greater part of three days, during which
they examined with more than ordinary minuteness the cave of
Trophonius, and the streams of the Hercyna, composed of the mingled
waters of the two fountains of Oblivion and Memory.

From Livadia, after visiting the battlefield of Chaeronea (the
birthplace of Plutarch), and also many of the almost innumerable
storied and consecrated spots in the neighbourhood, the travellers
proceeded to Thebes--a poor town, containing about five hundred
wooden houses, with two shabby mosques and four humble churches. The
only thing worthy of notice in it is a public clock, to which the
inhabitants direct the attention of strangers as proudly as if it
were indeed one of the wonders of the world. There they still affect
to show the fountain of Dirce and the ruins of the house of Pindar.
But it is unnecessary to describe the numberless relics of the famous
things of Greece, which every hour, as they approached towards
Athens, lay more and more in their way. Not that many remarkable
objects met their view; yet fragments of antiquity were often seen,
though many of them were probably brought far from the edifices to
which they had originally belonged; not for their beauty, or on
account of the veneration which the sight of them inspired, but
because they would burn into better lime than the coarser rock of the
lulls. Nevertheless, abased and returned into rudeness as all things
were, the presence of Greece was felt, and Byron could not resist the
inspirations of her genius.

Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth!
Immortal! though no more; though fallen, great;
Who now shall lead thy scatter'd children forth
And long-accustom'd bondage uncreate?
Not such thy Sons who whilom did await,
The hopeless warriors of a willing doom,
In bleak Thermopylae's sepulchral strait:
Oh! who that gallant spirit shall resume,
Leap from Eurotas' banks, and call thee from the tomb!

In the course of the afternoon of the day after they had left Thebes,
in attaining the summit of a mountain over which their road lay, the
travellers beheld Athens at a distance, rising loftily, crowned with
the Acropolis in the midst of the plain, the sea beyond, and the
misty hills of Egina blue in the distance.

On a rugged rock rising abruptly on the right, near to the spot where
this interesting vista first opened, they beheld the remains of the
ancient walls of Phyle, a fortress which commanded o