exploring the Egyptian pyramids and ancient tombs. Egyptians would make the entrance into such an imSome of these remains of art were eminently rich mense and superb excavation just under a torrent of and splendid, and one which he discovered near water; but I had strong reasons to suppose that there Thebes, containing a sarcophagus of the finest was a tomb in that place, from indications I had preOriental alabaster, minutely sculptured with hun-viously observed in my search of other sepulchres. dreds of figures, he brought with him to Britain, The Arabs, who were accustomed to dig, were all of and it is now in the British Museum. In 1820 he opinion that nothing was to be found there; but I published A Narrative of Operations and Recent persisted in carrying on the work; and on the evenDiscoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, &c. in Egypt ing of the following day we perceived the part of the and Nubia, which shows how much may be done rock that had been hewn and cut away. On the 18th, by the labour and unremitting exertions of one in- early in the morning, the task was resumed; and dividual. Belzoni's success in Egypt, his great bodily about noon, the workmen reached the opening, which strength, and his adventurous spirit, inspired him was eighteen feet below the surface of the ground. with the hope of achieving discoveries in Africa. When there was room enough for me to creep through He sailed to the coast of Guinea, with the intention a passage that the earth had left under the ceiling of of travelling to Timbuctoo, but died at Benin of the first corridor, I perceived immediately, by the an attack of dysentery on the 3d of December 1823. painting on the roof, and by the hieroglyphics in We subjoin a few passages from Belzoni's nar- basso-relievo, that I had at length reached the entrance of a large and magnificent tomb. I hastily passed rative :along this corridor, and came to a staircase 23 feet long, at the foot of which I entered another gallery 37 feet 3 inches long, where my progress was suddenly arrested by a large pit 30 feet deep and 14 feet by 12 feet 3 inches wide. On the other side, and in front of me, I observed a small aperture 2 feet wide and 2 feet 6 inches high, and at the bottom of the pit a quantity of rubbish. A rope fastened to a piece of wood, that was laid across the passage against the projections which formed a kind of doorway, appeared to have been used formerly for descending into the pit; and from the small aperture on the opposite side hung another which reached the bottom, no doubt for the purpose of ascending. The wood, and the rope fastened to it, crumbled to dust on being touched. At the bottom of the pit were several pieces of wood placed against the side of it, so as to assist the person who was to ascend by means of the rope into the aperture. It was not till the following day that we contrived to make a bridge of two beams, and crossed the pit, when we discovered the little aperture to be an opening forced through a wall, that had entirely closed what we afterwards found to be the entrance into magnifi.. cent halls and corridors beyond. The ancient Egyptians had closely shut it up, plastered the wall over, and painted it like the rest of the sides of the pit, so that, but for the aperture, it would have been impossible to suppose that there was any further proceeding. Any one would have concluded that the tomb ended with the pit. Besides, the pit served the purpose of receiving the rain-water which might occasionally fall in the mountain, and thus kept out the damp from the inner part of the tomb. We passed through the small aperture, and then made the full discovery of the whole sepulchre.

[The Ruins at Thebes.]

On the 22d, we saw for the first time the ruins of great Thebes, and landed at Luxor. Here I beg the reader to observe, that but very imperfect ideas can be formed of the extensive ruins of Thebes, even from the accounts of the most skilful and accurate travellers. It is absolutely impossible to imagine the scene displayed, without seeing it. The most sublime ideas that can be formed from the most magnificent specimens of our present architecture, would give a very incorrect picture of these ruins; for such is the difference not only in magnitude, but in form, proportion, and construction, that even the pencil can convey but a faint idea of the whole. It appeared to me like entering a city of giants, who, after a long conflict, were all destroyed, leaving the ruins of their various temples as the only proofs of their former existence. The temple of Luxor presents to the traveller at once one of the most splendid groups of Egyptian grandeur. The extensive propylæon, with the two obelisks, and colossal statues in the front; the thick groups of enormous columns; the variety of apartments, and the sanctuary it contains; the beautiful ornaments which adorn every part of the walls and columns, described by Mr Hamilton; cause in the astonished traveller an oblivion of all that he has seen before. If his attention be attracted to the north side of Thebes by the towering remains that project a great height above the wood of palm-trees, he will gradually enter that forest-like assemblage of ruins of temples, columns, obelisks, colossi, sphinxes, portals, and an endless number of other astonishing objects, that will convince him at once of the impossibility of a description. On the west side of the Nile, still the traveller finds him- An inspection of the model will exhibit the numeself among wonders. The temples of Gournou, Mem-rous galleries and halls through which we wandered; nonium, and Medinet Aboo, attest the extent of the and the vivid colours and extraordinary figures on great city on this side. The unrivalled colossal figures the walls and ceilings, which everywhere met our view, in the plains of Thebes, the number of tombs exca- will convey an idea of the astonishment we must have vated in the rocks, those in the great valley of the felt at every step. In one apartment we found the kings, with their paintings, sculptures, mummies, sar- carcase of a bull embalmed; and also scattered in cophagi, figures, &c. are all objects worthy of the ad- various places wooden figures of mummies covered miration of the traveller, who will not fail to wonder with asphaltum to preserve them. In some of the how a nation which was once so great as to erect these rooms were lying about statues of fine earth, baked, stupendous edifices, could so far fall into oblivion coloured blue, and strongly varnished; in another that even their language and writing are totally un-part were four wooden figures standing erect, four feet known to us. high, with a circular hollow inside, as if intended to contain a roll of papyrus. The sarcophagus of Oriental alabaster was found in the centre of the hall, to which I gave the name of the saloon, without a cover, which had been removed and broken; and the body that had once occupied this superb coffin had been carried away. We were not, therefore, the first who had profanely entered this mysterious mansion of the dead, though there is no doubt it had remained undisturbed since the time of the invasion of the Persians.

[Opening a Tomb at Thebes.]

On the 16th of October 1817, I set a number of fellahs, or labouring Arabs, to work, and caused the earth to be opened at the foot of a steep hill, and under the bed of a torrent, which, when it rains, pours a great quantity of water over the spot in which they were digging. No one could imagine that the ancient

•

The architectural ruins and monuments on the been conscious that the uneasiness they experienced banks of the Nile are stupendous relics of former was a result of their own sensibility. Others have ages. They reach back to the period when Thebes acknowledged ideas widely different, excited by every poured her heroes through a hundred gates, and wonderful circumstance of character and of situation Greece and Rome were the desert abodes of barba-ideas of duration, almost endless; of power, inconrians. From the tops of the Pyramids,' said Napo-ceivable; of majesty, supreme; of solitude, most awful; leon to his soldiers on the eve of battle, the shades of grandeur, of desolation, and of repose. of forty centuries look down upon you.' Learning Upon the 23d of August 1802 we set out for the and research have unveiled part of the mystery of pyramids, the inundation enabling us to approach these august memorials. Men like Belzoni have within less than a mile of the larger pyramid in our penetrated into the vast sepulchres, and unearthed djerm. Messrs Hammer and Hamilton accompanied the huge sculpture; and scholars like Young and us. We arrived at Djiza at daybreak, and called Champollion, by discovering the hieroglyphic writ- upon some English officers, who wished to join our ing of the ancient Egyptians, have been able to as-party upon this occasion. From Djiza our approach certain their object and history. The best English to the pyramids was through a swampy country, by books on Egypt are, The Manners and Customs of the means of a narrow canal, which, however, was deep Ancient Egyptians, by J. G. WILKINSON, 1837; and enough; and we arrived without any obstacle at nine An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern o'clock at the bottom of a sandy slope leading up to Egyptians, by EDWARD W. LANE, 1836. the principal pyramid. Some Bedouin Arabs, who had assembled to receive us upon our landing, were much amused by the eagerness excited in our whole party to prove who should first set his foot upon the With what summit of this artificial mountain. amazement did we survey the vast surface that was presented to us when we arrived at this stupendous monument, which seemed to reach the clouds. Here and there appeared some Arab guides upon the imto show the way to the summit. Now and then we mense masses above us, like so many pigmies, waiting thought we heard voices, and listened; but it was the wind in powerful gusts sweeping the immense ranges of stone. Already some of our party had begun the ascent, and were pausing at the tremendous depth which they saw below. One of our military companions, after having surmounted the most difficult part of the undertaking, became giddy in consequence of looking down from the elevation he had attained; and being compelled to abandon the project, he hired an Arab to assist him in effecting his descent. The rest of us, more accustomed to the business of climbing heights, with many a halt for respiration, and many an exclamation of wonder, pursued our way towards the summit. The mode of ascent has been frequently described; and yet, from the questions which are often proposed to travellers, it does not appear to be generally understood. The reader may imagine himself to be upon a staircase, every step of which, to a man of middle stature, is nearly breast high, and the breadth of each step is equal to its height, conse quently the footing is secure; and although a retrospect in going up be sometimes fearful to persons unaccustomed to look down from any considerable elevation, yet there is little danger of falling. In some

[Description of the Pyramids.]

&c.;

these could not be trusted in the hands of the

We were roused as soon as the sun dawned by Antony, our faithful Greek servant and interpreter, with the intelligence that the pyramids were in view. We hastened from the cabin ; and never will the impression made by their appearance be obliterated. By reflect-places, indeed, where the stones are decayed, caution ing the sun's rays, they appear as white as snow, and may be required, and an Arab guide is always necesof such surprising magnitude, that nothing we had sary to avoid a total interruption; but, upon the previously conceived in our imagination had prepared whole, the means of ascent are such that almost every us for the spectacle we beheld. The sight instantly one may accomplish it. Our progress was impeded by other causes. We carried with us a few instruments, convinced us that no power of description, no delineation, can convey ideas adequate to the effect produced such as our boat-compass, a thermometer, a telescope, in viewing these stupendous monuments. The formality of their construction is lost in their prodigious magnitude; the mind, elevated by wonder, feels at once the force of an axiom, which, however disputed, experience confirms that in vastness, whatsoever be its nature, there dwells sublimity. Another proof of their indescribable power is, that no one ever approached them under other emotions than those of terror, which is another principal source of the sublime. In certain instances of irritable feeling, this impression of awe and fear has been so great as to cause pain rather than pleasure; hence, perhaps, have originated descriptions of the pyramids which represent them as deformed and gloomy masses, without taste or beauty. Persons who have derived no satisfaction from the contemplation of them, may not have

DR E. D. CLARKE.

One of the most original and interesting of modern travellers was the late REV. DR EDWARD DANIEL CLARKE (1769-1822), a fellow of Jesus college, Cambridge, and the first professor of mineralogy in that university. In 1799 Dr Clarke set off with Mr Malthus, and some other college friends, on a journey among the northern nations. He travelled for three years and a half, visiting the south of Russia, part of Asia, Turkey, Egypt, and Palestine. The first volume of his travels appeared in 1810, and included Russia, Tartary, and Turkey. The second, which became more popular, was issued in 1812, and included Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land; and three other volumes appeared at intervals before 1819. The sixth volume was published after his death, part being contributed by Mr Walpole, author of travels in the Levant. Dr Clarke received from his publishers the large sum of £7000 for his collection of travels. Their success was immediate As an honest and accomplished writer, careful in his facts, clear and polished in his style, and comprehensive in his knowledge and observation, Dr Clarke has not been excelled by any general European traveller.

and extensive.

Arabs, and they were liable to be broken every instant. At length we reached the topmost tier, to the great delight and satisfaction of all the party. Here we found a platform thirty-two feet square, consisting of nine large stones, each of which might weigh about a ton, although they are much inferior in size to some of the stones used in the construction of this Pyramid. Travellers of all ages, and of various nations, have here inscribed their names. Some are written in Greek, many in French, a few in Arabic, one or two in English, and others in Latin. We were as desirous as our predecessors to leave a memorial of our arrival; it seemed to be a tribute of thankfulness due for the success of our undertaking; and pre

*Boat of the Nile.

Immediately beneath our view, upon the eastern and western side, we saw so many tombs that we were unable to count then, some being half buried in the sand, others rising considerably above it. All these are of an oblong for 1, with sides sloping like the roofs of European house. A plan of their situation and appearance is given in Pocock's Travels. The second pyramid, standing the south-west, has the remains of a covering near its vertex, as of a plating of stone which had once invested all its four sides. Some persons, deceived by the external hue of this covering, have believed it to be of marble; but its white appearance is owing to a partial decomposition affecting the surface only. Not a single fragment of marble can be found anywhere near this pyramid. It is surrounded by a paved court, having walls on the out-tached sentences from Forsyth will show his pecuside, and places as for doors or portals in the walls; liar and picturesque style. First, of the author's Also an advance work or nortico. A third pyramid, | journey to Rome:

The vintage was in full glow. Men, women, children, asses, all were variously engaged in the work. I remarked in the scene a prodigality and negligence which I never saw in France. The grapes dropped unheeded from the panniers, and hundreds were left unclipped on the vines. The vintagers poured on us as we passed the richest ribaldry of the Italian language, and seemed to claim from Horace's old vindemiator a prescriptive right to abuse the traveller."*

[The Coliseum.]

A colossal taste gave rise to the Coliseum. Here, indeed, gigantic dimensions were necessary; for though hundreds could enter at once, and fifty thousand find seats, the space was still insufficient for Rome, and the crowd for the morning games began at midnight. Vespasian and Titus, as if presaging their own deaths, hurried the building, and left several marks of their precipitancy behind. In the upper walls they have inserted stones which had evidently been dressed for a different purpose. Some of the arcades are grossly unequal; no moulding preserves the same level and form round the whole ellipse, and every order is full of license. The Doric has no triglyphs nor metopes, and its arch is too low for its columns; the Ionic repeats the entablature of the Doric; the third order is but a rough cast of the Corinthian, and its foliage the thickest water-plants; the fourth seems a mere repetition of the third in pilasters; and the whole is crowned by a heavy Attic. Happily for the Coliseum, the shape necessary to an amphitheatre has given it a stability of construction sufficient to resist fires, and earthquakes, and lightnings, and sieges. Its elliptical form was the hoop which bound and held it entire till barbarians rent that consolidating ring; popes widened the breach; and time, not unassisted, continues the work of dilapidation. At this moment the hermitage is threatened with a dreadful crash, and a generation not very remote must be content, I apprehend, with the picture of this stupendous monument. Of the interior elevation, two slopes, by some called meniana, are already demolished; the arena, the podium, are interred. No member runs entire round the whole ellipse; but every member made such a circuit, and re-appears so often, that plans, sections, and elevations of the original work are drawn with the precision of a modern fabric. When the whole amphitheatre was entire, a child might comprehend its design in a moment, and go direct to his place without straying in the porticos, for each arcade bears its number engraved, and opposite to every fourth arcade was a staircase. This multiplicity of wide, straight, and separate passages, proves the attention which the ancients paid to the safe discharge of a crowd; it finely illustrates the precept of Vitruvius, and exposes the perplexity of some modern theatres. Every nation has undergone its revolution of vices; and as cruelty is not the present vice of ours, we can all humanely execrate the purpose of amphitheatres, now that they lie in ruins. Moralists may tell us that the truly brave are never cruel; but this monument says 'No.' Here sat the conquerors of the world, coolly to enjoy the tortures and death of men who had never offended them. Two aqueducts were scarcely sufficient to wash off the human blood which

*The poet Rogers has sketched the same joyous scene of
Italian life-
Many a canzonet

Comes through the leaves, the vines in light festoons
From tree to tree, the trees in avenues,

And every avenue a covered walk

Hung with black clusters. 'Tis enough to make
The sad man merry, the benevolent one
Melt into tears, so general is the joy.'

a few hours' sport shed in this imperial shambles. Twice
in one day came the senators and matrons of Rome
to the butchery; a virgin always gave the signal for
slaughter; and when glutted with bloodshed, those
ladies sat down in the wet and streaming arena to a
luxurious supper! Such reflections check our regret
for its ruin. As it now stands, the Coliseum is a
striking image of Rome itself-decayed, vacant, se-
rious, yet grand-half-gray and half-green-erect on
one side and fallen on the other, with consecrated
ground in its bosom-inhabited by a beadsman; ¦
visited by every caste; for moralists, antiquaries,
painters, architects, devotees, all meet here to medi-
tate, to examine, to draw, to measure, and to pray.
In contemplating antiquities,' says Livy, the mind
itself becomes antique.' It contracts from such ob-
jects a venerable rust, which I prefer to the polish
and the point of those wits who have lately profaned
this august ruin with ridicule.

In the year following the publication of Forsyth's original and valuable work, appeared A Classical Tour in Italy, in two large volumes, by JOHN CHETWODE EUSTACE, an English Catholic priest, who had travelled in Italy in the capacity of tutor. Though pleasantly written, Eustace's work is one of no authority. Sir John Cam Hobhouse (who furnished the notes to the fourth canto of Lord Byron's Childe Harold, and afterwards published a volume of Historical Illustrations to the same poem) characterises Eustace as one of the most inaccurate and unsatisfactory writers that have in our times attained a temporary reputation.' Mr Eustace died at Naples in 1815. Letters from the North of Italy, addressed to Mr Hallam the historian, by W. STEWART ROSE, Esq. in two volumes, 1819, are partly descriptive and partly critical; and though somewhat affected in style, form an amusing miscellany. A Tour through the Southern Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples, by the HON. R. KEPPEL CRAVEN (1821), is more of an itinerary than a work of reflection, but is plainly and pleasingly written. The Diary of an Invalid, by HENRY MATHEWS (1820), and Rome in the Nineteenth Century (1820), by MISS WALDIE, are both interesting works: the first is lively and picturesque in style, and was well received by the public. In 1821 LADY MORGAN published a work entitled Italy, containing pictures of Italian society and manners, drawn with more vivacity and point than delicacy, Observations on Italy, by MR JOHN BELL (1825), and

a Description of the Antiquities of Rome, by DR BUR
TON (1828), are works of accuracy and research.
Illustrations of the Passes of the Alps, by W. BROCKE-
DON (1828-9), unite the effects of the artist's pencil
with the information of the observant topographer,
MR BECKFORD, author of the romance of Vathek,
had in early life written Sketches of Italy, Spain, and
Portugal. After remaining unpublished for more
than forty years, two volumes of these graphic and
picturesque delineations were given to the world in
1834. Time has altered some of the objects described
by the accomplished traveller, but his work abounds
in passages of permanent interest, and of finished
and beautiful composition. Every season adds to
the number of works on Italy and the other parts of

the continent.

[Funeral Ceremony at Rome.]

[From Mathews's Diary of an Invalid."]
One day, in my way home, I met a funeral cere
mony. A crucifix hung with black, followed by
train of priests, with lighted tapers in their hands,
headed the procession. Then came a troop of figures
dressed in white robes, with their faces covered with
masks of the same materials. The bier followed, on

which lay the corpse of a young woman arrayed in all
the ornaments of dress, with her face exposed, where the
bloom of life yet lingered. The members of different
fraternities followed the bier, dressed in the robes
of their orders, and all masked. They carried lighted
tapers in their hands, and chanted out prayers in a
sort of mumbling recitative. I followed the train to
the church, for I had doubts whether the beautiful
figure I had seen on the bier was not a figure of wax;
but I was soon convinced it was indeed the corpse of
a fellow-creature, cut off in the pride and bloom of
youthful maiden beauty. Such is the Italian mode
of conducting the last scene of the tragi-comedy of
life. As soon as a person dies, the relations leave the
house, and fly to bury themselves and their griefs in
some other retirement. The care of the funeral de-a
volves on one of the fraternities who are associated
for this purpose in every parish. These are dressed
in a sort of domino and hood, which, having holes for
the eyes, answers the purpose of a mask, and com-
pletely conceals the face. The funeral of the very
poorest is thus conducted with quite as much cere-
mony as need be. This is perhaps a better system
than our own, where the relatives are exhibited as a
spectacle to impertinent curiosity, whilst from feel-
ings of duty they follow to the grave the remains of
those they loved. But ours is surely an unphiloso-
phical view of the subject. It looks as if we were
materialists, and considered the cold clod as the sole
remains of the object of our affection. The Italians
reason better, and perhaps feel as much as ourselves,
when they regard the body, deprived of the soul that
animated, and the mind that informed it, as no more
a part of the departed spirit than the clothes which
it has also left behind. The ultimate disposal of the
body is perhaps conducted here with too much of that
spirit which would disregard all claims that this
mortal coil' can have to our attention. As soon as
the funeral service is concluded, the corpse is stripped
and consigned to those who have the care of the in-
terment. There are large vaults underneath the
churches for the reception of the dead. Those who
can afford it, are put into a wooden shell before they
are cast into one of these Golgothas; but the great
mass are tossed in without a rag to cover them. When
one of these caverns is full, it is bricked up; and after
fifty years it is opened again, and the bones are re-
moved to other places prepared for their reception.
So much for the last scene of the drama of life. With
respect to the first act, our conduct of it is certainly
more natural. Here they swathe and swaddle their
children till the poor urchins look like Egyptian
mummies. To this frightful custom one may attri-
bute the want of strength and symmetry of the men,
which is sufficiently remarkable.

[Statue of the Medicean Venus at Florence.*] [From Mathews's Diary.]

The statue that enchants the world-the unimitated, the inimitable Venus. One is generally disappointed after great expectations have been raised; but in this instance I was delighted at first sight, and each succeeding visit has charmed me more. It is indeed a wonderful work in conception and execution —but I doubt whether Venus be not a misnomer. Who can recognize in this divine statue any traits of the Queen of Love and Pleasure? It seems rather

* This celebrated work of art was discovered in the villa of Adrian, in Tivoli, in the sixteenth century, broken into thirteen pieces. The restorations are by a Florentine sculptor. It was brought to Florence in the year 1689. It measures in stature only 4 feet 11 inches. There is no expression of passion or sentiment in the statue: it is an image of abstract or ideal beauty.

85

intended as a personification of all that is elegant, graceful, and beautiful; not only abstracted from all human infirmities, but elevated above all human feelings and affections; for, though the form is female, the beauty is like the beauty of angels, who are of no sex. I was at first reminded of Milton's Eve; but in Eve, even in her days of innocence, there was some tincture of humanity, of which there is none in the Venus; in whose eye there is no heaven, and in whose gesture there is no love.

[A Morning in Venice.]

[From Beckford's Sketches of Italy,' &c.]

It was not five o'clock before I was aroused by loud din of voices and splashing of water under my balcony. Looking out, I beheld the grand canal so entirely covered with fruits and vegetables on rafts and in barges, that I could scarcely distinguish a wave. Loads of grapes, peaches, and melons arrived and disappeared in an instant, for every vessel was in motion; and the crowds of purchasers, hurrying from boat to boat, formed a very lively picture. Amongst the multitudes I remarked a good many whose dress and carriage announced something above the common rank; and, upon inquiry, I found they were noble Venetians just come from their casinos, and met to refresh themselves with fruit before they retired to sleep for the day.

Whilst I was observing them, the sun began to colour the balustrades of the palaces, and the pure exhilarating air of the morning drawing me abroad, I procured a gondola, laid in my provision of bread and grapes, and was rowed under the Rialto, down the grand canal, to the marble steps of S. Maria della Salute, erected by the senate in performance of a vow to the Holy Virgin, who begged off a terrible pestilence in 1630. The great bronze portal opened whilst I was standing on the steps which lead to it, and discovered the interior of the dome, where I expatiated in solitude; no mortal appearing, except one old priest, who trimmed the lamps, and muttered a prayer before the high altar, still wrapped in shadows. The sunbeams began to strike against the windows of the cupola, just as I left the church, and was wafted across the waves to the spacious platform in front of St Giorgio Maggiore, one of the most celebrated works of Palladio. When my first transport was a little subsided, and I had examined the graceful design of each particular ornament, and united the just proportion and grand effect of the whole in my mind, I planted my umbrella on the margin of the sea, and viewed at my leisure the vast range of palaces, of porticos, of towers, opening on every side, and extending out of sight. The doge's palace, and the tall columns at the entrance of the piazza of St Mark, form, together with the arcades of the public library, the lofty Campanile, and the cupolas of the ducal church, one of the most striking groups of buildings that art can boast of. To trious in the records of former ages, before which, in behold at one glance these stately fabrics, so illusthe flourishing times of the republic, so many valiant chiefs and princes have landed, loaded with Oriental spoils, was a spectacle I had long and ardently desired. I thought of the days of Frederick Barbarossa, when looking up the piazza of St Mark, along which he marched in solemn procession to cast himself at the feet of Alexander III., and pay a tardy homage to St Peter's successor. Here were no longer those splendid fleets that attended his progress; one solitary galeas was all I beheld, anchored opposite the palace of the doge, and surrounded by crowds of gondolas, whose sable hues contrasted strongly with its vermilion oars and shining ornaments. A partycoloured multitude was continually shifting from one side of the piazza to the other; whilst senators and