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)

96

disorder of architecture. All the pillars are short,
the longer fragments having been cut down to
match the shorter. Some of them are beautifully
fluted. In many the flutings run spirally round the
shaft, which is far from being an improvement to
the column: the perpendicular flutings give an
idea of strength and stability, which this gothic
conceit destroys altogether. There are a few rich
capitals, but much mutilated, crowning these ex-
traordinary stumps: so that of the building, one
may say with Horace,
—— -— ut, nec pes nec caput uni
Reddatur formse.
Of the acuteness and sagacity of the vizier in
matters of equity, and of his extraordinary memory,
many anecdotes are related. The following, which
were told us upon the spot, may not be un-
interesting.
“ A merchant of Yanina, having occasion for a
sum of money to enable him to enter into a certain
commercial speculation, applied to a Greek priest,
his friend, for assistance. The priest entertaining a
high opinion of the merchant’s integrity, and having
in his possession some thousand piastres, lent the
whole to him on a promise that it would be repaid
to him by a certain time. The period fixed for the
repayment having elapsed, and the priest being in
want of the money, mentioned the circumstance to
the merchant, requesting at the same time a resti-