therefore confine myself merely to the
business in hand, and look upon the place which
gave birth to Pittacus, Theophrastus, and
Sappho; where Aristotle taught, and Arion
sung; where Cæsar won his first public
honor; and where Marcellus and the widow
of the last Christian Prince of Trebizond fled
as fugitives; simply as a place to get well in.

Lesbos was so renowned for its wine, that
even cold Virgil mentions it with approbation;
and Ovid, who was a much better judge, is said
to have asked for it when dying. The island
was so famous for its wheat, that Mercury
was sent especially from Olympus to fetch it;
and it was used by the bakers of the gods.
If this assertion, however, resting as it does
merely on poetical authority, should be too
much even for the faith of an antiquary, I
have still something to say about the Lesbian
bread, and support my information by an
appeal to the excellent judgment of Archistratos.
Archistratos was a lover of delicacies
who flourished about two thousand two
hundred years ago. He was the Brillat
Savarin, the Soyer of the ancient world. He
knew where everything worth eating was to
be found, as well as was possible. When,
therefore, he especially praises the bread
of Lesbos, we are bound to believe that
it was good.

Then, Lesbos was so remarkable for the
delicacy of its oysters, that they are spoken of
with a watery mouth and a luscious chuckle,
both by Strabo and Pliny; while the beauty
of the Lesbian ladies was long a proverb.
Now, I ask any conscientious getting-
well person whosoever, Can there be
anything of pleasanter digestion than an
oyster—with fresh lemon-juice squeezed
over it? Mytilene cannot be said, in our
days, to have a very plentiful supply of fresh
butter, but it has abundance of excellent
brown bread; so we must look upon the
want of fresh butter at Mytilene rather as a
misfortune than a fault, and eat our oysters
without it. I had nearly forgotten the ladies;
for the fact is, I am an old gentleman in a
dressing-gown and slippers; so I cannot judge
of these things. But the next time our
friends in Australia want a few ship-loads of
wives, I think they might do many less
sensible things than send to Mytilene.

Physicians are agreed that the climate of
Mytilene is decidedly the healthiest of even the
healthy islands of the Ægean. It is invariably
cool in summer from the sea-breezes, and
remarkably mild in winter. Frost and snow
are unknown to the oldest inhabitants; and
there is no day throughout the year upon
which the sun does not shine cheerily for a
few hours. The ancient writers are unanimous
in its praise, and Pornpey the Great is one of
the many gentlemen who sent his wife here
for change of air. Count Razinsky, the most
modern traveller of repute, hai'dly knows how
to express his admiration of the climate and
scenery of Lesbos; and M. Olivier (a French-
man) becomes almost incomprehensible from
the same cause. Then, every inch of the
land is storied. It was from the neighbourhood
of the famous ancient town of Methymna,
that Achilles bore off the beautiful Eriphile,
whose supposed fate has furnished the subject
of one of the finest of Racine's tragedies.
Mytilene was the residence of the diligent
antiquary Pocock, (the Greeks call him
???ó???s which looks odd), during some of the
most interesting of his valuable researches.
A pensive invalid might go delightfully, book
in hand, over the same ground. And, lastly,
skipping many things, Mytilene was the
theatre of the last Greek war of independence.
The fighting began by the destruction of a
Turkish man of war, off Erisso; and most of
the memorable naval engagements which
followed, where Kanaris and Miaoulis gathered
their bloody and useless laurels, took place in
the same neighbourhood.

The medicinal waters of Lesbos were
amongst the most famous of the ancient
world—and the ancient world was bathing
mad. If they have now fallen off in repute,
it is probably because they are unknown,
as many things are unknown about Turkey
which we should do extremely well to learn.

The baths of Vassilica, perhaps the most
important in the island, were of high repute
in former times. Careful observation
may still trace ruins of considerable
extent in their neighbourhood. The waters of
the springs ot Vassilica were analysed by
Pocock, and found to contain iron and sulphur,
with a small quantity of copper. Their taste
is salt. The water flows in great quantities
from a rock, and is caught in a large basin,
now used as a bath for men. Its heat is
about thirty degrees Reaumur. It is of
known efficacy in derangement of the spleen
and liver, scrofulous humours, gout, and
rheumatism. The last-mentioned disease is
unhappily one to which Europeans are
particularly liable in these countries—not to
mention their own. Finally, the waters of
Vassilica are said to have a specific action
in the cicatrisation of wounds; and were
employed with success for this purpose by no less
a person than a late minister of Sardinia, at
Constantinople, who had been often wounded
in the wars. I have it on credible authority,
that this gentleman was lifted out of the
steamer on his arrival, and was shooting
partridges on the hills three weeks afterwards.

The waters of Vassilica are hot enough to
boil an egg; but, lest their efficacy in this
respect should be proved too often, the country
people have a prudent proverb, which says,
that the egg "will not boil if it is stolen."
For the rest, Vassilica is now a mere
collection of huts, situated between Kalloni and
Iera. It derived its name from having been
the residence of the exiled Erinna, wife of the
Emperor Leo the Third, and mother of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus. She died there
in eight hundred and two. Vassilica is also
remarkable for having been the refuge of the