DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9695#0130
FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO LONDON
59
Other twoe sorts there are, lesse dangerous and trouble-
some. One is like a Craine wheele att Customhowse
Key1 and turned in that Manner, whereon Children sitt on
little seats hunge round about in severall parts thereof,
And though it turne right upp and downe, and that the
Children are sometymes on the upper part of the wheele,
and sometymes on the lower, yett they alwaies sitt
upright2.
The third sort is like a great Cart Wheele, on whose
Circumference are fastned litle seats, whereon the Children
beinge sett, the wheele is putt about, they all goeing round
Horizontallwise3. Theis two latter only servinge for litle
Children4.
The three sorts of Swinginge beforementioned are also
expressed in the Figure on the other side5.
Beinge att Philippopolis, as in fol. 56, understandinge
that the Plague was in that Cittie, wee pitched on thother
side of it by the bancks of a river as is before mentioned,
and our people warned not to goe unto it on any occasion7.
1 The old Customhouse "near to the Tower of London," was built
by John Churchman, Sheriff of London, in 1385. See Stow, Survey
of Loudon, Book v. p. 114. Stow also refers to the "Custom House
Key" as follows (Book ii. p. 53), "The present Names of the Keys
or Wharfs lying on the South Side...Custom House Key....But
above all is the Custom House: Which being consumed by the Fire
of London 1666, is rebuilt in a much more magnificent and uniform
manner." As Stow has no reference to the " Craine wheele " men-
tioned by Mundy, it is probable that this also was destroyed in the
Great Fire of 1666.
2 The contrivance here described appears to be similar to the now
famous " Great Wheel" at Earl's Court.
3 This " swing" is the " Merry-go-round," still so popular at English
country fairs.
4 In no other contemporary writer on Turkey or the Turks have I
found any allusion to the very common oriental pastime of swinging,
although the various modes of punishment receive full attention and
are described in detail.
5 See illustration facing p. 58.
6 i.e. fol. 5 of the Rcrwlinson MS., p. 54 of this volume.
7 In the British Museum copy, Harl. MS., 2286, there is only the
remark, " Heere wee understood the plague was within the Cittie."
59
Other twoe sorts there are, lesse dangerous and trouble-
some. One is like a Craine wheele att Customhowse
Key1 and turned in that Manner, whereon Children sitt on
little seats hunge round about in severall parts thereof,
And though it turne right upp and downe, and that the
Children are sometymes on the upper part of the wheele,
and sometymes on the lower, yett they alwaies sitt
upright2.
The third sort is like a great Cart Wheele, on whose
Circumference are fastned litle seats, whereon the Children
beinge sett, the wheele is putt about, they all goeing round
Horizontallwise3. Theis two latter only servinge for litle
Children4.
The three sorts of Swinginge beforementioned are also
expressed in the Figure on the other side5.
Beinge att Philippopolis, as in fol. 56, understandinge
that the Plague was in that Cittie, wee pitched on thother
side of it by the bancks of a river as is before mentioned,
and our people warned not to goe unto it on any occasion7.
1 The old Customhouse "near to the Tower of London," was built
by John Churchman, Sheriff of London, in 1385. See Stow, Survey
of Loudon, Book v. p. 114. Stow also refers to the "Custom House
Key" as follows (Book ii. p. 53), "The present Names of the Keys
or Wharfs lying on the South Side...Custom House Key....But
above all is the Custom House: Which being consumed by the Fire
of London 1666, is rebuilt in a much more magnificent and uniform
manner." As Stow has no reference to the " Craine wheele " men-
tioned by Mundy, it is probable that this also was destroyed in the
Great Fire of 1666.
2 The contrivance here described appears to be similar to the now
famous " Great Wheel" at Earl's Court.
3 This " swing" is the " Merry-go-round," still so popular at English
country fairs.
4 In no other contemporary writer on Turkey or the Turks have I
found any allusion to the very common oriental pastime of swinging,
although the various modes of punishment receive full attention and
are described in detail.
5 See illustration facing p. 58.
6 i.e. fol. 5 of the Rcrwlinson MS., p. 54 of this volume.
7 In the British Museum copy, Harl. MS., 2286, there is only the
remark, " Heere wee understood the plague was within the Cittie."