which they had possessed for ages.

Olympia has since been forgotten in its vicinity, but the name will be ever respected as venerable for its precious era by the chronologer and historian.

CHAP. LXXVI.

VESTIGES OF OLYMPIA m—MIRACA—THE RIVER ALPHEUS.

EARLY in the morning we crossed a shallow brook, and commenced our survey of the spot before us with a degree of expectation from which our disappointment on finding it almost naked received a considerable addition. The ruin which we had seen in the evening we found to be the walls of the cell of a very large temple", standing many feet high and well-built, the stones all injured, and manifesting the labour of persons, who have endeavoured by boring to get at the metal with which they were cemented. From a massive capital remaining P it was collected that the edifice had been of the Doric order 9. At a distance before it was a deep hollow, with stagnant water and brickwork, where, it is

m of Olympia] of a temple, with other ruins. R.

n the cell of a very large temple,] the cell of a temple, probably that of Jupiter Apomaius. R.

many feet] several feet. R.

P a massive capital remaining] a piece of a column remaining, which appeared above the ground on the flank of the temple next the river, and was thought to remain in its original place. This temple appears to be rather smaller than that of Theseus at Athens, and in no manner agrees with the temple of the Olympian Jove. R.

¶ And the aspect the peripteros. It had no door in the posticum, or back front. R.

Round about are

imagined, was the stadium". scattered remnants of brick buildings, and vestiges of stone walls. The site is by the road-side, in a green valley, between two ranges of even summits pleasantly wooded. The mountain once called Croniums is on the north, and on the south the river Alpheus.

As Miráca was not far off, we resolved to inquire there for other ruinst. It was a small village on a hill, perhaps that of Pisa. Sheaves of wheat were collected about an area or two, and a few men with women and children were employed in harvest-work. Our approach occasioned some alarm, and they appeared shy, until we informed them of our business. We descended again into the valley, and travelled up it for two hours ". We then returned, and our men with difficulty procured some fowls, on which we dined by the shallow brook.

The Alpheus had now a majestic stream, which in winter is greatly increased by torrents rushing from the mountains. The wide bed on each side was dry. It is accounted the largest river in the country, and affords plenty of fish. We saw a weir of stakes made across it, on which a man was watching, sitting under a shed roofed with boughs, over the middle of the current.

r where, it is imagined, was the stadium.] Revett has erased these words.

CHAP. LXXVII.

JOURNEY OF MR. BOUCHER-RUIN OF A TEMPLE-NEAR

PHIGALIA.

MR. JOACHIM BOCHER, architect, a native of Paris, visited us in the lazaretto at Zante, which island he had adorned with several elegant villas. This gentleman in November, 1765, from Pyrgo crossed the Alpheus, and passing by Agolinizza traversed a wood of pines to Esidero, where is a Turkish khan. An hour beyond, leaving the plain by the sea, he began to ascend the mountains, and passing by some villages, arrived at Vervizza at night. This was a long journey. His design was to examine an ancient building near Caritena. He was still remote from that place, when he perceived a ruin, two hours from Vervizza, which prevented his going any far

ther.

The ruin, called the Columns, stands on an eminence sheltered by lofty mountains. The temple, it is supposed, was that of Apollo Epicurius, near Phigalia, a city of Arcadia. It was of the Doric order, and had six columns in front. The number, which ranged round the cell, was thirty-eight. Two at the angles are fallen; the rest are entire, in good preservation, and support their architraves. Within them lies a confused heap. The stone inclines to gray with reddish veins. To its beauty is added great precision of execution in the workmanship. These remains had their effect, striking equally the mind and the eyes of the beholder.

Pausanias describes Phigalia as surrounded by mountains, of which one, named Cotylium, was distant about forty stadia, or five miles. The temple of

Apollo stood on this, at a place called Bassæ. It was planned by the same architect as the Parthenon at Athens, and had a roof of stone. The Peloponnesians had no temple, one at Tegea excepted, so much celebrated for the beauty of the materials and the harmony of the proportions. The god was styled Epicurius, from the aid he was supposed to have given in a pestilence. The statue, which was of brass, and twelve feet high, had been removed, and was then in the agora, or market-place, of Megalopolis. This city, now called Leontari, was fifty stadia, or six miles and a quarter, in circuit. The river Helisson ran through it into the Alpheus.

CHAP. LXXVIII.

OUR SITUATION-WE RETURN TO CHIARENZA ARRIVE AT PERFORM QUARANTINE REMOVE FROM THE

ZANTE

LAZARETTO.

WE had experienced since our leaving Athens frequent and alarming indisposition. We had suffered from fruits, not easily eaten with moderation ; from fatigue; from the violent heat of the sun by day, and from damps and the torments inflicted by a variety of vermin at night; besides the badness of the air, which was now almost pestilential on this side of the Morea. My companions complained. Our servants were ill; and the captain, whose brown complexion was changed to sallow, had grown mutinous, and declared he would go away with his vessel, as he must perform a long quarantine at Zante, if his return were delayed; the annual unhealthiness

of the Morea toward the end of harvest requiring increase of caution, and the magistrates of the island restraining the intercourse with the continent at that

season.

In the afternoon we mounted for Pyrgo. We passed the night in the garden in which we had stopped before, the gnats again molesting us exceedingly. Irritated on finding our faces, hands, and legs carefully covered, the terrible insect buzzed about us with a droning noise, which sounded in the ear scarcely less loud than a trumpet. The following day we dined under a spreading tree near a clear spring among thickets; probably that called anciently Piera, in the way through the plain to Elis. There the prefects of Olympia and the matrons chosen to preside at the games in honour of Juno killed a pig, and were purified with holy water, before they entered on their offices. We rested in the garden at Gastouni, and set out early in the morning for Chiarenza; both my companions, with some of our men, much indisposed. We found the Athenian lad, whom we had left behind ill of a tertian fever, mended. The sick sailor had embraced an opportunity which offered, and was gone home to Zante.

We sailed from Chiarenza on Sunday the 20th of July, 1766; and the same evening entered the harbour of Zante, in which a squadron of Venetian ships of war under admiral Emo lay at anchor, waiting, as we were informed, for orders to proceed against the dey of Algiers. We were hailed from the land, and the boat going ashore, the British consul, John Sargint, esq. acquainted us that we must attend in the morning at the health-office. We were then