H. L. Stanhope.
There is something curious in the situation of Lindo. It stands on a tongue of land cut off from the island by a rocky mountain, which can be crossed only at a foot pace, by a mule path, and which in some places is so steep as to have made it necessary to hew out rough steps. Looking down from the summit of this mountain, you behold a neat town of about 200 houses, commanded by a castle, built on an elevation at the extremity of the tongue of land. There is an indentation in the line of coast to the left of the town which forms a small bay; whilst, on the right, a roomy basin, scooped by the hand of Nature out of the solid rock, with an entrance half as narrow as its breadth within, seems to want nothing but a little squadron to give a maritime importance to the place. There was no vessel in either port.
The only spot of ground which the inhabitants seemed to have for cultivation, was on the strand to the north. This strand went traditionally by the name of the Arena, and seemed well adapted for such games as the ancients gave in places of that denomination. To the south-west of the town, but overhanging it, were to be seen the remains of an ancient temple excavated in the rock, of which so much still was left, as to show that it had Ionic pilasters. In the front was an altar also hewn out of the rock.
The house in which Lady Hester was belonged to a person named Philippaki. He was nearly allied to a prince, and consequently was an archon himself. Mrs. Fry, however, Lady Hester’s maid, who had a great aversion to learning languages, and a strong predilection to her native one, as well as a habit of anglicising foreign words, used to call the archon Philip Parker; just as Mustapha, who was at one time our janissary, was metamorphosed into Muster Farr.
As soon as Lady Hester was well enough to resume her journey, we left Lindo for the town of Rhodes. We slept one night at a village called Archangelo, and arrived at Rhodes on the second evening.
Hassan Bey was not so polite to the party as most Turks would have been in his situation. The master of the ship, besides being suspected of having checked the bey’s civilities by not speaking of his passengers in proper terms, was supposed to have had some interest in destroying the vessel. It was accordingly determined not to make him any recompense for the losses he pretended to have suffered. The sailors, on the contrary, were rewarded liberally—more, perhaps, than their exertions merited. Lady Hester wrote from this place the following letter to a friend:—
Lady Hester Stanhope to ——
Rhodes, Dec. 19, 1811.
My dear ——,
I wrote to you by a vessel going to Malta, but must write again through Mr. Werry. We are all safe and well at this place. My health has suffered less than I expected; but I was sadly fatigued one day’s journey from where we landed at the extremity of this island. The wet, the starvation for thirty hours on a bare rock in the middle of the sea, eight hours’ scrambling over rocks and mountains, laid me up for a day or two at the house of a most hospitable Greek.