At present the obstacles to the traveller are few, the facilities many, and yearly on the increase. Twice every month a steam packet leaves Falmouth for Gibraltar, Malta, Corfu and Alexandria. Three times a month, the French government steamboats leave Marseilles for the ports of Italy, Malta, Athens, Constantinople and Alexandria. Austrian boats from Trieste come down the Adriatic, encircle the Morea, and rest in the Bosphorus, and still other companies ply their diligent vessels between the different ports of the Archipelago and the Levant; so that even an American scholar might make a pretty satisfactory tour in Greece without greatly lengthening his annual vacation or deranging his ordinary occupations.

"Having been medically advised," says Mr. Gifford in his introduction, " to pass a couple of months of the last winter [1837] in a more southern climate, and particularly recommended to begin by a sea voyage, the facilities which steam communication now affords of navigating the Mediterranean, and the hope of being able to combine the main object of health with the gratification of an ardent desire to visit the classical scenes of Greece, determined me and Mr. Newtona college friend, and unfortunately a fellow sufferer-to direct our course that way."

Within three months they had made the voyage, had visited the most interesting parts of the country, had suffered the detention of quarantine, and reached England again in safety. The plain and truthful narrative which he has presented of" what he was enabled to see," possesses an interest and value far above that of many sketches written with greater pretensions.

The "Journal" of Mr. Wordsworth is of a more learned character, and must be chiefly interesting to scholars, as illustrating by frequent quotations and delicate criticisms, the ancient classics. It is our intention to use both of these works, which we have not seen republished in America, to give our readers some insight into the present condition of Greece and its antiquities.

In less than three weeks after leaving England, the packet in which Mr. Gifford and his fellow traveller had embarked, anchored in Patras Roads; but as this was not her final destination, the anchor was weighed the next morning and the boat stood on to Corfu. As a warning to future travellers, Mr. Gifford mentions that had they landed at Patras and commenced the tour of the Morea immediately, a week of precious time might have been saved. As it was, they began their observations

with the scenes of the Odyssey, and the capital of the Ionian Republic, Corfu.

"We were on a sea and amongst islands and shores celebrated from the earliest dawn of classical poetry. *** The scenes of the first travels, of which there exists even a mythological record, were before us -we were in the regions of the Odyssey. *** We soon reached the narrow channel, about four miles wide and sixteen long, which divides Ithaca and Cephalonia; the latter is tolerably cultivated, but not (at least in this view) pretty; but for the other-alas! we, like former travellers, could not help feeling something like vexation at finding the island of Ulysses the most barren spot we ever beheld. For the whole length of the island, scarce a shrub or blade of grass was to be seen; and one might be tempted to attribute the long absence of Ulysses less to the adverse fates than to his good taste." Giffard p. 32.

Running on by Cape Viscardo, and then by Santa Maura or Leucadia," the gigantic headstone over the watery grave of poor Sappho," they cast anchor at midnight in the harbor of Corfu.

"Beautiful! I exclaimed, when, early next morning, I saw Corfu; and my exclamation was in the superlative, most beautiful! when I became better acquainted with it. The roadstead, or rather bay, is completely land-locked; surrounded on three sides by the island, and on the other by the main land, with only narrow exits to the north and south, not visible from the harbor itself.

The opposite coast of Albania, the fortifications of the island of Vido; the citadel of Corfu, built on two precipitous rocks running out into the sea; the palace of the Lord High Commissioner (or as he is styled in common parlance the Lord High); the town itself, and the distant mountains of the island, form a splendid panoramic view." p. 35.

Corfu is the capital of the Republic of the Ionian Islands and under the protection (i. e. power) of Great Britain. The immense fortifications form another of those strong points which England has obtained in the four quarters of the world; one of those three stations in the Mediterranean which give the rule of that great sea to the English.

On a visit to the Lord High's country seat, the travellers say, "we could not but remark the similarity of the scenery to that described by Homer, through which Ulysses, a stranger like ourselves, sought the abode of the Lord High of his day.

At length he took the passage to the wood,

Whose shady honors on a rising brow

Waved high and frowned upon the stream below, etc. Odys. v. 475.

The exactness of these local portraits, and especially the sail of Ulysses [a rock which, from the harbor, has the appearance of a sail], are, it must be admitted, strongly in favor of the general opinion of the identity of Scheria and Corfu. Indeed, if the common opinion be correct, hereabout might be the site of the celebrated garden of Alcinous, which-although it seems to have been only a fruit and kitchen garden-Homer describes as being surrounded by natural beauties of the kind we saw before us."

After eight days spent at Corfu the packet took them again to Patras, where they landed on the shores of the Morea. For the sum of twelve dollars a boat was hired to take them to Corinth, stopping a day at Scala de Salona, in order to allow time to visit Delphi. We can afford but a brief space to extracts, but will copy a short account of the visit to the ancient fountain of the Muses.

"The next morning was very fine, and having ordered our horses the preceding evening, we started for Parnassus at six o'clock, but certainly none of the steeds resembled Pegasus, or perhaps, indeed, the whole story of Pegasus may be an allegory to convey a plain truth, that to get over such roads horses would have need of wings. Just before we arrived at Delphi, we saw several ancient tombs, excavated from the rock, on either side of the path: they are chiefly single, but one we entered had been the last resting place of three persons. On passing through a rudely arched doorway, we found ourselves in a chamber with a sarcophagus on either side, and a third in front; over each was a small niche in the wall for a lamp or figure; the covers were gone, and there was nothing to be seen within but the stone pillars for the heads of the deceased. Delphi is situated some five or six miles up the sides of the mountain range which, about eight or ten miles farther, terminates in the summit of Parnassus; but Delphi, contrary to the received opinion, has little local connection with Parnassus, properly so called, and is not even in sight of it. ***The general aspect of the village proved the accuracy of Pausanius' description of the site of the ancient town; it is built on terraces of masonry, rising above one another in regular gradation, and having all the features of great antiquity. On the right, as you enter the village, are the foundation walls of an old temple, forming a square of about one hundred yards each way, in the centre of which stands a miserable Greek church, dedicated I believe to St. Elias. Advancing from this we entered the village, and having put up our horses, were guided first to to the amphitheatre, an immense work, whose seats, hollowed out of the rock, are still almost perfect; thence to the Castalian Spring, which rises at the foot of what have been so long celebrated as the double peaks of Parnassus; but in fact, as I have said, the summit of Parnassus, properly so called, is some miles off, and not even visible, being concealed by a bare precipitous rock, which rises immediately behind the fountain, one hundred or

one hundred and fifty feet in height, up the face of which extends a rugged cleft that at the top separates the rock into two sharpish peaks, which though of a height comparatively insignificant, hide, by means of their proximity, the rest of the mountain, and are commonly but erroneously called the double head of Parnassus; for the mountain itself, which we saw from several points, has nothing like a double summit. ***The Castalian spring itself appears in the unpoetical shape of a parallelogram, which has obviously been formed for the purpose of a bath (a very shallow one), in which, as we read, the Pythia performed her ablutions before she ascended the sacred tripod." pp. 60, 63.

66

Returning from a visit to some tombs, we passed a labyrinth of massy walls and fragments of pillars sufficient, we thought, for a dozen temples, but which our guide said was the site and remains of the great temple of Apollo; another mass he called the tomb of Kronos. We, not knowing that Father Time, our ancient enemy, was buried here, or indeed that he was dead, inquired who Kronos was; when the guide reminded us that we had forgotten for the moment the ancient name of Saturn, by stating that Kronos was a king who ate his own children, and was at last deposed by them. It was interesting to find this tradition of so ancient a fable on the very spot where the most ancient of poets lays the scene-for, no doubt, the story alluded to by our guide is the same told by Hesiod, in his Theogony." p. 66.

Few things are more interesting to the traveller in the East than to detect in the popular traditions the remains of primitive fables, and to find in the names of places, as Dr. Robinson and Mr. Smith were enabled to in Palestine, a living testimony to the truth of ancient writers. And it is one of the circumstances which strikes us at first with the greatest surprise, that the spoken word, the invisible sound, should be more permanent than the stone walls which it designated. These have crumbled, and their dust has been blown away, but it remains rooted in the mind of the race. Another night brought the travellers to Corinth," a mass of ruin and desolation," and another day to Calimachi on the lovely bay of Cenchrea, where they embarked in a boat for Athens, now as anciently "the eye of Greece," the centre of interest to a traveller, and the seat of government.

"About sunset we were off Eleusis, and on the waters which had witnessed the destruction of the Persian fleet in the battle of Salamis. The manœuvre, by which we are told the enemy's fleet was put into confusion and the victory won, is easily understood on the spot, where the impossibility of even twenty ships working is manifest, and the confusion which the light Grecian galleys caused, by the rapidity of their attack, upon the crowded fleet of the Persians, rendered all attempt at restoring order in so narrow a strait, perfectly vain." p. 76. SECOND SERIES, VOL. VII. NO. II.'

17

The traveller's interest in Athens is undivided; it settles altogether in the antiquities. No exhibitions of modern art attract him, as in Rome; no architectural splendor of the middle ages; no crowded streets and frowning palaces of a modern city win him from the thought of the ancient empire. The Thescion, the Parthenon, enshrining the spirit of beauty and order, bind him by their genial influences, while he is there, and form the subject of his recollections when he has departed. In the remains of their art too, he reads, as in a book, the character of the people; superstitious, fickle, quick, and clear-minded, lovers of pleasure, of beauty, of grace, their buildings are consecrated to gods or heroes, or the delight of the people, of a form and design so severely simple and clear, as to be at once recognized and comprehended; so beautiful in proportion, so perfect in execution, so rich yet simple in ornament, that after the lapse of more than two thousand years they remain still the unrivalled models of the artist; and Ictinus and Phidias walk hand in hand with Homer and Sophocles. The kind of remains is as peculiar and national as their literature. They are temples, theatres and private monuments. There are no triumphal arches, as at Rome, under which captive trains from Africa, Scythia and Gaul were made to pass,-no Coliseum where those captives butchered each other "to make a Grecian holiday,"-no vast paved military highways, over which the armies marched to fresh conquests-the road to Marathon is a path over the rocks; no baths of Titus, no Adrian's villa, vast amorphous piles of brick, to tell of luxury, boundless indulgence, barbarian magnificence. Roman works, wherever we find them, fill us with ideas of the state, of the vast power, wealth and energy of a mighty empire, of war and conquests, and their attendants. The works of Greece betray the feelings of individuals, the subtle and acute mind of a versatile people, and fill us with ideas of superlative fitness, order and beauty. The distance of Athens from the Peiraeus is about six miles, the road is one of the very few in Greece laid out for carriages, and an omnibus plies regularly between the two places. The Acropolis is visible for most of the distance. Indeed it is the beacon to the traveller who comes to Athens by the Ægean or the Gulf of Salamis, while still far off upon the water; and the patron goddess of the city might, from a thousand different and distant points in Attica, be present to the eye of the ancient Greek, and seem to take immediate cognizance of his vows.