A walk or ride of a few miles to the west, through an exuberant country, brings you to the foot of a mountain called Mistra, which springs like an offshoot from the roots of Taÿgetus. It looks small compared with the giant range behind, but it is 2000 feet high, and commands one of the most charming views in Greece, across the valley of the Eurotas and down towards the gorge opening on the sea. The mediæval buildings scattered over the mountain-side, and the well-cultivated fields and gardens and terraces all around and beneath it, present a pleasing contrast to the wild passes above, which include the famous Langada pass, leading into the plains of Messenia. On the top of the hill there is a citadel in a wonderfully good state of preservation, erected by the Frankish knight, William de Ville-hardouin, in the middle of the thirteenth century. Beneath it are the remains of a palace, once the residence of the Governor of the Morea (who ranked next to the Byzantine emperor), surrounded by a city which deprived Sparta of its importance until the present century. The city is now greatly decayed, and the buildings still in use are chiefly chapels and monasteries belonging to the Greek Church, which, here as elsewhere, has had to surrender to the Government much of its wealth to meet the educational needs of the country. On the way between Sparta and Mistra you pass the mouth of a cave opening downwards into the side of the mountain, which is pointed out as the place called Cæadas into which the Spartans were in the habit of casting criminals and weak or deformed children. It was here that Aristomenes, the Messenian hero, was believed to have made a miraculous escape from death. Along with fifty other Messenians he had been hurled into the yawning recess, but by good luck, or the favour of the gods as his friends asserted, [Illustration: MISTRA AND THE VALLEY OF THE EUROTAS This drawing was sketched at the residence of the Papa of the ancient metropolis church. On the higher slope of the mountain to the right is the Pantanassa Church; below, to the left, part of the mediæval defences of the town.] he reached the bottom unhurt. Seeing no outlet he had resigned himself to his fate, when his attention was attracted by a fox crawling among the dead. He succeeded in getting hold of its tail, and, defending himself from its bites as he best could with his cloak, he found himself at the opening by which the fox had entered, and, by enlarging it a little, contrived to make an exit for himself, reappearing safe and sound, to the amazement both of friends and foes.