CALYPSO’S ISLAND.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVII, Issue 10902, 27 April 1927, Page 8

CALYPSO’S ISLAND.

SITUATED IN A-FRENCH RIVER.

.One may search in vain on maps of the Aegean Sea or in the gazetteer for Calypso’s Island. It is not there, though every reader of the “Odyssey” and of Fenelon’s “Telemaque” knows the island well, says the “New York Times.’’ As a matter of fact, search elsewhere than among the Isles of Greece will reveal an island thus named : it is in France, in Dordogne River, says Andre Lamande, who delights in antiquarian research as well as in writing up-to-date novels. Formerly called Barade or Bourgnon Island, it was the* property of Denelon himself. He renamed it Calypso’s Island. The Archbishop of Oambrai made no mention of it in his will, and his surviving relatives and the monks of the Carennae Monastery disputed among themselves for its possession. Thus they wrangled until the Revolution, when it was declared the common property of the taxpayers of that district.

Then the question arose: How to divide it equitably, seeing that its surface was variegated, woodland and meadow? A levelling process was agreed upon. The century-pld trees were uprooted and the whole island was made a bare, level t tract. In this condition nobody wanted it, even when it had been divided according to the laws of justice. Now, after many years, new trees have grown and Calypso’s Island is again a place of beauty, worthy to have been the home of the enchantress of Ulysses and of Telemachus.