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Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Politics, etc.

No. 53.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1818.

THE IMPERIAL TOURISTS.

REMARKS UPON ENGLAND, extracted from the Journal of Their Imperial Highnesses the Archdukes John and Lewis of Austria.

THESE remarkable extracts from the Journal of two Travellers, who were in the most favourable situation for seeing every thing, even in a rapid journey, and whose talent for observation, and sound judgment, derived the greatest possible advantage from the tour, are particularly rich in remarks relative to our agriculture, manufactures, and all the branches of industry; and it affords us great pleasure that the LITERARY GAZETTE should enjoy priority in laying so interesting a paper before the British public.

On our arrival (says the traveller who keeps the journal) on the 21st of October, 1815, at Boulogne, we took up our abode at the Hotel d'Angleterre. Our first business was to inquire after the captain of the royal yacht which was intended for our passage. The yacht lay in the road, and our departure was fixed for the next morning; but a storm arose during the night, which obliged the vessels to leave the road. Thus we found ourselves obliged to put off our departure for a day, which we employed in viewing the environs.

The port is formed by the little river Lianne, and a newly dug basin. Two dams, or moles, extend into the sea; the eastern one is prolonged by an arm to a wooden battery, resting on piles, and on the western is a battery close to the dam.

The steep coast is formed by a line of hills, the chalky strata of which are quite visible. A sand-bank extends into the sea, and this circumstance made the prolongation of the two stone piers necessary, to facilitate the passage out, and to prevent the entrance from being choaked up.

At low water the vessels lie on dry ground. A sand-bank is above the water for an extent of above two hundred toises. The women at this time collect shells upon it. The high tide brings the water to the height of fourteen feet in the port, and against VOL. II.

the eastern pier. We were witnesses of the difficulty of the entrance. A ship that could not make it with the wind, was forced to put back into the

open sea.

Boulogne contains 13,000 inhabitants. The town is irregularly built, on the slope of the hills, on the right bank of the Lianne. The houses are built of a greyish stone, which, together with the dry neighbouring hills, gives it a gloomy and mournful appearance. Trade and fishing are the chief employment of the inhabitants; the herring fishery is very considerable, and brings in, as we were assured, a million and a half of francs annually. It is carried on in the channel, along the English coast. Packet-boats sail for Dover daily; and this passage is preferred to that from Calais.

The remains of Napoleon's Camp are still visible. On the east coast of the harbour are fortifications and batteries, which cover each other, and from which this coast obtained the name of the iron coast. On the northern extreme eminence of Boulogne was placed the principal telegraph, which communicated with others along the coast. scaffolding for the pyramid, which was to be erected, is still standing. Napoleon reviewed his troops on the beach.

The

The western hills are fortified. On both sides are redoubts, which, at high water, are washed all round by the waves: they are of stone, and are erected in many places along the coast. Napoleon had the basin dug, and every thing here is his work. Yet notwithstanding all these works, it is still difficult to enter or go out of the harbour; it may be easily imagined, therefore, how much time it would have taken for so many vessels to go out singly. All the flat-bottomed boats were built in the port and the river, where they remained: two hundred thousand men encamped on the heights. Of all these mighty preparations, the only vestiges now left, are the remains of the fortifications, the works of the harbour, which are not kept in repair, and a couple of half rotten flat-bottomed boats. This is all that remains of that vast undertaking, which cost France above three hundred millions of livres !

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The question whether the landing in England would have been possible, has been frequently discussed, and answered both in the negative and the affirmative. So much is certain, that it would have encountered great obstacles. The embarkation could not have taken place unperceived; the vessels must have gone out of the port one after another, placed themselves in a line in the road to attempt the passage, during which they must have resisted the English fleet, to land afterwards on a rocky coast.

Whoever knows the ad

vantages which a large ship has at sea over small vessels, cannot doubt the issue of the battle. To this must be added, that days on which there is no wind, are rare; and that such a one must have been chosen to deprive the British fleet in some measure of its advantages; lastly, the passage on a stormy day, in open vessels, would have been difficult.

From all these considerations it appears, that only a kind of miracle could have rendered the landing in England possible; and what immense difficulties would have occurred in the country itself! Of these no one can form an accurate idea who has not seen and examined England. This, however, is not the place to enter into particulars on this subject.

If the ruin of England was Napoleon's object in this enterprise, he wholly failed in attaining it, because the extraordinary armaments to which he compelled his adversary, proved fatal to himself in Portugal and Spain. It seems as if he had felt the obstacles to the execution of his plan, as he eagerly seized an opportunity to employ his forces in another quarter, where he might reasonably expect better success.

There were several packet-boats in the harbour, two of which sailed at noon with a favourable wind. We envied their swelling sails, while etiquette obliged us to wait for our yacht. At length, at four o'clock, it appeared in the road; but the captain would not sail till the next morning, because the wind had become stormy, and because, as he said, he had received orders to land us at Dover by day-light.

October 22. The fine morning pro

of which the citadel is built. The very | o'clock in the evening. The house of obliging captain of engineers who was the Duke of St. A***, where we lodged, our attendant, informed us, that the is agreeably situated in the handsomest clay, of which the bricks are made, is part of Westminster, near the parks. mixed with the ashes of coals; this was Every thing had been provided which confirmed to us in London. The chalk could make our residence pleasant and found here is made into lime for build- convenient. The succeeding days, to the 3d of November, were employed partly in visits of ceremony and others, and partly in collecting information for our intended tour through the provinces, for which we were not sufficiently prepared; we also dressed ourselves in the English fashion, that we might be able to walk about the city more at our ease.

mised us a happy passage. The white
chalky cliffs of the coast of England
soon presented themselves to our view.
At ten o'clock in the forenoon we went
on board of our yacht, which was a
handsome little vessel, As it was the
property of the Admiralty, it was ele-
gantly fitted up. It contained a drawing. The prospect from the eminence
ing-room, dining-room, and a kitchen. is magnificent; one can plainly distin-
The two former had pannels of maho- guish the coasts of Boulogne and
gany, ornamented with gilding, and Calais.
the furniture of the drawing-room was Oct. 23. We left Dover at nine o'clock.
of blue satin. At one end of it was a The post-horses are excellent, the
handsome stove of polished steel, and roads admirable, the postillions steady,
at the other end a lamp, which threw and the travelling extremely quick.
its light on the pilot's compass. Two The country is much better cultivated
adjoining rooms contained every requi- than France, which gives it a pleasing
site for sca-sick passengers. The rud-appearance, though, properly speaking,
der was put in motion by means of a it is not beautiful. The chalky soil is
little wheel. A plentiful breakfast was mixed with gravel.
prepared in the dining-room, but no-
body would venture to touch it, for fear
of sea-sickness.

serene.

We weighed anchor: the sky was There being some wind, all the sails were spread. During the pas sage over, one does not lose sight of the two opposite shores. At three o'clock we arrived in Dover-roads The almost black houses give the town a melancholy appearance.

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On the 3d of November at eight o'clock in the forenoon, we left London. The suburbs of this capital are continually extending. Houses and streets Before almost all the houses, are seen are built on speculation, and easily find little flower-beds, with southern plants inhabitants. When you leave the and flowers, which remain uncovered suburbs, you see villages before you. during winter, and give a favourable Sometimes the country rises, and the idea of the mildness of the climate. hills, covered with mansions and garThere are numerous windmills, water dens, give it a very picturesque apbeing scarce. Numerous country-pearance. From this side too, when houses, in a peculiar and agreeable style the weather is clear, there must be the of architecture, are surrounded with finest prospect of London. The road, little parks meadows of the most which only a year ago led over brilliant green, pretty flocks, fields şur-pretty steep hill, is now nearly level; rounded with green hedges, and planted the hill has been cut through, and by with trees, render the landscape pleas- these means the road is made consiing and picturesque. derably shorter, and much less fatigueCanterbury,sixteen miles from Dover, ing for the horses. Another road is the first stage. The city lies in a passes over this artificial defile, by valley, and its fine cathedral rises mag-means of a bridge, 60 or 70 feet high. nificently above the houses. As we had The country is every where well cultiresolved not to stop, we put off the vated. Gravel and chalk occur freview of the city till our return. The quently. The latter is strewed upon post-office is at the same time an inn, the fields to make the soil more loose. which is often the case in England as well as in Germany.

As it was low water, it was necessary to use the long boat to go into the port. The quays, and the whole shores, were covered with a multitude of people. The first impression that is exper rienced in this country, is not to be described. One fancies oneself transported into a new world; nothing resembles what one has seen elsewhere. Buildings, carriages, horses, people, dresses, features, every thing is differ, ent from what one has been used to see. In the common people is observed a As we proceeded, we were struck certain elegance, both in their form with the number of turnpikes, at which and dress; their features, even when travellers must pay. They consist of large numbers stand together, retain two small houses, between which the an expression of composure and cheer-road is closed by a gate; on each side is fulness.

The carriages prepared for us conveyed us to the inu from which we enjoy the prospect of the harbour. It was covered with many vessels. At low water it is dry. The entrance is narrow, and impeded by a sand-bank, so that one can only enter with the tide.

We visited the new citadel. The town lies on the sea, and at the entrance of a valley. The old castle of Dover stands upon the east, and the citadel on the west, both on the chalk hills. We were struck with the handsome bricks

Chipping-Burnet is the first stage, and St. Alban's the second: we alighted at the White Hart, a very good inn, where we found, as is every where the case in England, very clean apartments, and good provisions, as well as polite and obliging treatment.

a narrow way for foot passengers, and The abbey of St. Alban's is a buildin the middle a scale, which shews the ing remarkable for its antiquity. The weight of the carriages. The repair of church stands upon an eminence, and the roads is undertaken by private per- was built at three different periods, for sons, who pay a certain sum to the which reason it appears very irregular. government, and are authorized, by act The Anglo-Saxons are said to have of parliament, to take toll, for the pur-begun the work; the second period is pose of keeping the roads in order. The Gothic, and the third near the reforbreadth of the roads is just sufficient formation. Henry VIII. and Queen two carriages to go abreast, and on both Elizabeth, when they were obliged to sides are foot-paths, raised two or three leave London on account of the plague, feet. The roads are kept in good re-held their public courts of justice in pair with gravel.

It was dark when we reached Dantford, and we arrived in London at eight

this church. It contains also the tomb of the patron saint of England. On a little eminence to the south of St.

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Alban's stood the old Roman town of Verulamium, of which some ruins may still be traced.

In a neighbouring valley near a rivulet, is situated Mr. Woglam's manufactory for spinning silk. The machinery is like that for spinning cotton. The silk passes through twelve operations. All the machines are put in motion by water. We found in the whole process two new improvements: by means of one, the machine stands still of itself, as soon as a thread breaks upon a reel; and by means of the other, the silk is divided upon the spindle more equally than in the usual mode. The owner of the manufactory, which employs a hundred and twenty persons, has joined to it a school for the children of his work-people. We arrived pretty late in the evening at Beech-wood, a beautiful seat of Sir **** Sebright. The owner is a great agriculturist, who gave us a particular account of the agricultural processes followed in England, and particularly those employed by himself. As soon as the wheat is got in, the field is ploughed, then it is harrowed, that the weeds may shoot in spring; it is afterwards ploughed again three times: the last time it is manured, and in June sown with turnips, which stand during the winter. The sheep graze off a part, and the other part is used successively to feed the cattle in their stalls. This repeated ploughing, after the weeds have shot, cleanses the land admirably. In the second year they sow barley or oats, mixed with clover: in the third and fourth the clover is cut, and in the fifth, wheat is sown again; but as in this manner the same field would

Hunt, and consists of an account of the
monastic institutions and the libraries
on the Holy Mountain.

-; and

charter, which is said to be still preserved among the archives at Chariess, the metropolis of the peninsula. The Turkish sultans, however, have since made this faithIt appears from a preceding chapter, less body pay dearly for their treachery to that among the other inquiries, valuable their own Christian monarch to literature and the arts, undertaken instead of being for ever exempted from under the auspices of Lord Elgin, a tribute, as they had expected, they now strict examination was instituted pay annually 113,000 piasters to the Porte, thro' all the libraries, mosques, schools, besides occasional contributions in time of colleges, convents, &c. within the in-war, and other demands; one of which, in fluence of the ambassador, to discover eight purses, or 24,000 piasters. In conthe preceding month, amounted to fortysuch ancient MSS. and works of clas- sequence of these perpetual extortions, the sical research, as have long been thought convents have been obliged to borrow large to be preserved in those receptacles. sums, for which they give from four to eight After sifting the establishments at Con- per cent. according to the urgency of the stantinople to little purpose, Professor moment, or the piety of the lender. The Carlyle and Dr. Hunt sailed, on the general debt is supposed to amount to a million of piasters, or nearly eight thousand 3d of March, 1801, with the design of pounds sterling." investigating the libraries of the Greek convents in the peninsula of Athos, in Macedonia. Contrary winds obliged them to land in Asia; they traversed the Troad, ascended Mount Ida, viewed the ruins of Assos, and finally arrived at the convent of Batopaidi on Mount Athos.

As they cannot raise even the interest of this sum, a bankruptcy is likely to sula is not clearly ascertained. ensue. The population of the penin

3000; but the actual number of resident "It pays charatch, or capitation-tax, for calayers, including the labourers, workmen, hermits, is calculated at 6000."-" The It resembles a fortress more than a temporal affairs of the Holy Mountain are monastery. The lofty walls are flanked thus managed the twenty monasteries with towers, and many cannon appear (which constitute its religious republic) are in the embrazures. The monks, how-divided into four classes, of five each, acever, were polite and hospitable, and convent of each class, by rotation, annually cording to their respective sizes, and one with them our travellers remained five sends a deputy to Chariess. This council days. Before particularizing any of the of four deputies settles all the business of circumstances related of this convent, the peninsula, and regulates the proportion and its Athoan Brethren, it may be of money which each convent is to give on worth while to lay before our readers a extraordinary contributions. Their office general view of the remarkable district and they receive but a trifling salary for is annual; they live with no external pomp, itself, of which we may well say Chariess is the capital, since it is the only town in the peninsula, and situated nearly in its centre.

their trouble."

The chief benefits derived from this hive of drones (who subsist on the pre

Of the early history of the religious carious donations of pilgrims, and on community of Athos, little is certainly the alms collected by travelling brebear clover too, the half is often sown known. They pretend to great anti-thren in Russia, Moldavia, Wallachia, with oats, white clover (trifolium re-quity, and refer their foundation to pens) and rye grass. The turnips of Constantine the Great, Arcadius, and Beechwood grow to an enormous size: Honorius; but no records exist anSir **** Sebright told us, that he had terior to the time of Nicephorus Phocas, once sent his sister nineteen partridges who reigned in the year 961. in the hollow of a turnip.

(To be concluded in our next.)

REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.

MOUNT ATHOS.
From Memoirs relating to European and
Asiatic Turkey. By ROBERT WAL-
POLE, M.A.

Agreeably to our promise, we return
to this highly interesting work, and
select for our present purpose the ninth
chapter, which is from the pen of Dr.

"When the crafty caloyers (monks, says our author) adverted to the progress of the Turkish arms under the Sultan Orchan, and his immediate successors, and conjectured what might soon be the fate of Constantinople itself, they sent a deputation to the sultan at Brusa, in Asia Minor, carrying a present of 14,000 sequins, and begging, that when his victorious arms had taken possession of the seat of the Greek empire, the caloyers might be left in the full enjoyment of their religious privileges, and in the exclusive possession of Mount Athos. The Turk accepted the bribe, promised all they wished, and gave them a

and other countries professing the Greek creed) is its helping to preserve the language of Greece from being superseded by that of her conquerors, and checking the defection of Christians to Mahometanism, in European and Asiatic Turkey. Almost all the Greek Didascaloi, schoolmasters, and the higher orders of their clergy, are selected from this place: and Dr. Hunt pro

ceeds :

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thenes, Athenæus, Lysias, Galen, some parts of Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Plato; two copies of the Apocalypse, and the Jewish History of Josephus; but none of them bore marks of remote antiquity.”

as quite dead to its concerns. Some are so | bouring Turkish provinces have saved a Batrachomyachia; the works of Demosconscientiously observant of this vow, that they never afterwards use their family name, never correspond with any of their relatives or former friends, and decline informing strangers from what country or situation of life they have retired! By the rules of the institution, every convent on Mount Athos, and indeed throughout the whole Turkish empire, is ordered to shew hospitality to strangers who present themselves at their gate, whether they be Greeks, Hereties, or Infidels; nor are they permitted to ask for payment from any pilgrim, or other visitor, for the provisions which they may give them."

Within the holy precincts of this monastic territory, not only is no woman allowed to enter, (gens æterna, in qua nemo nascitur) but all female animals are rigorously prohibited, and cows, ewes, she-goats, and even hens, are banished from their sanctified abodes. Some of the monks, indeed, asserted that no she-creature could live three days in the atmosphere of Mount Athos; but our travellers doubted the fact, as they saw pigeons, swallows, and other birds, breeding under the noses of the fraternity, besides the vermin, which were abundantly prolific about their persons and cells! Milk, butter, cheese, and eggs, are imported from Thasos and Lemnos, or from Macedonia, across the isthmus.

little money, or when pirates and freebooters
have made a successful sally, they set out
on a pilgrimage to this holy mountain,
where they not only get a plenary absolu-
tion, by giving up part of their gains, but
enjoy the luxury of hearing a perpetual
The libraries of the other convents
din of bells, and the sight of splendid
churches, pictures of saints, and wonder-
were similarly unproductive: not one
working reliques.
Our principal of them producing a copy of any in-
object being to examine the ancient MSS. edited fragment of a classical author.
we found we could not have arrived at a When the learned Greeks fled from
more unpropitious moment. The attention Constantinople in 1453, they took with
of the whole convent was directed to the them to western Europe their most
different caravans of pilgrims, who were valuable MSS. those which they left were
arriving at every instant; they were in
general well mounted, each of them armed probably secreted in monasteries; but
with a musket, a pair of pistols, and a from this search it appears, either that
sword. After dinner, their mirth became ex- Constantinople and Mount Athos are
tremely noisy, and my companion, Mr. Car- not the conservators of these desired
lyle, who wished much to know the subject treasures, or that they are still (which
of their songs, found they were very simi- does not prima facie appear to be the
lar to the old border songs in England, de-case) hid from the longing eyes of
scribing either the petty wars of neigh-
bouring agas, or the successful opposition European investigation. Some of these
on the part of the Albanians to pashas convents had MSS. in the Servian and
sent from the Turkish court.
Illyric dialects, chiefly pertaining to the
church.

"In one of our rambles near the mo

"about an inch below his knees!"

nastery, we went to a small building, and to our surprise and horror found it filled nastic society, is wild and beautiful. The country possessed by this mowith piles of skulls of such monks and ca- Mountain torrents, and forests, and loyers as have died within the walls of the convent. A little church dedicated to all shrubs, and flowers, variegate its featory of mortality. By the canons of the into these details, nor even to remark the saints, is placed over this awful reposi-tures. But it is not our purpose to enter order, no caloyer or monk can eat meat upon the honoured beards of the caloyexcept in case of great and extreme illness. ers; one of which growing on the face He must also abstain from eggs, oil, and of a certain Father Joachim, rivalled The whole twenty convents were fish, on all Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fri- the leeks of Batopaidi, for it reached visited by the British scholars. They days. The food on those days is restricted to contain, according to their classifica-bread, salted olives, and vegetable soup. tion, from 40 or 50 to 500 monks in each, and bear the following names, -Batopaidi, Coutloumoussi, Pantocratoras, Slavroniketa, Iveron, Philotheo, Santa Laura, Caracalla, Xeropotamo, St. Paul, Dionyno, St. Gregorio, Simopetra, Xenophou, Docheiriou, Lografou, Chiliantari, St. Bazil, Sphigmenou, Constamoneta. There are, besides, numerous and filthy hermitages. The reception at Balopaidi, where there are 250 priests and friars within the walls, and 250 more in the farms, gardens, and vineyards, without, may serve as a sample of the whole, and of the manners and customs of the district :

:--

This is made of dried pease, beans, or other This venerable caloyer, by the way, had pulse; onions and leeks: the latter grow travelled as a mendicant of his order over to a most extraordinary size. The Hegou- almost all European Turkey, and the menos (prior or abbot) assured us they shores of the Black Sea. On different sometimes weighed an oke, or 24lbs. avoir-visits to the Fanal at Constantinople, he dupois, each.

Our inquiries respecting the library of the convent were always evaded, and at were merely rituals and liturgies of the length we were told that the manuscripts Greek church, and in very bad condition. On pressing our request to be admitted to see them, and adding that it had been the primary object of our visit, we were shewn into a room where these old tattered volumes were thrown together in the greatest confusion, mostly without beginning or end, worm-eaten, damaged by mice, and mouldy with damp. Assisted by three of those The behaviour of the monks in general whom I have mentioned (three of the best was hospitable and polite; and during our informed monks) we took an accurate cataresidence of five days among them, they logue, examining each mutilated volume seemed to regret, that the concourse of un- separately and minutely. We found copies civilized and noisy pilgrims, assembled for of the New Testament not older than the the holy week, prevented them from being twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and a more attentive to us. On Easter day there variety of theological works, of Chrysostom, were about fifteen hundred people, who Basil, Gregory of Nazianzen and others, and dined in the court-yard of this convent, an infinity of liturgies, canons, and church principally Albanian, Bulgarian, and Wal- histories. The only interesting manuscripts lachian Greeks. It appears, as soon as the we saw were two tragedies of Æschylus, the oppressed Christian peasants in the neigh-Iliad, a copy of that very ancient poem the

had paid his homage to twenty-four patriarchs: namely, fourteen grand paAlexandria, and six of Jerusalem; such triarchs of the Greek church; four of is the rapid succession to those envied dignities. Our countrymen met two of the ex-patriarchs among the residents of the Holy Mountain. Eugenius, who translated the Eneid into Greek hexameter verse, and was afterwards created Bishop of Chersonesus by the Empress Catherine, was forty years ago master of an academy at Batopaidi, from which he retired in disgust, and it has since fallen into decay from having two hundred students of respectable families from Greece, Germany, Venice, and Russia.

We shall conclude with one extract more, closed by an anecdote of considerable pungency.

"The whole country now presented a

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