Capt. Murray, of the Satellite, was at Athens for a short time in February, and returned on the 15th of April, when he invited Mr. B., Mr. Sharp, and myself to accompany him round Attica. We accepted the invitation with great pleasure, and went on board the vessel on the 20th. Capt. M. relinquished his own cabin to his guests; we were close stowed, but we did very well, and fared capitally. On the 21st we landed at Egina, and walked up to the temple, supposed to be that of Jupiter Panhellenius, over a rough soil of volcanic substances, imbedded, in most places, in a limestone cement, containing shells. The hills are covered with bushes of different kinds of cistus, and other flowering shrubs, and the usual pine-tree abounded in some parts. The temple is at the top of a hill, but with higher eminences about it, about two miles from the sea-shore. It is a peripteral temple, like that of Theseus, but the architrave of the pronaos was not carried across the peristyle, as in that temple. There are six columns in front, and twelve on the flanks: the intercolumniation is more than one and a half diameter, and the columns appear in consequence rather straggling. The capitals seemed to me too large. The plan published in the Ionian antiquities gives twenty-three external columns, and five smaller ones of the internal peristyle, (it was an hypæthral temple;) but only sixteen of these columns are now standing. We may trace the whole disposition, and there are vestiges of the inclined plane which ascended to the platform; for the steps, or rather plinths on which a Greek temple was placed, were frequently so high as to render the ascent difficult. The pieces of the frieze, and some of those of the architrave, exhibit at their ends horse-shoe grooves, to admit the ropes by which the stones were hoisted into their places, and also to leave it disengaged when the stones were fixed.

The view from hence is exceedingly fine; whatever beauties other countries may boast, Greece is unrivalled in her coast scenery. The foreground is rich with rock, bushes, and sometimes with trees; beyond these is a fine cultivated plain, and a succession of mountain distances follows, with the sea occasionally intervening. After all, I doubt if an Englishman immediately transported here from his own country, would enjoy the full effect of this scenery. The eye gets accustomed to a certain style of beauty, and when we observe a deficiency in some particular to which we have been habituated, even though the want should be compensated by equal or superior excellences, yet the first feeling is that of disappointment. The gentleman’s seat embosomed in tufted trees, the neat cottage and comfortable farmhouse, the scattered village, “with taper spire that points to heaven;” every thing in short which constitutes what may be called the moral beauty of the English landscape, is wanting in Greece. Instead of these, our associations are all of a melancholy cast, connected as they are with the history of a people once so glorious, now so fallen! And is it the Turks who have effected this? Why then did a country so extensive, so populous as it once was, so rich in natural productions, fall a contemptible sacrifice to barbarian power? The evil was already inflicted; Greece, no longer free, lost under a despotic government every noble sentiment, and then fell an easy prey. The Turkish yoke is more galling because it is imposed by foreigners, of a different language, and of a different religion; and oppression exercised thus by a stranger nation, increases from year to year; for power necessarily encroaches where it meets no effectual resistance. Yet if the Greek empire had continued to the present day, it may be doubted if the condition of the subject would have been essentially better than it is at present. We have fine extensive plains, covered with corn or vines, possessing a beauty quite their own, and contrasting in the most pleasing manner with the rugged mountains; groves of olive-trees, and the dark blue sea, and a sky of almost as deep a colour; yet reflecting a strong clear light. Nor do there want clouds to vary the effect of the landscape; but rarely, and then but for a short period, the continued gray covering so common in England. Change all your dull, cloudy days, and your fogs, into a clear sunshine, and you may imagine the climate of Greece, except that seldom or never will you see in England the bright, but intense colour of the sky. Sharp and myself would have been very glad to stay longer at this temple, but we were drawn away by our companions, and sailed in the night towards Sunium, which was in view when we rose in the morning. The situation is perhaps even finer than that of Egina, but I can give you no idea of the beauty of these scenes, so unlike in character to any thing you have about you. In our climate a mountain is generally an object of gloomy magnificence. Rocks, mountains and storms, go much together in imagination, but here such an association is completely broken, and the barren mountain, and the naked rock, seem only objects for the sun to shine on. All nature looks cheerful and happy, and our melancholy recollections are almost driven away by the brilliancy of the prospect.

At Sunium eleven columns remain in their places, and the marble is kept rather of a raw, and overbearing whiteness by the action of the sea air. This stone seems to belong to the neighbourhood; it is white, with somewhat of a conchoidal fracture, less beautiful than the Pentelic, from being less translucent, yet it is a handsome material, and the building is a noble object. The order as you know is Doric, and as it is one of the examples cited by Vitruvius at the end of the fourth book, it may possibly explain his expression of columns being added “dextra ac sinistra ad humeros pronai,” but the arrangement here is like that at the temple of Theseus, and not resembling any thing we know in the Acropolis, to which Vitruvius also refers. The minuter parts are too much corroded by the action of the sea air, to furnish good materials for drawing the mouldings. Some barbarians of the English and French tribes have been daubing on the ruins in great letters the names of their respective vessels. Terrace walls and other fragments add to the apparent importance of the edifice. Among them are the foundations of a Propylæum, but we could not stay long enough to enter into the details of the neighbourhood. The hills are covered with bushes, (shrubs you would call them in England) among which is a great quantity of the Quercus coccifera, but I did not observe any of the Quercus Esculus, or Vallonia oak, which Dr. Clarke noticed here.

After spending some hours among these objects, we redescended to the ship, and turning round the extreme point of Attica, arrived in the evening at Porto Mandril, which is sheltered by Macroneesi, or Long Island. The ancient Thoricus was situated in this bay, and we find the remains of a temple, or, according to the Dilettanti society, of an open portico, with fourteen columns on each side, and seven at each end. They also state, that on the longest sides, the middle intercolumniation was larger than the others, which is I dare say correct, though in my hasty view of the place I did not notice this peculiarity; and they imagine a row of columns along the centre. I have nothing to add to their account, except that the building never was completely finished, and does not appear to have been very well executed. There is also an ancient theatre at Thoricus, of very rude workmanship and irregular form; and two square towers, likewise of very rustic execution. On the opposite side of the valley, there are many foundations, and at a little distance, great heaps of slag and scoriæ from the ore of the ancient silver mines, still untouched by vegetation. I could learn nothing of the mines themselves, nor did I see any traces which would lead me towards them, but they are probably not far from the shore, for as the mountains are covered with wood, the advantage of smelting the ore near the spot where it was dug is very obvious. The whole country here seems to belong to a formation of mica slate abounding in marble, (should not this composition have a name of its own?) and the superincumbent beds are very partial and trifling, both in thickness and extent. At Sunium, on the contrary, and along the whole western coast, the rock belongs to later formations.

We staid at Porto Mandril all the 23rd, and on the 24th beat up against the wind to Marathon. On the 25th we landed, and after a long ramble over the plain, returned to breakfast in a tent prepared for us on the shore. Here we took leave of Capt. M. and his officers, to whose attentions we were so much indebted, and proceeded to a little village called Vraunon, where we procured a large room in a convent.

It is very disagreeable to doubt about the locality of such a victory as that of Marathon, and fortunately, as far as the plain is concerned, there is no room for hesitation, but the appropriations of particular objects do not probably deserve much confidence. Near the shore, a reedy slip of land, with small pools of water, extends along the southern half of the bay; behind this, the ground is apparently flat for near a mile, after which it rises gradually towards the hills. Quite at the southern extremity of the plain, there is a marsh formed by a little stream of water. On the rest of the coast a sandy tract follows the shore, the southern part of which is partially covered with bushes, but as we proceed along it towards the north-east, we meet with a wood of the Pinus maritima, containing also a few trees of Pinus Pinea, intermixed: behind this sandy tract there is a dead flat, which seemed to have been recently covered with water; and at the extremity of this, directing our steps northwards, and immediately under the hills, are two little lakes, and not far from them a pool, supplied by a spring of water, beautiful to the eye, but as we were assured, of a bad quality.

Vraunon is seated at the edge of the plain, on the roots of Pentelicus. The village of Marathon is at a little distance up a valley which opens into the plain. Near Vraunon we are shewn two tumuli, which have been imagined to contain the bones of the Athenians and Platæans who fell in the conflict, but they are so nearly obliterated, that I should have passed them without notice, had they not been particularly pointed out to me. At some distance to the south, a much larger, and very conspicuous tumulus is assigned to the Persians, but Pausanias does not seem to have been aware of its existence. In our next day’s excursion, we thought we could distinguish traces of other tumuli, considerably more to the eastward, as well as some foundations of buildings, which might merit investigation.

There is a deep ravine behind Vraunon, which exposes beds of white Pentelic marble, and of the veined marble of the portico at Athens. The Styrax officinalis added to the beauty of the scene by its profusion of flowers. On the 26th, we rode over to Rhamnus, now called Hebræocastro. The first part of the way lies across the plain of Marathon, and by the edge of the marsh, great part of which is now dry, but it bears marks of being occasionally overflowed. Afterwards we passed by the vestiges of an ancient temple, and began to ascend the hills, over ground covered with cistus (Cistus Monspeliensis); and afterwards through beautiful forest scenery shaded with the Vallonia oak (Quercus Esculus).^[35]

The situation of the temples at Rhamnus again called forth our warmest admiration, and in scenes of such surpassing beauty one is generally disposed to think the last best. The immediate neighbourhood is wild and desolate, broken with rocks, and covered with brushwood; and the finely varied lines of the island of Eubœa, with its cultivation, its olive-grounds, woods, rugged hills, and snowy mountains, were spread before us, beyond a sea of the deepest blue, and illuminated from a sky, which, though brilliant, exhibited a proportional intensity of colour. There were two temples almost touching each other, but not parallel, and very little is standing of either: one is very ancient, of Cyclopean masonry; it is supposed to have been lined with wood, and some of the nails of this lining have been found: the other is of the finest period of Grecian art, built, as we are told by Pausanias, by Alcamenes, a pupil of Phidias; but for a description I shall refer you to the work of the Dilettanti Society.^[36] Fragments of very fine sculpture lie about in great profusion, and I could not but regret that the missionaries of that society had not employed themselves in collecting and arranging them, instead of, as they are accused of doing, breaking some which were more perfect. The town of Rhamnus was about a mile from these temples, on an insulated hill close by the shore; there are considerable remains of the walls, and within the inclosure, a marble chair, and some other fragments.

We returned by the road we came to Vraunon, and slept in the same convent, intending on the 27th to visit the quarries of Pentelicus, but I had for some time past been troubled with indisposition, and a gathering in the knee during this excursion had been exceedingly painful. It was highly inflamed by the exertion of going to Rhamnus, and my courage failed at the prospect of a still more painful effort. I therefore took the shortest road to Athens, with Capt. T., who very kindly accompanied me, while Messrs. B. and S. rode round by the village of Marathon. Our route lay across some of the lower branches of Pentelicus, following a steep and rugged road, among bushes of Arbutus Unedo and A. Andrachne, with sometimes woods of pine, or groves of Vallonia oak. We passed through the village of Kephisia, near the sources of the Cephissus, an elevated situation, but well watered by little rills collected from Pentelicus, and surrounded by olive-grounds and vineyards, and gardens filled with almond, quince, and fig-trees. We were detained at the gate of Athens, on account of increasing reports of the plague at Negropont and Thebes, and could not obtain admittance without the interference of our consul.

The plague is a curious disease, and the regulations adopted in different places to prevent it, are still more so. At Negropont, (a corruption of Evripo, which is the real modern name) about sixty miles from Athens, it has existed more than a twelvemonth, and as it is the residence of the pashaw, whose jurisdiction extends over Athens, the communication is direct, and very frequent. At first there was a vaivode at Athens who was willing to take some precautions: I know not what they were, but they must have been very trifling. When the present vaivode came, the Greeks applied to him to authorize similar measures; he replied, that if they presumed to set a guard at the gate, he would order him to be shot; and that if any man shut up his shop in consequence of reports about the plague, he should be immediately bastinadoed. In the course of this spring the disorder spread to some villages near Thebes, and the European consuls at Athens made an application to the pashaw of Negropont, who authorized them to station a guard at each entrance into the town. This was accordingly done: two of the gates less used were nailed up, and the earth heaped against them, for the double purpose of keeping them closed, and of preventing any unlucky wight from creeping beneath them; but in one place a large hole in the city walls, through which a short man might walk upright, was left unnoticed; and there were several mounds of earth against them, by means of which a person might get over with little difficulty. In this state of things, a French gentleman from Salonica arrived at Athens, having slept in his way at Thebes. He was stopped at the gate, and sent for the French consul to obtain admittance; but after a short time, being tired of waiting, put spurs to his horse, and galloped into the city, in spite of the opposition of the guard. I dined in company with him the very same day, and he assured us that the plague was undoubtedly in Thebes. The hole in the wall was then stopped up, the mounds of earth dug away, and a guard established on the frontier, of which our landlord was a member. Within two days, a messenger from Negropont threatened to shoot the guard, and entered in spite of it. Meanwhile reports increased; it was said that the plague had reached Megara and Eleusis, and a letter from Thebes was shewn, by authority of the vaivode, stating that eighty persons had there died of it in the course of a month. Athens is principally supplied with corn from that neighbourhood, and we were told afterwards, that the vaivode having a considerable quantity on his hands, encouraged these reports, in order to enhance his price, and had even falsified the letter, by changing eight to eighty. Soon after this I left Athens with a bill of health, which procured me admission at Egina; but when at Corinth, I heard of many persons, and amongst others, the French consul general, having been stopped at the port of Cenchrea, and not permitted to come to Corinth, although they had clean bills of health from Athens. We had very minute accounts of the plague from Athens itself, and the old physician was exceedingly angry with me for doubting them, but before I left Corinth, he produced us documents which proved the former statements to have been false.

The plague has diverted my narration from its regular course, but I now return to the order of events. A difference in the mode of computing Easter between the Greek and Roman churches, made it arrive very early this year in Italy, and very late here, not indeed till the 28th of April. On that day the Greeks and Albanians, drest in their best clothes, assemble with music and dancing at the temple of Theseus. The Greeks here dress generally in dark colours, but the Albanians prefer lively hues, and the petticoat of the men is always white, but with a coloured border. The scene was gay and splendid, and the more interesting, as it probably conveyed a picture of ancient times, and is perhaps the offspring of some pagan festival; it was however, over at noon; and the parties dispersed to their homes.

On leaving us at Marathon, Capt. M. very kindly gave an invitation to Sharp and myself to meet him at Hydra, when he would take us to Malta.

Various circumstances induced Mr. Sharp to avail himself of this opportunity, and he left me on the 3rd of May. On the next day Mr. B. set off for the Argolis, whither I promised to follow him as soon as the swelling on my knee would permit me to move. It had always been part of my plan to visit at least, Eleusis, Megara, Thebes, and other places within a short journey of Athens; if not to make a longer tour on the Greek continent, as soon as the spring was a little advanced; but the increasing reports of the plague have made me change my determination. It is not that I feel myself in much personal danger, but the continual precautions, and the necessity of performing a sort of quarantine at every town, would have made travelling exceedingly unpleasant.