I left Athens on the 9th of May with regret, for I had been so much interrupted, that all I had wished and intended to perform was by no means accomplished. The boatmen who were to take me to Egina, as usual in Greece, were not ready near the appointed time; the fair wind died away, and we arrived at Egina so late that the harbour-master was gone to bed. No one was permitted to land, and we were consequently obliged to remain in the boat all night. In the morning I went on shore, and visited the remains of a Doric temple near the port. In the time of Chandler there were two columns erect, and a portion of the architrave, but the architrave and one capital disappeared some time ago. The storms of last December, which had annoyed us so much in coming to Greece, threw down the most perfect of the remaining columns, I measured its beautiful capital, which is certainly one of the best examples existing. A few traces of terrace-walls remain, but as the situation is on a gentle eminence, entirely under cultivation, and close to a comparatively thriving town, the circumstances are unfavourable to its preservation. A considerable portion of the ancient walls of the port also exist, but I could not distinctly make out their arrangement. The piers are formed of external courses of pretty large stretchers, alternately filled in with two headers and three stretchers, the external joint always remaining perpendicular over that below.

Some subterraneous chambers have been lately discovered in the neighbourhood of this town, but they have been filled up again, and I only saw a few inscriptions of late date, i. e. not 2,000 years old. The ancient city of Egina was on a mountain, about two miles distant, and it is only a few years ago that the inhabitants began to descend to a more convenient situation. They have bought some privileges of the Turks, and are flourishing greatly under this partial glimpse of liberty, though they have no assurance of its continuance. Those who are habitually secure in the exercise of their own rights, can form no idea of the elasticity of the human mind when a little relieved from oppression. The town is neat and clean, and about five years ago they began to build a church, which is by far the largest I have seen in Greece. The houses have no pretence to magnificence, but they seem to contain all the essentials of Greek comfort, and every thing announces a thriving place. After this ramble, I returned to take another look at the remains of the temple, when a woman called me to her, and showed me an ivory pin, which she assured me had been taken out of the middle of the column when it was overturned; if so it must have been used as a centre in describing the column. I offered her a rubia for it. This is a small gold coin worth one hundred and ten parás, or about two shillings, or two and a penny. I should have offered more, but was pretty certain that if genuine, I should not obtain it; for, entirely ignorant of what might be demanded for objects of antiquity, the Greek peasantry endeavour to obtain as many offers as they can, in order to form their judgment, and never part with it to the first bidder.

Before noon I was on board another boat to go to Pidhavro, or Epidaurus, but the calms made it evening before we arrived there; however, I had time to walk to the site of the ancient town on a little peninsulated hill, but it is marked only by the remains of the Cyclopean wall which defended it. The stones are well fitted together, and sometimes notched into the adjoining ones; one part shows two faces, and the interval is now filled up with dirt. The open ground was almost covered with spiders’ webs, forming funnels leading to a hole in the earth, probably occupied by the animal. At the foot of the hill is a small fragment of brickwork, which appears to have been a bath; and there are traces of an aqueduct. In a wood by the way there is a recumbent statue of Pentelic marble, of fine style, but as you may suppose, much mutilated; and there are also some fragments of drapery of less merit.

The next morning I proceeded to Hiero, the chief seat of the worship of Æsculapius. Foundations of temples, baths, and aqueducts; of a theatre, a stadium, and various other buildings, announce its former magnificence; but in so wild and remote a place, it seems surprising that nothing but foundations should remain. The situation occupies part of an elevated valley, of varied surface, and surrounded by mountains, neither high, bold, nor woody, but which by contrast must have heightened the effect of the display of architecture beneath them.

One of the first objects which fixed my attention was a spring bubbling up through sand, and throwing up a little milky cloud when disturbed, perhaps from a portion of pipeclay in the soil; for it had no mineral taste or smell. One supposes that there must have been a medicinal spring of some sort, to give reputation to the place, and make it appropriate to the worship of the god of medicine; but if any such existed, it is now buried under the heaps of rubbish, for besides this spring, the only water I could find was a little rill descending from the mountains, equally destitute of mineral appearances, but warm, and tasting of decomposed vegetable matter, as if exposed to the air and sun in a course of some length. By the existing remains of aqueducts tending towards this streamlet, it seems to have supplied the water of the baths and cisterns. I next visited a large bath, which appears to have been originally of stone, but repaired with brick. The arch is used in both parts. The aqueduct which supplied it, is a small square conduit with a semicircular channel on the lower stone, calculated for a very small current of water: below this ruin we again met with evidences of baths and aqueducts. Pausanias mentions the theatre as the most beautiful in Greece, but in whatever its superiority may have consisted, it has now disappeared, and we see only a hollow on the side of the mountain, surrounded by seats of a red and white marble, and half overgrown with bushes. Some foundations of the proscenium may be observed, but they are merely indications that something once stood there, and without digging it would not be possible to make out even its ground plan. Passing among fragments, and over numerous old foundations, we arrive at the Stadium, which is also a hollow, but of a different shape; and the seats do not remain. At some distance, and not very far from my first entrance into this valley, is an extensive marble pavement, which apparently once belonged to a large temple, but there is no vestige either of walls or columns. Some Roman antiquities in the lower part closed my observations. On the road hence to Lycourió there are some inscriptions, and fragments of mouldings. An extremely beautiful ornament of a large size remains among the fragments of Hiero, and there is abundance of pieces of tiles, many of which were painted with frets, or with leaves. There is also at Agia Marina, near Lycourió, a little bit of Cyclopean masonry, which might be taken for a pyramid, but for an irregularity on the south side. It was probably a tomb.

I was very ill at Hiero, and even anticipated the probability of being laid up at Lycourió, the nearest village, where I dined and passed the night. However, the next morning I exerted myself to proceed in my journey to Nafplia, for Lycourió is certainly not a place in which a man would be confined by illness if he could possibly avoid it. In the way I observed some forts of Cyclopean masonry, and visited one of them, but found nothing except these great, rude walls of unworked stones, and without cement, supporting the earth behind them.

I expected to meet Mr. B. at Nafplia, but he had proceeded to Argos, and after resting about an hour at the house of the French consul, I followed him. In the way I visited the ruins of Tyrins. The walls are of the rudest Cyclopean masonry, the stones seem to have been selected to fit their intended situations, and not to have been touched with a tool, and this was probably effected by the use of the Phœnician rule mentioned by Herodotus. A strip of lead was bent into the angle intended to be filled up, and then the same strip reversed was applied to the stones collected for use. In one instance however, on the east side, we find a stone with a sunk face and two holes in it, and a circular sinking below. Besides these walls, we may observe here a sort of gallery covered by the advance of the successive courses of stone; but after all, the great interest of the place is, that you see the very walls admired by Homer 2,500 years ago. The figure of Tyrins has been compared to that of a ship, but there is more imagination than truth in the resemblance.

I was rather glad to find that Mr. B. had left Argos, for I felt myself so completely exhausted, that it would have been a painful effort to speak only a dozen words. My attendant procured for me very comfortable quarters at the house of a Greek, where I spent the next day, partly to rest myself, and partly to recover my watch, which I had taken out at Nafplia and very carelessly left behind me.

Argos is situated at the foot of a high hill, on the edge of one of the finest plains in Greece. The length of this plain must be nearly fifteen miles, its breadth eight or ten; and if but a little kingdom, it must be confessed a most noble estate for Agamemnon. It is bounded by ranges of varied and picturesque mountains, rising in successive distances, and by the fine gulf of Argos. It wants indeed the olive-grove of the plain of Athens, but its greater extent, greater fertility, and more broken and varied boundary, give it the decided preference in natural beauty. The older antiquities of Argos consist only of a few fragments of Cyclopean walls, the stones of which are artificially fitted together. Of Roman times there are some remains of temples, or baths, of an aqueduct, and of a theatre. There is also a long, subterraneous chamber cut in the rock, the receptacle of either corn or water; and at the top of a hill the ruins of a Venetian fortress, built partly on ancient foundations, make a conspicuous figure. Argos itself is a collection of mud cottages; yet in general they do not look either shabby or dirty, and as they are mixed with gardens and fruit-trees, and with the domes and slender minarets of the Turkish mosques, and the tall cypresses which surround them, Argos has on the whole a very pleasing appearance. A number of Albanian children crowded about me while I was drawing: some of the girls were very beautiful.

While I was here, a Turk of consequence, with an order from the vaivode applied for admission into the house of my landlord: a representation that his rooms were already occupied by a milordhos, released him from the intrusion, greatly to his satisfaction. His English guest gave him little trouble, and paid for the use of every thing he had. The Turk would have given him a great deal of trouble, made use of the best of every thing, and paid little, or perhaps nothing. The Greeks of the Morea are very much oppressed, but rather by the Turks than by the Turkish government. They pay one seventh of the gross produce of the land, animate and inanimate, but the taxgatherers live at free quarters, and exact presents besides, and a Turk of any consequence feels himself entitled to take their fruit and fowls whenever he pleases, at his own prices. These things are not indeed according to law, but as justice is neither pure nor impartially administered, it is a dangerous resource.

I left Argos on the 14th, and visited the ruins of Mycene, where the gates, the walls, and the circular, subterranean chambers called treasuries, are perhaps the most interesting relics remaining of early Grecian antiquity. The ruins occupy some eminences at the foot of the mountains opposite to Argos. I hunted in vain for some curious fragments, said by Sir W. Gell to exist near a small chapel, and guided by him, descended to a bridge which he thinks was formed by advancing courses of stone, but I could see no traces of such a construction. It seemed to me a rude pier of unhewn stones, probably supporting beams laid across the torrent.

The Treasury of Atreus is a circular room about 56 feet in diameter, covered by the successive advance of each course of stones, which are cut into something of a curve. The top has been broken in, by which means we have sufficient light to examine it, but the present approach is along a deep trench which has been recently dug, to the ancient entrance; how this doorway was originally accessible, I do not very well know. In spite of its position and of its antiquity, it has something like a regular architrave, and above this, there is a triangular opening, which perhaps has been occupied by a piece of sculpture; at least a comparison with the gate of the citadel would lead us to such a conclusion. The motive of leaving such a space, covered like the room itself, by the advance of each course, was to relieve the lintel from the superincumbent weight; this lintel is in two pieces, the innermost of which is about 27 feet long, 19 feet wide, and above 4 feet thick. What can have been the motive of using such an immense slab, is not readily conceived, and the labour of placing it must have been immense; they probably had not to transport it far; for it is, I believe, of the rock of the mountain, a calcareous breccia, perhaps a Magnesian limestone; three holes are cut in it, two of which may have been to receive the pivots of the doors.

The inside of the room is supposed to have been covered with plates of bronze. The holes for the bronze pins which fastened this covering are visible all over it, and some stumps of the pins themselves may be discovered by a careful examination, but I did not see any sticking out from the face of the work, as Clarke has represented them. There is an internal chamber, which seemed to me merely an excavation in the rock. Dodwell considers it as an artificially constructed chamber like the other, and not disencumbered from the compact earth, which has filled great part of both of them. There is another edifice of the same nature nearer to the citadel, a little broken in at the top, but otherwise inaccessible. The citadel itself exhibits a large circuit of Cyclopean walls, composed of stones which have been in some degree shaped by human labour. In some parts of the wall they have been very accurately fitted, in others they are more loosely put together. The gateway recedes, and you arrive at it through a sort of lane formed by the walls, and almost filled up with bushes of the Vitex Agnus Castus. It is ornamented with two figures of animals, which occupy a triangular space over the entrance; they have lost their heads, perhaps by violence, as they do not seem much weather-worn; but I will not detain you with a subject on which so much has been written by those whose pursuits have better qualified them to do justice to this interesting relick, perhaps the most ancient bas-relief in existence, for the figures on the Egyptian temples can hardly be included in that name. The pivot-holes in the lintel in which the doors worked, remain very perfect, and they are here placed in a square rebate. Besides these objects, there are here a curious old gateway, and some other fragments; but the weather was wet, and I was very unwell; so that I did not give to the place half the examination it deserved.

On leaving Mycene I continued my journey up a pleasant, but uncultivated valley, above which are some hollows in the rocks, said to have been the haunts of the Nemæan lion. I left it at last, and crossed the mountain, or rather hill, on the left, in order to visit the ruins of the temple of Jupiter at Nemæa. They lie in an open valley about five miles long, and one and a half broad, (to judge by the eye) for the most part cultivated, but without habitation. The Greek or Albanian peasant, for the latter seem to be scattered everywhere, sows his land, and leaves it with scarcely any attendance till harvest, when he erects a hut, in which he resides till he has reaped and carried away the produce, living the rest of the year in the towns, or in villages, where he may unite with his countrymen for mutual protection. It is better thus to snatch what nature will give, than to obtain at more expense a larger quantity subject to the extortion of the Turks.

There are three columns erect at Nemæa, but a large proportion of the whole number lie as they have fallen. It was not a building of any very high degree of beauty; the proportions are too slender, and the capitals too small. The walls were built of slabs set on edge, in two thicknesses, the horizontal joints being broken, while the middle upright joint continued all the way. There are some fragments of other buildings, and the hollow of a theatre.

Various foundations and other fragments of architecture occur in the way from Nemæa to Kourtessa, where I slept. I believe these are the remains of Cleone, but my attendant pretended to have found out that these are at Clenai, a village not in the direct road to Corinth. After riding two hours the next morning in their supposed direction, it appeared clearly that he had been misled, and we took the nearest path to Corinth, passing in this instance behind the Acropolis. I went immediately to my old lodging, at the house of the physician, who told me that four English gentlemen were residing in his house, but they were gone out to draw. I walked to the temple and found them there; three of them were artists, two of whom, Mr. Eastlake and Mr. Kinnaird, I had known at Rome, and the third, Mr. Barry, brought me a letter of introduction from England. This was a very pleasant meeting for me, and induced me to stay more contentedly at Corinth than I otherwise should have done. They were impatient to arrive at Athens, but the confident reports we had of the plague in that city, made them determine to remain a day or two here, in hopes of obtaining more certain accounts. I soon learnt that the packet would not sail before the 25th, which would have given me time to visit Tripolizza and Phigalea, had I been well enough. Meanwhile I paid a visit with one of the party to Basilica, the ancient Sicyon. The theatre there is very curious, because with the site and disposition of a Greek theatre, it exhibits an arched entrance on each side. If we combine the history of the place with the appearances on the spot, we shall confidently conclude that this arch is prior to the time of Augustus, but I cannot venture to fix on a more precise date. There is also a stadium, and the natural hollow in the hill not having been long enough, the lower part has been carried out beyond it, and supported by Cyclopean walls.

These ruins are at some distance beyond the present village, on the summit of a sloping terrace of gravel or rubble, such as I have already described to you at Vostizza. Somewhat nearer, and lower down, there are remains of some large, brick edifices, probably of Roman construction, and foundations of several buildings, but apparently not so perfect as to enable us to determine their plans and destinations. Some of them are formed of large stones, others of brick, and their scattered remains extend almost to the site of the present village. The situation altogether occupies an elevated plane a little inclined, intersected by deep and ragged ravines, and breaking down suddenly into a lower plain, which is a continuation of that of Corinth, and extends to the gulf, whose magnificent expanse lies beneath us.

On our return we found the physician in a great fume, as he had been informed that some French gentlemen had arrived at Kenkhrea, and sent a messenger to him. This man had not arrived, but old Andrea declared he should not come near him, and that if he spoke to him at all, it should be out of the window. Within an hour the man was in the house, assuring us that there was no plague at Athens. This determined my friends to prosecute their journey in spite of the remonstrances of Andrea, who still insisted that he had proof that there was; and in the evening I engaged a passage in a boat, and set off for Patras.

On the 19th of May we spent the whole day on the water, pleasantly sailing with a hardly sensible breeze. Patches of snow still marked several summits of the Morea, and there was seen one patch on the first or gravelly range. Helicon appeared clear, but I was looking at the southern face of this mountain, and at the northern of those in the Morea. Parnassus retained a considerable quantity, but not a complete covering. A mountain to the north-west was entirely capped with it, and it spread a great way down the sides. I am not able to determine what mountain this is, and my boatmen have no name for it, but it seems to occupy the situation where Mount Corax is placed in some maps. I amused myself with examining the different appearances of a singular Medusa. The animal in its most perfect state, is a firm, pellucid, bagshaped jelly, with a deep orange spot in the lower part, but never quite at the bottom of the bag; from this point runs a band, in which the substance is thicker and firmer than elsewhere, and which terminates at each end, at the mouth of the bag. In smaller specimens we can hardly perceive a row of minute orange-coloured dots along this band, but in the larger ones these are very conspicuous; at last the thinner parts seem to dissolve, and we observe the strings floating in the water, extending several feet in length, and composed of little masses of jelly hanging together like beads, each with its orange spot. These as they divide, begin again to exhibit something of a bag-like form, and the process recommences. It was so abundant, that I had no difficulty in obtaining specimens in all its stages: the boatmen called it takhándri.

On the 20th about noon I arrived at Patras, where by the assistance of Mr. Green, the brother of the new consul, I obtained a very good lodging; the consul himself being absent to pay his respects to the pashaw of Tripolizza.

From this neighbourhood, the mountain north-west of Parnassus opens into a very rugged ridge, three points of which I take to be higher than Parnassus. There are patches of snow on the mountain immediately behind Patras, and more on Mount Voidias, which may be considered perhaps as part of the same. One more to the south, which I took to be Olenus, presented a vast cap of white. Supposing that in this latitude, on the 20th of May, there will be no snow on a mountain less than 5,000 feet high, and that Parnassus is 8,500, and Hymettus 2,000, I should estimate the heights of these Greek mountains as follows:

On the 22nd, as I was drawing in my room, I felt the house shake as if a loaded waggon had taken the corner of it. As there are neither waggons nor carts in the Morea, I concluded it must be an earthquake, and went out to ascertain the fact; a party of women were preparing vegetables for their dinner in the gallery, from whom I gained the information I wanted; but it seemed to excite no sensation among them, and they continued their employment as if it were a thing of every day occurrence. Indeed earthquakes are said to happen in this neighbourhood about once a week.

I believe I have before mentioned a Corinthian capital existing here. There are also some very picturesque remains of a Roman aqueduct, built of brick, and overgrown with ivy; part of it is however, still in use, and the water is conducted by its means nearly to the highest part of the town. There is a castle, but a considerable portion of the wall was ruined some years ago by an explosion, and the Turks have not repaired it. This seems not of much consequence, as the garrison consists only of a single black, who was asleep in the gateway as I passed. It is commanded by some adjoining hills.

The European consuls here had agreed to establish a quarantine of seven days for all who came from Roumelia, i. e. from Albania and the northern shore of the gulf of Corinth; and likewise for all such as came from Corinth, either by land or sea, without a clean bill of health; but as there are twenty ways into the town by land, and a guard only on one, and as any boat might land half a mile from the usual station, and the crew walk by night through the vineyards into the town, without a chance of opposition, the plan seems impracticable. Added to this, Ali Pashaw is very much afraid of the plague, and has both the will and the power to take precautions, while Corinth is much exposed to it, and the bey, though backed by the pashaw of the Morea, has but little authority for any purpose opposed to the general habits and superstitions of the Turks. From all I could learn, it appeared that the English consul was the only one willing to enforce this rule against his own countrymen, and while I was there, some unfortunate English travellers were the only sufferers.

On the evening of the 27th I went on board the packet in company with three English gentlemen, whom I had met at Athens. At half-past eleven we set sail with a strong wind and tide in our favour, but they both ceased very shortly; however the next day we reached Zante, but could only go on shore at the Parlatorio, which is a little piece of ground surrounded by a double rail, where one may see and talk to the inhabitants without being near enough to touch them. I went there once to see the place, but found nothing to tempt me a second time. On the 29th a strong wind sprung up, which increased on the 30th; in the evening the captain attempted to weigh anchor, but the gale was so high that the ship began to drift, and we were obliged to cut the rope and run. The gale lasted till midnight, and all the next day we had a calm, and a heavy rolling sea. On the first of June we made Cape Spartavento, on the coast of Calabria; on the second we saw Mount Ætna, with patches of snow, but very much obscured by clouds. On the 3rd we left Mount Ætna, and in the evening got round Cape Passaro, a long point of low hills, forming the southern extremity of Sicily (you see how slow our progress was), and on the 4th arrived at Malta, where we are destined to do penance in lazaretto, but I shall leave this to a future letter.