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9 UN DEBAT : LES MEN T ALIT ES COLLECTIVES 599

& trees intermixed the view froni a dist: [distanee] as of all tur-kish towns is not unpleasing. — It is said to contain IG,000 people &has 365 Churches. ³⁴

On the evening of 12 July they left Bueharest en route for the Danube. By the third day they finally arrived at Sistova on the Bulgarian side of the riyer. ³⁵ It was a slow and tiring jouiney and they became rnore ansious to reach their destination with every day that passed. In Bułgaria they noticed their first impalement just outside Tirnova, a sight which did not produce the expected feelings of reyulsion, for Stoekdale remark-■ed : “ ... we passed the firSt impalement we had scen but as it was very old [it] did not strike one with those feelings of horror which a morę recent execution produces, little but the head remained & one looked at it like an old gibbet in England.’?³² Near Adrianople morę impalements were seen which were correctly assumed to be “the yictims of a rebellion which had gained sonie head in the spring & had been just quelled by a Pacha sent on Purpose. In these times the insurgents aie generally robbers & indiscriminatelj' plunder eyery person thej nieet with.” ³⁷

The group were to have no problemsof that sort, and Crossing Bułgaria was achieved without jnishap. Moiritt referred to the region to the north of the Bałkan rangę of mountains as being like “one of those rich yaried coUntries we admired between Doncaster and Kotherham.” ³³ Wilbraham in turn called it “a beautiful and well-cultivated country” •, while south of the Balkans, after having passed Eski Zadra (Stara Zagora), he wrote of the “Wonderful luxurianceof the Vines which overspread the hedges in a beautiful manner.”³⁹

Following the eourse of the Biver Maritza, they arriyed at Adria-nople (Edirne) on 20 July. They were in good form, with Morritt speaking about “sonie of the finest winę ever "[asted” ⁴⁰ and Stoekdale enthusing over “Sherbet, the best liquor that ever w^ras tasted”, madę of “raspber-ries and water with honev and a dash of rosę water. ” ⁴¹ Thev yisited the mosque of Sułtan Selim II — one of the masterpieces of Ottoman archi-tecture — built between 1569 and 1575 from the design of Suleiman the Magnificenfs architect Sinan. Morritt and Stoekdale even climbed to the top of one of the minarets to gain a morę spectacular view of the city.

⁸⁴ The MS Diary of Robert Stoekdale. For comparatIve descrlptlons of Bueharest by forelgn travelicrs, see: Paul C. Cemovodeanu, Socielatea Feiidald Romdneascd udzuld dc cdld-tori strdini (secolele XV—XVIII) (Bueharest, 1973), pp. 189—193.

³⁶ Knowiedge of ancient history was evidently stronger than contemporary history, for the travellers agreed that Sistova was the place where peace had been negotlated “between Austria and Russia in 1789". In fact, the Treaty of Sistova (mediated by Britain*s ambassa-dor at Vienna, Sir Robert Murary Keith) was signed between the Austrians and the Ottoman Turks on 4 August 1791.

³⁶ The MS. Diary of Robert Stoekdale.

¹⁷ Ibid.

³⁸ Marindin, op. cit., p. 65.

^w The MS. Diary of Randle Wilbrahain.

⁴⁰    Marindin, op. clt._f p. 66.

⁴¹    The MS. Diary of Randle Wilbrnham.