26 MroWINTEE IN THBSSALY 



the most perfect technical and economic developments 

 of the art of forestry.'] 



II 



For downright, resourceless cheerlessness commend me 

 Midwinter to ^^ oriental town under a visitation of cold, 

 inThessaiy ^n ^^q business of Eastern architects and 

 upholsterers being to provide protection from heat. I 

 shall not easily forget the misery of arriving in Larissa 

 during the memorable tempest which swept over Greece 

 in January 1893. The previous day had been one of 

 delusive splendour; but, even as we lay basking on the 

 deck of one of those evil little steamers which traverse 

 the ^gean Sea, we beheld a fleecy scud creeping across 

 the sky; then tall clouds piled themselves upon it, 

 flashing lightning from their violent skirts; a bitter 

 north wind swept down from the mountains ; lashing 

 rain changed hilly roads into watercourses, and level 

 ones into sloughs of ineffable despond. 



To arrive at nightfall at the capital of Thessaly — the 

 granary of Greece — under these circumstances was some- 

 what depressing; still, the town looked cheerful from a 

 distance, for it was the eve of Friday, the Moslem 

 Sabbath, and every minaret bore its girdle of lamps, 

 twinkling gaily against the dark sky. Worse was to 

 come. Our hotel — the ^evoSoxelov tov 'O'Kvfj.'n-ov, or 

 hostelry of Olympus — bore evidence of the revival of 

 prosperity which annexation to Greece brought to 

 Thessaly in 1881. Formerly a common khan, it had been 

 rebuilt, and outwardly, with display of broad white walls 

 and multitudinous green shutters, promised some degree 

 of comfort according to European notions, especially from 



