FRANCISCAN CONVENT,

ATHENS.

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

"THOUGH he occasionally made excursions through Attica and the Morea, his head-quarters were fixed at Athens, where he had taken lodgings in a Franciscan convent; and, in the intervals of his tours, employed himself in collecting materials for those notices on the state of modern Greece which he has appended to the second canto of Childe Harold. In this retreat, also, as if in utter defiance of the genius loci,' he wrote his Hints from Horace,'-a satire which, impregnated as it is with London life from beginning to end, bears the date, Athens, Capuchin Convent, March 12, 1811.'"-Moore's Life of Byron.

The genius of the illustrious Byron has thrown an interest around every spot and place in which he resided, or acted, or wrote; and the convent of the Franciscan Capuchins, after his death, became a place of pilgrimage to all those travellers in Athens who have been aroused, subdued, or charmed by his power; and

even those who are too obtuse to be impressed by the master-spell, go there for fashion, and affect to feel.

Here Byron, gazing out upon a scene of which he had said, when looking upon the plain of Athens, "that it was a more glorious prospect than even Cintra or Istambol," here he received many of those inspirations to which his mind has given a deathless grandeur.

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"No view in Athens," says Dodwell, is superior to that from the convent in beauty and in interest; while it is surmounted by the eastern end of the Acropolis, it commands an animating prospect of Mount Parnes, Pentelikon, Anchesmos, Hymettos, and part of the Saronic gulf, with the islands and Peloponnesian mountains. The nearer objects are the Arch of Hadrian, the Temple of Jupiter Olympius, the Ilissus, and the Stadium. An open gallery, which formed part of our lodging, was perpetually impressing our minds with the sublimity of this scenery, and with the numerous classical recollections it inspired."

In the view of the convent sketched by Mr. Page, there is seen over the wall of the court or garden part an object of great interest to antiquaries and architects, a little building, celebrated for its display of Greek taste, and of singular beauty, the choragic monument of Lysicrates. The walls of the convent have been so built as partly to enclose it within one of its angles to this circumstance, probably, this elegant

FRANCISCAN CONVENT.

little structure has owed its preservation. It is built of white marble, and is so small that its internal diameter is not more than five feet eleven inches. It was entirely closed up and inaccessible, until it was opened on one side, probably in search of expected treasures. Now there is a door by which it is entered from a chamber in the convent, and light is admitted by windows. The lines, like joints, which induced Stuart to think its circular cell was composed of six layers, have been cut to convey that appearance in the solid stone, for the cell did not consist of more than two cylindrical pieces. The summit of this monument is surmounted by an elegant ornament, whose triangular top was evidently designed to support the tripod which had been the reward to the victors in the musical contest. In Stuart's "Athens" there is a beautiful design of the appearance of the monument when crowned with the tripod. Stuart, who has drawn and described it with great care, says that there is on the architrave an inscription, from which we learn "that on some solemn festival, which was celebrated with games and plays, Lysicrates, of Kikyna, a demos or borough-town of the tribe of Akamantis, did, on behalf of his tribe, but at his own expense, exhibit a musical or theatrical entertainment, in which the boys of the tribe of Akamantis obtained the victory; and in memory of their victory this monument was erected, and the name of the person