Dante and Machiavelli (with
which last author I am delighted) in the morning, and
with Boccaccio and our English poets in the evening.
Sight-seeing does not occupy much of my time.[4]

[Footnote 4: November 30, 1831.]

From Rome Mr. Greg and a companion went to Naples, and from Naples they
made their way to Sicily. I have said that Mr. Greg had not Byron's
historic sense; still this was the Byronic era, and no one felt its
influence more fervently. From youth to the end of his life, through
good and evil repute, Mr. Greg maintained Byron's supremacy among poets
of the modern time. It was no wonder, then, that he should write home to
his friends,--'I am tired of civilised Europe, and I want to see a
_wild_ country if I can.' Accordingly at Naples he made up his mind to
undertake what would be a very adventurous tour even in our day,
travelling through Greece and Asia Minor to Constantinople, and thence
northwards through Hungary to Vienna. This wild and hazardous part of
his tour gave him a refreshment and pleasure that he had not found in
Swiss landscapes or Italian cities, and he enjoyed the excitement of the
'wild countries' as thoroughly as he had expected. On his return to
England he published anonymously an account of what he had seen in
Greece and Turkey, in a volume which, if occasionally florid and
imaginative, is still a lively and copious piece of description. It is
even now worth turning to for a picture of the ruin and distraction of
Greece after the final expulsion of the Turk.[5]

[Footnote 5: _Sketches in Greece and Turkey, with the Present Condition
and Future Prospects of the Turkish Empire_. London: Ridgway, 1833.]

On his return he found the country in the throes of the great election
after the Reform Bill. Perhaps his experiences of the sovereign Demos on
that occasion helped to colour his opinions on popular government
afterwards.

_December 5, 1832_.--On Tuesday we nominated--there
was a fearful crowd of 10,000 ruffians, Grundy's friends
from the country. A tremendous uproar. I seconded
Mr. Walker's nomination, but was received with yells and
groans, owing chiefly to the prosecution which I have
instituted against the other candidate and four of his
supporters for intimidation of voters. The ruffians roared
at me like so many bulls of Bashan, and shook their fists
at me, whereupon I bowed profoundly; and, finding it
impossible to obtain a hearing, I turned to the op