prostrate heap, once a temple. The cell or nave was constructed of large, coarse stones. This temple had four columns between the antæ. Their diameter is about four feet six inches; their length about thirty-two feet, but, including the base and capital, forty-six feet and about seven inches. Though the dimensions of these pillars are so large, the shafts are fluted. The most entire of them, however, are broken into two pieces. The ornaments were rich, but " of inferior taste, and the mouldings ill-proportioned."* This temple is supposed to be the remains of that erected at Ephesus, by permission of Augustus, to Julius. Some, however, beIlieve it to have been that dedicated to Claudius Cæsar on his apotheosis.

About a mile from this are the fragments of a sumptuous edifice among the bushes, beneath which are altars of white marble. These occupy an eminence, from which is beheld a lovely prospect of the river Cayster, which crosses the plain from near Gellesus, in a small but full stream, with many luxuriant windings.

Mount Prion, according to Chandler, is among the curiosities of Ionia enumerated by Pausanias. It served as an inexhaustible magazine of marble, and contributed largely to the magnificence of the city. "The Ephesians, it is related, when they first resolved to provide an edifice worthy of Diana, met to agree on importing materials. The quarries then in use were remote; and the expense, it was foreseen, would be prodigious. At this time a shepherd happened to be feeding his flock on Mount Prion, and two rams fighting, one of them missed his antagonist, and, striking the rock with his horn, broke off a crust of very white marble. He ran into the city with this specimen, which was received with excess of joy. He was highly honoured for this

* Revett's MS. notes.

accidental discovery; the Ephesians changing his name from Pixodorus to Evangelus, the good messenger, and enjoining their chief magistrate, under a penalty, to visit the spot, and sacrifice to him monthÎy. This custom continued to be observed even so late as the time of Augustus Cæsar.

Not far from the Gymnasium are cavities, with mouths like ovens, intended for burial-places. These are supposed to have belonged to the Oratory or Church of St. John, rebuilt by Justinian. Near the site of the city are quarries in the bowels of the mountain, with numberless mazes, and vast, silent, dripping caverns. In many parts of these, Dr. Chandler informs us, are chippings of marble and marks of tools. He found also huge blocks of the same material lying among the bushes at the bottom.

The Ephesians, at the time they were visited by the learned traveller to whom in this account we have so frequently referred, were a few Greek peasants, living in extreme wretchedness, dependance, and insensibility; "the representatives of an illustrious people, and exhibiting the wreck of their greatness; some in the substructions of the glorious edifices which they had raised; some beneath the vaults of the stadium, once the crowded scene of their diversions; and some by the abrupt precipice, in the sepulchres which received their ashes."

These ruins were visited by Sir John Hobhouse. "The desolate walls of the mosque of St. John, and the whole scene of Aiasaluck," says he, "cannot but suggest a train of melancholy reflections. The decay of successive religions is thus presented at one view to the eye of the traveller! The marble spoils of the Grecian temple adorn the edifice, over which the tower of the Mussulman, the emblem of another triumphant worship, is itself seen to totter, and sink into the mouldering ruins." Not a single

* Vitruvius.

inhabitant, nor even a shepherd's hut, was to be seen on the actual site of this once resplendent city! "Its streets are obscure and overgrown," says Chandler. "A herd of goats was driven to it for shelter from the sun at noon, and a noisy flight of crows from the quarries seemed to insult its silence. We heard the partridge call in the area of the theatre and of the stadium. The glorious pomp of its heathen worship is no longer remembered; and Christianity, which was there nursed by apostles and fostered by general councils, until it increased in fulness of stature, barely lingers on in an existence hardly visible."

Since the time here referred to, the state of Christianity has fallen still lower. In 1812, one Greek, a baker, living at Aiasaluck, and three or four fishermen, dwelling in sheds near the river, were the only Christians to be found in the city of Ephesus.

GRANADA.

GRANADA* has twelve gates, is about eight miles round, and is defended by high walls, flanked with a multitude of towers. Part of the city is elevated, and part on a plain. The elevated portion stands upon three small eminences. The one called Albrezzin was inhabited by the Moors who were driven out of Baezza by the Christians; the second is named Alcazebe, and the third Alhambra. This last is separated from the other parts by a valley, through which the river Darro runs; and it is also fortified with strong walls, in such a manner as to command all the rest of the city. The greater part of this fortified spot of ground is taken up with a most sumptuous palace of the Moorish kings. This pal

* From a work published in 1778.

ace is built with square stones of great size; is fortified with strong walls and prodigious large towers; and the whole is of such an extent as to be capable of holding a very numerous garrison. The outside has exactly the appearance of an immense romantic old castle; but it is exceedingly magnificent within.

But, before we enter, we must take notice of a remarkable piece of sculpture over the great gate: there is the figure of a large key of a castle-gate, and, at some distance above it, an arm reaching towards it; the signification of which emblematical marble basso-relief is this: that the castles will never be taken till the arm can reach the key.

On entering, not only the portico is of marble, but the apartments also are incrusted with marble, jasper, and porphyry, the beams curiously carved, painted, and gilded, and the ceilings ornamented with pieces of foliage in stucco. The next place you come to is an oblong square court, paved with marble, at each angle of which is a fountain, and in the middle a very fine canal of running water. The baths and chambers where the inhabitants cooled themselves and reposed are incrusted with alabaster and marble. There is an exceedingly venerable tower, called La Toure Comazey, in which are noble saloons and fine apartments, all perfectly well supplied with water. In the time of the Moors there was a kind of espalier, or cut hedge of myrtle, accompanied by a row of orange-trees, which went round the canal.

From thence you pass into a noble square, called the Square of Lions, from a grand fountain adorned with twelve lions cut in marble, pouring out torrents of water from their mouths; and, when the water is turned off and ceases to run, if you whisper ever so low at the mouth of any one of them, you may hear what is said by applying your ear to the mouth of any other. Above the lions there is another basin,

and a grand jet-d'eau. The court is paved with marble, and has a portico quite round it, supported by 117 high columns of alabaster. In one of the saloons, though you speak ever so low, it will be distinctly heard at the farther end; and this they call the Chamber of Secrets. This sumptuous palace was built by Mohammed Mir, king of Granada, in 1278.

"There is no part of the edifice," says Washington Irving," that gives us a more complete idea of its original beauty and magnificence than the Hall of Lions, for none has suffered so little from the ravages of time. In the centre stands the fountain, famous in song and story. The alabaster basins still shed their diamond drops; and the twelve lions which support them cast forth their crystal streams as in the days of Boabdil. The court is laid out in flower-beds, surrounded by high Arabian arcades of open filigree-work, supported by splendid pillars of white marble. The architecture, like that of all the other parts of the palace, is characterized by elegance rather than grandeur, bespeaking a delicate and graceful taste, and a disposition to indolent enjoyment. When one looks upon the fair tracery of the peristyles, and the apparently fragile fretwork of the walls, it is difficult to believe that so much has survived the wear and tear of centuries, the shock of earthquakes, the violence of war, and the quiet and no less baneful pilfering of the tasteful traveller.

"There is a Moorish tradition, that the king who built this mighty pile was skilled in the occult sciences, and furnished himself with gold and silver for the purpose by means of alchymy; certainly never was there an edifice accomplished in a superior style of barbaric magnificence: and the stranger who, even at the present day, wanders among its silent and deserted courts and ruined halls, gazes with astonishment at its gilded and fretted domes and luxurious decorations, still retaining their brilliancy and beauty in spite of the ravages of time.