DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0532
218
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. [chap, xx
He lingered unaccountably at Cephalonia, when he might have
fought gloriously with Marco Botzaris; and died of quackery at
Missolonghi, when he should have been storming the castle of
Lepanto with his Suliotes. Nevertheless—
" O'er the grave of Childe Harold Greek maiden shall weep,
In his own native land his loved relics shall sleep
With the bones of the bravest and best:
His name shall go down to the latest of time—
Fame tell how he fought for earth's loveliest clime,
And Mercy shall blot out the rest."
The islands in the Adriatic are of a far fairer aspect than those
of the Archipelago. Their forms are as picturesque, and invested
with almost as brilliant a colouring, by their glowing atmosphere.
Zante is very arcadian-looking in her hills, and her valleys are
richly clothed with vineyards of the delicate, small grape, called
" uvse passolinae" by botanists, and currants by cockneys. The
chief town of the island is very pretty and primitive-looking, owing
to the low, cottage-look of its houses: this humility is begotten of
fear, for the frequent earthquakes would render a second story a
sword of Damocles, and the luxurious Zacynthians love to ban-
quet at their ease. Within the twenty-four hours preceding our
arrival there had been two shocks, which seemed to be considered
quite matters of course upon the island.
Ithaca is the most Homeric spot existing, except the Plains of
Troy: its identity has been at length satisfactorily proved, after
centuries of suspicion. Leucadia's pale* cliff vindicates its own
authenticity. When Sappho's wild heart quenched its love in
the waves from whence Love's goddess rose, it appears that many
forlorn maidens tried the experiment with no doubt an equally
successful result, for the cliff is three hundred feet high.
Cephalonia is the largest island belonging to the Septinsular
republic. It contains 50,000 inhabitants, notwithstanding its
mountainous and picturesque appearance. Agostoli, the capital
* From XevKos, white ; as Albion, from albus.
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. [chap, xx
He lingered unaccountably at Cephalonia, when he might have
fought gloriously with Marco Botzaris; and died of quackery at
Missolonghi, when he should have been storming the castle of
Lepanto with his Suliotes. Nevertheless—
" O'er the grave of Childe Harold Greek maiden shall weep,
In his own native land his loved relics shall sleep
With the bones of the bravest and best:
His name shall go down to the latest of time—
Fame tell how he fought for earth's loveliest clime,
And Mercy shall blot out the rest."
The islands in the Adriatic are of a far fairer aspect than those
of the Archipelago. Their forms are as picturesque, and invested
with almost as brilliant a colouring, by their glowing atmosphere.
Zante is very arcadian-looking in her hills, and her valleys are
richly clothed with vineyards of the delicate, small grape, called
" uvse passolinae" by botanists, and currants by cockneys. The
chief town of the island is very pretty and primitive-looking, owing
to the low, cottage-look of its houses: this humility is begotten of
fear, for the frequent earthquakes would render a second story a
sword of Damocles, and the luxurious Zacynthians love to ban-
quet at their ease. Within the twenty-four hours preceding our
arrival there had been two shocks, which seemed to be considered
quite matters of course upon the island.
Ithaca is the most Homeric spot existing, except the Plains of
Troy: its identity has been at length satisfactorily proved, after
centuries of suspicion. Leucadia's pale* cliff vindicates its own
authenticity. When Sappho's wild heart quenched its love in
the waves from whence Love's goddess rose, it appears that many
forlorn maidens tried the experiment with no doubt an equally
successful result, for the cliff is three hundred feet high.
Cephalonia is the largest island belonging to the Septinsular
republic. It contains 50,000 inhabitants, notwithstanding its
mountainous and picturesque appearance. Agostoli, the capital
* From XevKos, white ; as Albion, from albus.