190 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



great city is a great desert." It probably never had 

 such influence as during Philopoemen's long general- 

 ship of the Achaean League, when it was more power- 

 ful than even Sparta. 



We returned to the modern village amid the glow 

 of a glorious sunset, which tinged plain and mountain 

 and sky with every gradation of colour, from rosy 

 pink to deepest purple. 



At supper we were waited on by our host a fine 

 old man and his two handsome sons, all dressed in 

 the national costume. We had some talk with the 

 father about the condition and prospects of Greece, 

 of which he spoke very hopefully. He was the son 

 of Kolokotrones, one of the heroes of the war of 

 independence. 



Next day (April 9) we started for Tripolitza (or 

 Tripoli). The road, after winding up out of the 

 plain in a north-easterly direction, led for some dis- 

 tance through a dull and barren table-land, gradually 

 relieved, however, by patches of green corn, and then 

 lighted up in a wonderful way by the sun, from 

 whose beams the bare limestone hills caught a rosy 

 glow. Looking back we could see the snowy peaks 

 of Taygetus peeping out from behind the intervening 

 ranges. The air was marvellously clear, and every 

 outline of the landscape, even to the farthest horizon, 

 sharp as if fresh from the chiseL 



We were now, for the first time since Olympia, on 

 a really good road, and OUT pace was proportionately 



