VOL. Xf.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 287 



Thebes is a large town about 50 miles distant from Athens, but few anti- 

 quities are found in it, only some inscriptions and fragments of the old wall, 

 and one gate, which they say was left by Alexander, when he demolished the 

 rest. 



Corinth is two days journey distant; the castle or Acrocorinthus is standing, 

 and is very large. Most of the town is demolished, and the remaining houses 

 are scattered, and at a great distance from one another. So also is Argos, 

 whose compass is about four or five miles, as the houses now stand, but if they 

 stood together they would scarcely exceed a good village. Napoli della Romilia, 

 but a few leagues distant from Argos, is a large town and full of inhabitants, 

 and where the bashaw of the Morea resides. 



Sparta is quite forsaken ; Mestra being the town which is inhabited, four 

 miles distant from it. Large ruins are seen thereabout, almost all the walls, 

 several towers, and foundations of temples, with pillars and chapiters, being de- 

 molished ; a theatre remains pretty entire. It might have been anciently about 

 five miles in compass, and about a quarter of a mile distant from the river Eu- 

 rotas. The plain of Sparta and Laconia is very fruitful, long, and well wa- 

 tered. It may be about 80 miles in length. The mountains on the west side of 

 it very high, inhabited by the Maniotes. But the plain of Calamatta, which an- 

 ciently was that of Messene, seems to be richer. Corona is very abundant in 

 olives. Navarrino, thought to be the ancient Pylos, has a strong castle, forti- 

 fied by the Turks, and is. the best port in all the Morea. Alpheus is by much 

 the finest and the deepest river, and justly extolled by all the ancient poets, and 

 chosen for the seat of the Olympic games. The plains of Elis are very pleasant 

 and large, fit to breed horses in, and for hunting ; but not so fruitful as that of 

 Argos and Messene, which are very rich. The best woods I saw in Pelopon- 

 nesus are those of Achaia, abounding with pines and wild pear, the ilex and 

 esculus-trees, and where water runs, with plane-trees. 



Arcadia is a pleasant champaign, and full of cattle, but is encompassed with 

 rugged hills. Lepanto is very pleasantly seated on the gulf, which runs up as 

 far as Corinth ; and without the town is one of the finest fountains in Greece, 

 very rich in springs of water, and shaded with large plane-trees, not inferior 

 to the spring of Castalia on Mount Parnassus, which runs through Delphos, 

 except in this, that the one was chosen by the Muses, and the other not ; and 

 that poetical fancies have given immortality to the one, and never mentioned 

 the other. Delphos itself is very oddly situated on a rugged hill, to which is 

 an ascent of about two or three leagues, and yet that is not a quarter of the way 

 to come up to the peak of Parnassus, on the side of which hill it stands. It 

 seems very barren to the eye; but the fruits are very good where there are any. 



