DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0145
ORIGIN OF POMPEY’S PILLAR.
123
Arabs from forcing out several of them, to search for an
imaginary treasure. The whole column is 114 feet high.
It is perfectly well polished, and only a little shivered on
the eastern side. Nothing can equal the majesty of this
monument; seen from a distance, it overtops the town, and
serves as a signal for vessels at sea. Approaching it nearer,
it produces an astonishment mixed with awe. One can
never be tired with admiring the beauty of the capital, the
length of the shaft, nor the extraordinary simplicity of the
pedestal. This last has been somewhat damaged by the
instruments of travellers, who are curious to possess a relic
of this antiquity ; and one of the volutes of the column was
immaturely brought down about 1781, by a prank of some
English Captains, which is thus related by Mr. Irwin:
“ These jolly sons of Neptune had been pushing about
the can on board one of the ships in the harbour, until a
strange freak entered into one of their brains. The eccentri-
city of the thought occasioned it immediately to be adopted,
and its apparent impossibility was but a spur for the putting
it into execution. The boat w7as ordered, and with proper
implements for the attempt, these enterprising heroes
pushed ashore, to drink a bowl of punch on the top of Pom-
pey’s pillar ’. At the spot they arrived; and many contriv-
ances were proposed to accomplish the desired point. But
their labour was vain, and they began to despair of success,
when the genius who struck out the frolic happily suggested
the means of performing it. A man was dispatched to the
city for a paper kite. The inhabitants were by this time
apprized of what was going forward, and flocked in crowds
to be witnesses of the address and boldness of the English.
The Governor of Alexandria was told that these seamen
were about to pull dowm Pompey’s pillar. But whether he
gave them credit for their respect to the Roman warrior, or
to the Turkish government, he left them to themselves,
and politely answered, that the English were too great
patriots
123
Arabs from forcing out several of them, to search for an
imaginary treasure. The whole column is 114 feet high.
It is perfectly well polished, and only a little shivered on
the eastern side. Nothing can equal the majesty of this
monument; seen from a distance, it overtops the town, and
serves as a signal for vessels at sea. Approaching it nearer,
it produces an astonishment mixed with awe. One can
never be tired with admiring the beauty of the capital, the
length of the shaft, nor the extraordinary simplicity of the
pedestal. This last has been somewhat damaged by the
instruments of travellers, who are curious to possess a relic
of this antiquity ; and one of the volutes of the column was
immaturely brought down about 1781, by a prank of some
English Captains, which is thus related by Mr. Irwin:
“ These jolly sons of Neptune had been pushing about
the can on board one of the ships in the harbour, until a
strange freak entered into one of their brains. The eccentri-
city of the thought occasioned it immediately to be adopted,
and its apparent impossibility was but a spur for the putting
it into execution. The boat w7as ordered, and with proper
implements for the attempt, these enterprising heroes
pushed ashore, to drink a bowl of punch on the top of Pom-
pey’s pillar ’. At the spot they arrived; and many contriv-
ances were proposed to accomplish the desired point. But
their labour was vain, and they began to despair of success,
when the genius who struck out the frolic happily suggested
the means of performing it. A man was dispatched to the
city for a paper kite. The inhabitants were by this time
apprized of what was going forward, and flocked in crowds
to be witnesses of the address and boldness of the English.
The Governor of Alexandria was told that these seamen
were about to pull dowm Pompey’s pillar. But whether he
gave them credit for their respect to the Roman warrior, or
to the Turkish government, he left them to themselves,
and politely answered, that the English were too great
patriots