Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/251

 11 S. XL MAR. 27, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

241

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 1915.

CONTENTS. No. 274.

INOTES : Levant Merchants in Cyprus, 241 Holcroft Bibliography, 244 Sir Philip Francis not Junius, 245 The War: New Words Lord Raglan's Disregard of Euripides The Military Medal and Sir John French- Death of a Birkenhead Survivor, 246 London's Spas, Baths, and Wells Beethoven's Nationality Black Wool as a Cure for Deafness, 247.

QUERIES : " The tune the old cow died of " Our National Anthem : Standard Version Russian National Anthem Bagpipes for Highland Regiments, 248 Robert Ranken "Tubby": "Fi-ti" Author Wanted Petrus Maxai at Canterbury The Zancigs Snakes in Iceland 'The Rise of the Hohenzollerns ' " The Lady of the Lamp "Aleppo : Tilly Kettle, 249 Sherren : Sherwyn Humility Sunday John Roberts Richard Robinson- Tubular Bells in Church Steeples Portraits of Thoreau Author of Quotation Wanted-Courtesy Titles Sophia Marian Harp, 250 Rev. John Williamson, F.R.S. Alfonso de Baena ' A Tale of a Tub 'Sandys : Roberts Chapman : Tyson, 251. %

REPLIES : Judges addressed as " Your Lordship " : John Udall, 251-Early Railway Travelling, 253 Duck's Storm : Goose's Storm "Sir Andrew " English Consuls in Aleppo, 254 Bishop Thomas Ravis Tyn'a Kainra. KaKLcrra "Fingers" of the Clock, 255 Bonington's Picture of the Grand Canal. Venice " Cyder Cellars " South Carolina before 1776 German Soldiers' Amulets Wright of Essex, 256 Cromwell's Ironsides Elizabeth Cobbold's Descent from Edmund Waller Locks on Rivers and Canals Dryden and Swift, 257 " Wangle "- Reversed Engravings Marybone Lane and Swallow Street Cockburn, 258.

I^OTES ON BOOKS: The Histories of Tacitus' 'The Library Journal.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

LEVANT MERCHANTS IN CYPRUS:

SOCIAL LIFE. (See ante, p. 222.)

WE have lost the most wonderful oppor- tunity of hearing a vivid account of the Levant merchants and their Consuls through the failure of Oliver Goldsmith to obtain the post of doctor to the Factory at Aleppo in 1761 ; his place was supplied by Dr. Russell. Both in Cyprus and Aleppo the circumstances of life were the same at this period. The working hours of the day were passed in the counting-house, and depended very much on the arrival or departure of ships. Long hours of idleness are often referred to in the correspondence, and Dr. Russell states that the greatest drawback to a residence in the Levant was the difficulty of finding occupa- tion. In the older letters from Aleppo the characteristic English love of vocal and instrumental music is constantly evinced

by inquiries about new compositions by Purcell, and other authors of the period. Musical soirees were the most usual enter- tainments of society, and must have con- stituted a salutary recreation in such com- munities, shut off from outside intercourse with their kind in a way only comparable with Pitcairn Islanders of the present day.

The English houses at Larnaca were exactly like the old kind of Turkish houses still built in Cyprus. The ground floor was occupied by magazines and servants' apart- ments ; the lodging of the merchant and his family, with the female servants or slaves, was above, the rooms communicating by an open gallery, which served frequently as a place of exercise in the daytime, and for sleeping purposes during the heat of summer.

The houses seem to have been well furnished much better than in the earlier days of the Aleppo Colony perhaps on account of the English in Cyprus leading a more decidedly family life. When persons were sleeping on the outside of the house, beds were fitted with curtains probably mosquito curtains a thing which the natives seem not to have made use of at that time.

The tables of the Europeans in the Levant were well supplied with provisions of all kinds. The cooks, as well as many of the other servants, were Armenians who had learnt French and English cookery. Cyprus has always been famous for its wine abundant, but of very inferior quality and the English seem to have drunk it ; their favourite beverage was, however, " punch," and the other Europeans seem to have acquired this taste also. John Heyman's reference ('Travels,' 1720) to the famous Cyprus wine is curious : he mentions an Englishman who was in the habit of sending wine (probably Commander ia) to England for the benefit of the sea voyage, receiving it back again at Larnaca.

The merchants were great sportsmen as Englishmen have always been but sport was sometimes beset with a danger which might not have been anticipated by any one unaccustomed to the peculiarities of Levan- tine life. Many cases occurred of gentlemen out fowling finding themselves surrounded by pirates, who, attracted by the report of
 * v "" " birding pieces," made an attack upon

their

them, after they had satisfied themselves the gentlemen's guns were empty. Fortunately this is a thing of the past in Cyprus.

Hare -hunting was a favourite sport of the English. It was usually carried on by a company of twenty or more horsemen, one of whom carried a falcon. The greyhounds