University of Virginia Library

Two gentlemen . . . thought, that a voyage . . . to the most remarkable
places of antiquity, on the coast of the Mediteranean, might produce
amusement and improvement to themselves, as well as some advantage
to the publick.

As I had already seen most of the places they intended to visit, they did
me the honour of communicating to me their thoughts upon that head, and I
with great pleasure accepted their kind invitation to be of so agreeable a
party. . . .

It was agreed, that a fourth person in Italy, whose abilities, as an architect
and draftsman we were acquainted with, would be absolutely necessary.

We met our ship at Naples in the spring. She brought from London a
library, consisting chiefly of all the Greek historians and poets, some books
of antiquities, and the best voyage writers, what mathematical instruments

we thought necessary, and such things as might be proper presents for the
Turkish Grandees, or others, to whom, in the course of our voyage, we should
be obliged to address our selves.

We visited most of the islands of the Archipelago, part of Greece in
Europe; the Asiatick and European coasts of the Hellespont, Propontis and
Bosphorus, as far as the Black-sea, most of the inland parts of Asia Minor,
Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine and Egypt. . . .

Inscriptions we copied as they fell our way, and carried off the marbles
whenever possible; for the avarice or superstition of the inhabitants made that
task difficult and sometimes impracticable. . . .

Architecture took up our chief attention. . . . All lovers of that art
must be sensible that the measures of the antient buildings of Rome, by
Monsieur Desgodetz [No. 36], have been of the greatest use: We imagined
that by attempting to follow the same method in those countries where architecture
had its origin, or at least arrived at the highest degree of perfection
it has ever attained, we might do service. . . .

How much the loss of such a person [as Mr. Bouverie] must have broke
in upon the spirit of our party, may easily be supposed. Had he lived to have
seen Palmyra we should, no doubt, have less occasion to beg indulgence for
such inaccuracies as may be found in the following work.

. . . If anything could make us forget that Mr. Bouverie was dead,
it was that Mr. Dawkins was living.

If the following specimen of our joint labours should . . . rescue from
oblivion the magnificence of Palmyra, it is owing entirely to this gentleman,
who was so indefatigable in his attention to see every thing done accurately,
that there is scarce a measure in this work which he did not take himself.
[Publisher's note]

Our account of Palmyra is confined merely to that state of decay in
which we found those ruins in the year 1751. [P. 1]

We set out from Haffia the 11th of March 1751, with an escort of the
Aga's best Arab horsemen, armed with guns and long pikes, and travelled in
four hours to Sudud. [P. 33]

We . . . proceeded after dinner . . . to a Turkish village called
Howareen (where we lay) three hours from Sudud. . . .

We set out from Howareen the 12th, and in three hours arrived at
Carietein. . . .

We left Carietin [sic], the 13th, about ten o'clock, which was much too
late. . . . This bad management exposed us to the heat of two days, before
our cattle could get either water or rest. . . .

Our caravan was now encreased to about two hundred persons, and
about the same number of beasts for carriage, consisting of an odd mixture
of horses, camels, mules and asses. [P. 34]

The fourteenth about noon we arrived at the end of the plain . . .
when the hills opening discovered to us, all at once, the greatest quantity of
ruins we had ever seen, all of white marble, and beyond them towards the

Plate CXLIX. From No. 130. "View of the arch from the east" (Tab. XXVI).

Plate CL. From No. 130. "View of the arch from the west" (Tab. XXXV).

Euphrates a flat waste, as far as the eye could reach, without any object which
shewed either life or motion. It is scarce possible to imagine any thing more
striking than this view: So great a number of Corinthian pillars, mixed with
so little wall or solid building, afforded a most romantic variety of prospect.
[P. 35; see Plates CXLIX and CL]