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VISITS OF CEREMONY FROM THE INHABITANTS.

city gates. This gentleman's name was Alecco, youngest son of the Archon Logotheti a personage well known to those who have visited Athens his knowledge in the politics and statistics of the country, his insinuating manner, his discrimination of character, and the arts with which he usually turned it to his own advantage, procured him sometimes the appellation of the modern Pericles-a comparison however which is not very complimentary to the great original. Alecco was one of the most ingenuous and accomplished Greeks we met with; his kind offices and disinterested friendship have left on our minds an impression not easily to be effaced. These visits of ceremony being ended, we retired to rest. Sleep scarcely could be expected, surrounded as we were with such objects and agitated by the tumultuous sensations they inspire.

*He certainly contrived to hold great sway in Athens in spite of the Turkish governor, and of the Athenian archbishop and council; but he had nothing of the Olympian Pericles about him; no thunder and lightning in his eloquence, no taste for the fine arts, no sublimity of soul.

Walk in Athens-Pnyx-Adventure there-Athenian AcquaintanceMr. Cockerell-Temple of Theseus-Tweddell-Archon Logotheti— Trait in the Character of the modern Athenians-Athenian GirlsManners and Customs-Visit to the Vaivode-Dispatch a Messenger to Constantinople-Visit the Acropolis accompanied by Signore Lusieri— English Frigate entering the Piraus-Disdar Agà-ParthenonErecthéum-Colossal Statue of Minerva-Spoliation by Lord Elgin, &c.-Character of the ancient Athenians, and Traits of the modernAthenian Ball-Manners of the Turkish Women-Curious Adventure of the Author-Lusieri's Collection of Antiquities-Fauvel's-Walks round Athens—Ancient Platforms, Seats, Sepulchres, &c.—Prison of Socrates.

EARLY in the morning I set out, with Signore Vitali for my guide, and before breakfast had not only rapidly explored the Theseum, the Areopagus, the Pnyx, and almost all the antiquities in this quarter of

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the city *, but had actually recited the first Philippic oration upon the very Bema of Demosthenes †. A considerable number of inhabitants, who were enjoying their early walk, according to custom, in the cool of the morning, assembled on this ancient resort of democratic majesty they listened for some time with profound attention but total ignorance of the language, until the sharp ears of one Athenian caught a few words in which our pronunciation and accent coincide with those established by Romaic rules: he observed significantly to Signore Vitali that there must be an extraordinary similarity between the English and the Hellenic.

After breakfast we delivered our letters of introduction and formed acquaintance with several gentlemen from whose talents and information we received as much instruction as pleasure from their social qualities. Amongst others was Monsieur Roque, a French merchant long settled in Athens, whose daughter is the most accomplished girl of that city; Signore Marmaraturi the translator of Anacharsis into Romaic; and Monsieur Fauvel the celebrated French consul if we did not experience from this last gentleman all that cordiality which many travellers have been proud to acknowledge, it must be ascribed solely to that irritation of mind which the disasters of his country were at this time calculated to produce in a patriotic Frenchman but the kind attentions and communicative disposition of that excellent man and inimitable artist Don Tita Lusieri left us nothing to regret: we brought a letter of introduction to him from Dr. Clarke, and that name is sure to excite his best exertions. We found our future friend and fellow-traveller Mr. Cockerell, whom we had long traced by fame, just recovering from the effects of one of those terrible fevers to which all persons, and particularly foreigners, are liable in

* It does not enter into the author's plan to dwell upon the edifices of Athens which have been so often and so well described: he had prepared some materials for the illustration of its topography, but the publication of these would now be superfluous.

+ See the vignette.

this otherwise delightful climate, most especially if they incautiously approach and remain upon those spots which are tainted with the malaria. We had the pleasure, however, of seeing this estimable person gain strength daily. The accounts which he communicated to me of his illness were quite appalling. He was in so dreadful a state that the principal physician of the place utterly deserted him, thinking that the fever was infectious or even the plague itself, since some of the symptoms, especially the swelling of the glands, were very similar: he suffered but little acute pain except during the paroxysms of the disease, at which times nothing could be more horrid than the images and ideas presented to his imagination: the worst state of all, however, was the complete exhaustion in which the malady left him at its departure. To use his own expressions--he expected at every gasp to breathe out his soul; he felt himself unnerved to the greatest possible degree, whilst all interest in his occupations and pursuits totally vanished. Under Providence he attributed his escape to the unremitting care and attentions of his kind hostess, a Madame Maçon, and of his two excellent German friends Baron Stackelberg and the late Baron Haller; the latter of whom literally never left his bed-side. They never despaired, though all others did, of his recovery; and in this hope they prevented the officious vice-consul from putting seals upon his property and taking away his keys, kept his physician and apothecary attentive, and saved him from all the conjurations of the Greeks which would probably have soon sent him to the temple of Theseus, that great mausoleum of British travellers. As it was, even the kind Madame Maçon one day attempted a spell when she happened to be unobserved by the Germans: seeing her poor patient in violent agony from the glandular swellings, she hastened to apply a precious preparation for his relief, which was to charm him into convalescence at once: this panacea consisted of resin, pitch, a lock of hair, and two papers, each inscribed with the figure of a pyramid and other symbols drawn with a pen. Moreover all the

churches in the neighbourhood were lighted, night and day, for his relief, and his nurse assured him, on his recovery, with great gravity that he owed it entirely to the intercession of the Panagia Castriotissa, or "our Lady of the Acropolis," who has usurped the seat and powers of Minerva Medica. On our return home Monsieur Fauvel accompanied us to the temple of Theseus. This beautiful monument, erected by a grateful people to a patriotic prince, remains after the lapse of 2000 years a perfect model of the architectural art: but in this delicious climate time, unaided by barbarism, seems almost powerless in destruction; here only the zephyrs breathe: our desolating northern blasts, contracting frosts, and penetrating thaws, are rarely felt.

The temple is built of pure Pentelic marble polished to the last degree, and its blocks are so accurately adjusted as to deceive the nail and resist the force of earthquakes, whose tremendous power is still visible in the fabric. From the state of a pagan temple it was converted into a Christian church and dedicated to St. George; but the fine sculpture in its metopes and frieze was broken by that iconoclastic zeal whose bigot fury endeavoured to destroy the arts by confounding them with idolatry *. It has now become a classic and most appropriate mausoleum for the interment of those unfortunate travellers who by a cruel fate expire so far from their native land. If the bitterness of that fate could be alleviated by the magnificence of sepulture and the religion of the place, this consolation, at least, is not denied them. Our accomplished and lamented countryman Tweddell was for many years the sole occupant of this superb sepulchre: his remains were deposited here by the interest of Monsieur Fauvel in

All the metopes of this temple were not adorned, but only those at the east end and four adjoining them on the north and south sides: the labours of Hercules the friend of Theseus formed the appropriate subjects: the celebrated Micon was the artist: no sculpture remains in the pediments, but I was informed by Mr. Cockerell, who had mounted and inspected them, that traces of its existence may clearly be distinguished.