This morning we went over two old Greek temples, Demetrius and St.
George; they were taken by the Turks and turned into mosques. The
Turks had whitewashed all over the mosaic and marble pillars;
fortunately the whitewash is crumbling away, and one can see the
mosaic through.
A story is told that one of the large panels of marble is supposed to
bleed when anything serious is going to happen; it is a kind of
grey-red, very lovely, and the blood trickles through the cracks. The
priest in Demetrius was standing with a cross and a piece of bosaliac,
known to us as hyssop. The Greek soldiers were going up to him,
kissing the cross, and then he sprinkled their heads with holy water
with the bosaliac.
We went to see the wonderful old bridge that Hadrian, the Roman
Emperor, built.
In the afternoon we went to H.M.S. _Albion_ to tea; it is a very fine
ship, and of course of great interest to us. It has been damaged many
times with shell fire; we went all over and it was most interesting.
Lady Paget arrived here last evening, and five of the sisters from
Admiral Troubridge's unit, as they had been staying the night with her
at Uskub. Two of them were returning to England with us.