( 567 ) 



REMARKS ON THE TROAD. 



(CONTAINED IN A LETTER ADDRESSED BY MR. MORRITT TO DR. CLARKE, 



AUGUST, 1812.) 



Dear Sir, 



When, like you, I first visited the ruins of Tchiblak, their coinci- 

 dence with the description given by Strabo of the Pagus Iliensium, 

 struck me so strongly, that I hesitated for some time whether I should 

 not adopt the system which they have led you to pursue, and sup- 

 pose this to be the situation which Homer assigned to Troy. Had I 

 found the ruins you describe at Palseo Califat, the coincidence would 

 have struck me still more forcibly, and the remains you describe as 

 the Callicolone, and the tombs of Ilus and-Myrinna, would have been 

 powerful corroborations of my opinion. I confess it is more than 

 probable that Strabo adopted it, and yet it is so inconsistent with Ho- 

 mer's poem, that after comparing them I should have been compelled 

 to doubt extremely the accuracy of his information. I cannot lay 

 any stress on the traditions which in Strabo's time continued to 

 identify the different objects in the plain with the features of the 

 poem. The Troad was consecrated ground ; travellers of the 

 greatest celebrity, kings and warriors, stopped in their career to 

 contemplate its remains, and the natives of Ilium and Alexan- 

 dria appear to have been no less officious in gratifying their curi- 

 osity than the monks of Jerusalem now are, in pointing out their 

 scenes and situations to the veneration of the pilgrims. There are 

 some difficulties which perhaps you may remove (or which may be 

 left to future visitors of the plain,) in reconciling Strabo's description 

 with your system : and first with regard to the position of New 

 Ilium. This you consider as situated at Palseo Califat, to the north 

 of the stream now called Califat Osmack, and supposed by you to 

 have been the Simois of Homer and of Strabo. " It is surrounded on 



