PARTHENON

THE PARTHENON AT ATHENS IN AND NEAR ATHENS

WHAT Greece is like in spring, I have no idea, when rains have fallen, and spherical Athens the nation is inexperienced, when the white mud maybe doesn’t whirl via Structure Sq. and over the backyard in regards to the Zappeion, when the depth of the solar shouldn’t be fierce on the street to the naked Acropolis, and the guardians of the Parthenon, of their lengthy coats the colour of a dervish’s hat, don’t go to sleep within the patches of shade forged on the recent floor by Doric columns. I used to be there on the finish of the summer season, and lots of mentioned to me, “It’s best to are available spring, when it’s inexperienced.”

Greece have to be very totally different then, however can it’s rather more lovely ?

Disembark on the Pineus at daybreak, take a carriage, and drive by Phalerum, the bathing-place of the Athenians, to Athens on the finish of the summer season, and although for simply six months no rain has fallen, you’ll enter a shower of dew. The street is dry and dusty, however there is no such thing as a wind, and the mud lies nonetheless. The ambiance is marvelously clear, as it’s, say, at Is- mailia within the early morning*. The Hellenes, when they’re speaking fairly naturally, in the event that they communicate of Europe, all the time communicate of it as a continent through which Greece shouldn’t be included. They speak of “going to Europe.” They are saying to the English stranger, “You come to us recent from Europe.” And as you drive towards Athens you perceive.

This nation is a part of the East, though the Greeks have been the individuals who saved Europe from being dominated by the races of Asia. All about you —you haven’t but reached Phalerum—you see nation that appears like the start of a desert, that holds a fascination of the desert. The few timber arise like carved issues. The small, Jap-looking homes, a lot of them with flat roofs, earth-colored, white, or tinted with mauve and pale colours, scattered casually and apparently with none plan over the completely naked and tawny floor, look from a distance as in the event that they, too, have been carved, as in the event that they have been really part of the substance of their surroundings, not imposed upon it by an out of doors power. The transferring determine of a person, sporting the white fustanella, has the unusual great thing about an Arab transferring alone within the huge sands. And but there’s something right here that’s definitely not of Europe, however that isn’t wholly of the East—one thing very delicate, very pure, very delicate, very particular person, free from the Jap drowsiness, from the heavy Jap fragrance which disposes the soul of man to inertia.

Coast of Dalmatia

The coast of Dalmatia

The coast of Dalmatia is guarded by chains of islands and is pierced by many lengthy and slim inlets. In the course of the voyage from Triest or Fiume to the acute south of the nation, the ship, usually for a lot of hours, appears to be touring over a sequence of lakes. Not often does she emerge into open water. However between Gravosa and the bocche there may be open sea. Nature has not uncared for to make her preparations. She provides you the stretch of open sea as a distinction to what’s coming. And simply if you end up starting to really feel its monotony, the prow of the vessel veers to the left, appears to be sensitively trying to find some unseen opening within the rugged coast. She finds that opening between Punta d’Ostro and Punta d’Arza, leaving the little isle of Rondoni, with its spherical, yellow fort, on the correct and the open sea behind.

The mountains which guard the bocche

The mountains which guard the bocche are practically six thousand ft excessive, naked, cruelly precipitous, in coloration a peculiar, virtually ashy, grey. If you end up at a protracted distance from them they appear to descend sheer into the water; however as you draw nearer over the waveless sea, you discover that alongside their bases runs a strip of gorgeous fertile nation, inexperienced, thickly wooded in lots of locations, with homosexual little villages set amongst radiant gardens, with a white highroad, alongside which peasants are passing. There’s Castel- nuovo on its hill amongst leafy groves, with its previous, slim fortress on the rock fought for by Turks and Venetians; close to by is Zelenika; and there one other giant fortress, with the Austrian flag above it. The delicate prow of the ship veers once more, this time to the southeast, the place the ash-gray precipices absolutely maintain the ocean eternally in test. However the ship is aware of higher. The Canale di Kumbur exhibits itself, resulting in the luxurious Bay of Teodo surreptitiously noticed from afar by the mountains of Montenegro. When you held your breath and listened, may you not hear the growth of weapons by the lake of Scutari? All sense of being at sea fades from you because the ship penetrates ever extra deeply into the key recesses of the mountains. That is like excellent lake surroundings, austere, grand, virtually horrible, and but radiant. Nature is even coquettish on this excellent morning of autumn, for in these remoter areas she has forged a swathe of the lightest and whitest potential mist, like a type of scarfs of Tunis, over the cultivated land which edges the precipices. Because the ship attracts close to, the mist appears to disperse in a sparkle of gold, revealing intimate beauties, filled with charming element: a bit Byzantine church with a pale-green cupola, a priest in a sunny backyard leaning over a creeper-covered wall, white horses trotting briskly alongside a curly, white street, troopers marching via a village with a faint beat of drums, kids maybe going to high school via a riot of inexperienced. However the mist is ever there within the distance, a part of the spirit of autumn.

Hellenes

The traditional Hellenes

The traditional Hellenes, divided, at enmity, incessantly warring amongst themselves, had been united in a single sentiment: they referred to as all the remainder of the nations “barbarians.” The Parthenon provides them purpose. “Unintelligible people” to this clay should acknowledge it, utilizing the phrase “barbarian” strictly in our trendy sense.

However the solar is greater, the morning attracts on; you have to be gone to Athens. Down the lengthy, straight, new street, between rows of pepper-trees, passing slightly church which marks the spot the place a miscreant tried to assassinate King George, and all the time by means of stunning, naked nation just like the desert, you drive. And presently you see a couple of homes, like the homes of a quiet village; a couple of nice Corinthian columns rising up in a lonely place past an arch tawny with outdated gold; a public backyard wanting new however nice,—not not like a desert backyard on the fringe of the Suez Canal,—with a white statue (it’s the statue of Byron) earlier than it; then an extended, thick tangle of bushes stretching far, and separated from the street and a line of huge apartment-houses solely by an outdated and slight picket paling; an enormous sq. with a backyard sunken beneath the extent you might be on, and in your proper an enormous, naked white constructing reasonably like a barracks. You’re in Athens, and you’ve got seen already the Olympicion, the Arch of Hadrian, the Zappeion backyard, Structure Sq., and the backyard and the palace of the king.

Coming to Athens for the primary time by this route, it’s tough to consider one is within the well-known capital, although one has seen the Acropolis. And I by no means fairly misplaced the sensation* there that I used to be in a pleasant village, containing a cheery, bustling life, some superb trendy buildings, and lots of wonders of the previous. But Athens is giant and is frequently rising. Among the best and most full views of it’s obtained from the terrace close to the Acropolis Museum, behind the Parthenon. Different superb views could be had from Lycabettus, the solitary and fierce- wanting hill in opposition to whose rocks the city appears virtually to surge, like a wave striving to overwhelm it, and from that different hill, instantly going through the Acropolis, on which stands the monument of Philo- pappos.

It’s straightforward to ascend to the summit of the Acropolis

It’s straightforward to ascend to the summit of the Acropolis, even within the fierce warmth of a summer time day. A stroll up a curving street, the mounting of some steps, and you might be there, 5 hundred and ten toes solely above the extent of the ocean. However on account of the solitary state of affairs of the plateau of rock on which the temples are grouped and of its precipitous sides, it appears very a lot greater than it’s. At any time when I stood on the summit of the Acropolis I felt as if I had been on the height of a mountain, as if from there one should be capable of see all of the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.

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Marvelously

See is marvelously

What one does see is marvelously, nearly ineffably lovely. Herodotus referred to as this land, with its stony soil and its multitudes of naked mountains, the “rugged nurse of liberty.” Although rugged, and infrequently bare, nonetheless its loveliness—and that mushy phrase have to be used—is so nice and so pure that, as we give to Greek artwork the crown of untamed olive, so we should give it certainly additionally to the surroundings of Greece. It’s a loveliness of define, of shade, and above all of sunshine.

Virtually in every single place in Greece

Virtually in every single place in Greece you see mountains, vary upon vary, closing about you or, extra typically, melting away into far distances, into outlines of shadows and goals. Virtually in every single place, or so it appeared to me, you look upon the ocean. And because the outlines of the mountains of Greece are practically al-ways divinely calm, so the colours of the seas of Greece are magically deep and radiant and different. And over mountains and seas fall altering wonders of sunshine, giving to stipulate everlasting meanings, to paint the depth of a soul.

Whenever you stand upon the Acropolis you see not solely ruins which, taking all the pieces into considera-tion, are maybe probably the most fantastic on the planet, but additionally probably the most lovely views of the world. It’s asserted as a truth by authorities that the traditional Greeks had little or no feeling for great thing about panorama. One well-known author on issues Greek states that “a tremendous view as such had little attraction for them,” that’s, the Greeks. It is rather troublesome for

those that are acquainted with the websites the Greeks se-lected for his or her nice temples and theaters, such because the rock of the Acropolis, the heights at Sunium and at Argos, the hill at Taormina in Sicily, and so on., to really feel assured of this, nevertheless missing in allusion to the fantastic thing about nature, until in reference to sup-posed animating intelligences, Greek literature could also be. It’s nearly unattainable to imagine it as you stand on the Acropolis.

All Athens lies beneath you, pale, nearly white, with hints of mauve and yellow, grey and brown, with its dominating palace, its tiny Byzantine church buildings, its tiled and flat roofs, its solitary cypress- timber and gardens. Lycabettus stands out, small, however daring, nearly defiant. Past, and on each facet, stretches the calm plain of Attica. That winding river of mud marks the Through Sacra, alongside which the good processions used to cross to Eleusis by the water. There are the darkish groves of Academe, a spot of relaxation in a naked land. The marble quarries gleam white on the lengthy flanks of Mount Pentelicus, and the good vary of Parnes leads on to SEgaleos.

UNIVERSITY OF KENT

RICHARD J. CRAMPTON, UNIVERSITY OF KENT

AT CANTERBURY, GREAT BRITAIN

The overall outlines of the story of Joseph Swire’s sojourn in and departure from Bulgaria are simply said and customarily well-known. He arrived in Sofia in October 1932asthe accredited correspondent for the Reuters press company andfor The New York Occasions. He additionally labored as an occasional reporter for different British newspapers, together with the Observer, the Each day Specific and The Each day Herald, in addition to for The Close to East and India, a weekly specialist journal which in 1935 was included with one other publication to kind the Nice Britain and India. In 1934 Swire turned nicely acquainted with Damian Velchev for whom he quickly fashioned a deep admiration and a powerful private friendship. When Velchev fell from energy in 1935 and was then arrested Swire turned his defender, and so energetic was this defence that on the finish of the 12 months the Bulgarian authorities refused to resume Swire’s residence allow. In 1936 the expelled journalist carried out a passionate marketing campaign to forestall the finishing up of the dying sentence handed on Velchev that spring. Three years later Swire printed his Bulgarian Conspiracy, a vitriolic assault on these whom he thought of accountable for the persecution of Velchev and for Bulgaria’s sufferings. Swire’s final public point out with regard to Bulgaria was, to my data, when his identify was quoted within the trial of Traicho Rostov in 1949.

Swire’s affiliation with Bulgaria was one which clearly created tensions and left bitterness, however it will be incorrect to imagine from outward appearances that Swire’s attitudes to all points of Bulgarian life and in the direction of the Bulgarian individuals generally had been at all times unfavorable. After his dying in 1979 his widow kindly allowed me to have custody of his personal diaries, letters and newspaper cuttings, and a research of those papers, that are nonetheless inmy possession, reveal a extra complicated and a extra fascinating image than that given by a easy examination of the story.

Within the first place it have to be stated that Swire’s robust character and infrequently unorthodox strategies angered many individuals. The British neighborhood in Sofia discovered him obscure for he didn’t settle for their mores both within the social sense or within the political world. Within the Reuters’workplace in London there stays a file regarding Swire which the current administrators of that agency had been form sufficient to permit me to examine and in that file there’s a memorandum dated 6 December 1934 from Mr Bernard Riekartson-Hatt, the editor-in-chief to ‘MD’, virtually definitely an abbreviation for Managing Director. Written when Swire was in Athens in December 1935 to report on the return of the Greek King — and it was while he was on this journey that he discovered that he was to be expelled from Bulgaria — the memorandum reveals the sunshine during which Swire was regarded by the British expatriates in Bulgaria;That is to verify our dialog of final evening about J. S. Swire, our string correspondent in Sofia.

You informed me that Mrs Sydney Waterlow, spouse of our Minister in Athens, [Waterlow had previously been in Sofia — RJC] spoke in somewhat disparaging phrases of Swire in a dialog she had with you at dinner lately.

Mrs Waterlow didn’t make any direct accusation towards Swire however she implied that he was somewhat an oddity and was not taken significantly by accountable individuals in Sofia.

DALMATIA

PICTURESQUE DALMATIA

Within the Dominican church there’s a real Titian, and there are some very curious and attention-grabbing pic-tures by Nicolo Ragusano, a painter of Ragusa who lived within the fifteenth century. The cloisters comprise a white well-head, guarded by swish columns, orange-trees, and flowers, above which peer the small home windows of the monks. But when one needed to be a monk in Ragusa, absolutely it could be sensible to solid in your lot with the Franciscans on the different finish of the road, whose Romanesque fourteenth-century cloisters with octagonal columns are fairly lovely and in wonderful preservation. The capitals of the columns are carved with animals. Palms flourish there, and roses. Above, a terrace, with a beautiful balus-trade—a sequence of tiny arches resting on tiny columns, a kind of stone echo of the arches and columns under,—runs all around the court docket. The peace is profound, however not unhappy. As one lingers there one can perceive, certainly one can scarcely assist under-standing, the very peculiar attraction which should typically connect to the monkish life.

Ragusa incorporates some 9 thousand inhabitants. One in every of them remarked that eight hundred of those had been ecclesiastics. And he was unsympathetic sufficient so as to add, “E molto troppo!” Maybe his assertion was unfaithful. However actually the methods of Ragusa swarm with non secular. However,—one thinks of Rome, with its crowds of monks and its crowds of free-thinkers,—the inhabitants of Ragusa appear to be very religious. In virtually the entire many church buildings, always of the day, folks could also be discovered praying, meditating, telling their beads, worshiping at shrines of the saints.

Many lovely walks

Round Ragusa there are various lovely walks, on Lacroma, on Lapad by Gravosa, on Monte Sergio, on Monte Petka. A very very good drive is the expedition to Castelnuovo within the Bocche di Cattaro, alongside the Dalmatian riviera, which is as high-quality as virtually any a part of the French riviera, and which remains to be wild and pure, not but changed into a vanity- field. Those that take this wonderful drive will cross the frontier into Herzegovina, and, better of all, they’ll move by the fantastic vineyards of Canali, which roll in waves of gold to the very toes of a sequence of bare and savage mountains.

The voyage from Ragusa to Cattaro is likely one of the most interesting in Europe. The doorway into the bocche, the journey by means of them, and the arrival at Cattaro, hidden away like some valuable factor that should not be revealed to the uninteresting gaze of the extraordinary world, virtually, however mercifully not fairly, underneath the enormous shadow of the Black Mountain, make for the voyager what comes to appear at size a intentionally deliberate, and triumphantly carried out, scenic crescendo, which closes in sheer magic.

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Surprising view

One is stunned by some surprising view

Although small, it’s intricate. At each second One is stunned by some surprising view, by some marvel of masonry, militant or ecclesiastical; by a fountain or a statue, an outdated doorway, a courtyard, a campanile, an beautiful facade, with arches and beautiful columns, balconies and carved window- frames; by cloisters, a wierd alley ending in flights of steps, which result in a mountain from which a fort seems down; by a secret harbor, or a secret backyard, or a bit of magical grove nestling beneath a defending wall which dates from the Center Ages, when Ragusa was a proud republic.

Was Burne-Jones ever in Ragusa? It’s like one of many little enchanted cities he beloved to color within the backgrounds of his photos. Was William Morris ever there? It is sort of a metropolis in one in every of his poems. It is filled with church buildings, and their towers are stuffed with bells. Monks and clergymen move perpetually via the slender streets with well dressed Austrian troopers. And army music, the triumph of bugles and trumpets, the beat and rattle of drums, joins with the drowsy sound of church organs, and the outdated voices of clocks chiming the hours, to make the symphony of Ragusa. Women and men from the Breno Valley, from Canali the golden, the place oaks develop among the many rocks, and the autumn vineyards are a surprise without end to hang-out the reminiscence, from Melada and the StagTslands, from the Ombla and Herzegovina, move all day down “the Stradone,” stroll within the Brsalje, a piazza with mulberry-trees overlooking the ocean, speak by the Amerling fountain, or sit on the wall by Porta Pille beneath the statue of San Biagio, the patron saint of the city. And every one is in a picturesque, maybe even an excellent, costume. The boys typically put on lengthy chains, and carry handsomely chased weapons and lengthy, elaborate pipes. Some have sheepskins flung jauntily over their shoulders, and bright-red caps. The ladies put on golden ornaments, embroidered jackets, and marvelous aprons nearly like prayer-rugs, good-looking pins, pleated head-dresses, bright-colored handkerchiefs or tiny caps, cash hanging on chains over their thickly rising hair.

A row of victorias is drawn up

The chief inns, the villas, and the railway-station, the place a row of victorias is drawn up,—for that is no Zara, however a metropolis which believes that it “strikes with the occasions,”—lie amongst roses, oleanders, single rhododendrons, bushes, and lots more and plenty of luxuriant vegetation outdoors Porta Pille. As quickly as you have got handed beneath San Biagio and descended the hill, you might be in a shiny, medieval world, within the coronary heart of one of the unique and engaging little cities that exists in Europe.

Greece

Freshness of Greece

It’s the beautiful, very important, one would possibly virtually say mental, freshness of Greece which, between Europe and Asia, preserves its everlasting dewdrops— these dewdrops which nonetheless make it the land of the early morning.

Your carriage turns to the precise, and in a second you might be driving alongside the shore of a sea with out wave and even ripple. Within the distance, throughout the purple water, is the calm mountain of the island of y£gina. Over there, alongside the curve of the sandy bay, are the clustering homes of previous Phalerum. That is new Phalerum, with its picket bath-houses, its one nice lodge, its kiosks and cafes, its shadeless plage, abandoned now apart from one previous gentleman who, like virtually each Greek everywhere in the nation, is at this second studying a newspaper within the solar.

Is there any particular attraction in new Phalerum, naked of bushes, a little bit cockney of facet, any distinctive magnificence on this bay? When you have got bathed there just a few occasions, when you have got walked alongside the shore within the quiet night, respiration the beautiful air, when you have got dined in a restaurant of previous Phalerum constructed out into the ocean, and are available again by boat via the silver of a moon to the little tram station whence you come to Athens, you’ll in all probability discover that there’s. And from what different bay are you able to see the temple of the Parthenon as you see it from the bay of Phalerum ?

The Acropolis as on a throne

You’ve gotten your first imaginative and prescient of it now, as you look away from the ocean, lifted very excessive on its nice rock of the Acropolis as on a throne. Although far off, however its majesty is actually the identical, casts the identical great affect upon you right here because it does whenever you stand on the very toes of its mighty columns. Without delay you understand, not due to the legend of greatness attaching to it, or due to the historic associations clinging about it, however merely due to the sensation in your personal soul roused by its white silhouette on this morning hour, that the soul of Greece—everlasting majesty, supreme greatness, divine calm, and that remoteness from which, maybe, no good factor, both God-made or, due to God’s breath in him, man-made, is wholly exempt —is lifted excessive earlier than you underneath the cloudless heaven of daybreak.

It’s possible you’ll even notice directly and perpetually, as you ship in your carriage and stand for some time fairly alone on the sands, gazing, that to you the soul of Greece should all the time appear to be Doric. From afar the Doric conquers.

Stradone

On the left of the Stradone

On the left of the Stradone, the chief avenue and the latest, between two and 300 years outdated, at proper angles to it, shadowed by tall and historic homes, tiny alleys, ending in steep flights of steps, lead up towards the mountain. On the flat to its proper is a contented maze of alleys, clear, unusual, outdated, but by no means unhappy. A scrumptious cheerfulness reigns in Ragusa. From the dimness of venerable doorways smiling faces look forth. They lean down from carved stone balconies. Homosexual voices chatter on the foot of frowning partitions, large bastions, mighty watch-towers; earlier than the statue of Roland, close to the Dogana which has a loggia and Gothic home windows; by the effective and big Onofrio fountain, which for over 4 hundred and seventy years has given water to the inhabitants; among the many doves by Porta Place, which ends up in the harbor. The large, however intimate, Stradone towards midday and night is thronged with cheerful and neatly dressed residents, strolling back and forth within the tender air between the de-icious little outlets stuffed with effective rugs, weapons, chains, and filigree ornaments.

Reverse the fountain of Onofrio are the church, monastery, and cloisters of the Franciscans, with a courtyard and an outdated pharmacy containing some fantastic vases. On the forged finish of the Stradone, away to the appropriate, are the church of San Biagio, the cathedral, and the Palazzo dei Rettori. On the opposite aspect of the road are the navy hospital and the church of the Jesuits. Not distant is the Dominican monastery.

Most outstanding is the rector’s palace

Of those probably the most outstanding is the rector’s palace. However the cloisters of the Franciscans are stunning and maintain a unprecedented allure and peace. The rector’s palace is a noble Renaissance constructing, with a courtyard containing a really good-looking staircase, and with a extremely splendid fifteenth-century colonnade fronting the piazza. The carving of the capitals of the columns is splendidly efficient. Three are stated to be inferior to the remaining 4, which had been the work of an architect of Naples, Ono- frio. However all are outstanding. The little winged boys have a tenderness and liveliness, a softness and exercise, that are fairly beautiful. The home windows of Venetian Gothic are stunning; and the entire impact of this facade, with its carved doorway, the spherical arches, richly darkish, with notes of white, the 2 tiers of stone seats raised one above the opposite, and the double rows of home windows, sq. and arched, within the shadow of the colonnade, is totally noble.

The cathedral just isn’t very fascinating, and the “Assumption” over the excessive altar, although attributed to Titian, can’t be by him. Rather more enticing is a replica of the Madonna della Sedia of Raphael. The treasury comprises some outstanding jewels and silver and plenty of relics.

Tiny Twin

Don’t miss the tiny twin

Don’t miss the tiny twin islands with their two little church buildings. One in all them, Santa Maria dello Scalpello, is a spot of pilgrimage. Previous, grey, minute but dignified, with its few tall cypresses about it, it so fully covers the island that you simply see solely a church with cypresses apparently floating upon the water. Now there’s a scatter of ivory-white birds on the steel-colored floor, a glint of powder- blue on the ridges made by the ship. Marvelous harmonies of pearl coloration, grey, and blue, with right here and there faint dashes of primrose-yellow, make magic within the distance earlier than you. That is actually an enchanted place, dwelling of a peace that appears touched with eternity. And the ship creeps on, as if fearing maybe to disturb it, farther and farther into locations extra secret nonetheless, and of a peace much more profound, until the pearl coloration and the grey, with their hints of yellow and blue, start to present method to one other dominion. The final bay has been gained. The key of Cattaro is to be at size revealed. By way of the wondrous delicacies of the now fairly advised than really seen mist, and above them, dawns a wonderful pageant of autumn, which bears a curiously actual resemblance to one in all Turner’s excellent visions.

A dream of ardor and energy

It is sort of a dream, however a dream of ardor and energy, during which browns, reds, russets, greens, and lots of shades of gold and of yellow march collectively from the circle of the waters by way of climbing valleys to the mountains, which right here ultimately give pause to the ocean. And bells are ringing on this nice, this triumphant dream. And now absolutely faint outlines have gotten seen, as of turrets and cupolas striving to interrupt in glory by way of the mist. The fires of autumn glow extra fiercely, like a furnace fanned. Trails of smoke present right here and there. Mist, smoke, and hearth—it is sort of a grand conflagration. The turrets reveal themselves as nice teams of bushes. However the smoke rises from family fires; the cupolas are cupolas of church buildings; and the bells are the bells of Cattaro, calling from this vale of enchantment to the cannon that are thundering earlier than Scutari past the mountains of Montenegro.