A few days after, he addressed the following letters to Mrs. Byron
from Athens.
LETTER 46.
TO MRS. BYRON.
"Athens, July 25. 1810.
"Dear Mother,
"I have arrived here in four days from Constantinople, which is
considered as singularly quick, particularly for the season of the
year. You northern gentry can have no conception of a Greek summer;
which, however, is a perfect frost compared with Malta and Gibraltar,
where I reposed myself in the shade last year, after a gentle gallop
of four hundred miles, without intermission, through Portugal and
Spain. You see, by my date, that I am at Athens again, a place which I
think I prefer, upon the whole, to any I have seen.
"My next movement is to-morrow into the Morea, where I shall probably
remain a month or two, and then return to winter here, if I do not
change my plans, which, however, are very variable, as you may
suppose; but none of them verge to England.
"The Marquis of Sligo, my old fellow-collegian, is here, and wishes to
accompany me into the Morea. We shall go together for that purpose.
Lord S. will afterwards pursue his way to the capital; and Lord B.,
having seen all the wonders in that quarter, will let you know what he
does next, of which at present he is not quite certain. Malta is my
perpetual post-office, from which my letters are forwarded to all
parts of the habitable globe:--by the by, I have now been in Asia,
Africa, and the east of Europe, and, indeed, made the most of my time,
without hurrying over the most interesting scenes of the ancient
world.
Pages:
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316