It was Sunday, and the weather was very fine, {335} to which I was
indebted for seeing all the fashionable world of Athens, and even
the Court, in the open promenade. This place is a plain avenue, at
the end of which a wooden pavilion is erected. It is not decorated
by either lawns or flower-beds. The military bands play every
Sunday from five to six. The King rides or drives with his Queen to
this place to show himself to the people. This time he came in an
open carriage with four horses, and stopped to hear several pieces
of music. He was in Greek costume; the Queen wore an ordinary
French dress.
The Greek or rather Albanian costume is one of the handsomest there
is. The men wear full frocks, made of white perkal, which reach
from the hips to the knees, buskins from the knee to the feet, and
shoes generally of red leather. A close-fitting vest of coloured
silk without arms, over a silk shirt, and over this another close-
fitting spencer of fine red, blue, or brown cloth, which is fastened
only at the waist by a few buttons or a narrow band, and lays open
at the top.
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