which bespeaks the masonry of the early ages of Grecian history. All the territory within these foundations was covered by broken pottery, whose fragments were parts of those antient vases now held in such high estimation. Here the peasants said they found the medals they had offered to us, and most frequently after heavy rains. Many had been discovered in consequence of the recent excavations made there by the Turks, who were removing the materials of the old foundations, for the purpose of constructing works at the Dardanelles. As these medals, bearing indisputable legends to designate the people by whom they were fabricated, have also, in the circumstances of their discovery, a peculiar connection with the ruins here, they may be considered as indicating, with tolerable certainty, the situation of the city to which they belonged. Had we observed in our route from Tchiblack, precisely the line of direction mentioned by Strabo, and continued by a due course from east to west, instead of turning towards the south in the Simïosian plain to visit the village of Callifat, we should have terminated the distance he has mentioned, of thirty standia, (as separating the city from the village of the Iliensians) by the discovery of these ruins. They may have been the same which Kauffer noticed in his map, by the title of Ville de Constantine; but evidently appear to be the remains of New Ilium; whether we regard the testimony afforded by their situation, as accordant with the text of Strabo, or the discovery there made of medals of the city. Once in possession of this important point, a light breaks in upon the dark labyrinth of Troas; we stand with Strabo upon the very spot whence he deduced his observations concerning other objects in the district; looking down upon the Simoïsian Plain, and viewing the junction of the two rivers (" one flowing

towards Sigeum, and the other towards Rhæteum," precisely as de scribed by him) in front of the Iliensi an city; being guided, at the same time, to Callicolone, the village of the Ilieans, and the sepulchres of

syetes, Batieia, and Ilus, by the clue he has afforded. From the natural or artificial elevation of the territory on which the city stood, (an insulated object in the plain) we beheld almost every landmark to which that author has alluded. The splendid spectacle presented towards the west by the snow clad top of Samothrace, towering behind Imbrus, would baffle every attempt of delineation: it rose with indescribable grandeur, to a height beyond all I had seen for a long time, and, while its ætherial summit shone with inconceivable brightness in a sky without a cloud, seemed, notwithstanding its remote situation, as if its vastness would overwhelm all Troas, should an earthquake heave it from its base. Nearer to the eye appeared the mouth of the Hellespont, and Sigeum. On the south, the tomb of syetes, by the road leading to Alexandria Troas; and less remote, the Scamander receiving Simois, or Callifat Water, at the boundary of the Simoïsian Plain. Towards the east, the Throsmos, with the sepulchres of Batieia and Ilus: and far beyond, in the great chain of Ida, Gargarus opposed to Samothrace, dignified by equal if not superior altitude, and beaming the same degree of splendor from the snows by which it was invested.

It is only by viewing the stupen dous prospect afforded in these classical regions that any adequate idea can be formed of Homer's powers as a painter, and of the accuracy which distinguishes what Mr Wood (Essay on Homer, p. 132.) terms his "celestial geography." Neptune, placed on the top of Samothrace, commanding a prospect of Ida, Troy, and the fleet, observes Jupiter, upon Gargarus, turn

and watered by the Callifat Osmack, is the Simoïsian; and that stream the Simoïs. Here were signalized all the principal events of the Trojan

war.

V. The ruins of Palaio Callifat are those of the Ilium of Strabo. Eastward is Throsmos, or Mound of the Plain.

VI. The hill near Tchiblack, if it be not the Callicolone, may possibly mark the site of the Village of the Ilieans, mentioned by Strabo, where ancient Ilium stood.

VII. Udjek Tepe is the tomb of Æsyetes. The other tombs mentioned by Strabo, as at Sigeum, are all in the situation he describes. The tomb of Protesilaus also still exists, on the European side of the mouth of the Hellespont.

VIII. The springs of Bonarbashy may possibly have been the AOIAI ПнгАI of Homer; but they are not sources of the Scamander. They are, moreover, warm springs.

IX. The source of the Scamander is in Gargarus, now called Kasdaghy, the highest mountain of all the Idæan Chain.

X. The Altars of Jupiter, mentioned by Homer, and by Eschylus, were on the hill called Küchûnlû Têpe, at the foot of Gargarus; where the ruins of the temple now remain.

XI. Pale Scepsis is yet recognised in the appellation Eske Skûpshu.

XII. Ené is the Aineia of Strabo, and Enê Tépe, perhaps, the Tomb of Eneas.

XIII. The extremity of the Adramyttian gulph inclines round the ridge of Gargarus, towards the north-east; so that the circumstance of Xerxes having this mountain upon his left, in his march from Antandrus to Abydus, is thereby explained.

XIV. Gargarus affords a view, not only of all the Plain of Troy, but of all the district of Troas, and a very considerable portion of the rest of Asia Minor.

GREEK Manuscripts at CONSTANTI

NOPLE.

(From the same.)

IT is somewhat singular, that, a

One

mongst all the literary travellers who have described the curiosities of Constantiple, no one has hitherto noticed the market for manuscripts; yet it would be difficult to select an ob ject more worthy of examination.The bazar of the booksellers does not contain all the works enumerated by D'Herbelot; but there is hardly any Oriental author, whose writings, if demanded, may not be procured, although every volume offered for sale is manuscript. The number of shops employed in this way, in that market and elsewhere, amounts to a hundred: each of these contain, upon an average, five hundred volumes; so that no less a number than fifty thousand manuscripts, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, are daily exposed for sale. of my first endeavours was to procure a general catalogue of the writings most in request throughout the empire; that is to say, of those works which are constantly on sale in the cities of Constantinople, Aleppo, and Caïro; and also of their prices. This I procured through the medium of a Dervish. The whole of this Catalogue is given in the Appendix; and it may be considered as offering a tolerable view of the general state of Oriental literature; such, for example, as might be obtained of the literature of Britain, by the catalogues of any of the principal booksellers of London and Edinburgh. The causes of the disappointment, which has so often attended the search after manuscripts by literary persons sent out from the academies of Europe, may be easily explained. These men have their residence in Pera, whence it is necessary to go by water to Constantinople. The day is generally far spent before they reach the place of their destination; and, when arrived, they make

their appearance followed by a Janis sary. The venders of manuscripts, who are often Emirs, and sometimes Dervishes, beholding an infidel thus accompaniei, gratifying what they deem an impertinent and even sacrilegious curiosity, among volumes of their religion and law, take offence, and refuse not only to sell, but to exhibit any part of their collection. The best method is to employ a Dervish, marking in the catalogue such books as he may be required to purchase; or to go alone, unless an interpreter is necessary. I found no difficulty in obtaining any work that I could afford to buy. The manuscript of "The Arabian Nights," or, as it is called, Alf Lila o Lila, is not easily procured, and for this reason; it is a compilation, made according to the taste and opportunity of the writer, or the person who orders it of the scribes, found only in private hands, and no two copies contain the same tales. I could not obtain this work in Constantinople, but afterwards bought a very fine copy of it in Grand Caïro. It was not until the second winter of my residence in Pera, that I succeeded, by means of a Dervish of my acquaintance, in procuring a cata logue from one of the principal shops. The master of it was an Emir, a man of considerable attainment in Oriental literature, from whom I had purchased several manuscripts, which are now in the Bodleian library at Oxford. Whenever I had applied to this man for works relating to poetry or history, he was very willing to supply what I wanted; but if I ventured only to touch a Korân, or any other volume held sacred in Turkish estimation, my business terminated abruptly for that day. There are similar manuscript-markets in all the Turkish cities, particularly those of Aleppo, and Caïro. Many works, common in Cairo, are not to be met with in Constantinople. The Beys have more taste for literature than the Turks;

and the women, shut up in the Charems of Egypt, pass many of their solitary hours in hearing persons who are employed to read for their amusement.

Nor is the search after Greek manuscripts so unsuccessful as persons are apt to imagine. By employing an intelligent Greek priest, I had an opportunity of examining a great va riety of volumes, brought from the Isle of Princes, and from the private libraries of Greek princes resident at the Phanár. It is true, many of them were of little value; and others, of some importance, the owners were unwilling to sell. The fact is, it is not money which such men want,➡ They will often exchange their manuscripts for good printed editions of the Greek Classics, particularly of the orators. Prince Alexander Bano Hantzerli, had magnificent collection of Greek manuscripts, and long corresponded with me after my return to England. I sent him from Paris, the original edition of the French Encyclopédie; and no contemptible idea may be formed of the taste of men, who, situated as the Greek families are in Constantinople, earnestly endeavour, by such publications, to multiply their sources of information. Some of the Greek manuscripts, now in the Bodleian, were originally in his possession; particularly a most exquisite copy of the Four Gospels, of the tenth or eleventh century, written throughout, upon vellum, in the same minute and beautiful characters.

led to some description, in a place to which it is so great an ornament, and from whence it is diffused by innu merable subterraneous channels, to almost every part of the great Metropolis.

"During the reigns of Elizabeth and James, a number of schemes were projected for supplying the Capital with water, the conduits resorted to for that purpose being now found insufficient to answer the increasing demands of an extending Metropolis. Elizabeth granted an Act, which gave the citizens liberty to cut and convey a river from any part of Middlesex or Hertfordshire, to the city of London, within the limited time of ten years, but which was never acted upon.

"In the early part of James's reign, the citizens procured An Act for the bringing in a fresh stream of running water to the North part of the City of London' (3 Jac. cap. 18.); which was followed by another, to explain the said Statute (4 Jac. cap. 12.); but the difficulties of the undertaking appeared so great, that they declined to embark any farther in it. "Mr Hugh Middleton, or Myddleton, a native of Denbigh, and citizen and goldsmith of London (who had considerably enriched himself by a copper, or, according to others, a silver mine, in Cardiganshire,) at whose instigation it would seem the City had applied for the Acts last mentioned, made an offer to the Court of Common Council, March 28, 1609, that he would begin this work within two months, they transferring to him the power vested in them by the said two Acts; whereupon the Court accepted his offer, and ordered that a letter of attorney should be made out from the Mayor and Common Couneil (which was done the 1st of April following), and that indentures should be made and passed between them and him, which was also done the 21st of the same month.

from the City, this gentleman, with a spirit equal to the importance of the undertaking, at his own risk and charge began the work; but had not proceeded iar, when innumerable and unforeseen difficulties presented themselves. The Art of Civil Engineering was then little understood in this Country; and he experienced many obstructions from the occupiers and proprietors of the lands through which he was under the necessity of conducting his stream.

"The distance of the springs of Chadwell and Anwell is 20 miles from London; but it was found necessary, in order to avoid the eminences and valleys in the way, to make it run a course of more than 38 miles.

The depth of the trench in some places descended full 30 feet, if not more, whereas in other places it required as sprightfull arte againe to mount it over a valley in a trough between a couple of hills, and the trough all the while borne up by woodden arches, some of them fixed in the ground very deepe, and rising in heighth above 23 foot.'

"The progress of the work, indeed, appears to have been attended with difficulties almost insurmountable, for the industrious projector soon found himself so harassed and impeded by sundry interested persons in Middlesex and Herts, that he was obliged to petition the City for a prolongation of the time to accomplish his undertaking. The Corporation now granted him a term of five, in addition to a former term of four years; but his difficulties did not terminate here; for after having adjusted all his controversies with the land-holders in an amicable manner, and brought the water into the neighbourhood of Enfield, he was so impoverished by the expence of the undertaking, that he was once more obliged to apply to the City to interest themselves in this great and useful work; and, upon their refusal to embark in so chargeable and

hazardous