Chapter XI

Great plane tree--Natural curiosity--Road to Patras--Police--
Travelling companions--Motives of travel--Differences of opinion--
Discussions--Settlement of accounts--Patras--Delay--The _Europa_--
A Caffiné--Parnassus--Storm--Greek marriage--Luxurious dog--
Temple of Ceres--Bay of Patras--Ants.

♦ GREAT PLANE TREE ♦

There is at Vostizza a remarkably large plane tree, which has the reputation, I cannot say how justly, of being at least two thousand years old. It is certainly very old, and the finest specimen of vegetation that ever came under my notice. Its branches are individually as large as an ordinary tree; they rise to a great height, and extend their arms to such a distance in the air, that one easily believes the tradition of numerous armies having frequently encamped beneath its “broad umbrage.” The trunk is hollow, and so capacious that during the vicissitudes of the revolution, it was often used as a state prison for the confinement of prisoners of distinction. A family of five or six persons might live in it without inconvenience. The authorities of the town have, with laudable public spirit, built a solid platform around the trunk, to preserve from further violation an object which they look upon as the principal ornament of their town.

♦ NATURAL CURIOSITY ♦

Wandering by the sea-shore to pick up shells and pebbles, if any I could find worth preservation, I lighted on a curious transparent marine substance, to which a fragment of the scales of some fish is attached. It is nearly square, somewhat larger than the palm of the hand, of unequal thickness, varying from a quarter to less than the eighth of an inch, of a chocolate colour on the side to which the pearly scales are attached, and of a limy appearance on the other. It is not a shell--it has much more the appearance of a petrifaction, but, at the same time, is nearly as clear as amber. A sprig of sea-weed is spread between the scales and the formation, which is pierced on the opposite by several small holes, like the mite holes in a cheese. A second sprig, spread out in a very graceful manner, is seen in the interior of another part of the substance, which is also corroded on the limy side, as if the object were to admit light for the display of the branches and leaves of the vegetable prisoner.

But I have still to describe the most surprising characteristics of this marine formation. When held up against a good light, in one angle, two human skeleton heads appertaining to one body are to be seen, and a philosopher appears to be examining them. At the opposite angle the greater part of the figure of a donkey is plainly discernible; the head, the pricked-up ears, the eyes, the mouth, the nose, the neck, the fore-legs, and a considerable portion of the body and one of the hind legs, are as clearly defined _within_ the substance by the hand of nature, as if they had been delineated by an artist. A sack, apparently filled, is on the donkey’s back, and a man with a _turban_ on his head is as distinctly seen walking by his side, with his left hand resting on the back of the animal, who looks the patient drudging creature of earth to the very life. Towards the centre, the head of an ox presents itself peeping over the scales, as we sometimes see a cow, anxious to get to its young one, looking over a gate. This transparency, or whatever the conchologists or mineralogists may choose to call it, is in my possession, and I shall be happy to shew it to any known scientific gentleman who may wish to inspect it. When I first picked it up on the shingle of Vostizza, it was a little below the surface of the water. It attracted my notice from the pearly scales which were attached to it; but the moment I held it up against the sun, the figure of the donkey and its driver were so manifest, that I congratulated myself on having thus accidentally found, perhaps, one of the most unique productions of nature in existence.

♦ ROAD TO PATRAS ♦

The road from Vostizza to Patras is much the same in character as the greater part of that from Corinth to Vostizza--frequent ascents to considerable heights amongst rocky hills thickly wooded with the most splendid shrubs, and sudden descents, which always appeared to me so perilous, that I allowed my horse to find his own way down, I walking behind him. The path was so narrow, that the danger was thus considerably increased, and I often wondered at the carelessness of my guide in pursuing his “unmolested solitary way” far in the rear, on the top of my luggage, singing his melancholy Greek songs as quietly as if he were riding on a level pasture. For my own part, I enjoyed the scenery so much--the ever-changing aspect of the hills over which our course led; the variety of the shrubs, the largest, the richest in flower and fruit and foliage I had ever beheld; the sea whose weedy fragrance, unceasing murmur, and undulating waters, are never unwelcome to my heart; Parnassus, and its towering summits, on the other side, the abode of the Muses, the parent of the famed fount of Castaly--that I should have experienced no fatigue had I been obliged to walk the whole way.

♦ POLICE ♦

Nor was it a disagreeable reflection to feel, that however favourable in times of disturbance, and during the days of Turkish oppression, these wooded hills and mountains and stinted pathways were to the habits of the brigand, I had no longer reason to be under apprehension in that respect. We were challenged almost every two hours by patrols, who were remarkably attentive to their duties, and not only civil, but respectful in the performance of them. This sense of security doubles the pleasure of a traveller pursuing his route, as I then was, unarmed, I may say alone--loneliness amidst such scenery being absolutely essential to the indulgence of those reveries, idle though they be for the moment, which I would not exchange for all the splendours of a court.

♦ TRAVELLING COMPANIONS ♦

Before I set out on my journey originally, at Paris, at Vienna, Constantinople, and Napoli, several propositions were made to me by Englishmen, whose acquaintance I chanced to make--men highly accomplished, and in every way worthy of my respect, with a view of my joining or being joined by them during such portions of my tour as might coincide with the views of both parties. These propositions I uniformly evaded as civilly as I could. In a public diligence, a steam-packet, a hotel, or during my temporary residence in a town, I was always happy to meet my countrymen; for no travellers are more courteous towards each other abroad, none more frank in their intercourse, and few better informed than the well-educated English ramblers, who may be encountered in every part of the continent. Many such men it was my good fortune to fall in with; and although, from a sense of delicacy, I have not always mentioned their names, they will, I am confident, do me the justice to believe, that I have not forgotten the attentions which I experienced at their hands. My time being much more limited than theirs, they frequently had it in their power to give me information, which saved the trouble of inquiry and the risk of delay; and on such occasions the assistance which they gave me was really invaluable.

But for some reason or another, which I cannot very well analyse in my own mind, I have an invincible objection to companionship in travelling. Had circumstances permitted any member of my own family to be with me, I should have been delighted to avail myself of them; but that was a pleasure which I could not have enjoyed, and, debarred of it, I found my best refuge in loneliness.

Besides, I had more than once an opportunity of observing how seldom it happened that the tastes of two or more travelling companions completely agreed. When men happen to bind themselves by any engagements, whether implied or formally expressed, to go on together for any distance in foreign countries, it is wonderful how soon all the guards of ordinary courtesy are put aside, and they become entirely dependent on the temper, the dispositions, and the natural characters of each other for their respective comforts. One would turn off the high road to any distance, to explore the smallest fragment of a ruin. When his friend indulges him in his fancy, and sees, as he would see, for instance, at Thebes in Bœotia, only a few stones, and then asks, “Is this all?” it is manifest that they can travel no longer together with the slightest sense of pleasure. Thebes, though, like Marathon, it has nothing to shew, is full of interest for minds of a peculiar order; while there are others, equally well-cultivated, equally powerful, and, perhaps, more useful in their way, in which even the Parthenon would excite no kind of emotion.

♦ MOTIVES OF TRAVEL ♦

Again, some men travel for the mere purpose of doing that which others have done; of being able to say, when they return to England, that they had seen every thing which was to be seen; that they had lived so long at Athens, so long at Venice, so long at Rome, and had made the tour of Sicily, or Egypt, or visited Palmyra; and all this they shall have accomplished, thinking of nothing, dreaming of nothing, during the whole period of their tour, except the comforts which they had abandoned at home, and the annoyances which they experience at every step they take abroad. Defend me from such men as these!

♦ DIFFERENCES OF OPINION ♦

Again, of two travelling companions, “dear friends,” one is a perfect exquisite in every department of his equipment. He carries his own bed and kitchen with him; his servant is a “non-such,” and his tour is that of a mere sybarite. He has his apparatus for making coffee in his carriage; his spirits-of-wine, to produce a flame; his Lucifer-matches, tapers, and all sorts of things, including concentrated soups in tin cases; genuine tea from Cheapside; cigars from Cuba; air-cushions for his seat; air-cushions to support his back; fur boots, and a silver-mounted bottle of brandy. His companion is of kindred dispositions; but the single equipment does for both. If, by some mistake, the coffee-pot is left behind at one place; the spirits-of-wine bottle be broken at another; the “real Havannas” be stolen; the Lucifer-matches cease to give a light when applied to; the soups turn sour, or a nail make a rent in the air-cushions--it is all over with them; they may as well go back at once, for it is only _yawn_ and “God damn!” all the rest of the journey!

♦ DISCUSSIONS ♦

One man is the model of precision: his breakfast is ordered to a second; he cannot wait dinner for any body beyond three minutes; the horses are put to the travelling carriage, the step of which he ascends at a stated moment, his time-piece in his hand. His companion, never very regular in his habits, becomes quite a sloven the moment an attempt is made to reduce his movements to any thing like system; that is a restraint to which he has been unaccustomed, and to which he will not submit. Accordingly, when he arrives at the breakfast-table, the tea is “cold;” a fresh quantity is put in, that is, “waste,” which, if he had got up just “ten minutes” sooner, might have been saved; and “genuine tea” is not to be had out of England! “When shall we dine to-day? Now say, for once, your own time, and keep to it that is all I require.”--“Well, let me see; five o’clock.”--“Too soon. We shall hardly be back from the churches we engaged to visit by that time.”--“Then, say six.”--“Six! Oh, I have a private engagement at six.”--“Private! I thought we were companions in all engagements.”--“But this is a particular engagement; old friends, whom I met yesterday, and to whom, perhaps, I may have permission to introduce you on another occasion, but not now.”--“Hem! then, perhaps, you will dine with them; that is what you would prefer to do?”--“Oh dear, no! not at all; such a notion never entered my head.”--“Then, will half-past seven do?”--“By that you mean a quarter to eight.”--“Very well, be it so; a quarter to eight.”--“You will be punctual to the fifteenth minute.”--“To the second.”

♦ SETTLEMENT OF ACCOUNTS ♦

The day is worn off; the churches are passed through; the private engagement separates the friends, to the chagrin of one, the secret delight of the other. But chagrin will have its revenge. The deserted companion knows not what to do; the evening hangs heavy on his hands; a play bill attracts his attention in a shop window; he steps into a _restaurateur’s_, takes his dinner, bolts into the theatre; gets to bed about twelve o’clock, very well knowing that his friend, who of all things abhors dining alone, is destined to pass the whole night in a fever, which however he deserves for his “private engagement!” The next morning there is a scene, which ends in the settlement of all accounts, and the “companions” scarcely know each other at the next evening or dinner party where they may chance to meet!

“Blest be the day I ’scaped the wrangling crew!”

“But hail, ye mighty masters of the lay,
Nature’s true sons, the friends of man and truth!
Whose songs sublimely sweet, serenely gay,
Amused my childhood, and inform’d my youth.
O let your spirit still my bosom soothe,
Inspire my dreams, and my wild wanderings guide:
Your voice each rugged path of life can smooth,
For well I know, wherever ye reside,
There harmony, and peace, and innocence abide.”

“Hail! who the melodies of morn can tell?
The wild brook bubbling down the mountain side;
The lowing herd; the sheepfold’s simple bell;
The pipe of early shepherd dim descried
In the lone valley; echoing far and wide
The clamorous horn along the cliffs above;
The hollow murmur of the ocean-tide;
The hum of bees, the linnet’s lay of love,
And the full choir that wakes the universal grove.”

♦ PATRAS ♦

On arriving at Patras (16th November), I visited Mr. Crowe, our consul, to whom I had a note of introduction from Mr. Dawkins, and to whom, as well as to his very amiable family, I am indebted for much kindness during my protracted stay at that place. I soon learned that I had little chance of quitting Patras for a week; that the English steam-boat from Malta, which usually touched at that port on its way to Corfu, was not likely to make its appearance until the 23d; that the Austrian sailing packet, which plies regularly between Patras, Corfu, and Trieste, was not yet come in, though hourly expected, and that even if I were in Corfu at that moment, I had no chance of overtaking the island steamer for Ancona, as it only went once a month, and it had gone the day before!

♦ DELAY ♦

Having been hitherto so fortunate throughout my journey, I could afford to submit to a disappointment or two very well, and so, having no reason to grumble against my hotel, the “Europa,” except that now and then, while sitting in my room, I had reason to lament the loss of my umbrella, as the roof had the _Therapian_ complaint in rainy weather, I bethought me after what fashion I could best occupy my time. The vice-consul, Mr. Robinson, who happened to be with Mr. Crowe when I presented my letter, offered me his best services, and took a special interest in supplying me from his store of books, as well as from his personal experience, with ample materials for forming my opinions with respect to the actual condition and future prospects of Greece. These opinions I have already sufficiently detailed; and though they differ in some degree from the views which his own active and vigorous mind had led that gentleman to form, I am sure he will at all events admit that we both wish to arrive at the same object, though we would pursue different routes towards its attainment.

♦ THE “EUROPA.” ♦

How could I have written that I had no reason to “grumble” against the “Europa?” Alas! I had abundant grounds for vexation of spirit the first day or two, at all events; for the mind, happily, soon acquiesces in any state of things which seems immutable. My chamber was over a _caffiné_, and the floor having no ceiling beneath it, every word spoken below, every jingle of every cup, and every glass, every clash of the billiard players, came to me with a sharpness which soon formed a melancholy contrast in my ear with

“The wild brook babbling down the mountain side!”

A large knot had given way in one of my boards, which tended not a little, together with their open joints, to facilitate the ascent of the hubbub that was going on perpetually below, where billiards, cards, coffee, wine, incessant chatter in all corners of the shop, in whatever mode the groups were otherwise employed, seemed to be the order of the whole live-long day, from daybreak to ten or eleven o’clock at night. I had heard and read much of the eloquence of the Greeks--but no description can do it justice, so far as volubility, the quantity of words emitted within a given space of time, the loudness of intonation, the violence of gesticulation, and its power of irresistible perturbation of all ideas in the mind of a disinterested and uncomprehending auditor, are concerned.

♦ A CAFFINÉ ♦

My first sensation was astonishment that the _caffiné_ could thus be filled at so early an hour in the morning, that it could remain filled all the day, and that so many talkers could have been found at Patras. But I satisfied myself by occasionally spying at my friends below through the knot-hole, that the possession of a table was deemed a token of peculiar good fortune here; that, therefore, it was seized as early as possible, and not relinquished except upon conditions of regular succession during the remaining hours of the day. Cards were in every hand not employed at billiards; wine was before every body not pre-engaged to coffee; but the employment of the tongue was every where terribly harmonious. No murder was done, much to my surprise, though every body seemed to be at war with his neighbour.

This sort of amusement passed on for a day or two, and as I could not conquer the noise it produced, I was resolved to treat it as an element--as the roar of the sea, which it often resembled; and I thus contrived to get on so well, that it ceased to divert my attention from other matters. It commenced and ended at certain hours, and as it was uninterrupted, I thought no more of it than of any other kind of tempest. One night, however, I had a touch of rheumatism in the knee, which I had caught among the damp and showery woods of the shore of the Lepanto; it kept me in torture during the early part of the night, but at length I went off to sleep until about three o’clock A.M., when I was almost shaken out of my bed by one of those furious thunder storms, which frequent the mountains of Greece, and which do, in fact, impress the mind with a feeling that war has broken out in the heavens, and that the gods are absolutely hurling their arsenals of artillery and fire against each other with an anger altogether above the reach of human conception.

♦ PARNASSUS ♦

The ranges of Parnassus may be said, whatever local names they bear, to extend into Albania, along the whole of the Gulf of Lepanto. The mountains of which they are composed have the wildest shapes, and seem fond of playing at magic not only with the lights of the sun, the clouds that intercept those lights, the nocturnal vapours and their own fantastic shadows, but also with the lightnings and the hallooing of the thunders that follow them, as if spirits were chasing monsters of evil from precipice to precipice. I beheld from my windows the indifference with which those huge masses sometimes bared their bosoms to the flashes, folded again their shrouds around them, re-echoed the halloos as if in mockery, and detained the illumination upon their heads as if to proclaim that they too were worthy of the crowns of the immortals.

♦ STORM ♦

But all passed away like a vision of the fevered sleeper; the skies were wrapped in darkness, and the rain came down with a soothing fall, when I returned to bed, hoping that I had still some hours of good rest before me. Scarcely had I closed my eyes when another tremendous uproar suddenly broke forth, but accompanied by the sounds of guitars and tabors, the stamping of feet, with shouts at intervals, and then a chorus of wild song in which the dancers, breathless from exertion, still endeavoured to join. No words were spoken; and for a while, before I shook off slumber, I imagined that I must have been transported to the interior halls of the opposite mountains to witness the triumph of the hunters of the night, exulting round the horrid game they had captured.

♦ GREEK MARRIAGES ♦

As the day broke apace, the crowds of dancers, singers, and musicians increased, and then, when the plague of sounds had reached its paroxysm, the random clouds of the late storm discharged their lightnings, while the murmurs of the distant and dying thunders formed a continued bass to the music. The moon looked out now and then from behind her curtains in the sky--like the first dove who was commissioned to see if the waters had subsided. The sea was tranquil, and a Greek corvette of war anchored in the harbour, several fishing-boats spreading their sails, and a few caiques already showing signs of activity, reflected now the pale light of that serene orb, now the red flash from the mountains. All sounds at length declined into perfect stillness, and I awoke no more until the sun was in full career, midway up the arch of the heavens.

When breakfast made its appearance, I inquired from my _garçon_ the cause of all the hubbub which I had heard at so early an hour of the morning, which he explained by saying, that a wedding had just taken place; that the parties had met in the _caffiné_ below, before going to the church; and that, in conformity with the ancient custom of Greece, the ceremony had commenced with dancing and the hymeneal song; after which the bride and bridegroom, the members and friends of their families, went in procession to the sanctuary, where they were united. Though so rudely disturbed by their proceedings, I must say that I freely forgave the offenders, as they had thus given me a decided proof of their attachment to the venerable practices of their ancestors.

♦ LUXURIOUS DOG ♦

While I was sitting at my window, looking at the mountains opposite, which, after the rains and storms of the night, appeared like so many sketches in Indian ink upon a less dark ground of mist behind them, I could not help laughing at an independent sort of Italian hound, who walked about as if upon his own affairs, wrapped in a handsome cloak of goat-skin, turned inside out, with a regular cape to it. He seemed quite at home in his mantle of state, and passed by all other dogs with an air of that sort of high indifference, that would not condescend even to despise the inferior curs of the street.

Gordon’s admirable history of the Greek revolution, Leake’s elaborate tour through the Morea, and Pausanias, served to occupy me usefully during the four or five first days after my arrival at Patras--days of almost incessant rain in the mornings--then an hour or two of sunshine, and then rain again, _sans intermission_, the whole evening. When the weather permitted, I joined Mrs. Crowe’s family circle, which was also the rendezvous of the Austrian and French consuls, Zuccoli and Dervoize, both agreeable, intelligent men. The nights being cold, we found a Newcastle coal fire no disagreeable appendage to a cup of excellent tea.

♦ TEMPLE OF CERES ♦

As soon as the days again became settled, I explored the curiosities of the neighbourhood, amongst which the ancient church of St. Andrew stands most conspicuous. The floor of the celebrated temple of Ceres, near which the church was erected, still preserves its beautiful mosaique ornaments; and a little to the west of both, I descended to the well mentioned by Pausanias, to which the same number of marble steps conducted me which that excellent topographer counted when he visited the fountain. The water is most delicious. I drank a full glass of it, in honour of the genius of the place.

♦ BAY OF PATRAS ♦

On the 21st of November, the Austrian packet from Trieste came in, having been detained nearly a fortnight beyond its time by contrary winds. It was announced for departure again the following evening, on its way to Corfu; but as the steamer was expected every hour from Malta, I deferred engaging my passage until the last moment. I spent the whole morning in the castle of Patras, a sort of Acropolis, which commanded a very extensive view, under the hope that I might succeed in discovering the smoke of the steam-boat. From the watch-tower of the castle the prospect is remarkably fine, comprehending the well-known bicipital summits of Parnassus, which were just covered with the first snows of the year, towering in the north-east beyond its lesser ranges, the noble bay of Patras, which seemed a vast lake, almost wholly surrounded by mountains, and in the western distance the blue heights of Cephalonia. I flattered myself once or twice that I had discerned the smoke of the steamer floating on the very verge of the horizon, but I was deceived.

♦ ANTS ♦

I visited the ruins of an ancient aqueduct, which still remain in good preservation, at a short distance from the castle. Being well mantled in ivy and other creeping plants, they looked picturesque. From these ruins, I ascended the neighbouring hills, amongst which I found the plough actively engaged. I made acquaintance also with two or three colonies of ants, who were extremely busy returning to their respective subterraneous cities, each having in his mouth a small circular leaf of some grass or weed, in the centre of which a little seed was fixed. Whole armies were following each other in single file, burthened in this manner. When the industrious insect arrived at the little aperture that led to his world below, down he ran, as fast as he could, sometimes tumbling head over heels on the way. I purposely narrowed, with the end of my cane, the gate of their citadel, and it was wonderful what a congregation of candidates for admission this interruption caused in a moment. What a noise! what fretfulness! what confusion! And yet, though the aperture for ascent was hard by, none of these experienced waggoners would attempt that route, knowing that they would thus meet the ascending armies, bent on a similar mission, and that they would thus violate one of the most sacred laws for the economy of time and labour known to their ancient nation.