STADIUM.HAGIO ASOMATO. ' 347 From the Fountain of Callirhoë I went to the Stadium of Herodes Atticus, and found its site merely perceptible. The olive trees of Hagio Asomato invited me to deviate from my course, and, as I expected, I was well rewarded by a variety of exquisite views of Athens. No finer subjects ever were presented to the pencil. The grove of olive took its part with the monastery of Asomato, and the snowy mountains of the Morea refreshed the eye while looking through the sultry air, which gave to Athens the warmest tone of grey. The various windings of the Ilissus met the Temple of Jupiter Olympius, the pale light on which uniting with the illumined fields, and these advancing to the Ægean Sea, produced a smile upon the landscape, which cheered old Athens in its day of ruin. Yet, striking as the scene appeared, it must be poor, compared with what it was in ancient days. Imagine, united to the objects which I have just described, the Temples of Venus, Juno, Diana, Apollo, Jupiter, and Saturn, with many others; the Gymnasium of Hadrian, the Cynosarges, the Delphinium, Eleusinium, and Stadium of Herodes Atticus. Then the rivers Ilissus and Eridanus gleaming through the various groves, the favourite resort of the philosophers and their followers, who mingled with the beams of heaven,— emblematic of the light they have given to the world by the splendour of their minds. 348 VIEW FROM MOUNT ANCHESMUS. Proceeding by the way towards Mount Anchesmus, innumerable pleasing views appeared, but the finest is from the mount itself, and certainly affords by much the best idea of the modern city, with the Acropolis towering over it. This scene is composed, in part, of the objects I have mentioned in a former letter, as seen from the top of the Temple of Minerva ; but that from Mount Anchesmus has many combining features which keep the whole together in one chain of interest. The scene presents a picture, independently of association, without a parallel. Its character is unmingled beauty. Viewed from Mount Anchesmus, Athens presents itself as an entire uninterrupted whole. The intervening space is such as softens, and forbids to obtrude those individual forms, and those local tints, which, on a nearer survey, are so apt to solicit our attention to particulars, and from the contemplation of the whole, carry us insensibly into an attention to individual parts. Every true lover of beautiful scenery can testify the delight, the calm, soothing delight, which a favourite scene, seen under such circumstances, has the power of imparting. In colouring, the view from Mount Anchesmus induces on the mind the dream of Athenian glory. Uncertain hues and forms are presented to the eye, which require a gentle yet pleasing exertion of the mind to study them, leaving an impression of tender melancholy;a style of colouring between that of VIEW FROM MOUNT ANCHESMUS. 349 Claude and Gaspar Poussin, in which the atmosphere must not wholly interfere to destroy the effect of local colour, but allow streaming lights to travel from scene to scene, as the clouds shall permit the sun's bright ray to gild them. * ; Colonus Hippius, † once the property of Plato where, too, Sophocles was born and lived, and at a short distance the site of the academy where Plato * In landscape, light and unity of colouring, produced by air, chiefly excite the sentiment of beauty. But the harmony of direct colouring, with powerful and opposing light and shade, allies itself to grandeur. Objects then, according to their nature and situation, should partake, in a greater or less degree, of the one or the other of these attributes of character. Such as may be grand when near, will assume a different character by distance, and require a change of treatment. Thus, the view of Athens from Mount Anchesmus induces, as I have said, the dream of Athenian glory, or, in other words, that general feeling which we have on our minds with regard to it. Independent, too, of colouring, when near the city, there are affecting details which appeal strongly to the mind. No one can look upon the divisions of the columns of the temples, burnt by Xerxes, built in the fortification walls of the Acropolis, or on the steps of the Pnyx, without being strikingly reminded of facts in the history of the country. This rousing quality, both of detail and colour, loses itself by distance, and gives way to undecided recollections. + Colonus Hippius is now a barren rock with little vegetation, about a mile from Athens, and a short way in advance of the site of the academy, a little to the right. taught, successively engaged my attention. They were both within the sacred grove, and three short words may tell their fate-they are gone! and we must sit upon the ground to muse, for not a stone remains upon which to seat ourselves! The views of Athens, however, from these two celebrated places are extremely fine. Mount Hymettus takes a greater share in the scenery than from any other point, but it reduces in appearance the size of Athens and her temples. I returned to the city by what is called the Tomb of Pericles,―a rude unshapen mass. That it is the remains of the Tomb of Pericles, I have my doubts; yet certainly his tomb must have been at no great distance from the spot, as it was known to be but a little off the road to the academy. Be that as it may, it is impossible not to feel a reverence for the memory of that great man, while near the ground where his sacred ashes have been laid. The eye naturally directs itself to that splendid monument of mind,* erected by him in the Acropolis, and turns to the scene of barbarism around. One is led to believe that the Supreme power, by allowing these opposite extremes to exist together, intended them as a means of forcibly conveying to the world the results of wisdom, and of murky ignorance; making the latter seem the more revolting by the immediate and striking contrast. *The Temple of Minerva. LETTER LXX. ATHENS. Description of the Streets, Markets, and Dance of Dervishes, ON returning from my circuit of the city, I could not help remarking that the ancient temples owe much of their apparent size to the smallness of the modern buildings, which, like those of the other towns we have seen, are chiefly constructed with clay. But, though insignificant in appearance, they cover a very considerable extent of ground, for a population not exceeding twelve or thirteen thousand souls. If we except the Acropolis and temples, the few Turkish mosques (four in number) are the only features which give variety, and these are much inferior to those of Livadia. The Greek chapels rarely appear above the private houses. Within the walls are many fields, and the vacant spaces are strewed about with bones, old slippers, and a multiplicity of rags, a kind of rubbish peculiar to the towns in Greece, and which give them an appearance of poverty and wretched ness. The streets are no better than those of Thebes or |