the murderers belonged is, I believe, well known; and the scene of their atrocity was, as I have heard, not far from that bridge of which Mr. Morier has given a view in his Travels, p. 267; a most romantic spot, where I halted for an hour or two in June 1812; but the accounts which have yet reached me are very imperfect. I have long since resolved never to lay any of my learned friends under literary contribution : yet be assured, my dear Sir, that for your obliging offer of advice and assistance I am most truly grateful. My Travels, although I endeavor to repress and compress, are swelling to an alarming bulk. In notes taken on the spot of six or seven lines, I find materials for as many pages. Where all this will end I know not, but certainly the work will not be ready for the press before a year; nor can it be comprised in less than two large quartos. For these I must not claim mercy as les péchés de ma jeunesse ; but my excuse must be the vast extent of tract, and the variety of countries through which I travelled. In going out we visited Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, Tristan da Cunha, Ceylon, Cochin and Bombay, then the islands of the Persian Gulf, and terminated our voyage at Bushehr. We then proceeded to Shiraz, whence (with a view to my half-finished work on Alexander) I made an excursion to Darabghierd, near the borders of Carmania; and I sought among the ruins of Pasargada (or Pasagorda) for the tomb of Cyrus, and returned to Shiraz by way of Persepolis. This, the Hindoo excavations at Elephanta, and Constantinople, are among a thousand extraordinary objects that equalled (I may say surpassed) the idea which I had formed of them. From Shiraz we proceeded to Ispahan, and there occupied a royal palace and garden for three months: we then went on through Com and Cashan to Tehran, now the king's residence, whence, after three months, I again detached myself from the embassy, and traced the route of Alexander (as I believe) through the Pyla Caspia and the forests of Hyrcania to Sari, the ancient Zadracarta, and visited Ashroff, Balforush, Amol, and other places on the Caspian Sea; along the shore, and indeed in the very waters of which, I rode many a mile on the fine soft sand, smooth as any carpet. I returned to Tehran by way of Damavand, a town at the foot of a mountain that may be reckoned among the most stupendous of the world. On this excursion, as on the former to Pasargada, I was the only European of the party; but I had good servants, guards, and guides, and travelled with the protection of a royal firman. From Tehran I accompanied the embassy to Tabreez, passing through Cazvin, Sultaniah, &c.; and on the 1st of July, 1812, I set out from Tabrecz with a Tartar courier, and proceeded to old Julpha, on the Araxes, which I had crossed, to Nakhjevan, by Mount Ararat to Erivan, the three churches, &c., and so on through Armenia to Kars. Here the Turkish Pacha gave me guards on to Arzeroom: a little beyond this I bathed in the Euphrates, then pursued my wearisome journey, changing horses every twenty or thirty miles, to Tokat, Amasia, Isnikmid (Nicomedia), &c. to Constantinople, having, for the last thirteen or fourteen stages, found the plague at every village. In Constantinople it raged with uncommon fury; and the day I arrived there fifteen hundred persons died. There, however, I remained twelve days; then crossed over to the Asiatic side, and proceeded by land through Magnesia to Smyrna. Here again was the plague; but, after a week's stay, I went on board an English frigate, the Salsette, and after a delightful visit to Scio and a most classical navigation among the other Greek islands, we coasted along Sicily, had a peep at Malta, went in to the grand fleet off Toulon, where I dined with Sir Edward Pellew in that wonderful ship, the Caledonia, and got leave to proceed to England. On my way I saw Sardinia and Minorca, Majorca, &c., and landed at Alicant, passed over to the African coast, was becalmed there, landed at Tetuan, and at last anchored at Gibraltar. There I staid almost two days, then sailed, and at length arrived at Portsmouth, closing our voyage by taking a French privateer of sixteen guns. During this trip, including the four quarters of the globe, I never had one hour's illness: every other member of the embassy suffered extremely from the heat, particularly at Shiraz. The thermometer was sometimes 110°. This trip has furnished me with at least three hundred drawings and sketches, besides maps of my particular excursions, as accurate as a watch and compass could make them. I have picked up many valu able manuscripts, coins, gems, inscriptions, sculpture, figures, &c.: all these must serve as an excuse for being voluminous. A mere dry list of the stages and distances of places through which I passed fills a good deal of paper, as you (better than any one else) can believe. Sheffield Place, Sept. 26th, 1814. I am now engaged in the publication of a very much enlarged edition of Mr. Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works, and of course shall republish the Address,† which mentions you as a person well * John Baker Holroyd, first created Baron Sheffield in 1802, and Earl of Sheffield in Ireland, 1816. He died in 1821. ↑ This Address, which is printed in the quarto edition of Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works, II. p. 707, is of too great length to be here inserted; and I regret that it is so, as it is a beautiful piece of composition, and gives, in a comparatively short space, an admirable view of the principal requisites for an edition of the great body of early English history, now so fortunately undertaken by the man who above all others is, by his talents, his industry, and his acquirements, best fitted for the task, my friend, Mr. Petrie. At the same time, however, that I cannot embody in this work the whole address, I feel that I should be guilty of gross injustice to the memory of Mr. Pinkerton, were I to omit the following extract, in which such honorable mention is made of him. Laudari a laudato is what every one knows to be valuable. VOL. II. 2 F qualified to collect the later memorials of the middle ages. The Address is imperfect, as it does After speaking of the difficulty of meeting with an editor for such a work, Mr. Gibbon proceeds to say:-"The age of Herculean diligence, which could devour and digest whole libraries, is passed away; and I sat down in hopeless despondency till 1 should be able to find a person endowed with proper qualifications, and ready to employ several years of his life in assiduous labor, without any splendid prospect of emolument or fame. "The man is at length found; and I now renew the proposal in a higher tone of confidence. The name of this editor is Mr. John Pinkerton; but, as that name may provoke some resentments and revive some prejudices, it is incumbent on me, for his reputation, to explain my sentiments without reserve; and I have the satisfaction of knowing that he will not be displeased with the freedom and sincerity of a friend. The impulse of a vigorous mind urged him, at an early age, to write and to print, before his taste and his judgment had attained to their maturity. His ignorance of the world, the love of paradox, and the warmth of his temper, betrayed him into some improprieties; and those juvenile sallies, which candor will excuse, he is the first to condemn, and will perhaps be the last to forget. Repentance has long since propitiated the mild divinity of Virgil, against whom the rash youth, under a fictitious name, had darted the javelin of criticism. He smiles at his reformation of our English tongue, and is ready to confess that in all popular institutions the laws of custom must be obeyed by reason herself. The Goths still continue to be his chosen people; but he retains no antipathy to a Celtic savage; and, without renouncing his opinions and arguments, he sincerely laments that those literary arguments have ever been embittered, and perhaps enfeebled, by an indiscreet mixture of anger and contempt. By some explosions of this kind the volatile and fiery particles of his nature have been discharged, and there remains a pure and solid substance, endowed with many active and useful energies. His recent publication, a Treatise on Medals, and the Edition of the early Scotch Poets, discover a mind replete with a variety of knowledge, and inclined to every liberal pur |