ART. I.-Memorials of a Tour in some Parts of Greece; chiefly Poetical. By RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES. 1 vol. London: Moxon. 1833.
THE fantastic shape in which this work presents itself before us, has at least the recommendation of novelty with it; besides which, the ingenuity displayed in the attempt to form a new compound from the most heterogeneous ingredients, is absolutely surprising.
The work is a brief collection of desultory remarks, facts or descriptions of localities, or objects of art in Greece, which are put together in a manner that defy every thing like an approach to system. The remark or description sometimes begins in poetry, and is continued in plain prose; sometimes there is a reciprocity of precedence, and poetry yields to prose. The muses appear to obtain the largest share of Mr. Milne's attention, though love of the antique and of geographical lore make the most desperate efforts to dispute the preference.
The author sets out with a strong admonition to all travellers to avoid, as they would a plague, the long week's journey from Naples to Otranto (or Brindisi, as it is called). The district is totally devoid of interest, except that Cannæ, the seat of the great Roman battle, is situated in it. Turning next to Corfu, he yields to the inspiration which the sight of it generates, and the result is some dozen lines of choice hexameters in praise of the island. The landscapes (the author affectedly writes the word landskip) here are of unrivalled richness, and their general effect quite different from that produced on the mind by Italian scenery, this variation depending in a great measure on the raised roofs of the houses in the towns and villages of Corfu. The drive of the fashionables. "The One-gun Battery," forms one of the most remarkable ornaments of Corfu it is, as seen on one side, a small green terrace, on the VOL. I. (1834) NO. I.