indeed the Ionic: of all things, leaves are least suitable to the nature of stone.

Sunium, founded in the Peloponnesian War to protect the corn-ships, was near the silver-mines; it was an important fortress, but its prosperity did not last long. The temple was dedicated to Athena. Here the salt sea winds have made the columns white, in contrast to the rose-pink of the Parthenon.

I

AETNA OVER TAORMINA

FOR years I wanted to make this drawing—and for days after I reached Taormina I had to wait before I could make it: for a curtain of mist hung over the sea and land. Then suddenly in all its glory the great white, snowy cone, borne on clouds, came forth above the sea and shore. And Hiroshige and Claude and Turner never imagined or dreamt of anything so glorious—and I had it all to myself, for it was tea-time.

II

THE THEATRE, SEGESTA

NOTHING, not even Taormina, is more magnificent than the set scene of the Theatre; how poor and mean must have been the forgotten mummers! The scene will exist till the end of time—even though scarce anyone climbs the mountain-side and, fagged out, drops in one of the thousands of empty seats hewn in the living rock, which will never again be filled.

III

THE TEMPLE OVER THE CAÑON, SEGESTA

EVERYONE advised me to go to Segesta, and I am glad I went; but I should never have known how wonderfully the Greeks made architectural compositions if I had not seen the Grand Cañon. There I saw Nature’s compositions: here was one made by man—finer, though not so big—for bigness has nothing to do with art.

IV

FROM TEMPLE TO TEMPLE, GIRGENTI

NOT only are the lines of the hills, looking toward the sea, perfect, but the builders of these, as of all the temples, took advantage of the lines in the landscape, making the temple the focus of a great composition; an art no longer practised; but the temples of the gods of Greece were more important than the notions of local politicians and land-owners and architects.

V

THE COLUMNS OF CASTOR AND POLLUX, GIRGENTI

THIS is not a restoration, but a re-building. The rebuilders worked better than they knew, and made a delightful—and popular—subject for every artist who goes to Girgenti.

VI

SUNRISE BEHIND THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD, GIRGENTI

THE Land of Temples is the land of effects—and they must be seized when they are seen. I had no idea of making this drawing; but as I reached the temple, the sun rose behind it, and I never saw it so huge, so mighty, as that morning. So I drew it—or tried to—while the effect lasted.

VII

THE TEMPLE BY THE SEA—TEMPLE OF CONCORD, GIRGENTI

I HAVE never seen long, level lines of temple, land, and sea so harmonise and work into a great composition as at Girgenti.

VIII

THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD ON THE WALL FROM WITHIN, GIRGENTI

HOW it piles up! What a perfect goal for the pilgrim; so noble is the sight, he must in awe have mounted to it on his knees.

IX

THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD ON THE WALL FROM WITHOUT, GIRGENTI

THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD ON THE WALL FROM WITHOUT, GIRGENTI

WHEN the glow of the sunset falls on it, and when the shadows block out the great rifts in the walls—walls which are like cliffs—and when the tourists and archaeologists have gone to dress for dinner and left one alone, one learns in the silence that the Greeks were divine artists.