“I know not when we shall get to Constantinople. We are as yet only
three days’ distance from Athens; and here we sit on the top of
Parnassus, in a little sty, full of smoke, after wandering for a
fortnight in Attica, Bœotia, and Phocis. We have been in every spot
celebrated in ancient story--in fields of slaughter, and in groves of
song. I shall grow old in telling you the wonders of this country.
Marathon, Thebes, Platæa, Leuctra, Thespia, Mount Helicon, the grove
of the Muses, the cave of Trophonius, Cheronea, Orchomene, Delphi, the
Castalian fountain, Parnassus; we have paid our vows in all! But what
is most remarkable, in Greece there is hardly a spot which hath been
particularly dignified that is not also adorned by the most singular
beauties of nature. Independently of its history, each particular
object is interesting.”
From Athens they proceeded by land to Constantinople through ancient
Thrace, by a route partly trodden by Pococke. After a short stay at
this city, they directed their course homewards through Roumelia,
Austria, Germany, and France, and arrived in England after an absence
of upwards of three years. Cripps now returned for a short period
to his family, and Clarke, who had by this time acquired an immense
reputation, took up his residence at Cambridge, where, with very
few intervals of absence, he remained nearly twenty years. He was
very soon rejoined by his pupil, the completing of whose education,
together with the arranging of his curiosities and antiquities, and the
composition of his travels, fully occupied his leisure for some time.
A statue of Ceres which our traveller had dug up, and sent home from
Greece, was presented, on his return, to the university; in consequence
of which the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon Clarke, and that of
M.A. upon his companion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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