Charles Lewis Meryon

“ The old town, or what remained of it, was brick; the bricks of Egypt are of a deep red cast approaching to black. The modern houses were sugarloaf-shaped, of sun-dried bricks. Brulos is celebrated for its melons.
We made no stay there, having a long day’s journey to accomplish. Although the soil was mostly sandy, uncultivated, and barren, still the road was more pleasing than that by the seashore. We saw, soon afterwards, the ruins of a large village. ”

“ Italy is nothing to it in point of magnificence. The town of Brusa is situated at the foot of the Mount Olympus; it is one of the largest towns, and may be considered the capital of Asia Minor: the houses are like all Turkish houses, bad in themselves, but so interspersed with trees and mosques that the whole has a fine effect; the view quite delightful over an immense plain more rich and beautiful than anything I ever saw, covered with trees, shrubs, and flowers of all descriptions ”

“ Nothing is more amusing to a bystander than to observe a European quarrelling with an Arab. He raves and sputters, heaps abuse and threats in a language unknown to the object of his passion, and then desires his dragoman to repeat it, word for word. The dragoman knows the revengeful nature of the Arabs, even between Mahometans among themselves, and more especially against Christians from whom they will not brook a hard word of any kind; he considers that when his present employers have quitted the country he shall be left at their mercy without protectors in it ”

“ A bridge of one arch, of modern date, but not devoid of beauty, leads over it, and its verdant banks are hedged in by oleander trees, a shrub which, whether in or out of flower, is highly beautiful. Close to the bridge, on the south side, and on the first rise of the hills, stand the venerable ruins of a khan or caravansery, now incapable of affording shelter to the traveller. In earlier times, it probably had been a castle for the defence of the passage of the river. ”

“ When we arrived at the summit of the promontory, the town of Tyre came into view: its peculiar situation on a tongue of land, with the ruins of some towers, which, afar off, have still a picturesque appearance, has much to interest the traveller, exclusive of the sacred and pagan recollections which its name excites. In a climate almost always pure, a tree or a bush seen [304] through the haze of noonday, along a coast in some places presenting nothing but an even strand, becomes an object of attention. ”

“ A valley, about a mile in width, runs from the shore of the Gulf of Lepanto to a chain of mountains. The valley is covered with vineyards and olive-trees: and, at the verge of it, near the foot of the hills, stands Patras, the ancient Patra. The houses, built of mud, are despicable without and comfortless within. Here and there I observed a mosque. Melancholy indeed was the change from the fine streets of La Valetta to the mud habitations of Patras! Still I felt that I was in Greece, and the language and appearance of the inhabitants had something magical in it. ”

“ With the exception of this one village, all the inhabitants of Constantinople who have villas prefer living in the villages on the banks of the Bosphorus. The wherries, with two or three pair of oars, transport them from door to door. Soft mattresses are spread, with cushions to recline on, there being no seats as in our wherries, and they indulge in an agreeable indolence, fanned by the zephyrs, and rocked by the scarcely undulating waves. It must not be imagined, however superior we may generally be to the Turks, that we are their inferiors in nothing ”

“ I not regret the obstacles arising from religion and prejudices, which must ever prevent the amalgamation of Western and Eastern nations!—that our superabundant population should be compelled to go in search of settlements to distant islands and continents, instead of recovering from their neglected state these once flourishing regions! Asia Minor is the field for emigrant labour; a country where the bounties of Nature are so happily distributed, in a climate so genial and so favourable to pleasurable life. ”

“ We wound through several narrow but well-built streets, and arrived at last at the Frank quarter on the banks of the Nile, where our mule-driver brought us to the house allotted for us: it faced the river, commanding a prospect of the country on the opposite side, which, being entirely flat, is very little diversified. But the Nile itself is a never-ceasing source of amusement; being at all times covered with barges, crowded with men, cattle, and goods, and with pleasure-boats, not much inferior to those on the Thames. ”

“ We performed the journey in four days and a half, and passed through the towns of Selebrya, Chomlon, and Brurgos, and over a country which bears every appearance of having been desolated by the merciless troops which go and return from the war; very different indeed from the description which is given by Lady Wortley Montague—of fields enamelled with flowers and smiling with plenty. I by no means, however, wish to impeach the veracity of that lady, as a century produces a great change, not only in the manners and customs of a nation, but likewise in the face of a country. ”

“ The female dress at Brusa pleased me exceedingly: but my fair countrywomen will not admire my taste, when I tell them that here, and elsewhere throughout Turkey, women wear no stays. The sex seemed to have but few amusements. They were allowed to gad about the streets as much as they pleased, and go to the baths when they liked; and, although their faces and bodies on such occasions were so completely covered that their very husbands could not know them, yet the customs of the country, that do not admit of a woman’s walking out alone, are a barrier to intrigue. ”

“ The general appearance of the island of Malta is the most unpromising for agriculture that can be conceived. Nowhere is the face of nature so uninviting. A surface of stone has, however, by the effect of industry, been powdered over with a soil, the general depth of which is said to be from six inches to a foot: yet, on this scanty bed, grow lemon, orange, pomegranate, fig, and other fruit-trees, besides corn, cotton, lichen, kali, &c., in the greatest luxuriance. The vines spread wherever they are trained, and the oranges acquire the richest flavour. ”

“ Pitt’s niece and companion, Lady Hester, endowed with a finer discrimination of character than her uncle, and enabled from her position as a bystander to take a just measure of the abilities and motives of those who seemed to be acting with him, could scarcely bear with the stupidity of some, the duplicity of others, and the baseness of almost all. ”

“ The grotesque figures of these poor wearied pilgrims, as they came into the town from Jerusalem, were truly ludicrous. Wheel carriages being unknown in this country, the women are compelled to ride on mules, asses, camels, or horses; and, from timidity or economy, they generally put themselves into a kind of panier. Fear of the Bedouins and mountaineers makes them apprehensive of stopping excepting at Ramlah, the only large village between Jaffa and Jerusalem; and they sometimes travel for fourteen hours without rest. ”

“ If you sit down and converse with him, and contrast his indolence with the pleasure of strolling through serpentine walks with an agreeable female companion, or of straying through woods with a philosophical friend, he replies that conversation can never be so pleasurable as when held without fatigue, and that the beauties of nature are as striking to the tranquil spectator as to him who hurries hastily over them. He styles the restlessness and bustle of the Franks but a fever of the mind, from which he thanks God he is free. ”

“ A Turkish shop is commonly no more than from six to nine feet square, in the shape of an alcove, the floor of which is raised waist high, and before which the customer stands in the open street, whilst the shopkeeper sits cross-legged on the shop-board, and has only to reach his hand to what his customer applies for. A single shutter falls down and shuts in the whole, and a few shelves contain the goods of every day’s demand. ”

“ I was now in a part of the empire where the Turks are seen in their true colours, their natural dislike to Christians not being softened down by any intercourse with civilized foreigners, as is the case in Constantinople: for there were no more than three Frank families of the middling rank of life in all Brusa, and the resort of European travellers was but rare. The epithet of Christian dog was frequently to be heard in the streets, not indeed applied to ourselves, but to the poor rayah Christians. ”

“ It was on one of these occasions that Lady Hester rode on horseback on a side-saddle to witness the procession. There is probably no other example of a European female having ridden through the streets of Constantinople in this manner on that day; and it may be reckoned as a proof of her courage that she did so, and of her conduct that she did so without insult.
The Mahometans are the most temperate men on earth: they are practical philosophers, unostentatiously sober in the use of everything. I dined, on two several occasions, with a Turk, named Azýz Effendy. ”

“ The village of Um Khaled is the site of some ancient place, as shafts of white marble pillars are to be seen lying about. Its present state is miserable. Cattle and human beings lie in the same stall. The ways are obstructed with ordure and rubbish, and no man seems to care for anything outside his own walls. Much inconvenience is experienced by travellers in these villages in the day-time from the dust which flies about. ”

“ Her palace was at Kurugesmy, a village on the European side of the Bosphorus. When I paid her a visit, everything was done with a view to inspire me with a notion of her greatness. Vanity is the failing of the Greeks. It was usual for me to be conducted up a flight of steps to the first or second floor, between two ranks of servants, then led through a suite of apartments, and, when arrived at the door of [71] the room where she was sitting, a page would draw aside a crimson curtain, and there I found the Princess, seated on a crimson sofa edged with gold. ”

“ In the night of the fifth day from our departure, we arrived at Bulák, where are the warehouses and quays of Cairo. We had retired to rest, and, on waking in the morning, the crowd and bustle on the shore marked the vicinity of a metropolis. The mode of conveyance all through Egypt is on asses for short distances, and on camels for longer ones. The asses are trained to go at an amble so expeditiously and pleasantly that Indolence could not invent anything more agreeable. ”

“ Every thing now marked our approach to a city— [117] gardens, extensive cemeteries, and a wide and beaten road; until at last we entered it, amidst the light of thousands of lamps, which illuminated the coffee-houses, the mosques, and the streets. Our guide conducted us to a miserable room, from whence I hastened to the bath, which, during Ramazàn, and particularly on the last day of it, is open by night as well as by day. ”

“ On the opposite bank is a piece of ruinous masonry, which is called a caravansery. The village itself is beautifully situate at the distance of half a mile or more from the bridge, and on a rising ground, at the foot of Gebel el Shaykh. The village looked somewhat large and respectable, and excited my curiosity so much as to induce me to go and examine it. It proved to be half in ruins, from the effect of pillage and desertion, to which it had been subjected more than once in the contentions between the Emir of the Drûzes and the pasha of Damascus. ”

“ Those Turks, who are not very rigid in the observance of the laws of Mahomet, and who wish to drink wine or spirits, do it I believe secretly, or go to the French coffee-houses at Pera, where their intemperance is not observed: but I entirely differ from many travellers, who tell us that the major part of the Turks drink fermented liquors. I aver that no people in the world adhere more rigidly to the injunctions of their religion in that and other respects. ”

“ The house was at the bottom of a small creek, which formed a harbour to the village; it was three stories high. The ceilings and walls were painted in fresco ornaments on a white ground, and there were little jets d’eau in some of the rooms. Each story consisted of a grand saloon, with four rooms opening into it, most of which had broad sofas fixed to the walls all round, with furniture either of flowered velveteen or of printed cotton. The highest story in the house is the story of honour:—a custom remaining from the time when the Genoese possessed this quarter of Constantinople. ”

“ The Consul here is a dear old fellow of seventy-five, who thinks he cannot do too much for us; but the bey pretends to be so poor, that he cannot give us more than thirty pounds, which will neither clothe nor feed eleven naked people for [106] long; so we must send an express to Smyrna to get what we want. My locket, and the valuable snuff-box Lord Sligo gave me, and two pelisses, are all I have saved;—all the travelling equipage for Syria, &c., all gone;—the servants naked and unarmed: but the great loss of all is the medicine-chest, which saved the lives of so many travellers in Greece. ”

“ And it may not be out of place to observe, that, to a European, or at least to an Englishman, neither deliciousness of climate, nor the fertility of soil, nor the brilliancy of costumes, nor, finally, even the splendid remains of antiquity, which present themselves in that country, can counterbalance the distressing sensations which the fleas and musquitoes give rise to. Whatever pains he may take to keep his body free from fleas he tries in vain ”

“ The Turks rarely, if ever, mix with the Franks: for they would not thank them for the most splendid banquet, if smoking were not allowed: and they dislike, worse than the French, the tiresomeness of sitting long at table. Besides, the use of wine effectually banishes a respectable Moslem from the repasts of Europeans, who, on their side, are too strongly attached to it to give it up for the sake of a Turkish guest.
On one occasion, Lady Hester invited the brother-in-law of the Captain Pasha and another person of distinction to dinner. ”