Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (With Byron's Biography). Lord Byron

Leave Larnáki (? Itea), arrive Chrysó. Dec. 16. Visit Delphi, the Pythian Cave, and stream of Castaly. (Canto I. stanza i.) Dec. 17. Leave Chrysó, arrive Arakhova (Rhakova). Dec. 18. Leave Arakhova, arrive Livadia (Livadhia). Dec. 21. Leave Livadia, arrive Mazee (Mazi). Dec. 22. Leave Mazee, arrive Thebes. Dec. 24. Leave Thebes, arrive Skurta. Dec. 25. Leave Skurta, pass Phyle, arrive Athens. (Stanzas i.-xv., stanza lxxiv.) Dec. 30. Byron finishes the First Canto of Childe Harold. 1810. Jan. 13. Visit Eleusis. Jan. 16. Visit Mendeli (Pentelicus). (Stanza lxxxvii.) Jan. 18. Walk round the peninsula of Munychia. Jan. 19. Leave Athens, arrive Vari. Jan. 20. Leave Vari, arrive Keratéa. Jan. 23. Visit temple of Athene at Sunium. (Stanza lxxxvi.) Jan. 24. Leave Keratéa, arrive plain of Marathon. Jan. 25. Visit plain of Marathon. (Stanzas lxxxix., xc.) Jan. 26. Leave Marathon, arrive Athens. Mar. 5. Leave Athens, embark on board the Pylades (Letter 136.) Mar. 7. Arrive Smyrna. (Letters 132, 133.) Mar. 13. Leave Smyrna, sleep at Han, near the river Halesus. Mar. 14. Leave Han, arrive Aiasaluk (near Ephesus). Mar. 15. Visit site of temple of Artemis at Ephesus. (Letter 132.) Mar. 16. Leave Ephesus, return to Smyrna. (Letter 132.) Mar. 28. Byron finishes the Second Canto of Childe Harold. April 11. Sail from Smyrna in the Salsette frigate. (Letter 134.) April 12. Anchor off Tenedos. April 13. Visit ruins of Alexandria Troas. April 14. Anchor off Cape Janissary. April 16. Byron attempts to swim across the Hellespont, explores the Troad. (Letters 135, 136.) April 30. Visit the springs of Bunarbashi (Bunarbási). May 1. Weigh anchor from off Cape Janissary, anchor eight miles from Dardanelles. May 2. Anchor off Castle Chanak Kalessia (Kale i Sultaniye). May 3. Byron and Mr. Ekenhead swim across the Hellespont (lines "Written after swimming," etc.). May 13. Anchor off Venaglio Point, arrive Constantinople. (Stanzas lxxvii.-lxxxii. Letters 138-145.) July 14. Sail from Constantinople in Salsette frigate. July 18. Byron returns to Athens.

      Note to "Itinerary."

      [For dates and names of towns and villages, see Travels in Albania, and other Provinces of Turkey, in 1809 and 1810, by the Right Hon. Lord Broughton, G.C.B. [John Cam Hobhouse], two volumes, 1858. The orthography is based on that of Longmans' Gazetteer of the World, edited by G. G. Chisholm, 1895. The alternative forms are taken from Heinrich Kiepert's Carte de l'Épire et de la Thessalie, Berlin, 1897, and from Dr. Karl Peucker's Griechenland, Wien, 1897.]

      Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

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      CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE

       A ROMAUNT.

      "L'univers est une espèce de livre, dont on n'a lu que la première page quand on n'a vu que son pays. J'en ai feuilleté un assez grand nombre, que j'ai trouvé également mauvaises. Cet examen ne m'a point été infructueux. Je haïssais ma patrie. Toutes les impertinences des peuples divers, parmi lesquels j'ai vécu, m'ont reconcilié avec elle. Quand je n'aurais tiré d'autre bénéfice de mes voyages que celui-là, je n'en regretterais ni les frais ni les fatigues."—Le Cosmopolite, ou, le Citoyen du Monde, par Fougeret de Monbron. Londres, 1753.

Preface a to the First and Second Cantos.

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The following poem was written, for the most part, amidst the scenes which it attemptsb to describe. It was begun in Albania; and the parts relative to Spain and Portugal were composed from the author's observations in those countries. Thus much it may be necessary to state for the correctness of the descriptions. The scenes attempted to be sketched are in Spain, Portugal, Epirus, Acarnania and Greece. There, for the present, the poem stops: its reception will determine whether the author may venture to conduct his readers to the capital of the East, through Ionia and Phrygia: these two cantos are merely experimental.

A fictitious character is introduced for the sake of giving some connection to the piece; which, however, makes no pretension to regularity. It has been suggested to me by friends, on whose opinions I set a high value,c—that in this fictitious character, "Childe Harold," I may incur the suspicion of having intended some real personage: this I beg leave, once for all, to disclaim—Harold is the child of imagination, for the purpose I have stated.

In some very trivial particulars, and those merely local, there might be grounds for such a notion;d