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ROLLO AND HIS RACE; or, Footsteps of the Normans. By Acton Warburton. Second Edition. 2 vols., 21s. RICHARD BENTLEY, New Burlington Street. I* r3£- WhvW PICTURESQUE SKETCHES. PICTURESQUE SKETCHES GREECE AND TURKEY. By AUBREY DE VERE. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, iaufclts'fjcr tn Or&tnarn to feet fflafaZty. 1850. LONDON : nnApncBY anb evans. printers, n iiitefriabs. THE GFTTY C, CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. CHAPTER I. THE IONIAN ISLANDS Sail down the Adriatic — Arrival at Corfu — Scenery of Corfu — Character and aspect of the Ionian Greeks — Town of Corfu — The Palace of the Lord High Commissioner — A Reception at the Government-house — Prorogation of Par- liament — University — Sunset at Corfu — Ancient Remains — Temple of Neptune — Nereido Castro — Departure from Corfu — Paxos — Leucadia — Sappho's Rock — Cephalonia — Zante — An English Steamer. CHAPTER II. FROM PATRAS TO ATHENS Missolonghi — Patras — An Albanian Guide — Antiquities — Scenery between Patras and Vostizza — Lepanto — Territory of the Achaian League — English and Greek Mountains — Site of Sicyon — Ancient Remains — Robbers — Character of our Albanian Guide — Corinth — The Acropolis of Corinth — Ruins of Temples — The Fountain of Peirene — Callimachi — Arrival before Athens. CHAPTER III. THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS Relation of the Acropolis to Athens — Dimensions of the Acropolis — The Walls of Themistocles — The Propylea — The Temple of " Victory without Wings " — The Parthenon — The Panathenaic Procession — Fragmentary Sculpture. vol. i. h VI CONTESTS. CHAPTER IV. mi; ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS 88 Temple of Minerva Polias — The Relics it once contained — The Porch of the Caryatides — The Theatre of Herodc s Atticus — Cave of Pan — Cave of Aglaurus — Tragic Theatit of Athens — The Acropolis as it once was — View from the Acropolis — Lycabettus — Spirit of Athenian Religion. CHAPTER V. ATHENS IK Temple of Jupiter Olympius — Practical Benefit resulting from Great National Monuments — The Ilissus — A Rural Festival near Athens. CHAPTER VI. ATHENS 134 The Stoa of Adrian — The Gate of the Agora — The Monu- ment of Philopappus — Stadium — Temple of Theseus — Temple of the Winds — The Lantern of Demosthenes — The Pnyx — The Prison of Socrates — The Religion of Socrates — The Areopagus. CHAPTER VII. ATHENS 162 A Ball at the Palace — A Greek Chief — Lord Byron in Greece — The Plain of Athens — The Cephisus — The Farm of Plato — Estate and residence of an English Settler — Progress of civilisation — Position of the Greek Clunvli Influence of French literature. CHAPTER VIII. m w:\iiion The neighbourhood of Athens — Site of Aphidnoe— I dition to Marathon— The plains "i Marathon Tin tomoloa CONTENTS. Vll PAGE — Influence of the battle of Marathon on Greece — Wars not unmixed evils— Assistance rendered by the God Pan to the Greeks. CHAPTER IX. ELEUSIS ' ... 211 Degree in which the physical characteristics of Attica moulded the Athenian character — Its shallow soil, its light air, its quarries, its mines — Its freedom from rapacious aggression, its dependence on maritime enterprise — The road to Eleusis — Athenian landscape — Ancient processions to Eleusis — Its position — Ancient remains — Character of the Eleusinian Mysteries — Ceremonies attached to them — Rela- tion of the Eleusinian teaching to Christian doctrines — Paganism a witness to Christianity — Eleusinian Priesthood. CHAPTER X. THE PEIREUS, ATHENS 23t> The Peireus — Disappearance of the ancient fortifications — Incompleteness of History — Ruined Temple near the Peireus — Tomb of Themistocles — Greek Politics — Small progress which the nation has made — Greek education — . Mr. Hill — An Athenian school — Greek hymns and music — A Philhellenist — The modern language — Its relations with the ancient — Advantages which modern Greece may derive from her ancient literature — Benefit from select study. CHAPTER XI. JOURNEY FROM ATHENS TO NAUTLIA 263 Lazaretto at the Peireus — Greek Guardianos — An old Frenchman — Sail to Epidaurus — Ancient Character and Scenery of Epidaurus — Ride from Epidaurus to Nauplia — Extraordinary Vegetation — Remarkable Sunset— Gulf of Nauplia — Its Fortifications — Memorials of Venice — The Adieus of my French Friend — Good Fortune in picking up a Travelling Servant. CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. MM TIRYNTHUS— ABGOS— MY( T.N.t 287 The Ruins of Tirynthus — Early Specimens of the Arch — The Plain of Argos — Theatre carved out of the Rock — Acropolis of Argos — The Hereum — Antiquity of Argos — Homeric Recollections — Legendary History — A Night on the Argolic Plain — Contrast between Italian and Grecian Scenery — Colossal Ruins of Mycenae — Gateway of the Lions — Tomb of Agamemnon— Stones of its Vault. PICTURESQUE SKETCHES OF GREECE AND TURKEY. CHAPTER I. THE IONIAN ISLANDS. Sail down the Adriatic — Arrival at Corfu — Scenery of Corfu — Character and aspect of the Ionian Greeks — Town of Corfu — The Palace of the Lord High Commissioner — A Reception at the Government-house — Prorogation of Parliament — University — Sunset at Corfu — Ancient Remains — Temple of Neptune — Nereido Castro — Departure from Corfu — Paxos — Leucadia — Sappho's Rock — Cephalonia — Zante — An English Steamer. I cannot fulfil my promise and give } r ou an account of my Greek tour without vividly recall- ing the pleasure which I experienced on my first approach to the shores which I had mused on in so many a youthful dream. The delight of advancing rapidly into a delicious climate, dipping into warmer, purer, and more fragrant air, can seldom be forgotten by one who has ever known it. The weather in Italy, which VOL. I. B 1 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. we northerns regard as a paradise " where never wind blows loudly," had been severe before I left it. At Bologna the cold had been so intense, that, even cloaked to the chin, I could hardly make my way from the hotel to the theatre ; and at Ancona it was far from agreeable. You may imagine therefore the delight with which, feeling the change almost momently, I left the north and all its asperities behind me, as we steered down the Adriatic. Before the first evening I had forgotten whether my cloak was on or off ; and the second night I lay on the deck till twelve o'clock without remembering that it was January and not June. The breeze, instead of passing over the snows of the Apennines, came to us warm from the iEgean, and mingled the soft- ness of a southern clime with the wild and exhilarating odours of the sea. The moon was full, and pierced the firmament with a light so keen and penetrating, that, like the sculptors of old who distinguished their statues of the Virgin Huntress by the far glance of the direct, well- opened eye, we remembered that Dian was no ARRIVAL AT CORFU. 3 mere patroness of midnight dreamers or moping lovers, but that she was sister of Apollo, and that her beams, like her brother's, -were arrows from an immortal bow. Beneath her orb the plane of waters seemed to swell into a wide and plenary light to the remote horizon : every rock, however distant, shone with silver radiance ; and all around us — dark blue sea, and bright blue heaven — was as luminous as it was warm and joyous, except where the islands, of which we passed three or four successively, trailed dim shadows over the shoals, or flung a darker streak of purple beyond their rocky promontories. We arrived at Corfu within fifty hours after leaving Ancona. It was too late to allow of our disembarking : but on such an occasion a travel- ler enjoys his prolonged anticipation of a feast thus extended before him in the dubious light of the imagination. We thought on the morrow, and found it no hardship to remain on deck half the night, looking round and round upon a scene which by night or day is more beautiful than any western bay, gulf, or lake. When that morrow b 2 4 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. had arrived, a single excursion was sufficient to prove that my expectations had not been pitched too high. The island of Corfu encircles the bay in which the town is situated, completely enclosing it on the north and south ; while, to the east, the mountains of Epirus and Albania frame the picture, making the sea look like a great lake. From the margin of that sea the mountains rise to a height of from 3000 to 4000 feet : imme- diately behind them stand the snowy ranges sung of by the Greek poets of old. The latter are about 7000 feet m height : they have not, however, " taken the veil," like the Swiss moun- tains, which live to themselves above the clouds ; but smile from their blue region upon a beaming sea, looking down over the shoulder of the terrestrial mountains ranged before them, with i glance at once familiar and divine, like that which the Homeric gods cast over the heads of demigods and hemes upon the affairs of mortals In some places a third chain of mountains rises behind the others, and the effect is indescribably grand at sunset, when SCEXERY OF CORFU. 9 the nearer ridge has put on its violet vest, while that above it is mantled in crimson ; and along the highest, which then seems transparent, floats that rose-coloured flame. the quintessential spirit of light. Within the island, the hills are from 2000 to 3000 feet high, and are in most places covered with groves of olives, whose "knarled and un- wedgeable " trunks, dried up and wrinkled by the fervid handling of many a summer, seem as if they might have gained their worldly experience before Ulysses himself had cut his wise teeth or told his first lie. The ground is never flat except in a single instance ; nor, on the other hand, does it swell into those soft and smooth undulations which delight the traveller whose foot tarries upon the green slopes of Clarens and Vevay, and displaces the fruit-tree blossoms with which they are reddened in spring. It is abrupt and broken, diversified with rocky shelves, terraces of vine, heathy knolls, and hollows filled with mint, thyme, and other aromatic herbs. Here and there the eye 6 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. is caught by a thicket of myrtle, blossoming in the distance, or by some inland promontory that dips into the dell, but shakes, before it reaches the shadow, a green and golden radiance from the orange grove that tufts its steeps. I give you the materials, and you may make up the picture with your best skill, and without fear of surpassing the reality : you may sprinkle the meadows with geraniums in full flower, and with thickets of rose ; and if neither are the sort which our florists would most prize for their rareness, each grows with an abundance that paints the island wilderness with colours such as few gardens can boast. The beauty of Corfu is especially characterised by its union of wildness with richness. In the whole of the island, undivided as the sea that mirrors its bosky shores, I did not see ;i wall, or hedge which a child could not have squeezed itself through as easily as a lion of Eden could have pierced one of Eve's sweet- briar fences. The shores arc indented by numberless long and strangely-shaped bays ; SCENEKY OF CORFU. 7 sometimes widening inwards into little lakes, sometimes shallowing into lagunes, and some- times leaving bare a rock, over which the sea shatters itself in showers of white foam and driving mist — a pleasant vapour-bath for the shrubs that bloom around. Here and there the water eddies round some little green island, with a few trees to define its low margin, and perhaps an old chapel in the centre, the whole space above the waves probably not exceeding half an acre. The air of this enchanting region is of a clearness which enables you to do full justice to the abundant beauty with which you are surrounded. You look through it as through a diamond, and fancy you possess the eyes of an Olympian, not of a mortal. You stand on the top of an eminence, and feel yourself " in a large room," observing, even in the far distance, the gradations of colours, the shapes of individual objects, and the beauty of minute details, as if the whole lay close around you. The amplitude of the landscape imparts to it a characteristic nobleness ; and the natural 8 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. theatre in which you stand, is, when compared fco that of our northern scenery, much as the temple of Bacchus, in which 30,000 spectators witnessed at once a tragedy of Sophocles, when compared with Drury Lane or Covent Garden. Nothing can be more different in character than the landscapes of the north and of the south. The character of the former is grave, subdued, and tender, abounding in passages of pathos and mystery, though glorified, not seldom, by a golden haze. That of the south, on the other hand, is at once majestic and joyous, ample in its dimensions, but not abounding in a complex variety of detail ; clearly defined, severe in structure, well brought out into the light ; but at the same time unspiritual in its scope, appealing less to the heart than to the fancy, expressing everything to the understanding, and, consequently, reserving little for a slowly apprehensive imagination. An analogous dis- tinction may perhaps be traced in the character of the northern and southern races. In every country, indeed, there exists ;i certain analogy SCENERY OF CORFU. 9 between the outward shapes of nature, and the mind it has nursed and helped to form. The woodlands of Corfu consist chiefly of the olive. Many travellers complain of the mono- tonous colouring of the southern olive-woods ; I think, however, that in this luminous region the effect would be too dazzling if the predomi- nant colour were not a sober one, which, by its uniformity, as colour, permits the eye to appreciate the exquisite gradations of light and shade. The brilliancy of the clouds also requires the contrast of something more grave to relieve the eye as it falls from them or glances aside from that most radiant of visual objects, an orange-grove. The orange-trees grow to about the size apple-trees reach with us ; and so dense is the mass of their dark and glittering leaves, that you would fancy the nightingale — nay, the nightingale's song — could hardly force its way through their ambush. They flash of them- selves in the sun, though unmoved by a wind not often strong enough to disturb their phalanx. The upper leaves, being younger than the rest. b 3 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. are of a transparent golden green, and shine with a perpetual sunshine of their own ; and in the midst hang those great yellow and crimson globes, which Andrew Marvel sings of as " orange lamps in a green night." I wish I could give as good an account of the Greeks as of their island abode. In outward bearing, at least, they are not unworthy of being its inhabitants. In few parts of the world m there to be found so comely a race. They possess almost always, fine features, invariably fine heads, and flashing eyes ; and their forms and gestures have a noble grace about them, which in less favoured climes is seldom to be met with, even among the higher ranks. A Greek never stands in an ungraceful position ; indeed his bearing often deserves to be called majestic : but his inward gifts seldom cor- respond, if the estimate commonly formed of him be not very incorrect, with his outward aspect. The root of the evil is now what it in old times ; f<»r the Ionian Greeks are a Use people. Seldom, even by accident, do CHARACTER OF THE IONIAN GREEKS. 11 they say the thing that is ; and never are they ashamed of being detected in a lie. Such a character hardly contains the elements of moral amelioration. Experience is lost upon it. Those who are false to others are false to themselves also ; what they see, will always be what they desire to see ; from whatever is repulsive they will turn their eyes away ; and neither time nor suffering can bring them a lesson which inge- nuity and self-love are not able to evade. The Ionian Greeks are also greatly deficient in industry. They do not care to improve their condition ; their wants are few, and they will do little work beyond that of picking up the olives which fall from the tree. These the women carry home in baskets, almost all the labour falling on them, while the men idle away their everlasting, unhallowed holyday, telling stories, walking in procession, or showing as much diplomacy in some bargain about a capote as a Russian ambassador could display while set- tling the affairs of Europe with Lord Palmerston. Their dress is eminently picturesque. On their 12 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. heads they wear, sometimes a sort of turban, sometimes a red cap ; round the waist they fasten a wide white zone ; and their trowseiBj which do not descend below the knee, are so large, that, fastened together at the mid-leg, they have all the effect of flowing drapery, their colour in general being crimson. The town of Corfu is a strange medley, in which a character, now Greek and now Italian, is oddly diversified by French and English associations. The house of our Lord High Commissioner is called "The Palace," and de- serves the name. It is of very considerable size, is built of Maltese stone, and abounds in stately apartments. Soldiers stand in waiting along the corridors ; and the landing-places and ante-rooms catch a picturesque effect from the Albanian servants, who move about with a prompt decisive grace, in their jewelled vests, and tightly-lit ting buskins. In front of the palace is the esplanade, thronged all day by the red coats and well-harnessed horses of English soldiers. In the evening it is conipa- TOWN OF CORFU. 13 ratively quiet, and you may meet no one but a few Greek priests, sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs, pacing the long acacia avenues, with their black sacerdotal caps, black robe, dark eye, — piercing at once and still, — venerable beard, and hair that flows in waves down their backs. In the evening every one goes to the opera ; nor are even the smaller islands without their theatre. As the spring advanced my stay at Corfu became more and more agreeable. A kindlier warmth crept every day into the air, which lost nothing, however, of its sharp and clear fresh- ness, while it gained in sweetness. Every evening I enjoyed more and more my walk along the esplanade, between rows of Persian lilacs about the size of our birch-trees, and in redundant bloom. Under them, at each side, were beds of geraniums and all sorts of hot- house plants, which extended their ranks, as if in a conservatory a quarter of a mile long ; and around them, as soon as evening fell, the fire- flies played with their trails of green light, pure 14 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. as a diamond, till one would have fancied that the air had caught life at every pore, and darted about in sparks of electric fire. The night of the Queen's birth-day a grand ball was given at the Lord High Commissioner's house. The palace looked every inch a palace, the whole of it being thrown open, brilliantly lighted, and filled with the chief people of the island, — not, I dare say, selected on any very exclusive principle. The scene was truly festal in aspect, and everywhere there was that air of enjoy- ment, the absence of which is perhaps the most striking characteristic of those great London parties at which the grave guests seem to be performing some penitential duty, remembering the sins of their youth, and fashionably repenting in purple and fine linen. While some were dancing others walked up and down a magni- ficent gallery which runs along the top of the portico, the whole length of the building. Above us stretched an awning which protected us from the dew ; beneath us were countless flowers, which did not injure the air by breathing it PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. 15 before us ; around us the fire-flies flashed, and from within the music of the band streamed through all the casements and floated far away over the town. It pursued me through the thickets and gardens in which I occasionally took refuge for the sake of enjoying cooler air, and looking back on the distant revelry through the bowers of lilacs and festoons of roses. From those gardens it was not easy to return to the palace ; but their solitudes were made more delightful by the intrusion of the distant mirth. Another characteristic scene at which I " assisted " was the prorogation of the parlia- ment ; a scene that illustrated well the meaning of our British " protection," and the freedom of the Ionian republic. The parliament sits in the Lord High Commissioner's palace ; and the members entered between files of soldiers, who gave them a somewhat unceremonious greeting, so far as " privilege n is concerned, clashing their arms every moment, with emphatic loyalty, on the marble steps. As the president took his place, 10 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. the baud was playing "God save the Queen." The moment the Lord High Commissioner had finished his Bpeech, a loud peal of artillery rang out from the citadel, and pronounced the " Amen " in an audible voice ; and the inuch- complimerited, and somewhat bewildered, senators took their departure, amid the gleam- ing of swords, the glaring of uniforms, and the prancing of cavalry that charged up and down the esplanade. On the whole, the spectacle was both picturesque and significant, and would ha v.' met the cordial approbation of Queen Elizabeth. who marvelled that the members of the " nether" house should sometimes be betrayed into med- dling witli " matters of state." There is at Corfu a university. — not using the word, however, quite in the sense in which it is applied t<> Oxford or Cambridge. During a visit which I paid to it I had some interesting conversation with a Greek professor, apparently a man of much learning. Among other things ho discussed the subject "I' Greek prosody, and made himself merry with what he called our CORFU UNIVERSITY. 17 preposterous mode of pronouncing. I referred to the poets, and asked how he could make harmony out of Homer's hexameters on his metrical principles. He, on the other hand, appealed to experience and to precedent, and affirmed that our prosodiacal system was merely an arbitrary and fanciful device of our own. which pleased us because we had invented it and were used to it. Having no demonstrative process at hand, I appealed, as prudent contro- -.alists do on such occasions, to common sense, to the moral sense, and to every infallible intuition which occupies the space between these extrei- sfpeoafiy I appealed to the ear. The little lively old man clapped both his hands to his head, and answered, 4i I too have ears." I looked at his head, and there were two ears, not at all too long, and in all respects as good-looking as another man's. The pro- fessor also stood on his native soil, disci: his native language, and was paid for knowing all about the matter. Accordingly. I made my submission. The only mode in which I can 18 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. reconcile local traditions with the needs of our western ears is by supposing that the chaunt of the ancient minstrel, in reciting, swallowed up all discords, just as in our cathedral chaunt mere prose can be accommodated to music, whether the clause be long or short. The sunsets of Corfu as far exceed those of Venice, as the latter surpass a London sunset seen on one of those foggy evenings when that city, looked at from Hyde Park, might be described as a mist with trees and houses in it. One, in particular, I shall never forget ; I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was in a dream, and mounted from rock to rock, trying to assure myself that it was a reality. The colours were wholly different in quality from any that I had ever seen in clouds, flowers, metals, feathers, or even jewels. The Poet's expression, " an illumination of all gems," gives you but a faint idea of it. The effect, on the whole, WW very dark. In a few minutes the splendid pageant had spread itself over all the heavens, the west being but little distinguishable from the SUNSET AT COKFU. 19 east. A sudden shade fell over the scene, (the sky appearing to come nearer to the earth,) at the same time that you seemed to look for leagues and leagues through the depth of colours as glowing as if a world of dark and shining jewels had been melted into an atmosphere, and suspended over our sphere. The woods and glens below, " invested with purpureal gleams," suggested to me, in their dewy darkness, the Elysian fields, and the shades where the heroic dead found rest amid their amaranthine banks, and meads of asphodel. Such colours could never have been represented in a picture. Even if the amethystine and vermilion hues could have been intelligibly rendered, nature only could have reconciled them to such shades of green and bronze. It was as if the sky had been a vast vault of painted glass : — nor perhaps will anything grander be seen till the millennium morn. These are the accidents which reveal to us at least what is possible, and may well be precious to us on that account alone. A region in which such effects were 20 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. frequently realised should be peopled only by such forms as we see in Perugino's pictures, standing in their rapt beauty and eternal serenity against a sunset sky of pale green. I spare you the ■whole of my small learning on the subject of the ancient Corcyra. Where lay the Homeric Phsoacia, and where the city of Alcinous stood, nobody knows ; and discus- sions on such subjects, when much prolonged, prove chiefly that the disputant has not caught much of the genius loci. Uh probably troubled himself little about the genealogy of Circe or Calypso; and the modern traveller need not very closely investigate ques- tions about Ulysses, which, however they may be decided, leave the legend where it stands. The habitation of such things is the human fancy ; and whoever wants to know the exaci spot where the Hero was found by Nausicaa, had better put by his map, walk along the coastsj and fix on a spot where the meeting Ought to have taken place. I found a dozen such. There are, alas ! few remains of ami- ANCIENT REMAINS IN CORFU. 21 quity in Corfu. Some traces still exist of a temple, probably dedicated to Neptune. They are situated in a little green dell which hangs, amid olive-bowers, on the steeps beside the eastern sea. Some relics of ancient mythology also hold their ground in a modified form. Near the ancient Leucimna is an eminence called " Nereido Castro," a title derived from the circumstance that the spot is accounted a favourite resort of the Nereids, whose tutelary care is not yet quite forgotten, though no longer invoked with libation and vows. Some persons are simple enough to imagine that the south is a land of perpetual sunshine. Such is not the case, even in Corfu, that fairest garden of the Adriatic. The morning of nry departure was not very promising. During the preceding day the heavy rain fell, as it were, in a mass, on the earth. The next morning the sky was still louring, and the sea, during the preceding month a deep blue, had changed into a turbid and gloomy green. The Albanian 22 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. mountains frowned behind their clouds, and the loftier of them were of a threatening purple bordering on black, with the exception of their white summits, and the long rifts down their sides in which the snow still lurked. The sky, however, had become as bright as usual before we had dropped anchor in the bay of Paxos. We had not time to land. The little luxuriant island looked like a smaller Corfu, but without its mountains. Its olive-woods sloped down the hills in all directions to the water's edge, and stood " With their green faces fix'd upon the flood." A few windmills clustered together on a mound near the sea ; and their circling sails harmo- nised with that general air of industry and life which contrasted with the Elysian stillness of Corfu's lawns and bays, where the natives think it exertion enough to walk in the sun, and their English protectors wonder that neither new roads nor schools can inspire them with a little Dutch industry or American energy. We reached the harbour of Santa Maura, tlie LEUCADIA. 23 ancient Lencadia, at about four o'clock in the evening. Landing at the fort, and proceeding thence by a long causeway and a ferry to the town, we wandered on into the island till it was late and dark. Our path lay principally through woods of ohve ; and after some time the moon silvered the distant mountain-tops wherever they were visible through the gaps in the forest, and rained its white light through the twinkling foliage of the trees close by us, and through the rifts in their aged stems. At night we embarked again ; and I was left almost alone on deck, to watch one of the most beautiful and pathetic of spectacles — a moon-setting at sea. It sank with a staid pomp and magnificence analogous to that of sunset, but far more melancholy in effect. The declining orb became a dark orange-colour as it approached the water. The clouds hung depressed around it in heavy masses, wanly tinged, not irradiated, by its light ; and the sea, dark everywhere else, burned beneath it with a gloomy fire. The moon had all but disappeared, when the man at the helm called 24 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. out to me, " That \s Sappho's Leap." I turned, and its last beam still played on a white rock, the extremity of the Leucadian promontory. That rock will be an object of interest while the world lasts, associated as it is with the memory of the most celebrated woman who has ever lived; — celebrated by a love-song an