Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. Part 7

'On a visit to the Emir was a son of the Pacha of Damascus, who offered me to accompany him back to that city where, he said, I should reside in the palace of his father and see all that was to be seen. Such an offer almost tempted me to cut the _Alacrity_. I suppose a Christian hardly ever had such an opportunity which he was obliged to lose. Lady Hester said it was my djinn or star which got me into such favour. On the third morning we breakfasted at Deir-el-Kamr, the town about one mile distant from Petedeen the palace, and returned to Djoun arriving late that night. She made me several presents, the most valuable of which I sent home to your charge by _Euryalus_. She has written to me once since.

'I wrote a letter to Lord Chatham about her as I know her family knew little or nothing about her; in a manner I found myself called on.

'Much more could I write, but really just now my attention is so much called off by continual calling from Capt. Hamilton, who sends for me on every occasion, that this despatch will be curtailed, but I trust that more particulars will come _viva voce_.

'Tyre was the next place where we anch.o.r.ed; no vessel of war with English colours had visited this port in the memory of any inhabitant living at the place, which to be sure is not many; it is little better than the prophecy states it should be "a rock for fishers to dry their nets upon." There are here some superb remains of antiquity, Alexander's isthmus and Solomon's cisterns. Alexander's famous siege of this place is too well known and it is quite out of my power to say anything new of it, but his work will remain for ever; the isthmus he made to connect the island on which Tyre stood with the mainland is perfect to this day and has no appearance of being a work of art, but of nature. It is 200 fathoms wide in its narrowest part. The most ancient relic in the town of Tyre is the east end of a Christian church which is mentioned by Mandiel; this stands nearly as he left it. Tyre itself is a wretched place; any little attempt that the people have lately made to improve themselves has been thwarted by the Pacha of St. Jean d'Acre, who squeezes them so for money that they never have a para in their pockets.

Filth, misery and starvation are the legacy of a Tyrian. The country around is rich and superb, its produce might be enormous, but so it is with all Syria that I have seen.

'Solomon's cisterns, which are situated about three miles from Tyre to the south east, are of an octagonal form built of gravel and cement that form a solid stone. The elevation of the largest above the level is twenty-seven feet on the south side, and eighteen on the north; a walk round on the top eight feet wide, a step below twenty-one feet broad, a stream leaves it turning four mills. There are two smaller ones turning two mills at a small distance to the northward of the large one. Their original shape appears to have been square, but now much disfigured. The large one is thirty-three yards deep, the people believe it has no bottom and that the water is brought there by genii. Where it comes from no one knows, but it is always full. I think these cisterns originally supplied Tyre with water; I traced the remains of an aqueduct from them nearly to the walls but better than half way across the isthmus, so that I think they are of a later date than the time of Solomon because the aqueduct could not be built over the isthmus before the isthmus was made. They are on the whole the most curious relics of antiquity I have seen, they must at least be 2300 years old and they are in no way injured, but the supply of water is constant even in the wannest weather. The country for seven miles round is a perfect level: I think the water must be brought by some underground drain from the mountains in the distance to the eastward. The story is that Solomon among the presents made to King Hiram for his a.s.sistance in building the Temple built for him these cisterns, but they are not mentioned in the Bible, and I think the story improbable for reasons before mentioned, and that Solomon certainly had not such good artificers as King Hiram himself.

'By the bye there are considerable remains of the old port, a mote, by the ruins of which you can easily trace its extent.

'Haipha and St. Jean d'Acre, Mt. Carmel and the river Kishon "that ancient river" became next the objects of my amus.e.m.e.nt. I bivouacked one night on the banks of the river at Mt. Tabor and Carmel in sight. At this time an alteration in the weather took place, the gales of wind began to blow here and the coast consequently became exceedingly dangerous. I thought it prudent to quit it and arrived in Alexandria in fourteen days after leaving Haifa, having had a contrary gale nearly the whole time.

'During my stay in Egypt I was four days in Cairo, eight days on the Nile, two days at Sakkara and one day at Gizeh. Salt lent me his house and his boat with twenty men, and I saw all that was to be seen. Mehemet Ali gave me a Turk to attend me and I play the traveller here for a few days; time for description I have none. You will be sorry I have hurried over the latter part of this despatch but I a.s.sure you it is unavoidable. The vessel that takes our letters to Malta I expect will put herself in quarantine every hour.

'I have returned to Malta, refitted, and am again up the Archipelago with Captain Hamilton who has just joined company. We have been the last forty-eight hours rather hara.s.singly employed routing out a nest of pirates which we have done nearly to a man. Our boats have been away all night and the brig under way. My marines took the men under Lieut.

Weately, and my men took two Greek boats with nine men each on board one of which was the Captain of the Pirates; the _Fury's_ boats took the vessels and their prizes, eleven in number. There was no fighting.

Captain Lethaby in the _Vengeance_ and _Alacrity_ brought the Bey of Rhodes to his senses the other day; the Consul had been insulted, he would give no satisfaction, so we took the old way and began at him, when he came to terms. One 18 lb. shot through his palace made him know that we did not always bark and never bite. _Alacrity_ was near enough the battery to receive a heavy fire of stones from the Turks which, with a few muskets discharged at us, was all the return made by the Turks before the thing was amicably arranged....

'Love to all; I wish Lady Elizabeth Stuart (de Rothesay) would write to me, I do sincerely love that cousin of mine; Grantham's letter I will answer next opportunity, I am delighted with it.

'Adieu,

'C. YORKE'

VOURLA, GULPH Of SMYRNA:

June 10, 1825.

CHAPTER V

A HOLIDAY IN NORTHERN REGIONS. 1828

My father appears to have had a long leave between the two commands, in the _Alacrity_ (1826) and the _Alligator_ (1829), during which commands he was employed in the Mediterranean, with a roving commission --a free lance, in short--to put down piracy and watch the War of Independence between the Greeks and the Turks. He never let the gra.s.s grow under his feet, so off he started with his friend Walrond on a roving tour through the greater part of Scandinavia, and his journals contain a daily record, extending over nearly six months. He crossed the Dovrefeld Range between Norway and Sweden (a journey seldom undertaken to-day), and in 1828 the lack of travelling facilities was exceptional.

The energy and resource of my father's character and his great powers of observation appear to great advantage in these journals, and there are many facts which I shall endeavour to relate as far as possible in his own graphic words.

He was greatly impressed by the kindness and hospitality he received from all cla.s.ses in both countries with the exception of one district near Gottenborg, where he met with some outrageous conduct on the part of a postmaster, who either thought he was robbed, or else fully intended to rob his guest.

He was honoured by interviews with King Charles John IV, better known as Bernadotte, Napoleon's Field-Marshal and founder of the present royal dynasty of Sweden, and it is worthy of note that as far back as 1828, Norway was chafing under the Union with Sweden which was brought about by the Treaty of Kiel in 1814 and has so lately been dissolved.

On the 10th of May 1828, Captain Yorke started from the Customs House Wharf on the Thames, in a small steamer of 300 tons. Steam navigation being then in its infancy the vessel was of great interest to the traveller, who notes that she had 'two very fine engines of 40 horse power!'

The pa.s.sage to Hamburg took exactly fifty-five hours. It is curious in the light of eighty years' commercial progress to read that 'The commerce on the Elbe has no comparison with that of the Thames.' Then follows a difficulty with the Customs officer, who, unaware of the habits of British sportsmen, was horrified to find gunpowder among the captain's baggage, a discovery which necessitated an appeal to the British Consul and entailed a delay of several days.

Kiel was reached on 14th of May, and after exploring the pretty little town the two friends took the Caledonian steam packet for Copenhagen.

This little steamer was built as a pleasure boat for James Watt, and had run nine years making much money for her owner though a very 'bad boat.'

At Copenhagen Captain Yorke was much impressed by the royal palace of Frederiksborg, with its chapel where are crowned the Kings of Denmark, and its pane of gla.s.s on which Caroline Matilda [Footnote: Sister of George III, Queen of Christian VII. She was entrapped into a confession of criminality to save the life of her supposed lover Struensee, who was afterwards beheaded. She was condemned to imprisonment for life in the Castle of Zell, and died there aged twenty-four in 1775.] had scratched, 'O keep me innocent; make others great.' His professional interest was kindled by the Trekroner Battery which he visited in a boat, and of which he noticed both the strong and the weak points. He failed to get into the dockyard, though here again he was careful to note the number of ships of the line, frigates, and launches afloat; but the royal stud of 700 horses and the riding school struck him most. On the 20th of May our travellers reached Elsinore, and crossing over in an open boat to the Swedish coast they landed at Helsingborg.

My father was a good sportsman, and fishing was his favourite sport. It was combined with that love of scenery which was one of his characteristics, and his first fly was thrown in a beautiful river at Falkenborg, rented by two Englishmen who paid 300 a year for it. Here he remarks that the Swedes 'are poor, honest, and exceedingly good natured.'

'I believe,' he wrote, 'that much of the great civility we received arose from our travelling as we did, without speaking or understanding the language, with no servant and no carriage, taking the common conveyances of the country. Our fare, chiefly fish, black bread, and brandy. The country round Falkenborg is barren, with cultivated spots here and there.

'After leaving Falkenborg we experienced a great change in the character of the people. Kindness and honesty were changed for ill-looks and petty extortions. On a bridge between Moruss and Asa, the woman who kept it and our drivers charged a double toll, and drank the overplus in schnapps before our faces! Our vehicle is changed from four wheels to two, so we now travel in little wooden gigs and four horses, forming a pretty cavalcade.

'We arrived at Gottenborg about 1 P.M., dined _table d'hote_ and left at four. We pa.s.sed along the banks of the Wener, a superb river.

The vessels that trade from Gottenborg to the Wener See pa.s.s up this river. To pa.s.s the falls a ca.n.a.l is cut through the solid rock, with two locks. I saw a vessel of 80 tons go through. Considerable saw mills are erected here, the timber cut up, the lumber is just marked, launched down and the owners look out for themselves.

'The Wener shows one of the finest works of art perhaps in the world! To navigate this river at the falls it has been necessary to cut a ca.n.a.l for one English mile at least through mountains of solid rock, and has eight locks. The mountains are granite and basalt. There is a cut through the rock also parallel with the river. This cut is useless, for there is in it a fall of sixty feet perpendicular, so that what it was made for it is difficult to conceive.'

Between Trolhatta and Gottenborg our travellers were detained four hours on the road. The reason for this detention is fully explained in a letter my father wrote to Sir Joseph Yorke a month or two later, from which I make the following extract:

'While the servants were shifting our luggage at Gottenborg I went into the house to get change for a three dollar Banco Note. On receiving the change I found it was only two Dollar Rix Geld, a depreciated currency, after which I offered, with a remonstrance, a two dollar 'Banco' note.

The woman took it, and was then possessed of five dollar Banco, for which I could get no further exchange than the two Rix Geld before mentioned, neither would she return my money. I took the first opportunity of s.n.a.t.c.hing it from her, first the two dollar note and then the three, and pushing the small change lying on the table towards her, walked out of the house. Having managed to pay the horses we wished to proceed but the driver refused to go, under the plea that I had taken three dollars from the woman of the house, and they would not move till I returned it. Neither threats nor entreaties prevailed, and we remained about two hours till the Postmaster arrived in person. I appealed to him, it was useless, and I saw no alternative but to offer him the three dollars, making him understand as well as I could, that he being Postmaster was responsible, and that I should acquaint the authorities at Gottenborg of his conduct in taking from me three dollars which neither belonged to him nor the woman of the house. He looked at the note and threw it on the table, then left the inn, and in a minute returned with a pair of screw irons to which was attached a chain, himself and another laid hold of me, and attempted to force my hands into them.

'By this time we had all come out of the house. I struck right and left and effectually released myself. We were set on by the seven or eight men standing by, and though successful in repelling their attack, seeing my servant badly wounded and that iron instruments were beginning to be used, I thought it better to suffer myself to be secured, which was done by s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g my hands into the irons and making me fast by padlocking the chain to a part of the room. In this situation I remained for about half an hour, the Postmaster preparing to accompany us, which he did taking me with him in his car as a prisoner. On a remonstrance from Walrond on the tightness of the screws from which I suffered dreadfully, he took off the irons before getting into the car, but he was armed.

'On arriving at Lilla Edet, we were taken before a magistrate, showed our pa.s.sports and were dismissed, after refusing to compromise the affair for five dollars. This is the story and a very strange one it is.

The King has ordered a process to be begun against the men. I can make no comment upon it. The reason for such treatment it is impossible to conceive.'

But on arriving at Gottenborg, I find my father called on the Governor, and found him justly very indignant, and he declared the Postmaster should go to prison for three years with hard labour, exclaiming at the same time, '_Nous ne sommes pas des Barbares, monsieur._'

Changing vessels of pa.s.sage twice, my father arrived at Christiania.

'Xtiania fiord is deep and the town is situated at the head of it. Part of the pa.s.sage of the fiord is very narrow among the small islands, and the water very deep. Though Christiania is but a poor town compared with other northern towns, yet its environs may boast of more beauty than perhaps any capital in the universe.'

My father finds the politeness of the inhabitants expensive, and says, 'in walking the streets of northern towns, you can wear out a good hat in three days.'

In return they received the greatest civility from two fellow-pa.s.sengers who took them to call on Count Plater, the Stadt-Holder or Governor of Xtiania, who was an admiral in their navy and spoke excellent English; also on Count Rosen.

'Went to see the Storthing in the morning. Strangers were admitted to the Gallery on requesting a ticket from the Police!'

My father writes:

'The origin of this Const.i.tution, (now such a thorn in the side of the King,) was in the reign of the Danish Prince Christian, who himself a.s.sembled a body of the people to consult on the affairs of State at the moment previous to Norway and Sweden falling under the power of France.

The body thus met, const.i.tuted themselves into a perpetual a.s.sembly for the government of the country, and by their prudence and independence, it is now permanently established (1828) and never were a people more attached to their const.i.tution.' Dining with Count Plater the Viceroy of Norway, at 3 P.M., he met forty people, all the Ministers of State and great officers in full dress with their 'orders' on; also three peasant Labour Candidates in the costume of their country, being Members of the Storthing. He also met Count Videll, a 'most fascinating person'

who, being asked as to the purchase of a carriage, replied politely, 'I will give you one'; and he sent it, saying, 'It is nothing, I have plenty.' The valley of the Drammen he beheld from the mountain of their descent, 'charm and awe' by turns are the sensations of the travellers, and this led them on to Kongsberg, at one time famous for its silver mines, but the mines not being worked and the timber trade also decreasing, the population went with it and was then only 4000. The travellers went down the only silver mine then worked, in the dress of a miner, walked through a horizontal gallery a mile long till they came to the shaft, and descended two storeys but could not proceed, the fire being just lit below.

'This mine returns about 1250 sterling of silver per ann. Sixty miners are employed at 14 a year each! Bears, wolves and reindeer abound in this vicinity. There is plenty of iron, not worked, and gold has also been found in Kongsberg. From thence to Topam(?) we were surprised to find ourselves driven up to the door of a gentleman's place, out came Jack Butler, and the master of the house, pressing us to walk in; after excuses and proper hesitation we accepted, and found ourselves in a room with people at supper, ladies pretty ones too, who spoke English!

'The fact is that Topam, of which we had heard so much, is a gentleman's place; after dinner we were shown to our room (one only was vacant).

Walrond had a bed and I slept in my cloak.'