SANTA MAURA.

Drawn by C. Stanfield, A.R.A., from a Drawing by W. Page.

""Twas on a Grecian autumn's gentle eve
Childe Harold hail'd Leucadia's cape afar;

A spot he long'd to see, nor cared to leave."

Childe Harold, canto ii. st. 40.

"ON the 28th we sailed through the channel between Ithaca and the island of Santa Maura, and again saw Cefalonia stretching farther to the north. We doubled the promontory of Santa Maura, and saw the precipice which the fate of Sappho, the poetry of Ovid, and the rocks so formidable to the ancient mariners, have made for ever memorable."-Hobhouse's Travels.

This island, forming at present one of the seven islands of the Ionian sea, known commonly by the name of the Septinsular republic, was in the time of Homer, and long after, attached to the continent, and formed the Leucadian peninsula. Some have imagined that it was separated from the mainland by an eruption of the sea; but the general opinion is, that it was cut through by the Corinthians. Livy,

whose account of Leucadia is remarkably accurate, declares that it is artificial. The canal of Santa Maura, which separates it from the continent, is fordable in still weather; and the remains of a bridge built by the Turks when they were in possession of the island, are seen, by which it was connected with the mainland. From the opposite shore the fort of Santa Maura may be destroyed by bombardment. It is supposed to have been colonised by the Corinthians and Coryræans (Corfuotes). The present town of Santa Maura is on the coast, below the ruins of the ancient city of Leucas, which derives its name from a companion of Ulysses; it is situated on an elevated hill, about an hour's walk from the modern town, and commands a most magnificent view-a scene of great beauty and classical interest.

"Towards the west," says Dodwell," the islands of Antipaxos, Paxos, and Corfu, are indistinctly seen as forming one cluster; a promontory, probably Cheimerian, is visible on the coast of Epiros. More to the north and far inland, rises a grand range of snowtopped mountains, (part of the chain of Pindos and Tomaros), terminating the horizon of Molossia. Below the spectator's eye is the town and fort of Santa Maura, and the rich Leucadian plain, covered with extensive groves of olive-trees. Nothing remains of the ancient city except a part of its walls, which were evidently built at three different epochs."

SANTA MAURA.

The descent towards Santa Maura is the subject of the annexed beautiful engraving, and the distant mountains on the continent are those observed from the sea by Byron on his way to Prevesa.

"Land of Albania! where Iskander rose,

Theme of the young, and beacon of the wise,
And he his namesake, whose oft-baffled foes
Shrunk from his deeds of chivalrous emprise :
Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes
On thee, thou rugged nurse of savage men!
The cross descends, thy minarets arise,

And the pale crescent sparkles in the glen,
Through many a cypress grove within each city's ken.

Morn dawns; and with it stern Albania's hills, Dark Sule's rocks, and Pindus' inland peaks, Robed half in mist, bedew'd with snowy rills, Array'd in many a dun and purple streak, Arise; and as the clouds along them break, Disclose the dwelling of the mountaineer. Here roams the wolf, the eagle whets his beak; Birds, beasts of prey, and wilder men appear, And gathering storms around convulse the closing year." Childe Harold, canto i. st. 38 and 42.

"The Leucadian promontory, which is still revered and feared by Grecian navigators, retains its ancient

name, as well as the whole island, though it is generally known to foreigners by that of Agia Maura or Santa Maura, which name is given by the Greeks only to the capital of the island."