the King, stands out among the other | To the W., the side of the esplanade buildings as prominently as did that next the town is bounded by a lofty of King Alcinous of old. (Od., vi. 300.) row of private houses with an arched The channel which separates Corfu walk beneath them. from Albania varies in breadth from 2 The stranger in Corfu had better to 12 m., and appears one noble lake devote his first hour of leisure to infrom the harbour, whence its outlets specting the splendid panoramic view are not visible. It certainly affords of the town and island presented from one of the most beautiful and stirring the summit of the citadel. The Greek spectacles in the world. Its northern Garrison Church is a large building, extremity narrows until it is lost with a Doric portico, at the S. side of among lofty mountains, swelling each the citadel. The ramparts are of variover each like the waves of the ocean; ous ages; some of them dating as far while, gradually widening as it ex-back as A.D. 1550. At the opposite, tends to the southward, it spreads or western, extremity of the town, round the indentations and promon-rises another fortress, erected by the tories of the fair and fertile island. Venetians at the end of the 16th But the whole forms a scene which addresses itself to the eye and to the heart rather than to the ear. The memory of those who have once beheld it will long carry a vivid impression, which they will find it hard to describe in adequate language. The ordinary landing-place is at the Health Office Mole, but there is another for man-of-war and yacht boats in the ditch of the citadel, whence a flight of steps leads immediately to the esplanade. centy., and still generally known as Fort Neuf, or La Fortezza Nuova. The hill on which it is built is less lofty and precipitous than that of the citadel. The fire of these two fortresses protects the harbour. The town, including its suburbs of Manduchio to the W. and Castrádes (called in Greek rapír(a) to the S., contains 24,091 inhabitants. There are 4000 Latins, with an archbishop of their own, and 5000 Jews, which latter live in a separate quarter of the town; the remainder of the people belong to the Greek Church. The Esplanade occupies the space between the town and the citadel, and is laid out with walks and avenues The cathedral, dedicated to Our of trees. On its northern verge stands Lady of the Cave ('H Пavayia Σnnthe Palace of white Maltese stone, wriσσa), is situated on the Lineornamented with a colonnade in front, wall, not far from Fort Neuf. The and flanked by the two Gates of St. oldest church in the island is in the Michael and St. George, each of which suburb of Castrádes, near the Strada frames a lovely picture of the sea and Marina. It is dedicated to St. Jason mountains. The Palace was erected and St. Sosipater, comrades of St. under the administration of Sir Thomas Paul, and who are related by tradiMaitland, and contains a suite of ex- tion to have been the first preachers cellent ball-rooms. The casino, or of Christianity in Corcyra. Though villa of the king, was built by Sir neglected, and repaired in bad taste, Frederick Adam in a beautiful situa- this church is a very graceful spetion, about a mile to the south of the cimen of Byzantine architecture, and town. At the southern extremity of seems to have been finally erected the esplanade is a terrace overhang-out of the materials of heathen teming the sea, a little circular temple ples. Several columns and other anerected in memory of Sir Thomas Mait-cient fragments are also built into land, and an obelisk in honour of Sir Howard Douglas. There is also a statue of Sir Frederick Adam in front of the Palace, and one of Marshal Schulemberg in front of the drawbridge which leads into the citadel. the walls of the church at Paleopolis, on the road to the One-gun Battery. There are a great many other churches, the most remarkable being that of St. Spiridion, the PatronSaint of Corfu, whose body is pre served in a richly ornamented case. | store along the old Venetian bastions: The annual offerings at this shrine amount to a considerable sum, and are the property of a noble Corfiot family, to whom the church belongs. Three times a year the body of the Saint is carried in solemn procession around the esplanade, followed by the Greek clergy and all the native authorities. The sick are sometimes brought out and laid where the Saint may be carried over them. St. Spiridion was bishop of a see in Cyprus, and was one of the Fathers of the Council of Nice in A.D. 325. After his death his embalmed body was believed to have wrought many miracles. Various and contradictory accounts have been given of the cause and manner of its conveyance to Corfu. a stranger will hear Italian from the native gentry, Greek from the peasants, Arabic from the Maltese grooms and gardeners, Albanian from the white-kilted mountaineers of the opposite coast. He may see Ionian venders haggling for how much they are to receive for their wares in Greek obols, bearing the Venetian lion on one side and Britannia with her ægis on the other-no bad epitome of the modern history of the island, and forming a curious addition to the silver records which tell what Corfu was in past ages. The prow of a ship, a Triton striking with his trident, a galley in full sail, the gardens of Alcinous, and a Bacchus crowned with ivy-these are some of the monetary memorials of the ancient power, commerce, and fertility of Corcyra. The town underwent great improvements during the period of the British protectorate, but it is still cramped We have the authority of Thucyand confined. The main streets have dides for the identity of Corcyra with been widened, sanitary regulations the Scheria or Phæacia of Homer; have been enforced, markets have but it is impossible to draw a map been built, an efficient police or- of the Homeric island which shall ganized here (as throughout the coincide with the existing localities. islands), new roads and approaches Ulysses was brought to the island by have been constructed, especially the a north wind, which would seem to Strada Marina round the bay of Cas-mark Fano as Calypso's isle. The only trades, which now forms one of the Host charming public promenades in Europe. Above all, a copious supply of water, of which the town was formerly destitute, has been brought in pipes from a source above Benizze-a distance of 7 m. The suburbs were formerly richly planted with olive and mulberry trees, but these were cut down by the French in order to clear a space before the fortifications, and their removal is supposed to have contributed in some degree to the improved salubrity; fevers, however, are still prevalent in autumn, though they are rarely of a malignant character. The Bishop of Lincoln has remarked that Corfu is a sort of geographical Laic to which many countries of Europe have contributed colours. The streets are Italian in their style and Lame; the arcades, by which some of them are flanked, might have come from Padua or Bologna; the winged Lion of St. Mark is seen marching in stream of any consequence is that which empties itself into the sea between Manduchio and Govino, while the tradition of the peasantry points to the Fountain of Cressida, a copious spring gushing out near the sea, 4 m. S.W. of the modern town, as the spot where the nymph-like Nausicaë and her train of maidens received the suppliant Ulysses. She is perhaps the most interesting character in all ancient poetry; and we gladly turn from the savage feuds and massacres of the Peloponnesian war to the contemplation of the fair daughter of Alcinous. But wherever may have been the Phacia of Homer, there can be no doubt but that the Corcyra of Thucydides occupied the peninsula between the channel and the Lagoon, now called Lake Calichiopulo, after a noble family of Corfu; the shores of which were converted by the English into a race-course. Excavations in this direction everywhere produce sculptures, tombs (such as that of Menecrates, | drive, ride, and walk at Corfu, is to near the Strada Marina), and other what is called the One-gun Battery memorials of the past; and on a cliff overhanging the sea, behind the Casino, are the remains of a small Doric temple, with the ountain of Cardachio below it. The view from this spot is particularly beautiful; and a visit to it should by no means be omitted. It is about 2 m. from the town. It is obvious from Thucydides (iii. 72) that Lake Calichiopulo is the Hyllaic harbour, and the port of Castrádes "that opposite Epirus." As Scylax (Per. 29) mentions three ports at Corcyra, it may be presumed that the present harbour was also used in ancient times. Vido may have been the Ptychia of Thucydides, though that islet is identified by some antiquaries with the rock at the mouth of Lake Calichiopulo, and by others with the vast insulated crag on which the citadel is now built, and which was probably a stronghold in all ages. Corfu is divided-for electoral purposes-into fourteen districts (Demos). Lefchimo, the southern extremity of the island, is so called from its white cliffs. All the prospects in Corfu present a union of a sea-view with a rich landscape, for the water appears everywhere interlaced with the land. The roads are excellent, and all the principal villages can be reached in a carriage; but the varied beauties of the island cannot be thoroughly appreciated except by those who have traced out on horseback some of the thousand-and-one bridle-paths which wind through the olive-groves with the freedom of mountain streams. The general absence of hedges, and of almost all show of division of property gives the landscape a unity which is very pleasing to the eye. The olives of Corfu, it must be remembered, are not the pruned and trained fruit-trees of France and Italy, but picturesque and massive forest-trees; and their pale and quivering foliage is relieved by dark groups of tall and tufted cypresses, appearing at a little distance like the minarets of the East, or the spires of a Gothic cathedral. The favourite and most frequented (from a cannon having formerly been placed there), situated above the entrance to Lake Calichiopulo, 2 m. S. of the town, and commanding a charming prospect. In the centre of the strait below, and crowned with a small chapel of Byzantine architecture, is one of the islets (for there are two com petitors) which claim to be the Ship of Ulysses, in allusion to the galley of the Phæacians, which on her return from having conveyed Ulysses to Ithaca was overtaken by the vengeance of Neptune, and changed into stone within sight of the port. (Od. xiii. 161.) "Swift as the swallow sweeps the liquid way, The winged pinnace shot along the sea; The God arrests her with a sudden stroke, And roots her down an everlasting rock.” The other competitor for this honour is an isolated rock off the N.W. coast of Corfu, and which certainly at a distance resembles much a petrified ship in full sail. It is visible from the pass of San Pantaleone. In the olive-groves, near the Chapel of the Ascension, on the summit of a hill, about half-way between the town and the One-gun Battery is annually celebrated on Ascension-day a most interesting Greek festa, which the traveller should stay to see, even at the expense of some inconvenience. It will afford him an excellent opportunity of witnessing the performance of the Romaika or Pyrrhic dance, and of becoming acquainted with the picturesque costumes of the peasantry. There are three principal excursions, all over excellent carriage-roads, which will give a stranger a good general idea of the interior of Corfu. 1. To Paleocastrizza, 16 m. from the capital: as the name imports, an ancient fortress doubtless stood here formerly, on the ground now occupied by a convent of the middle ages, strongly situated on a steep rock impending over the Adriatic Sea. The beauty, quiet, and coolness of this residence are all delightful. The seabathing is excellent, and many charming excursions may be made in the immediate vicinity, as to the ruins of the Castle of St. Angelo, a medieval fortress in a strong and romantic position. The road from the capital to Paleocastrizza crosses the centre of the island, passing (at 5 m. from the town) the bay of Govino, used by the Venetians as the harbour for their galleys and smaller craft. On the shore are the ruins of their arsenals, store-houses, &c. Thence the road strikes inland through a forest of venerable olives, until within two or three miles of the convent, when it is carried along the face of a hill covered with arbutus, myrtle, and evergreens of various kinds. Below a precipice falls sheer down to the Adriatic, studded with rocks and islets, and sparkling with those "countless smiles" (the TоVтÍWV KUμάTWv avhpiθμου γέλασμα of Æschylus), the full charm of which can be appreciated only by those who have seen southern waves flash up in a southern sun. 2. The Pass of Pantaleone (13 m. from the town) is the Simplon of Corfu, and the highest point of the road which is carried over the mountain-chain of San Salvador. It is the only carriage-road to, and commands a splendid prospect over the northern district of Corfu, the islands of Fano, Merlera, Salmatraki, and the second insulated rock which claims to be the ship of Ulysses. A favourite spot for pic-nics is under a huge oak-tree, 3 m. to the N. of the pass. 3. The Pass of Garuna (8 m.) affords a like view over the southern districts of the island; and is also very striking, though not so elevated as that of San Pantaleone. These three excursions should by no means be omitted; others almost equally picturesque are-to Benizze (7 ); to Pelleka (7 m.); and to the village of Santa Decca (8 m.), situated on the slope of the mountain of the Ten Saints (Ayio Aéka), corrupted into Santa Decca), the second in height in the island. Lord Carlisle, in his 'Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters' (1854), writes as follows:-"I went over the citadel, which comprises the two peaks from which the town is named; the view is very fine; but this and almost every view I ever saw in my life were eclipsed by those we saw in our afternoon ride on the Santa Decca road, which turns the mountain that opens the southern district of the island; the snow-capped lines of the Acroceraunian hills on the Albanian shore, the unruffled seas which gleamed through four sets of ravines, the defined outline of the twopeaked citadel, the terraces of olive and vine that climb every hill, with scattered alleys of cypress, and tufts of orange, make the whole effect most transcendent. All this you see from excellent roads, admirably engineered. Any one who wishes to condense the attractions of southern scenery, and see it all in the utmost comfort and luxury, need only come to Corfu." The road to Lefchimo (the ancient Leucimne), the southern district of Corfu (26 m.), passes through Santa Decca. The island terminates in a white cliff, called Cavo Bianco by the Italians, a translation of Leucimne. From Cape Bianco to the Sybota Islands, close to the coast of Epirus, the southern entrance to the channel of Corfu is about 5 m. across. The mountain of San Salvador (Istone) rises about 3000 ft. above the sea, and is the highest point in the island, forming a striking object from the town. The best way to ascend it is to cross the bay (a distance of 8 or 10 m.) in a sailing or row-boat, and land either at Karagol, or a little to the eastward of the village of Ipso, where horses or mules may be procured, and a guide to the Convent which crowns the summit. The path rises by a steep ascent through olivewoods, and then over the barren and rocky mountain side. Before reaching the small village of Signies, are passed several deep wells, round which the shepherds assemble their flocks. Here too, as at the other fountains of Greece, may generally be seen groups of the peasant women, who give an Oriental charm to the scene with their long flowing drapery, and ample folds of white linen, falling over their heads and shoulders. It is a toilsome ascent from Signies to the Convent, which is not inhabited by the Monks, except at certain festivals. A pilgrimage is made to this shrine every year on the anniversary of the Transfiguration (August); and the going up of the people to the "high place" is a very pretty sight. The view from the summit is magnificent. In clear weather the coast of Italy is just visible above the horizon to the N.W.; while to the E. the eye ranges along the chain of the Acroceraunian Mountains, and penetrates far into the interior of Albania commanding the castle and plain of Butrinto, with its two lakes and river, and several villages picturesquely scattered over the hills. To the S., the city and whole island of Corfu are stretched out like a map, with Paxo and Santa Maura in the distance. Albania that the really good shooting is to be had. Butrinto, Kataito, and Livitazza (or rather La Vituzza at the mouth of the river Kalamás, or Thyamis) are the best grounds for snipes, woodcocks, and wild-fowl of all kinds; and Pteliá and Paganiá for deer and wild boars;-which latter are also found on the Sybota (i. e., Swine Islands), two wooded and uninhabited rocks at the southern entrance of the channel. In Corfu they are now generally called Murto, from an Albanian hamlet on the neighbouring shore; but they are celebrated under their classical name on account of the action between the Corcyræans and Corinthians fought off their shores in the year before the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. There is a sheltered bay between the two principal Sybota, and another between the inner island and the mainland. The neighbouring village occupies ap Off the N.W. coast of Corfu are her three island dependencies of Fano (Othonús), Merlera (Ericúsa), and Sal-parently the site of the place which matraki, containing altogether about 1800 inhabitants, a peaceful and industrious race, exporting annually olive-oil, honey, grapes, &c. A fine sea-cavern is of course pointed out as Calypso's Grotto by the islanders to every stranger: it is now frequented by seals and wild pigeons. Fano is visited by sportsmen chiefly in the spring, for the purpose of shooting quails, which abound there during the annual migration. Some account of the shooting at Corfu is required in this work, as so many Englishmen now visit the island every winter in search of it. The season lasts from November to March, but December and January are the best months. Snipes and wild-fowl are found in considerable numbers during the winter in the Val di Roppa, a marshy valley 7 m. inland from the town. Woodcocks are also killed in all parts of the island, and are generally sold in the market for a few pence each. Hares are scarce, owing, partly, to the number of foxes and jackals. Santa Maura is the only one of the Ionian Islands where wolves are still found. But it is on the opposite coast of Thucydides calls "the continental says The places above mentioned are all on the Epirot or Albanian coast of the channel of Corfu. Near Santi Quaranta, outside the N. channel, and about 18 m. from the harbour, there is also capital woodcock, wildfowl, as well as deer and wild-boar shooting. Further N., in the Acroceraunian Mountains, above Port Palermo and the town of Chimara, chamois may be shot in summer, when the snows have melted. S. of Corfu there is excellent shooting (cocks, snipes, &c.), at Port Phanári, on the banks of the Acheron, and on the shores of the Gulj of Arta. Before 1856 the whole of the Turkish Empire was always held by the Christian Powers in that state which the Health-Offices of the Levant call con |