publication. There are several exceptions, to be selves. At the same time, there are probably mosure, but then they have either been men of the ments in most men's lives which they would live world, such as Scott and Moore, &c.; or visionaries over the rest of life to regain? Else why do we out of it, such as Shelley, &c.: but your literary live at all? because Hope recurs to Memory, both every-day man and I never went well in company, false; but-but-but-but and this but drags on till especially your foreigner, whom I never could abide; -what? I do not know: and who does? He that except Giordani, and-and-and-(I really can't died o' Wednesday?” "Alcibiades is said to have been successful in all name any other)-I don't remember a man among them whom I ever wished to see twice, except perhaps Mezzophanti, who is a monster of languages, the Briarius of parts of speech, a walking Poylglott, and more, who ought to have existed at the time of his battles '-but what battles? Name them! If the Tower of Babel, as universal interpreter. He you mention Cæsar, or Hannibal, or Napoleon, you is indeed a marvel-unassuming also. I tried him at once rush upon Pharsalia, Munda, Alesia, Canin all the tongues of which I knew a single oath, næ, Thrasymene, Trebia, Lodi, Marengo, Jena, (or adjuration to the gods against postboys, sav- Austerlitz, Friedland, Wagram, Moskwa: but it is ages, Tartars, boatmen, sailors, pilots, gondoliers, less easy to pitch upon the victories of Alcibiades; muleteers, camel-drivers, Vetturini, postmasters, though they may be named too, though not so readposthorses, posthouses, post every thing,) and, ily as the Leuctra and Mantin of Epaminondas, egad! he astounded me-even to my English." the Marathon of Miltiades, the Salamis of Themistocles, and the Thermopyla of Leonidas. Yet, upon the whole, it may be doubted whether there be a name of antiquity which comes down with such "No man would live his life over again,' is an a general charm, as that of Alcibiades. Why? I old and true saying which all can resolve for them-cannot answer. Who can?" REVIEW OF WORDSWORTH'S POEMS. TWO VOLS., 1807.* [FROM "MONTHLY LITERARY RECREATIONS," FOR AUGUST, 1807.] Be men who hold its many blessings dear, THE Volumes before us are by the author of Lyrical Ballads, a collection which has not undeservedly met with a considerable share of public applause. The characteristics of Mr. W.'s muse are simple and flowing, though occasionally inharmonious verse, strong, and sometimes irresistible appeals Seven Sisters, the Affliction of Margaret to the feelings, with unexceptionable sentiments. The song at the Feast of Brougham Castle, the - of -, possess all the beauties, and few of the deThough the present work may not equal his former fects, of this writer: the following lines from the efforts, many of the poems possess a native ele- last are in his first style: gance, natural and unaffected, totally devoid of "Another year! another deadly blow! O dastard! whom such foretaste does not cheer! I have been a reviewer. In 1807, in a Magazine called "Monthly Literary Recreations," I reviewed Wordsworth's trash of that time. In the Monthly Review I wrote some articles which were inserted. This was in the latter part of 1811. "Ah! little doth the young one drear But do not make her love the less." The pieces least worthy of the author are those entitled "Moods of my own Mind." We certainly wish these "Moods" had been less frequent, or not permitted to occupy a place near works which only make their deformity more obvious; when Mr. W. ceases to please, it is by "abandoning" his mind to the most common-place ideas, at the same time clothing them in language not simple, but puerile. What will any reader or auditor, out of the nursery, say to such namby-pamby as "Lines written at the Foot of Brother's Bridge? "The cock is crowing, The green field sleeps in the sun; The oldest and youngest, Are at work with the strongest; The cattle are grazing, Their heads never raising, There are forty feeding like one. Like an army defeated, The snow hath retreated, And now doth fare ill, On the top of the bare hill." "Hey de diddle, The cat and the fiddle t The cow jump'd over the moon, The little dog laugh'd to see such sport, On the whole, however, with the exception of the above, and other INNOCENT odes of the same cast, we think these volumes display a genius worthy of higher pursuits, and regret that Mr. W. confines "The plough-boy is whooping anon, anon," &c., his muse to such trifling subjects. We trust his &c., is in the same exquisite measure. This ap- motto will be in future, "Paulo majora canamus.' pears to us neither more nor less than an imitation Many, with inferior abilities, have acquired a loftier of such minstrelsy as soothed our cries in the cra-seat on Parnassus, merely by attempting strains in dle, with the shrill ditty of which Mr. Wordsworth is more qualified to excel. " REVIEW OF GELL'S GEOGRAPHY OF ITHACA, AND ITINERARY OF GREECE. [FROM THE "MONTHLY REVIEW," FOR AUGUST, 1811.] THAT laudable curiosity concerning the remains informants. The true reason, however, for this of classical antiquity which has of late years in-costly mode of publication is in course to be found creased among our countrymen, is in no traveller or in a desire of gratifying the public passion for large author more conspicuous than in Mr. Gell. What- margins, and all the luxury of typography; and we ever difference of opinion may yet exist with regard have before expressed our dissatisfaction with Mr. to the success of the several disputants in the fa- Gell's aristocratical mode of communicating a spemous Trojan controversy, or, indeed, relating to cies of knowledge which ought to be accessible to a the present author's merits as an inspector of the much greater portion of classical students than can Troad, it must universally be acknowledged that at present acquire it by his means:-but, as such any work, which more forcibly impresses on our expostulations are generally useless, we shall be imaginations the scenes of heroic action, and the thankful for what we can obtain, and that in the subjects of immortal song, possesses claims on the manner in which Mr. Gell has chosen to present it. attention of every scholar. The former of these volumes, we have observed, ces. Of the two works which now demand our report, is the most attractive in the closet. It comprehends we conceive the former to be by far the most inter-a very full survey of the far-famed island which the esting to the reader, as the latter is indisputably hero of the Odyssey has immortalized; for we really the most serviceable to the traveller. Excepting, are inclined to think that the author has established indeed, the running commentary which it contains the identity of the modern Theaki with the Ithaca on a number of extracts from Pausanias and Strabo, of Homer. At all events, if it be an illusion, it is it is, as the title imports, a mere itinerary of Greece, a very agreeable deception, and is effected by an or rather of Argolis only, in its present circumstan- ingenious interpretation of the passages in Homer This being the case, surely it would have an- that are supposed to be descriptive of the scenes swered every purpose of utility much better by being which our traveller has visited. We shall extract printed as a pocket road-book of that part of the some of these adaptations of the ancient picture to Morea; for a quarto is a very unmanageable travel- the modern scene, marking the points of resemling companion. The mapst and drawings, we blance which appear to be strained and forced, as shall be told, would not permit such an arrange- well as those which are more easy and natural: but ment: but as to the drawings, they are not in gen- we must first insert some preliminary matter from eral to be admired as specimens of the art; and the opening chapter. The following passage conseveral of them, as we have been assured by eye-veys a sort of general sketch of the book, which witnesses of the scenes which they describe, do not may give our readers a tolerably adequate notion of compensate for their mediocrity in point of execu- its contents:tion, by any extraordinary fidelity of representation. "The present work may adduce, by a simple and correct survey of the Others, indeed, are more faithful, according to our island, coincidences in its geography, in its natural pr ductions, and moral state, before unnoticed. Some will be directly pointed out; the fancy or • We have it from the best anthority that the venerable leader of the Anti-ingenuity of the reader may te employed in tracing others; the mind familiar Romeric sect, Jacob Bryant, several years before his death, expressed regret for his ungrateful attempt to destroy some of the most pleasing associations of our youthful studies. One of his last wishes was-" Trojaque nunc stares," &c. 1 Or rather, Map; for we have only one in the volume, and that is on too small a scale to give more than a general idea of the relative position of places. The excuse about a larger map not folding well is triding; see, for Instance, the author's own map of Ithaca. with the imagery of the Odyssey will recognize with satisfaction the scenes those doubts which have existed on the identity of the modern with the other, can be identified, as, if such an idea be admitted, every small and 1 These citations, we think, appear to justify the rocky island in the Ionian Sea, containing a good port, might, with equal author in his attempt to identify the situation of plausibility, assume the appellation of Ithaca. his rock and fountain with the place of those men "The Venetian geographers have in a great degree contributed to raise tioned by Homer. But let us now follow him in ancient Ithaca, by giving, in their charts, the name of Val di Compare to the island. That name is, however, totally unknown in the country, where the isle is invariably called Ithaca by the upper ranks, and Theaki by the vulgar. The Venetians have equally corrupted the name of almost every place in Greece; yet, as the natives of Epactos or Naupactos never heard of Lepanto, those of Zacynthos of Zante, or the Athenians of Settines, it would be as unfair to rob Ithaca of its name, on such authority, as it would be to assert that no such island existed, because no tolerable representation of its form can be found in the Venetian surveys "The rare medals of the island, of which three are represented in the titlepage, might be adduced as a proof that the name of Ithaca was not lost during the reigns of the Roman emperors. They have the head of Ulysses, recognized by the pileum, or pointed cap, while the reverse of one presents the figure of a cock, the emblem of his vigilance, with the legend IOAKON A few of these medals are preserved in the cabinets of the curious, and one also, with the cock, found in the island, is in the possession of Signor Zavo, of Bathi. The uppermost coin is in the collection of Dr. Hunter; the second is copied from Newman, and the third is the property of R. P. Knight, Esq. "Several inscriptions, which will be hereafter produced, will tend to the confirmation of the idea that Ithaca was inhabited about the time when the Romans were masters of Greece; yet there is every reason to believe that few, if any of the present proprietors of the soil are descended from ancestors who had long resided successively in the island. Even those who lived, at the time of Ulysses, in Ithaca, seem to have been on the point of emigrating to Argos, and no chief remained, after the second in descent from that hero, worthy of being recorded in history. It appears that the isle has been twice colonised from Cephalonia in modern times, and I was informed that a grant had been made by the Venetians, entitling each settler in Ithaca to as much land as his circumstances would enable him to cultivate." the closer description of the scene.-After some account of the subjects in the plate affixed, Mr. Gell remarks: "It is impossible to visit this sequestered spot without being struck with the recollection of the Fount of Arethusa and the rock Korax, which the poet mentions in the same line, adding, that there the swine cat the sweet acorns, and drink the black water." * "Having passed some time at the fountain, taken a drawing, and made the necessary observations on the situation of the place, we proceeded to an examination of the precipice, climbing over the terraces above the source, among shady fig-trees, which, however, did not prevent us from feeling the powerful effects of the mid-day sun. After a short but fatiguing ascent, we arrived at the rock, which extends in a vast perpendicular semicircle, beauti fully fringed with trees, facing to the south-east. Under the crag we found two caves of inconsiderable extent, the entrance of one of which, not difficult of access, is seen in the view of the fount. They are still the resort of sheep and goats, and in one of them are small natural receptacles for the water, covered by a stalagmitic incrustation. who more than once represents the Ithacences demanding of strangers what "These caves, being at the extremity of the curve formed by the precipice, open toward the south, and present us with another accompaniment to the fount of Arethusa, mentioned by the poet, who informs us that the swineherd Eumæus left his guests in the house, whilst he, putting on a thick garment, Mr. Gell then proceeds to invalidate the authori-went to sleep near the herd, under the hollow of the rock, which sheltered ty of previous writers on the subject of Ithaca. Sir him from the northern blast. Now we know that the herd fed near the fount; for Minerva tells Ulysses that he is to go first to Eumeus, whom he George Wheeler and Mr. le Chevalier fall under his should find with the swine, near the rock Korax and the fount of Arethusa. severe animadversion; and, indeed, according to As the swine then fed at the fountain, so it is necessary that a cavern should his account, neither of these gentlemen had visited be found in its vicinity; and this seems to coincide, in distance and situation, the island, and the description of the latter is "ab-with that of the poem. Near the fount also was the fold or stathin's of solutely too absurd for refutation." In another Eumaus; for the goddess informs Ulysses that he should find his faithful place, he speaks of M. le C. "disgracing a work servant at or above the fount. "Now the hero meets the swineherd close to the fold, which was com of such merit by the introduction of such fabricasequently very near that source. At the top of the rock, and just above the tions;" again, of inaccuracy of the author's maps; spot where the waterfall shoots down the precipice, is at this day a stagni or and, lastly, of his inserting an island at the south-pastoral dwelling, which the herdsmen of Ithaca still inhabit, on account of ern entry of the Channel between Cephalonia and the water necessary for their cattle. One of these people walked on the Ithaca, which has no existence. This observation verge of the precipice at the time of our visit to the place, and seemed so very nearly approaches to the use of that mono-anxious to know how we had been conveyed to the spot, that his enquiries syllable which Gibbon, without expressing it, so reminded us of a question probably not uncommon in the days of Homer, adroitly applied to some assertion of his antagonist, ship had brought them to the island, it being evident they could not come on Mr. Davies. In truth, our traveller's words are foot. He told us that there was, on the summit where he stood, a small rather bitter towards his brother tourist: but we cistern of water, and a kalybea, or shepherd's hut. There are also vestiges must conclude that their justice warrants their se- of ancient habitations, and the place is now called Amarathia. verity. Convenience, as well as safety, seems to have pointed out the lofty In the second chapter, the author describes his situation of Amarathia as a fit place for the residence of the herdsmen of this landing in Ithaca, and arrival at the rock Korax part of the island from the earliest ages. A small source of water is a and the fountain Arethusa, as he designates it with treasure in these climates; and if the inhabitants of Ithaca now select a rugsufficient positiveness.-This rock, now known byged and elevated spot, to secure them from the robbers of the Echinades, it is to be recollected that the Taphian pirates were not less formidable, even in the name of Korax, or Koraka Petra, he contends the days of Ulysses, and that a residence in the solitary part of the island, to be the same with that which Homer mentions as far from the fortress, and close to a celebrated fountain, must at all times contiguous to the habitation of Eumæus, the faith-have Leen dangerous, without some such security as the rocks of Korax. ful swincherd of Ulysses.-We shall take the lib-Indeed, there can be no doubt that the house of Enmaus was on the top of erty of adding to our extracts from Mr. Gell some the precipice: for Ulysses, in order to evince the truth of his story to the of the passages in Homer to which he refers only, swincherd, desires to be thrown from the summit if his narration does not conceiving this to be the fairest method of exhibit-prove correct. "Near the bottom of the precipice is a curious natural gallery, about seven ing the strength or the weakness of his argument. feet high, which is expressed in the plate. It may be fairly presumed, from "Ulysses," he observes, "came to the extremity the very remarkable coincidence between this place and the Homeric account, of the isle to visit Eumæus, and that extremity was the most southern; for Telemachus, coming from Pylos, touched at the first south-eastern part of Ithaca with the same intention." Και τότε δη μ' Οδυσηα κακος ποθεν ήγαγε δαιμων Οδυσσει· Ω. that this was the scene designated by the poet as the fountain of Arethust, and the residence of Eumaus; and, perhaps, it would be impossible to find another spot which bears, at this day, so strong a resemblance to a poetic description composed at a period so very remote. There is no other fountain in this part of the island, nor any rock which bears the slightest resemblance to the Korax of Homer. "The stathmos of the good Eumeus appears to have been little different, either in use or construction, from the stagni and kalybea of the present day. The poet expressly mentions that other herdsmen drove their flocks into the city at sunset,-a custom which still prevails throughout Greece during the winter, and that was the season in which Ulysses visited Eumæus. Yet Homer accounts for this deviation from the prevailing custom, by observing that he had retired from the city to avoid the suitors of Penelope. These trifling occurrences afford a strong presumption that the Ithaca of Bomer was something more than the creature of his own fancy, as some have sup posed it; for though the grand outline of a fable may be easily imagined, yet "Sweet acorns." Does Mr. Gell translate from the Latin? To avoid See his Vindication of the 15th and 16th chapters of the Decline and similar cause of mistake, pɛvoɛiksa should not be ren lered sauver, but Full, &c. Αυταρ έπην πρώτην άκτην Ιθακες ἀφίκηαι gratam, as Barnes has given it. the consistent adaptation of minute incidents to a long and elaborate falsehood We must, however, observe that "demonstration" is a task of the most arduous and complicated nature." is a strong term.-In his description of the Leuca After this long extract, by which we have endeav-dian Promontory (of which we have a pleasing ored to do justice to Mr. Gell's argument, we can- representation in the plate), the author remarks not allow room for any farther quotations of such that it is "celebrated for the leap of Sappho, and extent; and we must offer a brief and imperfect the death of Artemisia." From this variety in the analysis of the remainder of the work. In the third chapter, the traveller arrives at the capital, and in the fourth, he describes it in an agreeable manner. We select his account of the mode of celebrating a Christian festival in the Greek church "We were present at the celebration of the feast of the Ascension, when the citizens appeared in their gayest dresses, and saluted each other in the streets with demonstrations of pleasure. As we sate at breakfast in the house of Zignor Zavo, we were suddenly roused by the discharge of a gun, succeeded by a tremendous crash of pottery, which fell on the tiles, steps, and pavements, in every direction. The bells of the numerous churches comenced a most discordant jingle; colors were hoisted on every mast in the port, and a general shout of joy announced some great event. Our host informed us that the feast of the Ascension was annually commemorated in this manner at Bathi, the populace exclaiming avesno Xpises, aλn BLVOS O Oεos, Christ is risen, the true God." expression, a reader would hardly conceive that both the ladies perished in the same manner: in fact, the sentence is as proper as it would be to talk of the decapitation of Russell, and the death of Sidney. The view from this promontory includes the island of Corfu; and the name suggests to Mr. Gell the following note, which, though rather irrelevant, is of a curious nature, and we therefore conclude our citations by transcribing it : "It has been generally supposed that Corfu, or Corcyra, was the Phracia of Homer; but Sir Henry Englefield thinks the position of that island inconsistent with the voyage of Ulysses as described in the Odyssey. That gentleman has also observed a number of such remarkable coincidences between the courts of Alcinous and Solomon, that they may be thought curious and interesting. Homer was familiar with the names of Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt; and, as he lived about the time of Solomon, it would not have been extraordinary if he had introduced soine account of the magnificence of that prince into his poem. As Solomon was famous for wisdom, so the name of Alcinous signifies strength of In another passage, he continues this account as knowledge; as the gardens of Solomon were celebrated, so are those of Alfollows: In the evening of the festival, the in-cinous (Od. 7. 112); as the kingdom of Solomon was distinguished by twelve habitants danced before their houses; and at one tribes under twelve princes (1 Kings, ch. 4), so that of Alcinous (Od. 8. 300) we saw the figure which is said to have been first was ruled by an equal number; as the throne of Solomon was supported by ased by the youths and virgins of Delos, at the lions of gold (1 Kings, ch. 10), so that of Alcinous was placed on dogs of happy return of Theseus from the expedition of the silver and gold (Od. 7. 91); as the fleets of Solomon were famous, so were Cretan Labyrinth. It has now lost much of that mountains of the Solymi, as he returned from Ethiopix to Ege, while he those of Alcinous. It is perhaps worthy of remark, that Neptune sate on the intricacy which was supposed to allude to the wind-raised the tempest which threw Ulysses on the coast of Phecia; and that ings of the habitation of the Minotaur," &c., &c. the Solymi of Pamphilia are very considerably distant from the route.-The This is rather too much for even the inflexible suspicious character, also, which Nausicaa attributes to her countryman gravity of our censorial muscles. When the author agrees precisely with that which the Greeks and Romans gave of the Jews." talks, with all the reality (if we may use the ex- The seventh chapter contains a description of the pression) of a Lempriere, on the stories of the Monastery of Kathara, and several adjacent places. fabulous ages, we cannot refrain from indulging a The eighth, among other curiosities, fixes on an momentary smile; nor can we seriously accompany imaginary site for the farm of Laertes: but this is him in the learned architectural detail by which he the agony of conjecture, indeed!—and the ninth endeavors to give us, from the Odyssey, the ground-chapter mentions another Monastery, and a rock plot of the house of Ulysses, of which he actually still called the school of Homer. Some sepulchral offers a plan in drawing! " showing how the de-inscriptions of a very simple nature are included.— scription of the house of Ulysses in the Odyssey The tenth and last chapter brings us round to the may be supposed to correspond with the foundations Port of Schoenus, near Bathi; after we have comyet visible on the hill of Aito!"Oh, Foote! pleted, seemingly in a very minute and accurate Foote! why are you lost to such inviting subjects manner, the tour of the island. for your ludicrous pencil! In his account of this celebrated mansion, Mr. Gell says, one side of the volume to every lover of classical scene and story. We can certainly recommend a perusal of this court seems to have been occupied by the Thalamos, If we may indulge the pleasing belief that Homer or sleeping apartments of the men, &c., &c.; and, sang of a real kingdom, and that Ulysses governed in confirmation of this hypothesis, he refers to the 10th Odyssey, line three hundred and forty. On examining his reference, we read, it, though we discern many feeble links in Mr. Gell's chain of evidence, we are on the whole induced to fancy that it is the Ithaca of the bard and of the Ἐς θάλαμος τ' ιέναι, και σης ἐπιβήμεναι ευνῆς. monarch. At all events, Mr. Gell has enabled every future traveller to form a clearer judgment on the where Ulysses records an invitation which he re-question than he could have established without ceived from Circe to take a part of her bed. How such a "Vade-mecum to Ithaca," or a "Have with this illustrates the above conjecture, we are at a loss you, to the House of Ulysses," as the present. to divine: but we suppose that some numerical With Homer in his pocket, and Gell on his sumptererror has occurred in the reference, as we have de-horse or mule, the Odyssean tourist may now make tected a trifling mistake or two of the same nature. a very classical and delightful excursion; and we Mr. G. labors hard to identify the cave of Dexia, doubt not the advantages accruing to the Ithacennear Bathi (the capital of the island), with the ces, from the increased number of travellers who grotto of the Nymphs described in the 13th Odys-will visit them in consequence of Mr. Gell's account We are disposed to grant that he has suc- of their country, will induce them to confer on that ceeded but we cannot here enter into the proofs gentleman any heraldic honors which they may have by which he supports his opinion; and we can only to bestow, should he ever look in upon them again. extract one of the concluding sentences of the-Baron Baths would be a pretty title:chapter, which appears to us candid and judicious: sey. "Hoc Ithacus velit, et magno mercentur Atrida."-Virgil. "Whatever opinion may be formed as to the identity of the cave of Dexia For ourselves, we confess that all our old Grecian with the grotto of the Nymphs, it is fair to state, that Strabo positively asserts that no such cave as that described by Homer existed in his time, and that feelings would be alive on approaching the fountain geographer thought it better to assign a physical change, rather than of Melain udros, where, as the tradition runs, or as Ignorance in Homer, to account for a difference which he imagined to exist the priests relate, Homer was restored to sight. between the Ithaca of his time and that of the poet. But Strabo, who was We now come to the "Grecian Patterson," or an uncommonly accurate observer with respect to countries surveyd by himself, appears to have been wretchedly misled by his informers on many “That Strabo had never visited this country is evident, not only from his occasions. Inaccurate account of it, but from his citation of Appollodorus and Scepsius, whose relations are in direct opposition to each other on the subject of Ithaca, as will be demonstrated on a future opportunity." "Cary," which Mr. Gell has begun to publish; and really he has carried the epic rule of concealing the person of the author to as great a length as either of the above-mentioned heroes of itinerary writ. We hear nothing of his "hair-breadth 'scapes" by sea or land; and we do not even know, for the greater part of his journey through Argolis, whether respect; and the prospect of Larissa, &c., is barely ne relates what he has seen or what he has heard. equal to the former. The view from this last place From other parts of the book, we find the former is also indifferent; and we are positively assured to be the case; but, though there have been tour-that there are no windows at Nauplia which look ists and "strangers" in other countries, who have like a box of dominos,-the idea suggested by Mr., kindly permitted their readers to learn rather too Gell's plate. We must not, however, be too severe much of their sweet selves, yet it is possible to carry on these picturesque bagatelles, which, probably, delicacy, or cautious silence, or whatever it may be were very hasty sketches; and the circumstances of called, to the contrary extreme. We think that weather, &c., may have occasioned some difference Mr. Gell has fallen into this error, so opposite to in the appearance of the same objects to different that of his numerous brethren. It is offensive, in-spectators. We shall therefore return to Mr. Gell's deed, to be told what a man has eaten for dinner, or preface; endeavoring to set him right in his direchow pathetic he was on certain occasions; but we tions to travellers, where we think that he is errolike to know that there is a being yet living who neous. and adding what appears to have been omitdescribes the scenes to which he introduces us; and ted. In his first sentence, he makes an assertion that it is not a mere translation from Strabo or Pau- which is by no means correct. He says, "We are sanias which we are reading, or a commentary on at present as ignorant of Greece, as of the interior those authors. This reflection leads us to the con- of Africa." Surely not quite so ignorant; or several cluding remark in Mr. Gell's preface (by much the of our Grecian Mungo Parks have travelled in vain, most interesting part of his book) to his Itinerary and some very sumptuous works have been pubof Greece, in which he thus expresses himself:- lished to no purpose! As we proceed, we find the author observing that Athens is now the most "The confusion of the modern with the ancient names of places in this polished city of Greece," when we believe it to be volume is absolutely unavoidable; they are, however, mentioned in such a the most barbarous, even to a proverb'Ω 'Αθηνα, πρώτη χώρα, Τι γαιδάρες τρεφεις τώρα, manner, that the reader will soon be accustomed to the indiscriminate use of them. The necessity of applying the ancient appellations to the different routes, will be evident from the total ignorance of the public on the subject of the modern names, which, having never appeared in print, are only known to the few individuals who have visited the country. "What could appear less intelligible to the reader, or less useful to the is a couplet of reproach now applied to this once traveller, than a route from Chione and Zaracca to Kutchukmadi, from famous city; whose inhabitants seem little worthy thence to Krabuta to Sconochorio, and by the mills of Feali, while every of the inspiring call which was addressed to them one is in some degree acquainted with the names of Stymphalus, Nemea within these twenty years, by the celebrated Riga:— Mycene, Lyreeia, Lerna, and Tegea?” Δεντε παιδες των Ελληνον-κ. τ. λ. Although this may be very true inasmuch as it relates to the reader, yet to the traveller we must Iannina, the capital of Epirus, and the seat of Ali observe, in opposition to Mr. Gell, that nothing can Pacha's government, is in truth deserving of the be less useful than the designation of his route honors which Mr. Gell has improperly bestowed on according to the ancient names. We might as well, degraded Athens. As to the correctness of the and with as much chance of arriving at the place of remark concerning the fashion of wearing the hair our destination, talk to a Hounslow postboy about cropped in Molossia, as Mr. Gell informs us, our making haste to Augusta, as apply to our Turkish authorities cannot depose: but why will he use the guide in modern Greece for a direction to Stympha- classical term of Eleuthero-Lacones, when that Ius, Nemea, Mycenae, &c., &c. This is neither people are so much better known by their modern more nor less than classical affectation; and it ren-name of Mainotes ? "The court of the Pacha of ders Mr. Gell's book of much more confined use Tripolizza" is said "to realise the splendid visions than it would otherwise have been:-but we have of the Arabian Nights." This is true with regard some other and more important remarks to make to the court: but surely the traveller ought to have on his general directions to Grecian tourists; and added that the city and palace are most miserable, we beg leave to assure our readers that they are de- and form an extraordinary contrast to the splendor rived from travellers who have lately visited Greece. of the court.-Mr. Gell mentions gold mines in In the first place, Mr. Gell is absolutely incautious Greece; he should have specified their situation, enough to recommend an interference on the part of as it certainly is not universally known. When, English travellers with the Minister at the Porte, also, he remarks that "the first article of necessity in behalf of the Greeks. "The folly of such neglect in Greece is a firman, or order from the Sultan, (page 16, preface), in many instances, where the permitting the traveller to pass unmolested," we are emancipation of a district might often be obtained much misinformed if he be right. On the contrary, by the present of a snuff-box or a watch, at Con- we believe this to be almost the only part of the stantinople, and without the smallest danger of ex- Turkish dominions in which a firman is not necesciting the jealousy of such a court as that of Turkey, sary; since the passport of the Pacha is absolute will be acknowledged when we are no longer able to within his territory (according to Mr. G.'s own rectify the error." We have every reason to believe, admission), and much more effectual than a firman. on the contrary, that the folly of half a dozen travel-" Money," he remarks, "is easily procured at Salers taking this advice, might bring us into a war. lonica, or Patras, where the English have consuls." "Never interfere with any thing of the kind," is a It is much better procured, we understand, from the much sounder and more political suggestion to all Turkish governors, who never charge discount. English travellers in Greece. The consuls for the English are not of the most Mr. Gell apologises for the introduction of "his magnanimous order of Greeks, and far from being panoramic designs," as he calls them, on the score so liberal, generally speaking; although there are, of the great difficulty of giving any tolerable idea in course, some exceptions, and Strune of Patras of the face of a country in writing, and the ease has been more honorably mentioned.-After having with which a very accurate knowledge of it may be observed that "horses seem the best mode of conacquired by maps and panoramic designs. We are veyance in Greece," Mr. Gell proceeds: "Some informed that this is not the case with many of these travellers would prefer an English saddle; but a designs. The small scale of the single map we saddle of this sort is always objected to by the owner have already censured; and we have hinted that of the horse, and not without reason," &c. This, some of the drawings are not remarkable for correct we learn, is far from being the case; and, indeed, resemblance of their originals. The two nearer for a very simple reason, an English saddle must views of the Gate of the Lions at Mycena are indeed seem to be preferable to one of the country, because good likenesses of their subject, and the first of them is unusually well executed; but the general We write these lines from the recitation of the travellers to whom we view of Mycenae is not more than tolerable in any have alluded; but we cannot vouch for the correctness of the Romaic. |