Commenced reading this morning the history of ancient Greece in Italian - being on the spot where these great events tooks place - that have added such lustre to the Grecian name - find it doubly interesting - should have preferred Gillies history in English but could not find one - but hope to benefit by the practice of the Italian that I so much admire

On the side of the acropolis facing the temple of Jupiter Olympus is a cave with a majestic arched entrance - it was once covered with marble and the sides faced with columns, fragments of which still remain - it was the temple of Bacchus - over on the top tower up two delicate columns with triangular capitals - the figure of Bacchus stoo'd between them - my guide says it is at Oxford in England -

In this cave I spent several hours during the heat of the day reading - and looking at the strange scene around me - in the evening rode out on horse back alone, some five miles above the town passed a bridge across the Cephissus (Cephisus River) which is mainly dry, at last is it anything more than a mountain torrent? - returned thro the Groves of the Academe the retreat of Pluto - the fine venerable olives, like the old oaks in the parks of England

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