expressed for my health and happiness. His countenance exhibits talent; and you cannot pass without noticing his aqui

line physiognomy, eagle eye, beaked nose, and inquiring who he is.

To the King of Bavaria we were also introduced. He seems an affable, good

tempered old gentleman, and speaks English very fluently. He asked various questions in the usual abrupt style of royal condescension, and then moved on to the next in the circle. Mavromichalis-the ex-Hospodar of Wallachia-and a host of worthies whose fame has hardly reached our shores, were also present, and pointed out to us, by our obliging conductor, as objects of curiosity. Not having been presented at a levee, we were precluded by etiquette from a personal communication with King Otho. He is what the ladies call plain-about twenty-two years of age, but his appearance does not indicate more than eighteen or nineteen. He seemed very fond of dancing, and during the whole evening, whether waltz, quadrille, or cotillon was the figure of the moment, he was prominent and active in it. Shortly after one he retired-the ball broke up, and all returned to their dwellings.

We have been hitherto singularly fortu

nate in our weather, and in arriving at our various halting-places at moments of festivity, by which we have been enabled to see more of the inhabitants than we otherwise could have done in so short a visit.

We had a curiosity to see the Maid of Athens, celebrated by Lord Byron; but some portion of the romance which his poetry had thrown around her was dissolved, by hearing that she had become the wife of one of the municipal officers, and now bears the unpoetical name of Mrs. Black. She was not, I presume, of rank to be at the royal ball, and we had during our stay no opportunity of seeing her-fortunately perhaps for we were informed, as we might indeed have guessed, that the sight of her who had been a beauty twenty years before, would have totally destroyed a charm, which the change of name had already impaired.

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CHAPTER VIII.

ATHENS.-POPULATION.-SCHOOLS.-MODERN LANGUAGE

AND COSTUME.

[6TH OF FEBRUARY.]

YESTERDAY was completed a census of the population. The number of inhabitants, including soldiery, Greek and Bavarian, is fifteen thousand-a great increase we are told, within the last twelve months, but a terrible falling off from the days when Athens was in her splendor.

It would be too much to venture on an anticipation of what it may again rise to, but there are several indications which appear to promise, not indeed her ancient glories, but at least a revival of civilization, which cannot fail to draw to a region so rich in

objects of art and in mental associations a high degree of internal improvement and prosperity. Athens is not now, for practical purposes, so distant from London-" toto divisos orbe Britannos," as Rome was thirty years ago; and who can tell to what a state of prosperity habitual intercourse with the civilized world may again exalt the narrow but illustrious territory of Attica?

Already has the school, established by Mr. and Mrs. Hill, operated most beneficially on the people: though the schoolhouse has only been lately built, the school itself has existed upwards of five years, and it is attended by several hundreds of both sexes and various ages. In addition to this, they have in their own house girls from each of the provinces of the kingdom, whom they are bringing up, with the sanction of the government, to be teachers in their native districts. This is, perhaps, the germ of a literary, moral, and religious reform,