everywhere heard-" Pilot, tell this fellow to put his jacket over the saddle; one might just as well ride upon the back of a carving-knife." Again" My horse is without a bridle." "Coxswain! bring the foresheets here! they will be long enough to make a pair of stirrups." The youngster who was complaining of the impossibility of riding upon a Greek saddle, had good foundations for his precaution: four pieces of wood, about two inches and a half wide, fastened at the end and covered with a skin, generally without any support for the feet, are placed upon a horse as a resting place for that part of the person which is certainly not the most capable of undergoing friction.

At last we got through the difficulties and commenced our ride, each amusing himself according to his own fancy; the more studious carefully noting down all they saw, and comparing their remarks with "The Modern Traveller;" the rest whipping each other's horses, smoking, quarrelling with the Greek pedestrian guides, or humming a tune; in this happy mood we soon reached Crissa. The site of the citadel is supposed to be occupied by a church, built upon a cliff, overhanging the glen of the Pleistus; and they assign the beautiful vale beneath to the hippodrome of Delphi and Crissa, for which a sufficient space could no where else be found. Sir William Gell speaks of an inscription in Boustrophedon yet unexplained. We searched every where in vain, and could hear no tidings of it. We proceeded onward, and when within half a mile of Castri, observed carved in a rock several niches of a semicircular shape, and a chamber with three depositaries seven feet long, for sarcophagi. Turning a corner a little farther on, Delphi in all its glory suddenly burst upon us; Parnassus and the Sacred City on the left, Mount Keophis on the right, the Boeotian road before, and the Pleistus beneath, rivet the attention, and irresistibly call on the most callous traveller to pause, wonder, and admire. This burst is quite unique. I have travelled through the Morea, wandered in many parts of Asia Minor, and yet never met so singular and attractive a scene. Close by is an alcove, built as if purposely to arrest the pedestrian, and oblige him to acknowledge the discernment of the priests of old, who made this ground hallowed, and devoted to the infernal deities such sacrilegious persons as might venture to carry war into the territories of the Deity. Devoid, indeed, of holy awe must he be who, having travelled from afar to consult the Oracle, could look upon Delphi, filled with temples and splendid edifices, rising like the seats of an ancient theatre, one above another, backed by majestic Parnassus, with a burial-place in front filled with monuments and chef-d'œuvres of the most renowned masters standing upon the very brink of a precipice, without forming a binding resolution to revere and obey the decrees of the god.

With some little difficulty we procured a lodging, and having unloaded the mules, set forth upon our antiquarian pilgrimage. To the Castalian spring, as to the Parthenon at Athens, all travellers first direct their steps; it stands east of the village, at the base of the double-pointed rock the water issues out of seven holes, cut in its perpendicular and smooth face, and is received into a basin, supposed to be the bath in which the Pythia used to immerse herself prior to divulging the decrees of the Oracle. The water trickles over the edge of the reservoir, and losing its force in numerous small rivulets, finally disappears in the vale beneath. Old Chandler, of antiquarian notoriety, describes the water as being

singularly cold, and declares he caught the ague from washing in it; but we may ascribe this idea to the Doctor's excited brain, when suffering under fever, for no traveller since his day has presumed to cast such a libel upon the classic fount. I can make ample allowance for a heated imagination, when standing upon such ground, although the cause was not the same. Men of sixty and twenty-six years of age, see with very different eyes. The scholar was bound to the spot by the reflection that the object of his earliest wishes was at last realized: we were victims to the charms of a group of lovely Greek women, who, arms and legs bare, were occupied in washing their clothes; we longed to select a Pythia, and swear eternal obedience to her decrees; in fact, if no Captain had been present, I am rather of opinion that Venus, Cupid, and Bacchus would have been our tutelar deities during the remainder of that day. Over the fountain are three niches, the centre being larger than the other two, supposed to have contained the statues of the water-gods: a small Greek chapel adjoins, dedicated to St. John, where the names of Byron and Hobhouse stand conspicuously cut in the rock; the fig-tree and ivy which formerly grew amongst the fissures have disappeared, and the plane-tree in front is sadly injured. Looking at Parnassus, Hyampeia was upon the right, and Nauplia on the left; from both of these culprits were precipitated at various periods; and as the concavity of the one fits into the convexity of the other, there can be no doubt but that the separation was caused by an earthquake. The effect produced by the smoke of the fire ascending perpendicularly between the two rocks, disturbing the wild birds in their abode, and causing a perpetual din of shrieks and cries, was striking and picturesque. An irregular staircase is cut in the division, up which we climbed barefooted, to prevent slipping, and reached a terrace, perhaps made to receive the dead bodies of those who were hurled from above; another terrace remained unreached, but as there were no steps for the feet, or irregularity to grasp with the hands, the probability of any one mounting higher appeared very remote; the Greek pilot, a fine, well-made active man, immediately offered a bet that he would reach the gallery without the aid of rope or ladder. The two sides of the rock formed an acute angle, perfectly smooth, and very slippery, from the continual drippings of the rain: to our astonishment he won his wager, and easily climbed a height of twenty-four feet, by placing his back against one side, and supporting himself by his feet against the other, thus gradually working his way upwards, without any assistance from the arms. Two or three of us afterwards joined him by the help of some Greek sashes knotted together: from hence we clearly saw the blue sky through the hole in the rock. Another gallery was yet unreached, but we found by throwing stones that it contained water. We all descended safely, the pilot coming down as he had climbed up. Unfortunately he discovered that his cap had been left above, and insisted upon going for it; when half-way up his strength failed him, and he fell with great violence, lying for some time senseless at our feet. The Doctor soon ascertained that there was no serious injury; and having bound up his head, sent him off to the ship without loss of time. Proceeding from hence to the eastward we came to the monastery, standing upon immense foundations, supposed originally to have supported the Gymnasium; triglyphs, columns, and inscriptions are in

many places built into the walls. From this building the most correct idea of ancient Delphi may be gained, all the important objects being in sight. Near the Boeotian road, and not far distant from hence, is the ground I have marked as the sanctuary of the dead (having come to that conclusion principally from my recollection of the town of Assos, situate in the gulf of Adranyti, nearly opposite to Mytilene;-there, so perfect are the ruins, that not only the theatre, with its seats, proscenium, &c., remain almost uninjured, but even houses, lines of streets, city walls, and broken pastra of temples, remain to point out the splendour of the olden time; and immediately before the town, commanding a fine prospect, is the cemetery, yet filled with sarcophagi, placed in regular rows, and raised one above another, with paths between. Any traveller passing through Turkey, and intending to visit Greece, would be well repaid for a few hours' contemplation of Assos; he would there acquire a general knowledge of the construction of a Greek city, from remains which are in a much more perfect state of preservation than any now to be seen in Greece.

But to return to Delphi. In the burial-place one sarcophagus lies uncovered, which, although broken in three pieces, well merits description. On one side is a man leading a horse, with a woman on foot before and behind, followed by an infernal deity, dragging with violence a man and woman by their arms towards a figure of death armed with a scythe, and in each corner a man in the attitude of grief; on the opposite side are two men following a woman, who, with a book in her hand, is occupied in assisting a figure from the ground; at each end are animals, with leopards' tails and hawks' heads, whose feet are supported by a column exactly similar to that raised over the gates of Mycene. No satisfactory interpretation of the meaning of the pillar has yet been given. The workmanship in general, but more particularly the cornice, is very fine, and if the broken fragments were united, the entire sarcophagus would prove a valuable addition to any museum. I am satisfied that excavation in this spot would disclose treasures far surpassing the ideas of many who have given the subject their serious consideration.

The Fountain of Kerna is in the village, and is oftentimes named as occupying the site of the Temple of Apollo: large blocks of marble. have led many to this conclusion; but unless some very considerable change in the formation of the ground has taken place, there never could have been sufficient space for that building, whose magnitude is well known to have been immense. With general consent we made our luncheon by the side of the fountain, glad of a pretext for evading the vermin with which the wooden houses in this country swarm. The wall of an adjoining house was clearly part of the ancient city: it is covered with inscriptions carved in small characters, but which do not appear to have thrown any new light upon the position of that edifice so long and ardently searched for by the learned of all nations.

Continuing the ascent, we came to the Stadium, in very tolerable preservation its position is in perfect character with the other parts of the town, and different from those I am acquainted with. The ground is exactly large enough, without having a foot to spare on either side; it commands the city, and has majestic Parnassus immediately frowning above. We did not measure the arena, but perceived at once that it did not rank with those of the first class. The church of St. Elias is

hard by, being also one of the supposed sites of Apollo's fane; but there is certainly nothing more authoritative to justify this idea than in those walls of which I have already spoken.

And now we had completed our examination without having seen one single inscription in which the god's name was mentioned; nor had a cavern or hole been pointed out which emitted that intoxicating vapour described by Anacharsis as producing the ravings of the Pythia when cruelly held down by the priests. It is wonderful that this secret should have been so long undiscovered by both man and animal; but we can perfectly comprehend the effects by calling to mind the agonies of the dog in the Grotto del Cane at Naples. The base of the pillar which once supported the tripod taken at Platæa from the camp of Mardomus, is the only acknowledged remnant of Delphic antiquity now existing: it stands in Constantinople, planted firmly in the ground, and is an object of veneration to all visitors of that city. Three serpents' heads formerly branched out from the twisted pillar; but as the different histories of Constantinople have each a separate account of their decapitation, I shall content myself with the assurance of the fact having occurred at least one hundred and forty years back.

The lengthened shadows of a setting sun warned us to return, amply gratified for our trouble, and highly delighted with all we had seen and done.

A MIDSHIPMAN'S REMINISCENCES.

MR. EDITOR, I propose to send you a few recollections of early life, before they entirely fade away in the mist of time, and the every-day monotony of a vacant London life, and pursuits and thoughts the very antipodes to those bright, joyous, foolish moments, when we, who are now shovelling aside to make way for younger faces, were "like young bears-all our sorrows to come."

Well, then, I propose to take you back thirty years,-a very startling antiquity!—probably before you were born, and when I was a very little reefer, squeaking on the lee side of the quarter-deck of a fine old frigate, under the command of a handsome gallant fellow, who, then in his youth, wore powder, and a little bit of a natty tail just peeping over the well-powdered collar of his plain two-epauletted coat. That circle of powder, from shoulder to shoulder, was a sort of a stamp of high fashion-breeding-a something that is no longer understood-kept up by certain men who could afford to be old-fashioned,-the last lingering link (then going out) that connects us with our Augustan age of wit, talent, and hard knocks. One is sometimes, longo intervallo, put in mind of it even now by "Old Rapid" in the Park, or some tottering quiet soul, stick in hand, making his meek way with his " ailes de pigeon" and his " tabatière," through the bustling insolence of youthful, vulgar, Oxford and Regent street crowds.

Our gay Captain is now a Vice-Admiral, with many medals, stars, and ribbons, still walking a quarter-deck, with a care-worn, sallow, wrinkled face, and feeble step; of all his high hopes and varied enjoyments none left,-not one, but the faded and unattained one of ambition, which still beckons deceitful on to the comparatively poor and subordinate situation of a junior Lord of the Admiralty; to which post

he must wade through the abuse of some country-town rabble, and the sapient comments of knowing London editors. I think, instead of repining, as I am sometimes sillily prone to, I should bless my stars that I am still a midshipman, (if by profession I am anything!) with no higher ambition than to breathe the country air, walk over the fields, and listen to the birds singing;-no care but to vary such innocent amusements as heaven has given me a taste for; and, by way of filling up an idle moment, just look back on the blue waters, quarter-decks, and distant lands

I will begin twelve thousand miles off, since Captain Hall has not exhausted the India seas nor the Indian coasts.

We were standing into Point de Galle, snuffing the sweet aroma wafted on the bosom of the cool land breeze from the spicy groves, with Adam's Peak conspicuous amid the clustered mountains of the interior. There's fine writing for you; but as I pique myself on being a matter-of-fact person, I repeat, plump, that the spicy gales off shore at Ceylon were delicious just about six bells of a morning, when the decks are dried up, the ropes flemished down, sails trimmed to an affigraffy, up to the very skyscrapers,-Jack sent down to lash up his hammock, lieutenants and mids to put on their shoes (often without stockings), and we had nothing to do but walk four a-breast up and down between the binnacle and fife-rail. I shall not stir off the quarterdeck; there is the land,-the "soft south (coming north) was stealing o'er banks of violets ;"-no, over cinnamon groves, and topes of cocoanut trees. There were the white houses, at the low water's edge, of the town of Point-de-Galle, relieved by the bold black rocks that fringe the coast here and there, against which the surge lashed just perceptibly; though to us the motion of old ocean was almost insensible, consisting of a long swell undulating imperceptibly to the shore;-our vessel cutting through the ripple, four or five knots, with a sort of small chatter of froth under the bows.

How much is there in the associations of youthful recollections, cheating the senses, and brightening up things and feelings past! To my mind's eye now those scenes were enchanting: so too the white surge foaming round the great and little Bassas rocks, at other times, when farther off the coast, seen in one, with the more distant land behind, and coming from a starving dreary cruise, has had all the charms of a paradise, dangerous and terrific customers as they are at night, and in bad weather.

At Point-de-Galle there is a little round secluded bay, or cove, fringed all round, a few steps from the fine sand beach, with beauteous cocoanut trees, and sprinkled along under their shade by the huts of the fishermen, and the quiet rural suburbs without the fort. There sat the native girls and women on little mats at their doors, making their toilets with a plentiful profusion of cocoa-nut oil, with which their features, as well as long black hair, shone resplendent. Here all was quiet, simple, poor, innocent;-how little did they enter into the imagination of our warlike consequence and all the train of stern necessities which filled the Indian ocean (and all others) with belligerent floating castles.

Here, then, we occasionally, released from our daily duties, ran about curious as monkeys, and rather more mischievous, looking at these poor