we first see the Greek dress in common use, and the full garments and
rich colours give an air of consequence, which however is perhaps, as
much the effect of novelty as of any thing else. It excites however, a
feeling something like surprise, when first we see men so dressed
employed in field labour, and yet on a nearer approach, we perceive that
it is as ragged and shabby as that of the lower classes with us. The
Greeks of the islands generally wear a sort of night-cap on the head,
and have abundance of hair, which is often brown towards the points, and
very unlike the fine black hair of the Italians. They wear a waistcoat
with sleeves, and over this another waistcoat without sleeves, of a
different colour, and both more or less embroidered; a red or blue sash,
and very full petticoats, reaching a little below the knee, and stitched
up at the bottom, except two holes for the legs to pass through. The
stockings are frequently white with red seams. The dress of the Albanian
peasants is much the same in form, but it is of coarser materials, and
of undyed wool, except blue and red threads, which are fastened in at
places, to serve as embroidery. The officers here have a very good
library, and I found what I did not expect, a copy of Stuart’s Athens,
including the fourth volume.
The chief produce of Corfu is oil. The Venetian government gave a reward
for each tree that was planted, and assigned a punishment for cutting
one down. The oil is said to be very good, and it ought to be cheaper
here than in the Neapolitan territory, where land pays taxes to the
amount of 27 per cent. on the produce, while here it only pays 3;
however, if less go to the government, more probably goes to the
landlord. The mountains seem to consist principally of limestone, and
from the specimens I saw of the rock and its fossil contents, I should
conclude it analogous to our chalk, but much harder. The lower hills are
sandstone lying on the limestone, and a siliceous angular breccia
occurs, whose position I could not ascertain; there is also a coarse
gritty limestone, and a slaty clay, with thin beds of sulphur.
We staid at Corfu only as long as the weather obliged us; and as the
strong, south wind which prevented our departure brought almost
continual rain, we consequently saw little of the neighbourhood, and
Corfu presents few antiquities. There are some faint traces of the
ancient Corcyra, and in its neighbourhood we observed a singular Doric
capital, the projection of the ovolo being equal to the upper
semidiameter of the column; it is of small dimensions. We also observed
a pilaster capital, corresponding in size with that of the column, which
put me in mind of some of those at Pæstum. I have no doubt that these
fragments are antique, but on the precise degree of antiquity I do not
pretend to decide. The port remains; a beautiful lake, surrounded with
every charm of cultivation, wood and mountain, but very shallow, and its
borders are said to be highly unwholesome.
Sharpe and I dined sometimes at the English tavern, and so completely
had we become used to Italian customs, that it seemed quite strange to
us to eat out of blue ware, to have soup, with only a little vermicelli
at the bottom, instead of being almost filled with it, to have fish
follow the soup, a little glass for the wine, iron forks, and to have
them and the knives changed with each change of plate. This is I imagine
not an ancient custom in England, for some passages in Swift seem to
indicate that it was by no means a regular practice in his time. We were
told that we should find this tavern very dear, yet soup, fish, duck,
shrimps, pudding, wine, and fruit, cost only half a crown a head, though
dressed at our own time; a privilege we have not been able to obtain of
late either for love or money. At the Italian trattoria a dinner cost
2_s._ 1_d._, which is dearer in proportion, both in the quality of food,
and the conveniences afforded.
We agreed with the captain of a small open boat to take us to Santa
Maura, or to Cefalonia, as the wind would best permit, and on Saturday
evening received a notice to come on board in order to start early in
the morning. There was no great comfort in such a sleeping-place, but we
prepared to submit. However, two officers of the Calabrian corps, who
were to be of the party, came to tell us that they had fixed not to
leave town till the morning. We ordered some provisions, but when we
inquired for them in the morning, we found they had been forgotten or
disposed of, and we were obliged to set off with a very short allowance.
The boat was about two miles from Corfu, and we did not leave the shore
till nine o’clock, in a dead calm. About eleven a breeze sprung up from
the south with dark clouds; I wanted to return, as the stormy weather we
had lately had from that quarter had taught me something of what we were
to expect. The boatmen however continued to row against the wind, which
increased during the day, and at dusk we entered a bay on the coast of
Albania, fifteen or twenty miles from Corfu, and moored at the back of a
little uninhabited island called _Agioneesi_ (Ἁγιοννησι). Our boat was
like one of the open fishing boats which are used on the English coast,
but more clumsily made, and with a sort of basket-work along the edge to
stick pegs into for the oars, and other purposes. A few moveable boards,
which covered a cargo of beans, formed a deck to stand upon, and when
moored, the boatmen took down the mast and laid it horizontally, to form
the ridge of a tent, which they completed with a sort of coarse flannel
and the sails; under this we crept, but there was no room to stand, or
even to sit upright, except in the middle. The night was wet and windy,
so was the next day, and our tent proved a very imperfect protection
against the torrents of rain. We got out upon the island in spite of the
weather, but it is a mere rock, covered with low bushes of myrtle, bay,
coronilla, lentiscus, arbutus, &c. On the top are a few fragments of the
walls of a ruined church. We saw abundance of narcissus and cyclamen,
but a few turnips or cabbages would have been vastly preferable to all
these vegetable beauties. In the evening we finished our provisions, and
the captain made a great difficulty of letting us have any more. On the
following night the storms were still more violent. Tuesday was no
better. Wednesday furnished some hopes, but they were soon disappointed,
and we were obliged to attack our cargo of beans, which were very bad,
and half eaten by weevils. The bread was all gone, and we had only a
hard and gritty biscuit to supply its place. On Friday the weather
relaxed so far as to enable us to change our position, and we anchored
under the main-land, which gave us an opportunity of sending for food to
a town (Gomenitza) about six miles distant, where we got fowls, a sort
of polenta to serve for bread, bad wine, and salted sprats. The captain
and his crew partook of the bread and wine without asking leave, or
thanking us. The fowls we took more care of. The change of place had
also enabled us to find the arbutus loaded with berries, of which there
were none on our barren rock. My companions told me that if I eat many
they would occasion madness, but I made what might be called a meal of
them without any inconvenience. On Saturday morning we left the bay and
the island, and rowed a few miles between a range of small islands and
the main. Beyond this shelter we found a swell which frightened our
cowardly mariners, and they turned back to a little creek, where we got
on shore, lighted a fire, killed, plucked, boiled, and eat three of our
fowls, and roasted the two which remained for the next day. On Sunday
the weather was beautiful, and the swell had evidently subsided, but our
Greeks would not move. Whether however, our wine inspired them, or some
other circumstances had given them courage, I know not, but at seven in
the evening they determined to set off, and we wrapt ourselves up as
well as we could for the night. We heard the clock at Parga announce
midnight, and found ourselves in the morning, proceeding towards the
outside of Santa Maura, in order to hold our direct course to Cefalonia,
but a swell again alarmed our boatmen, and at about ten o’clock they
changed their course, in order to pass through the channel between Santa
Maura and the main. It cost two hours to recover our ground, and I do
not know how many lies in order to escape _contumacia_, or quarantine,
to which it seems we should have been subject had it been known that we
had touched the Turkish shore. Here we quitted our boat, but we found
the captain did not go on Monday, though the day was fine, and the wind
was favourable. Afterwards we had again rain and south winds.
One of our companions in this voyage, a young Cefalonian, had a great
desire to be a soldier, and to march with a body of his countrymen to
Constantinople, laying waste the whole country with fire and sword. This
he was persuaded was quite practicable, as one Greek is at any time a
match for ten Turks. I think this love of soldiering seems to increase
in proportion as the nation has less courage. We found a little inn at
Santa Maura kept by a Sicilian, who complained of the Greeks as great
knaves. Our accommodations were not magnificent, but we did very well.
Santa Maura is a small wooden town on the shore of a very shallow
channel, which separates the island from Albania; so shallow, that the
usual boats are made out of a single tree, and preserve their ancient
name, _monoxylon_. They will only at the most hold two persons. This
shallow water, and the salt works just by, make the place very unhealthy
in the autumn. The castle is on a long spit of flat sand, which is
supposed formerly to have been an isthmus, and in order to avoid a very
long circuit in going to it from the town, we have to cross a bridge,
about three quarters of a mile long and three feet wide; it is without
any defence, and so exposed to the wind, that a picket guard in crossing
it has been forced into the bay, which, though not deep in water, is
very much so in mud. In bad weather therefore, the crossing may be
considered as dangerous, and one day, when we had engaged to dine with
Colonel Ross, the violence of the wind and rain prevented us keeping our
appointment.
We visited the remains of the ancient Leucas, or perhaps of Neritus,
where however there is nothing but an extensive line of walls, mostly of
Cyclopean masonry, but there is part of a tower built in parallel
courses, and in one place the Cyclopean wall is double, the intermediate
space being filled with earth. There are no vestiges of other buildings,
public or private, except a fragment of a little column, and in one
place a circular pit, widening downwards, perhaps a receptacle for corn.
I mentioned to you some openings of this sort at Fiesole, but there it
was among tombs, which would seem to indicate some other purpose, and
Clarke describes a similar pit at the top of the Mount of Olives, near
Jerusalem, on which he speculates largely. We could not find even the
fragment of a moulding. The situation is delightful, commanding
extensive views both to the north and south. Ithaca and Cefalonia, with
the Gulf of Arta, the shores of Albania, and the lesser hills backed by
the majestic range of the snow-covered Pindus, enter into the prospect.
The island of Santa Maura seems almost to consist of a single mass of
limestone, but it contains in its bosom some romantic rocky valleys, and
fine plains in several places towards the shore. The uplands are
generally cultivated in corn. The lower ground in the neighbourhood of
the town is an almost continued olive-grove. The temperature of a
copious spring, which is conducted to the town, was 62°, at the spot
where it gushes out from the limestone rock, that of the air being 55°.
We engaged a boat to carry us to Patras for twenty-five dollars, but the
bad weather confined us till the 23rd, when we went on board our vessel,
which was in quarantine. A contrary wind sprung up, and after spending
the night moored to a bank on the side of a salt lagune, we returned to
the town. The term of quarantine of the boat just then expired, and we
were enabled to get back to our old quarters. On the 28th we again got
into motion, and made about forty miles that day. At night we brought up
under an uninhabited island called Scrofa, which, though somewhat larger
and higher, could not fail to put us in mind of our old shelter at
Agioneesi, especially as we were detained there all the 29th by easterly
winds. On the 30th the wind was not unfavourable, but the boatmen
thought the swell too much for them. About noon we persuaded them at
least to get out to see how it was. Our track lay round a flat sandy
point, where the waves ran very high and sharp; the sailors were steady
and skilful, but our boat seemed hardly equal to it. With such a wind
they said it would be impossible to land at Patras, and therefore, after
sailing about two hours, we stopped among the shallows and sand banks at
the mouth of the Aspropotamos, about eight miles from Messolungi, and
fifteen from Patras. The next morning a favourable breeze encouraged us
to proceed, but it soon changed, and drove us back again. After a little
interval the westerly wind again sprung up, and we made a second attempt
with the same result, but at last all wind ceased, and we rowed across
to Patras. It was too late to seek after a lodging, but we applied to
the consul, Mr. Cartwright, as we had had quite enough of the boat, and
he very hospitably took us in himself. Three English travellers were
also in his house, and the contrast in passing unexpectedly into
polished society, with all its comforts and conveniences, immediately
from our rough accommodations, was very striking.
A favourable westerly wind again enticed us to try our fortune at sea,
but with our usual ill success, as we had to stop at Vostizza several
days, with only the amusement of advancing for a few miles in the
morning and returning again in the evening. At last, our patience being
exhausted, we continued our journey by land. Our luggage had increased
during our progress, and our desire on leaving Naples to reduce it as
much as possible, had rendered it more inconvenient. We had no Greek
servant, we could not speak the language, and were totally unacquainted
with the practices of the country. These considerations had made us more
willing to accept the boat which was offered to us at Patras, but
fortunately we had given permission to a Greek to accompany us, who was
going, as he said, to procure the payment of a debt from the bey of
Corinth, and we found him very useful.
Vostizza is seated on the brow of a long ridge of gravel hill, which,
high and bluff towards the west, gradually loses itself in the plain
towards the east. This gravel is in some parts almost wholly composed of
fragments of limestone, in others, siliceous stones predominate; they
are of various sizes, more or less rounded, and form sometimes a loose
gravel, and sometimes are cemented into a hard rock. The soil is very
cavernous, probably from this difference of structure, and particularly
so towards the east end, where the town of Vostizza stands. At the foot
of the cliff there is a copious spring of good water, and by it a
magnificent plane-tree. Vostizza has lately suffered by an earthquake,
and the sea on this occasion is said to have bathed the lower branches
of this tree, an elevation of about fifteen feet from its present level.
Another range of hills behind Vostizza, higher and bolder than the
gravelly eminences above-mentioned, I conjecture, from its forms, to be
of sandstone, and again, behind these, there is a third range, more
lofty and compact, which is covered with pines, and sprinkled with snow.
The opposite hills of Albania are wild and dreary. Behind them we
distinguished Parnassus, a ridge of the purest white.
We were glad to leave this place, and at last, on the 11th we set off
with four mules towards Corinth. The day was fine, the scenery
delightful, and the road for horses pretty good; we were obliged to turn
out of our way towards Megaspeli, as the river which descends from it
was unfordable, and it was necessary to seek the assistance of a bridge.
We were far from regretting this interruption, as it brought us to the
mouth of a most beautiful romantic valley, with more of an Alpine than
an Apennine character, richly wooded even along the summits of the lofty
crags, and bounded at the distance by snowy mountains. Afterwards we
passed along a delightful natural terrace, which seems made for a road,
and after recurring again for some time to the shore, crossed the mouth
of a fine valley, which seems blocked up by a singular castle-like
mountain, and thence, on a slope covered with _Pinus halepensis_,
_Arbutus Andrachne_ and _Unedo_, and a vast variety of evergreen shrubs.
The hollows sheltered the oleander, and the crags above were covered
with pines. At night we reached a khan, that is, a room with a good wood
fire, which was kept up all night, and in which we found a mat, whereon
we laid our quilts and reposed ourselves. The next day also we passed
some beautiful spots. In one of these we had the scenery of a
pleasure-ground, a beautiful lawn with scattered trees and shrubs; and
the torrent beds covered with a fine sand, looked like winding, gravel
walks beautifully fringed with oleander and other plants, but on the
whole, the journey was less pleasant than that of the day before.
As we proceeded, Parnassus became a very conspicuous object on the
opposite shore, and Helicon of much inferior elevation, looked when we
first distinguished it, like a sculptor’s lion couchant without a head.
I gathered the fruit of the myrtle-groves which we often had to
traverse, and found the flavour much better than I expected. That of the
_Arbutus Andrachne_ is smaller and more insipid than the berries of the
common arbutus, and these are not very good.
The third day was very cold, and the last half of the way over a bleak
and naked plain to Corinth. We arrived there about four o’clock, and
obtained a lodging at the house of a _Fourlan_ physician, Andrea
Simonetti, who supplied us with a very comfortable room, and with
mattresses, and some other luxuries to sleep on; he makes no difficulty
of receiving money, which is much better than if one had to pay him in
presents, but he is rather greedy, and his son still more so. The wife
of the latter secreted a silk handkerchief, which I did not discover
till my arrival here. The old man had another son who died last summer;
he praised him to us, and declared that his death had deprived him of
all comfort; “_c’è un altro, ma—_” This _ma_ was very expressive, and I
could not help pitying him.
You may suppose we hastened to the temple figured in Stuart, the first
building we saw of Grecian times. In his days eleven columns were still
standing. Now there are only six, but it is yet a magnificent ruin, and
pleased me better than I expected, for I had anticipated a heaviness in
the enormously projecting capitals, which is not found in them. The
material is sandstone, but it has been covered by a thin coat of hard
stucco, of which traces are visible in some of the flutes, on one
capital, and on the internal face of the architrave. In this stucco,
instead of sand, the workmen appear to have used coarsely pounded
crystals of calcareous spar, whose fragments still glitter in the sun.
The columns, I think, have had an entasis, but the angles of the flutes
are so much broken that it is impossible to be very decided on the
subject. There are fragments of columns on a much larger scale in
another place, and several portions of brick buildings, which must
probably be attributed to Roman times. One to the east of the present
town, of mixed brick and stone, has been an octagonal, domed chamber,
with eight niches. In this direction there is also an amphitheatre sunk
into the ground, not very large, nor magnificent. We traced the ancient
city walls for some distance, but they present no particulars of much
interest.
No traveller is permitted to pass the Isthmus by land without an order
from the pashaw of Tripolizza, which it would require eight days to
obtain. We were therefore once more obliged to try the sea, and leaving
Corinth on the afternoon of the 15th, we rode to Cenchrea, and after
some difficulties with the custom-house officer, stretched ourselves in
the boat, and were awakened next morning at four o’clock with the
intelligence that we were in the harbour of the Piræus. The custom-house
again was the source of some delay, but in the mean time we sent up to
the city for horses, and before ten arrived at Athens.
LETTER XLVI.
ATHENS.
_Athens, February, 1818._
I GAVE you in my last an account of our journey from Naples to Athens,
and before I plunge into antiquities, I will complete the sketch with
the description of our accommodations and manner of life here. Our
intention was to have gone to the French convent, but we found the rooms
occupied. The padre, for there is but one, recommended us to a lodging
belonging to a man called Giacomo, and we slept there one night, but
afterwards established ourselves more comfortably in the house of
Demetri Zografo, where we hired two rooms for fifteen dollars per month.
The largest is about 22 feet long and 12 wide, with a divân at one end,
and six low windows, all at the upper part of the room, the object being
apparently, that those who are seated on the divân may commodiously look
out of window in all directions. These windows have glazed wooden
casements, which are only slightly put up during the winter, and meant
to be altogether taken away in the summer, and outside shutters, the
fastenings of which are apt to give way in a high wind. Above these
windows runs a continued shelf all round the room, and higher than this,
and over the windows already mentioned, are six other small windows,
with panes of coloured glass disposed in an ornamental pattern, and
protected on the outside by another casement of horn. These openings are
not intended either to give light or air, but merely as ornaments. Every
_genteel_ room in Turkey is divided into two parts; one for the company,
the _dais_ of our ancestors, and the other for the servants. In general
there is a step from one to the other, which does not exist in our
apartment, but the distinction is completely marked in the ornaments.
The small cornice extends no farther than the more honourable portion,
and the arabesque pattern of the ceiling, which is painted on a dark
ground, corresponds to this part only. In the lower part of the room is
a lamp; it is of glass, in the shape of an inverted sugar loaf, and
nearly full of water, a little oil swims over this, and in the oil three
corks sustain a floating wick. This is lighted as soon as it is dark,
whether I am at home or not, for it is not lighted on my account, but in
honour of a picture of the Virgin on the shelf over my bed. The servant
moreover, comes in occasionally with an incense-pot, which she waves
before the painting, muttering what is probably a prayer, at the same
time.
This is our common room, and I have had a bed made up for me in one
corner of it, the other room is much smaller, with a divân on three
sides, but rather narrow for a bed, and S. is obliged to bolster it out
with cushions. There is no fireplace in either, and we use charcoal to
warm ourselves, nor is there any danger of suffocation from this
practice, for there is no ceiling below, and the boards of the floor are
not so closely joined, but that the fixed air may leak through them as
fast as it descends. Both rooms open into a gallery, or perhaps you
would call it a shed, which fronts the north; and from whence we have a
view of the temple of Theseus, of the plain of Athens, the olive-grove,
the banks of the Cephisus, and beyond these of the mountains of Parnes,
Corydalus, and Cithæron. A solitary palm-tree commemorated by Lord
Byron, also adorns the prospect. On the opposite side we can peep out of
our windows, and see the Acropolis, or at least the rock on which it
stands, and nearer to us the bare Areopagus; for half the ancient city
was erected on barren limestone rocks, on which we still trace almost
everywhere the marks of human labour, for the foundation of public and
private buildings, for receptacles of grain, and probably for reservoirs
of water.