and within its coast line, and parallel to it, it was fenced off by the long bank of Mount Parnon, which runs from the heights of Mount MÆNALUS to the MALEAN promontory, and terminates in the insular cliffs of CYTHERA.

We have spoken above of the whole peninsula of the Peloponnesus as bearing a resemblance in form to an AMPHITHEATRE; and from what has been just stated, it will appear that the country of Sparta,-the hollow Lacedæmon, as it is called in the Iliad and the Odyssey,-being flanked on the east and on the west by two long parallel ridges of mountains, which were connected together by a similar but much shorter barrier at the northern extremity, may well be compared in shape to an ancient STADIUM, of which Mount Parnon and Mount Taygetus are the two sides, and of which the end is formed by the northern abutment, already described, of the Arcadian hills. The bed of this natural stadium was the valley of Sparta. The entrance

which has its source above the northern termination of the valley, and was believed to run in the same channel as the Alpheus, till these rivers separated themselves in the bowels of a mountain not far from that point, the one diverging northward toward the centre of Arcadia, while the Eurotas issued from the same chasm into the territory of Laconia. The city of Sparta stood in the middle of this valley, on the right bank of the stream.

The vale of Sparta was justly celebrated for its picturesque character.

Being also sheltered on three sides from the severity of cold winds, and open on the south to the soft and refreshing breezes which were wafted upon it from the southern sea, and being watered by the copious flood of the Eurotas, which vied in size,-to adopt the ancient belief with respect to their common origin, with its twin stream, the Alpheus, the largest river of the Peninsula, it enjoyed natural advantages, which, if its soil had corresponded in excellence with its other qualifications, would have rendered the Laconian valley the most productive province of the Peloponnesus.

Its low grounds, indeed, are remarkable for their fertility, and for the variety of their productions, and exhibit a beautiful luxuriance of shrubs and fruit trees. Here are figs and oranges, pomegranates and myrtles. The acclivities which rise above the plains are clad with olives, for the cultivation of which the soil of the Taygetus is so favourable, that it may justly seem to demand an apology from the Athenian bard, who rejects all the pretensions of the "Dorian Isle" to a share in the production of that tree.

These olive plantations are succeeded by forests of firs, which cover the loftier heights of the mountains, whose sides are ploughed into deep gullies by torrents which flow from the summit of Taygetus into the vale, where they mix their waters with the Eurotas. At this stage of the ascent, the mountain assumes a different character. It becomes bleak and savage: it is broken into deep gorges and abrupt precipices. It then shoots up its lofty and jagged peaks, which are covered with snow during the greater portion of the year.

The long and majestic range of these mountain piles, contrasted with the green banks and the flowing stream, the blooming gardens and the rich cornfields, which fringe the river, and adorn the vale beneath them, present a beautiful picture, which might well have excited the admiration and

inspired the love of the ancient inhabitants of Laconia, delighting as they did in all the bodily exercises for which a beautiful country and a fine climate produce an enthusiastic devotion.

To impart additional beauty to this scene, we may imagine it, as in ancient days, peopled with living objects,-chorusses, for instance, such as Theocritus describes in it, of the countrywomen of Helen dancing on the slopes of the mountain, along the banks of the stream, or beneath the shadows of the grove we may listen, in fancy, to the echoes with which the mountain rung of old at early dawn, when the fellow-countrymen of her twin Brothers followed the dogs of Sparta to the chase, through the glades and glens of Taygetus.

he Mænalian summits are a central point to which the mountain chains of Arcadia, Laconia, and Argolis converge. Beneath them, on the south-west, is the modern town of TRIPOLITZA, which stands on the site formerly occupied by one of the oldest and most venerable cities of Arcadia. This was PALLANTIUM, the city of Pallas and Evander.

It is interesting to trace, as it were, the first footsteps of Rome, the Mistress of the World, on this rude mountain of Arcadia; and to pass, in imagination, from the sylvan scene before us, while we look upon the pine-tree groves of Mænalus, and on the castle-hill of Pallantium, to the gorgeous pile of imperial splendour which glittered on the top of the Roman PALATINE. We are pleased, also, with the reflection, that one of the best of Roman