their information, describe its walls as reaching no less than two hundred feet in height, and broad enough to be a chariot-way. These walls were sixty miles in circumference, and guarded by fifteen hundred towers; and in the eighth century before the Christian era the city is estimated to have included a population of more than half a million souls. But many centuries before this, Nineveh was a wonderful city, of which the great monarch Ninus was king, and of which his celebrated wife, Semiramis, was afterwards queen. Ninus is the reputed founder of the Assyrian empire, and to him the magnificence of the capital is chiefly attributed. He is the Sesostris of Assyrian history, and is supposed to have flourished about twelve centuries before our era. The names of many Assyrian monarchs occur in the Sacred Writings: Sennacherib, who, seven centuries before our era, besieged Jerusalem and invaded Judea; and Shalmanassar, who carried away the ten tribes of Israel. Later, the sovereignty of the Assyrian nation was transferred to Babylon by Nebuchadonosor; and afterwards the Medes and Babylonians laid the magnificent Nineveh in ruins, over which, many centuries afterwards, Herodotus wandered wonderingly, and endeavoured to glean from the pitiful wreck an idea of the bygone glory. The centre of the ancient Assyrian empire was the present Turkish province of Mosul; and hereabouts the researches of travellers have therefore been concentrated. Opposite Mosul, the capital of the province, are the two mounds which Mr. Rich hastily explored in 1820. These mounds have long formed the subject of animated controversies; but it was not before the year 1842 that any serious attempt was made to penetrate beneath the grass that covered them. In this year M. Botta, the French consul at Mosul, made some insignificant opening,

but without discovering any remarkable remains ; and rumours having reached him from Khorsabad, a few miles off, of some remains there, he caused some vigorous excavations to be made there, and, aided by his government, contrived to lodge an excellent collection of Assyrian sculptures in the Louvre. About this time Mr. Layard was travelling through the Turkish Asiatic provinces; and in the course of his wanderings paid considerable attention to the mounds situated at Nimroud and near Mosul. Convinced that under these hillocks lay precious relics of antiquity, he procured an official letter to the Pasha of Mosul, and in 1845 repaired to Nimroud, and hired Arabs to make excavations in the mounds there. Even the first day's search disclosed valuable slabs ornamented with basreliefs and inscriptions in the cuneiform character, of the remotest antiquity, dating so far back as nineteen centuries before our era, and conjectured to be part of the ruins of the chief palace of Nimroud, destroyed about twelve centuries before our era. If so, this point was the original centre of the great city of Nineveh-that part said to have been built by Asshur; while the surrounding mounds of Mosul, Khorsabad, and Kouyunjik, cover ruins of a later date. Of Mr. Layard's discoveries in Assyria, that room, which the visitor should now enter (called the NIMROUD ROOM), is full. The room, as the visitor will at once perceive, is divided into eleven compartments— the first being that to the left on entering. Here he will begin his inspection of

ANCIENT ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE.

The first slabs to which the visitor will direct his attention in the compartment (1), are from the north

west edifice, excavated from the Nimroud Mound, which Mr. Layard conjectures to be the most ancient of all the Assyrian ruins, dating, as we have stated, so far back as nineteen centuries before our era. On one slab the visitor will notice two standing draped figures, divided by the sacred tree, or tree of life, generally worshipped in the East, and adhered to in the religious systems of the Persians, here more like trellice-work than a tree, holding chaplets in their hands; on two other slabs figures with the sacred tree; and on a fourth we recognise the symbol of royalty among the ancient nations of Asia Minor, the umbrella borne by an eunuch over a monarch, who is represented returning from the chase, to the airs played by two musicians. Five figures are respectfully meeting him, and a dead animal lies at his feet. These specimens of the state of art in Asia, twenty-seven centuries ago, may well excite the curiosity of all classes of spectators. Proceeding to the second compartment, the visitor will find eight more slabs, the first of which from the north-west edifice, represents a battle-piece. Here warriors are discharging their arrows, the king with the winged symbol of divinity in a circle above him is proceeding at full gallop, and a dead figure lies near him pierced with arrows. This scene is continued on the second slab, where there are two chariots, each containing two figures, and one decorated with the ferouher, or divine symbol. A siege is represented upon the third slab. Here the besiegers are applying the battering ram; figures are falling from the walls, while from the three tiers of battlements the besieged are vigorously discharging arrows. The visitor will notice the figures of two bow-men on the fourth slab, before a lake, with part of a tower in the distance, and the next three slabs have representations

The

of the fall of the city, picturesquely indicated. deserted battering rams stand near the walls; female prisoners are leaving the town, drawn by three oxen ; eunuchs are driving away the cattle of the vanquished, and conducting prisoners with their hands bound.

The third compartment is occupied with slabs, the sculptured subjects of which closely resemble those just described, except that marked 7, where the king, in his chariot, is hunting the lion. He has had some success, as one royal beast lies dead under his horse's feet, and another is pierced by four arrows.

The fourth compartment contains some interesting slabs. The first two represent one continuous subject. First, the visitor will notice the figure of an Assyrian monarch, with his chariots and attendants behind him, holding up arrows in token of peace to an advancing group, the first figure of which is addressing the king, while on one side a eunuch is introducing four captives. The two following slabs present illustrations of the crossing of a river. A boat, in which the royal chariot containing the king is deposited, is being dragged by two men ahead, while others are rowing, and behind follow horses and smaller boats. In their delineations of battles, the Assyrians were sagacious, since they vividly pourtrayed the horrors of war, by carving dead figures in the back ground, with birds preying upon them, even before the fray is over. Of this kind of vivid representation the visitor has a specimen on the next slab; where, while warriors are discharging their arrows, a dead soldier is being devoured by a bird in the back-ground, while another, as a pleasant suggestion of the impending fate of the survivors, hovers above their heads. The passage of troops over mountainous country, or through jungle, is the subject illustrated in the two following slabs (6, 7); these are

from Khorsabad, and include an inscription with the name of the monarch of that locality. Two slingers appear on the eighth slab, with archers attacking. On the next slab (9) enemies are represented in full flight, with a chariot containing two figures in hot pursuit and on the last slab in this compartment, a city, with four battlemented towers is represented, with women standing between the towers, and chariots outside the walls.

Some curious fragments of large figures are included in the fifth compartment. First, there is a bearded head covered with a horned cap; also, the bust of a figure with the conical cap of the Assyrians: then the head of a figure, with traces of paint yet upon it, crowned with a tiara of rosettes. Here also is a fragment representing a king attended by a strange symbolical winged figure holding the popular fir-cone in his right hand, and in his left a basket, of which the visitor will remark a perfect specimen presently. The examination of these fragments will conduct the visitor to the end of the room, and before turning to examine the contents of the opposite compartments, he should pause to notice an obelisk placed hereabouts, which was dug from the centre of the great mound at Nimroud. It is seven feet in height, and is inscribed elaborately in the cuneiform character. On its surface are also engraved representations of various animals bearing presents.

The visitor will now turn and proceed back towards the door, examining, by the way, the compartments on his left hand.

The first of these, or the sixth compartment, contains, in addition to the fragments of figures including the head and shoulders of a king, and the upper part of an eunuch, two slabs (1, 2) upon which is represented that