Memoir and Letters of Francis W. NewmanSieveking, I. Giberne (Isabel Giberne)
Religion
Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman
Sieveking, I. Giberne (Isabel Giberne)
Newman, Francis William, 1805-1897
But there is, I think, a good deal more in these words written on 18th
September than meets the eye:--
"I am on my way to England for reasons partly personal" (I think this
hints at a hope not altogether dead, which had been his close companion
through his two years of absence), "partly connected with the interests of
my Bagdad friends, _and my imagination is in England_."
In his journey through Teheraun and thence to Tabreez, he passed through
the celebrated rock of Besittoun. The sculptures there are said to
represent the conquest of Darius Hystaspis.
"Our caravan did not go close enough to see the sculptures; we were
probably half a mile off, but the muleteers were careful to point to them
and talk of them. So too in going from Babylonia into Media by the ancient
pass of Zagros, they were eager to draw my attention to the sculptures in
lofty, apparently inaccessible rocks. 'Your uncle made those,' said a
muleteer. At first I did not understand, but I found he meant by my uncle
some infidel. No true believer, he said, could have done it.... The pass
must be very ancient, and it is by far the noblest work I have seen in
Asia."
The next letter is from Constantinople, 9th April, 1833.
"I am on my way to England, but do not know how long I may stay there." In
his journey from Erzeroom to Scutari, he says he "became a mere animal";
he could only think of his horse's feet and his horse's footing. He never
felt secure, for this reason: that the Tartar's horse, behind whom he
rode, in the "ladder road" [Footnote: A "ladder road" is made by the
horses all following each other in one track, and each trying to step in
the steps made by the first horse.] beside the precipices, through the
snow, "fell eleven times with him," and more than once fell over him.
Frank Newman says his fear of falling prevented him from being able to
admire the scenery, when, as often, it was grand and striking. "The Tartar
starts at a fast walk, gets gradually into a shuffle, and studies the pace
and power of all the beasts; at last he takes a sharp trot, but slackens
before any of them lose breath. His great problem is, that the _weakest_
horse of the set (who really sets the pace) shall come in well at last....
I never imagined I could have gained a power of sleeping for an hour, or
two hours, and at last even for ten minutes ... in our last week, in which
I had no regular night sleep. He" (the Tartar) "could not sleep, for he
had two horses carrying gold ... but he dozed famously while on horseback.
Dr. Kidd used to tell us that the wrist, the eyelid, and the nape of the
neck went to sleep before the brain--a charitable excuse for one who drops
a Prayer Book in church from drowsiness. I wish I could get Dr. Kidd to
tell me whether the knee does not (at least by habit) remain awake after
the brain is asleep, for I never saw the Tartar loose in the saddle even
when he was all nidnodding." Then comes again the suggestion of the doubt
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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