religion, but which is totally unconnected with it, is their constantly twirling a string of beads. This custom arises either from restlessness, or from their being unable to keep their hands still. It is a great mistake to suppose that they are counting their beads, for their church does not enjoin the practice. SKELETON TOURS. The following Skeleton Tours may possibly be useful as variations of the regular tours hereafter described. ATHENS TO FATRASA SHORT TOUR. DAYS. and going from Athens by Marathon, Rhamnus, and Chalcis to Thermopylæ -thence either to Lebadea, Salona, 1 By Eleusis to Casa (Eleuthera), or Xyrneus to Delphi. where sleep. 2 Platæa, Leuctra, Thebes. 3 Thespiæ to Lebadea, [or, if the traveller has already seen, or intends to visit, Argos] 1 Athens, by Phyla to Thebes. 2 Platæa, Leuctra, Lebadea; a long day. 3 (or 4) See Cave of Trophonius at Lebadea (go to Orchomenus (Skripu), which is like the treasury of Atreus at Mycena). If you do not go to Orchomenus, you may at least get to Xyrneus, perhaps to Arachova, taking Chæronæa by the way. 4 (or 5) To Delphi. The chief point is the Castalian Spring. See the plane tree planted by Agamemnon close beside it! and higher up, near another spring under the rock, the sacred bay (Δάφνη). 5 (or 6) The Corycian Cave requires a day from Delphi, going and returning, but you can take it on the way from Arachova to Delphi. 6 There is now the alternative, either (a) taking boat to Patras from Scala di Salona, 12 hours with a fair wind. (b) Crossing to Vostizza, and thence riding to Patras. (c) A very disagreeable ride of 2 days to Lepanto, whence you can always cross to Patras. This route may be varied by omitting Thebes, Lebadea, Orchomenus, If pressed for time, the following will be the route, omitting Delphi. neighbourhood. It is, however, a route not mentioned in any of the books. Leake's route is from Rhamnus to Grammatico, and thence by Varnava to Kalamo, and by Mavrodhilisi to Oropo. Wordsworth's is the same in a contrary direction. Gell's course from Oropo is by Marcopulo and Kapandriti to the valley of Marathona. He likewise mentions the route from Rhamnus to Oropo by Grammatico and Kalamo, and also from Oropo to Athens by Kalamo and Kapandriti. The route here proposed passes by the fort of Varnava, the situation of which will attract the notice of the classical traveller. 3. First to the shore of the Euripus at Scala, and then to Oropo; thence across the Diacria to the ridges of Parnes, straight to Deceleia, and so to Athens. Between Oropo and Deceleia the road passes by the chapel of Ai Mercurios. This is the shortest way, and yet this route is not mentioned either in Gell or Leake. It may be added, that the view of Athens from Deceleia is perhaps the most striking of all views that can be obtained of it. Perhaps the most convenient way to explore Greece is to take one tour in Roumelia, and another in the Morea, returning each time to Athens, which is the only convenient place for head-quarters. Corinth may be conveniently seen in going by the Austrian steamers from Athens to Patras and Corfu, as the traveller lands at Calamaki before 10 A. M., and does not leave Lutraki till past 10 P. M. The tour in the Morea might be commenced by taking the steamer to Nauplia, which leaves the Piræus on the evenings of the 2d and 17th, and arrives at Nauplia on the following mornings. Tiryns, Mycenæ, and Argos would form the points of a triangular excursion of one day in the neighbourhood of Nauplia. In one day, also, Hiero may be conveniently visited from the same place. Under all circumstances, it may be considered the best plan for the traveller to go to Athens by Malta and Syra, and leave it by Corfu and Trieste.-J. S, H. ROUTE 1. FROM ZANTË TO PATRAS. A traveller can be at no loss for opportunities to proceed from Zante to Greece. Large boats and goodsized vessels leave Zante almost daily for Patras and all parts of the gulf of Lepanto. A boat may be hired for 3 dollars to cross to Chiarenza, or Clarenza, whence horses can be taken on to Patras. This plan is frequently adopted, as the passage is short, being only 16 miles across; and an interest attaches to the spot which gives a title to an English prince. When Greece was divided into principalities, Chiarenza was one of them. The heiress of one of its dukes married into the Hainault family, and Philippa, the heiress of that family having espoused Edward III. of Eng land, brought the title of Chiarenza into our royal family. Their third son, Lionel, was created Duke of Clarence, and the title was thus perpetuated in England. In entering on the soil of Greece— of a land to which we are indebted for every thing graceful in art, exalting in freedom, and ennobling in philosophy, the traveller will be forcibly struck with Lord Byron's apostrophe: The flying Mede, his shaftless broken bow; below; Death in the front, Destruction in the rear! Such was the scene-what now remaineth here? What sacred trophy marks the hallow'd Recording Freedom's smile and Asia's tear? The dust thy courser's hoof, rude stranger! spurns around. Patras, the ancient Patræ, called by the modern Greeks Patra. Inns. Hotel of Great Britain; Hotel des Quatre Nations; both pretty comfortable. The Great Britain is kept by a Greek servant of Mr. Crow, the consul, who speaks English. It is one of the best small inns in Greece, but is much too dear. A bargain should be made for beds and meals in all the inns. Patras possesses great advantages in point of situation, from the facility of communication by sea with the adjacent islands, with the whole western coast of Greece, and the Egean sea by the Gulf of Corinth. Its modern prosperity, until the revolution of 1821, was the result of the cultivation of the dwarf-vine, called Uva passa di Corinto, or currants, which rendered the greater part of the plain of Patras the most valuable soil in Europe. When Pausanias visited Patræ, it was noted for its manufacture of cotton. The objects described by him were in four different quarters. 1. The Acropolis. 2. The Agora. 3. A quarter into which there was a gate from the Agora. 4. The quarter near the sea. The chief object of veneration in the Acropolis was the temple of Diana Laphria, containing a statue of the goddess brought from Chalcedon by Augustus. Modern Patras, before the revolution, occupied the same site as the Roman city. It stood upon a ridge about a mile long, which projects from the falls of Mount Voidhia in an easterly direction; to the westward it is separated from the sea by a level increasing in breadth from north to south from a quarter to more than half a mile. At the northern end of the ridge stands the castle of Patras, on the site of the ancient Acropolis, of which some pieces of the walls are intermixed with the masonry on the N. E. side. The castle is strengthened in this direction by a hollow lying between it and the opposite heights, which form the connection with Mount Voidhia. These hills are of the most irregular forms, and all these places are subject to earthquakes. The ancient town, like the modern one before the revolution, covered the slopes of the ridge, which branches from the citadel to the south. The old Achaian city does not appear to have extended beyond the modern one, viz., to the foot of the ridge. All the existing remains beyond that line seem to have belonged to the colony established there by Augustus after the battle of Actium. Masses of masonry are to be found among the houses and gardens, but none in sufficiently good preservation to be ascribed to any building among those described by Pausanias. The Agora seems to have been about the middle of the town. The only position of the ancient Patræ besides the Acropolis which seems to have been identified, is that of the temple of Ceres, described by Pausanias as adjoining a grove by the sea-side, serving as a public walk to the Patrenses, and as having had below it in front a source of water, to which there was a descent on the side opposite the temple. This spring is easily recognised about three quarters of a mile from the town, near the sea shore, to the south of the magazines. There is still a descent of four steps to the well, under a vault in the Greek church of St. Andrew. This church is held in great veneration by the Greeks, as it is supposed to contain the bones of the apostle, and also a stone which tradition connects with his martyrdom. On the anniversary of his festival, all the Greeks of Patras and the neighbourhood flock to this shrine to pray, and tapers are every night lighted in a shed near which the body is thought to be buried. The ruins of the Roman aqueduct of brick which supplied the town from the heights to the eastward are still extant on that side of the Castle Hill. Mount Voidhia, inferior only in height to a few of the great summits, seems evidently to have been the Mount Panachaicum, where, in the winter of the second year of the Social War, B. c. 219, 220, Pyrrhias the Etolian established himself at the head of 3,000 Etolians and Eleians, after having made incursions upon Patræ, Dyme, &c., and from whence he continued them towards Egium and Rhium. The Klephts of modern times have discovered that this mountain is most conveniently placed for commanding Achaia. The castle of Patras commands the most beautiful and interesting prospect. Nothing can be more perfect of its kind than the sweep of the coast forming the vast bay to the S.W., which is separated from Mount Panachaicum by the plain of Patras. Beyond this appear the distant summits of Zante and Cephalonia. Castle Tornese is seen in this direction a little to the right of the summit of Mount Skopo. To the N. the outer division of the Corinthian gulf is bounded by the mountains of Acarnania and Etolia, and immediately in front of Patras by the two rugged hills between the Lagunes of Missolonghi and the Straits of Rhium; and here the prospect is terminated by the town of Epakto and the mountains above it. In modern times Patras has been the theatre of many sanguinary contests. Under the Greek emperors it was a dukedom; they sold it to the Venetian republic in 1408, from whom it was taken by the Turks after a brilliant defence, in 1446. It was wrested from them by Doria in 1532, and continued under the Venetian dominion till 1714, when the whole of the Morea fell under the Ottoman yoke. Although Patras was the first town that suffered during the Greek revolution, and was the stronghold of the Turks, its destruction was never so complete as that of many other Greek cities; but its environs, so much extolled by earlier travellers, the woods of olives, the vineyards, the orange, lemon, and pomegranate groves, &c., the source of so much enjoyment to its inhabitants, have been laid waste by fire and sword. The population of Patras at the commencement of this century has been estimated at 10,000. At present it is computed at only 7000. We have said that Patras was the first Greek town that suffered in the cause of freedom. Germanos, its archbishop, was summoned to Tripolizza on suspicion of favouring Ypsilanti's rebellion in Moldavia in 1821; but he had not proceeded farther than Kalavrita, when, finding the people disposed to support him, he openly raised the standard of the cross and of independence on the 2d of April, 1821. No sooner had this intelligence reached Patras, than the whole population, already ripe for revolt, rose simultaneously. Unprepared and alarmed, the Turks took refuge in the castle, having previously set fire to the lower town, which was nearly consumed. The castle they continued to hold during the greater part of the war, and only lost it after a long siege. In March, 1832, Tzavellas seized upon the fortress, and continued to hold it in defiance of the government; and though a French army was sent to occupy it, he refused to grant them possession. But on the arrival in Greece of the present King, he quietly resigned it to the Royal authorities. Since King Otho's accession, Patras has been rebuilt and enlarged. It no longer occupies the declivity of Mount Voidhia, but is built between the old town and the sea. The new streets are wide and regular, running at right angles to each other, and several are built with arcades. The houses are large, but the majority are but of one story high: a precaution necessary in a place so liable to earthquakes, to the frequency of which may be ascribed the disappearance of almost all its remains of antiquity. Patras is subject to fevers, the effects of the malaria of the plains. best capotes in Greece are made here, half of goat's hair, half of wool, and infinitely cheaper than elsewhere. The population is nearly 8000. The The traveller, on arriving at Patras, should visit the British Consul, Mr. Crow, from whom he will receive the best information respecting the state of the roads, the health and security of the country in the different routes he may propose to take. Several travelling servants live here who can be recommended by the consul: among them is Valerio, already mentioned in the Introduction, p. 25., as an excellent guide. The progressive increase of the trade between England and Patras may be gathered from the accompanying returns of Her Majesty's Consul. Vostizza to Megaspelion Missolonghi, (2 or 3 hours,) formerly the chief town of Western Greece, is built upon a perfect flat, 4 m. in breadth, and 18 in length, thickly wooded with olive trees, and watered by the Achelous and Evenus, and extending from the base of Mount The town Aracynthus, to the Gulf. is situated to the N. of the entrance of the gulf of Lepanto. Although the walls are washed by an arm of the sea, the water is too shallow to admit of the approach of any vessel larger than a fishing boat, nearer than four or five m. Its fortifications consisted of nothing more than a low wall without bastions, surrounded by a ditch, 7 feet wide by 4 in depth, and in many places filled up with rubbish. The parapet, which did not rise above the counterscarp, was formed of loose stones very much out of repair. Such was the state of the town when Mavrocordato, and the remnant of his |