guess,  as  we  seem  to  be  in  danger  of  taking 
another  turn  in  the  Archipelago.  We  have,  however, 
got  off  from  Candia,  which  had  cost  us  so  much  time 
and  trouble,  and  are  not  in  an  uncomfortable  vessel, 
since  I  can  write  to  you  in  it,  which  was  not  to  be 
done  in  the  open  boats  and  skiffs  we  have  hitherto 
sailed  about  in.  A  gentle  sail  in  the  Archipelago :  at 
the  distance  of  England,  what  an  elegant  sound  that 
has  !  I  remember  when  I  thought  it  abounded  in  quiet 
breezes,  pretty  islands,  Italian  skies,  and,  in  short, 
everything  that  could  make  a  voyage  what  we  call 
11  sailing  for  pleasure."  I  have  bought  experience 
since,  and  become  wise.  This,  therefore,  is  a  more 
exact  account. 

The  Archipelago  and  Mediterranean  are  subject  all 
the  year,  except  just  at  the  Equinoxes,  to  regular  trade 
winds ;  during  the  summer  these  are  from  the  north 
points  in  the  Archipelago,  and  from  the  west  in 
the  Mediterranean;  in  winter  the  contrary.  These 
gales  are  constant  and  last  for  months ;  indeed,  with- 
out them  the  islands  would  be  scarcely  habitable  but 
by  blacks,  or  Arabs  at  least,  as  they  would  be  many 
degrees  hotter  than  they  now  are.  Whichever  way,  then, 
you  plan  a  tour  in  the  Archipelago,  unless  you  make 
half  the  round  before  the  Equinox,  and  half  after,  you 
cannot  avoid  contrary  winds,  and  these  are  frequently 
such  squalls  in  the  summer  as  to  confine  even  large 
vessels  for  weeks.  This  is  the  reason  why  our  tour 
is  not  already  finished  safely,  and  our  party  settled  in 
Italy,  for  which  we  are  scarcely  less  anxious  than  if 
we  were  on  our  immediate  road  home.  We  have 
exhausted  Turks  and  Greeks ;  I  know  the  nations  by 
heart,  and  do  not  wish  to  see  any  more  of  either.  A 
few  remains  of  ancient  Greece,  the  only  objects  in- 
teresting in  these  climates,  will  delay  us  some  days  on 
the  coasts  of  the  Morea  and  Epirus— afterwards,  adieu 
to  Mahomet. 

I    have  given  you  accounts  of  most  of  the  large 


236  AEGEAN  ISLANDS :  CRETE  [CH.  ix 

islands ;  the  others  are  all  barren,  brown,  stony  cliffs, 
inhabited  by  poor  Greeks,  who  change  their  fear  of 
the  Turks  for  their  fear  of  corsairs,  and,  when  the  seas 
are  much  infested  by  them,  are  alternately  pillaged  by 
the  Maltese  as  under  Turkish  government,  and  by  the 
Turks  as  harbouring  Christian  pirates.  Milo,  which 
we  are  now  within  a  hundred  yards  of,  seems  in 
general  without  cultivation  or  trees,  the  soil  chalky, 
and  the  ground  like  a  bad  part  of  our  wolds  burnt  up 
with  the  sun.  Round  the  town  there  is  something 
like  tillage  and  a  good  large  port;  the  mountains 
are  only  pasture  for  goats  and  sheep.  Argentiera  is 
smaller,  and  if  anything  worse  in  the  same  way. 
Santorin  is  cultivated  on  one  side  with  vineyards,  and 
the  soil  is  volcanic,  but  they  have  not  a  tree,  I  believe, 
in  the  island.  This  is  in  general  a  description  of  most 
of  the  islands  of  this  sea,  and  the  rocks  that  surround 
them.  In  Milo  and  Argentiera  the  cliffs  are  white 
and  chalky,  with  a  sort  of  earth  from  which  they 
make  some  profit.  They  load  ships  with  it  for  different 
parts  of  the  Levant.  It  is  fat,  and  they  use  it  at  Con- 
stantinople and  the  great  towns  for  soap  in  the  baths 
and  washhouses.  It  was  more  famous  anciently,  and 
entered  into  their  physic ;  it  is  mentioned  as  the 
Cimolian  earth ;  Argentiera  is  Cimolus.  It  had  been 
called  Argentiera  from  its  silver  mines,  of  which  there 
are  traces.  Nobody  dare  work  them,  however,  as  the 
Turks  would  make  them  pay  more  than  they  gained — 
their  usual  practice  wherever  there  is  an  appearance 
of  industry  or  riches. 

You  now,  I  think,  begin  with  me  to  be  tired  of  the 
Cyclades  and  Sporades ;  you  may  find  a  long  account 
of  them  in  "  Tournefort,"  which  has  so  heartily  tired 
me  in  reading  that  it  has  taught  me  to  have  mercy 
upon  you.  I  remember,  however,  that  in  my  sister's 
letter,  which  I  yesterday  finished,  I  said  nothing 
of  the  town  of  Candia,  Gortyna,  or  the  Labyrinth. 
These  great  names  will  raise  your  expectation  as  they 
did  mine,  so  I  must  set  you  right,  as  experience  has 


1795]  MISGOVERNMENT  OF  CRETE  237 

set  me.  Candia  is  a  large  and  well-situated  town, 
which,  thanks  to  its  Venetian  possessors,  is  still  better 
built  and  handsomer  than  the  others  of  Turkey,  and 
has  some  streets  wide  and  convenient,  which  is  no 
small  praise  after  seeing  the  holes  and  corners  they 
generally  live  in  at  Smyrna,  Salonica,  and  Constanti- 
nople. It  is  strongly  fortified  with  Venetian  fortifica- 
tions, which  are  now,  as  usual,  neglected,  but  not  much 
injured,  and  would  still,  I  should  think,  stand  a  strong 
siege  if  defended  by  anybody  but  Turks.  We  lived 
in  a  great  rambling  house  of  the  Venetian  Consuls, 
and  were  comfortable  enough ;  we  were  often  visited 
by  some  of  the  principal  Beys,  who  appeared  to  us 
humanised  and  civil,  one  or  two  even  clever  in  com- 
parison of  what  we  have  been  used  to ;  we  therefore 
made  no  small  acquaintance  for  the  time  we  stayed. 
The  Viceroy  of  the  island  is  an  old  man,  who  has  been 
Grand  Vizier ;  an  office  not  now  always  fatal  to  its 
possessors,  as  it  was  in  the  flourishing  times  of  the 
Empire,  when  Turks  were  savage  and  rebellious  by 
nature ;  now  their  character  is  somewhat  altered,  and 
the  only  possession  fatal  to  them  is  that  of  great 
riches,  which  the  Sultan  appropriates  by  cutting  off 
their  heads  and  transferring  the  dirty  gold  and  silver 
to  the  treasury.  In  every  rank  here  a  low  interest  has 
succeeded  to  their  old  more  fierce  and  untractable  bar- 
barity, and  as,  in  the  times  of  their  strength,  nothing 
was  to  be  done  with  them  but  by  force,  so  now 
everything  may  be  made  of  them  by  money ;  and  the 
corruption  is  general.  Nothing  so  precarious  as 
offices  and  governments  here,  and  in  the  year's  resi- 
dence we  have  had  in  Turkey,  more  than  one  of  our 
rich  acquaintance  have  surrendered  (a  term  equivalent 
to  resigning  at  St.  James's)  their  necks  to  the  bow- 
string. 

The  Pasha  of  Candia  at  first  refused  to  let  us  see 
the  island,  Candia  not  being  mentioned  in  our 
travelling  orders  with  sufficient  precision ;  however, 
by  a  petition,  enforced  with  a  sop  to  every  Cerberus- 


238  AEGEAN   ISLANDS:   CRETE  [CH.  ix 

like  agent  that  surrounds  him,  he  thought  better  of  it, 
and  we  went  our  tour.  This  governor  has  the  com- 
mand of  every  office  in  the  island,  and,  as  Pasha  of 
three  tails,  has  the  power  of  executing  summary  justice, 
or,  in  plain  terms,  of  taking  off  the  head  of  any  person 
in  the  island,  responsible  only  to  the  Seraglio,  who 
may  probably  retaliate  in  the  same  summary  way 
upon  him,  if  any  secret  and  powerful  enemy  takes  the 
pains  to  supplant  him  there.  His  power  is  in  some 
measure  checked  by  the  privileges  and  power  of  the 
janissaries,  who  in  every  fortress,  as  in  Salonica, 
Larissa,  Negroponte,  and  here,  enjoy  rights  they  well 
know  how  far  to  exercise.  They  are  a  fierce,  lawless, 
armed  rabble,  responsible  only  to  the  commandant  of 
their  own  regiment,  who  is  one  of  their  own  corps,  and 
often  of  low  rank,  raised  by  cabal,  or  by  military 
merit,  that  is  here  superior  strength,  or  brutal  courage. 
He  alone  punishes  them,  and  will  not  unfrequently 
screen  them  from  the  civil  jurisdiction,  and  even  from 
the  Pasha  himself,  if  he  has  interest  at  Constantinople. 
By  this  means  all  the  towns,  where  they  are  estab- 
lished, are  the  centres  of  military  sedition,  disorder, 
and  even  rebellion.  None  but  the  great  Turks  and 
the  soldiers  are  safe  from  insult,  and  Christians  are 
exposed  to  every  injury  and  even  assassination  on  the 
slightest  quarrel  with  them. 

I  do  not  recollect  I  ever  talked  to  you  before  of 
this  extraordinary  government ;  but  this  short  sketch 
will  give  you  a  general  idea  of  that  which  prevails  in 
the  great  towns  here.  For  illustrative  examples  I 
could  tell  you  that  a  little  while  before  we  arrived  a 
Greek  bishop  at  Candia  had  refused  some  money 
which  a  janissary  thought  he  had  a  right  to  demand 
of  him.  The  day  after  a  large  party  of  them  rushed 
into  his  chamber,  and  he  was  murdered  by  repeated 
stabs  and  pistol-balls.  In  vain  the  public  justice 
pursued  the  offenders,  the  janissary  Aga  only 
strangled  one  of  them,  and  him  not  the  ringleader. 
In  short,  above  forty  assassinations  had  happened  in 


1 795]  THE  LABYRINTH  239 

a  few  months,  and  the  country  was  every  day  still 
exposed  to  robbery  and  iniquity  of  all  sorts — so  much 
for  Candia. 

Gortyna  is  at  a  village  about  twenty-five  miles  dis- 
tant, at  the  foot  of  Ida,  separated  from  the  plain  of 
Candia,  and  ofCnossus,byachain  of  hills  chiefly  barren, 
stony,  and  uninteresting,  though  some  of  the  dells  on 
the  western  side  are  more  deserving  of  notice,  and 
have  pretty  and  picturesque  aspects.  Gortyna  is  in 
the  largest  and  finest  plain  of  the  island,  opening  at 
one  end  to  the  southern  sea ;  it  is  rather  fertile  than 
picturesque,  but  now  is  thinly  inhabited  and  ill 
cultivated.  There  is  little  to  see  here :  old,  prostrate 
columns,  ornamented  fragments,  well-known  inscrip- 
tions, and  a  stripped  theatre  as  usual.  The  little  river 
Lethe,  which  crosses  it,  still,  as  of  old,  overgrown  with 
plane  trees,  and  the  shade  famous  for  the  amours  of 
Jupiter  and  Europa,  we  looked  at  with  more  interest, 
as  it  applied  more  to  our  fancy  than  our  eyes,  and 
I  have  often  experienced  how  much  a  pretty  story, 
consecrated  by  anciently  received  opinion,  gives  con- 
sequence to  scenes  in  themselves  indifferent.  Who 
did  not  look  with  pleasure  at  Shakespeare's  mulberry, 
but  the  parson  who  cut  it  down  ?  So  the  story  of 
this  little  brook,  with  its  reputation  for  oblivion,  made 
us  not  pass  it  by,  though  it  is  a  good  deal  less  remark- 
able than  the  Greta.  We  don't  want  to  forget  or  be 
forgotten,  so  I  think  did  not  take  any  draughts  of  it. 

A  mile  beyond  is  what  is  called  the  Labyrinth.  It 
is  in  a  mountain,  a  large  subterraneous  range  of 
passages,  unequal  in  breadth  and  height,  many 
crossing  into  one  another,  most  ending  at  large, 
irregular  chambers  hewn  out  in  the  rock,  and  some- 
times meeting  or  branching  off  from  opener  parts  of  the 
cave,  which  it  is  true  make  the  road  difficult  to  find, 
though  not  so  difficult  as  has  been  represented.  You 
ask  me  what  I  think  of  this ;  to  say  the  truth,  neither 
more  nor  less  than  a  large  stone  quarry,  of  which 
some  of  the  passages,  where  low,  are  rather  choked 


240  AEGEAN   ISLANDS :   CRETE  [CH.  ix 

up.  It  is  everywhere  full  of  the  cuttings  of  stone, 
and  in  these  open  chambers,  which  I  conceive  only  to 
be  the  working  out  on  all  sides  of  the  better  veins, 
the  marks  of  the  chisel  are  everywhere  seen,  and  the 
sides,  not  being  even  but  cut  in  irregular  steps,  seem 
often  to  show  the  very  places  where  blocks  have  been 
taken  out.  I  believe,  therefore,  this  was  the  place 
Gortyna  was  dug  from.  This  is  contrary  to  Tourne- 
fort  and  the  received  opinion ;  however,  I  cannot 
think  it  the  ancient  Labyrinth,  which,  built  on  the 
model  of  the  one  in  Egypt,  was  designed  as  a  subter- 
raneous palace — a  habitation  at  least.  One  reason  is 
unanswerable :  the  Labyrinth  belonged  to  Cnossus. 
There  was  the  Court  of  Minos,  and  they  represented 
it  on  the  current  coin.  Gortyna  never  did,  and  this 
is  a  mile  from  Gortyna,  in  the  plain  of  Gortyna,  and 
separated  by  a  range  of  hills  from  that  of  Cnossus, 
which  is  twenty  miles  distant.  Much  is  said  on  both 
sides ;  I  own  I  only  saw  a  deep-worked,  intricate 
stone  quarry,  on  a  larger  scale  than  the  marble 
quarries  we  had  seen,  but  much  resembling  them ; 
and  as  one  reason  against  this  idea  is  drawn  from 
difficulty  of  its  access,  and  the  lowness  of  some  of 
the  passages,  I  wish  only  to  set  those  who  object  to 
this  at  the  end  of  the  high  quarries  of  Paros  or 
Pentelicus,  which  nobody  doubts,  and  they  must  own 
they  were  answered.1 

1  See  p.  210. 


CHAPTER  X 
OLYMPIA  AND  THE  IONIAN  ISLANDS 

MORRITT  is  no  less  keen  to  discover  in  Thiaki  the 
places  described  in  the  Odyssey ;  the  topography,  he 
says,  "  I  think  we  have  reason  to  suppose  nearly  as 
exact  as  we  had  already  found  the  Iliad."  But  it 
should  be  noted  that  here  also  the  identification  is 
being  disputed  ;  among  other  reasons,  because  Thiaki 
(the  Ithaca  of  historical  times)  seems  too  far  from  the 
mainland  to  suit  the  narrative  of  the  Odyssey.  D6rp- 
feld  is  held  by  many  to  have  proved  that  the  island 
of  Leucas  was  really  the  Odyssean  Ithaca. 

Morritt  always  retained  his  conviction  of  a  single 
authorship  for  the  Homeric  poems  (see  p.  255),  in 
which  belief  he  has  had  many  adherents  of  the 
present  generation— notably  Andrew  Lang.  In  Scott's 
diary,  under  April  22,  1828,  there  is  the  following 
entry  :  "  Lockhart  and  I  dined  with  Sotheby,  when  we 
met  a  large  party,  the  orator  of  which  was  that 
extraordinary  man,  Coleridge.  After  eating  a  hearty 
dinner,  during  which  he  spoke  not  a  word,  he  began 
a  most  learned  harangue  on  the  Samothracian 
Mysteries,  which  he  regarded  as  affording  the  germ 
of  all  tales  about  fairies,  past,  present,  and  to  come. 
He  then  diverged  to  Homer,  whose  Iliad  he  con- 
sidered as  a  collection  of  poems  by  different  authors, 
at  different  times,  during  a  century.  Morritt,  a 
zealous  worshipper  of  the  old  bard,  was  incensed  at 
a  system  which  would  turn  him  into  a  polytheist, 
gave  battle  with  keenness,  and  was  joined  by  Sotheby. 
Mr.  Coleridge  behaved  with  the  utmost  complaisance 
and  temper,  but  relaxed  not  from  his  exertions. 
'Zounds,  I  was  never  so  bethumped  with  words.' 

241 


242       OLYMPIA   AND  THE  IONIAN   ISLANDS    [CH.  x 

Morritt's  impatience  must   have   cost  him  an   extra 
sixpence-worth  of  snuff." 

ZANTE, 

August  29. 

From  Milo,  with  a  fresh  gale,  we  crossed  to  the 
Morea,  glided  past  Cerigo  and  round  Cape  Matapan, 
and  then  coasted  northward  along  the  shores  of 
Arcadia,  near  enough  to  observe  its  beauties ;  every- 
where a  woody,  hilly  country.  I  described  it  once 
before,  and  am  soon  returning  to  part  of  it  again, 
near  Olympia.  We  beat  about  with  west  winds,  but 
arrived  at  last  at  Zante.  I  have  thousands  of  letters 
— news  from  old  England,  news  from  you — and  our 
satisfaction  and  pleasure  are  not  to  be  expressed.  The 
Consul  here  is  really  a  gentleman,  and  we  are  doing 
very  well.  By  an  unlucky  accident  I  missed  a  letter 
he  sent  me,  and  we  have  not  managed,  as  he  wished, 
to  avoid  a  quarantine  ;  we  therefore  can't  go  on  shore 
without  being  put  in  a  lazaretto  for  thirty  days,  the 
plague  being  much  spread  at  Smyrna  and  other 
places. 

Everything  here  rings  with  the  cowardice  of  the 
sansculottes  by  sea,  and  we  witness  it  in  these  seas, 
where,  on  board  the  Smyrna  frigate,  the  French  have 
stabbed  their  captain  because  he  gave  the  signal  for 
fighting ;  if  this  continues  we  are  in  no  great  danger. 
I  am  as  affectionately  as  ever,  and  more  so  cannot  be, 

Yours  sincerely, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


PVRGO, 
August  27,  1795. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

We  have  just  been  dining  with  a  Turkish  Aga, 
and  sitting  cross-legged  half  the  evening  seeing  a 
parcel  of  fellows  making  fools  of  themselves  to  amuse 
us  and  him ;  a  sight  which  never  fails  of  making  me 
melancholy,  but  which  a  Greek  or  a  Turk  thinks  the 


1795]  QUARANTINE  243 

height  of  merriment  and  jollity.  Nothing  is  there,  I 
am  convinced,  which  is  so  difficult  as  to  make  merry ; 
it  does  not  consist  in  singing,  dancing,  or  getting 
drunk,  and  is  by  no  means  synonymous  with  making 
a  noise,  and  though  very  few  people,  except  men  of 
sense,  can  be  really  merry  fellows,  yet  every  ass  one 
meets  always  pretends  to  it.  Such  have  been  my 
internal  reflections  this  whole  evening,  and  such  they 
have  frequently  been  in  other  places  than  Turkey. 
In  Germany,  France,  etc.,  the  English  are  renowned 
for  the  jollity  of  their  parties;  therefore,  when  you 
are  complimented  by  a  partie  a  fAnglaise^  as  I  have 
more  than  once  been  abroad,  the  first  thing  done  is 
to  be  bongre  malgre  extremely  noisy,  which  always 
ends  in  half  the  parties  being  stupidly  drunk,  and  the 
other  half  being  as  stupidly  sober.  This  latter,  how- 
ever, is,  thank  Heaven,  my  present  case,  and  as  no 
recipe  is  better,  after  being  ennuye,  than  conversing 
with  a  friend,  I  begin  with  no  small  pleasure  to  be- 
stow some  of  my  tediousness  upon  you.  I  am,  indeed, 
in  a  little  better  humour  from  an  acquisition  I  have 
just  made,  viz. :  an  ancient  brazen  helmet  found  in 
the  Alpheus,  by  Olympia,  with  a  Greek  inscription 
upon  it ;  it  is  a  little  worse  for  wear,  and  has  cost  me 
about  tenpence,  which  I  would  not  have  given  if  I 
had  not  thought  it  had  covered  wiser  heads  than  are 
now  to  be  found  in  the  country. 

Our  reception  at  Zante  was  ridiculous  enough.  As 
it  belongs  to  the  Venetians,  a  lazaretto  is  established, 
and,  having  missed  letters  from  the  Consul  by  not 
going  to  Canea  in  Crete,  we  were  exposed  to  a 
quarantine  and  not  allowed  to  come  on  shore  further 
than  the  health  office.  Here  we  held  parleys  with 
the  Consul  and  such  other  people  as  chose  to  wait 
upon  us  in  our  adversity.  As  we  flatter  ourselves  we 
carry  no  small  marks  of  health  in  our  faces  and  per- 
«  sons,  we  could  not  help  laughing  to  see  a  party  of  old, 
quizzy,  shrivelled,  green  and  yellow  figures  skewing 
round  us  as  if  we  were  chimney  sweepers,  and  avoid- 


«44        OLYMPIA  AND  THE  IONIAN   ISLANDS    [CH.  x 

ing,  with  no  small  difficulty,  the  touching  us  even. 
The  Zantiots — that  is,  those  who  are  not  Greeks — are 
Venetians  de  la  vieille  Cour,  fine-sitting  figures  with 
striped  coats,  bags,  silk  hats,  and  swords ;  so  that, 
as  we  sat  in  a  narrow  passage  near  the  health  office, 
we  were  a  great  nuisance,  and  swords  could  hardly 
pass. 

We  determined  to  make  our  tour  in  the  Morea  and 
return  afterwards  to  Zante,  as  by  landing  without 
bustle  we  could  escape  being  shut  up,  which  now 
was  not  possible.  We  got  a  boat,  then,  and,  as  we 
were  detained  by  winds,  Signer  Foresti  smuggled 
Stockdale  and  me  into  his  house  about  ten  at  night, 
leaving  our  party  on  board.  We  lay  perdus  one  day 
there,  so  saw  little  of  Zante.  The  inside  of  his  house 
made  us  amends,  for  we  found  it  quite  a  I'Europeenne, 
and  lived  like  Christian  people  for  the  first  time. 
Nothing  can  be  more  attentive  or  obliging  than  the 
master  of  it,  who  is  a  great  friend  of  Frederic  North's, 
and  procured  his  consulship  through  the  Duke  of 
Leeds. 

As,  in  describing  a  country,  one  ought  not  to  omit 
any  of  its  peculiarities,  I  must  tell  you  that  we  were 
a  little  struck  with  the  gentle  manners  of  Zante :  in 
the  two  days  that  we  stayed  three  different  people 
were  shot  in  the  market-place  in  quarrels ;  the  sur- 
vivors make  their  escape  very  easily,  or  if,  by  bad  luck, 
they  are  ever  imprisoned,  their  liberty  does  not  cost 
above  seven  or  eight  piastres  (about  twelve  shillings), 
since  the  laws  of  Venice  are  as  mild  as  possible  on 
these  trifles.  We  are  assured  that  these  events  are 
still  more  frequent  in  the  currant  season,  when  the 
villagers  assemble,  and  very  few  nights  pass  without 
one  or  two  murders  there,  a  man  being  esteemed 
nothing  who  has  not  killed  one  or  two  antagonists. 
The  same  softness  of  character  prevails  throughout 
the  Venetian  islands  and  their  Sclavonian  territories, 
where  whole  families,  like  the  Capulets  and  Montagues, 
have  no  other  employment  but  cutting  throats  from 


1795]  MODERN   GREEKS  245 

generation  to  generation.  We  had  likewise  the  amuse- 
ment of  an  earthquake  the  morning  we  left  them,  and 
yesterday,  on  arriving  here,  had  three  more  smart 
shocks  during  the  afternoon — but  this  happens  eighteen 
or  twenty  times  every  summer;  for  my  part,  I  own 
I  was  not  perfectly  at  home  while  the  house  was 
rattling  round  me,  but  our  host  and  his  party  sat  very 
composedly  and  begged  it  might  not  spoil  our  appetites, 
as  we  were  then  at  dinner. 

Pyrgo  is  a  small,  neat  town  almost  opposite  Zante, 
at  about  two  or  three  miles  from  the  shore.  It  stands 
in  a  fertile,  agreeable  country,  as  all  this  side  of 
Peloponnesus  is.  The  mountains  Cyllene,  Maenalus, 
and  Lycaeus  retire  behind  a  rich  plain  and  varied 
chains  of  hills  which  bound  it.  On  a  cape  near 
Pyrgo  are  some  old  ruins,  of  which  it  is  not  known 
what  the  ancient  name  was ;  it  is  supposed  Cape  Pheae. 
The  ruins  are  an  old  wall  or  two.  Olympia  is  about 
three  hours  distant,  and  we  are  going  there  to-morrow. 
We  stayed  to-day  to  dine  with  the  Aga,  who  pressed 
us  very  much,  and  it  succeeded,  as  I  have  told  you. 
He  was  surrounded  by  Greeks  and  Zantiots,  who 
laughed,  sang,  danced,  and  wrestled  as  he  bid  them. 
Good  God !  if  a  free  ancient  Greek  could  for  one 
moment  be  brought  to  such  a  scene,  unless  his  fate 
was  very  hard  in  the  other  world  I  am  sure  he  would 
beg  to  go  back  again.  An  old  Lacedemonian,  on  his 
return  from  Athens,  made  a  remark,  which  may  be 
very  truly  said  on  leaving  Turkey,  "  that  he  came 
from  a  country  where  nothing  was  thought  dishonour- 
able," and  this  is  the  character  I  shall  give  of  the 
Levant. 

ZANTE, 
September  6  to  19. 

I  left  off  my  writing  at  Pyrgo,  and  have  not  taken 

*  it  up  again  for  some  days,  and  for  a  most  disagreeable 

reason,  as  in  our  tour  I  caught,  some  days  after,  a 

most  violent  coup  de  soleil,  which  made  it  impossible 

'7 


246        OLYMPIA  AND  THE   IONIAN   ISLANDS    [CH.  x 

for  me  to  use  my  eyes  or  my  head  in  anything.  It 
lasted  but  a  short  time,  during  which  I  was  most 
seriously  ill,  and  my  head  so  inflamed  that  I  was 
confined  a  day  at  Gastouni,  and  could  scarce  rise 
from  my  bed.  I  am  now  quite  well  again,  and  do  not 
think  of  past  evils;  these  things  will  happen  in  a 
climate  like  this. 

Our  tour  was  pursued  the  day  after  I  wrote  to  you 
from  Pyrgo.  Olympia  is  at  about  nine  miles'  distance 
from  it.  The  situation  is  upon  the  Alpheus,  in  a  very 
flat  part  of  the  plain,  shut  in  by  hills  all  round, 
without  any  opening  but  at  the  river ;  nothing  remains 
but  a  foundation,  supposed  that  of  the  temple  of 
Olympian  Jupiter.  We  slept  at  Lalla,  a  village  about 
nine  miles  from  hence  northward,  and  in  a  high 
situation,  the  mountains  here  rising  all  the  way  to 
Mount  Cyllene.  As  high  as  Lalla  the  country  is  fine, 
that  is,  covered  with  wood ;  but  beyond  the  hills  are 
very  bare,  and  Cyllene  is  a  pointed  high  cone  of 
brown  stone.  The  Aga's  where  we  slept  is  the  head- 
quarters of  a  savage  tribe  of  Turks,  by  turns  thieves 
and  thief-takers,  according  as  the  Pasha  is  in  favour 
or  not  with  them.  This  system  of  robbery  is  exactly 
like  what  used  to  be  called  private  war  in  that 
regretted  age  of  chivalry  and  feudal  liberty  Edmund 
Burke  talks  of  so  feelingly — that  is,  it  resembles  a 
good  deal  the  wars  which  are  so  righteously  carried 
on  along  the  coast  of  Africa,  raised  by  the  slave- 
dealers,  and  consists  in  a  happy  mixture  of  kid- 
napping for  ransom,  and  plundering  villages  and 
proteges  of  the  adverse  party.  We,  as  strangers,  are 
always  friends  of  the  strongest,  and  wished  to  acquire 
an  escort  from  this  great  man,  though,  indeed,  just 
now  there  is  little  to  fear,  and  the  people  about  these 
parts  are  at  peace. 

We  saw  nothing  remarkable  enough  to  mention 
here ;  the  Aga  treated  us  courtly  enough,  and,  I 
believe,  had  received  such  handsome  presents  from 
a  friend  of  ours  (Mr.  Hawkins)  that  he  expected  more 


1795]  VALLEY   OF  THE   LADON  247 

from  us,  for  the  rapacity  of  these  middling  Turks  is 
insatiable.  Their  dress  is  that  of  the  Albanese,  of 
which,  indeed,  they  are  a  branch,  and  inherit  all  the 
fierceness,  rapacity,  and  avarice  of  their  originals. 
We  heard  of  ruins,  and  determined  to  push  our  journey 
eastward  where  they  were,  so  set  out  the  next  day 
in  that  direction.  We  descended  through  a  woody 
country,  and  at  length  came  to  a  steep  descent  termin- 
ating in  the  vale  of  the  Erymanthus,  now  the  Hana. 

We  crossed  the  valley,  not  above  a  mile  broad,  and 
climbed  the  opposite  hills.  After  winding  amongst 
them  for  about  half  an  hour  we  descended  into  the 
enchanting  vale  of  the  Ladon,  famous  for  the  story  of 
Daphne,  and  more  deservedly  so  for  its  picturesque 
beauties.  After  passing  a  very  deep  ford,  we  found  a 
poor  village  called  Vanina,  where  we  had  the  addi- 
tional satisfaction  of  discovering  the  ruins  and,  in 
consequence,  fixing  the  situation  (by  help  of  Pausanias) 
of  the  ancient  Thelpusa  or  Telphussa.  It  is  along  a 
gentle  slope  of  the  left  bank,  commanding  the  most 
picturesque  view  of  the  river  and  its  accompaniments. 
We  found  the  ruins  of  two  temples  mentioned  by 
him,  which,  however,  only  consist  of  the  moss-grown 
stumps  of  a  part  of  the  peristyle,  the  columns  of  which 
in  one  were  fluted.  The  remaining  broken  bits  of 
building  show  the  place  to  have  been  of  a  great  extent, 
but  we  found  no  inscriptions,  nor  anything  further 
worth  mentioning. 

We  from  Elis  returned  by  Chiarenza,  and  escaped 
quarantine  by  landing  at  midnight  and  immediately 
taking  refuge  at  the  Consul's.  For  Zante,  I  will 
describe  it  in  my  next ;  we  have  all  round  had  fevers 
and  agues,  we  and  our  servants,  but  are,  thank  God, 
refitted  and  fit  for  work  again.  We  are  winding  up 
our  clues,  and  shall  soon  sail  for  Ithaca,  Corfu,  and 
Italy,  for  the  bad  air  about  Joannina  frightens  us,  and 
Mr.  Hawkins,  whom  we  found  here  on  our  return, 
assures  us  there  are  no  objects  in  that  part  worth  our 
attention ;  we  shall  therefore  hurry  to  Brindisi  and 


248        OLYMPIA  AND   THE   IONIAN   ISLANDS     [CH.  x 

quarantine  as  fast  as  we  can.  Such  are  our  life  and 
adventures.  Adieu.  Believe  me,  my  dear  mother, 
most  affectionately  yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


BARLETTA, 

October  17,  1795. 

DEAR  AUNT, 

At  last  I  write  to  you  from  Italy,  our  labours 
finished  and  ourselves  closely  locked  up  and  strongly 
guarded  in  a  lazaretto,  where  we  are  to  perform 
quarantine  in  our  way  to  Naples.  This,  you  will 
suppose,  is  a  charming  situation  for  letter-writing,  and 
indeed,  as  close  prisoners,  we  have  nothing  else  to  do 
but  talk  to  you  at  home  about  what  we  have  seen,  and 
wind  up  the  scattered  ends  of  our  tour,  which  from 
Zante  here  contains  some  circumstances  that  I  think 
will  interest  you,  as  at  Ithaca,  Corfu,  etc.,  we  have 
been  pretty  busy  with  Homer  and  the  Odyssey,  which 
I  think  we  have  reason  to  suppose  nearly  as  exact  as 
we  had  already  found  the  Iliad. 

We  stayed  at  Zante,  after  our  return  from  the  Morea, 
near  a  month,  refitting  after  fatigues  and  nursing  our 
agues  and  fevers,  from  which  five  of  the  party  out  of 
six  were  affected,  thanks  to  the  vile  air  Chandler  com- 
memorates in  the  plains  of  Elis  and  Olympia.  I  wrote 
in  my  last  to  my  mother  our  history  as  far  as  Zante, 
and  I  will  now  go  on  with  it.  There  is  scarce  any 
island  in  all  these  seas  that  offers  a  prospect  of  fertility 
and  industry  equal  to  Zante.  The  town  is  on  the 
eastern  shore  opposite  the  Morea,  and  the  harbour,  a 
large,  shallow  bay,  is  only  fit  for  large  ships,  though 
a  mole  is  run  out  for  smaller  vessels.  On  a  low  range 
of  hills  behind  the  town  an  old  Venetian  castle  stands, 
which  once  was  the  town,  and  which,  from  a  few  traces 
of  ancient  buildings,  seems  to  have  been  that  of  the 
ancient  Zacynthus. 

Behind  these  hills  is  a  large  plain  containing  the  real 
riches  of  the  island.  Nothing  can  exceed  it  as  a  pro- 


1795]  CRIME   IN   ZANTE  249 

spect  of  luxuriance  and  abundance.  It  is  in  this  plain 
they  cultivate  the  small  grape  for  currants,  and  it  is 
besides  covered  with  wine  and  olives,  eighteen  or 
twenty  villages,  and  a  thousand  pretty  villas  of  the 
Zantiot  gentry,  with  gardens  full  of  oranges,  lemons, 
figs,  pomegranates,  etc.  At  one  end  this  valley  ends 
with  a  view  of  Cephallonia  and  the  strait  between  it 
and  Zante,  and  at  the  other,  catches  a  peep  at  the  sea, 
which  runs  up  in  a  bay  south  of  the  town.  The  back- 
ground of  this  valley  is  a  long  range  of  pretty  high 
hills  that  bound  all  the  western  and  southern  shore 
of  the  island.  They  are  at  a  little  height  stony  and 
barren,  but  the  hills  between  the  town  and  this  plain 
on  which  the  castle  stands  are  covered  with  houses 
and  gardens,  each  commanding  the  prettiest  views  you 
can  imagine.  This  is  all  that  is  to  be  seen  at  Zante. 
Society  there  is  some  steps  above  Turkey,  and  many 
behind  other  countries.  You  would  not  be  able  to 
live  there,  for  the  ladies  are  more  closely  confined 
than  even  in  many  places  of  Turkey,  except  those  of 
the  lower  order.  I  supposed  this  owing  to  the  remains 
of  Oriental  manners,  but  was  more  surprised  when  I 
heard  the  reason. 

The  island  is  so  completely  neglected  that,  besides 
murders  being  committed  almost  every  day  in  the 
streets,  if  a  lady  had  the  misfortune  to  attract  notice 
she  would  very  probably  be  run  away  with  by  force, 
even  from  her  own  house,  as  bravoes  may  be  hired 
here  to  commit  every  sort  of  enormity,  and  all  offences 
are  connived  at  by  bribing  the  governor,  who  there- 
fore encourages  them,  as  they  bring  him  money.  It 
must  be  allowed  he  is  reasonable,  for  murder  does  not 
cost  you  above  a  guinea;  but  you  must  not  shoot 
strangers  like  us,  or  at  all  annoy  a  native  Venetian, 
which  are  not  thought  game  in  these  courts.  In  short, 
the  only  thing  that  hinders  Zante  from  being  as  bad 
as  Turkey  is  that  property  is  more  stable  and  goes  on 
in  an  hereditary  line,  while  the  other  is  constantly 
seized  by  Agas,  Pashas,  and,  finally,  by  the  Sultan, 


250        OLYMPIA  AND  THE   IONIAN   ISLANDS     [CH.  x 

which  damps  all  industry  and  desire  of  acquiring 
riches.  For  the  rest  of  Zante  I  refer  you  to  Chandler. 
We  found  a  hearty  and  comfortable  reception  from 
the  English  Consul,  and  at  last  left  him  with  a  small 
row-boat  and  six  oars,  in  which  my  aunt  Mary  would 
not  have  liked  to  go  to  Italy.  These  are  the  best  for 
expedition,  as  in  a  calm  they  row  very  fast,  and  from 
the  situation  of  the  islands  in  our  road  we  had  always 
places  to  put  into  at  night  or  in  case  of  bad  weather. 
We  set  off  early,  then,  lay  a  few  hours  at  night  off 
Cephallonia,  and  rode  early  next  morning  to  Thiaki. 
This  has  been  thought  Ithaca,  and  I  was  full  of  the 
local  descriptions  scattered  up  and  down  the  Odyssey, 
which  I  hoped  to  find  realised.  I  have  not  been  dis- 
appointed, and  I  think  you  will  be  glad  to  hear  the 
result  of  our  inquiries  and  observations. 

Read  over  again  the  account  of  the  port,  and  landing 
of  Ulysses  by  the  Phaeacians  when  he  first  returned 
to  Ithaca,  you  will  have  the  description  of  the  harbour 
that  received  us — a  very  deep,  winding  inlet  terminat- 
ing in  a  large  basin,  defended  without  by  high,  rugged 
shores,  and  where  boats  might  now  ride  without 
anchors.  It  runs  about  two  miles  inland,  and  is  so 
remarkable  I  do  not  wonder  it  struck  Homer's  atten- 
tion; the  present  small  town  stands  on  it.  We,  of 
course,  did  not  forget  its  leading  distinction,  the  Cave 
of  the  Nymphs.  The  people  told  us  of  several  in 
other  parts  of  the  island,  which  we  did  not  visit,  as 
they  did  not  agree  at  all  with  its  situation  ;  but  it 
exists — for  a  Venetian  officer  I  knew  afterwards  at 
Corfu  assured  me  he  had  been  with  some  travellers 
to  a  very  curious  cave  just  above  that  port,  which, 
piercing  the  mountain,  has  two  entrances,  one  north 
the  other  south,  though  he  had  not  gone  in  beyond  the 
first  entrance.  The  port  is  on  the  north-west  of  the 
island,  where  the  ship  from  Phaeacia,  or  Corfu,  would 
of  course  arrive.  Behind  the  town  the  hills  of  the 
island  rise  to  one  point,  in  which  we  recognised  Mount 
Neritos,  mentioned  by  Ulysses  in  his  first  account  of 


1795]  THE   ODYSSEY  251 

his  country  to  Alcinous.  At  the  foot  of  this  is  an  old 
ruined  fortress,  of  which  a  few  stones  remain,  on  an 
eminence  over  a  valley  that  extends  on  the  west  end 
of  the  island,  and  which  contains  almost  all  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  country,  the  hills  being  only  fit  to  feed 
goats  and  Eumaeus's  pigs. 

This  may  have   been  the  situation   of   some  less 

ancient  date  than  Ithaca,  but  the  capital  was  most 

likely  somewhere  here;  and  another  port  nearer  it 

than  the  deep  one  was  that  of  the  town  from  which 

Telemachus  sailed  with  Minerva  to  Pylos,  and  such 

a  port  exists  there  now.     What  shows,  besides,  his 

great  exactness  is  the  mention  Antinous  makes,  at  the 

end  of  the  4th  book,  of  the  strait  between  it  and  Same, 

or  Cephallonia,  and  the  circumstance  of  the  suitors 

landing  to  lie  in  ambush  for  Telemachus  at  an  islet 

called  Asteris,  which  agrees  only  with  Thiaki,  as  no 

other  island  forms  a  strait  with  Cephallonia  (except 

Zante),  and  at  a  small  distance  from  Thiaki  there  is 

a  rocky  islet  which  forms  a  port  for  a  ship  to  lie  in 

between  it  and  the  shore  of  Ithaca ;  which,  therefore, 

has  two  mouths,  exactly  as   Homer  describes.     The 

accuracy  he  everywhere  shows,  in  the  most  trifling 

traits   of  description,   is  wonderful;    and    exalt  him 

as  poet,  geographer,  and  painter  beyond  any  author 

I  know.     I  wish  our  friend  Gray  had  been  as  exact 

about  his  "  woods  that  wave  o'er  Delphi's  steep  " ;  but 

alas!  excepting  there  being  isles  in  the  Aegean,  the 

other  three  lines  are  only  poetry;  for  the  steep  of 

Delphi  is  a  barren  rock  that  would  scarce  grow  a  fir ; 

the  cool  Ilissus  is  almost  always  dry,  and  never  was 

but  a  torrent ;  and  the  amber  Maeander  is  more  muddy 

than  the  Nid  in  a  flood,  and  never  was  other,  for  it 

runs  in  a  sand-bed. 

However,  as  Homer  has  not  used  us  so  ill,  let  us  go 
on  with  him ;  for  I  have  not  done,  and  have  been  so 
believing  in  him  that  I  almost  looked  for  Eumaeus's 
pigsty.  We  sailed  and  rowed  on;  first  to  Santa 
Maura,  which  the  Greeks,  however,  still  call  Leucadia, 


252        OLYMPIA  AND  THE   IONIAN   ISLANDS    [CH.  x 

We  reached  Corfu  the  next  day.  You  know  this  was 
Corcyra,  and  in  Homer's  time  Phaeacia.  Nothing  is 
more  rich  and  pretty  than  the  scenery  of  the  island  as 
you  run  between  it  and  the  shore.  It  is  in  general 
broken  in  knolls  and  low  hills,  covered  with  olives, 
vines,  and  gardens ;  and  though  not  so  well  cultivated 
as  Zante,  yet  its  happy  climate  and  soil  make  it  still 
the  paradise  Ulysses  found  it.  Read,  therefore,  once 
more  the  description  in  the  Odyssey,  where  he  cele- 
brates its  fertility  in  the  7th  book;  it  is  as  true  an 
account  as  I  can  give  you,  and  more  animated  and 
entertaining.  There  are  now  no  antiquities  in  the 
island;  but  when  Homer  has  described  a  place,  the 
very  stones  are  antiquities.  We  therefore  traced,  by 
inquiry  at  least,  Ulysses  and  Nausicaa  to  the  town  of 
the  Phaeacians.  Ulysses  landed  on  the  west  shore, 
opposite  to  where  we  were.  The  shore  now  is  all 
along  steep  and  rocky  there,  and  a  small  river  runs 
into  the  sea — which  is,  I  suppose,  the  one  he  swam  to. 
At  about  two  miles'  distance  is  now  an  old  ruin 
called  Palaeo  Castritza,  "  the  old  castle,"  situated,  like 
Ithaca  and  all  the  other  most  ancient  towns,  on  the 
top  of  a  rugged  eminence.  When  the  town  flourished 
after,  in  more  civilised  times,  as  Athens,  etc.,  the  old 
town  served  as  citadel,  and  they  extended  the  other 
in  the  plain.  This  precaution  in  early  times  was 
necessary,  on  account  of  corsairs  and  banditti ;  and 
also  they  never  are  on  the  sea-shore,  though  generally 
not  far  from  a  port.  There  is  a  small  one  in  the  plain 
below  this  place,  and  at  the  mouth  of  it  a  small  rock, 
which  resembles  a  ship  so  much  that  the  Greeks  now 
call  it  "the  Ship,"  both  among  peasants  and  sailors. 
Can  anything  be  more  marked  than  this  situation, 
and  the  idea  on  which  Homer  built  his  fiction  of 
Alcinous's  ship  being  petrified  there  by  Neptune  on 
its  return  from  carrying  Ulysses?  This  place,  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  I  did  not  see;  but  I  can  vouch  for  the 
fact,  as  my  inquiries  were  not  only  amongst  people 
who  had  seen,  but  people  who  had  lived  at  the  place, 


1795]  VOYAGE  TO   ITALY  253 

which  is  about  eighteen  miles  from  Corfu.  Don't  call 
me  stupid  for  not  going !  We  only  meant  to  stay  one 
day  at  Corfu,  and  in  that  day  I  fell  again  ill  of  the 
ague.  This  detained  us  a  day  more ;  and  hearing 
of  these  classical  objects,  I  meant,  if  all  was  well, 
to  go  the  third  to  them.  Our  boatman,  however, 
represented  strongly  that  we  had  now  calm  weather 
to  cross  the  gulf  of  Venice ;  and  that,  slipping  an 
opportunity  at  this  time  of  the  year,  the  weather 
evidently  breaking,  we  should  be  detained  probably 
many  days. 

So  we  left  Corfu,  were  confined  three  days  by  storms 
at  Fano,  this  small  islet,  and  then  rowed  in  a  calm  to 
Otranto,  about  seventy  miles'  open  sea.  We  entered 
into  quarantine  there,  and  came  on  to  Barletta,  along 
the  coast  of  Naples,  to  a  tolerable  lazaretto;  but 
suffered  again  our  usual  labours — sleeping  on  the  deck 
of  a  small  boat — which  we  could  not  avoid  in  many 
places,  as  we  were  not  to  approach  a  house  till  we 
were  out  of  quarantine.  Here  we  are,  however,  safe 
and  well,  with  good  living,  in  a  Christian  town.  A 
traveller  makes  or  finds  friends  all  over.  We  carried 
a  letter,  given  us  by  a  merchant,  to  the  Neapolitan 
Consul  at  Corfu,  and  he,  after  the  greatest  kindness, 
gave  us  letters  here  to  a  man  who  sends  us,  in  conse- 
quence, all  sorts  of  good  things  every  day.  We  have 
no  more  fatigue  to  undergo,  and  are  in  high  preserva- 
tion. 

I  am,  most  affectionately  and  sincerely  yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


BARLETTA, 

October  27,  1795. 

DEAR  ANNE, 

Perhaps  you  will  wish  me  after  dinner  many 

happy  returns  of  this  day.     I  am  much  obliged  to  you, 

*but  I  don't  myself,  for  this  day  is  not  only  spent  in 

close  confinement,  but  has  brought  me  the  pleasing 

news  from  Naples  that  our  applications  are  in  vain, 


254        OLYMPIA  AND   THE   IONIAN   ISLANDS    [CH.  x 

and  we  are  to  be  kept  in  captivity  for  our  quarantine 
nine  days  longer. 

You  are  not  exactly  informed  of  our  last  motions 
before  we  got  to  Italy,  so  I  will  tell  you  them.  When 
we  arrived  at  Corfu  affairs  began  to  wear  a  different 
aspect ;  we  found  with  pleasure  a  large  European 
town  (for  I  hardly  call  Greece  Europe),  and  saw 
genteel  people  for  the  first  time.  The  town  is  divided 
into  the  members  of  the  Venetian  government,  whose 
chief  holds  a  little  Court  here,  and  the  Greek  nobility, 
of  which  there  are  many  large  families,  natives  of  the 
island.  Stockdale  was  rather  ill,  and  confined  to  his 
room  at  the  inn,  but  I  met  with  a  very  agreeable 
reception,  as  we  brought  letters  to  a  Conte  Honstein, 
member  of  the  first,  and  to  the  Consul  of  Naples,  who 
introduced  me  to  the  second  society.  Honstein  1 
found  an  agreeable,  polite  man,  and  he  went  with 
me,  in  the  evening  after  our  arrival,  round  part  of 
the  fortress,  which  is  very  strong,  and  of  which  he 
explained  to  me  the  nature,  and  afterwards  to  the 
ancient  situation  of  Corcyra.  It  is  a  little  south  of 
the  present  town,  and  commands  a  view  the  most 
charming  and  most  picturesque.  The  old  port  runs 
very  deep  inland  on  the  south,  and  with  the  harbour 
of  Corfu  on  the  north  a  deep,  gulfy  bay  forms  this 
point  into  a  peninsula.  The  whole,  as  well  as  the 
slopes  of  the  hills  beyond  the  two  ports,  is  covered 
with  old  olive-grounds  and  gardens  ;  these,  intermixed 
with  villages  and  the  walls  of  Corfu,  you  will  suppose 
have  a  beautiful  effect.  We  walked  about  till  late 
with  much  pleasure,  as  I  soon  found  my  companion 
had  eyes,  and  a  conversation,  as  interesting  as  it  was 
void  of  pretension.  At  night  the  Consul  of  Naples, 
who  was  equally  eager  to  oblige  us,  carried  me  to  a 
conversazione  at  the  house  of  Conte  Bulgari,  a  Greek 
of  the  first  distinction  there.  I  there  found  many 
pleasant  women,  and  heard  guitars  and  harpsichords 
that  made  a  noise  rather  more  harmonious  than 
Turkish  howling,  which  is  literally  "no'  but  making 


1795]          AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  ODYSSEY  255 

a  din,  for  nobody  ever  thought  them  guilty  of  sing- 
ing." 

At  this  rate  I  passed  two  days  very  happily,  hunting 
medals  and  antiquities  all  morning,  and  flirting  with 
the  moderns  in  the  evening.  A  man  always  gets  in- 
formation by  going  abroad.  I  called  one  morning 
on  an  old,  snuffy  antiquary  here,  who  has  a  fine  col- 
lection of  medals  of  Epirus,  Corcyra,  and  these  coasts. 
I  inquired  about  the  country  so  celebrated  in  the 
Odyssey,  and  learnt  with  some  surprise  that  he  and 
several  other  great  men  here  had  found  out  that  it 
was  not  written,  as  folks  foolishly  say,  by  Homer,  for 
two  such  unequal  works  as  the  Iliad  and  it  could  not 
be  of  the  same  hand.1  He,  however,  could  not  tell 
me  exactly  who  did  write  it,  which  gave  me  much 
concern.  Pray,  do  you  know  anybody  that  had  a 
hand  in  it  ?  Now  I  almost  broke  his  foolish  pate, 
for  (but  don't  tell)  the  Odyssey  is  a  very  great  favourite 
with  me,  and  though  there  are  finer  passages  in  the 
Iliad,  yet  Telemachus  and  Penelope  often  balance  in 
my  mind  the  fire  and  sword  of  the  heroes  before 
Troy,  who,  though  greater  people,  are  seldom  so 
pleasant,  like  all  other  great  people.  And  that  this 
man  of  taste  should  show  me  for  two  hours  some 
of  the  prettiest  engraved  stones  I  ever  saw !  I  had 
a  very  stealing  itch  at  my  fingers'  ends,  for  he  plagued 
me  with  remarks  that  showed  his  eyes  knew  as  little 
of  beauty  as  his  understanding.  N.B. — They  were  not 
of  his  collecting,  and  had  just  power  enough  on  him 
to  make  him  an  ass. 

We  at  last  left  Corfu,  and  saw,  a  little  beyond,  some 
modern  ruins  with  old  stones  at  Cassiope,  now 
Cassopu.  We  stayed  two  days  for  fine  weather  at 
a  small  island,  Fano,  north  of  Corfu,  opposite 

1  It  should  be  noted  that  this  year  (1795)  was  the  very  year  in  which  Wolfs 
famous  "  Prolegomena  "  appeared,  maintaining  the  theory  of  separate  author- 
ship for  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey.  It  is  just  possible  that  the  "antiquary"  may 
have  seen  his  work  ;  but  it  is  also  possible  that  he  may  have  formed  his 
opinion  either  independently  or  from  the  Neapolitan  Vico,  who  made  the 
same  suggestion,  without  argument,  in  1730. 


256        OLYMPIA  AND  THE   IONIAN   ISLANDS    [CH.  x 

Otranto,  where  we  witnessed  a  melancholy  scene. 
Some  Albanese  who  were  there  with  a  boat,  and 
with  whom  we  made  a  great  acquaintance,  sailed  off 
that  evening,  with  a  young  Greek  and  his  mother, 
to  a  small  island  near  in  their  way  home,  where  one 
of  them,  who  was  jealous  of  the  young  man's  acquaint- 
ance with  his  wife,  burst  into  the  room  where  he 
slept,  and  had  the  barbarity  to  sabre  him  before  his 
mother,  who  received  a  blow  that  almost  cut  off  her 
wrist  in  attempting  to  save  her  son.  They  came  back 
to  the  island  where  we  were,  and  the  ruffians  went 
home;  the  young  man,  however,  died  the  next  day. 
This  will  give  you  some  idea  of  the  civilisation  of 
Albania.  These  men  were  Christians,  and  at  constant 
rebellion  with  the  Albanese  Turks,  who  are  renegades 
within  one  or  two  centuries  ;  but  both  parties  are 
more  savage  than  you  can  conceive.  They  make 
excellent  soldiers,  and  the  King  of  Naples  has  about 
four  thousand  in  regular  pay.  They  are  called  Regi- 
ment of  Macedonia,  and  a  large  body  of  them  was 
cut  to  pieces  at  the  evacuation  of  Toulon,  where  the 
English  were  employed  in  saving  their  own  men.  I 
am  told  these  men  fought  the  French  till  not  one 
remained,  and  would  never  hear  of  surrendering  their 
arms.  If  the  man  had  cause  for  jealousy  the  punish- 
ment was  what  might  be  expected,  for  such  an  injury 
there  is  never  forgotten  or  forgiven  ;  but  the  situation 
of  the  mother  was  shocking  beyond  description. 

We  at  last  had  a  calm  day,  and  with  our  oars 
reached  Otranto  on  the  point  of  Italy,  about  seventy 
miles,  and  you  would  have  stared  at  our  boat,  for  it 
was  not  much  larger  than  those  on  the  Ouse.  It 
carried  us  in  safety,  however,  above  four  hundred 
miles,  and  on  reaching  Otranto,  October  8,  we  began 
our  quarantine,  and  were  never  admitted  beyond  the 
beach  of  any  port  till  we  arrived  here  October  13, 
where  we  heard  the  best  lazaretto  was,  and  which 
had  the  convenience  of  being  nearest  to  Naples.  We 
looked  very  hard  at  the  castle  of  Otranto,  in  hopes 


1795]  CALABRIAN   MANNERS  257 

of  seeing  the  plumed  helmet,  or  the  giant's  leg  and 
foot,  but  were  disappointed.  The  whole  coast  is 
extremely  flat,  but  the  country  is  full  of  large  towns, 
and  fine,  though  eaten  up  by  myriads  of  convents, 
whose  houses  do  not  seem  calculated  for  the  vows 
of  poverty.  We  had  a  good  scene  at  Brindisi.  The 
governors  of  the  health  office  admitted  us  into  the 
little  room  of  the  office,  with  proper  guards,  to  eat 
and  pass  the  night.  Soon  after  the  door  opened,  and 
a  party  of  Calabrese  ladies,  escorted  by  some  good 
figures,  made  their  entree  to  visit  us.  They  had  heard 
we  were  Venetians,  but  when  we  told  them  we  were 
English  the  scene  was  much  better,  and  sono  Inglesi 
was  whispered  about  with  great  amazement. 

At  last  the  spokesman  observed  fairly  that  in  the 
corner  where  we  were  the  ladies  could  not  see  us, 
and  begged  we  would  turn  out  into  the  light.  You 
may  suppose  how  we  laughed ;  and  consented  on 
condition  the  ladies  would  make  the  same  display ; 
they  had  never  in  their  lives  been  out  of  the  heart 
of  Calabria,  and  were  now  in  two  minds ;  for  on  one 
side  was  the  fear  of  catching  the  plague,  and  on  the 
other  female  curiosity  to  see  Englishmen.  To  do 
them  justice,  they  were  better  worth  looking  at  than 
us,  for  they  were  very  pretty. 

As  we  were  in  our  travelling  dress,  and  English 
modes  are  all  in  all  here,  I  have  great  hopes  that  all 
Brindisi  is  by  this  time  in  jackets  and  trousers,  with 
white  or  straw  hats,  by  way  of  being  a  FAnglaise. 
We  supposed  at  last,  from  the  length  of  their  visit, 
that  they  intended  to  observe,  like  Mademoiselle 
Kerhabon  and  Mademoiselle  St.  Ives,  "  Comment  dor- 
moit  un  Anglais  " ;  but  they  restrained  their  curiosity 
in  this  point,  and  left  us  highly  amused  with  their 
simplicity,  and  the  originality  of  our  adventure. 

We  got  here  at  last  safe,  after  a  most  unpleasant 
journey,  being  almost  always  confined  to  our  little 
boat  with  six  sailors  ;  so  you  may  suppose  how  com- 
fortably we  slept  upon  deck.  We  are  perfectly  re- 


258        OLYMPIA  AND   THE   IONIAN   ISLANDS    [CH.  x 

established  here  by  the  lazy  hours  we  lead ;  and  since 
our  arrival  our  life  is  a  perfect  blank,  very  different 
from  the  entertaining  change  of  scenery  that  we  have 
had,  which  has  spoiled  us  for  sitting  still. 

Affectionately  yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


CHAPTER  XI 

NAPLES 

NAPLES, 
November  18,  1795. 

MY  DEAR  MOTHER, 

Now,  my  dear  mother,  to  talk  of  myself.  We 
have  been  about  a  week  in  Naples,  and  the  scene  is 
totally  changed  once  more — after  my  letters  from  the 
lazaretto,  I  need  scarce  add  for  the  better.  Suppose 
us,  then,  even  superbly  lodged  in  one  of  the  best  hotels 
of  Naples,  with  a  full  view  of  the  bay  and  Vesuvius 
from  our  chamber  windows,  with  a  boudoir  that  you 
would  really  envy  us,  commanding  all  the  views,  and 
fitted  to  your  liking.  Suppose  also  a  return  of  English 
porter  and  English  cookery  to  our  dinners,  and  you 
will  conceive  us  to  be  pretty  comfortable. 

In  the  mornings  we  drive  about  to  see  pictures  and 
statues,  in  the  evenings  to  the  opera ;  for  as  the 
Ambassador  is  at  Caserta,  where  the  Court  now  is, 
and  as  we  brought  no  letters  besides  to  anybody  here, 
we  have  not  yet  got  an  entree  to  the  fashionable 
circles,  which,  however,  gives  us  only  more  time  to 
see  what  is  to  be  seen  at  first.  Naples  has  lately  had 
a  great  acquisition  in  this  respect,  as  the  King  has 
bought  the  marbles  of  the  Farnese  Gallery,  and 
brought  them  here  from  Rome.  They  have  been  a 
lounge  for  us  two  or  three  times  already,  and  will 
» afford  us  many  more  before  we  have  done.  The 
famous  Hercules  is  a  noble  animal,  and  surprised  me, 
though  I  had  seen  so  many  casts  and  pictures  of  him. 

259 


260  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

I  do  not  think  it  possible,  even  in  idea,  to  imagine 
a  human  figure  more  expressive  of  excessive  strength  ; 
and  the  justness  of  the  proportions  is  at  the  same 
time  very  striking ;  the  whole  figure  is  about  io|  feet 
high,  and,  except  the  prop  :he  leans  upon,  no  part 
seems  to  have  been  restored  by  modern  hands.  His 
countenance  has  a  fine  expression  in  it  of  a  man 
resting  after  success;  and  conveys  well,  I  thought, 
both  the  pensive  air  of  fatigue,  and  the  tranquil  satis- 
faction of  having  obtained  the  Hesperian  apples  which 
he  holds  in  his  hand.  We  saw  several  others,  but  all 
thrown  together  in  a  lumber-room,  which  scarce  gave 
any  of  them  fair  play;  we,  however,  distinguished 
some  beautiful  figures  and  groups  amongst  them, 
though  in  the  dark,  and  almost  covered  with  the  dust 
and  dirt  they  had  been  packed  in.  A  description  of 
them  is  too  like  a  catalogue,  however,  and  will  give 
you  little  or  no  idea  of  their  beauties  unless  I  can  get 
drawings  or  casts  of  them,  as  perhaps  I  can  of  some. 

This,  with  a  few  churches,  is  as  yet  all  we  have  seen 
of  Naples,  for  since  we  are  here  it  has  rained  inces- 
santly ;  and  we  have  not  been  able  to  make  one  sally 
to  the  environs,  where  everything  is  that  is  worth 
seeing  here — Herculaneum,  Pompeii,  the  Royal  Mu- 
seums, etc.,  with  which  we  shall  begin  the  first  fine 
weather.  En  attendant,  we  dowager  about  in  our  car- 
riage, and  visit  church  after  church,  where  we  always 
find  most  splendid  knick-knackery,  and  sometimes  good 
painting.  The  provoking  part  of  the  story  is  that 
these  poor  pictures,  often  by  some  of  the  first  masters, 
are  often  crammed  into  some  corner  chapel  or  a  dark 
sacristy,  where  it  is  all  one  can  do  to  see  them,  while 
tawdry  saints  and  ugly,  miraculous  Virgins  are  staring 
you  in  the  face  on  all  sides  of  the  churches ;  and  it 
requires  great  hunting  to  find  these  pictures  out,  for 
the  priests  in  general  know  no  more  about  them  than 
we  do.  So  we  exercise  our  connoisseurship,  and  shall 
soon  set  up  as  great  masters. 

I  saw  two  days  ago  a  beautiful  specimen  of  modern 


1795]     SCULPTURE,   ANCIENT  AND   MODERN        261 

sculpture  in  three  figures,  carved  for  the  interior  orna- 
ments of  a  new  chapel.  One  was  a  figure  of  Modesty, 
veiled  from  head  to  foot;  another  allegorical  of  an 
angel  freeing  a  man  from  a  net  which  covers  him ;  and 
the  third  a  dead  Christ  covered  with  the  winding- 
sheet.  The  effect  of  the  features  and  limbs  in  the 
first  and  last  appearing  through  a  thin  drapery  was 
such  as  I  should  not  have  imagined  marble  capable 
of  expressing ;  and  you  may  imagine  what  a  work  the 
other  is  in  marble  when  I  assure  you  it  is  almost 
necessary  to  touch  the  net  to  be  sure  that  stone  can 
represent  it  so  accurately.  All  the  drapery  and 
accompaniments  of  these  figures  are  equal  if  not 
superior  to  antique  works;  still,  is  it  not  strange 
that  all  the  limbs,  the  head,  and  flesh  that  appear  in 
them  without  drapery  are  little  above  the  common 
style,  and  cannot  approach  the  ancient  sculpture, 
which  really  seems  almost  a  lost  art  ?  For  all  this, 
where  his  veils  cover  the  figures,  you  think  you  see 
them  hollow  from  the  different  bends  of  the  limbs ; 
the  features  are  just  distinguished  through ;  and  by 
an  art  almost  inconceivable,  the  strongest  traits  of 
death  are  expressed  in  those  of  the  Christ,  though 
only  seen  through  the  drapery.  To  have  an  idea  of 
this,  however,  by  description  is  but  very  imperfect, 
and  works  so  admirable  are  easier  felt  than  described. 
This  is  still  more  the  case  when  I  have  to  talk  to  you 
of  many  other  statues  or  pictures,  where  the  beauty 
consists  in  the  expressions  of  passion  in  the  coun- 
tenance and  figure,  which  of  course  are  still  less 
describable  than  the  effect  of  a  well-executed  drapery. 

I  must  tell  you  one  advertisement  which  decorates 
the  front  of  most  of  the  churches  here.  It  is  thus : 
"  Indulgences  Plenary,  daily  and  perpetual,  for  the 
living  and  the  dead,  as  often  as  wanted" ;  and  this  is 
carved  over  the  door  as  we  write  "  Wigs  to  sell  "  over 
a  barber's. 

These  people  are  mad  with  religion.  When  we 
came  from  Barletta  it  happened  to  be  Sunday;  and 
18 


262  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

at  one  post-house  we  were  catechised  by  everybody, 
from  the  master  down  to  the  ostler,  whether  we  had 
been  to  Mass ;  not  one  word  of  reply  but  that  could 
we  get  from  them.  "  Pray  make  haste  with  the 
horses,"  said  we.  "  Have  you  been  to  Mass  ?  "  was 
all  we  heard ;  and,  take  notice,  notwithstanding  this, 
that  they  were  the  most  cheating  scoundrels  we  had 
to  do  with  on  the  whole  road. 

At  last  off  we  set,  and  in  about  three  miles  our 
straps  broke,  and  lodged  the  crazy  cabriolet  we  were 
in  quietly  in  the  dirt.  I  wish  you  had  seen  the  crosses 
the  post-boy  made,  and  with  what  a  rueful  face  he 
observed  that  if  we  had  but  gone  to  Mass  the  old 
straps  would  never  have  broken.  The  country  for  the 
last  fifty  miles  is  very  cultivated,  hilly,  and  beautiful. 
Indeed,  the  riches  of  it  exceed  all  conception,  and  as 
they  cultivate  many  vines,  and  in  the  most  beautiful  of 
all  modes,  by  planting  elms  and  training  the  vines  by 
trellises  from  tree  to  tree,  you  may  suppose  what  a 
charming  effect  these  groves  have,  hung  with  the 
vines  in  such  beautiful  festoons,  and  the  soil  under 
them  waving  with  corn  or  covered  with  every  different 
produce  so  southern  a  climate  produces.  We  are  no 
longer  in  Greece  and  Turkey,  with  fine  plains  lying- 
desert  around  us ;  and  the  fertility  of  this  country 
makes  us  forget  all  the  barrenness  and  wildness  we 
are  so  used  to. 

Such  is  our  history,  and  as  it  goes  on  I  will  from 
time  to  time  send  you  bulletins  of  our  proceedings.  At 
present  we  are  rather  enjoying  a  rest  and  the  comforts  of 
good  living  than  engaged  in  any  undertaking  of  hobby- 
horse nature.  Do  tell  Ann,  however,  that  last  night  I 
was  at  the  representation  of  our  favourite  opera,  "  La 
Zingara,"  in  Fiera,  and  liked  it  as  well  as  ever,  though 
I  longed  for  Morellis  and  William  Horton,  without 
whom  an  opera  loses  more  than  half  its  charms.  Next 
to  the  opera,  the  amusement  here  is  a  play,  in  which 
Punch  performs  a  principal  character.  Not  to  con- 
found matters,  however,  I  must  observe  that  there  are 


1795]  POLCINELLO  263 

very  few  traits  of  an  English  Punch  in  an  Italian 
Polcinello,  who  really  is  a  very  witty  and  excellent 
buffoon,  and  certainly  outshines  plain  Punch  in  every 
respect — no  disparagement  to  him  or  his  wife  Joan,  or 
to  those  excellent  jokes  about  hazy  weather  and  going 
to  be  created,  which  he  has  been  in  possession  of  time  out 
of  mind.  He  also  figures  in  the  streets  here  on  the 
same  footing  as  in  England,  and  it  is  scarce  an  hour 
since  we  were  called  to  our  window  by  his  soft  and 
well-known  voice,  so  that  S.  and  I  have  been  agreeing 
that  he  is  the  only  one  of  our  friends,  perhaps,  whose 
voice  we  should  so  soon  have  recognised.  I  do  not 
know  whether  Punch,  like  the  rest  of  his  countrymen, 
has  assumed  this  voice  by  way  of  being  a  I' Anglais 
or  not,  but  I  fancy  in  reality  he  is  a  native  of  Italy. 
Everybody  else  here  might  be  English,  and  Naples  has 
more  the  air  of  London  than  any  place  I  have  seen  on 
the  Continent.  However,  though  most  of  them  under- 
stand enough  to  look  like  Englishmen,  there  are  a 
good  many  who  are  only  a  I' Anglais,  a  thing  quite 
different,  and  their  burlesque  figures  are  delightful.  If 
I  had  known  what  I  now  do,  I  should  have  saved 
myself  the  trouble  of  writing  for  a  parcel  of  things  my 
stupid  servant  told  me  I  could  not  get  here.  Every- 
thing is  to  be  got  that  can  be  got  in  London,  and  I  was 
as  stupid  as  him  to  believe  a  word  of  the  story.  My 
sheet  grows  near  to  an  end,  and  I  could  prose  on,  but 
I  will  save  something  for  my  next.  Adieu  then,  and 
pray  write  immediately  in  answer  to  your  first  part  of 
this,  and  also  to  repeat  what  you  wrote  to  Salonica. 

Yours  affectionately, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


NAPLES, 
December  I  to  6,  1795. 

DEAR  AUNT, 

In  my  letters  to  my  mother,  I  told  you  all  of  our 
arrival  here,  and  a  little  of  what  we  saw.  It  is  still, 
alas !  the  rainy  season,  and  this  charming  climate,  the 


264  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

theme  of  all  Italian  tourists,  the  wonder  of  all 
travelling  Misses,  who  think  it  odd  Italy  should  be 
hotter  than  England,  has  hitherto  appeared  to  us, 
except  for  about  two  days,  in  the  perfect  character  of 
a  very  bad  English  November.  However,  by  all  I 
hear,  these  rains  are  only  to  last  a  short  time,  and  the 
rest  of  the  year  is  fine  weather,  in  hopes  of  seeing 
which  I  suspend  my  judgment,  which  at  present  would 
not  be  very  like  that  of  other  people.  About  the 
situation  and  bay  of  Naples  I  join  warmly  in  the 
general  cry,  for  anything  more  lovely  cannot  exist, 
and  the  views  in  every  part  of  the  environs  here  are 
more  enchanting  than  I  ever  had  imagined.  Our 
visits  have  hitherto  been  generally  to  paintings  and 
statues  in  the  town,  but,  favoured  by  the  two  fine  days 
I  have  already  mentioned,  we  got  out  twice  to  the 
coasts  of  the  smaller  gulf  of  Baiae,  on  the  west  of 
Naples,  and  visited  Pozzuoli  and  the  monuments  that 
are  left  there. 

The  road  there  is  curious,  as  from  the  end  of  the 
Quay  of  Naples  it  pierces  by  a  long  underground 
arched  passage  the  promontory  of  Pausilipo,  which 
separates  the  two  bays,  and  through  which  an  ex- 
cellent broad  road  is  made,  arched  above  to  the 
height  of  24  feet  in  some  parts  and  above  80  feet  in 
others,  and  at  least  770  yards  in  length. 

Just  above  the  entrance  is  the  tomb  of  Virgil,  which 
it  is  proper,  you  know,  to  see ;  but  it  is  only  a  small 
brick  ruin,  with  a  few  niches  for  urns,  which  may 
have  been  tomb  to  anybody,  for  I  do  not  know  why  it 
is  ascribed  to  Virgil  alone,  as  it  has  evidently  been 
that  of  a  family,  and  he  shares  it  with  all  the  Masters 
and  Misses  Virgil,  Mrs.  Virgil,  Mrs.  W.  Virgil,  etc., 
etc.,  if  there  were  such  good  people.  Beyond  the 
grotto,  when  we  came  again  to  the  shore  of  the  gulf 
of  Baiae  we  were  again  delighted  with  the  view.  Cape 
Misenum  runs  out  on  the  right,  and  made  us  think  of 
the  Aeneid — the  islands  Ischia,  Procida,  the  castle  of 
Baiae,  Pozzuoli — all  forms  and  situations  whose  happy 


1795]  THE  SOLFATARA  265 

combination  defies  almost  the  imagination  of  a  painter 
to  surpass  this  charming  scenery. 

At  Pozzuoli,  which  is  but  three  or  four  miles  from 
Naples,  we  climbed  to  the  Solfatara.  This,  you  know, 
is  the  crater  of  an  old  volcano,  and  forms  a  small  oval 
valley,  with  a  few  shrubs  and  young  trees  on  the 
slope  and  foot  of  the  low  hills  on  one  end,  while  the 
rest  is  a  sheet  of  white,  crumbling  earth  and  stone, 
covered  with  flower  of  brimstone.  The  ground  is 
hollow,  and  a  stamp  echoes  through  the  whole  moun- 
tain. It  is  constantly  on  fire  within,  and  we  heard  in 
many  places  a  bubbling  of  boiling  water,  the  steam  of 
which  flew  out  from  two  or  three  holes  about  with 
astonishing  violence  and  such  heat  that  I  could  hardly 
take  up  the  earth  round  it,  which  is  covered  with 
crystallised  sulphurs.  This  steam  shows  a  good  deal 
the  principle  of  an  eruption,  I  think ;  for  suppose  such 
a  current,  by  the  falling  in  of  any  part,  directed  among 
the  red-hot  entrails  of  the  mountain,  what  calculation 
could  conjecture  the  explosion  it  must  make,  which 
would  continue  as  long  as  the  stream  of  vapour  was 
driven  that  way  ? 

At  the  foot  of  the  mountain  in  Pozzuoli  we  were 
shown  a  temple  of  Serapis,  buried  in  the  side  of  the 
hill.  The  front  has  been  dug  out,  and  three  columns 
are  standing,  but  the  interesting  part  to  us  was  the 
court  before  it,  surrounded  with  cells  for  the  priests 
and  small  baths  for  the  different  lustrations.  The 
court  is  full  of  rain  and  other  waters,  and  stepping- 
stones  are  set  all  about  it.  In  the  centre  is  a  raised 
circular  platform,  which  was  adorned  with  statues  now 
at  Portici,  and  in  the  middle  has  been  the  altar  for 
sacrifice,  where  we  were  shown  the  vases  for  the 
blood  and  entrails  of  the  victims,  and  bronze  rings  in 
the  floor  to  which  they  were  tied.  On  going  into  a 
part  of  the  excavation  which  has  been  made  by  the 
temple,  I  could  feel  the  heat  of  the  interior  part  of  the 
mountain  very  perceptibly,  which  shows  how  com- 
pletely this  whole  country  is  on  fire  below.  We  were 


266  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

shown  an  amphitheatre  and  some  statues  here,  and  a 
few  columns  of  a  very  old  temple  in  the  wall  of  the 
cathedral. 

Sacred  and  profane  history  is  as  delightfully 
jumbled,  indeed,  here  as  it  is  in  other  parts  of  Italy,  and 
while  the  people  of  Pozzuoli  pray  above  in  a  Roman 
temple,  St.  Januarius  and  a  Roman  Consul  hold  a 
tete-a-tete  on  opposite  pedestals  in  the  market-place. 

As  all  carving  and  ornament  is  admitted  into  any 
church  that  finds  it,  and  as  the  people  are  no  connois- 
seurs, it  may  often  happen  that  Jupiter  and  Apollo  are 
still  addressed  for  some  saint  or  other,  and  the  heathen 
goddesses  and  Roman  empresses  often  come  in  for  a 
pious  Ave  Mary  by  no  means  intended  for  them. 

Naples  at  present  is  far  from  being  the  gay  place  it 
used  to  be,  and  the  late  plots,  the  war,  and  the  con- 
tinual arrests  for  treason,  have  made  it  quite  dull.  We 
do  not  see  it  to  advantage,  however,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, as  we  have  no  letters  of  introduction  but  to  our 
Ambassador,  who,  as  well  as  the  Court,  is  now  out  of 
town  at  Caserta.  If  you  can  get  me  any  among  your 
travelled  acquaintance  you  will  do  us  the  greatest 
good  you  can  imagine,  as  we  are  growing  stupid, 
though  there  is  so  much  to  see  here  that  we  feel  less 
the  want  of  them,  when  we  can  get  out,  and  we  have  not 
yet  got  to  Caserta  from  the  extreme  bad  weather.  In 
the  meantime  I  medallise,  and  look  at  statues  and 
engraved  stones  all  morning. 

I  have  changed  my  duplicates  and  bought  most  of 
the  coins  of  the  Greek  colonies  in  Calabria  and  Sicily, 
for  I  do  not  meddle  with  Roman  ones,  as  they  would 
lead  me,  like  Johnny  Gilpin,  farther  than  I  intend.  I 
shall  keep  for  you  all  of  my  own  finding  in  the  villages 
of  Greece.  I  am  also  getting  a  charming  set  of 
sulphurs  here,  and  have  found  a  painter  to  finish  our 
sketches,  whose  talent  will,  I  know,  surprise  you,  as 
I  have  seen  scarce  anything  equal  to  his  style  of 
colouring  from  nature. 

I  told  you  that  our  draughtsman  left  us  at  Zante. 


1795]  ERUPTIONS  OF  VESUVIUS  267 

I  sent  him  home  on  account  of  his  health,  which  had 
suffered  extremely  in  our  tour,  and  he  had  been  once 
so  near  dying  we  durst  not  risk  him  any  longer.  He 
would  not,  beside,  have  been  capable  of  finishing  his 
drawings  well,  though  he  did  not  want  talent  for 
sketching,  but  his  coloured  works  were  much  inferior 
in  every  respect.  I  esteem  myself,  however,  extremely 
fortunate  now,  and  shall,  I  hope,  bring  home  four  or 
five  of  my  principal  views  in  a  very  masterly  style, 
and  the  rest  neatly  finished  in  a  suite  of  smaller 
drawings,  much  superior  to  most  you  may  have 
seen,  and  exact,  as  I  explain  all  the  sketches  leave 
doubtful. 

To-morrow  we  mean  to  visit  Vesuvius,  whose 
ravages  we  have  already  seen  in  parts  in  the  road  to 
Pompeii.  At  Torre  del  Greco  the  lava  last  year 
entered  the  sea,  and  the  whole  town  was  buried  under 
it  to  the  depth  of  thirty  feet.  The  steeple  top,  and  a 
few  buildings  of  the  lower  town  which  were  rather 
guarded,  peep  up  out  of  a  large  plain  of  scoriae  and 
ashes.  Not  less  than  five  or  six  streams  of  lava  have 
passed  over  this  situation  at  different  times,  and  the 
town  is  once  more  rebuilding  in  exactly  the  same 
place. 

This  is  more  rational  than  it  appears,  for,  the  ground 
being  so  much  raised,  they  presume  the  next  streams 
will  go  either  to  the  right  or  the  left  without  hurting 
them.  The  place  smokes  still,  and  six  months  after 
the  eruption  the  fire  was  seen  running  under  it.  In 
the  lazaretto  I  amused  myself  with  translating  Greek 
(the  only  books  I  had  worth  it),  and  send  you  some  of 
the  shortest.  I  did  into  English  a  story  of  Leander 
and  Hero,  from  Musaeus,  but  it  is  too  long  to  send  you. 
These  others  are  only  trifles,  and  like  the  others 
I  gave  you.  They  are  from  Theocritus  and  Bion. 
Tell  me  how  you  like  them.  Love  to  the  Minster 
yard. 

Adieu.    Your  most  affectionate  nephew, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


268  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

NAPLES, 
December  18,  1795. 

DEAR  ANNE, 

I  have  just  burnt  a  letter  I  had  begun  to  you, 
and  if  I  give  you  till  I  come  to  England  to  guess  the 
reason  I  am  sure  you  never  will,  so  I  will  tell  you.  I 
had  given  you  a  long  account  of  a  lady  you  have  heard 
described  once  by  Mrs.  Parsons,  and  had,  as  I  thought, 
made  it  very  exact.  In  the  meantime  we  saw  her 
again,  and  when  I  come  to  read  it  over  it  will  not  do 
at  all,  and  I  find  it  is  not  on  a  first  visit  one  can  do 
justice  to  so  charming  a  subject.  I  shall  now  amend 
my  style,  no  doubt,  though  seeing  her  only  can  give 
you  an  adequate  idea  of  what  she  is,  as  you  may 
suppose  from  the  reason  given  by  her  husband  for 
marrying  her,  namely,  "  that  she  only  of  the  sex 
exhibited  the  beautiful  lines  he  found  on  his  Etruscan 
vases." 

Every  man  has  a  reason  for  marrying,  and  this  is 
certainly  a  new  one,  though  perhaps  as  good  a  reason 
as  most  others.  If  one  may  judge  from  effects,  the 
case  is  so  indeed,  for  no  creature  can  be  more  happy 
or  satisfied  than  he  is  in  showing  her  off,  which  he 
does  exactly  as  I  have  seen  a  wax  figure  exhibited, 
placing  you  in  the  most  favourable  lights,  and  pointing 
out  in  detail  before  her  all  the  boasted  beauties  of  his 
chere  moitie,  and,  luckily  for  him,  without  any  more 
bad  effects  upon  her  than  would  happen  if  she  were  a 
wax  figure  ;  which  is  wonderful  considering  the  pains 
he  takes  and  the  country  he  takes  them  in. 

We  have  met  with  the  greatest  civility  from  both, 
and  if  I  were  to  say  we  did  not  admire  her,  the  only 
excuse  I  could  add  must  be  that  we  were  blind,  for  it 
can't  happen  to  anybody  that  is  not  so.  You  may 
suppose  her  really  an  extraordinary  woman,  without 
education,  without  friends,  without  manners,  when  she 
came  here ;  she  has  added  to  all  the  outward  accom- 
plishments of  a  woman  of  education  a  knowledge  of 
Italian,  French,  and  music,  which  last,  with  a  very  fine 


1795]  LADY   HAMILTON  269 

voice,  she  executes  divinely.  Add  to  these  the  most 
difficult  of  all,  the  ton  of  society,  which  she  has  raised 
herself  to,  and  though  not  the  most  elegant,  she  is  cer- 
tainly on  a  par  with  most  women  of  the  circles  she  is  in. 
This  would  be  alone  a  proof  of  very  superior  sense, 
but  her  conduct  to  her  husband  is  a  stronger  one.  As 
he  does  nothing  but  admire  her,  and  make  other 
people  admire  her,  from  morning  till  night,  as  he 
would  a  fine  painting,  it  is  a  delicate  point,  and  yet 
she  manages  it  so  well  that  without  affectation  and 
without  prudery  (which  would  only  make  people 
recollect  how  times  are  altered)  she  keeps  him  and 
everybody  else  in  order  and  behaves  in  the  most 
exceptional  manner. 

In  her  attitudes  she  exceeds  herself,  and  joins  every 
grace  that  ever  was  united  to  the  greatest  beauty  of 
face  and  person,  though  I  am  told  she  was  still  more 
lovely  two  years  ago.  Such  is  Lady  Hamilton,  and 
as  we  knew  her  story  you  may  conceive  we  did  not 
expect  so  much.  It  is  not  that  we  have  not  heard 
good  stories  of  her  and  him,  but  I  can  only  tell  you 
how  she  struck  me,  and  I  never  was  more  surprised 
in  my  life.  She  was  perhaps  designed  by  Dame 
Nature  for  the  stage,  as,  besides  her  wonderful  talent 
for  attitudes,  she  has  that  of  countenance  to  a  great 
degree.  I  have  scarce  known  her  look  the  same  for 
three  minutes  together,  and,  with  the  study  she  has 
made  of  characters,  she  mimics  in  a  moment  every- 
thing that  strikes  her,  with  a  versatility  you  have  not 
a  notion  of.  After  this  you  may  suppose  her  enter- 
taining to  a  degree ;  I  am  told  she  is  capricious,  but 
we  have  not  experienced  it,  "  et  dailleurs  tout  est  permis 
a  une  jolie  jemme."  By  their  means  we  have  been 
introduced  to  parties,  of  which  I  can  scarce  give  you 
a  more  perfect  description  of  than  I  can  of  her,  and 
when  I  tell  you  I  believe  them  the  pleasantest  in 
^Naples  it  will  never  enter  your  head  that  I  mean  the 
Court.  I  do,  notwithstanding,  and  will  tell  you  how 
we  have  been  presented. 


270  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

We  were  invited  some  days  ago  to  a  boar-hunt  of 
the  King's  by  Sir  William  Hamilton,  who  asked  per- 
mission, and  presented  us  for  the  first  time  at  the  place 
of  rendezvous  in  our  frocks  and  boots,  sans  ctrtmonie. 
Here  we  met  most  of  the  gay  world  at  a  small  palace 
of  the  King,  breakfasted  pell-mell,  and  therefore  con- 
sorted with  some  very  pleasant  men  and  very  pretty 
women.  We  were  spectators  only,  and  went  to  the 
field  a  party  of  six  or  eight  in  an  open  landau,  of  which 
party  were  Lady  Hamilton  and  two  of  the  prettiest 
women  of  this  Court.  This,  you  will  allow,  was  as 
good  fun  as  pig-hunting,  or  even  as  fox-hunting,  and 
so  will  I,  though  once  a  Nimrod  and  a  Yahoo.  The 
hunt  was  very  different  from  English  notions,  but 
really  a  pretty  sight.  About  twenty  gentlemen, 
divided  in  parties,  stood  round  the  cover,  and  dogs 
were  stationed  on  all  sides.  At  every  moment  roe- 
bucks and  wild  boars  burst  from  it,  as  there  were  a 
large  party  of  chasseurs  beating  it  within.  The  dogs 
were  slipped  at  them,  and  the  gentlemen,  armed  with 
a  spear,  galloped  and  struck  them  when  caught.  We 
had  at  every  moment  pretty  courses  with  the  roebucks, 
and  I  was  glad  but  few  were  killed. 

The  boars  did  not  come  off  so  well.  We  had  horns, 
and,  the  day  being  beautifully  fine,  the  scene  was 
brilliant,  and  ended  in  our  return  to  the  palace  and 
being  invited  to  dinner.  Before  it  was  served  the 
King  came  up  to  us,  and,  with  an  affability  we  little 
expected,  took  us  all  over  the  house  and  showed  us 
the  views  himself,  which  are  heavenly.  You  stare ;  so 
did  I.  But  I  was  more  astonished  at  him  since,  and 
will  give  you  a  curious  history  of  our  favour  here 
before  I  have  done.  The  table  was  King  Arthur's 
round  one,  the  dinner  good,  and  the  King  forgot  him- 
self and  remembered  everybody  else  till  I  began  really 
to  make  many  moral  reflections  and  comparisons  be- 
tween the  first  company  here  and  the  country  parties 
in  the  free  country  of  England.  Oh  that  Sir  Bilberry 
had  learnt  manners  at  the  Court  of  Naples  instead  of 


i79Sl  THE   KING  OF  NAPLES  271 

the  University  of  Padua  !  How  many  a  formal  dinner 
might  have  been  made  pleasant !  In  short,  we  enjoyed, 
as  everybody  must  do,  the  company  we  were  in,  and 
before  we  left  it  the  King  himself  asked  us  to  another 
party  two  days  after  at  another  palace,  where  he  has 
been  doing  more  good  than  is  often  done  by  any  King, 
in  establishing  a  rising  colony  of  manufacturers  under 
his  own  eyes  and  introducing  the  machines  of  England, 
Genoa,  and  Lyons  for  working  silk,  which  before  was 
always  imported  from  other  countries. 

If  our  first  party  made  us  admire  his  affability,  our 
second  made  us  love  the  heart  it  sprang  from.  He 
invited  us  to  see  his  silk  works,  and  we  drove  over  in 
the  morning  with  the  Hamiltons.  The  rest  of  the 
party  was  only  a  young  prince  and  his  wife  (one  of 
the  beauties  of  our  first  party).  It  was  here  we  really 
saw  the  King  of  Naples.  He  showed  us  everything 
himself,  and,  for  the  good  of  his  establishment,  had 
made  himself  master  of  every  part  of  the  manufactory, 
which  he  explained  from  the  first  winding  from  the 
silkworms  to  the  stuffs  and  velvets  of  Lyons,  etc. 
The  whole  is  very  complete,  and  all  his  colony  in  a 
livery,  which  insures  them  so  much  a  day  according  to 
their  work,  and  as  any  of  them  are  good  manufacturers 
enough  to  get  their  livelihood  by  their  work  he  marries 
them  and  gives  them  a  house  with  weaving  frames,  etc., 
complete. 

I  wish  you  could  have  seen  him  here  as  we  did, 
talking  patois  to  all  his  people  round  him,  playing  with 
their  children,  commending  some,  encouraging  all. 
You  know  I  am  not  sentimental,  but  if  you  had  seen 
him  as  I  did,  asking  the  children  after  their  fathers  or 
mothers  who  were  ill,  speaking  of  some  others  who 
were  orphans  of  his  old  servants,  and  saying,  with 
tears  in  his  eyes,  "  Oest  mot  qui  suis  leur  fiere,"  you 
would  have  felt,  as  I  did,  that  he  was  there  in  a  greater 
character  than  at  the  head  of  twenty  armies.  Au  reste, 
we  passed  the  morning  with  as  much  ease  and  happi- 
ness as  at  Rokeby  almost,  and  drove  about  in  his 


272  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

green  landau,  seated  pell-mell  with  him  upon  it.  His 
little  colony  is  now  near  700,  and  flourishes  extremely, 
as  the  married  couples  manufacture  children  better,  I 
think,  than  they  do  silk,  which  last,  however,  is  very 
good. 

The  sights  we  saw  lasted  till  near  five  in  the  even- 
ing, the  King  going  with  us  all  over,  and  no  gentleman 
who  thought  himself  our  equal  could  be  more  amiable 
or  more  free.  On  our  return  he  showed  us  the  palace 
and  a  suite  of  his  own  private  apartments,  fitted  up  as 
a  King's  should  be,  entirely  from  his  own  manufactories 
of  the  country.  As  it  grew  dark,  and  we  grew  hungry, 
everybody  was  thinking  of  dinner  when  the  dining- 
room  next  where  we  were  opened,  and  we  were  shown 
into  a  charming  room  with  an  illumination  of  waxes 
bright  as  day.  We  dined  with  him  and  one  or  two  of 
the  Court,  a  party  of  ten,  and  he  made  us  taste  all  the 
improvements  he  had  made  to  bring  to  perfection  the 
wine  of  the  country.  Whether  it  was  the  wine  or  the 
company  I  do  not  know,  but  he  saw  we  were  so  satis- 
fied and  happy  that  after  dinner  he  renewed  our  invi- 
tation to  hunt  in  a  small  party  on  Sunday,  and  we  are 
to  have  what  he  calls  a  diner  de  chasseurs  at  another 
little  palace.  He  has  promised  us  horses  and  spears, 
and  talked  of  asking  us  often,  as  he  hunts  the  boar 
every  week.  Now  are  we  not  great  people  ?  and  if 
we  tell  these  stories  do  you  not  think  Sir  Dilberry  and 
the  travelled  men  about  us  will  hide  their  diminished 
heads  ? 

Be  this  as  it  will,  I  assure  you  we  anticipate  the 
invitation  with  more  pleasure  than  you  have  a  notion 
of,  for  we  know  now  how  pleasant  the  party  is.  Sir 
W.  Hamilton  says  it  is  because  we  are  not  courtiers, 
and  speak  to  the  King  as  we  do  to  other  people,  which 
he  likes  to  meet  with.  Mark  the  advantage  of  not 
being  too  strange  in  a  strange  place,  as  very  few 
English  have  been  able  to  boast  the  same  reception. 
And  all  this  because  we  do  not  twirl  our  thumbs  and 
look  like  fools  when  civilly  spoken  to.  What  a  bless- 


1795]  DEMOCRATS   AT   NAPLES  273 

ing  it  is ;  for  it  has  made  full   dress   and  such  like 
caparisons  almost  useless,  as  we  are  always  invited  in 
our  morning  dresses  with   or   without   boots,  and  I 
should  scarce  have  dined  at  Sedbury  the  figure  I  dined 
at  Caserta.     Could  you  believe  that  whilst  the  King  is 
universally   beloved   by  the    common   people,   yet  a 
considerable  party  of  the  principal  nobles  (who  had 
the  greatest   obligations  to   him   besides),  have   had 
impudence  enough  to  raise  the  cry  of  democracy,  and 
intrigue  for  power  under  the  pretence  of  freedom  ? 
Mind,  the  whole  party  was  a  vile,  place-hunting  set  of 
aristocrats,  and  the  people  that  joined   them  a  few 
hireling  foreigners,  some  of  whom,  to  the  shame  of 
humanity,  had  been  brought  from  Lyons  and  Gascony 
by  the  King  himself  when  they  were  starving,  and 
provided  for  by  him  in  the  very  manufactory  where 
his  conduct  would,  one  would  think,  have  disarmed 
his  bitterest  enemy.     One  of  these  rascals  belonged  to 
his  hunt,  and  dined  every  hunting  day  at  the  King's 
own  table  till  he  was  taken  up.     Now  did  you  think 
such  ingratitude  possible  ?    These  were  the  worthy 
correspondents  of  the  French  Republic  at  Naples,  and 
I  really  think  the  story  of  the  Lyonnese  manufacturers 
shows  a  Frenchman  is  capable  of  anything.     Besides 
these  parties,  we  have  been  introduced  by  degrees  in 
the  town,  and  our  time  begins  to  be  very  gay  again  ; 
we  are,  in  short,  once  more  embarked  in  the  stream,  and 
have  little  more  to  do  but  to  let  it  carry  us,  and  I  think 
we  shall  not  get  away  from  hence  till  after  the  carnival. 
Our  first  week  or  two  was  stupid,  as  we  were  not 
immediately    introduced   to  good   company,  and   we 
therefore  preferred  none,  as  1  hope  we  always  shall ; 
but  now  we  go  on  a  merveille.    Among  the  sights  to 
be  seen  I  have  not  yet  been  to  the  Royal  Press,  but  if 
you  see  Mr.  Ingram,  you  may  tell  him  that  I  believe 
no  more  of  the   Herculanean  manuscripts  have  yet 
been    published,  though    they    are   preparing  some, 
having  made  lately  some  progress  in  unrolling  them. 
You  must  tell  him,  too,  that  a  particular  friend  of  his 


274  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

(Marchese  Carletti),  talked  a  great  deal  to  me  about 
him  and  made  me  promise  to  send  his  particular 
regards,  on  my  saying  he  was  so  near  a  neighbour, 
by  any  conveyance  I  could,  and  I  therefore  choose  this 
letter. 

I  would  give  the  world  to  have  you  here,  as  I  suppose 
you  are  up  to  the  knees  in  snow,  and  we,  after  the 
rains,  are  enjoying  a  second  summer,  and  sit  all  day 
with  open  windows,  or  ride  lounging  about  in  the 
finest  country  and  climate  nature  ever  formed.  You 
have  not  a  notion  of  the  picturesque  beauty  of  these 
environs — it  beggars  description,  I  assure  you;  and 
though  I  hate  travelling  Misses  I  long  for  you  all  day 
when  I  ride  or  walk.  Apropos  of  travelled  Misses,  I 
hear  a  charming  account  of  our  Yorkshire  belle,  Miss 
Harrison,  and  am  told  she  was  extremely  admired 
here ;  tell  me  how  she  is  in  England,  as  I  shall  speculate 
if  she  is  so  charming  as  they  say.  What  restless 
animals  your  nephews  and  nieces  would  be !  They 
would  travel  to  the  world's  end. 

Adieu,  my  dear  Anne.     Write  me  nonsense,  and 
write  often ;  nothing  gives   me  half  the  pleasure.     I 
hoped  to  hear  to-day,  but  the  English  courier  has 
missed  twice,  so  your  letters  are  on  the  road. 
Your  ever  affectionate  brother, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

I  send  you  a  French  charade  a  lady  gave  me  last 
night : 

Un  enfant  courant  rencontra  mon  dernier, 

Fait  mon  tout,  pleure,  crie  et  montre  mon  premier. 


NAPLES, 
Tuesday,  December  29,  1795- 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

Long  before  this  gets  near  England  you  will 
have  heard  over  and  over  again  from  us,  and  you  will 
I  hope  have  entirely  got  over  your  fears,  and  the 
gloomy  perspective  you  looked  at  us  with  when  you 


1795]  OCCUPATIONS  AT   NAPLES  275 

wrote  to  me  last  in  November.  When  I  wrote  you 
word,  my  dear  mother,  that  I  had  been  ill,  I  certainly 
meant  to  say  that  I  was  actually  very  well,  and  not 
that  I  wished  you  to  make  yourself  unhappy  about  me 
till  you  heard  again;  I  do  therefore  enter  a  protest 
against  all  such  readings  in  future,  and  desire  my 
sentences  may  be  understood  in  their  plain  and  natural 
sense  without  the  use  of  black  spectacles  or  low  spirits. 
When  my  letter  was  dated  from  a  ship's  cabin,  and 
accompanied  by  contrary  winds,  you  may  suppose  I 
did  not  write  quite  so  happily  as  I  am  doing  just  now 
by  a  comfortable  fireside  after  a  good  dinner,  and  I 
do  not  recollect  any  other  cause  that  could  make  my 
letter  low-spirited  (as  you  supposed  it  at  the  time  you 
received  it).  I  have  since  that  been  much  more  ill,  as 
I  told  you  in  my  last  letter  to  Anne,  but  the  moment 
we  brought  ourselves  to  an  anchor  all  was  right  again, 
and  rest  and  good  living  have  made  us  as  lazy  and  as 
fat  as  pigs,  therefore  you  need  really  be  under  no 
apprehension  about  us,  for  we  find  Naples  agree  with 
us  extremely.  As  we  go  on  here  we  find  the  place 
improves  on  us  every  day,  and  have  found  many 
acquaintances  that  promise  to  be  very  agreeable,  and 
who  make  our  stay  more  and  more  interesting. 

I  have  told  you,  I  think,  most  of  the  lions  that  we 
have  at  different  times  hunted  in  the  environs,  some  of 
which  have  really  afforded  us  great  amusement.  As 
we  make  some  stay  here  beyond  what  is  necessary  for 
staring  about  us,  we  do  not  hunt  lions  every  day  now, 
and  take  them  one  by  one,  as  parties  offer  to  go  and 
see  them.  You  will  be  glad  to  know  how  we  spend 
our  time  here  so  agreeably.  At  breakfast  we  are 
amused  and  cheated  with  medals,  prints,  marbles,  etc., 
all  which  frequently  attend  our  levee  in  form.  We 
then  call  on  the  men  we  think  it  worth  while  to  know 
best,  if  they  do  not  call  on  us,  and  generally  ride  out 
till  dinner  in  the  environs.  So  many  beautiful  excur- 
sions you  cannot  imagine ;  the  whole  country  is  a 
Paradise,  and  as  we  strike  out  new  roads  every  day, 


276  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

we  are  continually  discovering  new  beauties.  To-day 
we  have  been  along  the  foot  of  Vesuvius,  and  coasted 
the  bay  of  Naples.  Yesterday  we  were  in  the  spots 
so  celebrated  by  Virgil,  the  Lucrine  and  Avernian  lakes, 
Baiae,  and  Cape  Misenum,|of  all  which,  if  I  could  hope 
to  give  you  the  faintest  idea  as  a  picture,  I  would  talk 
about  them  till  to-morrow  morning,  but  alas !  it  is  as 
impossible  as  it  is  to  give  an  Italian  ideas  of  the 
comforts  of  a  coal  fire  or  the  charms  of  a  foxchase. 
It  is  in  describing  landscape,  and  not  in  forming  it, 
that  Dame  Nature's  uniformity  is  so  striking,  and  here 
one  may  truly  say,  "  Ring  her  changes  round,  her  three 
flat  notes  are  water,  plants,  and  ground."  The  gulf  of 
Baiae  is  nothing  more  upon  paper,  and  therefore  only 
equal  to  Mr.  Cradock's  fens  at  Smallways,  which  are 
also  "  ground,  plants,  and  water." 

We  dine  from  three  to  four  when  we  dine  at  home, 
and  pass  the  evening  generally  either  at  a  private 
assembly  or  at  the  theatres.  These  last  are  the  places 
to  visit  the  ladies  of  our  acquaintance,  and  there  we 
meet  all  the  world  in  their  different  boxes,  which 
serve  only  for  this  purpose,  as  it  would  be  not  only 
the  most  fruitless,  but  the  most  vulgar,  thing  in  the 
world  to  attempt  listening  to  the  opera,  which  nobody 
does  except  to  one  or  two  favourite  airs  on  the  first 
or  second  representation.  Besides  this,  there  are  now 
and  then  little  episodes  of  balls,  so  that  on  the  whole 
our  time  is  spent  as  pleasantly  as  possible,  and  with- 
out any  form  or  constraint,  entirely  after  our  own 
fancies.  There  are,  this  year,  but  few  English  at 
Naples,  at  least  few  have  yet  arrived  here ;  as  they 
come  we  all  visit,  and  with  some  we  are  intimate,  so 
that  we  easily  make  parties  for  our  morning  rides. 
The  last  person  that  has  arrived,  and  whose  card  I 
have  just  received,  is  that  renowned  commander, 
Admiral  Hotham.  He  is  come  here  from  Leghorn, 
where  he  left  Signora  Grassini  to  refit,  and  took 
Mrs.  Newnham  in  tow  for  the  continuance  of  his 
tour  abroad.  I  do  not  know  whether  he  thinks  it 


1795]  ADMIRAL   HOTHAM  277 

dangerous  returning  to  England  ;  but  I  should  hope 
by  all  accounts  he  will  find  it  so,  for  the  stories  we 
hear  of  his  neglect  of  duty  are  scandalous,  and  I 
believe  the  French  are  obliged  to  Signora  Grassini 
for  keeping  him  windbound  in  port  when  they  took 
our  Mediterranean  convoy.  The  ladies  here  are  in 
great  uncertainty  about  their  conduct  to  Mrs.  Newn- 
ham,  and  he  never  stirs,  I  believe,  without  her.  As  we 
are  not  so  shy  of  our  characters,  we  shall  visit  the 
Admiral,  and  perhaps  shall  improve  our  letters  with 
some  entertaining  particulars  in  consequence.  Besides 
him  we  have  made  an  acquaintance  with  a  Suffolk 
family  who  are  here,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cullum,  whom  we 
find  a  great  acquisition  to  the  place,  as  they  are  very 
pleasant  people,  and,  being  thoroughly  English,  make 
no  disagreeable  variety  in  the  circle  we  visit.  The 
other  English  are  all  single  men,  and  we  know  less 
of  them  excepting  Rushout,  a  relation  of  the  baronetcy. 
His  acquaintance  we  have  formed  some  time,  as  we 
were  both  medallising,  but,  however,  in  a  very 
different  way,  as  his  collection  is  upwards  of  twelve 
thousand,  and  he  gives  up  his  whole  time  to  it  from 
morning  to  night.  In  short  he  is  a  most  excellent 
antiquarian,  which  I  am  not ;  has  a  smack  of  the 
baronetcy,  which  I  have  not ;  and  looks  much  oftener 
at  Julia  Mammea  and  Faustina  the  younger  than  he 
does  at  the  pretty  women  about  him — which  I  do  not. 
We  have,  however,  received  great  civilities  from 
him,  and  an  introduction  to  one  of  the  pleasantest 
houses  in  town,  where  we  very  often  go  in  an  evening. 
This  is  the  Russian  Ambassador's,  who  has  always 
an  assembly  where  at  different  times  we  meet  all  the 
gay  part  of  Naples.  From  this  mint  was  coined  the 
charade  I  sent  Anne,  which  you  may  tell  her  was 
Cul-bute>  and  I  could  send  you  a  great  deal  of  wit  if 
I  thought  it  would  bear  transportation  without  grow- 
ing  flat.  As  it  is  I  shall  keep  it  with  me,  and  when 
at  Rokeby  shine  on  a  Sunday  night  with  borrowed 
plumage ;  but  do  not  you  tell  people  that  it  is  not  my 


278  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

own.  So  much  for  our  news,  and  if  it  is  half  as  enter- 
taining to  you  as  yours  is  to  us,  I  assure  you  it  is  not 
written  for  nothing  ;  for  though  an  Argus  or  a  Morning 
Post  is  held  so  cheap  by  such  saucy  folk  as  Creswell 
when  within  a  day's  journey,  yet  to  us  at  the  distance  of 
Italy  they  are  very  pretty  reading,  and  the  marriages 
and  broke-off  matches  of  our  friends  in  England  are 
almost  as  interesting  as  the  welfare  of  Sling  or  Rover. 
As  for  politics,  we  are  now  out  of  Turkey,  and  hear 
enough  of  them — I  had  almost  said  too  much ;  for  by 
all  I  read  in  the  English  papers  parties  run  with  you 
higher  than  ever.  Indeed,  though  no  alarmist  before, 
I  think  you  are  right  in  your  alarm  now,  and  I  will 
tell  you  why  I  think  so  differently :  from  the  charming 
increase  of  popularity  the  abandoned  part  of  the 
democrats  must  acquire  by  the  blundering  expeditions 
to  Quiberon,  and  the  choice  commanders  we  make 
use  of,  such  as  His  Grace  of  York,  Generalissimo  by 
land,  and  Mrs.  Newnham  in  the  Mediterranean.  If 
the  war  is  to  go  on  so,  I  do  not  wonder  at  anybody's 
voting  against  its  continuance,  and,  adding  to  this  the 
expenses  on  one  hand,  and  the  dearness  of  corn  on 
the  other,  I  am  much  more  nervous  than  1  used  to  be 
about  the  bonfires  at  Sheffield,  and  the  rebellions  at 
Dundee. 

The  only  good  news  of  consequence  since  Lord 
Howe's  victory  has  been  the  taking  of  the  Cape ; 
and,  considering  that  we  have  bought  it  by  taxes 
without  end,  I  own  the  war  is  no  favourite  of  mine 
now,  and  Mr.  Pitt's  promise  of  making  peace  as  soon 
as  he  well  could  was  the  best  thing  I  thought  he 
offered.  Your  story  of  the  insults  offered  to  the 
King  on  the  day  he  opened  the  House  was  dreadful, 
and  his  conduct  was  that  of  a  hero,  and  well  calculated 
for  the  emergency ;  but  1  have  again  been  staggered 
in  my  faith  by  the  bills  to  suppress  public  discussion 
of  political  subjects,  and  was  glad  to  read  my  uncle's 
name  in  the  minority,  for  I  declare  mine  would  have 
been  so  too.  I  am  afraid  you  are  more  loyal,  at  least 


1795]  PITT'S   SEDITION   BILLS  279 

more  afraid  than  I  am;  but  notwithstanding  con- 
sequences or  party,  I  wonder  at  a  majority  ever 
being  terrified  into  voting  away  a  privilege  of  the 
people,  which  they  did  not  give,  and  to  which  many 
of  them  owed  their  existence  in  that  House.  It  is 
very  true ;  and  I  believe  all  that  was  said  about  such 
meetings  being  at  the  bottom  of  the  riot  lately,  and 
that  many  of  them  wrote  and  spoke  treason  ;  but  that 
on  that  account  the  people  at  large  should  be  silenced, 
and  at  a  time  when  they  are  more  than  ever  con- 
cerned, is  a  proposition  which  has  more  than  ever 
disgusted  me,  with  a  Minister  who,  as  Mr.  Duncombe 
said  in  the  House,  owed  his  rise  to  the  very  influence 
he  is  destroying.  The  proposal  was  artfully  timed 
when  the  people  were  shocked  by  the  King's  danger ; 
but  if  I  am  to  believe  the  lists  of  petitions  against  it, 
even  many  of  the  loyal  part  of  the  kingdom  think  as 
I  do  about  the  bills,  that,  under  pretence  of  guarding 
the  King,  they  are  a  prop  to  a  Ministry  growing 
weaker  by  the  war.  I  think  fully  with  you  about 
most  of  the  men  that  clamour  in  opposition,  and  the 
rascals  who  write  and  spread  sedition,  etc. ;  but  really 
I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  war  as  it  has  been 
carried  on  (and  I  only  repeat  the  opinion  of  every 
impartial  foreigner,  when  I  say  that  has  been  not 
very  brilliantly)  will  every  day  add  weight  to  what 
once  were  idle  clamours,  in  the  minds  of  all  the  middle 
and  lower  ranks  of  people,  and  I  think  the  alarm  will 
originate  not  from  the  speeches  of  Messrs.  Fox  and 
Sheridan,  but  from  every  one's  feeling  the  pressure 
of  the  war,  and  the  scarcity,  and  from  I  hope  an 
almost  unanimous  opposition  out  of  the  House  to  the 
Sedition  Bills ;  for  all  which  the  Ministry  may  thank 
themselves,  and  the  people  will  no  doubt  thank  the 
Ministry.  The  war  was  undertaken  to  prevent  French 
principles ;  and  treason,  etc.,  was  prosecuted  by  Tory 
-  measures.  Now,  I  only  ask  you  if  the  alarm  is  not 
greater  now  from  those  measures  than  it  then  was 
from  the  clamour  of  a  seditious  party,  while  the 


280  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

great  mass  of  the  nation  despised  them,  and  then  say 
that  it  is  owing  to  democratic  principles.  To  complete 
my  long  prose,  which  perhaps  you  all  think  treason, 
I  own  I  believe  the  whole  owing  to  the  Tory  principles, 
if  not  of  Mr.  Pitt,  at  least  of  the  ci-devant  opposition 
dukes  and  lords,  and  the  blunders  of  the  whole  war, 
which  out  of  England  are  universally  laughed  at. 

That  Mr.  Fox  means  any  good  by  the  popular  side 
he  has  taken  I  cannot  easily  believe,  but,  as  a  friend 
to  measures  and  not  to  men,  I  do  hope  you  are  not 
grown  so  afraid  as  to  like  the  Sedition  Bills ;  but  if 
you  do,  pray  tell  me  something  more  of  them  (setting 
aside  your  fears),  as  I  know  that  our  creed  and  educa- 
tion used  to  be  so  much  alike  that  I  am  curious  to 
know  how  so  good  a  Whig  as  you  are  can  think  so 
differently  on  the  same  things.  My  uncle's  vote  I 
was  sure  of  before  I  read  the  list,  and,  whatever  I 
thought  before,  1  honoured  him  then,  and  think  he 
would  have  been  inconsistent  if  he  had  a  moment 
hesitated ;  even  had  it  been  only  till  he  wrote  to 
Wyvill.1  This  long  prose  is  a  consequence  of  my 
just  having  read  the  newspapers,  and,  notwithstanding 
all  I  can  do,  the  Sedition  Bills  will  not  square  and 
settle  with  my  principles,  while  the  objections  to  them 
go  down  as  smooth  as  possible,  and  Mr.  Fox  himself 
charmed  me  while  I  read  those  on  the  exclusion  from 
petitioning  they  will  give  to  copyholders  and  trades- 
men who  at  present  have  no  other  share  in  or  mode 
of  addressing  the  Legislature.  Therefore  reform  will 
be  more  necessary ;  I  wish  I  could  say  therefore  more 
certain.  As  all  this  is  treason,  and  therefore  only 
meant  for  you,  I  beg  you  will  not  read  any  of  it  but 
to  yourself,  for  I  know  Anne  is  so  much  an  aristocrat 
she  would  flay  me  alive  ;  but  I  talk  to  you,  who  ought 
to  know  better.  So  adieu,  my  dearest  mother ;  believe 
me  heartily  and  affectionately  yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

1  Chairman  of  the  Yorkshire  Association,  formed  to  secure  short  Parliaments 
and  equality  of  representation. 


1796]     LADY   HAMILTON'S   IMPERSONATIONS        281 

NAPLES, 
February  14,  1796. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

From  the  charms  of  the  situation  we  vegetate 
at  Naples,  though  I  must  say  the  carnival  has  been 
as  stupid  as  we  had  hoped  to  find  it  gay.  In  a  week 
or  so  we  go  to  Rome,  and  so  advance  one  step  nearer 
Rokeby.  Since  I  wrote  to  you  we  have  not  seen 
many  new  sights,  but  one  of  those  we  have  seen  is 
fairly  worth  all  Naples  and  Rome  put  together.  Not 
to  puzzle  you  too  much,  I  mean  Lady  Hamilton's 
attitudes ;  and  do  not  laugh  or  think  me  a  fool,  for  I 
assure  you  it  is  beyond  what  you  can  have  an  idea 
of.  As  I  have  heard  them  described  and  talked  about 
fifty  times,  and  had,  after  all,  no  idea  of  their  excellence, 
I  cannot  hope  for  much  better  success ;  however,  I 
will  tell  you  as  well  as  I  can  what  they  were  like. 
Her  toilet  is  merely  a  white  chemise  gown,  some 
shawls,  and  the  finest  hair  in  the  world,  flowing  loose 
over  her  shoulders.  These  set  off  a  tall,  beautiful 
figure,  and  a  face  that  varies  for  ever,  and  is  always 
lovely.  Thus  accoutred,  with  the  assistance  of  one 
or  two  Etruscan  vases  and  an  urn,  she  takes  almost 
every  attitude  of  the  finest  antique  figures  successively, 
and  varying  in  a  moment  the  folds  of  her  shawls,  the 
flow  of  her  hair ;  and  her  wonderful  countenance  is  at 
one  instant  a  Sibyl,  then  a  Fury,  a  Niobe,  a  Sophonisba 
drinking  poison,  a  Bacchante  drinking  wine,  dancing, 
and  playing  the  tambourine,  an  Agrippina  at  the 
tomb  of  Germanicus,  and  every  different  attitude  of 
almost  every  different  passion.  You  will  be  more 
astonished  when  I  tell  you  that  the  change  of  attitude 
and  countenance,  from  one  to  another,  sometimes 
totally  opposite,  is  the  work  of  a  moment,  and  that 
this  wonderful  variety  is  always  delicately  elegant, 
and  entirely  studied  from  the  antique  designs  of  vases 
and  the  figures  of  Herculaneum,  or  the  first  pictures 
of  Guido,  etc.,  etc. 
She  sometimes  does  above  two  hundred,  one  after 


282  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

the  other,  and,  acting  from  the  impulse  of  the  moment, 
scarce  ever  does  them  twice  the  same.  In  short, 
suppose  Raphael's  figures,  and  the  ancient  statues,  all 
flesh  and  blood,  she  would,  if  she  pleased,  rival  them 
all.  What  is  still  better  is  that  she  acts  with  the 
greatest  delicacy,  and  represents  nothing  but  what 
the  most  modest  woman  may  see  with  pleasure.  It 
is  extraordinary,  too,  that,  when  not  acting,  her 
manners  and  air  are  noble,  and  the  moment  she 
pleases  her  whole  figure  is  elegance  itself.  We  passed 
the  day  very  happily,  as  we  dined  there  afterwards, 
and  in  the  evening  had  music  and  a  new  piece  of 
acting  in  the  character  of  Nina.  With  her  hair  about 
her  ears,  or  rather  her  ankles,  she  sang  a  beautiful 
scene  of  Paenillo,  where  she  is  supposed  mad  for  the 
absence  of  her  lover,  and  acted  till  she  made  us 
shudder  and  cry.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  after,  in  the 
dress  of  a  Neapolitan  paysanne,  she  danced  the 
tarantella  with  castagnets,  and  sung  vaudevilles  till 
she  convinced  us  all  that  acting  was  a  joke  to  her 
talents,  and  I  assure  you  I  never  saw  in  my  life  any 
actress  half  her  equal  either  in  elegance  or  variety. 
A  painter  who  was  of  the  morning  party  when  she 
performed  her  attitudes  cried  with  pleasure  the  whole 
time.  When  one  does  a  thing  well,  however,  we 
sometimes  misplace  it ;  and  so  she  is  rather  apt  to 
continue  the  acting  in  real  life,  where  I  think  she 
approaches  less  to  nature  than  when  she  acts  pro- 
fessedly. Her  conduct,  au  reste,  is  unexceptionable, 
and  the  only  instance  among  the  beau-monde  at  Naples 
(where  morality  is  not  at  its  greatest  perfection,  as 
you  may  have  heard). 

Most  affectionately  yours, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


1796]  NEAPOLITAN   MORALS  283 

NAPLES, 

Begun  Wednesday,  February  23. 
Sent  March  8,  1796. 

DEAR  ANNETTE, 

I  have  an  idle  hour  or  two,  and  must  write  to 
somebody,  and  I  do  not  know  how  it  happens,  I  can't 
begin  anything  like  common  sense,  so  now  you  know 
the  reason  why  I  write  to  you.  I  am  so  often  in  this 
sort  of  humour,  that  above  half  the  letters  I  have 
begun  lately  have  begun  "  dear  Anne,"  but  I  was 
obliged  in  conscience  to  scratch  it  out  and  write  to 
more  sensy  people,  as  Mr.  Alderson  calls  them ;  but 
how  can  anybody  write  sober  sadness  when  the  history 
of  their  lives  is  eating,  drinking,  riding,  and  sleeping  ? 
For  as  to  what  we  see,  it  has  been  celebrated,  com- 
mented, critiqued,  and  lied  upon  till  the  subjects  are 
threadbare ;  and  as  for  the  scandal  of  the  town,  it 
requires  you  to  know  the  characters  before  you  can 
derive  entertainment  from  their  description.  I  do  not 
like  much  to  introduce  a  Neapolitan  party  to  your 
acquaintance,  even  by  description,  for  really,  to  do 
them  justice,  it  must  be  given  in  terms  very  apt  to 
"  give  Virtue  scandal,  Innocence  a  fear,"  and  they  far 
overpass  any  sketch  that  falls  short  of  this.  In  short, 
with  nine  out  of  ten  I  am  now  completely  disgusted, 
and,  from  the  situation  of  my  Italian  acquaintances, 
have  seen  so  much  and  heard  such  stories,  that  I  shall 
be  not  sorry  to  get  to  Rome,  where  we  are  going  very 
soon;  as,  though  not  much  afraid  of  our  characters,  we 

do  not  like  a  place  where  rogues  and  w s  compose 

the  whole  of  society,  and  where,  from  the  ignorance 
and  generally  confined  education  of  both  men  and 
women,  they  have  cultivated  their  heads  as  little  as 
their  hearts. 

In  short,  one  may  fairly  say  here  that,  except  with 
foreigners,  "  le  libertinage  general  n'est  pas  rachete 
par  aucun  agrement,"  and  in  all  our  stay  we  have  only 
known  one  or  two  good  fellows  among  the  men, 
and  not  one  woman  of  character,  or  scarce  common 


284  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

decency,  among  the  ladies.  Paris,  Vienna,  and  most 
foreign  towns  were  not  famous  for  the  constancy  of 
their  swains  or  the  fidelity  of  the  fair  sex.  Society, 
however,  suffers  little  from  it,  and,  from  the  general 
decency  and  elegance  of  manners,  the  most  modest 
woman  that  is  not  outrageously  good  might  live 
with  them.  At  Naples,  however,  this  is  by  no  means 
the  case,  and  I  would  just  as  soon  send  my  wife  (if 
I  had  one),  or  you,  to  improve  your  morals  in  the 
upper  boxes  of  Drury  Lane ;  for  though  as  a  young 
man  I  can  bear  a  good  deal,  yet  I  do  not  like  black- 
guardism on  any  subject.  If  ever  I  am  asked  whom  I 
liked  best  among  the  men  here,  I  shall  always  say 
the  King,  and  make  folks  stare ;  he  is  the  only  jolly 
fellow  amongst  them,  and  never  meets  us  without 
hollowing  out  a  salutation,  as  I  might  to  Abney  or 
Buncombe,  to  the  surprise  and  dismay  of  the  Eng- 
lish and  others  with  whom  we  are  in  company.  I 
believe  they  think  us  in  high  favour,  and  I  wish  we 
were,  for  I  would  rather  have  His  Majesty  for  a 
neighbourly  acquaintance  than  anybody  here,  as  I 
almost  adore  his  character,  and  wish  he  could 
change  places  with  Sir  Robert  Hildyard,  whom  I  do 
not  adore  at  all. 

Thursday. 

Too  much  pleasure  for  one  day.  I,  on  my  return 
home  from  a  morning  lounge,  find  a  long  letter  from 
my  mother  and  a  card  from  whom  do  you  think  ? — 
my  Lord  Webb  himself,  just  arrived,  loaded  with  all 
the  wit  of  all  the  coffee-houses  in  London,  and,  I 
hope,  with  pardon  and  indulgences  from  Rome  for 
the  stolen  puns  and  torrents  of  contraband  bons  mots 
that  he  will  be  sure  to  sport  on  his  arrival  when  we 
see  him.  I  never  receive  a  letter  but  I  immediately 
long  to  answer  it ;  however,  as  it  is  not  fair  to  cram 
your  letter  with  messages  to  my  mother,  I  shall 
perhaps  add  half  a  sheet  enclosed  to  her,  as  I  have 
a  great  deal  to  say  to  her  about  it.  Think  only, 


1796]  ENGLISH   ACQUAINTANCE  285 

then,  about  our  rencontre  with  Webb,  and  all  the 
news  he  will  have  about  the  marriages  of  our  Cantab 
friends ;  for  three  days  he  will  be  as  good  as  a 
feast. 

You  know  he  is  always  a  favourite  of  the  old 
women  ;  and  so  he  continued,  for  before  his  arrival 
he  was  harbingered  by  a  fine  sitting  figure  lately 
arrived  from  Rome,  who  is  about  three  yards  cir- 
cumference in  the  small  of  her  back,  and  vows  in 
broad  Irish  "  he  is  a  swate  young  fellow,  my  dear." 
It  was  good  fun  for  us  who  know  him  to  hear  her 
vow  that  he  was  "  so  swate-tempered  if  you  gave  him 
a  stinking  herring  to  dinner  he  would  not  mind  the 
difference." 

Now  when  I  recollected  the  dinners  in  London, 
where  he  always  catered,  and  the  generous  indignation 
that  fired  his  countenance  when  the  cook  had  not 
done  him  justice,  it  gave  me  a  great  idea  of  his  con- 
summate civility,  and  I  believe  he  is  so  bewitching  a 
man  that  no  old  woman's  heart  in  the  world  can  with- 
stand him. 

An  old,  hypocritical  varlet,  to  pretend  to  temperance, 
when  if  left  to  himself  he  never  passes  one  day  without 
a  good  dinner,  and  I  should  not  wonder  if  his  reason 
for  travelling  was  the  not  liking  brown  bread  in 
England. 

My  mother  leaves  all  stories  of  fun,  such  as  balls, 
plays,  assemblies,  and  routs,  to  you.  I  expect,  there- 
fore, to  hear  everything  of  the  sort,  as  the  text  is 
always  amusing,  and  your  comments  upon  them  (like 
Coke  upon  Littleton)  of  equal  authority. 

Tell  me  if  trousers  are  still  the  fashion  in  England, 
and  \iyou  ever  wear  them  ;  no  use  has  yet  accustomed 
my  eye  to  them,  and  though  very  classical,  and  strictly 
a  la  Grecque,  both  ancient  and  modern,  I  still  dis- 
approve of  ladies  wearing  the  breeches.  Pray  tell  me, 
too,  in  the  dark,  dreary,  and  ungenial  months  of 
December  and  January,  what  vertigo  has  seized  at 
once  all  your  acquaintance  and  mine,  and  set  them  all 


286  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

a-marrying,  and  sattling,  as  it  is  called  in  Yorkshire. 
Your  late  letters  read  like  the  end  paragraphs  of  a 
newspaper,  and  record  nothing  but  the  fates  of  amiable 
gentlemen  and  ladies  with  genteel  fortunes.  How 
much  more  happy  we  men  should  think  ourselves  if 
we  read  "genteel  young  ladies  with  amiable  fortunes  "  ! 
Adieu,  dear  Annette.  Heaven  keep  you  foolisher 
and  foolisher. 

1  shall  be  more  and  more 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


NAPLES, 

Begun  February  27, 

Sent  March  8,  1 796. 

MY  DEAR  MOTHER, 

I  have  just  received  a  long  letter  from  you  of 
January  24,  which  makes  me  want  to  prose  to  you, 
and  so  I  begin,  and  if  I  do  not  fill  my  paper  will 
perhaps  enclose  it  in  a  scrawl  I  have  just  finished  to 
Anne.  Our  letters  of  late  have,  it  is  true,  turned 
upon  gloomy  subjects,  and  the  bad  news  we  have 
had  to  talk  about  has  made  them  less  entertaining 
to  write  than  when  we  were  sure  of  making  each 
other  happy  by  them.  If  you  knew,  however,  the 
pleasure  I  have  in  receiving  them  from  you  1  know 
you  would  not  complain  of  having  lost  all  the  satis- 
faction you  used  to  have  in  writing.  To  know  it, 
however,  you  must  travel  in  foreign  parts  as  we  do, 
and  the  full  extent  of  it  cannot  be  felt  over  a  fireside 
in  Yorkshire. 

I  forget,  however,  in  all  this  that  the  subject  of  all 
others  I  want  to  talk  to  you  about  is  poor  little 
Robert  You  will  think  me  perhaps  whimsical,  and 
that  I  am  choosing  to  have  a  way  of  my  own  in  so 
often  opposing  my  sentiments  to  what  you  resolve 
on  from  other  intelligence  ;  but  let  me  beg  and  en- 
treat you  not  to  send  him  to  Rugby.  With  respect 
to  it  I  can  speak  with  certainty^  and  Stockdale,  who 


1796]  RUGBY  287 

is  at  my  elbow,  and  as  fidgety  as  I  am  about  it,  bids 
me  add  his  name,  and  say  that  he  lives  very  near  the 
place,  knows  all  about  it,  and  has  the  worst  opinion 
of  its  morals,  and  no  very  good  one  of  its  teaching. 
Rugby  has  already  touched  the  meridian  of  its  re- 
putation, for  which  reason  it  is  much  cried  up,  but  it 
is  not  and  will  not  again  be  so  good  as  it  was.  I 
only  judge  by  effects,  that  is,  the  Rugby  boys  I  knew 
at  Cambridge.  Stockdale,  who  knows  the  place,  says 
the  cause  is  this :  James,  who  is  headmaster,  has  been 
a  clever  man,  and  brought  the  school  to  the  reputa- 
tion it  had,  but  now,  having  made  a  fortune,  and 
grown  old,  neglects  the  office  very  much,  and  takes 
no  care  of  the  discipline,  which  is  riotous  and 
licentious,  as  any  great  school  can  be.  All  the  men 
I  know  speak  of  James  as  growing  an  old  woman, 
and  as  I  have  seen  the  decay  of  Manchester  from  the 
same  cause  I  know  what  a  very  bad  school  it  became 
latterly.  In  learning  the  Rugby  men  made  no  figure 
at  Cambridge.  I  knew  several,  some  good  fellows, 
generally  illiterate,  and  I  think  always  idle ;  and  I  had 
in  my  own  mind  set  Rugby  down  as  nearly  the  worst 
of  all  the  large  schools.1  Judge,  then,  if  I  am  not 
heartily  anxious  to  hinder  Robert  from  going  to  such 
a  scene,  and  do  not  think  me  too  capricious.  I  feel 
how  wavering  and  solicitous  you  naturally  must  be 
on  so  important  a  subject,  and  beg  you  would  make 
inquiries,  if  you  take  no  better  determination,  about 
the  school  of  Oakham,  in  the  great  county  of  Rutland. 
Stockdale  mentioned  it  to  me,  and  recommends  it 
strongly.  It  is  small  in  comparison  of  Rugby,  but 
has  sent  out  some  men  who  have  made  more  figure 
at  Cambridge,  and  is  an  increasing  and  rising  school, 
especially  since  the  decrease  of  Uppingham.  This 
was,  he  says,  its  character  two  years  ago,  and  pro- 
bably it  continues  so.  He  knows  the  undermaster, 

1  This  opinion,  right  or  wrong  then,  will  surprise  those  who  think  of  Rugby 
in,  and  since,  Arnold's  time ;  but  Arnold  was  in  his  cradle  when  this  letter 
was  written. 


288  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

who  was  of  Pembroke  Hall,  and  he  gives  him  a  high 
character. 

So  much  about  my  brothers.  If  they  are  not  un- 
grateful they  must  own  we  talk  about  them,  at  least. 
To  talk  still  about  business,  thank  you  for  your 
conduct  to  my  farmers.  If  you  had  not  done  it  I 
would ;  for  I  hate  great  farms  more  than  ever  since 
they  are  become  the  nests  of  monopoly.  When  I  am 
nearer  you  we  will  talk  about  what  can  be  done 
both  to  relieve  present  misery,  and  prevent  it  in 
future  as  far  as  my  power  shall  extend,  and  we  will 
make  little  farms  for  little  people,  who,  I  hope,  will 
not  be  such  rascals  as  their  greater  predecessors. 
Our  principles  are  so  exactly  alike  on  this  point  that 
I  give  you  full  commission  to  use  the  powers  you 
have  in  my  name,  and  turn  off  every  man  whose  corn 
does  not  attend  the  markets.  I  will  certainly  not 
raise  the  farms,  but  I  will  not  suffer  fortunes  to  be 
made  on  the  misery  of  the  whole  district,  so  I  cannot 
but  thank  you  with  all  my  soul  for  what  you  have 
done,  and  beg  you  will  proceed. 

Your  letters  are  full  of  marriages,  and  mostly  of 
my  friends,  so  things  will  have  changed  when  I  come 
back  to  England,  and  my  London  society  will  wear 
a  different  appearance — I  hope  at  least  not  for  the 
worse.  Champneys  in  a  black  coat  will  be  a  melan- 
choly object.  My  Lord  Webb  is  here,  more  flimsy 
than  ever,  and  talks  more  about  Voltaire  and  the  King 
of  Prussia.  Of  the  last  he  will  probably  hear  at 
Naples  many  very  interesting  anecdotes,  as  one  of 
the  first  luminaries  of  our  society  is  Madame  de 
Ritz,  a  left-handed  wife,  and  long  a  favourite  Sultana 
of  his  present  majesty.  This  lady,  you  know,  was 
said  to  have  negotiated  the  Duke  of  Brunswick's 
famous  retreat,  being  gained  by  the  French ;  I  do 
not  know  whether  this  was  true,  nor  do  I  much 
believe  it,  for  she  is  now  quite  anti-Gallican,  and  the 
English  are  honoured  with  every  attention.  We  see 
her  frequently,  and  dine  there  sometimes,  as  she  gives 


1796]  ENGLISH   TRAVELLERS  289 

very  agreeable  parties,  and  is,  in  fact,  a  very  pleasant, 
lively  woman.  The  inamorato  people  attribute  to  her 
is  a  curious  one,  viz.  Lord  Bristol,  the  Bishop  of  Derry, 
aged  sixty-six,  with  whom  she  is  very  intimate,  and 
travelled  part  of  her  tour.  Now,  as  she  is  j^oung,  and 
also  rich,  I  think  the  affair  may  admit  of  doubt, 
though  as  to  my  Lord,  he  is  the  strangest  being  ever 
made,  and  with  all  the  vices  and  follies  of  youth, 
a  drunkard  and  an  atheist,  though  a  Bishop,  constantly 
talking  blasphemy,  or  indecently  at  least,  and  at  the 
same  time  very  clever,  and  with  infinite  wit ;  in  short, 
a  true  Hervey.  As  he  courts  every  young  and  every 
old  woman  he  knows,  I  suppose,  like  the  Irishman 
who  was  /ra/^-married,  that  in  the  case  of  Madame 
de  Ritz  he  has  his  own  consent.  He  has  been  nearly 
dying,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say  is  better,  and  likely  to 
recover. 

We  also  are  very  intimate  with  Mrs.  Newnham, 
the  English  lady  who  is  "  travelling  "  (for  that  is  the 
phrase)  with  Admiral  Hotham ;  and  our  party  is 
enlarged  for  a  few  days  by  Lady  Webster,  who  is 
also  "travelling"  with  Lord  Holland.  So  we  are  in 
good  company,  and  shall  make  valuable  acquaintances 
for  future  times,  when  our  travelling,  and  theirs,  ends 
in  England.  There  are  also  four  or  five  more  of  these 
"  travelling "  couples  whom  we  shall  see  at  Rome, 
Florence,  etc.,  amongst  whom  I  shall  no  doubt  pick 
up  stories  that  will  set  Frances's  strange  notions  right 
about  the  advantages  of  travel  for  ladies.  I  fancy, 
before  this,  tidings  of  Wilbraham,  whom  his  friends 
thought  lost,  are  arrived  in  England. 

A  friend  of  mine,  Mr.  Toike,  writes  me  word  from 
Constantinople  that  he  had  forwarded  letters  from 
him  to  his  friends,  dated  from  Ispahan.  What  an 
interesting  new  tour  he  has  made  at  last !  I  long 
to  see  him  and  compare  notes.  He  is  in  company 
with  a  man  I  knew  at  Smyrna — a  respectable,  informed 
man — minister,  1  think,  of  the  Swedish  Lutheran 
Church,  and  speaking,  with  five  or  six  other  languages, 


290  NAPLES  [CH.  xi 

Arabian  and  Persian.  This  man  had  already  travelled 
on  foot  through  great  part  of  the  country,  and  was 
capable  of  making  his  way  through  any  hardship ;  as 
I  found  Wilbraham  was  of  the  same  true  stuff,  I  hope 
they  will  see  and  do  a  great  deal. 

Have  you  seen  his  brother,  Bootle  ?  I  am  much 
mistaken  if  you  will  not  love  him,  as  I  do,  dearly. 
He  is  really  a  very  fine  young  man ;  and  I  have  made 
few  friendships  I  wish  and  hope  will  last  longer  than 
with  him  and  his  brother.  He  is  not,  or  at  least  he 
is  more  slily  obstinate  than  Wilbraham ;  but  has  also 
a  glorious  firmness  when  he  thinks  he  is  right,  which 
he  also  generally  is.  Now  that  I  like. 

I  have  been  to  Paestum ;  it  is  about  fifty  miles  from 
Naples,  not  far  from  the  shore  in  Calabria.  We  slept 
the  first  night  at  Salerno,  after  travelling  along  the 
bay  of  Naples  and  round  the  foot  of  Vesuvius — a  suc- 
cession of  the  finest  scenery  it  is  possible  to  behold. 
The  temples  are  twenty-five  miles  farther,  in  a  marshy 
plain.  They  are  very  perfect  outwardly,  though  the 
cells  and  roofs  are  ruined;  and  we  found  them  all 
three  different,  but  all  grand,  plain  specimens  of  early 
Doric  architecture.  One  is  particularly  fine  in  its 
proportions,  and  has  all  the  massy  simplicity  the 
order  requires;  they  are  all  of  stone,  and  are  cer- 
tainly of  Grecian  work.  There  are  others  in  Sicily, 
and  we  had  found  similar  ruins  of  marble  in  Greece ; 
but  these  are  the  only  specimens  of  the  Grecian  por- 
ticoed  temple  which  are  seen  in  Italy.  It  was  this 
which  at  first  made  such  wonders  of  them ;  they  were 
none  to  us,  though  amply  worth  seeing  from  their 
very  great  beauty  and  majesty  of  architecture.  They 
are,  you  know,  without  bases,  as  all  old  Doric  is ;  and 
would  have  continued  so,  if  modern  architects  had 
taste  to  feel  the  beauties  which  greater  simplicity 
always  gives  this  order,  whose  very  essence  is 
strength  and  solidity.  I  would  as  soon  have  dressed 
the  Farnese  Hercules  in  a  turban  cap  and  feather, 
like  Miss  D.  Thank  Miss  Stanley  for  her  care  of  us; 


1796]          BETTER  WITHOUT   A  CICERONE  291 

I  know  the  regular  English  mode  is  always  to  have 
a  cicerone  to  tell  them  this  is  a  wall  and  that  a  pillar ; 
but,  having  eyes,  we  spare,  in  these  times  of  want,  our 
ounce  (half  a  guinea)  a  day,  and  imagine  we  see  very 
well  all  that  is  to  be  seen  at  Naples  without  other 
assistance.  At  Rome  a  cicerone  may  serve  us.  Here 
nobody  wants  more  than  a  laquais  de  place,  and  1 
myself  am  now  more  aufait  than  almost  any  of  them. 
With  them  you  always  go  one  round.  With  a  horse 
apiece  you  see  every  corner  of  a  country ;  and  I  have 
shown  the  country  here  to  men,  who  thought  they 
knew  it  all  over,  more  than  once. 

Adieu.     Stockdale  joins  me  in  sincere  good  wishes, 
and  believe  me  ever  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


CHAPTER  XII 

FROM  ROME,  THROUGH  TRIESTE  AND  VIENNA,  TO 
CUXHAVEN 

MORRITT'S  journey  homewards  from  Rome  was  by  no 
means  easy  or  safe;  and,  as  before,  whether  by  luck 
or  good  management,  he  just  got  through  in  time.  In 
1796  Bonaparte  began  his  victorious  Italian  campaign, 
arriving  at  Nice  to  take  command  of  his  army  on 
March  27,  a  few  days  after  Morritt  reached  Rome. 
By  a  series  of  successful  actions,  from  Montenotte  on 
April  10  to  Mondevi  on  April  21,  he  had  forced  upon 
the  King  of  Sardinia  a  treaty  which  gave  the  French 
a  control  of  Piedmont,  with  free  passage  for  their 
troops,  and  the  possession  of  the  fortified  towns  Cuneo, 
Ceva,  and  Alessandria.  The  victory  at  Lodi  enabled 
him  to  occupy  Milan  on  May  15.  Brescia,  then 
belonging  to  Venice,  was  occupied  on  the  28th ;  the 
passage  of  the  Mincio  forced  and  Verona  occupied 
on  June  3.  Further  south  Bologna  was  entered  on 
June  19.  Meantime,  in  the  north,  the  army  of  Sambre 
and  Meuse  had  crossed  the  Rhine — Kleber's  division 
on  June  i  and  Jourdan's  main  army  by  June  12 — 
though  they  did  not  at  that  time  maintain  their  hold 
on  the  right  bank.  Moreau,  in  command  of  the 
army  of  the  Rhine  and  Moselle,  crossed  at  Kehl, 
and  established  himself  there  on  June  25. 

The  reasons  therefore  are  clear  which  caused  Morritt 
to  give  up  his  three  or  four  weeks  at  Florence  after  he 
left  Rome  in  April,  to  abandon  his  plan  of  going  from 
Venice  to  the  Tyrol  at  the  end  of  May,  and  to  travel 
instead  by  the  Adriatic  to  Trieste ;  and  why,  when  he 
reached  Dresden  from  Vienna  on  June  23,  he  chose 
the  passage  to  England  from  Cuxhaven  instead  of 
from  a  more  westerly  port. 

292 


1796]  ARRIVAL   AT   ROME  293 

ROME, 

March  22,  1796. 

DEAR  AUNT, 

I  write  to  you  at  last  from  Rome,  and  from  the 
middle  day  of  the  Holy  Week ;  therefore  I  hope  my 
letter  will  carry  with  it  all  the  salutary  influence 
which  so  sacred  an  air  can  communicate.  I  wish  I 
could  think  it  would  carry  to  England  a  little  of  the 
ancient  fire  that  warmed  their  Fabricii  and  Scipios ; 
it  might  be  of  some  service  against  your  beloved 
friends  the  sansculottes. 

We  arrived  here  on  Saturday  last,  and  opened  the 
campaign  at  Rome,  therefore,  precisely  at  the  right 
time,  namely,  with  Holy  Sunday.  We  took  a  last 
leave  of  Naples  on  Thursday  last,  after  having  spent 
the  three  or  four  last  days  of  our  stay  in  farewell 
visits  to  our  favourite  views,  and  in  parties  upon  the 
water,  which  the  weather  is  by  this  warm  enough  to 
make  agreeable.  You  know  how  I  admire  this 
charming  bay,  and  every  object  within  fifty  miles  of 
Naples;  the  view  of  the  town  itself  from  the  water, 
notwithstanding  all  that  is  said  about  it,  is,  however, 
certainly  inferior  to  that  of  Constantinople  and  Pera, 
when  not  so  near  as  to  remark  the  badness  of 
the  buildings.  The  point  of  the  Seraglio,  and  the 
numberless  mosques  and  domes  that  rise  above  the 
town,  are  leading  features  which  the  other  has  not. 
Part  of  Naples,  too,  being  flat,  does  not  present  itself 
as  the  other  does,  which  is  everywhere  on  declivities, 
and  the  town  is  at  best  scarce  half  so  large.  Your 
map  will  show  you  how  much  the  beautiful  canals  of 
Pera  and  the  Bosphorus  must  exceed  a  plain  semi- 
circle in  varying  the  scene  as  your  boat  moves  to 
different  points  of  view  ;  but  in  every  other  beauty — 
of  foliage,  cultivation,  outline,  and  prospect — the  para- 
dise round  Naples  exceeds  not  only  it,  but,  I  believe, 
every  other  country  in  the  world — I  mean  when  on 
shore.  I  assure  you  we  left  it  with  some  regret,  and 
a  few  of  our  friends  with  more,  so  that  we  hardly  were 
20 


294  FROM   ROME  TO  CUXHAVEN          [CH.  xn 

consoled  by  the  fine  succession  of  beautiful  scenery 
from  hence  to  Terracina. 

It  is,  I  believe,  our  fate  never  more  to  travel  like 
other  people;  for  in  a  good  chaise,  with  good  roads 
and  several  good  inns,  we  cannot  get  on  without 
adventures.  We  slept  at  Mola  di  Gaeta,  and  left  a 
good  bed  at  half-past  three  in  the  morning,  roused  by 
the  alarming  news  that  a  King's  courier  had  hired, 
or  rather  ordered,  all  the  post-horses  in  three  hours 
from  that  time  for  Prince  Xavier  de  Saxe,  whom  we 
had  seen  at  Naples,  and  who  told  us  he  should  not 
set  off  till  the  day  after.  We  hurried  off  while  it  was 
time,  and  were  very  democratic  in  our  remarks  on 
people  that  had  more  horses  than  ourselves,  till  after 
breakfast,  which  rather  softened  us.  At  the  last  post, 
however,  in  the  territory  of  Naples,  where  we  arrived 
at  seven,  the  postmaster,  who  kept  also  a  miserable 
doghole  of  an  alehouse,  pretexted  the  king's  order 
and  stopped  our  course,  as  he  chose  to  have  our 
company.  We  did  not  like  his,  and  his  room  still  less, 
as  one  was  dishonest,  and  the  other  full  of  fleas,  lice, 
and  bugs. 

We  therefore,  after  more  growling  at  our  superiors 
(which  comes  well  out  of  a  chaise-and-four,  and  sounds 
consistent),  walked  about  to  cool,  and  hoped  for  his 
arrival  about  midday;  five  hours  being  the  variation 
between  Court  watches  and  common  clocks  ever  since 
the  time  of  King  Stephen  in  England.  In  arbitrary 
government  it  is  more,  and  Prince  Xavier  not  coming, 
we  undertook  about  one  o'clock  to  walk  to  Terracina, 
where  there  is  a  good  inn,  and  we  had  only  one  stretch 
of  fourteen  miles.  To  stay  where  we  were  was  out 
of  the  question,  so  off  we  set,  and  left  our  carriage  to 
follow.  When  we  had  advanced  about  two  miles 
it  began  to  rain,  but,  inspired  by  that  quality  men  call 
perseverance  in  their  own  sex  and  obstinacy  in  yours, 
we  continued  our  march.  This,  however,  was  stopped 
about  two  miles  beyond,  when  we  were  almost  wet 
through,  as  a  guard-house  is  built  on  the  frontiers  of 


1796]  HOLY   WEEK   AT   ROME  295 

St.  Januarius's  and  St.  Peter's  dominions,  where  our 
passports  were  asked  for.  We  had  left  them  in  the 
carriage,  and  were  not  sorry  to  be  stopped  and  shown 
into  a  covered  guard-room.  This  was  better  than  the 
inn  we  had  left,  and  we  sat  waiting  patiently  for 
events.  At  last  the  Prince  passed,  about  six  in  the 
evening,  and  no  horses  were  left  for  us.  We  had 
therefore  to  stay  all  or  most  of  the  night ;  so,  making 
up  our  minds,  we  sent  a  note  to  my  servants,  and  got 
some  fish  and  salad  which  the  soldiers  had  intended 
for  themselves.  They  gave  us  a  bed  in  the  guard-house, 
and  on  the  return  of  the  Prince's  horses,  at  last  we  got 
liberated  at  about  two  in  the  morning,  and  few  people 
can  say  they  have  been  so  plagued  and  pestered  be- 
tween Rome  and  Naples.  The  next  day  we  got  here 
without  more  misfortunes. 

March  29. 

My  letter  has  lain  idle  for  some  days :  not  so 
my  legs  and  my  eyes,  which  are  here  in  continual 
exercise  in  this  inexhaustible  scene  of  curiosity  and 
wonder :  the  functions  of  Holy  Week  are  the  general 
lounge  for  the  English  and  foreigners  who  are  here  at 
the  time  ;  and  Rome  has  lately  been  full  of  processions 
and  Church  ceremonies  from  morning  till  night.  As 
more  or  less  gold  and  silver  lace  makes  all  the  differ- 
ence of  all  the  processions  I  ever  saw,  I  own  I  was  not 
infinitely  struck  with  all  this,  neither  did  I  even  deign 
to  be  half  squeezed  to  death  to  see  the  Pope  wash  the 
pilgrims'  feet  and  serve  them  to  dinner  in  the  Vatican, 
which  is  reckoned  a  great  sight.  He  washes  feet  like 
other  people,  and  they  eat  much  in  the  same  way. 
I  own,  however,  the  grand  Benediction  from  the  front 
of  St.  Peter's  has  a  fine  effect,  and  that  fine  building  is 
in  its  glory  on  these  days  when  it  is  full  of  people,  and 
the  area  before  it  covered  with  people  and  carriages. 
One  can  scarce  help  smiling  in  these  days  to  hear  the 
Bull  of  Excommunication  against  Heretics,  which 
makes  a  part  of  the  ceremony,  and  to  see  scraps  of 


296  FROM    ROME   TO   CUXHAVEN           [CH.  xn 

paper  thrown  from  St.  Peter's,  as  if  to  carry  the 
anathema  all  over  the  world.  I  wish  I  could  have 
caught  one  for  your  entertainment.  The  music  of  the 
Holy  Week  is  more  worth  attention,  and  the  miserere, 
performed  by  voices  alone  without  instruments,  is  one 
of  those  fine  effects  of  which  hearing  alone  can  convey 
an  idea. 

When  we  had  not  any  particular  object  of  this  sort, 
we  have  been  running  from  ruin  to  ruin  and  from 
palace  to  palace.  If  I  could  tell  you  half  what  I  have 
seen  I  should  be  deservedly  thought  one  of  the  best 
describers  in  the  world.  I  first  saw  St.  Peter's.  Of 
its  size  and  proportions  I  can  say  nothing  new,  but  I 
have  looked  at  it  a  hundred  times,  and  still  can  scarce 
imagine  it  so  large  as  St.  Paul's  or  York  Minster.  The 
first  reason  of  this  deception,  which  everybody  feels,  is 
the  symmetry  and  wonderful  mutual  dependence  of  its 
immense  parts,  and  the  foreshortening  of  the  beautiful 
circular  colonnade  before  it,  which  always  makes  you 
appear  nearer  than  you  are.  Within,  the  immense 
dome,  and  the  nave  supported  by  only  four  immense 
arches  on  each  side,  take  off  from  its  length,  while  the 
long-drawn  Gothic  aisles  of  York  Minster  increase  it 
considerably.  The  thick,  hazy  smoke  of  London  is 
alone  sufficient  to  make  St.  Paul's  look  higher,  but  in 
ornaments  and  internal  arrangement  they  fall  every  way 
short  of  the  Roman  cathedral.  In  the  front  there  are 
great  architectural  blunders,  and  the  miserable  super- 
stition of  its  forming  a  cross  has  fettered  the  noblest 
plan  ever  conceived  by  man,  and  induced  in  many 
instances  a  departure  from  the  designs  of  Michael 
Angelo,  whose  idea  was  to  have  shortened  the  middle 
aisle  and  to  have  made  it  rather  a  grand  portico,  with 
the  dome  rising  over  it.  The  circular  colonnade  before 
it  has  the  most  chaste  and  noble  effect,  and  no  church 
equals  it  in  approach.  I  prefer,  in  point  of  architecture, 
the  principal  facade  of  St.  Paul's  to  that  of  St.  Peter's, 
exclusive  of  this,  and  I  wonder  such  a  front  could  be 
built  with  the  Pantheon  before  their  eyes.  The  dome 


1796]  COLISEUM   BY   MOONLIGHT  297 

is  a  glorious  thing,  and  the  building  altogether  is  a 
study  for  a  man's  life.  The  optical  deceptions  are  not 
to  be  enumerated,  every  object  is  colossal  and  seems 
diminutive,  and  the  bronze  pavilion  under  the  dome 
is  higher  than  any  palace  in  Rome,  and  at  the  same 
time  only  strikes  the  eye  at  first  as  a  common  and 
proportionate  ornament.  This  is  the  great  beauty  of 
the  church :  no  glaring  object  catches  the  eye  more 
than  the  rest,  and  no  single  dimension  of  any  part 
seems  the  least  out  of  proportion.  I  own,  however, 
though  I  think  it  the  most  magnificent  building  in  the 
world,  St.  Peter's  fails  in  impressing  the  mind  with 
the  religious,  gloomy  awe  one  feels  so  naturally  in  the 
long  isles  of  a  Gothic  building,  for  which  there  is  no 
accounting;  but  it  is  impossible  to  walk  in  York  Minster 
without  a  sensation  which  its  namesake  here  does 
not  produce,  though  more  admirable  in  every  way, 
perhaps. 

A  still  more  favourite  sight  of  mine  here  has  been 
the  Coliseum  by  moonlight.  You  have  seen  descrip- 
tions over  and  over  (again)  of  this  enormous  ruin  of 
the  Flavian  Amphitheatre.  Half  of  it  is  nearly  entire, 
and  the  rest,  broken  into  beauty  by  time,  and  over- 
grown with  bushes,  was  lighted  up  or  thrown  into 
masses  of  deep  shade  by  one  of  the  finest  moonlight 
nights  ever  beheld.  How  I  longed  for  you  to  stare 
and  admire  it  with  me !  It  would  not  have  been  our 
first,  or  I  hope  our  last,  expedition  at  the  same  hour, 
and  I  have  seen  scarce  any  scene  that  ever  struck  me 
more.  The  shadows  were  so  varied  by  the  trembling 
light  that  shot  through  the  arches,  and  the  gradation 
so  beautiful  from  the  circular  form  of  the  building,  that 
scarce  any  object  was  ever  so  calculated  for  an  effect 
of  this  sort.  I  have  seen  nothing  in  Rome  which  has 
struck  me  so  much,  and  I  have  seen  most  of  the 
admired  buildings  in  it.  The  Pantheon  is  the  most 
entire  and  the  most  beautiful  model  of  ancient  archi- 
tecture here.  The  portico  is  admirable,  and  the  large, 
low  dome  is,  1  think,  of  a  more  pleasing  shape  than 


298  FROM   ROME  TO  CUXHAVEN  [CH.  xii 

the  higher  proportions  of  that  at  St.  Peter's.  I  think 
St.  Paul's  is  nearly  of  the  same  shape  with  it ;  and 
the  Turkish  domes,  taken  perhaps  partly  from  Santa 
Sophia,  are  all  still  flatter,  and  perhaps  from  that  more 
pleasing ;  at  least  I  am  not  singular  in  thinking  so. 
The  truth  is,  the  Turks  build  in  the  simplest  manner, 
with  square  tiles,  and  throw  their  dome  without  a 
keystone,  an  art  entirely  unknown  to  Western  archi- 
tects, who  were  puzzled  by  the  dimensions  of  Santa 
Sophia,  and  could  not  build  a  dome  of  the  sort.  I  do 
not  believe  I  told  you — for  I  scarce  believed  it — the 
square  of  the  dome  of  Santa  Sophia  is  considerably 
larger  than  of  St.  Peter's,  though  the  flattest  of  any ; 
this  I  have  from  certain  authority. 

Believe  me  yours  affectionately, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


ROME, 
April  I  (no  bad  day  for  letter-writing). 

MY  DEAR  ANNETTE, 

I  write  to  you  from  Rome — which,  as  my  letter 
to  Frances  last  week  would  tell  you,  has  now  been  our 
residence  some  time,  and  answers  our  expectations  in 
every  way;  that  is,  both  by  the  remains  of  ancient 
magnificence  and  the  dullness  of  modern  society.  We 
have,  for  the  last  ten  days,  travelled  post-haste  over 
almost  everything  worth  seeing  at  Rome,  and  my  head 
is  such  a  jumble  of  painting,  sculpture,  architecture, 
and  antiquity  that  I  do  not  know  what  my  letters  will 
read  like  till  the  chaos  comes  to  be  a  little  debrouille.  I 
have  been  driving  this  morning  to  at  least  ten  different 
bits  of  wall  dignified  with  the  names  of  tombs  and 
temples,  and  yesterday  to  as  many  modern  houses  full 
of  paintings  and  statues  good,  bad,  and  indifferent ; 
this  will  give  you  a  notion  of  the  exhaustless  variety 
of  this  wonderful  place,  where  misery  and  depopula- 
tion exist  in  the  midst  of  ecclesiastical  palaces,  and  the 
wonders  of  ancient  and  modern  arts  are  united  with 
every  sort  of  bad  taste  and  ignorance.  We  drove  this 


1796]  TOMB   OF  THE  SCIPIOS  299 

morning  to  the  ruins  at  the  foot  of  the  Aventine  hill, 
and  along  the  course  of  the  Tiber ;  these  are  in  great 
number,  and  I  felt  still  more  pleasure  on  this  side  of 
Rome,  as  the  beauty  and  perfection  of  the  arts  are 
not  the  only  considerations  that  give  interest  to  these 
remains.  I  own,  when  I  see  a  temple  or  an  archway 
I  admire,  it  takes  a  good  deal  off  from  the  beauty  of  it 
when  I  am  told  it  was  built  by  Nero,  or  Heliogabalus ; 
as,  of  all  histories  in  the  world,  that  of  the  Roman 
Empire  is  to  me  the  most  disgusting,  and  I  cordially 
hate  both  the  people  and  their  rulers.  On  the  other 
hand,  an  old  wall-end  grows  into  some  estimation 
with  me  when  some  of  the  glorious  names  of  the 
Republic  are  tacked  to  it,  and  I  have  some  pleasure  in 
seeing  the  works  of  a  virtuous  and  free  nation. 

I  saw,  then,  to-day  the  ruined  ends  of  the  Sublician 
Bridge,  built  in  stone  by  Marcus  Aurelius,  but  on  the 
situation  so  gallantly  defended  by  Codes.  Above  it 
are  the  Palatine  and  Aventine  hills,  which  were  then 
almost  the  whole  of  the  city;  and  the  situation  is  at 
least  guessed  at  where  Romulus  and  Remus  were 
found  exposed,  and  where  are  still  seen  the  remains  of 
a  temple  dedicated  to  them.  It  was  near  the  Tiber ; 
and  you  know  they  were  saved  by  being  exposed  in  a 
flood,  and  left  by  it  as  the  water  subsided.  One  or 
two  temples  are  shown  of  the  times  of  the  Republic, 
though  I  think  most  may  be  doubted.  We  peeped 
into  the  grotto,  and  drunk  of  the  fountain  of  Egeria, 
which  is  still  one  of  the  finest  springs  I  ever  saw ; 
and  admired  an  old  statue  of  the  nymph,  half  broken 
to  pieces,  which  is  seen  reclined  over  the  stream.  The 
grotto  has  been  at  different  times  repaired,  but  the 
vault  seems  to  have  continued  since  Numa's  time. 
Another  of  our  lions  was  the  family  tomb  of  the 
Scipios — a  vaulted  souterrain,  with  the  remains  of  a 
small  rotunda  over  it,  still  full  of  inscriptions,  with  the 
names  of  the  different  persons  it  contained.  The 
sarcophagus,  which  is  not  elegant  (as  in  the  Imperial 
times),  has  been  carried  to  the  Vatican  Museum ;  and 


300  FROM   ROME   TO   CUXHAVEN  [CH.  xn 

it  is  singular  that  no  inscription  or  urn  was  found 
with  any  allusion  to  the  famous  Scipio  Africanus,  and 
it  is  supposed  he  was  buried  on  the  shore  at  a  place 
now  called  Patria,  on  the  gulf  of  Naples,  near  Cumae, 
where  he  died  in  a  sort  of  exile.  The  elegant  tomb  of 
Caecilia  Metella,  the  wife  of  Crassus  the  younger,  is 
very  perfect,  and  is  seen  on  the  Appian  road  not  far 
from  hence.  It  is  a  rotunda  on  a  square  basement, 
with  a  frieze  of  bulls'  skulls  supporting  festoons ;  and 
this  simple  ornament  has  the  most  elegant  effect. 

Such  has  been  our  lounge  to-day,  without  counting 
churches  innumerable  built  with  ancient  columns  or 
on  ancient  foundations.  One,  a  little  rotunda  which 
was  a  temple  of  Vesta,  charmed  us.  Round  it  was 
an  open  portico  of  twenty  Corinthian  columns,  most 
elegantly  worked  of  Parian  marble.  The  walls  are 
of  the  same  materials.  The  friars  to  whom  it  now 
belongs  have  walled  up  the  intercolumniations  of  the 
portico  and  whitewashed  the  marble,  so  it  might  as 
well  be  lime  and  hair.  This  side  of  Rome  along  the 
river,  formerly  the  most  populous  part  of  the  town,  is 
now  but  thinly  inhabited,  and  in  summer  is  scarce 
habitable  on  account  of  the  "  bad  air."  This  is  ascribed 
to  the  exhalations  of  the  wet  ground  about  the  Tiber, 
but  I  own  I  saw  no  marshes  to  which  so  violent  an 
effect  as  this  is  said  to  be  could  be  attributed.  The 
truth  is,  that  ground  which  seems  good  to  us,  and 
which  would  be  perfectly  wholesome  in  England,  is, 
with  an  Italian  sun,  absolutely  pestilential ;  and  we 
have  seen  several  places  in  our  tour  infected  with  this 
sort  of  malaria,  as  it  is  called,  which  would  be  fertile 
and  wholesome  with  our  climate.  It  is  so  with  all  the 
west  coast  of  the  Morea,  and  those  of  Epirus ;  and  the 
heel  of  Italia,  in  1'Appulia.  This  is  a  good  deal  owing 
to  the  neglected  state  of  culture  these  parts  are  now 
in ;  and  anciently  there  were  no  complaints  of  the  bad 
air  at  Olympia  and  Elis,  any  more  than  Rome,  which 
has  now  absolutely  changed  its  seat  and  occupies 
most  of  the  Campus  Martius.  If  Italian  suns  were 


1796]        RAPHAEL  AND   MICHAEL  ANGELO  301 

transferred  to  England,  what  a  pretty  desert  there 
would  be  about  the  Lincolnshire  and  Cambridge  fens ; 
and  how  completely  the  population  of  the  Isle  of  Ely, 
and  the  hard  ground  round  Wilson's  at  Soham,  would 
be  reduced  to  its  original  inhabitants,  the  frogs ! 

I  want  to  tell  you  more  about  what  I  see,  but  I  shall 
bore  you  to  death  if  I  even  attempt  to  describe  the 
objects  which  strike  us  here.  What  possible  language 
can  convey  an  idea  of  Raphael's  paintings,  or  do  justice 
to  the  Apollo  of  Belvedere  ?  We  saw  them  and  a 
thousand  other  beautiful  things  in  the  Vatican  two 
days  ago ;  of  which  the  Laocoon  is,  I  think,  at  the 
head.  You  will  see  this  group  and  the  Apollo  in 
Spence's  "  Polymetis,"  and  I  wish  you  could  for  a 
moment  see  the  originals.  The  Laocoon  is  the  most 
difficult  subject,  and,  being  equally  fine,  has  greater 
merit.  It  is  really  horribly  natural.  I  saw,  some  day 
since,  the  fine  charcoal  drawing  of  Michael  Angelo, 
about  which  Miss  Bisset  had  a  story.  It  is  not  in  the 
Vatican,  but  in  a  casino  belonging  to  the  Farnese,  and 
now  to  the  King  of  Naples.  Raphael  was  employed 
to  paint  this  in  arabesque,  and  Michael  Angelo,  who 
called  on  him  when  he  was  not  at  home,  drew  this 
head  in  one  of  the  compartments  as  a  critique  on  the 
smallness  of  his  figures.  His  rival  has  worked  a  neat 
border  round  it,  and  would  never  suffer  it  to  be 
touched  ;  and  indeed,  this  charcoal  sketch  is  one  of  the 
finest  drawings  in  Rome,  and  does  Raphael's  good 
character  as  much  credit  as  it  does  his  rival's  genius. 

I  had  not  before  an  idea  of  the  lions  to  be  hunted 
down  at  Rome.  There  are  at  least  eighteen  or  twenty 
houses,  of  which  each  has  a  rich  picture  gallery,  and 
many  fine  collections  of  statues ;  add  to  these  the 
antiquities,  and  the  modern  artists  in  all  ways  that 
deserve  attention,  and  you  will  suppose  how  busy  our 
mornings  are.  Our  evenings  are,  on  the  contrary, 
idle.  There  are  no  public  amusements,  and  few  Eng- 
lish in  the  place.  A  Roman  conversazione,  I  am  told, 
is  stupidity  itself—  il  faut  gouter  de  tout,  pourtant; 


302  FROM   ROME   TO   CUXHAVEN  [CH.  xn 

therefore  to-night  I  shall  make  a  sally  and  be  pre- 
sented to  the  Borghesi.  When  I  have  seen  it,  we 
shall  know  whether  it  is  worth  going  again ;  though  I 
have  no  great  hopes,  as  the  party  meet  in  full  dress, 
and  I  always  find  bags  and  swords  are  great  dampers. 
One  of  the  houses  we  have  found  most  agreeable  here 
is  our  own  Prince  Augustus's,  who  does  the  honours 
to  Englishmen,  on  ne  peut  pas  mieux,  and  has  a  general 
conversazione  every  Sunday.  We  dined  there  yester- 
day, and  passed  a  very  pleasant  evening,  as  he  is  very 
civil  and  easy,  without  any  humbug  or  nonsense  in  his 
manners.  His  wife  is,  you  know,  in  England,  and  he 
is  here  en  garfon,  though  I  believe  he  wishes  to  have 
her  over  very  much. 

It  is  with  no  small  pleasure  that  I  reflect,  my  dear 
Anne,  how  fast  our  tour  will  now  draw  towards  old 
England,  and  how  much  fun  we  shall  have  together 
and  how  much  nonsense  we  shall  talk  in  a  very  few 
months.  I  shall  not  stay  at  Rome  one  unnecessary 
moment  after  seeing  all  the  objects  most  admired  here, 
and  shall  then  immediately  go  to  the  Ascension  at 
Venice.  We  shall  be  detained  three  weeks  or  a  month 
more  at  Florence,  Bologna,  and  Milan, after  which  I  follow 
my  nose  from  Verona  to  Cuxhaven  without  turning  to 
the  right  hand  or  to  the  left.  We  will  be  with  you  if 
possible  in  July,  but  you  may  set  us  fairly  down  for 
York  races,  all  accidents  included,  I  hope.  Pray  get 
the  roans  into  good  order,  therefore,  and  I  will  drive 
you  about  in  triumph  on  my  return  from  foreign  parts. 
You  must  for  your  own  sake,  however,  make  George 
break  them  till  they  are  as  quiet  as  old,  for  my  driving 
talents  have  lately  been  much  impaired  for  want  of 
practice,  and  in  driving  a  phaeton  that  was  lent  me  at 
Naples  I  was  frequently  in  scrapes,  which,  if  I  remem- 
ber right,  I  used  formerly  to  avoid  pretty  well.  I  hope 
to  find  Rover,  King,  the  Greta  Walk,  and  the  Burgundy 
in  equal  good  keeping,  and  then  you  know  I  shall  be 
completely  happy. 

Adieu,  dear  Anne,  till  then.     Stockdale  desires  to  be 


1796]  ADVANCE  OF  FRENCH  ARMIES  303 

remembered  to  you  and  my  mother  ;  give  my  best  love 
to  her,  and  believe  me  as  much  as  ever,  and  I  can't  be 
more, 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 

VENICE, 

May  8,  1796. 

DEAR  ANNE, 

My  change  of  date  will  show  you  the  reason  of 
my  long  silence,  as  we  have  either  been  extremely 
busy  at  Rome  or  in  constant  motion  ever  since  I  last 
wrote  to  you.  Eccoci  qua  in  tanto,  mia  cara,  and  the 
French  seem  to  be  taking  good  care  that  the  little  tour 
we  meant  to  wind  up  with  in  the  north  of  Italy  should 
be  as  confined  as  possible,  so  that  we  shall  certainly 
not  make  any  very  long  stay  there.  You  will  have 
heard  of  their  late  successes,  and  here  we  talk  of 
nothing  else,  but  as  English  gazettes  are  seldom  very 
alarming  to  your  nerves,  I  will  tell  you  what  appears 
the  plain  truth. 

The  Austrians  have  lost  in  killed  and  prisoners 
about  18,000  men,  and  have  evacuated  all  their  posts 
as  far  as  Mantua,  where  they,  however,  can  assemble 
scarce  the  shadow  of  a  defence.  The  Sardinians  treat 
for  peace  with  the  enemy  at  the  gates  of  Turin,  and 
have  en  attendant  surrendered  Asti,  Alexandria,  Novi, 
Cuneo,  Tortona,  and  all  the  posts  which  are  almost 
impregnable  if  defended,  and  give  them  the  keys  of 
Italy.  Milan  is  daily  expected  to  be  marched  to,  and, 
being  defenceless,  must  fall ;  the  inhabitants  also  have 
long  been  Jacobins.  The  neutral  states  are  laid  under 
contribution ;  the  English  are,  we  hear,  to  be  sent  from 
Leghorn,  from  which  alone  the  fleet  can  be  victualled, 
and  Corsica  preserved ;  and  it  seems,  in  short,  that 
Italy  lies  completely  at  their  mercy,  for  they  are  in 
great  force,  and  their  enemies  have  now  no  army. 
All  stories  short  of  this  are  of  Cabinet  manufacture, 
and  this  is  really,  as  far  as  I  hear,  not  exaggerated. 


304  FROM   ROME  TO   CUXHAVEN  [CH.  xn 

At  Venice  we  are  quiet,  but  people  are  packing  up 
their  tatters  in  great  haste  from  most  of  the  other  parts 
of  Italy,  as  they  fear,  when  the  French  have  seized  the 
mouth  of  the  boot,  that  they  may  not  be  able  to  get 
out  at  the  toes.  Besides  the  neutrality  of  Venice 
(which  seems  not  to  be  treated  with  any  great  respect) 
we  console  ourselves  that  we  have  a  nice  back  door  to 
creep  out  at  even  though  Verona  is  seized,  for  we  can 
always  get  into  a  Trieste  boat,  and  a  very  few  hours 
sets  the  Adriatic  between  us.  In  the  meantime  we 
are  going  to-day  to  see  the  Doge  marry  that  fair  lady. 
The  ceremony  generally  takes  place  at  the  Ascension, 
but  his  wife  was  not  in  the  humour,  and  seemed  to 
pout  and  fret  so  much  that  he  dares  not  approach  her. 
To-day  she  is  in  a  more  winning  mood,  though  not 
very  serene,  and  still  what  the  Italians  call  ritrosetta. 
To  say  the  truth,  I  was  acquainted  with  Mrs.  Adriatic 
so  much  last  year,  that  I  am  not  at  all  sure  of  the 
Doge's  opinion  as  to  choosing  his  wife,  for  we  found 
her  a  sad,  cross-grained,  capricious,  cantankerous 
female,  besides  the  infidelities  she  commits  with 
Turkish  and  Barbaresque  pirates. 

I  left  off  my  nonsense  here  to  go  to  the  wedding, 
and  embarked  in  our  gondola  for  St.  Mark's  Place. 
We  here  found  the  Doge  and  Senators  filing  two  by 
two  on  board  the  Bucentaur,  the  large  state  galley 
used  for  this  purpose.  This  galley  is  covered  with  a 
red  velvet  canopy,  and  every  part  of  it  very  fine,  with 
a  prodigious  quantity  of  carving  and  gilding.  When 
they  were  all  on  board  it  was  rowed  and  towed  slowly 
out  to  the  Lido,  after  having  run  foul  of  some  ropes 
and  anchors  of  other  vessels,  to  the  dismay  of  many, 
though,  we  hope,  without  anything  ominous.  It  was 
attended  by  thousands  of  gondolas  and  other  barges, 
which  made  the  scene  very  gay  and  pretty,  especially 
as  several  of  the  Venetian  ladies  were  in  them,  and 
were  no  bad  change  after  the  ugly  faces  we  have  been 
used  to  at  Naples  and  Rome. 

At  a  church,  which  is  on  one  of  the  islands  about 


1796]  MARRIAGE   OF  THE   ADRIATIC  305 

two  miles  off,  the  Doge  and  his  train  descended  after 
the  ceremony  of  dropping  a  ring  into  the  Adriatic,  and 
heard  High  Mass,  during  which  we  amused  ourselves 
with  walking  about  and  looking  at  people's  pretty 
faces  on  the  island. 

We  then  sailed  back  amid  the  cannon's  roar, 
As  safe  and  sage  as  when  we  left  the  shore. 

The  fair  in  St.  Mark's  Place  is  a  pretty  and  gay  scene 
at  this  time,  and  the  temporary  wood  buildings  in  the 
middle,  with  shops  and  coffee-houses  of  all  sorts,  recall 
to  our  recollection  the  Palais  Royal  in  the  days  of  its 
splendour.  To  enjoy  Venice,  however,  a  man  must 
be  a  little  amphibious  and  partake  a  good  deal  of  the 
otter,  for  the  water  comes  up  to  every  door,  and, 
except  a  walk  through  narrow  alleys  to  St.  Mark's 
Place  and  along  the  shore  beyond,  we  never  stir  but 
in  our  gondola.  It  is  possible,  I  am  told,  to  walk  by 
land  to  every  part  of  the  town  by  knowing  the  bridges 
and  back  lanes  of  the  place,  but  all  the  direct  com- 
munications are  by  water,  and  you  have  no  idea  of 
how  very  singular  an  air  this  gives  the  place.  The 
gondolas  are  the  nicest  lounging  carriages  possible, 
though,  from  their  all  being  black,  they  look  a  good 
deal  like  hearses  laid  on  a  long  canoe.  The  boatmen 
are  excellent,  and  you  pass  each  other  and  turn  corners 
really  much  more  adroitly  than  with  any  carriages. 
The  hours  of  their  amusements  are  insufferable,  and 
we  find  it  a  great  bore  to  go  to  the  opera,  which  does 
not  begin  till  eleven  and  lasts  till  three  or  four ;  and 
what  do  you  think  must  be  the  spirit  of  the  public 
balls  which  are  given  after  the  opera  sometimes  ? 

Now  I  could  forgive  people's  turning  water  into 
land,  but  when  they  come  so  completely  to  turn  night 
into  day  they  make  too  great  a  change  in  the  old 
system.  We  dined  yesterday  at  Sir  Richard  Worsley's, 
who  is  Ambassador  to  the  Serenissima  Rep,  and  he 
showed  us  some  very  fine  things  in  the  way  of  sculp- 
ture and  painting,  and  gave  us  a  gallop  on  our  own 


306  FROM   ROME  TO   CUXHAVEN  [CH  xn 

hobby-horse  through  the  plains  of  Greece  and  Asia,  of 
most  of  which  he  has  good  drawings.  I  own  I  could 
not  help  now  and  then  thinking  of  the  peeping  scene, 
and  I  was  rather  surprised  at  him,  as,  from  his  con- 
versation and  ideas,  he  by  no  means  seems  as  if  he 
had  been  such  an  ass.  Being  Grecian  travellers,  he 
has  shown  us  great  attention,  and  has  given  us  free 
ingress  and  regress  to  his  cabinet,  which  is  very  well 
worth  seeing,  and  particularly  rich  in  cameos  and 
antique  stones. 

I  have  dabbled  at  Rome  in  this  way,  and  have  at  last 
wound  up  by  buying  two  most  beautiful  cameos  this 
morning,  which  were  part  of  a  Roman  collection,  now 
selling  off.  The  one  is  a  very  well  cut  head  of  Brutus 
with  the  dagger,  and  the  other  a  most  superb  gem 
of  a  Medusa,  in  full  face  and  very  high  rilievo,  upon 
which  I  mean  to  establish  my  fame.  These  I  shall 
sport  as  rings  when  I  dine  at  Sedbury  or  in  places  of 
the  sort,  and  expect  to  show  them  off  with  no  small 
eclat.  I  have  bought  a  picture  or  two  likewise  in 
Rome,  so  that  if  I  get  clear  away  before  I  ruin  myself, 
you  may  think  me  well  off;  for,  to  say  the  truth,  I 
cannot  resist  temptation.  I  shall  have  something  good 
at  least  to  show  for  my  money,  I  hope,  and  so  shall 
content  myself,  as  a  good  many  people  spend  theirs 
without. 

I  read  over  my  letter  and  find  it  all  full  of  Venice, 
without  telling  you  how  we  got  there.  We  crossed 
the  finest  country  almost  in  the  world  from  Rome  to 
Loretto,  always  in  rain  and  mist,  so  that  we  saw  about 
as  much  of  it  as  you  have.  We  did,  however,  visit  the 
cascades  at  Terni,  and  saw  a  very  charming  and  pictur- 
esque fall  of  water.  Before  we  left  Rome,  however,  we 
made  an  excursion  to  Tivoli,  where  the  different  falls, 
the  round  temple,  the  woods  and  plain  form  a  combina- 
tion of  more  picturesque  scenery  than  was  ever  put 
together  anywhere  else.  At  Loretto  we  saw  the  black 
Lady  and  her  wardrobe,  for  form's  sake,  as,  to  say  the 
truth,  the  sight  is  easily  managed,  and  the  riches  in  the 


1796]  ESCAPE   TO   VIENNA  307 

church,  with  the  poverty  out  of  it,  are  a  melancholy 
proof  of  what  fools  men  may  be  made  into.  The 
country  from  it  to  Bologna  is  beautiful,  and  the  trees 
and  cultivation  on  the  water  edge  are  not  to  be  seen 
in  many  countries.  From  Bologna  is  a  dead  flat,  and 
the  whole  country  a  most  striking  resemblance  of 
Holland.  We  did  not  stop,  as  we  wanted  to  arrive  for 
the  Ascension,  and  shall  make  a  trip  on  this  road  after 
leaving  Venice,  then  through  the  Tyrol  home,  for 
which  reason  I  can  give  you  no  directions  to  write,  as 
we  shall  move  very  quickly,  and  seeing  you  once  more 
will  be  a  better  thing.  Adieu.  Loves,  etc.,  to  every- 
body. 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


VIENNA, 

June  15,  1796. 

DEAR  MOTHER, 

I  am  afraid  you  have  been  some  time  without 
hearing  from  us,  but  when  you  read  my  date  you  will 
see  we  have  been  doing  something  more  to  the 
purpose  than  writing,  and  that  is  making  a  long  stride 
on  our  road  towards  England.  We  stayed  at  Venice 
waiting  for  something  decisive  between  the  Austrian 
and  French  armies,  to  determine  whether  we  should 
risk  a  trip  to  Florence  to  visit  the  Venus  de  Medicis, 
considering,  like  prudent  generals,  that  if  we  under- 
took it  rashly,  General  Buonaparte  would  probably 
cut  off  our  last  retreat  by  Venice  and  Trieste,  as  he 
had  already  cut  off  our  communication  with  the  Tyrol. 
At  last  he  decided  us  completely,  for  on  the  first  or 
second  of  this  month  he  gave  General  Beaulieu  a 
second  drubbing,  and,  after  dispersing  the  whole 
army,  marched  on  the  Venetian  territory  to  Padua, 
from  which,  of  course,  all  obnoxious  persons  moved 
off  to  Venice,  and,  in  order  not  to  be  stopped  by  a 
general  scramble  for  post-horses,  we  directly  took  ship 
to  Trieste,  and  made  the  best  of  our  way  hither,  all 


3o8  FROM   ROME   TO   CUXHAVEN  [CH.  xn 

touring  in  the  north  of  Italy  being  out  of  the  question. 
We  had  a  very  quick  and  fortunate  passage  to  Trieste, 
which  gave  us  the  start  in  the  bustle,  and  so  we  came 
on  very  smoothly  to  Vienna. 

The  country  between  Trieste  and  this  place,  which 
is  not  often  taken  into  the  tour  of  Germany,  is,  how- 
ever, one  of  the  most  pleasing  in  Europe.  It  crosses 
the  lower  chains  of  the  Carniolian  and  Styrian  Alps, 
which  are  covered  with  wood  and  a  verdure  our  eyes 
had  been  quite  unaccustomed  to  in  warmer  climates. 
The  water  is  beautiful,  and  the  country  abounds  in 
trout  streams,  which  are  useful  as  well  as  ornamental. 
We  have,  therefore,  not  so  much  to  regret  in  losing 
the  Tyrol,  which,  however,  I  hear  is  still  finer. 
With  us  the  account  is  balanced  by  having  again  an 
excuse  in  seeing  Vienna ;  you  know  how  we  liked  it 
last  time,  and  it  has  lost  none  of  its  charms.  We 
shall  not  stay  above  ten  days,  and  certainly  when 
we  leave  it  nothing  will  stop  us  till  we  see  you  in 
England.  We  have  found  most  of  our  acquaintance, 
and  all  our  favourites,  in  high  preservation,  and  having 
seen  Italian  towns  which  are  talked  so  much  about,  we 
know  how  to  do  justice  to  Vienna,  which  is  the  only 
capital  fit  for  a  gentleman  to  live  at.  In  summer  here 
one  really  lives  in  the  country,  for  there  are  six  or 
eight  public  and  private  gardens,  to  which  everybody 
makes  parties  to  dine,  and  there  are  balls  two  or  three 
times  a  week  always  at  casinos  four  or  five  miles  out 
of  town.  By  this  means  we  never  think  of  passing  an 
evening  in  town,  but  meet  all  our  friends  riding  and 
driving  on  the  promenades  in  the  faubourgs. 

You  may,  after  all  this,  think  it  lucky  if  we  get  away 
before  Christmas.  However,  we  are  good  boys,  and 
will  certainly  set  off  on  Tuesday  or  Wednesday  next. 
We  shall  certainly,  therefore,  see  you  before  York 
races,  and  possibly,  I  think,  in  about  six  weeks,  as 
there  is  nothing  from  hence  to  Hamburg  which  can 
possibly  detain  us.  Of  the  northern  Courts  we  had  a 
sufficient  sample  at  Dresden,  and  though  they  may  be 


1796]  ANTIQUES   FROM   ROME  309 

very  good  practice  for  a  courtier  or  an  Ambassador 
who  is  not  quite  broken  in  to  his  bag  and  sword,  yet 
they  are  not  so  agreeable  to  us,  who  probably  never 
shall  be  broken  in  to  either,  and,  I  hope,  never  shall 
need  it.  I  am  going  to  take  a  lesson,  however,  to-day, 
for  we  dine  with  Sir  Morton  Eden,  who  is,  I  hear,  a 
perfect  master  of  diplomatic  Hummery ;  it  is  the  only 
dinner  of  the  sort  we  mean  to  have  before  our  return, 
so  pray  wish  us  well  over  it. 

By  all  accounts  it  will  be  much  the  same  sort  of 
party  as  a  dinner  at  Sedbury,  and  I  wonder  Sir 
Bilberry,  after  his  studies  at  Padua  and  his  tour  of 
Europe,  did  not  enter  into  the  Corps  Diplomatique,  or 
never  occurred  to  the  Minister  as  a  proper  person  for 
the  employment.  As  a  man  of  virtu  I  shall  now  stand 
very  high  in  the  neighbourhood,  as  within  a  few  days 
of  my  leaving  Vienna  I  bought  an  antique  cameo  in  a 
ring  that  is  so  large  and  showy  it  must  attract  all  eyes 
and  give  great  weight  to  my  observations  every  time  I 
lay  my  hand  on  the  table.  It  is  really  an  extremely 
fine  head  of  a  Medusa,  on  an  Oriental  stone,  and 
though  I  dare  not  tell  you  how  much  I  gave  for  it,  yet 
I  am  told  by  connoisseurs  that  I  got  it  much  below  its 
value.  It  was  part  of  a  very  fine  collection  at  Rome 
which  was  selling  off,  and  had  first  been  offered  me 
at  Rome  for  just  five  times  the  sum  I  paid  for  it.  I 
bought  a  picture  or  two  besides  at  Rome,  and  with  my 
drawings  and  sulphurs  have  really  a  very  pretty  little 
collection  to  show  after  my  tour,  which  I  think  you 
will  be  glad  to  rummage  over. 

Before  I  left  Italy  I  began  to  be  a  good  deal  like  my 
Lord  Webb,  who  asked  me  one  day  at  Rome,  "  Morritt, 
are  there  any  fine  pictures  in  this  house  ? "  "  No." 
"  God  be  thanked,  nobody  will  plague  me  to  look 
about  me."  Vienna  is  a  charming  relaxation  after 
seeing  a  great  deal ;  for  here  is  nothing  to  see,  and  a 
great  deal  of  amusement,  exactly  the  contrast  of  Rome, 
where  your  eyes  are  the  only  sense  you  ought  to 
employ.  I  saw  here  a  day  or  two  ago  a  cousin  of  the 

2\ 


3io  FROM   ROME   TO   CUXHAVEN  [CH.  xn 

man  who  married  Anne  Cradock,  who  had  met  you 
at  Hartforth,  I  believe,  so  we  had  the  pleasure  of 
talking  about  you  and  Yorkshire  ;  he  is  a  little  bit 
of  a  literary  coxcomb,  and  came  to  talk  about  Greece, 
where  he  says  he  means  to  go.  The  best  part  of  the 
story  of  his  tour  is  that  he  set  off  with  Webb  to  make 
the  whole  tour  together,  and  after  a  passage  of  a  week 
they  got  sick  of  each  other's  company,  and  parted  at 
Hamburg  by  mutual  consent. 

I  did  not  tell  you  that  we  were  intimate  at  Venice 
with  two  men  who  were  just  setting  off  for  Constanti- 
nople— the  one  of  them  an  oldish  Mr.  Meynell  of 
Yarm,  who  had  seen  you,  I  think,  at  Sir  John  Lawson's. 
He  is  travelling  with  a  son  of  Lord  Stourton's,  whom 
we  liked  extremely,  and  lived  a  great  deal  with  during 
our  stay  there.  We  talked  so  much  about  Yorkshire 
it  has  given  us  the  mat  du  pays,  which  you  will  not  be 
sorry  for,  as  it  makes  us  now  think  every  moment 
longer  and  longer  till  we  see  you.  You  will  not  be 
able  to  write  to  us  again  easily  ;  you  may,  however, 
direct  to  us  poste  restante  Hamburg,  and  tell  us  how 
you  do ;  we  shall  probably  get  the  letter  in  time,  but 
everywhere  else  we  shall  move  too  rapidly  to  hear  of 
you,  I  hope.  So  expect  us  to  escort  you  at  York  and 
Richmond  races,  and  tell  Anne  I  expect  she  has  the 
roans  in  complete  order,  if  she  values  my  neck  and 
her  own.  I  shall  bring  her  over  all  sorts  of  pretty 
knick-knacks  if  she  is  good  and  pretty-behaved. 

If  you  see  Mr.  Ingram  soon  after  receiving  this,  pray 
give  my  best  compliments  to  him,  and  tell  him  that 
there  are  no  additional  volumes  printed  of  the  books 
he  desired  me  to  inquire  after  at  Naples.  I  am 
extremely  obliged  to  him  for  his  attentions,  as  he 
mentioned  us  to  his  friend  Parr  at  Venice,  from  whom 
you  may  tell  him  we  received  every  kindness,  and 
were  extremely  glad  of  the  introduction.  We  shall 
now  be  a  match  for  W.  Horton  after  visiting  the 
schools  of  Italy,  and  shall  be  as  great  connoisseurs  as 
he  is  when  Mara  sings  out  of  tune.  It  is  rather 


1796]  CUXHAVEN  311 

curious,  however,  that,  while  we  are  fools  enough  to 
send  for  the  Bunti,  Morichelli,  etc.,  etc.,  Mrs.  Billington 
is  singing  at  Venice,  and  is  allowed  there  on  all  hands 
to  be  the  best  singer  of  the  present  day.  Nobody  is 
either  a  singer  or  a  prophet  in  their  own  country,  but 
I  think  we  must  pay  some  deference  to  Italian  tastes, 
which  certainly  ought  to  know  best  when  their  own 
music  is  well  executed.  I  think  she  is  improved  with 
being  there,  for  I  really  never  heard  anything  like 
her  in  the  opera  she  played  in  at  Venice.  Marchesi 
acted  at  the  other  theatre,  and  was  deserted.  Adieu 
now,  for  I  have  come  to  the  end  of  my  paper ;  I  hope 
you  will  soon  hear  from  my  own  mouth,  which  is 
always  better  than  writing  how  much 

I  am  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  B.  S.  MORRITT. 


YARMOUTH, 
[July]  1796. 

DEAR  ANNETTE, 

This  is  to  inform  you  we  are  safely  arrived 
at  Yarmouth,  and  that  it  may  be  quite  ready  for  the 
post  office  I  write  it  before  we  set  off  from  Cuxhaven, 
like  a  true  Paddy ;  for  at  present  the  wind  is  so  con- 
trary to  our  passage  that  when  we  shall  touch  English 
ground  I  have  not  an  idea.  If  it  lasts  we  must  amuse 
ourselves  here  some  time.  We  have  now  been  on  the 
water's  edge  these  six  days,  and  have  during  that  time 
eyed  old  ocean  very  often,  and  with  many  a  longing 
look  towards  England ;  that  crusty  old  gentleman, 
however,  regardless  of  our  ogling,  has  not  once  been 
favourable  to  our  wishes,  so  if  we  have  made  you  wait 
longer  than  you  expected,  you  must  ascribe  it  to  his 
doing,  and  not  to  ours,  for  the  charms  of  Cuxhaven 
are  not  what  detain  us  on  the  Continent. 

After  getting  our  chaise  into  repair  at  Dresden,  we 
set  off  again  the  day  after  I  wrote  you  my  short  letter. 
We  had  been  detained  in  port  to  refit,  for  the  roads 
between  Prague  and  Dresden  are  indescribable,  and, 


3i2  FROM   ROME  TO   CUXHAVEN  [CH.  xn 

besides  breaking  our  pole  and  wheels,  we  ourselves 
were  almost  bruised  to  a  jelly  by  gentle  taps  against 
the  four  sides  of  the  carriage.  We  then  went  to 
Berlin.  By  way  of  variety,  the  road  was  a  heavy  sand 
up  to  our  axle,  and  we  proceeded  at  the  rate  of  about 
two  miles  and  a  half  in  the  hour  for  three  long  days, 
in  the  middle  of  these  barren  sands,  where  the  only 
varieties  are  forests  of  scrubby  fir  and  sand  oaks.  We 
found  Berlin  one  of  the  prettiest  towns  in  Europe. 
The  late  King  filled  it  with  public  buildings,  and  the 
streets,  by  his  order,  were  built  regular  and  open. 
The  houses  are  low,  and  their  fronts  stuccoed,  which 
has  a  much  better  effect  than  the  high  houses  of  six 
stories  in  Italy  and  France,  casting  a  gloom  over  the 
narrow  streets  they  shut  out  the  sun  from.  Architec- 
ture is  in  a  pretty  taste  there,  and  some  buildings  on 
•chaste  antique  plans ;  and  it  was  with  some  pleasure 
we  saw  revived  in  the  new  gate  towards  Potsdam  the 
plan  of  the  ancient  propylaea  of  the  Athenian  citadel. 
This  is  at  the  end  of  a  long  mall,  the  middle  of  which 
is  a  public  walk,  divided  by  double  rows  of  trees  from 
the  carriage  road  on  each  side  of  it,  and,  as  the  houses 
on  either  hand  are  regular,  this  approach  and  entrance 
is  one  of  the  prettiest  I  know. 

We  stayed  at  Berlin  four  days,  and  made  an  ex- 
cursion to  Potsdam.  This  is  a  town  in  the  same  taste, 
and  we  were  shown  the  famous  chateau  de  Sans  Souci 
and  some  other  palaces,  where  Frederic  has  shown 
that  he  understood  comfort  very  well.  There  are 
some  good  pictures  par  ci par  la,  which  repaid  us  for 
our  trouble.  Except  the  exterior,  Berlin  is  melancholy, 
dull,  poor,  and  ill-peopled,  and  Potsdam  a  mere 
garrison,  at  least  in  summer;  but  four  days  are  not 
enough  to  talk  of  society  and  manners.  We  were 
five  more  coming  to  Hamburg  through  the  same 
agreeable  sands.1 

1  The  last  letter,  posted,  no  doubt,  on  arrival  at  Yarmouth,  ends  here 
without  signature. 


INDEX 


Abydos,    situation    and    remains 

of,  139 

Acropolis  of  Athens,  the,  175 
Adrian,  a  bust  of,  172 
Adrianople,  description  of,  66 
Aegean  Islands,  210  et  seq. 
Aegina,  situation  of,  213 
Aesculapius,  temple  of,  212 
Ajax,  the  tomb  of,  140 
Albanians,  description  of  the,  256 
Alexander  the   Great,   birthplace 

of,  159 
Alexandria  Troas,   ruins  of,    137, 

138 

Alpheus  river,  193,  246 
Amorgos,  description  of,  218 
Amurath,   palace   of,    description 

of,  85 

Amyclae,  sculpture  found  at,  207 
Andripena    (anciently    Cotylum), 

the  temple  of  Apollo,  195 
Angelo,  Michael,  and  Raphael,  301 
Antiope,  tomb  of  the  Amazon,  172 
Antiparos,  famous  grotto  at,  218 
Antoninus,  bust  of,  172 
Apollo,  temple  of,  at  Branchidae, 

114  ;   at  Bassae,  195 
Apollonia,  ruins  at,  107 
Aqueducts,  Turkish,  94,  95 
Arcadia,    195  ;     beauty    of,    196, 

197,  242  ;   Lalliots,  197 
Arganthus  mountain,  107 
Argentiera,  cliffs  of,  236 
Argos,  1 86;    the  ruins  of  Tiryns, 

211,  212 

Astypalaea,  218 

Athens,  climate  at,  166,  167  ;  the 
Academy,  167,  170  ;  the  ap- 
proach to,  169,  170  ;  icono- 
clasm,  171  ;  tombs,  172  ;  the 
Propylaea  and  Parthenon,  173, 
1 74  ;  the  Acropolis,  175,  176; 
suburbs  of,  177-180 


Athos,  Mount,   147  ;    description 

of,    150-152  ;     monasteries   of, 

152,  153 
Austria  (see  also  Vienna),  frontier 

war,  1,2;  languages  of,  34,  35  ; 

Court  simplicity,  38,  39  ;  police 

regulations,  41 
Aventine  hills,  299 
Avernian  lakes,  276 
Axius  river,  158 

Bacchus,  temple  of,  125 

Baden,  53 

Baiae,  Gulf  of,  276 

Bajazet,  105 

Bali  Dagh,  heights  of,  128 

Bannat,  48 

Barthelemy,  his  "  Anacharsis," 
114;  on  Thessaly,  161 

Basilico,  village  of,  183 

Belgrade,  94,  95 

Belvedere,  a  palace  built  by 
Prince  Eugdne,  43 

Bergamo.     See  Pergamus 

Berlin,  312 

Boeotia,  160,  162  et  seq. 

Bologna,  scenery  near,  307 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  his  victori- 
ous Italian  campaign,  292 

Bootle,  Edward  Wilbraham  (after- 
wards Lord  Skelmersdale),  5  ; 
at  Vienna,  22  ;  visits  Maria- 
Zell,  52 

Bosphorus,  the  description  of,  68, 

69 

Boudroun.     See  Halicarnassus 
Bourgas,  94 
Branchidae,  temple  of  Apollo  at, 

114 

Brusa,  description  of,  106 
Brussels,  the  French  at,  7 
Bucharest,  60,  6 1 
Buda,  45  ;  Turkish  baths  at,  46 


3'4 


INDEX 


Bulgari,  Conte,  conversazioae  at, 

254 
Bulgaria,    danger    of    travelling 

in,  64 
Bunerbashi,  site  of  the  Homeric 

Troy,  128,  129,  139-141 
Buyuk  Dere,  village  on  the  Bos- 

phorus,  80  ;   Russian  palace  at, 

88  ;  description  of,  95 

Caicus,  plains  of,  133 

Calabrians,  manners  of  the,  257 

Calamata,  description  of  town  of, 
198 

Callicolone,  hills  of,  141 

Candia,  226;  the  Turks,  231; 
description  of,  237,  238 

Cardamyla,  village  of,  20  L,  203 

Cares,  monastery  at,  152 

Carian  temples,  223 

Caritina,  193 

Carnot,  "  the  Organiser  of  Vic- 
tory," 2,  22 

Carpatho  island,  227 

Cassiope  (now  Cassopu),  ruins  at, 

255 

Castri.     See  Hermione 
Caxo  island,  227 
Cayster  river,  1 1 1 ,  112 
Cenchreae,  the  port  of  Corinth,  184 
Ceres,  ruined  temple  of,  178 
Chaeronea,  village  of,  163 
Chalcedon,  remains  of  the  ancient, 

«3,  85 

Chalchi  island,  86,  227 

Chalke  island,  86 

Chandilar  village,  136 

Chandler,  Richard,  Ionian  Anti- 
quities, Inscriptiones  Antiquae, 
Travels,  98  ;  on  Asia  Minor, 
no,  112,  130  ;  the  port  of  Segi 
Geek,  131  ;  women  of  Scio,  132  ; 
the  gymnasium  at  Alexandria, 
138  ;  the  Sisypheum,  183  ; 
criticism  of,  191  ;  the  temple  of 
Apollo  at  Bassae,  195,  196 ; 
temple  and  buildings  sacred  to 
Aesculapius,  212 

Chevalier,  on  the  ruins  of  Alex- 
andria, 138  ;  temple  of  Apollo 
Thymbrius,  141  ;  the  sources  of 
the  Scamander,  141  ;  his  book 
an  incentive  to  travel,  142 ; 
site  of  Homeric  Troy,  143 

Chiblak,  a  Turkish  village,  141 

Chios,  island  of,  131 

Chisme,  description  of,  126,  127, 


Choiseul-Gouffier,  Count,  French 
Ambassador  at  Constantinople, 
his  researches  in  the  Troad,  1 28  ; 
the  tomb  of  Achilles,  1 72 

Cimolian  earth,  236 

Claros,  ruins  of,  1 24  ;  description 
of,  130 

Cleonae,  situation  of,  185 

Cnidus,  Gulf  of,  224 

Cnossus,  labyrinth  at,  210  ;  re- 
mains and  situation  of,  232, 
239,  240 

Coleridge  on  Samothracian  Mys- 
teries, 241 

Constantinople,  description  of,  68- 
97  ;  view  of ,  69  ;  summer  heat  at, 
71  ;  friendly  attitude  towards 
France,  73  ;  Turkish  Pashas, 
75  ;  bazaars  and  police,  77,  78  ; 
Turkish  women,  79,  80  ;  the 
Bosphorus,  81,  89  ;  Sultan's 
procession  to  the  Mosque,  87  ; 
Santa  Sophia  Mosque,  91,  92  ; 
the  Seraglio,  92,  93  ;  Turkish 
aqueducts,  94,  95  ;  dancing 
dervishes,  96,  97 

Cora,  a  Greek  village,  117,  119 

Corcyra.     See  Corfu 

Coressus,  Mount,  in 

Corfu  (formerly  Corcyra  and 
Phaeacia),  description  of,  252- 
254 

Corinth,  description  of,  183,  184 

Cos,  a  Greek  island  town,  219, 
232 

Cremnitz,  imperial  mint  at,  30  ; 
school  of  mining,  31 

Crete,  discoveries  of  remains  in, 
210,  2ii  ;  volcanic  action,  213  ; 
voyage  to,  227  ;  tour  of,  228 
et  seq.  ;  Candia,  231  ;  weak- 
ness of  Turkey,  233  ;  mis- 
government  of,  237 

Cuma,  situation  of,  136 

Cuxhaven,  3 1 1 

Cyclades,  the,  215 

Cynossema,  the  situation  of,  139 

Dampierre,    Gen.,    his    camp    at 

Famars,  2 

Dantonists,  overthrow  of,  I 
Delos,  216 

Dervishes,  dancing,  96,  97 
Deva,   the   Emperor's   castle   at, 

57 

Diana,  temple  of,  112 

Didymos,  curious  effect  of  vol- 
canic action,  213 


INDEX 


Dobra,  57 

Dresden,  3  ;    impressions  of,   10- 

12  ;    Court  at,  13 
Dumouriez,  his  victory  at  Jem- 

appes,  1,2;    moderation  of,  7  ; 

criticism  on,  56 

Elliot,   Hugh,  Minister  at  Court 

of  Saxony,  afterwards  Governor 

of  Madras,  10 
Ephesus,  visit  to,  1 1 1 ,  112 
Epidaurus,  remains  of  the  city  of, 

212,  213 

Erasinus  river,  187 
Erechtheus,  temple  of,  175 
Esterhazy,  Prince,  44 
Euboea,  view  of,  163 
Evakli,  village  of,  102 
Evans,  Sir  Arthur,  on  Crete,  129, 

210 

Famars,  camp  of,  2,  9 

Fano  island,  visit  to,  253,  255 

Fauvel,  M.,  178 

French,  the,  in  1794,  1,2;  in 
Brussels,  7  ;  in  Belgium,  9  ; 
and  Turkey,  73  ;  refugees,  157  ; 
and  British  ships,  217  ;  ad- 
vance of,  303,  307 

Gerae,  Port  of  (now  Segi  Geek), 

131 

Ghio,  a  village  in  Gulf  of  Mon- 
dania,  107 

Girapetra  (formerly  Hiera  Petra 
or  Hierapytna),  228  ;  descrip- 
tion of,  229,  230 

Gortyna,  210  ;   situation  of,  239 

Greeks,  beauty  of,  215  ;  modern, 
245 

Hadrian's  Pillars,   178 

Halicarnassus  (now  Boudroun), 
visit  to,  220 

Hamilton,  Lady,  her  charms,  268- 
270  ;  her  impersonations,  281 

Hassan  Pasha,  146,  147 

Hebertists,  overthrow  of  the,  l 

Helisson  river,  193 

Hermanstadt,  51,  57;  descrip- 
tion of,  58 

Hermione  (now  Castri),  a  Grecian 
port,  213,  214 

Hermus,  river  of,  1 10  ;  plains  of, 

133 
Hiera    Petra    (Hierapytna).     See 

Girapetra 
Hissarlik,  excavations  at,  128,  129 


Homer,  site  of  Troy,  128  etseq.  ; 

Odyssey,  251,  252,  255  ;  Iliad, 

2SS 

Honstein,  Conte,  254 
Hotham,  Admiral,  and  Mrs.  Newn- 

ham,  276,  277,  289 
Hungary,   the  mines  of,   26,  28- 

30  ;  national  dress,  29,  34  ;  laa- 

guages,  35 
Hydra,    isle   and    town   of,    213, 

214 

Hymettus,  Mount,  177 
Hypata,  town  of,  162 

Iconoclasm,   171 

Ida,  Mount,  137 

Ilissus  river,  177 

Imbrasus  river,   118 

Ionian  islands,   241-258 

Is-mit  (Nicomedia),  description  of, 
100,  101 

Is-nik  (formerly  Nicaea),  descrip- 
tion of,  105,  106 

Ithaca.     See  Thiaki 

Jassy,  Peace  of,  73 

Jourdan,    M.,    defeats    the    Aus- 

trians,  2,  22 

Juno,  temple  of,  117,  118,  212 
Jupiter  Olympius,  temple  of,  178 

Kara  Osman,  a  powerful  Aga,  133 
Kecsckemet  (Hungary),  38 
Kislar   Serai,   the   palace   of   the 

Virgins,   113 
Koelos,  city  of,  139 
Kosciusko,  Thaddeus,  his  successes 

in  the  Polish  insurrection,  2 1-23 
Koum    Kaleh    (in  the  Troad),  a 

Turkish  village,   129,  139 

Labyrinth,  the  description  of,  239, 

240 

Ladon,  valley  of  the,  247 
Lalla,  246 

Lamia,  remains  of,  162 
Landrecy,  capture  of,  22,  40 
Larissa   in   Thessaly,    a   Turkish 

town,  161,  162 
Latmos,  Mount,  113 
Leaf,  Mr.,  on  Troy,  129 
Lechevalier,  M.,  on  the  Troad.  128 
Leipzig,  10 

Lemnos,  description  of,  149 
Leondari,    beautiful   country   at. 

193 
Lesbos,  island  of,  description  of, 

135-137 


3i6 


INDEX 


Leucas,   island  of,  the  Odyssean 

Ithaca,  241 
Lichtenstein,  Prince,  his  collection 

of  pictures,  43 
Lindos,  island  of,  226 
Listen,    Sir    R.,    Ambassador    at 

Constantinople,  36,  126 
Loretto,  306 
Loubad,  a   Greek  feast    at,    108, 

109 

Lucrine  lake,  276 
Lycaeum,  remains  of  the  famous, 

177 
Lysicrates,  rotunda  of,    178 

Macedonia,  swampy  plains  of,  160 

Madalinski  and  the  Polish  in- 
surrection, 21 

Mady tus,  city  of,  1 39 

Maeander  river,  113 

Maenaltis,  Mount,  190 

Maestricht,  siege  of,  i 

Magnisa  (Magnesia),  description 
of,  109,  1 10 

Mainotes,  the,  194,  195  ;  descrip- 
tion of,  199-208 

Malia,  Gulf  of,  163 

Mantinea,  ruins  of,  189 

Marathon,  plain  of,  171 

Marathonisi,  204 

Maria-Zell,  the  church  of,  pil- 
grimage to,  52,  54 

Maritza  river,  65 

Marmora,  sea  of,  61,  68 

Mausoleum,  search  for  the,  221 

Megalopolis,  193 

Megara,  182 

Melasso  (Mylasa),  description  of, 
222,  223 

Meles,  Homer's  favourite  stream, 
no 

Menecrates,  the  mad  doctor,  223 

Metella,  tomb  of  Caecilia,  300 

Methymna  (now  called  Thymnia), 

137 

Miletus,  ruins  of,  113,  114 

Milo,  description  of,  236 

Minoan  "  labyrinth,"  210,  211 

Misenum,  Cape,  276 

Mola  di  Gaeta,  294 

Monte  Santo,  148 

Morea,  journey  through,  182  et 
seq. 

Morritt,  J.  B.  S.,  early  history  of, 
v  ;  his  publications,  vi  ;  visits 
to  Sir  Walter  Scott,  vii  ;  starts 
from  England,  3  ;  journey  from 
Ostend  to  Dresden,  4  et  seq.  ;  at  i 


Brussels,  6,  7  ;  at  Naumberg, 
8  ;  arrival  at  Dresden,  9  ;  im- 
pressions of  Dresden,  10-20  ; 
the  Polish  insurrection,  21  et 
seq.  ;  arrival  at  Vienna,  21  ; 
gaieties  at  Vienna,  27,  32,  33  ; 
the  Hungarian  mines,  29-32  ; 
description  of  and  life  in  Vienna, 
38-44  ;  journey  from  Vienna 
to  Constantinople,  44  et  seq.  ; 
protection  against  banditti,  51; 
tour  in  Styria,  52-56  ;  through 
Transylvania  to  frontier,  57-59  ; 
arrival  at  sea  of  Marmora,  61  ; 
in  Wallachia,  62,  63  ;  Bulgaria, 
64  ;  Rou mania,  65  ;  civility  of 
the  Turks,  67  ;  impressions  of 
Constantinople,  68  et  seq.  ;  the 
Bosphorus,  81,  89  ;  Chalcedon, 
83-85  ;  palace  of  Amurath,  85  ; 
the  Sultan's  procession  to  the 
Mosque,  87  ;  the  mosque  of 
Santa  Sophia,  91,  92  ;  the 
Seraglio,  93  ;  Turkish  aque- 
ducts, 94,  95  ;  dancing  der- 
vishes, 96,  97  ;  travels  in  Asia 
Minor  and  Samos,  98  et  seq.  ; 
method  of  travelling,  99,  164  ; 
Nicaea,  105  ;  ascent  of  Mysian 
Olympus,  107  ;  beauty  of  the 
peasant  women,  109  ;  visit  to 
Ephesus,  in,  112  ;  ruins  of  the 
temple  at  Priene,  113;  thunder- 
storm over  Mycale,  115;  the 
island  of  Samos,  117  et  seq.  ; 
political  questions,  119;  a 
letter  in  verse,  120-122  ;  the 
ruins  of  Claros,  1 24  ;  a  Turkish 
fortress,  125  ;  Chisme,  126,  127  ; 
the  Troad  and  the  site  of  the 
Homeric  Troy,  128  et  seq.  ; 
island  of  Scio,  131,  132;  at 
Smyrna,  132  ;  description  of 
Pergamus,  133-135  ;  island  of 
Lesbos,  137  ;  Alexandria,  138  ; 
the  valley  of  the  Simois,  138- 
141  ;  the  sources  of  the  Sca- 
mander,  143-145  ;  Mount  Athos, 
147,  150-154;  how  he  got  to 
Monte  Santo,  148  ;  Tenedos 
and  Lemnos,  149  ;  journey 
from  Athos  to  Salonica,  155 
et  seq.;  at  Pella,  158,  159; 
the  vale  of  Tempe,  161  ;  the 
Pass  of  Thermopylae,  163  ;  the 
plague  at  Smyrna,  165 ;  im- 
pressions of  Athens,  166-181  ; 
collecting  antiquities,  179,  181  ; 


INDEX 


through  the  Morea,  182  et  seq.  ; 
at  Corinth,  183  ;  Mycenae,  185  ; 
Tripolizza,    187  ;     visit   to    the 
Pasha    of     Morea,     188,     189; 
criticism     of     Chandler,     191  ; 
Megalopolis,    193  ;     description 
of     the     Mainotes,      195-208  ; 
Amyclae,  207  ;    Nauplia,  209  ; 
Aegean   islands,    210    et   seq.  ; 
Crete,  210,  227,  228,  237;  ruins 
ofTiryns,  211  ;  volcanic  action, 
213  ;    the  Cyclades,  215  ;    Brit- 
ish   and    French    ships,    217  ; 
search  for  the  Mausoleum,  22 1  ; 
laid   up    with   fever,    222  ;     at 
Melasso,  222  ;    Carian  temples, 
223  ;    at  Rhodes,  225-227  ;    at 
Girapetra,  230  ;    the  Turks  of 
Candia,     231  ;      weakness      of 
Turkey,  232  ;  gales  in  the  Archi- 
pelago, 235  ;   Candia,  237-239  ; 
the  Labyrinth,   239  ;    Olympia 
and  the  Ionian  islands,  241  et 
seq.  ;    Zante,  242-244,  249  ;   in 
quarantine,  243  ;  at  Pyrgo,  245  ; 
sunstroke  and  fevers,  246,  248, 
253  ;  valley  of  the  Ladon,  247 ; 
Homer's    Odyssey,    251,    255  ; 
voyage  to  Italy,  253  ;    civilisa- 
tion of  Albania,  256  ;  Calabrian 
manners,   257  ;    impressions  of 
Naples,  259  et  seq.  ;   the  Solfa- 
tara,    265  ;    eruptions   of    Ve- 
suvius,  267  ;    Lady  Hamilton, 
her  beauty  and  fascination,  268, 
269,    281,   282  ;     the    King    of 
Naples,  271  ;  Admiral  Hotham, 
276,  277  ;    Pitt's  sedition  bills, 
278,   279  ;    Neapolitan  morals, 
283  ;     on   Rugby  as   a   school, 
287  ;     English   travellers,    288, 
289  ;   impressions  of  Rome,  293 
et     seq.  ;      holy     week,     295  ; 
Coliseum   by   moonlight,    297  ; 
tomb  of  the  Scipios,  299  ;  anec- 
dote of   Raphael   and   Michael 
Angelo,  30 1  ;  advance  of  French 
armies,  303  ;    at  Venice,  304- 
307  ;     escape  to  Vienna,   307  ; 
Cuxhaven  and  Yarmouth,  311  ; 
impressions  of  Berlin,  312 
Muhlenbach,  57 

Mycale,  Mount,  in,  113  ;  thunder- 
storm over,  115 
Mycone,    the    beauty    of    Greek 

women  at,  215 
Mylasa.     See  Melasso 
Myles,  village  of,  117 


Naples,  259  et  seq.  ;  sculpture, 
ancient  and  modern,  259-261  ; 
an  Italian  Polcinello,  263  ;  the 
Solfatara,  265  ;  Vesuvius,  267  ; 
Lady  Hamilton  at,  268,  269, 
281,  282  ;  affability  of  the 
King,  270-272  ;  democrats  at, 
273  ;  occupations  at,  275 ; 
Neapolitan  morals,  283,  284 

Napoli  (Nauplia),  209 

Naumberg,  8,  9 

Nauplia.     See  Napoli 

Naxia,  220,  232 

Neptune,  temple  of,  183 

Neritos,  Mount,  250 

Nicaea  (Is-nik),  description  of, 
105,  106 

Nicomedia  (Is-mit),  98  ;  descrip- 
tion of,  99,  zoo 

Oeta,  Mount,  162 

Olympia,  245  ;    situation  of,  246 

Olympus,  ascent  of  the  Mysian, 

107 

Othrys,  Mount,  162 
Otranto,  quarantine  at,  253,  256, 

257 

Paestum,  290 

Palaeo  Castritza,   description  of, 

252 

Palatine  hills,  299 
Pamisus  river,  197 
Pan,  grotto  of,  173 
Pandour  patrols  as  guards  against 

banditti,   5 1 
Parnes,  Mount,   169 
Paros,    an    Aegean    island,    218, 

232 

Parthenon,  the,  173 
Pausanias   on   Megalopolis,    193  ; 

on  the  ruins  of  Tiryns,  211 
Pella,  158 

Pera,  the  faubourgs  of  Constanti- 
nople, 68 

Pergamus,  description  of,  133-135 
Pest  on  the  Danube,  46 
Phaeacia.     See  Corfu 
Pharsalia    (Pharsala),    battle    of, 

162 

Phthia,   162 
Pitt,  William,  sedition  bills,  278, 

279 

Polcinello,  263 
Polish  insurrection,  21  et  seq 
Poniatowski,  Stanislaus,  21 
Poros,  214 
Potsdam,  312 


INDEX 


Pountonitza  (once  Opus),  the 
capital  of  the  Locri  Opuntii,  1 63 

Presburg,  situation  of,  29,  45 

Priene,  temple  at,  113 

Princes  Islands  in  the  Propontis, 
86,  98 

Propylaea,  the,  173 

Pyrgo,  245 

Pyrrha,  ruins  of,  137 

Raphael  and  Michael  Angelo,  301 

Rhodes,  225,  232 

Ritz,  Madame  de,  288 

Rome,   293   et  seq  ;    holy  week, 

295,    296 ;    St.    Peter's,    296 ; 

Coliseum  by  moonlight,  297 
Rugby  school,  criticism  on,  286, 

287 
Russia  and  Poland,  23 

St.  Catherina,  160 

Salerno,  290 

Salonica,  journey  to,  156-160 

Samos,  island  of,  113,  117,  122 

Samothrace,  Mount,  154 

Sans  Souci,  Chateau  of,  312 

Santa  Maura,  251 

Santa  Sophia,  mosque  of,  91 

Sardis,  capital  of  Lydia,  109 

Scaean  Gate,  142,  144 

Scamander  river,  source  of,  141, 
143-146 

Schemnitz,  30  ;   mines  at,  31 

Schliemann's  famous  excavations, 
128,  129 

Scio,  island  of,  131,  132 

Scipios,  tomb  of  the,  299 

Segi  Geek,  124,  125 

Seraglio,  the,  69,  92,  93 

Serapis,  temple  of,  265 

Sestos,  situation  of,  139 

Setia,  228,  229 

Shipka  Pass,  the,  65 

Sicyon,  183 

Sigean  inscription  stone,  146 

Simois  river,  140,  141,  144,  145 

Sipylus,  Mount,  109,  no 

Sistova,  64 

Sisypheum,  ruins  of,  183 

Smyrna,  no,  132  ;  plague  at,  165 

Solfatara,  the,  265 

Stadium,  the,  at  Athens,  177 

Stagia,  island  of,  227 

Stockdale,  Dr.,  start  of  journey, 
3  ;  at  Vienna,  28  ;  from  Vienna 
to  Constantinople,  52,  56,  72  ; 
at  Constantinople,  88  ;  thunder- 
storm and  night  in  a  cave,  1 16  ; 


illness,  221,  254;  voyage  to 
Crete,  2  2  7 ;  on  public  schools,  287 

Styria,  scenery  of,  52,  53  ;  people 
and  shrines,  54,  55 

Sublician  bridge,  299 

Szarvaros,  57 

Szegedin,  French  prisoners  at,  48 

Tarzed,  57 

Tegia,  ruins  of,  189 

Telegyhaza,  49 

Telphussa,  situation  of,  247 

Temesvar,  48,  50 

Tempe,  vale  of,  161,  194 

Tenedos,  148,  149 

Tenos,  215 

Teos,  ruins  of,  125,  131 

Terni,  cascades  at,  306 

Thasos,  island  of,  153,  154 

Thaumaci,  162 

Theiss,  plains  of,  49 

Thelpusa  (or  Telphussa),  situa- 
tion of,  247 

Thermopylae,  Pass  of,  163 

Theseus,  temple  of,  170 

Thessaly,  journey  through,  155 
et  seq. 

Thiaki  and  Homer's  Odyssey,  241, 
250 

Thymnia.     See  Methymnia 

Tigagna,  Bay  of,  117 

Tirnova,  64 

Tiryns,  ruins  of,  211 

Tivoli,  306 

Tmolus,  Mount,  109 

Tombs,  "  beehive,"  near  Mycenae, 
185,  186 

Torre  del  Greco,  eruptions  of 
Vesuvius,  267 

Transylvania,  59 

Trieste,  307 

Tripolizza,  182,  187 

Troad,  the,  and  the  site  of  Homeric 
Troy,  128  et  seq. 

Troy,  site  of  Homeric,  128  et  seq. 

Turks,  the  civility  of,  67  ;  Con- 
stantinople, 73  ;  Pashas,  75  ; 
bazaars  and  police,  77  ;  their 
women,  79 ;  buildings,  80  ; 
aqueducts,  94,  95  ;  a  fortress, 
125  ;  hospitality  of,  142,  143, 
149 ;  their  weakness,  233  ; 
their  rapacity,  247 

Valenciennes,  2 

Vanina  village,  247 

Vathi  (Samos),  122 

Venice,  description  of,  304,  305 


INDEX 


Verus,  L.,  bust  of,  172 
Vesta,  temple  of,  300 
Vesuvius,  eruptions  of,  267 
Vienna,   the   Polish  insurrection, 
21  et  seq.  ;    gaieties  at,  27,  28, 
32,  33,  41  ;    description  of,  38, 
308  ;      simplicity    of    Austrian 
Court,   39 ;    police  regulations, 
41  ;   morals,  42  ;   museums,  43 
Virgil,  tomb  of,  264 

Wallachia,  62  ;    a  country  house, 

63 

Warsaw,  Poles  marching  on,  23 
Wilbraham,  Randal,  5  ;  at  Vienna, 

35  ;   a  pilgrimage  to  Maria-Zell, 


52  ;  and  the  French  prisoners, 
56  ;  travels  in  Asia  Minor  and 
Samos,  98  et  seq.,  126;  at 
Smyrna,  165 

Worsley,  Sir  Richard,  at  Venice, 
3°5 

Yarmouth,  arrival  at,  311 
Yeni  Shehr,  the  Sigean  promon- 
tory, 142,  145 

Zante,  242  ;  in  quarantine,  243  ; 
the  inhabitants,  244  ;  fertility 
and  industry,  248  ;  crime,  249 

Zea,  215 

Zyorlu  on  sea  of  Marmora,  61 


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HAZELL,    WATSON   AND    VTNEY,    LD., 
LONDON  AND  AYLESBCTRYj 


University  of  California 

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