ear painted another watercolour on the same road dated 3 July 1840 (With Spink's 1963, repr. advertisement in Burlington Magazine, December 1963). This was during his first visit to Grace in June-July 1848, during which he was taken ill at Thebes, presumably a few days after painting this watercolour; he was back in Athen sby 19 July. In a letter to his sister Ann, Lear describes how, after passiing Therimopylae, there was 'nothing very interesting from that part till we got to Thebes, that once great Grecian city - now a mere collection of modern houses rising from heaps on heaps of ruins. Its situation and the view over its vast plain to Mount Parnassos & Helicon, are most suprising of beautiful' (V. Noakes, ed., Edward Lear: Seelected Letters, 1988, p. 81)