Letters on Egypt, Edom, and the Holy Land

Preface

(TO THE FIRST EDITION.)

I HOPE that those who do me the honour of perusing these Letters will not take them for more than they are worth, — a simple, and, I trust, faithful record of impressions as they arose, and incidents as they occurred, such as I conceived would be read with interest at home. In preparing them for the press, I have divested them of much that could possess no general interest. If certain allusions to members of my family circle have been allowed to stand, it is only because they arose so naturally out of the circumstances that they serve to illustrate them, or that, in one or two instances, I could not find it in my heart to cut them out.

I may be permitted to allude to the subject of many reflections in these volumes — the literal accomplishment of prophecy, as displayed in the actual condition of Egypt, Edom, and Syria. Others have borne their testimony; it is but adding a stone to the cairn, yet I cannot, and ought not, to withhold mine.

I embrace with pleasure this opportunity of express-

IV

PREFACE.

ing my sincere acknowledgments for the uniform courtesy and kindness I experienced during my recent

tour. To Tibaldi, Esq., of Alexandria, and his

amiable lady, — to Colonel Campbell, her Majesty's Consul-General in Egypt, — to M. Piozin, Vice-Consul, — to Dr. Walne, John Hannay, Esq., and the Rev. Theophilus Lieder, at Cairo; — to the Reverend the American Missionaries, and — Moore, Esq,, at Jerusalem; — and to Nathanael Moore, Esq., British Consul at Beyrout, (whose courtesies I regret having been prevented from personally acknowledging,) — my peculiar thanks are due. On my obligations to Mr Farren, Consul- General in Syria, I will not dwell in this place.

I cannot conclude without adverting to the lamented decease of my friend and near relation, Mr. William Wardlaw Ramsay, the companion of the greater part of my tour.

If excellent abilities and sound judgment, expanding and maturing every day — if singular genius for music and drawing, and a general love for the fine arts, balanced by an enlightened taste for science and natural philosophy — if sweetness of temper, a warm, kind heart, and sincere but unostentatious religious principle — be qualities to render a character attractive and estimable, and to enhance the sorrow of surviving friends for the loss of one who, if spared by an all-wise Providence, would have been a blessing to his family and an ornament to society — -such a character, such qualities, were Mr. Ramsay's.

PREFACE.

V

I have extraoted from his private journal, and appended to the present work, in the shape of notes, many passages which, I think, will be read with interest by every one into whose hands these volumes may fall.

Haigh, Feb. 1838.

(TO THE FOURTH EDITION.)

In sending forth these Letters, probably for the last time, I have carefully revised them, and appended a few additional notes where occasion presented itself Certain speculations — which I would not be understood to insist upon with so much earnestness as I did nine years ago — have been allowed to remain ; others, which more recent research has disproved, have been omitted. My journey was undertaken, and the record of it published, previous to the appearance of the works of Rossellini, Wilkinson, and Bunsen on Egypt, and of Dr. Robinson on Palestine — works invaluable to the student at home and the traveller abroad, and with which the expectation of Europe already classes the labours of Lepsius. Had it been my fortune to possess guides like these during my wanderings in the East, the volume, which I now finally dismiss, would have been more deserving of the favour with which it has been honoured by the public.

Haigh, 1 January, 1847.

Contents

EGYPT.

LETTER L

Cadiz—Gibraltar — The Cork Wood— Carteia - - ^ p. 3

Letter III

Voyage to Cairo — Sais — Introduction to the Pasha — Tombs of the Mamaluke Sultans— Cairo at sunset — Bazaars— Courtesy to Franks — Garden of Roda — Old Cairo— Cemetery of the Mamaluke Beys — School at Boulac — Printing-press — Egyptian Christians — Jews — Magicians, Jugglers, &c. - - 21

Letter IV

Visit to the Pyramids — Pyramid of Cheops — Evening with Caviglia — Pyramids of Cephrenes and Mycerinus — Arab traditions respecting the Pyramids — The Sphinx, a talisman — Heliopolis — The Pyramids probably built by the Pali, or Shepherd-Kings of Egypt, afterwards the Philistines, in the time of Abraham 38

Letter V

Our Dahabieh — Night- Scenes on the Nile — Pyramids of Saccara Dashour, &c — The False Pyramid— Minieh — Story of Ebn Khasib — Siout — Tombs of Lycopolis — Stabl Antar — Traditions of the Copts — Ruins of Abydus — Palace of Sesostris — Kenneh 61 viii

CONTENTS.

Letter VI

Sect. L — Thebes — Temples — Sculptures — Tombs — Fulfilment of the Prophecies - - - - - - - - 78

Sect. II. — Esneh — Edfou — Essouan — Ascent of the Cataracts — Nubia — Wellee Kiashef — Wady Haifa — Descent of the Cataracts — Wreck, and detention at Essouan - - - 103

Sect. III. — Temples of Herment — Dendera — Ombos — Tombs of Benihassan — Memphis — Pyramids of Saccara and Dashour — Cairo - - - - 148

EDOM AND THE HOLY LAND.

Letter I

Journey to Mount Sinai. Desert of Suez — Mara — Route of the Israelites — Wady Shellal— Wady Mokatteb — Wady Feiran — Ascent to the Sinaite Mountains — Ascent of Mount St. Catherine — Of Gehel Mousa — Of Gebel Minn>gia, possibly the real Sinai - 159

Letter II

Departure for Akaba — Abdallah's wound — Return to the Convent — Joined bv Dr. MacLennan and Mr. Clarke - - 198

Letter III

Route to Akaba— Conference with the Alouins — Wady Araba — Sheikh Hussein's camp — Mount Seir — Petra— Cross the desert to Hebron— Bethlehem — Approach to Jerusalem - - 203

Letter IV

Sect. I. — Jerusalem/ Excursion to Jericho and the Dead Sea — Journey to Tiberias by Nablous, Samaria, Acre, Nazareth, and Mount Tabor 243

Sect. II. — Journey, east of the Jordan, by El Hussn, Ora Keis, Jerash, Ammon, Bostra, and through the Hauran, to Damascus - - - - 263

Sect. III. — Visit to Palmyra 315

Sect. IV. — Journey into Mount Lebanon, and return to Damascus 329

LETTERS ON EGYPT.

u All were but Babel vanities ! Time sadly overcometh all things, and is now dominant, and sittetb on a Sphinx, and looketh upon Memphis and old Thebes, while his sister, Oblivion, reclineth demisomnous on a pyramid, gloriously triumphing, making puzzles of Titanian erections, and turning old glories into dreams. History sinketh beneath her cloud. The traveller, as he paceth amazedly through those deserts, asketh of her, Who builded them ? and she mumbleth something, but what it is he heareth not.

" Egypt itself is now become the land of obliviousness, and doteth. Her ancient civility is gone, and her glory hath vanished as a phantasma. Her youthful days are over, and her face hath become wrinkled and tetrick. She poreth not upon the heavens ; Astronomy is dead unto her, and Knowledge maketh other cycles. Canopus is afar off, Memnon resoundeth not to the Sun,andXilus heareth strange voices. Her monuments are but hieroglyphically sempiternal. Osiris and Anubis, her averruncous deities, have departed, while Orus yet remains, dimly shadowing the principle of vicissitude and the effluxion of things, but receiveth little oblation."

Sib Thomas Browne.

LETTERS ON EGYPT.

Letter I

Cadiz — Gibraltar — The Cork Wood — Carteia.

TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL LINDSAY.

Gibraltar, November 10, 1836.

How I longed for you yesterday, dear James, at Cadiz ! and here, too, at Gibraltar, happy should I have been this morning to have had your company during the glorious scramble I have had over every ridge of the old Rock! But of Cadiz first: — I thought, as we sailed away yestreen, (a delicious autumnal evening,) I had never seen a lovelier sight, — her long serrated ridge of white buildings sharply defined against a glowing sunset sky — Rota glittering, like a town of King Salem's sprung up from Ocean, at the further extremity of the bay, tipping its horn, as it were, with a diamond crown — the lateen sails scudding around us like gigantic nautiluses, stooping over the green water's like the beautiful sea-birds that were sporting in every direction — it was lovely, very lovely !

We had but four hours allowed us to visit Cadiz ; I threw my shyness to the winds, and used my eyes, — stared into every nook and corner, and at every one, man and woman, we met. But you cannot have for-

B 2

CADIZ gotten the scene, though long familiarity with its details may have effaced the remembrance of your first general impressions ; to me it was all " fresh and fresh, new and new," — aliving, breathing, moving picture, a waldng dream rather, for whether I was in or out of the body I can scarce tell, now that I reflect on the vision, so many ideas familiar to my fancy wqye then presented to my eyes in the first warm glow of reality; all, too, intensely Spanish: — the long black cloaks of the sleepy hidalgos, long as their names, threadbare, many of them, as the mantle of chivalry their ancestors wore so gracefully— the Moorish faces, conical hats, and sashes of the lower, and, as they seemed to me, far nobler order — the cigarillos, common to all — the fans, mantillas, the black eyes, beautiful feet, and graceful gliding gait of the Senoritas — but what frights the old women are ! And then the painted balconies above, that give such a character to the straight narrow stradas — flowers in most of them, but alas ! the " fairer flowers," Eve's daughters, were few or none visible upon them — and the dazzling whiteness of the houses ; everything, too, as clean as if the Gaditanos were Dutchmen, — it was like a scene of enchantment ; to say nothing of the exquisite delight of being on Spanish ground, and hearing the language of Calderon and Cervantes on every lip that passed me.

I saw but two or three priests, not idly sauntering about, as in the palmy days of Rome, but walking, it seemed to me, with an object, — slowly, however, as if their ponderous shells of hats were too heavy for them, and crest-fallen ; in this respect your Spanish recollections must vary from existing circumstances ; the convents, too, were all shut up, and the bells over the gates looked as if conscious of having tolled their last. We knocked loud and long at one of the conventual buildings, in hopes of seeing some pictures once shown there ;

CADIZ.

but no " porter hurried to the gate," the street was silent, only one boy to be seen in it, and he could not tell us who had the keys.

The cathedral, however, is still building — a most superb edifice, of the richest Corinthian architecture, but overloaded in many places, I thought, with ornament ; the choir, however, is truly beautiful, all of marble — indeed the whole temple is so, and exquisitely finished. Yet I do not like the Corinthian ; the " airy pillar" and the u decent matron grace" of the Ionic are far lovelier, far purer, far holier ; the Doric and Ionic remind one of Adam and Eve as they walked in naked innocence, and in all their original brightness, through the bowers of Paradise ; but the spirit of the Corinthian is meretricious, too like that of the Laises and Co. of old Corinth herself, — this is fanciful, perhaps, but there is a deep poetry, a hidden melody, in architecture, "frozen music," as it has been called, but it thaws now and then, when the fancy warms, and discourses most eloquently to her ear and eye.

How beautiful, by the way, are Schlegel's criticisms on the Gothic Architecture ! Did Anne tell you I have him with me? Shakspeare has been my chief reading since I left Old England ; this she will be glad to hear. I have read over again several of his plays, but exquisitely beautiful as they are whenever he is himself, the pure poet, I cannot away with his clowns and vile puns, grossieretes, and double entendres, bad enough even among men, but which he allows even his heroines to hear, ay, and understand, ay, and reply to. But Desdemona is perfect throughout ; I was trying her the other evening, as I lay in my cabin, by the severest ordeal, St. Paul's exquisite delineation of Charity, or, as it should be translated, Love ; Shakspeare must have had it in his thoughts ; it fits her in every point, especially

G

CADIZ.

in her unsuspicious purity, " thinking no evil;" observe her wonder in what manner her husband could think her false, and oh ! what a contrast between her mind and Emilia's at the end of the fourth act; and, again, between her and Juliet, the poetical, passionate Juliet ; I remember no one simile or metaphor that Desdemona utters, and Juliet's fancy is rich as the orange groves of Mola di Gaeta, and sparkling as the waves that ripple to their feet, but she is " of the earth, earthy," in comparison with the pure azure heaven of Desdemona's mind, which one can gaze up into as into infinite space, unarrested by a cloud, unless of tears and sorrow! How beautiful, though, and how natural is the moonlight scene between Juliet and Romeo ! When I think on it, I almost fear I have judged her harshly — and yet, no.

It has just struck twelve ; I am sitting with my window open, a brilliant starlight night, the air balm ; I could almost expect a visit from the Diable Boiteux, and should not be sorry to have the houses of Gibraltar unroofed for my inspection, — and this reminds me of one of the things that most interested me at Cadiz — a visit to the terraced roof of M. Campan's house — a kind old French merchant, our fellow-passenger, who entertained our party most hospitably. It was the best possible commentary on many a passage, not only in Spanish, but Eastern romance ; with a short rope-ladder one might travel over half the town. The house itself seemedbut just finished, yet, in character, was quite Moorish; a court in the centre — balconied galleries opening upon it at each story — mats, &e. &c. — everything calculated to promote coolness.

I kept a sharp look-out for traces of the Moors, and they are very visible. I thought of riding across country to Gibraltar, but was advised to give up the idea; the

GIBRALTARcountry, they said, was uninteresting, (I should have seen manners, however,) and, what decided me, my time here would have been much curtailed ; I came on, therefore, by sea, and this morning, about nine, we anchored under the Rock of Gibraltar.

I am glad that I saw Cadiz, a thoroughly Spanish town, before coming to this mongrel neutral ground, intensely interesting though it be. Bedreddin Hassan, awaking at the gate of Damascus, entered an unknown, but still an Eastern city; the contrast to him was nothing to what it was to me, stepping off the quay of Cadiz, surrounded by wild Cadesians, with their Calabrian-like hats, swarthy as their Phoenician ancestors, to be set down among English uniforms, sentries, and all the pomp and circumstance of British soldiery, guards changing, officers riding past, and all speaking English. Bat nothing of this incongruity offended our eyes as we approached the Rock — Europe and Africa,

" A palace and a prison on each hand,"

of Nature's architecture, or such rather by the God of Nature's decree ; the morning was gloomy, a lowering mist hung heavily over the Rock in front of us, and I could almost have fancied we were arriving at the Table Mountain instead of the northern pillar of Hercules. Mount Atlas was but dimly seen in the distance, but a purer light gleamed over Algesiras, as if the rays of chivalry still lingered over the death-scene of " the good Lord James of Douglas;" as the day advanced, the clouds disappeared, and when I gazed around me a few hours afterwards from the Peak of Tarif, a sunny haze was the only resemblance the scene bore to our northern atmosphere.

I need not tell you of the excavations, galleries, St. George's Hall, the blasted watch-tower, &c. ; you know

GIBRALTAR.

them all — I scrambled over the whole mountain, taking a most intelligent artilleryman as my guide, a fellowcountryman, as I ascertained by the first word he spoke — his sergeant is a Lindsay from Dunse. I feared we should not see the monkeys, but there they were in numbers, apparently on excellent terms with the goats, their only companions on the height.

How beautiful the palmetto is! And how Anne would have enjoyed the descent, through a perfect garden! strange tropical-looking plants, the fantastic prickly pear, and the aloe, hedging the path-way, andher old Italian acquaintances, the fig, almond, orange, and lemon, and the grateful plane-tree — ay, and the Scotch fir, growing luxuriantly (and the richest vines too) on the lower zone of the mountain. We descended by the Mediterranean Steps, as they are called, cut in the precipitous face of the rock, and winding round towards Europa Point ; the broad Mediterranean — with those picturesque lateen sails that look as if, at the approach of a storm, they would furl themselves up and sink to the bottom — expanded in front of us, glowing in the waning sun,

" A leaf of gold Of Nature's Book, by Nature's God unrolled."

I have just been leaning out of the window listening to a serenade ; all below me dark as Erebus, the raven down of night, and all silent save the " lively guitar," and the deep voice of the caballero mingling in harmony, and swelling richly on the night-air. And when the last note died away, I could just hear the closing strain of another, far, far off, dying into silence like the echo of the " song of the olden time" I had just been listening to. Music such as this might have been lingering on the ear of Melancholy, when Albert Diirer surprised, fell in love with, and immortalized her.

GIBRALTAR.

Very pleasant food all this for midnight musing, yet daylight, too, has its attractions, and I then look down on a motley and ever-shifting scene, all nations seeming to meet here as at Venice, though Gibraltar, to be sure, is anything but " enchanted ground," — the Moor, with his white turban, burnoosh, and trousers ; the Jew, with his black skull-cap, beard, and Israelitish face, the index of his pedigree the wide world over — - I saw one stalk past this morning with the very air of a Maccabee, his haughty mien, and the scorn throned on his erect brow (or I wronged him) alike contrasting with the humble subdued gait of his brethren, and the holiday attire and light springy step of the Andalusian peasant, — the contrast of a rt gay Gordon" to a "black Douglas" — no disparagement, surely, in a comparison with the Wallace of Judea; then comes the mule or donkey-driver, haranguing his beast as he trudges behind it, side by side, oh atrocity ! with an English red coat. Here, at least, " motley is the only wear." And now dear James, buenas noches, and God be with you ! I will not wish you the misery of living a thousand years. More to-morrow.

To-day, November the 11th, we have had a delightful gallop, Missirie and I, into Andalusia, past La Roque, to the Cork-wood, about ten miles from Gibraltar ; the scenery is quite beautiful; the day, at first rainy, cleared up ere we had ridden half a dozen miles, and the afternoon was lovely. From a ruined Moorish tower in the centre of the wood, we enjoyed a most beautiful prospect over the long vale we had passed through, wooded with cork-trees, olives, vines, oranges, lemons, and one noble palm-tree near a convent — a steep range of mountains closing the vista at one end,

GIBRALTAR.

the Rock at the other, rising over the waves like some vast Preadamite sea-monster.

Returning, we rode hither and thither, this way and that, in search of the old town of Carteia, supposed to have been the first founded by the Phoenicians after passing the pillars of Hercules. After a long search we found it ; the theatre is clearly traceable, scooped out in the side of the hill, looking towards Gibraltar; the background of the scene must have been noble indeed, the Mediterranean rushing between the two continents.

I am more and more pleased with Missirie ; he is the most attentive creature possible, good-humoured, observant, and intelligent. I had much conversation with him this morning during our ride; he is really an agreeable companion, having read not a little by fits and starts, and having seen so many countries. He had studied for two years at Odessa, when the Greek revolution broke out, and then joined the patriots. We are on the best terms, and I am sure we shall continue to be so. His facility in acquiring languages seems extraordinary. English he speaks with singular correctness (*)

Saturday, ^November 12.

I had no idea this letter would go so soon, but a steamer, I have just heard, sails for England in a day or two ; and as I have no time to epistolize my mother at length, and she will be anxious to hear all my adventures, I have presumed to direct this letter to her, begging her to read and forward it to its rightful owner. We have a heavenly day, " blue above and blue below," for our departure. By-the-bye, they have an admirable garrison library here ; the catalogue is well drawn up, on the plan of that of the Royal Institution by Harris.

VOYAGE TO MALTA.

I think I should like to spend a month or two here ; nowhere, I suppose, could one enjoy at once such a climate and such a library.

Adieu.

LETTER II. Voyage to Malta — San Giovanni — Ruins and Catacombs of

Alexandria.

TO THE COUNTESS OF BALCARRES.

Malta.

We left Gibraltar, my dear mother, on Saturday afternoon, the 12th, and have had charming weather, and a delightful voyage to Malta. Sunday and Monday we were coasting Spain and Barbary, and admiring the mountain ridges that frown from either shore, awakening memories how interesting ! of Juba and the Romans, on the one hand — of the Xarifas and Fatimas, the Zegris and Abencerrages, of poor Boabdil, and of Gonsalvo de Cordova, on the other.

About eight on Monday night we touched at Algiers — rthrilling name ! The crescent moon was gleaming over it, but not very clear ; the crescent is pale, pale all over the East now. We landed a young Dane there, the son of the Danish consul at Tangiers, and one of the Royal Guard of Denmark; he was going to join the French expedition against Constantina, and I really felt sorry when he left us on such a perilous adventure. I found him full of information, and very intelligent, particularly on the subject of Northern antiquities ; he sang me several of his Danish songs as we walked the deck.

Still coasting the Barbary mountains — so runs the log-book ; pass Bona, old Hippo Regius, dear to the memory as the home of St. Augustine— but during the

MALTA night, alas ! — Bizerta — the Cani rocks — Porto Farina (Cato's Utica) and Cape Carthage, behind which lie the sites of Dido's palace, Cyprian's garden, where the soldiers seized him — generous, noble-minded Cyprian ! Then across the Bay of Tunis, with a beautiful view of the mountains hemming it in to the south; before weathering Cape Bon, pass the vast and lofty islandrock of Zembra, reminding one, when directly north of it, of the volcanic isle of Sabrina. Bid adieu to the Barbary coast, and for a while nothing but the seacircle for our horizon ; presently Gozo in sight — rough rocky hills, but the lights and shadows beautiful — skim past it through the waves on which Telemachus floated, if Gozo be the Isle of Calypso, which I don't believe it was— and lo ! Malta, with her deep harbours, picturesque tiers of houses, impregnable batteries, and English shipping! How changed —

But I had Mttle time, or, in truth, inclination, at that moment, to think of days bygone, for scarcely had we anchored in the quarantine harbour, when dear William came alongside to greet me ; he had secured me rooms in Beverley's Hotel, and we adjourned thither without delay ; he is remarkably well, and we look forward with great pleasure to the prosecution of our tour together.

Oh! the rapture of a first visit to San Giovanni! those gorgeous and chivalric tombs of the Grand Masters and the Knights of St. John! I shall not be content now till I see Rhodes, invested with more familiar interest to a clansman of Randolphus de Lindesay, Lord David of the Byres, and Sir Walter,

" Lord of Sainct John, and Knicht of Torphicane, By sea and land ane vailzeant Capitane,"

as Davie Lindsay calls him.

MALTA.

I visited the armory in the old palace — -neither worth seeing; spacious galleries and chambers, but nothing after Venice — the library, too, full of the fat old folios of the seventeenth century. They seem a curious set, these Maltese; their language is most dissonant, a mere jargon of Arabic, but all speak broken English; their national airs, however, are beautiful, especially one, beginning, " Selloom tal harir," &c, which you will find in my MS. collection of national music ; I have not heard it here, nor indeed anything in the way of minstrelsy except " Rule Britannia," which they have been chanting most uproariously in honour of their new governor, Sir Henry Bouverie.

Before re-embarking, I paid another visit to St, John's, by far the most interesting spot at Malta — for this is not the Melita where St. Paul was wrecked. One — the last survivor, I believe — of the old knights, a countryman too of Bayard and Duguesclin, was pointed out to me — a poor, decrepit, feeble old man — alas ! alas !

Alexandria, Nov. 30.

We arrived here last Friday, to wit, November the 25th ; the day was lovely, the sea of a delicate light green, the sky exquisitely clear, of a rosy transparent hue, smiling our welcome to the city of Cleopatra, as we sailed into the harbour — then a glorious oriental sunset. There is little or no twilight in these latitudes, and it was quite dusk by the time we reached our inn, riding on donkeys, the general conveyance in this country.

That was indeed a happy evening! A month's cramp in the cabin of a steam-boat exchanged for freedom and terra-firma, and that terra-firma Egypt, still the land of mystery, still a land of beauty 1

ALEXANDRIA.

"'Tis here that the feathery palm-trees rise, And the date grows ripe under sunny skies, — M

and never will palm-trees rustle more melodiously, never will the moon and stars twinkle through their transparent foliage with more loveliness, never shall I enjoy the stillness and repose of an Eastern night with more thrilling pleasure, more thorough enjoyment, than I did that evening, walking in the pretty little garden behind Mrs. Hume's hotel, or resting in an arbour of trellis-work under a branching vine, meditating on the past and present, and anticipating the future, in which (unless it be the mirage) I see many a hundred miles of Father Nile, many a lengthening vista of temples and colonnades, outstretched before me ; Nature and Art beckoning me on, and offering me the fruits of knowledge as the reward of my wanderings. There is nothing, indeed, new to discover; but are not Vesuvius and Naples new to the eye that has never hailed them before ?

We have been riding about ever since our arrival — over ruins, and nothing more. A town, half Turkish, half Frank, turbans and hats seeming equally at home in it; mounds beyond mounds of rubbish stretching away to the south, east, and west of it; whole lines of ancient streets traceable by the wells, recurring every six or seven yards, by which the contiguous houses, long since crumbled away, drew water from the vast cisterns with which the whole city was undermined ; wretched hovels clustered here and there in the suburbs, and towering groves of date-trees " scattered at wide intervals " over the cheerless solitude — such is the present aspect of Alexandria. The Desert has done for her what Vesuvius did for Pompeii — buried her so completely, that all we see above the present surface

ALEXANDRIA.

has been brought to light by excavation ; not quite all indeed — Pompey's Pillar and Cleopatra's Needle, both misnomers, are still erect, solitary monuments of the flight of time, of the youth and decrepitude of Egypt; for the Needle stood at Heliopolis, the On of Scripture, three thousand years ago, ( 2 ) and the shaft of Pompey's Pillar adorned the temple of Serapis and the library of the Ptolemies till it was removed to its present site, and furnished with a capital and base, in honour of Diocletian, whose name Mr. Hamilton was the first to decipher, the whole inscription, long supposed to be entirely lost, having been recovered, letter by letter, by the united acumen of a few wise men of Britain. It is only distinguishable in the strong light of the mid-day sun. ( 3 )