William Gladstone in Corfu

Patrick Leigh Fermor ("Mani", 1958, p. 207) relates a charming apocryphal story about William Gladstone in Corfu, as told to him by a 'white-bearded old shepherd' near the top of Mt. Kedros in Crete.

The shepherd tells a pretty tall story about how Gladstone, when he was governor of the Ionian Islands (in fact Lord High Commissioner Extraordinary, November 1858-February 1859), 'went native' after a while. Gladstone's wife writes to tell him to come home, and as he doesn't reply, she catches a steamer to come out to Corfu and find him.

She finds him slouched and splayed out all over five chairs in the main square, "a string of beads hung from one hand and the mouthpiece of a narghile was in the other". Gladstone was fast asleep, with a piece of Turkish delight between his teeth. Horrified, she pokes him with her black umbrella. He wakes with a start, to be told in no uncertain terms, "You're for home". She escorts him back to London.

"He was a very good man", another said, "he gave Greece back the Ionian islands", and then, with a wry but friendly smile at me, "it's a pity he isn't alive to-day."

That's what Corfu and other Greek islands can do to a lot of  foreigners. If they don't become Lotus-eaters, they can very easily 'go native'. But the times are changing. Greeks are using their worry-beads a great deal more, but I suspect that they are splashing out a lot less on the Turkish delight. It's all a myth of course.