Travels in Turkey and back to England / By the late reverend and learned Edmund Chishull.

  • Edmund Chishull
Date:
1747
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Travels in Turkey and back to England / By the late reverend and learned Edmund Chishull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the difcretion of one of our companions, who thought fit to re¬ tire about the midway. However having at lengt' conquered he afcent, our toil was well rewarded with the furprizing profpedt of the city, and adjacent plain ; in the latter of which we could diftinguifh the whole courfe of the Hermus for many miles to¬ gether, as alfo the places where the Amms Phrygms, or Hyllus, joins it *. The fabric of the whole caftle is very flrong, and the advan¬ tage of a hill, which is on all fides a mile high, mud have ren¬ dered it impregnable, in an age which knew not the ufe of gun¬ powder. It was formerly fortified with a confiderabie number of great guns, which are now removed to the new caftle, which defends the bay of Smyrna. Two only remain on a baftion, that fronts the city ; on both which we were forry to fee the eagles of the Roman empire. No other apartment of the caftle is now kept locked, except a dungeon, in which there were twelve pri- foners, lately fent thither by Ofmanogli. A fight of thefe mife- rable wretches we defired of the aga, nor was he fo fcrupulous as to deny it us. The fame agd likewife fhewed us within the precincts of the caftle a poor Chriftian church, dedicated to the memory of St. John; where the Greeks meet upon the day of his feaft, and are at the conffant charge of two lamps, which burn there throughout the year. We had read and heard of a collec¬ tion of Roman arms, referved fomewhere in this caftle ; tho being upon the place, nothing of this nature occurred to us. But Soly- mdn ejjendi, a moft courteous and obliging perfon, whom we vifited this evening, as being the next neighbour, as well as bro¬ ther of our landlord, afiured us, that having many years fince had the curiofity to afcend the caftle hill, he then faw under ground the collection which we fpake of, confiding of headpieces, bread- plates, fhields, and the like. The mountainous parts about Magnefia were antiently famous for the production of the loadftone 2; tho indeed it is difparaged 1 Ktx1<x$igsl<xi J’ o IltxKlcaXoi el; *Etl; idem a Lydia Lydius, et ab Hcraclea Hera- ovx.ai o'JTAAe? mi fyLytc; elms dicius eft. Hill in Dionyf. Periegefin. Strabo, Lib. xiii. pag. 626. Tho he Teems tobemiftaken in confound- 1 Magnefia ad Sipylum, a qua magnes la- ing this ftone with the touchllone, or lapis pis ferrum attrahens nomen fortitus eft ; ut Lydius. D by J
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