Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/153

Rh received by Mr. James Calvert, the acting Consul, and his brother Frank.

We took up our quarters in their country-house at Renkoi, a village distant about three hours south of the Dardanelles, and very near the sea-coast. This house was built by Mr. Lander, the uncle of the present Consul. Here I found a few stray relics of European civilization; such as a grim picture of Sir Thomas Maitland, flanked by two family portraits of beauties of George III.'s time, a pianoforte, a bagatelle-table, some of the new books published last year in England, and various other little luxuries unknown to Mytilene.

The Calverts carry on a considerable trade in val- lonia. The vallonia oak (Quercus Ægilops) covers a very large district in the Troad, and is cultivated for the sake of the cup of the acorn, which is much used in preparing and dyeing leather in England. The acorns themselves are given to the pigs; but there are such quantities that they are even burnt as fuel. The Calverts have two farms, or chifliks, where they have introduced two or three English ploughs. The wooden implement of the Turkish peasant has been scratching the back of Asia Minor for many centuries, without ever disturbing the rich subsoil. The Troad has been a most neglected and wild region for ages; but the Greeks are beginning now to cultivate it. They are gaining ground, as they do in most places along the coasts of Asia Minor, and the Turks are gradually giving way before them, abandoning their estates for want of energy and of means to cultivate them.