JANUARY 27 



the contrast it afforded to the rest of the town, which is 

 mostly mud-built. 



Ne crede colori! A more inhospitable retreat for a 

 bitter winter night could hardly have been devised. 

 There was hardly any furniture except beds in the lofty 

 rooms (beds happened to be the only furniture we had 

 brought with us); the only carpets in the house were 

 hung on the walls of a gaunt sitting-room, where all the 

 servants and several idlers from the street were gathered 

 round a small brazier of charcoal; and throughout this 

 large house there was not a single fireplace or stove, all 

 cooking being done at the hotel restaurant in the next 

 street but one. The walls were so thin as to seem, on 

 this blustery night, as if their sole purpose was to prevent 

 the contents of the rooms being blown into the streets : 

 positively, it was colder indoors than out. To crown all, 

 every corner of the house was pervaded with that 

 stench which of all others is least endurable by civilised 

 nostrils. 



However, it was no use showing peevishness under the 

 inevitable; to do so would be in discreditable contrast 

 with the unfailing good-humour of the townspeople of 

 all classes whether Greeks or Turks. The only thing 

 to do was to keep on every available wrap, and get some 

 dinner at the restaurant. It was fairly warm in the 

 dining-saloon, though everybody, including a party of 

 Greek officers, dined in their greatcoats. 



After dinner we were slow in turning out to face the 

 frosty gale, and, preceded by a porter carrying a Chinese 

 lantern, struggled back through filth ankle-deep to the 

 Hotel of Olympus. Without the leading of that kindly 

 light it would hardly have been possible to thread the 



