the exasperated and revengeful Spaniards. What a proud compliment to our country!'

Of the antiquities at Merida we find an excellent description: but perhaps the following sketch of Toledo will be considered to have more variety:

The cathedral of Toledo is deservedly the first object of attention with every stranger. I passed three hours in it, but must not attempt a minute description of it. It is upwards of four hundred feet in length, and more than two hundred in width. It is built entirely of freestone and marble. Its gates are of bronze, most curiously wrought. The interior of this magnificent temple is richly and splendidly decorated, and corresponds most fully with the noble appearance of its exterior. I speak not, however, of shrines refulgent with gold, and sparkling with jewels; of silver statues, costly plate, and embroidered vestments, covered with pearls and precious stones. The treasures and wealth of this cathedral, inferior, perhaps, only to those of the famed Loretto, have disappeared. They have been torn forth by the daring hand of plunder, a circumstance no one can regret; for they may now, eventually, benefit society, by encouraging industry, and rewarding exertion. I speak of ornaments which still remain, because their removal would have been impossible, and their destruction suseless of grand monuments, of tombs, screens, and altars, adorned with sculpture, or carved with the most delicate and elaborate execution. A fine screen of marble, which is upwards of fifty feet in height, and covered with relief, representing the Ascension, attracts and rivets the attention of every beholder. Many of the best pictures this church could once boast the possession of, have been removed; but in the cloisters are several fine Scripture paintings by Bayeu, whose designs and colouring are very pleasing. I heard mass, but was not struck with any thing so grand in the ceremonial, as I had, in such a place, expected. The organ, indeed, was excellent, and the singing good; but had it not been for the noble pile of building above me, I could hardly have supposed the service to be that, at which the primate of all Spain had been wont to assist. The truth, however, was, that the day of the pomp, pride, and power of this cathedral was gone by. Six hundred ecclesiastics once belonged to the service of it, and they were all well provided for. The present number of officiating priests is inconsiderable; nor are they now either powerful or wealthy. The memory of the great and good Cardinal Ximenes is greatly venerated in Toledo, and a prayer for his soul is repeated daily at the close of high mass.

One word more; this venerable church has been built nearly nine hundred years; has been successively possessed by Moors and Christians, and was once surrounded by the habitations of two ¡ hundred thousand people; among whom, arts, sciences, and manufactures, were busily promoted and encouraged. Of churches, colleges, convents, hospitals, and chapels, upwards of ninety once

adorned

adorned the streets and squares of this city. It now reckons about six thousand houses, and thirty thousand inhabitants.

:

I walked from the cathedral to the Alcazar, a palace built on the site of the ancient residence of the Gothic kings, by Charles the Fifth, and long occupied by him. Its grand staircase and spacious gallery, no longer crowded with guards and courtiers, are now dirty, deserted, and silent. This edifice, however, though neglected and decaying, still wears a stately and imposing aspect; and its handsome front, immense quadrangle, and elegant colonnade, declare it to have been the pride and ornament of a happier period. Its situation is very commanding; it stands on the edge of a rocky precipice, nearly perpendicular; at the bottom of which, but full five hundred feet below it, the Tagus flows. As I toiled through the steep, narrow, inconvenient, streets, I never felt one moment of impatience for the extreme antiquity of this city gives it an irresistible character of interest; and the religio loci always operates most delightfully on the fancy. Hannibal won this spot for Carthage; Romans dwelt in it; Gothic kings reigned in it; Moors have possessed it, and some of the turretted walls still surrounding it were built by them; Spaniards, with their blood, last purchased, and still hold it. What a flight for the imagination! to travel back, to conjure up the various scenes acted in the city, and to see sovereigns, warriors, and prelates, whose mouldering dust now sleeps beneath your feet, pass in review before you! So wonderful, however, are the powers of the human mind, that such an indulgence of thought is not only possible, but easy; nor is it denied even to one who has burst halfeducated from the study, and carried with him to the camp little but the imperfect, though fond, recollections of his earlier pursuits.

In the afternoon, I dined with a friend in his billet; and we, who had taken our meals the day before in a cottage-chamber not eight feet square, were now seated in an apartment hung with the richest crimson damask, filled with heavy antique furniture, and, indeed, so gloomily magnificent, as to very greatly interfere with comfort, if not to oppress the spirits.

In the evening we went to the theatre: the play was over, but we were much entertained with a broad, ridiculous farce of two or three scenes, which was acted with some spirit; a boy and girl danced some boleros and fandangos prettily; but, upon the whole, the amusements hardly repaid you for the annoyance of sitting in a dirty, unadorned, and ill-lighted theatre, and for the poor and wretched appearance of almost all the performers. On leaving the theatre, we bent our steps to the Archbishop's palace, where a ball was given in honour of our arrival. The streets were all illuminated; the façade of the palace, and the dome of the cathedral, most brilliantly and tastefully lighted up, produced a very fine effect. Among the dark sparkling eyes and olive complexions of the ladies, who were dancing in the ball-room, one girl with light blue eyes, and exceedingly fair, attracted universal notice. On enquiry I found that she was an orphan, the daughter of Irish parents, who had lived and died in Madrid; and that she

had

had been sent by the government to the Collegio de Doncellas, in this city; a very noble institution, where unfortunate young ladies of rank are supported with comfort and elegance; educated with great liberality, and portioned and given in marriage by the crown. The ball was kept up with great spirit till a late hour, and though I could not venture to join in the waltz, I sat very happily, busied in contemplating the cheerful scene. I felt great interest about the pretty orphan, whom I heard, sometimes, attempt a little English to her partner, but with a very foreign accent. How fond such a girl must necessarily become of the hushand of her choice; no bosom to lean upon but his ; no parents, no brothers, no sisters, to claim a share in the generous affections of her youthful heart. Poor girl! I have not forgot the shades which, at times, even in the lively movements of the dance, stole over your mild countenance; and the purest pleasure I enjoyed that evening, was pitying you.'

If this author distinguished himself at Albuera, he was unfortunate, though equally deserving, at Maya, where the French took him prisoner; and with this incident the book concludes, We hope that his subsequent adventures will yet excite new Recollections.'

ART. III. A Historical and Topographical Essay upon the Islands of Corfù, Leucadia, Cephalonia, Ithaca, and Zante: with Re marks upon the Character, Manners, and Customs of the Ionian Greeks; Descriptions of the Scenery and Remains of Antiquity discovered therein, and Reflections upon the Cyclopean Ruins. Illustrated by Maps and Sketches. By William Goodisson, A.B. Assistant-Surgeon in his Majesty's 75th Regiment. 8vo. pp. 267. 12s. Boards. Underwood. 1822.

THIS

HIS is an unpresuming little work, ushered into the world without the attractions of elegant type and fine paper, but conveying much useful information concerning the Seven Islands. Were we, however, inclined to mingle some, reproof with this approbation, it would be justified by the useless parade of disquisitions collected from Homer and other writers of antiquity, in a work calculated for popular use and reference. Such a task might have been left to the professed scholar, for Mr. Goodisson modestly disavows his pretensions to interest the learned class of his readers. So much latitude must necessarily be indulged to poetic description, that, while we are convinced that Homer is the best geographer by .whom antient Ionia has been described, it would be notwithstanding the idlest dream of speculation to look for the exact topography of the Grecian islands in the generalities of his delineations. With the Odyssey in our hand, the imagin'ation would indeed make a great many delightful excursions;

and

and it would be no difficult matter, in the vicinity of the ancient Corcyra, to form the delightful day-dream of beholding the very spot on which Ulysses formerly swam to shore, as described in the fifth book of that poem; or to suppose that the Potamo, which runs into the bay of Corfù, is the Joveflowing river which received him, and where he was found by Nausicaa. We may imagine also the temple of Neptune, the grove of Pallas, the fountain and the gardens of Alcinous, amid the delightful scenery of this beautiful island. The illusion, however, soon vanishes. Not a vestige exists that can be traced to the city of the Phæacians; and we are awakened from the enchanted scenes which fancy had spread around us, to the debates and controversies of scholars and antiquaries. We are fully disposed to acquiesce in the more sober deductions of the present author.

However speculative the notions of the reality of the city of the Pheacians may be, the ruins upon the isthmus in the vicinity of Castrades afford direct evidence of the existence of a great and extensive city, which the inscriptions and coins found there indicate to have been the less ancient Corcyra. Although most of the traces of this city are literally levelled with the dust, sufficient marks remain above ground, as broken pottery and tiles, and more have been discovered deeply buried in the soil, to prove its original extent and magnificence. The superficial indications are met with soon after passing out of the Porta Reale at Corfù, and are found scattered over a space of at least six miles in circumference. And if we take into the calculation the ancient columns found in the sea at Perama, (described in the French Military Report, drawn up by the engineers employed in cutting the ditch across the isthmus,) we must conclude, that the city of Corcyra reached this point, sweeping round the whole margin of the lake, and terminating at Perama, the passage where the ferryboat plies across its narrow entrance to the place called the OneGun Battery. In this space are scattered fragments of fluted columns of the Doric, and a few of the Ionic order, broken pieces of pottery, of excellent workmanship, and beautifully ornamented, mosaic, large masses of square stone, and foundations of great buildings, buried many feet under the surface. In digging the ditch across the isthmus, the French engineers came upon an aqueduct in three points, the source of which they suppose was at Mount St. Ellena. The ingenious Mr. Prossalendi of Corfù imagines, that some physical change must have taken place in the topography, since the construction of the aqueduct : for, at present, there is no source of water, nor appearance of any place that could have furnished it, any where near its direction. The 'line followed up leads to a little olive-mount, which terminates by a precipitous descent into the Govino bay, having no spring, and -being incapable of ever supplying one. The aqueduct fed a fountain at a temple which was dedicated to Apollo. An oblong,

conical,

conical, stone pillar, the lower half fluted and cylindrical, marked the spot with the following inscription in very old letters upon the top: POOZ ПITOAIOZ (the Pythian fountain). The pillar is about twelve feet high, and is to be seen at Mr. Prossalendi's museum, together with many other interesting pieces of architecture and sculpture of the ancient Corcyra. Two branches of the aqueduct above mentioned were found leading to the base of the pillar, and] near it is a temple, marked out by the plinths of a quadrangular¡ colonnade, which the French uncovered in digging the great wet ditch.'

We have always questioned the policy of retaining Corfù in time of peace. Commanding the entrance of the Adriatic, it might indeed afford considerable protection to an enemy's fleet: but, in a political point of view, it is a troublesome and unprofitable possession. The town contains about 17,000 inhabitants, 60,000 being the computation for the whole island. It is a place of great strength, from the number and position of the out-works, a part of the south and the whole of the north wall being washed by the sea; and they are so extensive as to require 10,000 men to defend them. At present, the revenue is inadequate to the cost of repairing them. 1 The garrison, when Mr. G. was there, consisted of one whole i regiment, and two companies of artillery.* The town is wretchedly constructed, and, before the arrival of the British, was nearly impassable from its filth and litter: but great improvements have been recently made; and Mr. Goodisson tells us that it would be difficult for a person, who had been absent from Corfù for some years, to recognize the place."

The advantages arising to this people from their connection? with England are no where better shewn than in the present regulations of the police. Assassination is now no more heard of. The removal of the butchers' and vegetable stalls, with the fishmongers, to regular markets constructed outside the walls, has added to the comforts of the inhabitants in point of cleanliness, and certainly contributed mainly to the increased salubrity of the place. The widening of part of the principal street, by pulling down several old tottering Venetian balconies, has removed a source of " danger, and has also added to the healthfulness of the place, by admitting a more free ventilation. Notwithstanding all this, much remains to be done; and in fact nothing but the demolition of the whole town in rear of the houses on the esplanade, and building it upon a new plan, can ever render it clean or comfortable.'

The climate is dangerous in summer; the clay, which is the substratum of all the low lands, as well as of the lesser .1

* At present, we believe, there are three or four British regia ments at Corfù.

moun