Goodisson, William: A historical and topographical essay upon the islands of Corfu, Leucadia, Cephalonia, Ithaka and Zante: with remarks upon the character manners and customs of the Ionian Greeks : descriptions of the scenery and remains of antiquity discovered therein, and reflections upon the Cyclopian ruins, illustrated by maps and sketches (London: Thomas and George Underwood, 1822)

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the city is a fine plain, extending about two miles
in length and one in breadth. It consists of a rich
alluvial soil, which is highly susceptible of cultiva-
tion, but has been appropriated almost solely to
the production of the olive, of which a magnificent
wood covers almost the whole. Near the town,
and towards the water, a small part of it is laid out
in vineyards and fruit-gardens, with a few fields
of corn, all of which are extremely productive.
A great quantity of vegetables are grown here, with
which the market is well supplied, as well as with
abundance of fruit. The whole of the part under
gardens is at all times irrigable from a large and
constant spring, whence the water is drawn in
rills, made at pleasure, over any part of the
plain which is below its level. The wood is inter-
sected by two or three good roads, which, from
their straightness, the dark shade thrown upon
them by the tall olives, and the green level of the
plain, remind one of the fine avenues of our English
country seats. The whole of the plain, with the
wood, the gardens, and the town, is shut in by
a fine sweep of mountain, forming a delightful
landscape; the beauty of the view is, however,
greatly enhanced by changing the point of sight, as
the mountain is ascended, and from the heights a
lovely picture is indeed exhibited to a contemplative
mind : the waving foliage of the wood is now only
seen, stretched at the spectator’s feet like a carpet,
smooth and unbroken from the mountain base to the
lake; where, in that beautiful mirror, a second