by, which shine like silver as those of Clissura,"* and on his way to Thessaly he passed through Monastir. Some years later, in 1675, George Wheler met on the hills opposite Lepanto with a settlement of shepherds, and in a short description which he gives of their mode of life as well as of their dresst one recognizes the same folk about whom Dr. Sibthorp wrote in 1794:"During the winter months a wandering tribe of Nomades drive their flocks from the mountains of Thessaly into the plains of Attica and Boeotia, and give some pecuniary consideration to the Pasha of Negropont and Vaivode of Athens. These people are much famed for their woollen manufactures, particularly the coats or cloaks worn by the Greek sailors."-Robert Walpole, 'Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey' (London, 1817, vol. i. p. 141). The aforesaid travellers do not name the Vlachs; they speak in general terms, as do some of the Byzantin chroniclers. Gregoras, for instance (ed. Bonn, vol. i. p. 247), says: Τὰ ἐν Μακεδονία Ρωμαίοις ὁμοροῦντα ἔθνη, Ἰλλυριοί τε δηλαδὴ καὶ Τριβαλλοὶ καὶ 'Ακαρ. νάνες καὶ Θετταλοί, the latter comprising the Vlachs. Cantacuzene likewise alludes to | them by saying: οἱ περὶ Θετταλίαν οἰκοῦσιν avтóvoμoι voμádes (ed. Bonn, vol. i. p. 450). Learned men as they all were, it must be presumed that they knew about the Vlachs. These people, who call themselves Armâni, had a part of their own-at times of paramount importance-in the very tangled history of the Balkans. Beginning with the tenth century, one often hears about them from different sources, including some English, either direct or translated. Thus Benjamin of Tudela's narrative of his journey, with an oft-quoted passage on the Balachi," appeared in Purchas His Pilgrimes, ed. 1625 (vol. ii. chap. ix. p. 1441). In the same collection of travels William de Rubruquist refers in 1253 to the "Land of Assanus," and, as implied in the words as farre as Solonia," he means but the Meyáλn Blaxia of the Byzantin chronicles. From this Vallachia came to London in 1427 a person called Paulus. The king ་ then reigning, Henry VI., granted him an allowance on account of his being ruined by the Turks. The decree issued for this purpose distinctly points out that he is "Comes de Valache, in partibus Grecia, qui de Nobile Sanguine Tractus existit (Rymer, Fœdera,' 3rd ed., vol. iv., 4th part, p. 128; vol. v., 1st part, pp. 7-8). He was probably one of those chieftains who, according to the times and extent of their powers, bore different titles, besides that of Comes de Valache." We learn from the Cecaumeni Strategicon' that the Emperor Basile II. granted to Niculitza τὴν ἀρχὴν τῶν Βλάχων Ελλάδος (B. Wassiliewsky and V. Jernstedt, Petersburg, 1896, p. 96); later on Niketas speaks of a тожάρуns ruling over Great Vallachia (ed. Bonn, p. 841). At the advent of the Turks, Great Vallachia ceased to be a principality apart, but her name, with something of a glamour about it, lingered still through the tradition of the people, as shown by an old folk-song beginning : Κλαίγουν τἀηδόνια τῆς Βλακιᾶς καὶ τὰ πουλιὰ στὴν δύσιν.... * and the Vlachs managed to retain their own organization and local privileges. If during more than three centuries afterwards one meets but few records, the reason has to be sought in the fact that, on the one hand, the Vlachs were in many instances confounded with the various races around them; on the other hand, they had, as they still have, their homes on the out-of-the-way hills, in a country of no easy communications, withal far too dangerous to attract visitors for its own or its people's sake. There came circumstances of a different nature, such as the interest for classicism, geographical and topographical researches in relation to it, the quest for old books and manuscripts-all these induced English travellers, in spite of many hardships, to venture towards those regions of Turkey and Northern Greece. On their journeys they often encountered nomad tribes of Vlachs ascending to the mountains or going down to the grassy pastures with their sheep and their caravans so picturesque in colour. Questions that might have arisen with regard to the past of these rather strange From Janina, his place of residence, Leake made frequent visits to the hinterlands, gaining thus a great insight into Vlach life; and in his Travels in Northern Greece' (which, though published in 1835, is in the form of diaries written between 1804 and 1810) he enters into such characterizations as this: "The Vlakhiotes, who, with less native acuteness than the Greeks, are endowed with more steadiness, prudence, and perseverance, are nevertheless like all republicans seldom free from intestine intrigues and divisions."-Vol. i. p. 282. "The scene has an appearance of comfort and successful industry seldom seen in Greek or Turkish villages."-Vol. i. p. 300. Of their dialect he says: "The language of the Vlakhiote towns of Pindus differs very slightly from that of Wallachia, and contains consequently many Latin words derived from the Latin colonists of Dacia. The Latin words are not so numerous as in Italian or Spanish, but the flexions and the auxiliary verbs in some of their forms are less changed than in any of the daughters of the Latin."-Vol. i. p. 280. Leake saw a great many Vlach villages on the ranges of Pindus and Olympus; and he pursued his excursions towards the south, towards Salonica, Seres, and Mount Athos-where Dr. Hunt before him met a number of Vlachs at the monastery of Vatopedet-and towards the Albanian region of Tomor. In the description of this last place his unaffected style does not fail also to convey that sense of seclusion and mountainous solitude in which Vlach settlements are usually found : "As we advance along the western side of the mountain, the sun becomes visible at short plain of the Mizakia with the sea beyond it, intervals, and lights up portions of the great but these views are soon shut out again by interposing clouds and rain. Just as it becomes dark, we obtain a sight of the village of Tomor or Domor in the highest habitable part of the mountain, and perceive on our right at the extremity of the long rugged slope of the mountain the Castle of Berat and the valley of the river Uzúmi."-Vol. i. pp. 350-51. And all through his work there is such a wealth of information, of appropriate quotations from the classics, of penetrating remarks, that it is indispensable for any student of the Vlachs. Leake was in Janina when Lord Byron got there. From conversations they had together and from his reading of Gibbon, the poet came to know of the peoples inhabiting those parts. Therefore one would be justified in assuming that verses like pensive o'er his scattered flock, The little shepherd in his white capote Doth lean his boyish form along the rock.... allude to the Vlach shepherd. For a more detailed account of the journey Byron refers to his fellow-traveller J. C. Hobhouse. The latter was acquainted with Pouqueville's work, Voyage en Morée, à Constantinople,' &c., Paris, 1805. It was perhaps for this reason that he left aside the Vlach districts already described by the French author, and he only casually mentioned Metzovo, the village of Malacassi, and also the route to Zagori, which, he says, "is taken by the merchants travelling into Wallachia as being more secure than that which leads through the plains of Thessaly by Larissa" ( A Journey through Albania and other Provinces of Turkey in Europe and Asia to Constantinople,' London, 1813, p. 62). Shortly after Hobhouse we have the Rev. Thos. Smart Hughes (who published in 1820 Travels in Sicily, Greece, and Albania') and Henry Holland. Both are much impressed by the Vlachs and their caravans, the latter dwelling with more length on them. After an interesting description of Metzovo and some historical considerations, Holland gives what seems a very judicious report : "The insulation and mode of life have tended to preserve them, in great measure, separated as a people; and the Wallachian towns and villages European and Asiatic * 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage,' canto il. stanza lii. *Ed. 1776-88, vol. vi. chaps. lx. and lxi. † He calls them "Wallachian-Greeks." It was at Easter, 1801. See Robert Walpole's Memoirs relating to Turkey,' vol. i. p. 199. of Pindus, which are very numerous in those parts of the chain between Albania and Thessaly, have all a distinct character, which probably has continued for centuriès. The Vlachi are a hardy and active people, more regular, less ferocious in their habits than the Albanians, to whom they are not allied in their origin, and but little as it appears in later connexion. "It may further be remarked that there is an air of active industry, neatness, and good order in these towns, which, while it distinguishes them from all others in the south of Turkey, affords a singular contrast to the wild and rugged scenery by which they are surrounded.' Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia,' &c., London, 1815, p. 226. pathetic account, and finds it very interesting "to meet a tribe of these nomad Wallachians on their march, winding in single file with their long trains of packhorses up one of the mountain passes of Epirus, or along the plains of Thessaly." - Mount Athos, Thessaly, and Epirus,' p. 152. To the same period belongs Edward Lear's Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania.' It has to be mentioned especially for the illustrations, which he himself contributed. Henry Tozer relates having seen the Vlachs in their summer encampments at the heights between Ipek and Prizrend; and he adds: These families are completely nomad, having no settled habitation."* Such roaming communities are to be found in many other places, particularly towards the Adriatic coast, where hardly any traveller has been to seek them. In 1838 appeared' The Spirit of the East,' by D. Urquhart. A special interest attaches to this, in his time, most influential political author. A Roumanian statesman and writer of note, I. Ghica, for many years representative to the Court of St. James, knew him well. In a letter he portrays him as a young man of short stature, delicate complexion, with pale face, long A limited region of Albania was visited in golden hair over his back, blue piercing 1860 by Mary Adelaide Walker, who, eyes * and he further speaks of Ur- passing near Coritza, heard the tinkling quhart's noble character, of his ardour in bells of the flocks, and caught a sight of espousing the great causes for freedom. their shepherds in sheepskin cloaks Indeed, his Spirit of the East' breathes and caps (Through Macedonia to the in a large degree the tumultuous, fiery Albanian Lakes,' London, 1864, p. 249). atmosphere of the Greek revolution. He On her way to Coritza she was present also deals in it with chiefs like Catchiandoni at a Vlach wedding ceremony, of which she and Tchionga, both of the Vlach race, or, renders a clear account. In describing as Urquhart puts it, of these hardy further the Bulgarian dresses she refers to mountaineers, nowhere fixed, but always a specimen worn by "the women from to be found where the wolves have dens Vlacho-Clissura (ibid., pp. 141-6). It is and eagles nests" (vol. i. p. 122). surely a mistake; in Vlacho-Clissura, as shown by the name itself, no Bulgarian women are to be found. With regard to the town of Monastir, she writes: 66 In some of these travellers' accounts one has to look carefully for the particular passages relating to our subject, as they are intermixed with various other matters. Robert Curzon, for instance, looking down from the Meteora monasteries at the beautiful prospect stretched before him, and without any further reference, writes: "The whole of this region is inhabited by a race of different origin from the real Albanians : they speak the Wallachian language, and are said to be extremely barbarous and ignorant.". 'Visits to Monasteries in the Levant,' London, 1849, p. 294. Of course, the author reports only the information conveyed to him, but still it is curious that he did not care to comment on it. His follower, George Ferguson Bowen, whose purpose was in a way to complete the Visits to Monasteries in the Levant,'t gives, on the contrary, a sym "Among the Christian population of Monastir the Vlachs rank the highest for commercial enterprise, industry, and intelligence."-Ib., p. 137. G. M. Mackenzie and A. P. Irby in a book published a few years later† fully agree on this point with the preceding author. as or On the whole, English travellers dwell mostly on the nomadic life of the Vlachs and its external aspect, either because it appealed to them more unusual because they came into contact with it on their journeying to Greece. There is, however, another section of these people represented by numerous well-to-do boroughs, Above all in scattered on the mountains. * 'Researches in the Highlands of Turkey," London, 1869, vol. i. p. 352. See also his footnotes concerning the Vlachs in Finlay's History of Greece,' ed. 1877, Oxford, based as they are on a sound, personal knowledge. †Travels in the Slavonic Provinces of Turkey-in-Europe,' London, 1867, p. 74. ture, solid, roomy, and with some incipient importance stood once Moschópoli. It "Half its houses are empty, and their architec possessed a high school under the name of Ακαδημία, and a printing house the second established in Turkey after that of Constantinople-where Vlachian books in Greek character, besides many others, were printed, showing the existence of a national consciousness before any thought in this direction had ever occurred to their kinsfolk of the Danubian principalities. In the 'Akadηuía were professors like Theodore Cavalioti, author of a Greek-Vlach-Albanian vocabulary and various other works, whom Sathas calls γραμματικὸς ἄριστος (Βιογραφίαι, ἐν Αθήναις, 1868, p. 496). His pupil Constantine Teheagani, a writer himself, in order to improve his knowledge and be thus of more use to his own people, had visited London, Cambridge, and other places of learning (Iohann Thunmann, Untersuchungen über die Geschichte der östlichen europäischen Völker, vol. i., Leipzig, 1774, p. 179, note K). There was also going on an extensive commerce, mainly with Venice at her period of glory. Vlach folk-songs tell us about long, long lines of caravans passing day and night, laden with silks of all descriptions; and this vague reminiscence of bygone times is amply confirmed by evidences found in the Venetian archives.* After the plunder and partial ruin of Moschópoli, its noble traditions were taken and carried on by towns like Krushevo, Vlacho-Clissura, Nevesca, and the large Vlachian colonies in Transylvania. I mention but a few of the relatively recent works. One has to be rather careful with these. Since the starting of different propaganda in Turkey, English travellers, though more impartial, could not altogether escape the prevailing turbulent atmosphere. Unconsciously-some even with purposethey take sides: facts are inverted, figures vitiated; much more so in the case of the Vlachs, who had no separate Church, by which the people were distinguished and classified in the Turkish system. There are exceptions indeed, such as the fluently written, but none the less scholarly book of A. J. B. Wace and M. S. Thompson, The Nomads of the Balkans' (London, 1914). The authors lived a good deal amongst the Vlachs, to the extent of learning their vernacular tongue. Beyond what they had to say in The Nomads of the Balkans,' they called attention* to the fact that, since the way of living and the habits of these people had changed but very little from immemorial times, their study would perhaps enlighten us concerning what had occurred long ago, in the distant past, with regard to which no documents of any kind are available. M. BEZA. PAULUS AMBROSIUS CROKE: Rarely, here and there, one meets this side of life being dealt with by English travellers-in Leake, for instance, or in such a passage of Stuart Glennie as the A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ACCOUNT following, which affords a glimpse of a Vlach interior : BOOK. PAULUS AMBROSIUS CROKE, from whose account book the following notes are taken, was a younger son of Sir John Croke of Chilton and the Lady Elizabeth, his wife. The date of his birth is not known to me, but he was admitted to the Inner Temple on Feb. 18, 1582, and rose to be a Bencher of that society. He married first Frances, daughter (and coheir with her sister Anne) of Francis Welsborne of East Hanney, Berks. This lady died in 1605. He then married Susanna, daughter of Thomas Coo of Boxford in Suffolk, who had previously married twice, and was destined to bury her third husband. This old account book is in parlous condition, very ragged and mildewed, but contains much of interest-sufficient, indeed, to give a somewhat intimate knowledge of the life and personality of a worthy lawyer of the day. In it we see a man of careful habit, but not ungenerous; profoundly religious, but no fanatic; a genial soul, fond of good cheer, and distinctly popular among his lady friends, if we may judge from the care they took of his creature comforts; a man of observation, both of natural phenomena and current events, yet homely withal. The Bencher notes the dangers of his rides to his country house at Hackney, and spends much time on that great highway of London life, the river. At Hackney he is interested in his farm and garden, and buys books on the subject. Occasionally he goes into the country with his family and relations, and often borrows a coach to take him there, but does not forget to reward the dependents for the trouble given. He is also extremely particular about his food, fond of delicacies, and almost every day pays something for Bottling." He is equally particular about his clothing. The manuscript portrays the man, and incidentally throws much light on the manners and customs of the day. GENEALOGICAL MEMORANDA. brother, knighted. 29 Jan, 1623[/4].-Sir George Croke, my January, 1623/4.-2. To the cocheman of my cosen Coventrie in whose coche I came from the further end of Moorefeld to the Temple gate, 3d. 9. For a paire of knives for my brother William his daughter Elizabeth, 2s. 6d. For a silke string unto them with tasselles, 8d. 12. To the Steward for a monethes coens [commons] for my nephew Unton Croke, he being farre in the steward's debt....4. 16. For a paire of woosted stockins for my neice Eliz: 4s. 6d. 14. Tho: Davison that brought me puddings from my sister Trello, 6d. December, 1611.-For a sugar-lofe for my brother Justice Croke, 158. 8d. 4. For a lofe of double refined sugar for my sister Tirrell, weighing 5 li. 6 oz., at 22d. the pound, 158, [sic[. Januarie, 1611.-10. To my nephew Charles Croke, 108. April, 1612.-10. To my nephew Rich: Wingfield a little before his intended Journey into Denmark, 20s. Maye, 1612.-Md the 30th of this instant month companie of my brother George and his wife. October, 1612.-14. To my nephewe Alexander Maye, 1613.-18. To my brother Milward his maid Anne, lieing in his house yesternight, 6d. Thomas, who was baptized this daye, I being a July, 1613.-1. To my brother George his son speciall witness thereto a standing cup with a cover, both silver and guilt, weighing 9 li., 178. To my sister's midwife the same by me in gold, 118. To Mrs. Foster her then milch nurse in gold, 5s. 6d. 48. May, 1614.-22. To June, 1614.-6. For a Marchpane given to my brother Geo: at the baptizing of his daughter Mary, who was baptized upon Ascention daye last, being the 2nd daye of this instant June, 128. July, 1614.-2. To the footman of my sister ladie Croke yt brought a haunch of venison from her to me, 12d. October, 1614.-10. To John Rolles, who first brought me word of the safe deliverie of my wife of my yung sonne, 58. To my sister Bennet Croke for Xs. which I re ceived of her to double the same upon the birth of my first child. 22. To the sexton at Hackney the daye my sonne was baptized, 12d. To my father Coo his men for paines taken that day, 12d. [delivery] of neece Biones of a sonne, weh was borne this morning, about fower of the clock, 28. 27. To Van for his tidings of the save dele Januarie, 1614[15].-14. To my wives father for a weekes coens for myselfe, my wife her daughter, and five servaunts, 388. May, 1615.-4. To my nephew Hen. Croke junr, 2s. 6d. 26. For a Ire [letter] sent my sister Clerke, 4d. June, 1615.-1. For a skinker pot of silver p'cell [parcel] guilt wch I gave to Richard Davies at the tyme of his marriage wth my neece Catherin Croke, weighing 38 oz., £10 19s. 5. To my wife to bestowe in the exchaunge, going together with my sisters from my nephew Davies his house, 10s. To my sister Tirell and my three yonger sisters in law and my cosen Fra. Brawne, then in jest for the same purpose, 12d. November, 1615.-1. To my sonne Samuel his nurse for her wages for a moneth ending uppon Mondaie next, 13s. 4d. November, 1616.-12. For three limons and sixe oranges for my cozen Tate, 12d. 15. To Sr Wm Tate his man who brought blackes from his Mr [master] for myselfe and my man to mourne for my cosen Fra. Tate, who died this daie. December, 1616.-4. For fower gigs, two for Sar: and Sam: the other two for Tho: and Mar: two of my brother George his children. 26.To a Ire [letter] sent to my brother Wm, 2d. |