' #/^/ I <- <-~^t?£ 
 
 NARRATIVE 
 
 OF WHAT IS KNOWN RESPECTING THE 
 
 fliterarp memaittg 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LATE JOHN TWEDDELL, 
 
 BY 
 
 PHILIP HUNT, LL.D. 
 
 FORMERLY CHAPLAIN TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE EARL OF ELGIN, 
 
 AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY, &C. &C. &C 
 
 AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 A SHORT ANSWER TO CERTAIN ALLUSIONS 
 
 MADE BY 
 
 DR. E. D. CLARKE, 
 
 In the Third Section of the Second Part of his Travels in Greece, tyc. 
 
 SOttfeOlt : 
 PRINTED FOR RODWELL AND MARTIN, 
 
 (SUCCESSORS TO MR. FAULDER,) 
 NEW BOND STREET. 
 
 1816.
 
 Printed by J. Brcttell, 
 Rupert Street, llajrinarket,Lon<lou.
 
 v^ 
 
 NARRATIVE, #c 
 
 BEDFORD, 10th February, 1816, 
 
 AS a very lively interest has lately been 
 excited respecting the fate of certain ma- 
 nuscripts and drawings, left by the late Mr. 
 John Tweddell, when he died at Athens 
 upwards of sixteen years ago; and as 
 reference has been made to me respecting 
 my knowledge of their history, both by his 
 brother, Mr. Robert Tweddell, and by the 
 * Reviewers of his Biographical Memoir, 
 in terms which I am conscious I do not 
 deserve ; it becomes my duty thus pub- 
 licly to vindicate my character, by making 
 
 a full and detailed statement of all the par- 
 ■■i — , . i .ii. i ~. i 
 
 * Vide Christian Observer for June IS 15 ; and Edinburgh 
 P-eview, No. L.
 
 ticulars I can recollect concerning them ; 
 trusting I shall meet, from an impartial 
 public, with that indulgence which I have 
 not received from the Editor of " The 
 Remains," or his Reviewers ; but to which I 
 am fairly entitled, when I am retracing, 
 after the lapse of so long a period, events 
 in which I was only incidentally concerned, 
 and which occurred when I was almost in- 
 cessantly occupied by the public business 
 of the Embassy. 
 
 I must, however, premise, that when I 
 originally answered Mr. Robert Tweddell's 
 first letter of inquiry, in the year 1813, I 
 did not know that he was then correspond- 
 ing with Lord Elgin on the same subject ; 
 nor did 1 ever think of consulting his Lord- 
 ship about my answers; for, I had 
 then been for some years, as I still am, 
 estranged from all habits of intimacy, or 
 intercourse, or acquaintance with that 
 Nobleman, owing to circumstances in 
 which the public can now feel no interest; 
 and to which I shall, therefore, not allude 
 further,, than by saying that I am well con- 
 vinced my character would be far from
 
 suffering by a full discussion of them: 
 neither did I refer to any individual who 
 was in the ambassador's family in the year 
 1799» or subsequently ; nor even to any 
 letters or memoranda of my own ; but I 
 wrote to Mr. Robert Tweddell from the 
 place where I was on a visit in Hereford- 
 shire, whither his letter was forwarded to 
 me ; and which is at a considerable dis- 
 tance from my usual residence. So far 
 was I from having any intention to deceive 
 or mislead Mr. Robert Tweddell in the in- 
 vestigation he was pursuing, that I would 
 not confine myself in what I considered a 
 private correspondence with him, to what 
 I recollect to have actually seen, as if I 
 had been giving formal evidence ; but I 
 was anxious to furnish him with every faint 
 or doubtful impression that remained on 
 my mind, from incidents that had occurred, 
 or from conversations I had held in Turkey 
 with others who were best acquainted with 
 the subject. 
 
 I may also be permitted to observe that 
 although I did, at Mr. Robert Tweddell's 
 request, afterwards consent to the publica-
 
 tion of my letters, it was in ignorance of 
 his having any view or design of hostility 
 either towards myself or towards Lord 
 Elgin; and I was by no means prepared 
 to expect that what I communicated to him 
 in kindness and in confidence, for the pur- 
 pose of assisting him in the work he had 
 undertaken, was to be employed as a text, 
 upon which to accuse me before the public 
 for scantiness of information and inaccuracy 
 of recollection ; not to mention other still 
 more serious imputations. — At all events I 
 think it would have been more candid on 
 the part of Mr. Robert Tweddell, if his 
 remarks to this effect had been communi- 
 cated to me previous to their publication ; 
 and if an opportunity had been given me 
 of explaining whatever might seem to re- 
 quire it. 
 
 As I never knew nor suspected any thing 
 unfair in the transactions under considera- 
 tion, I of course did not at the time of their 
 occurrence charge my memory with pre- 
 cise dates and minute det ails ; and I am, 
 therefore, even now, after the maturest re- 
 flection, still liable to err; but I shall
 
 always be happy to be set right by those 
 who possess more accurate knowledge of 
 the facts. 
 
 I was well aware how very high an 
 estimate had been formed in England of 
 Mr. John Tweddell's Literary Remains, not 
 only by his own family and his Academical 
 friends, but by every lover of Classical pur- 
 suits : I was not without the hope that 
 some of the hints I thus gave his brother, 
 might perhaps enable him to trace and to 
 recover what was lost: and I sincerely 
 regret that such has not been the result. 
 
 How this proceeding on my part has 
 been met by Mr. Robert Tweddell, is 
 before the public ; as well as his contempt 
 of the pains I told him I had taken at 
 Pera, under Lord Elgin's directions, to 
 preserve for the family of the deceased, 
 such of the damaged papers as were en- 
 trusted to the care of myself and others, in 
 order to rescue them from destruction. 
 His mode of commenting on every article 
 in my letters that does not coincide with his 
 own wishes or prejudices, and on every opi- 
 nion that had been erroneously conceived,
 
 8 
 
 or inaccurately recollected by me, after 
 so long a period, is in a spirit so contrary 
 to what I bad a right to expect at his 
 hands, that I will not trust myself to ex- 
 press the indignation I feel. For, if I were 
 to give way to resentful sentiments, I 
 might thus be disqualified from writing 
 with that calmness which a plain and 
 simple narrative requires, and which the 
 public expects. Indeed, I covet not any 
 pleasure which might be derived from 
 cherishing or expressing vindictive feelings, 
 even on an occasion wherein I may have 
 suffered essentially in the opinion of many 
 whom this defence will never reach ; but 
 who have read, if not Mr. Robert Twed- 
 dell's comments on my letters to him, at 
 least the insinuations of The Christian 
 Observer, and the uncandid inferences of 
 the The Edinburgh Reviewer, which those 
 comments have occasioned. 
 
 Before I enter upon my narrative, I 
 must also assert, in the most positive and 
 unequivocal terms, that I never knew nor 
 suspected that any part of the writings, or 
 drawings, or inscriptions, of the late Mr.
 
 John Tweddell, were withheld from Ms 
 family by the Earl of Elgin, or by any 
 other person ; that I was grieved to learn 
 that his brother had not received them ; and 
 always felt, as I feel now, a firm conviction, 
 that Lord Elgin did transmit them to Mr. 
 John Tweddeirs friends in England. 
 
 I have lately heard much of some draw- 
 ings of Turkish Costumes, said to have 
 been amongst the papers delivered by Mr. 
 Thornton to Lord Elgin, and to have been 
 afterwards separated from the rest of Mr. 
 Tweddell's papers, and copied for the use 
 of his Lordship's friend, Mr. Nisbet, who 
 left Constantinople in the Spring of 1801, 
 by whom they are said to have been ul- 
 timately deposited amongst his Lordship's 
 papers. It will naturally be expected of 
 me to furnish some explanation respecting 
 these drawings; but the fact- is, that 
 though I remained at Constantinople until 
 the eve of Mr. Nisbet's departure, and met 
 that gentlemen afterwards at Athens, I 
 cannot bring to mind having ever seen any 
 such drawings among Mr. Tweddell's 
 effects, or having ever heard of their exist- 
 
 B
 
 10 
 
 ence, until the present controversy. It is 
 very possible that I may have seen them : 
 but as drawings of Turkish Costumes are 
 not in themselves of any great value, and 
 could not be an object of much curiosity 
 to a person living at Constantinople, the 
 circumstance would not be likely to make 
 any very durable impression on my me- 
 mory. 
 
 Upon my first perusal of the Edinburgh 
 Review I drew up some remarks, which it 
 was my intention to have printed at that 
 time, for the satisfaction of the public, and 
 for my own vindication. My friends, how- 
 ever, thought that I attached more import- 
 ance to the subject than it deserved ; and, 
 in deference to their judgment, I was con- 
 tent to suppress what I had written ; but 
 finding myself now again * publicly and 
 more pointedly called upon, and that the 
 subject has attracted more than ordinary 
 attention, I think it not right any longer to 
 withhold whatever it may be in my power 
 to contribute towards the satisfaction of 
 
 ^ ' ■ I ■ ■■ I ■ ■ I ■ I I ■ ■ ■! »^ ■ I ■ ■ I ■■-■»■■■■ — ^— ^— — I ^^M-^— .■■ JHI ■■ ■■ ■ I - - 
 
 * Augustan Review, No. 10.
 
 11 
 
 the literary world, and my own private 
 exculpation. 
 
 In the latter end of the year 1799 I 
 reached Constantinople with the Earl of 
 Elgin, then Ambassador Extraordinary 
 from Great Britain to the Ottoman Porte. 
 I had been appointed Chaplain to the 
 Levant Company at Constantinople, and 
 Domestic Chaplain to his Excellency. The 
 other persons of his Suite were, the Rev. 
 Mr. Carlyle, Professor of Arabic at Cam- 
 bridge (who had been attached to the 
 Embassy by Government, in order to search 
 the libraries of the palaces, mosques, and 
 convents, in Turkey, for any unedited 
 manuscripts they might contain in oriental, 
 classical, or biblical literature), Mr. J. P. 
 Morier, and Mr. William Hamilton, his 
 Excellency's private secretaries, and Dr. 
 M'Lean, his physician. It appeared to me 
 that Professor Carlyle had the greatest and 
 almost exclusive confidence of the Ambas- 
 sador. He lived with him upon terms of 
 the greatest intimacy, during the voyage 
 from England, and for some time after our
 
 12 
 
 arrival at the Porte. To me his Excellency, 
 from the early part of our intercourse, 
 behaved so differently from what my 
 hopes, perhaps too sanguine, had antici- 
 pated, that I soon felt my situation in the 
 British palace at Pera, very irksome, and 
 requested leave to quit the Embassy, and 
 return home. But, by the persuasion of 
 my friends, and the desire of being useful 
 to my country in the important affairs that 
 had arisen from the war in Egypt, the 
 interest of which was daily increasing, I 
 was induced to comply with his Excel- 
 lency's urgent request of remaining in his 
 Suite till the close of the Embassy. 
 
 Mr. William Hamilton had quitted us 
 at Sicily, in order to engage for Lord Elgin, 
 and, with the aid and advice of Sir Wil- 
 liam Hamilton, then British Envoy at 
 Palermo, the best artists which Italy could 
 furnish for drawing, surveying, and model- 
 ling the remains of architecture and sculp- 
 ture in Greece; and he did not join us with 
 them till some months after our arrival. 
 These artists were soon afterwards sent to 
 Athens, with extensiveferniaunsj and every
 
 13 
 
 facility Lord Elgin couJd obtain for en- 
 abling them to prosecute their researches 
 and labours, 
 
 When we reached Constantinople, a- 
 mongst the first news we heard, was an 
 account of the melancholy death of Mr. 
 John Tweddell, at Athens ; who, we were 
 told, had fallen a victim to an infectious 
 fever, caught from the Mai aria of the un- 
 wholesome marshes of some parts of Greece, 
 through which he had passed in the sum- 
 mer. Lord Elgin, and Professor Carlyle, 
 both of whom had known him intimately, 
 were much affected by the intelligence ; and 
 if I had not previously formed a very high 
 respect for his talents and virtues, from the 
 character he had established at Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, the enthusiastic terms 
 in which he was praised by the British 
 residents, and the foreign corps diplomatique 
 at Pera, with whom he had passed some 
 time, would have convinced me that litera- 
 ture had thus prematurely lost one of her 
 most ardent and accomplished cultivators, 
 and society one of its brightest ornaments. 
 I can assert, most truly, that there was not
 
 14 
 
 one individual in the English Embassy, 
 who would not have done his utmost to 
 protect the literary remains, and honour 
 the memory of John Tweddell. 
 
 We soon heard, more particularly, that 
 Mr. Tweddell had died in the house of 
 Signor Logotheti, then a Greek Baratli, or 
 person privileged by being in the service, 
 and under the protection of the British 
 Embassy. This respectable man was 
 generally applied to by English travellers, 
 in preference to one Signor Macri, then 
 our Vice-Consul at Athens; and it was 
 some consolation to know, that from this 
 kind and honourable host he had received 
 every attention that the place could fur- 
 nish; and that even a wish poor Tweddell 
 had expressed of being buried in the 
 Temple of Theseus, now a Christian 
 Church, had been fulfilled. 
 
 The next circumstance which I recollect 
 is, that I was taken one evening by his Ex- 
 cellency, together with Mr. Thornton, and 
 several other gentlemen, into a room in the 
 palace, to examine some boxes and cases, 
 containing the effects of the late Mr.
 
 > 15 
 
 Tweddell. It was evident that these boxes 
 had sustained considerable injury ; but at 
 what time, or through what channels they 
 had reached this room in the English 
 palace at Pera, I could not recollect in 
 detail, when I first answered Mr. Robert 
 Tweddell's letter of inquiry, thirteen years 
 after that visit had occurred : the circum- 
 stances that most strongly, and almost ex- 
 clusively rested on my memory, were that 
 the boxes appeared to have been forced 
 open ; and that the contents of some were 
 wet and mouldy, and soaked or drenched 
 throughout. 
 
 We understood that the effects of which 
 Mr. Tweddell had died possessed at Athens, 
 had been shipped there by the English 
 agent, and sent to the care of the British 
 minister at Constantinople ; and that the 
 vessel in which they were put having been 
 wrecked, or sunk, or stranded somewhere 
 in the sea of Marmara, they had been 
 spoiled and injured*. 
 
 * It now appears, by an investigation, instituted by 
 the Levant Company, at the request of Mr. Robert
 
 16 
 
 From consulting Mr. Robert Tweddell's 
 Memoir, I now recollect that some pack- 
 ages which had been left by Mr. John 
 Tweddell, under Mr. Thornton's care, at 
 Pera, previously to his fatal visit to Athens, 
 were among the effects we then examined : 
 having been given to Lord Elgin's care, by 
 Mr. Thornton, as I now understand; but I 
 repeat, that this important circumstance 
 was not recollected by me, when I first 
 wrote to Mr. Robert Tweddell, in 1813. 
 However, I am convinced that such was 
 the fact: for I well remember to have then 
 seen a quarto manuscript, containing a 
 Tour in Switzerland, fairly written out, as 
 
 Tweddell, in the year 1814, that this vessel was wrecked 
 at Coutali, in the Sea of Marmara ; " that the packages 
 " remained three days covered hy the waves ; and as 
 " soon as the storm had subsided, were driven on shore, 
 " broken by the surf. The keys cf the trunks having 
 " been inclosed in a chest, were lost; as it was found 
 " impossible to save the aforesaid chest from the 
 " wreck:" and from a letter of Isaac Morier, Esq. Con- 
 sul-General at Constantinople, dated December 10 
 1814, it appears 'that those effects were in a deplorable 
 condition. — Fide" Remains of John Tweddell '," p. 439.
 
 17 
 
 if for the press. Whether it was in French 
 or English I do not recollect: but, as Mr. 
 Thornton states that very Tour to have been 
 among the effects saved by him out of the 
 great fire at Pera, and given by him to 
 Lord Elgin, with the other property of Mr. 
 Tweddell to be forwarded to England, I can 
 now have no doubt that I then saw all the 
 effects of the Deceased that came into the 
 Ambassador's custody. I also now recol- 
 lect that I then saw a full-dress Windsor 
 uniform, of dark blue and gold, undamag- 
 ed, which must also have been amongst 
 Mr. Thornton's deposits : I also saw a 
 number of cards, rather larger than playing 
 cards, on which were written, in a very fine 
 and small hand, what appeared to be 
 abridgments of conversations with, and 
 short anecdotes of, illustrious or remark- 
 able persons whom he met on his travels ; 
 these were also uninjured, as well as I can 
 recollect. 
 
 Undoubtedly, therefore, I must thus 
 have seen both portions of Mr. Tweddell's 
 property, which were then placed under 
 
 c
 
 
 IS 
 
 Lord Elgin's care : I mean that which had 
 arrived wet and damaged from Athens, 
 after having been wrecked ; and that which 
 had been rescued from the flames at Pera. 
 This latter portion, also, as appears from 
 Mr. Thornton's Letter*, had been broken 
 open by Mr. Thornton himself, and re- 
 mained so till it was sent to Lord Elgin : 
 and Mr. Thornton says " he was not with- 
 " out apprehension that some of the pro- 
 • 6 perty might have been lost at the fire." 
 
 I wish I could even now recal to my 
 memory, with any approach to exactness, 
 What the whole of the property consisted 
 of, Which was thus received by Lord Elgin 
 from Mr. Thornton : but I can aver that I 
 have no recollection whatever of any port- 
 folios of valuable drawings amongst it; 
 though such things there may have been. 
 However, the effects thus delivered over by 
 Mr. Thornton being dry and in good con- 
 dition, were put aside by Lord Elgin's 
 orders. 
 
 # Vide Appendix to Lord Elgin's Letter to the Editor 
 of the Edinburgh Reriew, page 42.
 
 19 
 
 An inventory or catalogue of some paft 
 of these packages was, I think, referred to 
 at the time : but I do not recollect that 
 any remark was made by those who were 
 present, except that some gold and silver 
 medals were missing, as well as the setting 
 of a miniature, and some other small 
 articles of gold, perhaps rings or trinkets : 
 and I thought the conjecture was, that this 
 had been done by Divers who had saved 
 the trunks from the wreck : but in this 
 Mr. Tweddell accuses me of erroneous 
 conjecture, by shewing that no Divers were 
 employed : I thought I had heard there 
 were ; and so Mr. Thornton appears to 
 have thought when he says, * " they had 
 " been fished up out of the sea." J also 
 think that the gold watch of the deceased 
 was then said to be missing ; but in this 
 my recollection may be imperfect : I do 
 not however remember to have seen any 
 watch among the property. As to vases, 
 
 * Vide Mr. Thornton's Letter to Mr. Tweddell, Sen. 
 in Lord Elgin's Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh 
 Review, page 43.
 
 20 
 
 lamps, pottery, engraved gems, or any ob- 
 jects of ancient art, I have no recollec- 
 tion that there was even one single speci- 
 men, except some bronze coins. But, 
 whatever was the extent or the description 
 of the whole effects thus examined that 
 evening, Lord Elgin separated that part of 
 them which was in good preservation, and 
 he sent to an airy room on the first floor of 
 the palace (afterwards the apartment of 
 Mr. Carlyle) that part of the manuscripts, 
 drawings, &c. which had been soaked with 
 sea water, and thus become mouldy and 
 rotten, some of them adhering in a mass 
 like pulp, so as to require great care and 
 delicacy in attempting to separate them. 
 But though some portions were not capa- 
 ble of being recovered, others had suffered 
 much less permanent injury. The princi- 
 pal share of this task devolved upon myself, 
 assisted I think by Mr. Carlyle : and as to 
 the drawings, Lord Elgin called in the aid 
 and advice of Mr. Barker, who happened 
 to be then at Pera, making a panorama of 
 Constantinople and the Bosphorus. 
 These drawings were in water colours:
 
 21 
 
 and I have but a very faint recollection of 
 the subjects of them. I cannot bring to 
 my memory any views of temples or ruins, 
 or scenes celebrated in ancient history: 
 but I recollect some sketches of dances, 
 marriage ceremonies, and customs and 
 usages of modern Greeks: when I was 
 afterwards at Athens, and mentioned to 
 M. Fauvel what I recollected of the nature 
 of the drawings that had thus reached 
 Constantinople, he assured me that Mr. 
 John TweddelPs collection at Athens had 
 been much more extensive than what I had 
 described to him ; and that depredation 
 must have been made on the property of 
 the deceased. Such of these damaged 
 drawings as could be dried, were, with 
 the written memorandum-books and loose 
 papers, and whatever had required drying, 
 all given back to Lord Elgin, even to the 
 most minute fragment, to be taken care of, 
 with the other property of Mr. Tweddell ; 
 after which I do not recollect again seeing 
 them. Many of the drawings, perhaps, 
 from the gum in the colours being dis- 
 solved by the sea water, were so much ob-
 
 ffi 
 
 litorated, as to be of little value, when 
 dried : of these or any other drawings of 
 Mr. Tweddell, I never knew that any 
 sketch or copy was taken. 
 
 I have already quoted the account Mr. 
 Isaac Morier, British Consul General at 
 Constantinople, has sent of the condition 
 of those effects which had been wrecked in 
 their voyage from Athens (page 16). I will 
 now add a part of a letter * from Mr. 
 Professor Carlyle, who had examined these 
 manuscripts and drawings, to Mr. Losh, in 
 1800. " The writings (he says) were n?uch 
 Ci injured, and the sketches almost totally 
 ft spoiled by sea water. All of them were, 
 " however, separately dried, with the 
 " greatest care." 
 
 While we were employed in drying that 
 portion of Mr. Tweddell's papers, by plac- 
 ing them near brasicres of charcoal, and 
 exposing them leaf by leaf to the sun and 
 air during many days, we could not avoid 
 becoming acquainted with their contents : 
 
 * Vide Appendix to Tweddell's Remains, page 459.
 
 and of those papers alone I am now giving 
 a description, they forming the only part 
 of which I can speak fully from my own 
 knowledge. They consisted of some me- 
 morandum-books, mostly of a very thin 
 duodecimo size, and one or two thin 
 quartos: none, as far as I can recollect^ 
 very full of writing. Some contained 
 copies of letters, descriptive of his travels 
 on the shores of the Archipelago, and 
 others contained notes and portions of a 
 journal in theTroad, Macedonia, Thessaly, 
 Boeotia, and Attica, though very little, if 
 any thing, upon the magnificent temples 
 of the Acropolis of Athens, and nothing 
 according to the best of mv recollection 
 respecting the convents or libraries of 
 Mount Athos. There were many Greek 
 inscriptions, in capital letters, most exqui- 
 sitely written, in one or two small duo- 
 decimos. The notes and journal appeared 
 to have been written on the spot ; and to 
 contain hints from which he might form a 
 book at some subsequent period of leisure. 
 They were I think almost -entirely in the 
 French lanmm^e.
 
 24 
 
 From what I recollect of their style and 
 nature, Mr. John Tweddell's mind appears 
 to have been deeply tinged with melan- 
 choly during that tour : suggesting to him 
 sorrowful effusions of regret at what no 
 Jonger exists in Greece and Asia Minor, 
 more than accurate or detailed descrip- 
 tions of what remains. I do not recollect 
 that he made any remark, in his notes on 
 the Plain of Troy, from which I could 
 ascertain whether he acceded to the opi- 
 nion of Chevalier and Morrit as to the 
 topography, the names of the rivers, and 
 the appropriation of the Tumuli to Ajax, 
 Achilles, Priam, &c. I recollect his hint- 
 ing, that as he did not mean to write a 
 book, especially a great book, on Greece, 
 he merely notes down certain particulars 
 as hints for future reflection. Now, though 
 Mr. Robert Tweddell intimates that he 
 cannot allow it to be thought that his 
 brother's remarks on Greece were not very 
 extensive and valuable, I must repeat, that 
 what I saw or recollect of them were 
 not of the importance he attaches to 
 them. In one of the published letters of
 
 25 
 
 Mr. John Tweddell, written in Greece, 
 and about the time of his making those 
 remarks, he says, * " The fame of authorship 
 " is no longer of the same value in my 
 " eyes that it was formerly. It is added, 
 " in my estimation, to the long list of other 
 "worldly vanities, the sense of which is 
 " augmented by every day, and almost 
 " every hour that passes over me." His 
 friend, Mr. Thornton, speaking of Mr. 
 Tweddell's Journals, says, f " If he had 
 " lived to complete his tour, his name 
 " would have descended with honour to 
 " posterity ; and although the materials 
 " which he left, were dispersed and un- 
 " connected; those which remained were 
 " still sufficient, if collected and arranged 
 " by the hand of friendship, to form a mo- 
 " nument, which might rescue his memory 
 " from unmerited oblivion/' This may con- 
 firm the opinion that the actual journal and 
 notes which he left on Greece, may have 
 been over-rated by the expectations of his 
 
 # Vide Tweddell's Remains, page '283. 
 t Vide Appendix to Tweddell's Remains.
 
 m 
 
 friends, and the natural fondness of his 
 brother. 
 
 It already appears from these pages, 
 and I have before observed in my second 
 letter to Mr. Robert Tweddell, " that the 
 damaged state of the papers rendered the 
 looking of them over unavoidable." The 
 passages more particularly noted by me 
 on that occasion, were such as I hoped 
 might be useful in any excursion I might 
 make, over the same ground, and of these 
 I kept some extracts; but so little likely 
 did they appear to Professor Carlyle, or 
 myself, to open to us any new or interest- 
 ing discoveries, that when we made pre- 
 parations for our return to England, we 
 planned a totally different route, intending 
 to proceed by the Black Sea, to Sinope, and 
 Trebizond, and from thence through Syria 
 and Palestine. Mr. Carlyle's failing health, 
 however, deterred him from that arduous 
 undertaking, after we had made arrange- 
 ments for it: and he chose the easier and 
 shorter course of passing by the Dardanelles, 
 Mount Athos, and Macedonia; taking ship 
 there for Athens, and from thence to Malta
 
 27 
 
 and England. On that tour I accom- 
 panied Mr. Carlyle from Constantinople as 
 far as Athens, about March 1801; and the 
 extracts I had made from Mr. Tweddell's 
 Journal were useful to us, and to others to 
 whom I shewed them, who were then tra- 
 velling in Greece: but I do not remember 
 that they pointed out any objects of curi- 
 osity or interest at Mount Athos, or else- 
 where, which we should have missed with- 
 out them : if they had, I should have 
 great pleasure in acknowledging the obli- 
 gation with gratitude. The voyage we 
 made from Tenedos to Athos, during the 
 equinoctial gales, was most tempestuous 
 and dangerous; but after some weeks re- 
 pose in the monasteries, we resumed our 
 journey to Athens, through Salonica. 
 During this tour we had the most confiden- 
 tial intercourse; but in frequently men- 
 tioning Tweddell and his papers, Mr. 
 Carlyle never expressed the most distant 
 hint or suspicion of their not having been 
 sent home to England. This is the more 
 strongly impressed on my mind, from the 
 manner in which he adverted to a differ-
 
 28 
 
 ence of opinion between Lord Elgin and 
 himself, with regard to a parcel of rough 
 draughts of letters addressed to some dis- 
 tinguished ladies on the continent, which 
 Lord Elgin wished to destroy, in order to 
 prevent their meeting the eyes of a parent; 
 or thinking it not adviseable to risk their 
 being exposed to the public view: and 
 according to the best of my recollection, 
 Mr. Carlyle stated this difference of opinion 
 to have occurred at the time of packing 
 up the papers in order to be sent home. 
 Professor Carl vie was a friend of the late 
 Mr. Tweddell, and was well acquainted 
 with his connections in England; and being 
 a Dignitary of Carlisle, and vicar of New- 
 castle, in the immediate vicinity of Mr. 
 TweddelTs family, I naturally concluded 
 he would mention to them when he reached 
 home, the benefit we had thus enjoyed 
 from Mr. John Tweddell's Remarks on 
 Greece, &c. and I really anticipated any- 
 thing but censure for all I had done; and 
 I think every individual in the embassy, or 
 connected with it, knew that I had made 
 those extracts. I had no intention of deri-
 
 29 
 
 ving from them any other advantage than I 
 should from any book of travels 1 had met 
 with, on a country through which I was 
 about to pass: and I certainly never thought 
 of adorning with them any book of travels 
 or journal of my own; nor did I, as Mr. 
 Robert Tweddell hints, ever think of " tak- 
 " ing to myself even a floating appendage 
 " which should go to embellish the plume 
 " of another man's learning*." The origi- 
 nals were, as I then firmly believed, and still 
 believe, all sent to Mr. TweddeH's family : 
 I could not therefore think of using these 
 extracts in the manner that has been sug- 
 gested; and it certainly is not my lot to be 
 able to pursue the trains of reflection which, 
 those notes may have been intended to 
 revive in the mind of their accomplished 
 author. 
 
 I never heard it suggested or surmised, 
 until after my return to England, that any 
 thing unfair or dishonourable, with regard 
 to Mr. John Tweddell's papers, had been 
 practised by Lord Elgin, or by any person 
 connected with the embassy. 
 
 * Vide Tweddellk Remains, page 455.
 
 so 
 
 If my having made such extracts as I 
 have mentioned, be thought too great a 
 recom pence for the trouble I took in dry- 
 ing and preserving the originals, leaf by 
 leaf: or if it be thought, that I ought not, 
 even under the peculiar circumstances in 
 which I was placed, to have copied a line, 
 I must submit to the censure. But, at the 
 time, it seemed to me, in some degree, as 
 if I had then been favoured with a con- 
 versation with Mr. Tweddell, after his visit 
 to Greece ; and that I should do well to 
 treasure up the substance of it : convinced, 
 that if either Professor Carlyle, or myself, 
 or any other person in the embassy, had 
 asked of him some particulars of his tour, 
 he would freely have given us, at least, as 
 much as I thus obtained. AVhat was then 
 done, was without mystery or concealment: 
 and I did not withhold from any one that 
 information, which I am convinced this 
 liberal scholar would himself have given. 
 
 Amongst travellers, in regions remote 
 from the resources of Christendom, its li- 
 braries, and its scholars, the most un- 
 bounded liberality of communication re-
 
 31 
 
 specting their travels, generally takes place. 
 Mr. Hawkins, who, I am convinced, has 
 a more complete knowledge of Greece, 
 Albania, and the Morea, and the islands 
 of the Archipelago, than any other modern 
 traveller, gave Mr. Carlyle extracts from 
 every part of his unpublished journals that 
 he thought likely to be of any use to him; 
 these were communicated to me by Mr. 
 Carlyle; and they proved of more value 
 than all I had received from every other 
 source: Mr. Walpole, and others, have 
 shewn equal liberality to Dr. E. D. Clarke. 
 From General Kcehler, Mr. W. Hamilton, 
 Dr. Witman, Captain Lacey, and others 
 then in Turkey, I ever received the readiest 
 communication of any observations they 
 had made in their travels ; and I was as 
 happy when I could furnish similar helps 
 to others. I have no doubt that it was 1 
 who shewed Captain Squires, of the Royal 
 Engineers, the opinion Mr. John Tweddell 
 had formed respecting the architrave of a 
 door-way at Orchomenos, which he sup- 
 posed to have been that of the treasury of 
 Minyas. For, I well recollect, that when
 
 32 
 
 I was in a frigate, off the plain of Mara- 
 thon, -Mr. William Hamilton, then in Lord 
 Elgin's suite, now Under-Secretary of State, 
 and Captain Squires, came on board; and 
 as they told me they were proceeding to 
 Orchomenos, Lebadsea, Thermopylae, Par- 
 nassus, &c. I either gave them or shewed 
 them Mr. Tweddell's remarks on that mas- 
 sive architrave, and on other antiquities 
 in their route; but I certainly did not 
 conceal from them that they were Ms re- 
 marks. I mention this because Mr. Robert 
 Tweddeil expresses great surprise at Capt. 
 Squires having mentioned this opinion, as 
 being found in Mr. John Tweddell's Jour- 
 nal. When Mr. Robert Tweddeil first 
 intimated to me, that a Traveller, now de- 
 ceased, had seen his brother's remarks on 
 some antiquity in Greece, I thought he was 
 alluding to the late Mr. Carlyle, who had 
 seen both the originals and the extracts. It 
 -would have been, to say the least, not a 
 disingenuous act, on the part of Mr. Ro- 
 bert Tweddeil, to have mentioned to me 
 the name of the deceased Traveller to
 
 33 
 
 whom he alluded, and it would have saved 
 much trouble : but before I ever supposed 
 that he was alluding to Captain Squires 
 having seen his brother's conjecture about 
 the Architrave at Orchomenos*, I had 
 sent an account of that very observation to 
 Mr. Robert Tweddell, in speaking of my 
 recollections of his brother's journal. 
 
 I am well aware how irrelevant this di- 
 gression may appear to the principal ques- 
 tion, of what has become of the original 
 manuscripts : but so much has been said 
 of the advantages derived from my having 
 made this use of the part of them I was 
 employed in drying, that I thought it 
 necessary to state the extent of my obliga- 
 tion. 
 
 The extracts made by me were contained 
 in a single thin quarto copy-book, and I 
 would long since, with the greatest pleasure, 
 have given them to Mr. Robert Tweddell, 
 to aid him in editing his Brother's " Re- 
 mains;" if I had ever possessed them since 
 my return from Turkey : but having lost 
 
 * Vide Tweddell's Remains, Appendix, page 456. 
 
 E
 
 34 
 
 many of my papers, by various accidents 
 attending their transmission home, and my 
 imprisonment in France, and having made 
 a most careful search for this book, without 
 success, I concluded that it had been thus 
 lost, until about the latter end of January 
 last, I was informed by Mr. Hamilton, on 
 the very first occasion that Mr. Tweddell's 
 papers ever formed the subject of com- 
 munication between us, since the year 1802, 
 that I actually lent or gave the book of 
 extracts to that gentleman when we met at 
 Marathon, and that he never returned it to 
 me, but that it was lost in the Mentor, 
 when he was wrecked in that vessel off the 
 Island of Cerigo, inl802. 
 
 To my lamented friend and fellow tra- 
 veller, the Rev. Professor Carlyle, I always 
 looked with confident hope, as the person 
 who was to give the world a detailed ac- 
 count of the history, antiquities, literature, 
 and manners of those parts of the Turkish 
 Empire which he had visited : and he was 
 pre-eminently qualified for the task, not 
 only by high attainments in classical lite- 
 rature, and ancient and modern history, but
 
 35 
 
 by an elegant mind, a refined taste in the 
 arts, and a profound knowledge of oriental 
 languages and literature. He not only in- 
 tended to publish his travels, interspersed 
 with poetical effusions, suggested by scenes 
 he had viewed, and with translations of the 
 popular songs and legends of the country ; 
 but he also contemplated a history of the 
 Crusades, and an account of the short but 
 brilliant period, when philosophy and 
 literature flourished in the Court of the 
 Caliphs. With these objects in view, he 
 devoted much of his time to Arabic 
 studies ; and he accompanied General 
 Kcehler's military mission through Asia 
 Minor and Cyprus to Syria, and from 
 thence he proceeded to Jerusalem, St. 
 Saba, and the shores of the Dead Sea. I 
 had the advantage of travelling with him 
 along the Asiatic shores of the Hellespont, 
 the Troad, the Islands of Tenedos and 
 Lemnos, the Promontory and Isthmus of 
 Athos, and parts of Macedonia ; and from 
 Thessalonica to Athens, Marathon, Eleusis, 
 and Megara. I always observed him to 
 be indefatigable in his inquiries and re-
 
 36 
 
 searches, and he viewed every scene with 
 the eye of a scholar and a poet : Every 
 evening during his tour he wrote out and 
 extended the notes and observations he 
 made during the day. This great and un- 
 interrupted attention on his part rendered 
 me more careless than I should otherwise 
 have been as to making notes, or keeping 
 a journal; fondly expecting to enjoy a 
 description of all we had seen, recorded in 
 his chaste and perspicuous style, and em- 
 bellished by the effusions of his muse : but, 
 after his return to England, he only lived 
 to complete a new and improved edition 
 of the Bible, in Arabic, for distribution in 
 Asia and Africa; and to commence the 
 task of collating the Greek Manuscripts 
 he had brought from Turkey : but before 
 he had made much progress in that labo- 
 rious work, he fell a victim, as I have been 
 told, to the fatigues he had undergone in 
 his travels, and to the persecutions and 
 vexations with which he was irritated and 
 harrassed after his return home : so that 
 jt never was my lot to see him after we 
 had separated at Athens: and I was
 
 37 
 
 grieved to learn that he had left an express 
 order, that nothing of his should be publish- 
 ed at his decease, except a small volume 
 of Poems, written during his travels. As 
 to myself, — conscious of no talents that 
 could entitle me to add to the multiplied 
 Tours we already possessed of Greece and 
 its islands, and the shores of the iEgean 
 Sea, I had little anxiety about the few 
 travelling memoranda I had made, inter 
 equitandum ; and they lay neglected and 
 confused in the bottom of a trunk ; and 
 there they would probably still have re- 
 mained, had I not been roused to examine 
 them by Mr, Robert Tweddell's letters in 
 1815, and by a correspondence in which T 
 was engaged about the same time by the 
 Rev. Robert Walpole. I hoped I might 
 then have been enabled to ascertain some 
 points connected with Mr. Robert Twed- 
 dell's inquiries; but I was disappointed, 
 and was thus forced, in my correspondence 
 with him, to draw too freely on my own 
 imperfect recollections. 
 
 Mr. Walpole has since repeatedly urged 
 me to send him any portion of my remarks,
 
 38 
 
 in any form I pleased ; and he knows with 
 what diffidence I entered on the task, and 
 how little value I attach to the memoranda 
 with which I have been enabled to supply 
 him. I have heard it intimated that these 
 memoranda contain some remarks which I 
 am supposed to have derived from Mr. 
 Tweddell's Journal ; and this may probably 
 be true, though, I must say, that if it is 
 so, I am unconscious of it. 
 
 Resuming then the history of what I 
 know concerning all the property of the 
 late Mr. Tweddell, which was placed in 
 Lord Elgin's hands, I can only state, that 
 after the damaged papers and books had 
 been carefully dried, they were all restored 
 to Lord Elgin ; and, as I firmly believed, 
 they were sent home by his Lordship to 
 Mr. Tweddell's family in England. 
 
 Previously to Mr. Carlyle and myself 
 leaving Pera, a large English merchant- 
 ship, I think the Duncan, reached Con- 
 stantinople. As she was well built, armed, 
 and manned, the Ambassador put on board 
 her some boxes of presents for Mr. Pitt and 
 Lord Grenville, from the Ottoman Go-
 
 39 
 
 vernment; and, as well as I can recollect, 
 Mr. Carlyle sent by the same vessel a 
 large and valuable collection of Arabic, 
 Persian, and Greek manuscripts, which he 
 had collected in Turkey ; and I am in- 
 clined to think that, for better security, his 
 boxes were directed to the same consign- 
 ment as his Excellency's ; and as Mr. 
 Carlyle had then been consulted by Lord 
 Elgin about the transmission of Mr. Twed- 
 dell's property, and had advised its being 
 consigned to Mr. Losh, I always thought 
 that property had been forwarded in the 
 same ship in which I had seen so many 
 trunks put on board for England ; and I 
 would oinfidently have asserted it to any 
 one, as I did in my first letter to Mr. Ro- 
 bert Tweddell : nor should I ever have 
 doubted the correctness of my belief on 
 that head, unless I had heard that there 
 was no trace of any such package having 
 been shipped in the Duncan. 
 
 I may here remark an additional reason 
 for the strong conviction I always felt that 
 those effects had been shipped in the Dun- 
 can, that the same impression seems to
 
 40 
 
 have existed in Lord Elgin's mind. For, 
 when Mr. Robert Tweddell applied to his 
 Lordship in 1813, he immediately answers, 
 without any reference to me, or any com- 
 munication with me on the subject, that 
 
 " he believes the property in question 
 " was sent home, either under the care of 
 " the late Professor Carlyle, or by his direc- 
 " tion, in a merchant-ship, called the 
 " Duncan, along with several boxes of pre- 
 " sents to Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville." 
 
 It is not always possible to ascertain the 
 process by which particular conclusions 
 have fixed themselves in the mind; as the 
 chain of evidence may be broken or lost, 
 whilst the result which it produced, re- 
 mains. Most certain it is, that such was 
 my conviction respecting the transmission 
 of Mr. Tweddell's effects from Constanti- 
 nople. Mr. Carlyle frequently told me, 
 that he had been consulted by Lord Elgin 
 about the best mode of forwarding them : 
 that he had assisted his Lordship in arrang- 
 
 Vide Tweddell's Remains, page 362.
 
 41 
 
 ing and packing them, and that he recom- 
 mended them to be directed to the care of 
 Mr. Losh, of whom I had never heard, till 
 his name was thus mentioned to me as a 
 friend of the deceased : and I remained in 
 the belief, that when I saw Mr. Carlyle's 
 own trunks of books and manuscripts ship- 
 ped for England, these effects were also 
 then forwarded to Mr. Losh's care. I 
 may in this possibly have adopted an erro- 
 neous opinion : but such was my convic- 
 tion ; and as I was not in any way either 
 consulted or employed in the transmission, 
 I can give no further information of their 
 fate. If more information has been ex- 
 pected from me than I could furnish, I am 
 not answerable for the disappointment : 
 and it still appears to me by no means im- 
 probable that they may have been put on 
 board the Duncan, and lost or mislaid by 
 her cargo being taken out, and in part re- 
 shipped at Smyrna, in part at Malta, in 
 two smaller * vessels, one of which was 
 wrecked off the coast of England. 
 
 # Vide Lord Elgin's Letter to the Editor of the Edin- 
 burgh Review, page 14. 
 
 F
 
 42 
 
 It appears that Lord Elgin informed 
 Dr. E. D. Clarke, at Pera, that " Mr. 
 " Tweddell's property had been sent home, 
 " in compliance with the instructions of 
 " Tweddell's father/' And his Lordship 
 says, in his Letter to the Editor of the 
 Edinburgh Review, " whatever were the 
 " particular circumstances, under which 
 " this property was transmitted to England, 
 " all that is material for my present pur* 
 " pose is, to shew that it was so transmit- 
 " ted. This I do most solemnly aver." 
 It also appears from Mr. Tweddell's Me- 
 moir, that " Mr. Carlyle told Mr. Losh, 
 " after his arrival in England, that he had 
 " seen packed such of the papers in ques- 
 " tion as Lord Elgin thought proper to 
 " send." 
 
 From the foregoing details, I trust it is 
 evident, that all the property belonging to 
 Mr. Tweddell, which I saw at Constanti- 
 nople, was taken into Lord Elgin's personal 
 custody ; and preserved by him, till, with 
 Mr. Carlyle's assistance and advice, it was 
 packed up to be sent to Mr. Tweddell's 
 friends. My belief on this point is not 
 weakened, by finding that Lord Elgin has
 
 43 
 
 made no memorandum of the mode and 
 time of transmitting it ; for I recollect, 
 with regard to the Boustrophedon Inscrip- 
 tion from Sigaeum, he was not able to as- 
 certain by what ship he had forwarded it 
 to England; and after it had been long 
 missing, and anxiously sought for, this 
 most interesting and most ancient speci- 
 men of Greek writing was fortunately dis- 
 covered, as I afterwards heard, in a cellar 
 at some sea-port town in England, where 
 it had been exposed for years to accident 
 and injury. 
 
 Here I close my narrative ; in the confi- 
 dent hope, that though my recollection of 
 some events, in which I had a share, when 
 I was occupied with arduous and inces- 
 sant public employment, sixteen years ago, 
 has not been so accurate as I could have 
 wished, yet that my character for honest 
 and upright intention remains unsullied ; 
 notwithstanding the comments of Mr. Ro- 
 bert Tweddell, the insinuations of The 
 Christian Observer, and the uncandid in- 
 ferences of The Edinburgh Review ; and 
 notwithstanding whatever other censures I
 
 44 
 
 may have met from those who are disap- 
 pointed, or mortified at my not having 
 joined in what appears to me an unfounded 
 attack upon Lord Elgin's character. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 BEDFORD, February 16th, 1816. 
 
 Since these observations were written out 
 and sent to the press, I have seen a pas- 
 sage in the Third Section of the Second 
 Book of Dr. E. D. Clarke's Travels in 
 Greece, &c. in which, speaking of the 
 Literary Remains of John Tweddell, he in- 
 sinuates, that the papers he left will proba- 
 bly yet be clandestinely published ; and 
 that parts of them have perhaps already 
 been published in the form of Extracts, by 
 some one who has had access to them, 
 and who has not candour to acknowledge 
 from whence those Extracts have been 
 taken. 
 
 To this insinuation I trust that no 
 observation can be required from me,
 
 45 
 
 beyond what is contained in the foregoing 
 pages. 
 
 Dr. Clarke then subjoins the following 
 note : — 
 
 " The subject is too painful to bear 
 <* more than this brief allusion ; but as the 
 " author, in the endeavour he made to re- 
 " cover some of Mr. Tweddell's property at 
 " Constantinople, experienced reproof rather 
 " than encouragement ; and as he has rea- 
 " son to believe that the theft of a Greek 
 " Manuscript, which was committed in one 
 " of the monasteries (of Mount Athos), 
 " by persons who had seen Mr. Tweddell's 
 " Journals was owing to intelligence there- 
 " in contained, he will not remain alto- 
 " gether silent as to the fact. The subse- 
 *' quent death of one, who was principally 
 " concerned in that transaction, precludes 
 " the possibility of his communicating 
 " more upon this subject. See, however, 
 tc Tweddell's Remains, p. 368. London, 
 " 1815/' 
 
 As I have neither inclination nor leisure 
 to prolong this controversy about Mr. 
 Tweddell's papers, or any subject that has
 
 46 
 
 been connected with it, beyond these 
 pages; I take this opportunity of stating, 
 that I never knew of Mr. John Tweddell's 
 Journal having described or mentioned any 
 particular manuscript in any of those 
 monasteries. 
 
 If Dr. Clarke means to insinuate that 
 any manuscript was taken by me from 
 Mount Athos, or elsewhere, I explicitly 
 deny the charge. If the observation be 
 meant to apply to my deceased friend, I 
 beg leave to refer Dr. Clarke to the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury's Library, at Lam- 
 beth, in which all the Greek manuscripts 
 he had procured in Turkey were deposited 
 by his executrix, after his decease; part of 
 them having been purchased of her by his 
 Grace, and the remainder of them being 
 subject to be returned to the libraries from 
 which they were lent, under a written 
 engagement for that purpose. His Persian 
 and Arabic manuscripts were all sold to the 
 Directors of the East India Company. 
 
 By all those to whom my lamented fel- 
 low-traveller was intimately known, he was 
 esteemed and beloved ; and in that number
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 47 
 
 I could mention many of the most exalted 
 characters in Church and State. To some 
 of those friends, after his return to England, 
 he communicated every incident connected 
 with his travels ; and I am confident that 
 there will not be wanting among them 
 some one who is both able and willing to 
 vindicate his memory from this and every 
 aspersion. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 Printed by J. Brettell, 
 Rupert Street, Hajmarket, London,