Gibbon, Lenormant and
Cassiodorus. The chapters devoted to Cotrone are the most lively and
characteristic in his "Ionian Sea." Strangely does the description of
his arrival in the town, and his reception in the "Concordia," resemble
that in Bourget's "Sensations."
The establishment has vastly improved since those days. The food is good
and varied, the charges moderate; the place is spotlessly clean in every
part - I could only wish that the hotels in some of our English country
towns were up to the standard of the "Concordia" in this respect. "One
cannot live without cleanliness," as the housemaid, assiduously
scrubbing, remarked to me. It is also enlarged; the old dining-room,
whose guests are so humorously described by him, is now my favourite
bedroom, while those wretched oil-lamps sputtering on the wall have been
replaced by a lavish use of electricity. One is hardly safe, however, in
praising these inns over-much; they are so apt to change hands. So long
as competition with the two others continues, the "Concordia" will
presumably keep to its present level.
Of freaks in the dining-room, I have so far only observed one whom
Gissing might have added to his collection. He is a director of some
kind, and his method of devouring maccheroni I unreservedly admire - it
displays that lack of all effort which distinguishes true art from
false.
