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He had been able only to compound, and that by the generous aid of friends. The answer he made to a gentleman, who said he was sorry that he had so few to hear him, Why so if they are not here, they ⚫ are elsewhere,' shewed a mind superior to envy and jealousy of his Brethren: and the dislike he testified, if his merits were mentioned, indicated his humility. It need only be added, that in proof of the excellent tone of his mind and its pleasing frame, that every company, into which he came, was enlivened by his cheerfulness.

It should not be suppressed, that this worthy and valuable character was not exempted from peculiarities and eccentricities; they consisted chiefly, in not conforming to the innocent customs of the world, and were amply compensated by his intellectual and inoral endowments.

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"It is to be inuch regretted, that Mr. Bulkley's publications did not meet with that general reception to which their utility and merit gave them a just and superior claim. The length of his sentences might form an objection with some readers: but the peculiarities of his orthography, in several of his works, particularly, gave them an uninviting appearance. These blemishes, however, do not pervade the whole of his writings. Several exceptions might be pointed out. But, as Mr. Evans with great propriety observes," as long as sound sense, • manly reasoning, and a per,picuous and nervous style are held in estimation, his works will demand and receive a distinguished attention'." P. xliv-xlvi.

CLXXIV. A TOUR, performed in the Years 1793-6, through THE TAURIPA, OR CRIMEA, THE ANCIENT KINGDOM OF BOSPHORUS, the once-powerful Republic of TAURIC CHERSON, and all the other Countries on the North Shore of the Euxine, ceded to Russia by the Peace of KaiHardgi and Jassy. By Mrs. MARIA GUTHRIE, formerly acting direcwess of the Imperial Convent for the Education of the Female Nobility of Russia; described in a Series of Letters to her Husband, the Editor,

MATHEW GUTHRIE, M.D. F.R.S. and F.S. A. of London and Elinburgh, Member of the Philosophical Society of Manchester, &c. &c. Phy sician to the First and Second Imperial Corps of noble Cadets in St. Petersburgh, and Counsellor of State ts his Imperial Majesty of all the Ra sias. The whole illustrated by a Map of the Tour along the Euxine Coast, from the Dniester to the Cabar ; with Engravings of a great Number of ancient Coins, Medals, Menuments, Inscriptions, and other curious Objects, 4to.

the authoress's arrival at NicoETTER I. gives an account of layef on the Bog, the present seat of the naval establishment of the Black Sea. Her reception by the commander in chief of the Russian fleet; with some account of the most interesting part of her journey from Petersburg. Some idea of the work may be formed from the following extract from the first letter.

"I must now begin my promised task, of making you acquainted with all my travels; and recording all my observations, just as they arise, good, bad, or indifferent: for, as they are intended only to amuse my own family and friends, you shall have them without reserve or deliberation, and coloured, most probably, by the complexion of my mind at the time; so that you may expect a sort of moral rainbow on paper, and may judge of my health's progressive re-establishment by the gradual disappearance of the darker shades. Were every traveller equally ingenuous, one might easily account for the bilious tints in several tours, which have so deservedly offended the natives of the countries visited, and made them equally dread the extremes of the barometer, in exalting the head of a Frenchman to wanton sarcasms, or depressing the spirits of an Englishman to caustic remarks. The Sirocco of Italy has produced many a philippic, or I am much mistaken. Smol. let, and several more of your countrymen, must have written under its influence, or have revised their tours, on their return home, in the gloomy month of November.' p.2, 3. The fertility of the country from the confines of Little Russia is thus described:

"What quantities of fine fruit, what

charming woods, in all this tract, but more particularly in the Ukraine, where you find the climate and late abundance of France, before modera philosophy beat the plowshares into swords and pikes!-Here you have excellent apples, pears, and plumbs, at one copeck (little more than an English farthing) for 50; the finest melons and arbuses at one copeck each, and you pass whole fields of them on each side of the road; but what we found comparatively dear (to shew that every thing in this world is appreciated by comparison) were ten fine large bergamot pears at one copeck the whole ten, and as many, extremely large, apples of a fine sort, at two copecks, which would cost as many roubles at our table in Petersburg, just one hundred times the price." p. 4.

Letter II. contains a description of the new city Nicolayef, which was founded in 1789, in the angle formed by the rivers Bog and Ingal; public buildings, &c. and of the curious machine called a camel, on which a ship of the line is carried over a sand-bank into deep water.

"These camels are a kind of large Bat-bottomed wooden cradles, in which vessels of great burthen, built at Petersburg and Cherson, are car. ried over banks or bars into deep water, although there is not sufficient depth for a ship of half the size without such aid. They form a hollow cradle when united, but separate longitudinally from stem to stern for the conveniency of sinking one half under each side of the ship, merely by opening a plug and letting the water into them; and then, on pumping it out again, the huge machine (tied together under the vessels bottom at stem and stern) rises majestically to the surface, carrying on its hollow back a hundred gun ship like a boat. In this manner all our ships of the line are floated over every obstruction, in either the Neva or Dnieper, down to Cronstadt in the first instance, and to the Black Sea in the second, and are secured from oversetting by the breadth of the float, and the dwarf-like jury-masts set up for the short passage to the port where they are rigged, armed and victualled." p. 6.

Letter III. describes the situation of the country round. Nicolayef, which is, says the authoress, lit.

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terally in the wilds of Scythia (or Tartary, if you like the modern better than the ancient name); for it is surrounded on all sides by dreary open deserts, which only differ from those of Arabia, in being co vered with grass instead of sand; while both are inhabited in all ages by roving hordes of horsemen, which resemble one another in disposition and mode of life; in a word, the shepherds of holy writ, ready at all times, if able, to overrun and plun der men assembled in civil society, living peaceably and comfortably in fixed habitations. The power, how ever, of the Turkish and Russian empires has kept them within bounds for ages, and made it their interest to live in peace with their warlike neighbours; as they are then sure not to be molested in their grassy deserts, while they can occasionally even obtain luxuries from plunder, by accompanying the armies of the two empires in the frequent wars of the western and northern countries. Some spots, indeed, near Nicolayef, are beginning to put on the appearance of cultivation, in consequence of the persevering efforts of the worthy chief, who strains every nerve to subdue the stubborn soil, and over. come natural difficulties; the greatest of which seem to be its stony hardness, never having been turned up from the beginning of the world, at least within the records of history, and always frequented by shepherds who neither sow nor reap." p. 9,

10.

In letter IV. is an account of the lady's arrival at the river Dniester, the Tyras of the ancients, and new frontiers of the Turkish and Russian empires. The following account of the extent of the journey is inserted in this letter.

"I certainly need not make any apology for my silence on my way from Nicolayef hither, as you will easily perceive, that I chose to begin my description of the new dominions of Russia at their western frontier, and to treat of them regularly all the way along the coast of the Black Sea or Euxine, as I travel slowly eastward, till I arrive at the river Cuban, the Verdanus of the ancients, where my tour will end, with the Russian empire in that direction; and compleat my project of visiting all the late ceded countries, at least the mar

ritime side of them, infinitely the most valuable and interesting, from their being anciently almost covered with Greek colonies, wherever a river, or a good sea port, invited mercantile adventurers, and encouraged commerce.

Previous to entering into particulars, however, either with regard to the ancient establishments of the Euxine, or the present state of the spots which they occupied, permit me to remark, that this last tract of country, ceded at the peace of Jassy, from the Dniester to the Bug, is by no means so insignificant an acquisition to Russia as some people pretend; since these deserts, as they are called, are far from being without their use to a sovereign having pastoral nations under her sceptre, who furnish most excellent irregular troops, always equipped for war without expence, and ever ready to march at a day's warning, as they find in those grassy plains all that they wish and want, for themselves and their flocks, in their flying camps.". p. 14, 15.

As we are here introduced into the country intended to be described, we meet with the following information which indicates the vivacity of the

mind of the fair authoress.

"In my next letter I shall begin to be more particular in my remarks; and pray remember, that I intend to put a great deal of method into my tour, just to punish you men for your sneer at the charming disorder that must reign in the narrative of a female traveller; piquing yourselves, no doubt, on the charming order and arrangement that ever reigns around the lords of the creation, who at the same time cannot, without our help, even arrange their own studies, wherein books, charts, and manuscripts dispute the floor and dust, and never know the comfort of a snug place, or clean cover, more than yourselves, except when we take compassion on both; at least, I can answer for the truth of my remark with regard to one of the species, the saucy husband of yours, &c. M. G." p. 15, 16.

Letters V. and VI. contain a description and drawing of an antique tomb, thought to be that of Ovid, lately discovered at the mouth of the Dniester, or Tyras, in digging the foundation of a new city, and a description, with an engraving, of a beau

tiful antique female bust, found 2mong the ashes in the ancient tomb, with the disputes among antiquaries concerning it, and the reasons which the authoress assigns for supposing it to be the bust of Julia, daughter of Augustus: this is followed by a brief account of the ancient Greek cities, which once stood on the Tyras.

Letters VII. and VIII. give a description of Odessa, the new city and port constructing for the reception of the Russian flotilla of the Black Sea; and contain some remarks on a couple of rivulets, bearing the name of Ovid in antiquity, which suggest some discussion on the possibility of his having been buried in the Tyras. Our fair traveller looks for the ruins of the ancient city of Axiaca on her way to Ochakoff, which were seen by the French consul of the Taurida, in the beginning of the 18th century, and makes some remarks on the death of the famous Scythian philosopher Anacharsis, killed by his sovereign in a wood, which she passes through; and concludes with a few words on Ochakoff, the soil of the country, &c.

Letter IX. Arriving at the Russian city of Cherson, on the Dnieper, or Borysthenes, the authoress relates the unhappy fate of the engineer who fortified it, and who was killed by falling over a precipice on a dark night. She also introduces the following respectful remarks on the monument and conduct of the great Howard.

"This city, however, rendered still more memorable, as containing all that was mortal of the philanthropic Howard, who ended here his extraordinary progress, together with a long life passed in continued acts of humanity and beneficence, which did much honour to himself, while he threw a lustre on his native country, England. Many will envy the worthy Admiral Mordwinoff the honour of having erected a monument to the memory of this friend of mankind, and the satisfaction of engraving on his tomb, Here lies the benevolent Howard-Here he fell a martyr to the same putrid fever which he had ba-. nished from so many prisons in Great Britain and Ireland, while on his way to Turkey, whither his exalted courage in the cause of suffering humanity was leading him, to combat prejudice and the plague, the two

most formidable enemies of man. Happy would it be for the world, if British eccentricity often took so useful a turn!" p. 32.

The unhealthiness of this city, with its cause, is thus noticed.

"Till very lately, as was observed in my letter from Nicolayef, this city was the seat of naval architecture for the Euxine, and the residence of a great number of men belonging to the naval establishment; but it was found so very unhealthy in the months of July and August, during the prevalence of a pestiferous wind, which comes charged with putrid miasma, generated by the great heats in the low grounds to the left of the Dnieper, which are regularly overflowed every spring, when the river is swelled with melted snow and ice: I say, it was found so unhealthy at this season, that the loss in men became a national object, even independent of considerations of humanity; and it was abandoned for. Nicolayef; yet not entirely, as the docks are still left for building ships, where two of 74 are still upon the stocks. The necessary garrison is likewise left: and, as the profits of trade are considerable, I scarcely need add, that the unhealthy Cherson is not abandoned by the merchants, who, we see, brave all climates, and all extremes of temperatures, where profit invites; but, indeed, those very gains enable them to evade the fatal blast, by quitting the city during its baneful influence, and leaving their seasoned clerks to transact the business. The heat is quite insupportable, in the day-time, for two or three months of the year, while the evenings and nights are remarkably cool: an extraordinary phenomenon, which certainly assists the putrid miasma in producing that fatal remittent of this country which laid the all-powerful Prince Potemkin in the dust, with so many thousands of the army that he commanded, and much more terrible to Russia than the Turkish cimeter, which her cannon and boigenetes keep at a distance." p. 32, 33.

This letter closes with the deplorable fate of a colony of French noObility settled on the banks of the Dnieper.

Letter X. contains a sketch of the history of the ancient Greek colonies settled on the Borysthenes, espeVOL. I.

cially the famous city of Olbis; with some remarks on its position, ruins, &c. and the untimely fate of a Scythian king dethroned and murdered for sacrificing to the gods of the Greeks in that city. The following account of the method of burying the Scythian monarchs is also inserted in this letter.

"The father of history likewise mentions the tombs of the Scythian kings, at a place called Gerrhe, where the Dnieper begins to be navigable on the left bank of the river, and gives us a most curious account of the ceremonies practised at their fune.. rals; such as that their corpses were embalmed, and after being carried about in great state among their mourning subjects, laid in a tomb made with spears, and covered with a canopy, when their favourite con'cubine, with a head cook, groom, footman, and messenger, were interred with the sovereign to keep him company; nor were his horse, golden cup, arms, and other necessary utensils, by any means forgotten: and lastly, fifty of his noble young warriors were killed, stuffed with straw, and placed all round the tomb like guards, on horses supported by iron spikes.

"It is remarkable, that in the ancient tombs discovered by Pallas in Siberia, likewise suspected to have belonged to a horde of Scythians, or Tartars, ornaments of gold were also found, with arms, &c. and horses. bones around them; which shew that the Scythian funeral customs, described by Herodotus, were every where practised by them." p. 37, 38.

Letter XI. gives an account of the fleets of Russian boats, which issued from the Dnieper in the middle ages, to attack Constantinople, with the places they touched at in their way to the Roman capital, and the death of Sveteslave the ist.

Letters XII. to XVI. describe the country from Cherson to the Nagay Desert. Singular passage of the Inguletz. Conic tombs of the Scythians and Tartars, with a floatingbridge over the narrowest part of the Borysthenes, the Trajectus Crassi of antiquity. Journey through the Nagay desert. Origin of the horde and name of these Tartars. Some account of their present chief Prince Bajaz 5 A

chin, his clay capital, with his hospitality and treatment of a Chersonese merchant. Arrival at Perecop, the golden gate of the Tartars, and the entry to the Taurida, Remarks on the famous fortified wall and deep trench of antiquity, which guarded the peninsula against hostile attacks from the Nomades of the desert. The hospitable reception of our traveller from the director of the salt lakes, with a rapid glance at the Tauric history. Sketch of the geography, soil, climate, and natural history of the Chersonesus Taurica of the ancients, and Taurida of the Russians. Journey through the saline plain of the Taurida, devoid of trees and shelter, yet highly valuable as pasture for camels, dromedaries, and the fine breed of fur-bearing sheep, the ovis Taurica of Pallas; as likewise for its salt lakes, where the sun effects the whole process of crystallization, and produces salt ready for market without the aid of man. Remarks are made in the rout on some ancient stone bridges, evidently the work of a polished people, though found in a desert, and on some ancient cities said by the Roman geographers to have stood in this

tract.

Letter XVII. Arrival at Korloff, to which Catharine II. restored its ancient Greek name of Eupatoria; a few words on its ancient history, with a description of its modern state, and a primitive Scythian manufacture of carpets, the parents of the Gobelins.

"The fortune of war has much reduced this place, if it was as considerable as is pretended in the time of the Tartar government, which I rather doubt from its port being inferior to many others in the peninsula, although no doubt the exportation of the salt, already crystallized on its lakes, as in the saline plain of yesterday, must always have employed a certain quantity of shipping, being an article in great command on the opposite or south coast of the Euxine, for reasons which I shall give when I come to treat of the fisheries. Leather made here is likewise exported in considerable quantities. together with the produce of an old Tartar fabric of woollen carpets, well worth the inspection of travellers, as it seems to be a Scythian manufactory still in its first stage of invention: for I can

not suppose it introduced even by the first foreign settlers the Greeks, as they were certainly more advanced, even at that early period, than what this patriarchal art would indicate, if Homer did not weave in his brain the beautiful webs with which his poems are adorned; for the art of weaving has not yet reached the city of Eupatoria, as may be judged from the following account.

"These carpets are still made of two or three layers of combed wool, placed above one another, and made to adhere merely by pressure and moisture, without the aid of the loom; nay, the honest Tartars of Eupatoria are even so far from taking advantage of modern discoveries in mechanics, that, instead of effecting this adhesion by the pressure of cylinders, it is done, as in the time of the patriarchs, by treading them under foot for a few hours; nay, even when they are to be adorned with flowers, the texture is still the same, which gives an idea of the Tartar progress in the arts at the end of the eighteenth century.

In short, these primitive carpets, parents of the famous Gobelins, offer an interesting scale of comparison between the art in its infancy, as still to be seen in Eupatoria, and in the celebrated manufactory of France. It is likewise worthy of remark, that they are still made here exactly in the same manner as the thick felt stuff called wylock, with which the round Scythian tents were covered in the time of Herodotus, and are to this day, under the name of Kabitkies." p. 63, 64.

Letter XVIII. contains the following account of a holy wheel of whirling fanatics, and a curious anecdote of a beautiful Greek lady.

"Our first visit this morning was to the Tartar mosque (called Metcher, in the language of the country), which has nothing about it remarkable, either for size or beauty; but what amply repaid our disappointment was a sort of holy wheel, composed of whirling fanatics, who kept flying round in a circle, more like the votaries of Bacchus than of Mahomet, who certainly forbade the juice of the grape, but forgot to interdict that of the poppy, the most destructive and intoxicating of the two; and I believe it was under the influence of this tart juice, that this Tartar group were

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