article, how little could he have expected that under that dull
prosaic mask lurked one who, in five short years from thence, would
rival even _him_ in poetry!--MOORE.]


REVIEW OF GELL'S GEOGRAPHY OF ITHACA, AND ITINERARY OF GREECE.

(From the "Monthly Review" for August, 1811.)

That laudable curiosity concerning the remains of classical
antiquity, which has of late years increased among our countrymen, is
in no traveller or author more conspicuous than in Mr. Gell. Whatever
difference of opinion may yet exist with regard to the success of the
several disputants in the famous Trojan controversy[1], or, indeed,
relating to the present author's merits as an inspector of the Troad,
it must universally be acknowledged that any work, which more
forcibly impresses on our imaginations the scenes of heroic action,
and the subjects of immortal song, possesses claims on the attention
of every scholar.

[Footnote 1: We have it from the best authority that the venerable
leader of the Anti-Homeric sect, Jacob Bryant, several years before
his death, expressed regret for his ungrateful attempt to destroy
some of the most pleasing associations of our youthful studies. One
of his last wishes was--"_Trojaque nunc stares," &c._]

Of the two works which now demand our report, we conceive the former
to be by far the most interesting to the reader, as the latter is
indisputably the most serviceable to the traveller. Excepting,
indeed, the running commentary which it contains on a number of