The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 377, June 27, 1829
TextLoch Goil Head
AND RESIDENCE OF CAMPBELL, THE POET
The Engraving represents Loch Goil Head, a small village in Argyleshire, as it name imports, at the end of Loch Goil. It is an exquisite vignette, of Alpine sublimity, and is rendered extremely interesting as the residence of Thomas Campbell, Esq. author of the "Pleasures of Hope," &c. and one of the most celebrated of British poets. His château, or retreat, is represented on the left of the Engraving, and its romantic position has probably inspired many of the soul-stirring compositions of the illustrious resident.
In this parish are the remains of Carrick Castle, which is said to have been built by the Danes. It stands on a rock, and was formerly surrounded
The steam-boat on the lake is an attractive object in such a district as Loch Goil—by associating one of the boasted triumphs of art with the stupendous grandeur of the sublime.
HILLAH ON THE EUPHRATES
The town of Hillah lies in latitude 32 deg. 31 min. 18 sec.; in longitude 12 min. 36 sec. west of Bagdad, and according to Turkish authorities, was built in the fifth century of the Hegira, in the district of the Euphrates, which the Arabs call El-Ared-Babel. Lying on a part of the site of Babylon, nothing was more likely than that it should be built out of a few of the fragments of that great city. The town is pleasantly situated amidst gardens and groves of date trees; and spreads itself on both sides of the river, where it is connected by a miserable wooden bridge, the timbers of which are so rotten, that they tremble under the foot of the passenger. The portion of the town, or as it is usually called, the suburb, on the eastern bank, consists of one principal street or bazaar, reaching from the small defenceless gate by which it is entered from Bagdad, down to the edge of the water; this is deemed the least considerable part of Hillah. On the other side, the inhabitants, Jews, Turks, and Arabs, are much thicker, and the streets and bazaars more numerous.
From the great central bazaar, well filled with merchandize, branch off in various directions minor ranges, amongst which are found the fish and flesh markets. In the former are several varieties, and some of enormous size, resembling the barbel. The fish in question is from 4 to 5 feet long, and is covered with very large, thick scales. The head is about one-third part of the length of the fish. They are said to eat coarse and dry, but are, nevertheless, a favourite food with the inhabitants; and are caught in great quantities near the town, and to a considerable distance above it. The flesh market is sparingly served with meat, for when Sir Robert Ker Porter visited the town, he states that the whole contents of the market appeared to be no more than the dismembered carcasses of two sheep, two goats, and the red, rough filaments of a buffalo. This display was but scant provision for a population of 7,000. The streets are narrow like those of Bagdad; a necessary evil in Eastern climates, to exclude the power of the sun; but they are even more noisome and filthy. In like manner also, they are crowded, but not with so many persons in gay attire. Here are to be seen groups of dark, grim-looking, half-naked Arabs, sitting idly on the sides of the streets, and so numerously, as scarcely to leave room for a single horse to pass; and even a cavalcade in line will not alarm them, so indifferent are they, even when travellers are compelled, at some abrupt turn, almost to ride over them. A few sombre garbed Israelites, and occasionally the Turks, attendant on official duties of the Pashalic in this part of the government, also mingle in the passing or seated crowd; when the solemn, saturnine air of the latter, with their flowing, gaudy apparel, forms a striking contrast to the daring, dirty, independent air of the almost ungarmented, swarthy Arab.
A few paces above the bridge, stands the palace of the governor, and the citadel, which was built by order of Ali Pasha. This imposing fortress, externally, is a handsome, smooth-faced, demi-fortified specimen of modern Turkish architecture, erected with ancient materials. Within is a spacious court, partly shaded with date trees. The whole of the town towards the desert is defended by a pretty deep ditch, overlooked by a proportionate number of brick-built towers (all the spoil of Babylon) flanking the intermediate compartments of wall. In this rampart are three gates.
As far as the eye can reach, both up and down the river, the banks are thickly shaded with groves of dates, displacing, it should seem, the other species of trees, from which Isaiah names this scene "the Brook or Valley of Willows," although the humble races of that graceful tribe, in the osier, &c. are yet the prolific offspring of its shores.
G.L.S
CURIOUS EXTRACTS FROM CURIOUS AUTHORS, FOR CURIOUS READERS
(For the Mirror.)
Hollingshed, who was contemporary with Queen Elizabeth, informs us, "there were very few chimneys (in England in his time) even in the capital towns; the fire was laid to the wall, and the smoke issued out at the roof, or door, or window. The houses were wattled, and plastered over with clay, and all the furniture and utensils were of wood. The people slept on straw pallets, with a log of wood for a pillow."
Cambrensis, Bishop of St. David's, says, "It was the common vice of the English, from their first settlement in Britain, to expose their children and relations to sale;" and it also appears, "that the wife of Earl Godwin, who was sister to Canute, the Danish King of England, made great gain by the trade she made of buying up English youths and maids to sell to Denmark."
Lord Bacon in his Apophthegms, says, "Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, in a famine, sold all the rich vessels and ornaments of the church, to relieve the poor with bread; and said, 'There was no reason that the dead temples of God should be sumptuously furnished, and the living temples suffer penury.'" Ingulphus tells us, "For want of parchment to draw the deeds upon, great estates were frequently conveyed from one family to another, only by the ceremony of a turf and a stone, delivered before witnesses, and without any written agreement." Andrews, in his History of Great Britain, says, "In France, A.D. 1147, the great vassals emulated and even surpassed the sovereign in pomp and cost of living." As an instance of the wild liberality of the age, we are informed, that Henry the "munificent" Count of Champagne, being applied to by a poor gentleman for a portion to enable him to marry his two daughters: his steward remonstrated to him, "that he had given away every thing," "thou liest," said Henry, "I have thee left;" so he delivered over the steward to the petitioner, who put him into confinement until he gave him 500 livres, a handsome sum in those days.
Bede tells us, "Archbishop Theodore, when (in the seventh century) he gave lectures on medicine at Canterbury, remonstrated against bleeding on the 4th day of the moon, since at that period (he said) the light of the planet and the tides of the ocean were on the increase." Yet Theodore was, for his era, deeply learned.
William of Malmsbury says, "Very highly finished works in gold and silver, were the produce even of our darkest ages. The monks were the best artists. A jewel, now in the museum at Oxford, undoubtedly made by command of, and worn by Alfred the Great, is an existing witness of the height to which the art was carried. Curious reliquaries, finely wrought and set with precious stones, were usually styled throughout Europe, Opera Anglica."
Howel tells us, "In the education of their children, the Anglo-Saxons only sought to render them dauntless and apt for the two most important occupations of their future lives—war and the chase. It was a usual trial of a child's courage, to place him on the sloping roof of a building, and if, without screaming or terror, he held fast, he was styled a stout-herce, or brave boy."
Fitz-Stephen says, "Thomas à Becket lived in such splendour, that besides having silver bits to his horses, he had such numerous guests at his banquets, that he was obliged to have rooms covered with clean hay or straw, in winter, and green boughs or rushes in summer, every day, lest his guests, not finding seats at his tables, should soil their gay clothes by sitting on the floor." He would pay five pounds (equal nearly to fifty pounds of our money) for a single dish of eels. Once riding through London with Henry, the King seeing a wretched, shivering beggar, "It would be a good deed (said he) to give that poor wretch a coat." "True, (said Becket.) and you, sir, may let him have yours." "He shall have yours" said Henry, and after a heavy scuffle, in which they had nearly dismounted each other, Becket proved the weakest, and his coat was allotted to the astonished mendicant.
"When William the Conqueror was crowned at Westminster, the people (says Andrews) within the Abbey shouted, on the crown being placed on his head, the Normans without, thought the noise a signal of revolt, and began to set fire to houses, and massacre the populace, nor were they satisfied that all was well until considerable mischief had been done."
"Dr. Henry, (says Sulivan) who has made a very full collection of the facts mentioned by ancient authors, concerning the provincial government of Britain, supposes its annual revenue amounted to no less than two millions sterling; a sum nearly as great as that which was derived from Egypt, in the time of the father of Cleopatra. But this calculation is built upon the authority of Lipsius. Nor are there perhaps any accounts transmitted by historians, from which the point can be accurately determined. The Britons excelled in agriculture. They exported great quantities of corn, for supplying the armies in other parts of the empire. They had linen and woollen manufactures; as their mines of lead and tin were inexhaustible. And further we know, that Britain, in consequence of her supposed resources, was sometimes reduced to such distress, by the demands of government, as to be obliged to borrow money at an exorbitant interest. In this trade, the best citizens of Rome were not ashamed to engage; and, though prohibited by law, Seneca, whose philosophy, it seems, was not incompatible with the love of money, lent the Britons at one time above three hundred and twenty thousand pounds."