DINNER AT THE FRENCH CONSUL'S. 503 he was quite amazed, and laughed heartily; but when I afterwards repeated a passage with the Romaic literal pronunciation, accompanied by rhythm according to the rules of quantity, he confessed at once the delight which his ear experienced from that hexametrical melody, so much more pleasing than their own stupid accentual prosody. Having partaken of pipes and coffee we returned to dine by invitation with the French consul. The party consisted only of ourselves and his brother, for the poor man had lived during the last two or three years not only under a constant system of espionage, but of exclusion from all society with the natives, not one of whom, if he was anxious to retain his head upon his shoulders, would so much as enter into his house: he therefore lived alone in the midst of a crowd; a species of solitude more intolerable than that of an African desert. Our conversation turned chiefly upon the miseries of this semi-barbarous country contrasted with the delights of Paris and the pleasures of its society: so that without presuming much upon our own powers of entertainment, we had reason to believe that this day was noted with a white mark in the consul's calendar. January 29. This morning the suradgees who had accompanied our friend in his perilous journey returned, and gave us a miserable account of their toilsome passage over the snowy mountains of Pindus: no very long time afterwards we received a letter from himself, dated at Livadia, from which I shall present the reader with an extract, as it describes a portion of very interesting country which we were prevented by unfortunate circumstances from visiting. Livadia, February 9, 1814. "I arrived here on the ninth day after leaving Ioannina, safe and well, through perils of all kinds : I doubt not but you received my note from Mezzovo: on the following day I passed the Pindus, as the weather 504 LETTER FROM MR. COCKERELL. became milder, but our Vlakians*, trained to the business, were obliged to cut a way through the snow, which lay higher than their middle. We were six hours in going from Mezzovo to Malacassi where we slept. The view from Pindus was wonderfully fine; I saw Olympus and Pelion, with all the intervening country, under a glorious sunshine, and the effect was sublime beyond description. In six hours we ar rived at Kalabaki, the village of the Meteora, following the course of a river which we crossed at least thirty times. Twelve sheets would not contain all the wonders of Meteora, nor convey to you an idea of the surprise and pleasure which I felt in beholding these curious monasteries planted like the nests of eagles upon the summits of high and pointed rockst. To the great terror of myself and Michaeli we were * The inhabitants of Mezzovo are vlaki, or cuzzo-vlachi as they are called, and are freed from all taxes and contributions by the pasha, for their services in keeping open the road over the Pindus. + Dr. Holland has given a very interesting account of these rocks and monasteries in his Travels, p. 231, &c. He says, "they are seen from a great distance in descending the valley of the Salympria (or Peneus) rising from the comparatively flat surface of the valley, about a mile distant from the river; a group of insulated masses, cones, and pillars of rock, of great height, and for the most part so perpendicular in their ascent, that each one of their numerous fronts seems to the eye as a vast wall, formed rather by the art of man, than by the more varied and irregular workings of nature: the small town of Kalabaka is situated immediately below the loftiest of these singular pinnacles of rock, which seems absolutely to impend over the place and its inhabitants: the height of this point, the summit of which is an irregular cone, cannot be less than from four to five hundred feet: on the side of the town it rises apparently to two-thirds of this height, by a perpendicular plane of rock, so uniform in surface, that it seems as if artifically formed; on the opposite side, the base of the rock falls even with the perpendicular line, and there is the same singular uniformity of surface." The following extract is from the MS. Journal of Rev. Mr. W. Jones. "Next morning I devoted to an examination of the rocks of Meteora: I had a fine view of them in my approach the evening before. "On proceeding to the loftiest of these, named Barlaam, I found the monks employed in drawing up provisions and wood by means of a rope and pulley. On my requesting to ascend to their aerial habitation, a rope of greater thickness was let down with a net at the end of it. Placed in this I was drawn up through the air to an height of 200 feet. Having been dragged in and disengaged from the net, it was let down a second time for my servant Nicolo, but I was obliged to wait a full quarter of an hour before he could be persuaded to enter: it was necessary to have him as an interpreter. The ascent each time was made in two minutes and a half, and by means of a windlass. The monks received me with great kindness and shewed me several of their numerous apartments: they have two churches or chapels, and a library containing between 250 and 300 volumes; amongst which are some of the best Greek Classics, as Hesiod, Pindar, Herodotus, and an old edition of Homer, printed in 1534. I inquired for MSS. but saw nothing of consequence. The hegumenos or prior of this convent had resided in it for seventy-two years, and recollected Jacob the Swedish traveller visiting the monastery: |