Century Travellers Series; Edward Lear's journey to Albania in 1848 had not been planned; it came about through a chance meeting with Sir Stratford Canning, the British Ambassador in Constantinople who obtained the necessary papers for travel through the Ottoman Empire. Starting from Salonica, Lear went north to Shkoder, then south to Corfu, Parga and Arta before turning west again to end his travels at Mount Olympus and the Vale ofTempe. Along the way, he encountered superb scenery and a fascinating and varied cast of characters - Greek dragomen, Turkish pashas, illiterate frontier guards and obstreperous innkeepers; he spent his nights in khans, tussling for space with donkeys, goats and cats, and his days strolling out with sketchbook in hand, dodging packs of hostile dogs (and sometimes the equally hostile local population) in his determination to record the grandeur of the countryside.