File:A tour in Greece, 1880 (1882) (14776895991).jpg

Identifier: touringreece00farr (find matches)
Title: A tour in Greece, 1880
Year: 1882 (1880s)
Authors: Farrer, Richard Ridley
Subjects:
Publisher: Edinburgh and London : W. Blackwood and sons
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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snow brings us over the ridge,whence far below us lie the plains of Arcadia clad insunlight. The descent is painful beyond description. Even thedragoman and the cook prefer trusting to their own legs,and the beasts are let go and allowed to find their ownway down. We move gingerly along the rocky side of asort of estuary of the table-land below, in shape like the combes of our southern coast. At the entrance liesTsipiana. Tsipiana, our destination, and on the towering summit on the left is a monastery, whence the brethren have a gloriousprospect of the doings of the village at their feet. Sending the men to make arrangements for tlie night, wesally forth to explore this little-known spot. Though visitedunder a mistake, it repaid us for the trouble. There isnothing to see in the way of antiquities, but geologically aswell as historically it illustrates the condition of HappyArcadia. The identity of its remains, consisting of a gate-way and walls on the citadel, has never been satisfac-
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HAPPY ARCADIA. 153 torily established. Perhaps it was formerly Melangia ;but this uncertainty is only typical of that region, atthe best of times little known and less civilised. Someoccult centrifugal force prevented union or co - operationbetween the communities occupying this great table-land,and even Epaminondass grand idea of gathering togethertheir power in a common centre obtained but a qualified suc-cess. Thus the very names of these towns have perished,except a few, like Tegea and Mantinea, while none of themplayed a great part in history. The inhabitants were pro-verbial for want of culture, and so was the greater part ofthe district. The Greek poets never speak of Arcadia asthe acme of picturesque beauty, the chosen home of faunand nymph and satyr. Such attributes originate with theItalian poets, and not even amongst the earliest of these.Neither did Greek pastoral poetry spring up amid therustic swains of this country, as many persons suppose.Flat swampy plains, and low, r

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