THE JOURNAL
OF
C. R. COCKERELL, R.A.
C. R. Cockerell.
TRAVELS IN SOUTHERN
EUROPE AND THE
LEVANT, 1810-1817.
THE JOURNAL OF C. R. COCKERELL, R.A.
EDITED BY HIS SON
SAMUEL PEPYS COCKERELL
With a Portrait
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1903
All rights reserved
PREFACE
My father, Charles Robert Cockerell, whose travels the following pagesrecord, was the second son of Samuel Pepys Cockerell, a man of somemeans, architect to the East India Company and to one or more Londonestates. He was born on the 27th of April, 1788, and at a suitable agehe went to Westminster, a fashionable school in those days. There heremained until he was sixteen. He was then set to study architecture, atfirst in his father's office, and later in that of Mr. Robert Smirke.His father must have had a great faith in the educational advantage oftravel, as already in 1806, when he was only eighteen, he was sent atour to study the chief architectural objects of the West of England andWales. The sketches in the diary of this journey show him already thepossessor of so light and graceful a touch in drawing that it is evident[Pg vi]that he must have practised it from very early years. This no doubt wasfollowed by other similar excursions, but his father's desire was thathe should see foreign countries. Unfortunately, in 1810 most of theContinent was closed to Englishmen. Turkey, which included Greece, was,however, open. As it chanced, this was a happy exception. The current oftaste for the moment was running strongly in the direction of Greekarchitecture; Smirke himself had but lately returned thence. When ascheme for making a tour there came to be discussed, Mr. WilliamHamilton, then Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, an intimate friendof the family, who had himself travelled in those parts, took a greatinterest in it, and offered to send him out as King's messenger withdespatches for the fleet at Cadiz, Malta, and Constantinople. Such anoffer was too good to refuse.
No definite tour had been or could be marked out in the then existingconditions of European politics. The traveller was to be guided bycircumstances; but nothing approaching the length of absence, whichextended itself to seven and a quarter years, was contemplated at thetime of starting.
As far as possible I have used my father's own words in the followingaccount of his journeys; but the letters and memoranda of a youth of[Pg vii]twenty-two, who disliked and had no talent for writing, naturallyrequire a great deal of editing.
His beautiful sketches form what may be called his real diary.
I should add that accounts of some of the episodes recorded in thisJournal have seen the light already. For instance, the discovery of theÆgina Marbles and of the Phigaleian Marbles is narrated in my father'sbook, 'The Temples of