Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1869 edition. Excerpt: ... beautiful, and cannot disappoint any one. Wordsworth calls Greece "A land of hills, Rivert, and fertile plains, and sounding shores." This, specially because of the omission of valleys, is most correct, except in the matter of rivers. And this is no inaccuracy-- how should there be inaccuracy in him who banished it, with all loose writing and thinking, from modern poetry? He spoke not in this matter as a topographer, but as a scholar, putting sweet faith in the delightful and known exaggerations of the old poets, who shed "the power of Yarrow " on many a dry bed and impoverished pool. 11.--The Dardanelles. Who would not be interested in the passage of the Dardanelles, the broad Hellespont of old Homer? The scenery, especially on the European side, is not particularly beautiful; but still there are fine views of woody Asia, and there are the cliffs of Europe, and the blue water, and the white-winged ships, and all the glorious history which crowds either shore. Just before entering the straits we passed the island of Imbros on our left, with a mountain seen over it, which we were told was in the sacred Samothrace. The Sigein promontory guards the Asiatic side of the entrance; it is now called Cape Janissary. The sea on the Asiatic shore then makes an inland crescent, whose other horn is the Rhoetaean promontory. In this bay the Greek ships were drawn up during the siege of Troy. The Trojan plain lies beyond, with Ida in the backgroud. Some few bends further is the Castle of Anatolia, and exactly opposite to it, on the Thracian side, is the Castle of Roumelia. These were the batteries silenced by the English fleet in 1807. In the miserable village attached to the Castle of Roumelia is the barrow of Hecuba, the ill-fated queen. Sestos and...