very pleasing and agreeable, but he did idea of a person of extensive informa mind having been absorbed in acqui Those with which I was acquainted, 1 and German (besides his own), he spok accuracy, both of phrase and accent, s even in English I could scarcely detect He talked of acquiring a language as a facility. During the war, when many s ally Poles, were in Italy, his power conversation with the natives of any great service." At Florence he had which brought recollections of Scottis Archibald was presented to the Cour the widow of Bonnie Prince Charlie, wards married privately to Alfieri, the po de Medicis entranced him. "The ha says, "has never, in my opinion, ex superior, if equal, to this piece of art."

Whilst Sir Archibald was making his he met the celebrated Belzoni. He wa Alexandria, with the wonderful alabas which he had discovered. He showed bald, and was evidently proud of the dis made, and the prize he carried with advice of Belzoni he was induced to Oasis. "Our conversation," he says, "I an hour, and I did not meet this ent

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themselves, a group forming part of a pro1, as we supposed, Jewish captives, interested The figures all relate to the King Osiris, amesses Sesostris, whose sepulchre this was,

behind him the Great Oasis, the wonders of 1 Luxor, the pyramids and temples of Egypt, ald bent his steps for Syria, and spent some ploring the antiquities of the Holy Land. As the sacred borders "sacred recollections is mind with almost painful intensity." To his days the excursion was to him a source of ever failing delight, nor was there any period e of which he would have regretted so se the memory as the few weeks occupied ating the localities of Judea. He made a

study of Jerusalem and the places most associated with the life and passion of our e visited Bethlehem and Jericho. He Jordan. Leaving Jerusalem by the way of (Nablous), he passed through the plain of

The plan of his route included Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, and Mount Carmel. His ins to push onward to Damascus and the out two of his travelling companions having to ewards, he was prevailed upon to forego this journey, and accompanied them in a Greek Acre to Scala Nova. Parting from his friends,

he journeyed to Constantinople. Sailing down the Sea of Marmora, he landed at Dardanelles town, and solaced his classical enthusiasm by exploring the Troad, climbing Mount Ida, and visiting the ruins of Assos. Sir Archibald made a detour to Joannina to see Ali Pasha and his dark, swarthy son, Mouctar. The traveller thought he was treated with less consideration than former visitors, but he praises the excellent character of Mouctar and his wise policy. Ali had a singular career. After a variety of fortunes, during which he had made use of every artifice which deceit and cunning could suggest, and treachery and cruelty put into practice, he was at that time undisputed master of the whole of Albania, from the Austrian frontier to the Gulf of Lepanto. When Sir Archibald visited him he was in the pride of his power and the possession of undisputed sovereignty. Having declared himself in open rebellion against the Porte, the armies of Turkey invaded his territory, and fifteen months after, his power was destroyed, he himself assassinated, and his kingdom divided between Turkey and Greece. In praise of Ali and Mouctar, Byron, in the second canto of "Childe Harold," chants the rolling "Tambourgi! Tambourgi!"

"I talk not of mercy, I talk not of fear,

He neither must know who would serve the Vizier :
Since the days of our prophet the Crescent ne'er saw
A chief ever glorious like Ali Pasha."

On his way to Athens, Sir Archibald visited the Vale of Tempe and the heroic scenes of Pharsalia and Thermopyla. He drank of the Castalian spring, and, with undue self-depreciation, lamented that, so far as he was concerned, it seemed to have lost its power. At Athens our traveller lodged in the house of Signora Macri, the

widow of the last English Consul. She had three lovely daughters, who were celebrated by the name of Consulinas. The two elder were brunettes, with dark hair and eyes. The youngest, Marianna, was very fair, and her countenance had a gayer expression than her sisters. Their persons were elegant, their manners pleasing and lady-like. They possessed considerable powers of conversation, and more instruction than is generally possessed by Greek women. They were as much distinguished for their virtue as for their beauty. It was in praise of Theresa, the eldest of these, that Byron composed his famous song, "Maid of Athens." Sir Archibald occupied the apartments which had been in the tenancy of the English poet. He makes the observation : "The eldest, Theresa, was Lord Byron's 'Maid of Athens,' but ten years had made a considerable impression on a face, though still handsome, in this precocious region." The lady was afterwards married, and died not so many years ago. At Naples, hearing of his father's serious illness, he hastened home, and arrived in London on the 17th August, 1820. Sir Archibald's visit to the Great Oasis is the only section of his travels which has been published. This too brief account of his tour has been gleaned from his extensive manuscript journal.

Some time after the completion of his tour, Sir Archibald Edmonstone commenced the composition of "Fitzwalter," a romance. It was completed in 1829, but, as if loath to let it out of his hands, he submitted it to various revisions and alterations, and it was not published till the year 1861. The tale was intended rather to embody a theory of Christian character in the higher walk of life than as a narrative to excite stirring interest. As a first attempt in this form of literature it is entirely praiseworthy, and strongly confirms our belief that if he had

concentrated his powers on this department of romance, he would have found such a free and unconstrained sphere for the exercise of his varied knowledge and cultivated faculties as could hardly have failed to secure a pre-eminent success.

But Sir Archibald had a higher ambition. He early determined on the winning of the poet's name, and his persistent devotion to "Polymnia," the Muse of the sublime hymn, cost him the laurels which he would certainly have received from the nameless goddess of the popular novel. Sir Archibald also published in his lifetime a considerable quantity of poetry. "The Progress of Religion," a poem, appeared in 1842; "The Devotional Reflections" in 1858; and the "Dramas" in the latter years of his life. But these were not all. There were fugitive contributions to magazines, and at his death there were found amongst his MSS. a lengthy poem on "Happiness," another on "Hades," and a large number of hymns, translations, and sonnets. Here and there they manifest an impatience of the labour of the line, but, taken as a whole, they are most praiseworthy productions. "The Progress of Religion" is a noble poem, in four cantos, carefully conceived, and painstakingly executed. That Sir Archibald was no novice in the management of the difficult Spenserian versification such stanzas as these are sufficient witness :

"Through the deep shades of night the orient dawn
Cheeringly breaks upon yon reddening hill;

In calm serenity the Sabbath morn

Awakes with sober gladness soft and still;

As if, obedient to her Maker's will,

Nature, through all her realm, kept holy day.

The whispering of the breeze-the babbling rill-
The insects wheeling in their mazy play—

The hum of vocal quires chirping from spray to spray.