Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/254

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

244


NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. XL MAR. 27, 1915.


only accommodation the house afforded, I inquired whether or not it were possible to hire a room in ome other part of the village, which consisted of a number of scattered huts built along a range of "heights overlooking a bay of the sea. 1 was in- formed that there was at some distance, close to the sea shore, an old house belonging to the drago- man of the English Consulate, where the Greeks believed I might be accommodated, as it was only inhabited by an old man and his wife, who had the care of it. I sent for this man, who said I was welcome to pass the night in the house, and that he would show me the way.

" It was exceedingly dark, but after following him for about a mile we entered the hall of a large and ruinous building filled with broken chairs and tables, wormeaten couches, arid shattered looking- glasses. In this uncomfortable place I settled myself for the night, and, notwithstanding my carpet was wet as well as my clothes, lay down to rest, and slept soundly until break of day."

By the beginning of the nineteenth century the European Colony at Larnaca had be- come " Levantine " in the ordinary sense of that word, and according to Capt. H. Light, who visited the island in 1814 ('Travels in Egypt,' &c., London, 1818), "the only English merchant [probably the Mr. How mentioned by W. Turner, see infra] resided at La Scala : he had to contend with the united phalanx of Levantines, who had no inclination to admit a competitor in trade." In another place Capt. Light speaks of being very much amused at the assumed dignity of the different representatives of European nations at Larnaca, where etiquette of precedency was carried to an extreme un- known in any other country.

William Turner in 1815 found an English- man named How living at Larnaca with a native wife, who was, perhaps, the last survivor of the community, and who seems to have shown the English graveyard of St. Lazarus to the rare English visitors, and discoursed about former times, doubtless in the garrulous manner of such stranded survivors all the world over. According to this individual, the English Factory in 'Cyprus had consisted of fifteen or sixteen houses, which would have made an import- ant community. " When Cyprus was yet considerable in the hands of the Turks, and an English Factory resided here, Ormidhia was their favourite village, where they had their villas.

The tombstones w T hich Turner inspected in 1815 were even then in a badly ruined and defaced condition, and probably more nume- rous than they are now. Ten tombs of merchants and Consuls still survive, and their epitaphs form an interesting collection. GEO. JEFFERY, F.S.A. ,

Curator of Ancient Monuments.

Nicosia, Cyprus.


A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS HOLCROFT.

(See 11 S. x. 1, 43, 83, 122, 163, 205, 244, 284, 323, 362, 403, 442, 484; xi. 4, 43, 84, 123, 164, 203.)

1809. Although the following was not- written by Holcroft, it seems to deserve inclusion in this Bibliography : " Books. A Catalogue of the Library of Books, the property of Thomas Holcroft, Esq. (De- ceased.) Removed from his late Residence Clipstone-Street, Which will be Sold by Auction, by Messrs. King & Loch^e, At their Great Room, No. 38, King-street, Covent-Garden, On Tuesday, Oct. 17, 1809, And Two Following Days, at Twelve o'Clock. May be Viewed on Monday, preceding the Sale, and Catalogues then had at the Room. J. Barker, Printer, Great Russell-street, Co vent Garden."

This contains between seven and eight hun- dred items, and the copy which I have seen is in the British Museum S.C. 821. (13. ).

1816. " Memoirs of the Late Thomas Holcroft, written by Himself, and continued to the time of his death, from his diary, notes, and other papers. In Three Volumes. Vol. I. London * Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row. 1816." Small octavo. I., viii + 1-300; II., 2 + 1-283; III., 2 + 1-320 pp.

Watt in the ' Bibliotheca Britannica ' gives the date of this as 1815, but it is listed as published in. April, 1816, in the 1st May, 1816, number of The Monthly Magazine (41: 339). It was in the ' Monthly List of Publications ' in the April, 1816, number of The British Critic (Ser. II. vol. v. p. 449). It was announced as " nearly ready for publication " in The Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1816 (86: 252), and reviewed in the April, 1816, number (86: 341-2). It was not reviewed in The European Magazine until July, 1816 (70: 54).

This was republished in slightly abridged form in, two numbers of the " Traveller's Library " (16, 17, at Is. apiece) as follows :

" The Traveller's Library, Complete in Twenty- Five Volumes. Vol. 17. Biography and His- tory, Vol. IV. Holcroft. Arago. Chesterfield. Selwyn. London : Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. 1S56."

This is the title-page to the bound volume : the " Vol. 17 " may refer to the collected volume in the whole Library ; the " Vol. IV." refers to its place in the division of " Biography and History." The " 16 " and " 17 " which appear below refer to the con- secutive numbers of the separate sections as originally issued unbound. The incongruity of the date " 1856 " above with the " 1852 "