Monday May 1. [1 May 1899] Papa all right, so we decided to go to Troy. Got to Kum Kaleh [Kumkale] at the mouth of the strait about 7 and to Dardanelles [Canakkale] at 8. Mr Calvert sent a Jew, Jacob, to meet us on board. He took us to the inn and thence to the Consulate, a delightful big cool house. Mr C. very friendly, a beautiful old man. We arranged to start at once and set off in a victoria at 9.30. Delighted to see minarets and veiled women again. Drove along the sea for 11/2 hours, then up a steep hill, very bad road. We had a mounted soldier with us, a Zaptieh. At the top of the hill saw the Dardanelles [Canakkale Bogazi] with Imbros [Gökçeada (Imroz)] and Samothrace [Samothraki] beyond, the plain of Troy with the long low ridge at the end of which is Ilium and Tenedos [Bozcaada] beyond that. Beautifully fertile, corn and oak woods, yellow jasmine, irises, a white flowered shrub like an orange; purple anemonies. At Eren Keui [Intepe (Erenkoy)], a Greek village at the top of the hill, we lunched and rested an hour. A train of camels passed through Then down the hill and along the corn covered plain. Crossed the Simois (Dumbrek) a muddy brook and along under the hill, covered with low scrub. Got out into the great open plain, grass with shepherds' tents, feeding herds. Corn, no trees. The mound itself is covered with the debris of the excavations. We entered by deep walls, sloping, the walls of Priam's Troy. The Acropolis is covered with a confused mass of ruins, the 2nd town and the squared Roman blocks being most distinguishable. Above the ruins rise the steep mounds of earth left to show the depth of the excavations; they look as if they were the topless towers of Ilium. Walls and gates on the S. S.E and S.W. very clear. On the foundations of the 2 Megarons, clay walls a ft or two high. A great paved ramp leads up from the SW gate. As for the view, the plain is edged all round by the Aegean and the Dardanelles with a low line of hills on which the great pyramidal funeral mounds stand out against the sky. In one place the hill breaks and you see the bay where the Greek ships lay. The Scamander [Menderes, Kanal] winds through the plain far away and nearer a tiny sluggish stream marks its old course. Behind are Ida and Olympus far away. Tenedos puts up a peak in the Aegean, Imbros rises in the gap of the hill, with a tall point of Samothrace behind it. Stayed till 5 and then drove to Thymbrae, an hour away; white farm house lying on the green hillside, storks' nests and storks on all the roofs. Mrs Calvert, Mr Frank Calvert's sister in law, (her husband is dead) and her daughter in law, a pretty Greek; received us most hospitably and gave us tea. Charming little garden full of roses. Rested till supper at 8 after which we talked of Schliemann and saw Dörpfeld's photographs of Troy. They have a cupboardful of Greek vases found in tombs on the estate. Early to bed.