Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

corpulent, convivial, equestrian knight Sir Levett Hanson, quondam chamberlain to the Duke of Modena, and grand cross and distributor of the Order of St. Joachim, than whom no one could conduct himself in a more gentlemanly manner,' we do not recollect another of whom this fastidious person speaks in terms of tolerable respect. Even the integrity of Mr. Pitt's political principles, and the wisdom of Sir William Scott's decisions, are called in question by him in no very measured terms; and we are not therefore surprised at the indecent manner in which he has vented his spleen at the appointment of Mr. Thornton as English minister at Stockholm, or at the scurrilous language in which he assails De Coninck, a very respectable banker at Copenhagen.

[ocr errors]

As neither of these gentlemen had, as far as we know, written on the Northern Courts,' and cannot therefore have interfered with Mr. Brown's literary labours, their names are marked with obloquy purely to gratify some malevolent feeling. Those who have preceded him as authors are comparatively fair game for criticism. Let us see how he has executed the act of duty which was imposed upon him by gratitude,' as he tells us in his preface.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

'Next to Whitelock's Journal,' says Mr. Brown, the best work extant is the Rev. Mr. Coxe's.' As, however, he was before described though not a servile man still as a flatterer of kings,' and as sundry errors are remarked in his book, we naturally trembled for those of whom no such favourable mention was likely to be made.

Of these the first victim is Mr. Joseph Acerbi. His work is made up of plagiarisms, of original falsehoods, and sheer nonsense.' This, it must be confessed, is rather a tranchant style of criticism, and though it may be true, for aught we know, it is amusing to hear a plagiarist so roughly handled by the author of the Northern Courts.'

[ocr errors]

Next come Sir John Carr and his 'Northern Summer.' Sir John, it seems, is less malignant than Mr. Acerbi; but, alas! his errors are seated in his-head! and we can comprehend therefore, without any reference to the system of Gall or Spurzheim, that they must have had a very prejudicial effect upon his powers of compo

sition.

Sir Robert Ker Porter is dismissed in a very few words. An unlucky inclination to report favourably of the unfortunate Gustavus has spoilt all, and he is convicted of a want of liberality towards Swedish artists, and a servility of mind highly disreputable.'

[ocr errors]

With Dr. Thomson, the next culprit, there seems to be more conformity of opinion than with the rest of those who have gone before Mr. Brown as writers on Sweden. In the outset, tiality on the part of the doctor in exalting the picturesque beauty of his favourite city (Edinburgh) at the expense of Stockholm,' very

a par

nearly

nearly involves him in disgrace-but he finally escapes with sundry corrections and friendly admonitions.

Not so Mr. J. T. James, the last on the list, for whom is reserved the whole measure of Mr. Brown's indignation, and who is accused, under various forms, of hauteur and illiberality; of a want of candour and self-cultivation in his remarks upon the people and artists of Sweden; and a predisposition to see every thing that he found there in an unfavourable light.'

As this involves a charge against our countrymen in general, with whom (as Mr. Brown assures us) the practice of writing and speaking to the prejudice of those foreign countries they have visited, and thereby rendering the English name unpopular abroad, is too prevalent, we are anxious, by shewing how totally unfounded are the attacks made upon the entertaining and well-informed traveller whom he has selected for the prime object of his criticism, to repel the accusation. Mr. James, it appears, is taxed with a want of liberality, for venturing to describe the higher orders of Sweden as cold and ceremonious; the artists as still capable of improvement; and the style of architecture and decoration which prevails in the capital, as for the most part in bad taste. Now though we believe that all who have read the book will be ready to acknowledge the tone of good humour and unaffected candour which prevail throughout, we shall let Mr. James speak for himself in answer to the first part of the accusation.

'But a Swede is never in extremes: even these traits are not deeply marked, and if we review the more favourable side of his character, we shall find in him an undaunted spirit of perseverance, and an honest love of freedom, to which the feelings of every one does homage; and I may truly affirm that no traveller passes from these shores but he quits them with regret, and ever afterwards takes the strongest interest in whatever tidings he may hear which concern the welfare of the nation. In the higher classes the mind is necessarily tempered by the grace and fashion of society, and there are many whom private sentiments of respect would lead me at all times to acknowledge with warm expressions of gratitude, and to recall with peculiar pleasure, many a happy hour I have spent at Stockholm.'-p. 141.

[ocr errors]

Mr. Brown tells us with some degree of self-satisfaction that he associated in Sweden with persons of as great rank and consequence as Mr. James. Of this common-place vulgarity there are abundant symptoms in his volumes. Lord Erskine and the author of the "Northern Courts" had a serious conversation on this subject.'-vol. ii. p. 300. And another conversation (which we doubt not was equally serious) is stated to have taken place between Mr. Brown and the Chevalier Edlercrantz. But because Mr. James has the good taste to make no parade of these matters, nor to give, according to Mr. Brown's fashion, the titles at full length of all his

[blocks in formation]

knightly acquaintance of the Sword, Polar Star, and Seraphim-Sir Herman of Lastholm, K. P. S., Sir Charles Frederick von Breda, K.V., Sir Charles Axel Lindroth, K. P.S. &c.-it does not therefore follow that he is inclined to treat the nobility of Sweden with insolence and contempt;' nor can any proof be brought of such a feeling on his part.

In spite of Mr. Brown's long dissertation on the merits and performances of Sergell, we are not inclined to entertain any very exalted opinion of his taste in the fine arts, or of his acquaintance with their professors. That Sweden should not be able to boast of painters equal to the highest walks of the art, and that Sergell should not rival Phidias, is by no means surprizing. Whatever may have been the progress of the other arts and sciences in the civilized world, in painting and statuary a falling off has unquestionably taken place; and this, we conceive, is the only implication' which Mr. James intended when, speaking of the professors of the arts in Sweden, he wound up the sentence on Sergell with the morceau' so offensive to Mr. Brown. Of the general merits of the artists of Sweden, Mr. James always thought with respect and spoke with liberality.

'Falcrantz as a painter of landscapes,' he says, 'stands the first in reputation, and, indeed, may fairly be ranked among the best artists of the present day.'-p. 122.

Again. There is no country in Europe which, in proportion to her numbers, has contributed so largely to the advancement of science as Sweden, and none in which it is still more steadily and successfully pursued.'-p. 125.

[ocr errors]

From the display made by Mr. Brown of his knowledge of the Swedish language, and his perpetual blunders in every other, we suspect that his studies, like his travels, have not been very excursive. Under such an alias as that by which she is described, we have had some difficulty in recognizing a well known statue twice mentioned by Mr. Brown under different titles- Venus du belle fesses,' and Venus de belles fesses.' We would venture also to hint to him, that Tu Marcellus erit' can never be Thou shalt be Marcellus.' The strictures upon Mr. James and Dr. Thomson, the one for mispelling the town Abo,' and the other for designating the stream which flows into the sea at Gottenburgh as the River Gotha,' appear to be pedantic and absurd. Obo is spelled as it is pronounced, and although the Gotha in its course goes by two other names, we shall continue to follow Mr. Coxe and Mr. James in giving it that title until it shall be proved that the Thames should be styled the Isis or the Tame. The stream which is called Clara before it merges in the Wenern Lake, on quitting it takes the name of the province through which it flows, and becomes the Gotha.- -But we must have done with Mr. Brown.

ART.

ART. VIII. Observations relating to some of the Antiquities of Egypt, from the Papers of the late Mr. Davison. Published in Walpole's Memoirs. 1817.

[ocr errors]

F some of our consuls have merited the reproach of having made their public station subservient to their private interests, and of wholly neglecting those researches into objects of literature or science which their situation might have brought fairly within their reach, the names of Bruce, Davison and Salt may safely be mentioned as honourable exceptions from it. Mr. Bruce has nobly rescued his own name from any inattention to objects of scientific research;―so has Mr. Salt, as we shall presently see:—and to Mr. Walpole the literary world is now indebted for bringing forward a small part of the discoveries and observations of Mr. Davison in Egypt, which had been hitherto known only to a few of his friends.

In the year 1763, Mr. Davison, then consul at Algiers, accompanied Wortley Montague to Egypt. He resided (Mr. Walpole informs us) eighteen months at Cairo; made frequent visits to the pyramids of Gizeh, Saccara and Dashour, and several excursions in the vicinity of Alexandria with the Duke de Chaulnes, with whom he afterwards embarked for Europe. While performing quarantine in the Lazaretto at Leghorn, the duke contrived, by means of a false key, to get possession, and to take copies, of Mr. Davison's papers and drawings. On coming to London, a few years afterwards, he advertised a publication of his own researches, with drawings by Mr. Davison, whom he had the impudence to designate as his secretary. Whether he knew that Mr. Davison was still alive does not appear; but on the very day (Sept. 9th, 1783) which he had appointed for an engraver to wait on him, he received a written remonstrance, on the part of that gentleman, which obliged him to relinquish his design. He had then the effrontery to propose a joint publication, which Mr. Davison indignantly declined. Mr. Walpole adds, that there are two plates in Sonnini's travels, from drawings of Mr. Davison, which could only have been communicated by the Duke de Chaulnes.

The papers now first published, from the journals of Mr. Davison, consist of his measurements of the pyramid of Cheops, by taking that of each individual step or altar from the base to the summit, and subsequently with the theodolite-an account of his descent into the 'Well,' (as it is usually called,) which is mentioned by Pliny as being eighty-six cubits in depth-of his discovery of a room over the chamber containing the sarcophagus, which had escaped Maillet, though he had been forty times within the ругаmid; which Niebuhr could not find, though told of it by Mr. Meynard, who accompanied Mr. Davison; and which had not

[ocr errors]

been

been visited by any other traveller until last year. There is, besides, a correspondence between him and Professor White, on the subject of Abdallatif's account of the pyramids; and a description of the catacombs of Alexandria, of which very little seems then to have been known, as they scarcely appear to have been noticed by preceding travellers. The only portion of these Papers which it is our intention to examine, is the account of the Well and the new chamber in the great pyramid, as preliminary to some recent and unpublished discoveries, which we are about to lay before our readers.

In a short but comprehensive letter addressed to M. Varsy, the author observes that, as he conceived the supposed Well to be of vast depth, he provided himself with a large quantity of rope, which turned out to be no useless precaution-for though he found a sort of steps or holes in the rock, yet the lower part of them were so worn away, as to risk a fall and consequent destruction by trusting to them alone. To avoid so calamitous an event, Mr. Davison tied a rope round his middle; and previously to his descent, let down a lantern attached to the end of a small cord, which, on finding it soon to stop, he prepared to follow. With much persuasion he prevailed on two of his servants and three Arabs to hold the rope ;the Arabs assured him there were ghosts below, and that he never could hope to return. Mr. Davison laughed at their timidity; and taking with him a few sheets of paper, a compass, a measure, and another lighted candle, commenced the descent, and soon reached the bottom of the first well or shaft. Here he found, on the south side, at the distance of about eight feet from the first shaft, a second opening which descended perpendicularly, to the depth of five feet only; and at four feet ten inches from the bottom of this, a third shaft, the mouth of which was nearly choaked up with a large stone, leaving only a small opening, barely sufficient to allow a man to pass. Here he thought it prudent to let down his lantern, not only to discover to what depth he was about to proceed, but also to ascertain if the air was pernicious. The shaft, however, was so tortuous that the candle soon became invisible; but Mr. Davison was not to be discouraged-nothing less than a journey to the bottom would satisfy his eager curiosity: the difficulty was how to prevail on the Arabs to come down and hold the rope. To all his entreaties they only answered, that, a few years before, a Frank having got to the place where he then was, let down a rope to discover the depth, when the devil caught hold of it, and plucked it out of his hands. 'I was well aware,' says Mr. Davison, to whom they were indebted for this story-the Dutch consul swore that the thing happened to himself.' After many prayers, and threats, and

[ocr errors]

promises

« ZurückWeiter »