Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/69

 ti B. xii. JULY 24, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

61

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 3k, 1915.

CONTENTS. No. 291.

INOTES :The Levant Company in Smyrna, 61 Seven teenth - Century Travel in Europe, 63 Statues ant Memorials in the British Isles, 65 "It is more than a crime, it is a blunder" Parish Registers The Las Toilette, 66-The Empires of the Air and Sea Thomas James Mathias John Chapman, Publisher, 67.

QUERIES : Madame Vigee Le Brun John de Watford- George Dibdin Pitt's Dramas, 67 High Sheriffs o Counties Authors of French Quotations Wanted Sub dedication of Naves in Monastic Churches Burlesqui Sermon Cambronne's Reply Webster Vocalist " Prince of Wales's Tavern." near Sloane Street Author anc Correct Version Wanted Mrs. W. H. Trinder, 68 Biographical Information Wanted Source of Rimes Wanted Kirkover, Miniature Painter Chilcomb Rouget de Lisle Best English Historical Novel Author and Translator Wanted, 69.

REPLIES : The Site of the Globe, 70 Waterloo "The Ice Saints," 71 ' L'Intermediaire ' : Comte Axel von Schwering Agnes, Daughter of Louis XI. Parish Regis ters, 72 Clerks in Holy Orders as Combatants James Brogden, M.P. "The tallest one-piece flagstaff in the British Empire "Dr. Luzzato, 73 Dr. Allen, obiit 1579 "Here we come gathering nuts and may," 74 History of England with Riming Verses Price : Robins : Bulkeley: Kirkman. 75 Capture of Trincomalee " Two Tazes of ginger" Origin of Quotations Wanted, 76 ' Excerpta Legationum ' Old City Rate-Books Holcroft of Vale Royal ' Revelations of Peter Brown," 77 Anstrutber, Fife Pegler and Hetty Pegler's Tump William Borrows Mrs. J. P. Kemble Origin of 'Omne Bene,' 78 St. Saviour's, Southwark, 79.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-The Oxford Dictionary. 'Engravings and Books on Art. The Future of ' Notes and Queries.' Notices to Correspondents.

JStuta*

THE LEVANT COMPANY IN SMYRNA.

SMYRNA was an important station of the Company during the eighteenth century- Aleppo having somewhat declined as the centre of the overland trade with the nearer East. But Smyrna was very much modernized and altered during the nineteenth century, and the old Consulate with its private chapel in Frank Street, the merchants' Tipuses, and even the old cemeteries have all disappeared. A friend in Smyrna writes me :

"There was a British cemetery just in the centre ot Smyrna containing many interesting monuments, but it was sold for the paltry sum of 300Z., which scarcely paid for the removal of the gravestones to a new cemetery outside the town (some years ago)."

In the graveyard of the Armenian Cathe- dral in Armenian Street was formerly a .gravestone to the memory of Capt. John

Mozer, an Englishman who died in 1637. At this date the English evidently possessed no cemetery of their own.

Spon and Wheeler visited Smyrna in 1674 during their tour, and were entertained by a large English colony. Several of the mer- chants' names are recorded, and Mr. Bicaut, author of the ' Present State of the Greek Church,' was then acting as Consul.

Another traveller of the same period was the Rev. Thos. Smith, Fellow of Magdalen College, who describes the enthusiasm of the English Smyrna merchants for antiquities, and their practice of visiting the ruins of Ephesus every autumn (' Remarks on the Turks, &c.,' London, 1678).

In 1717 De Tournefort ('Voyage du Levant,' Paris. 1717) describing the bonne chere which he enjoyed at the French Consulate, mentions the presence of the English Consul and a considerable com- munity.

The growing importance of the colony during the seventeenth century is shown by the demand for a "preacher" or chaplain in 1635 (Court Minutes, 28 Feb., 1635. Epstein's ' History,' 1908).

The English colony in Smyrna of the eighteenth century has disappeared without leaving any records, beyond the occasional references to be found in books of travels and the Court Minutes preserved in London. The consular house and chapel, and the merchants' premises of the period, having been pulled down, and rebuilt in a modern style, there is little to record the presence of the Levant Company outside the cemetery. But, unfortunately, the interments have been removed to a, cemetery near the Caravan Bridge, which crosses the river Meles, some distance from the centre of the town.

The merchants of Smyrna at the present day live in their villas at Boudja and Bournabat suburbs at some distance from the town and they have their English churches and cemeteries in these two places. The following list of such memorials as survive of members of the English Levant Company buried in Smyrna is copied from a record at the Consulate. This list was made at the time when the old cemetery was sold r or a building site, and the remains were ransferred to the existing three cemeteries of Caravan Bridge, Boudja, and Bournabat. The number of British subjects residing at Smyrna during the past two centuries las, of course, been considerable, but any- thing like a complete list of burials in dif- erent parts of the place would be difficult
 * o obtain. The names on the few tombs