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deeply marked the Abbot Baldwin, the crafty, handsome, intellectual upholder of John's fortunes; and the Lady Alicia, whose criminal story is the source of the deepest interest in the book. Perhaps the mystery attached to the Palmer is not sufficiently dark; we see the husband before the hood is raised. Cœdman the fatherless, a young Saxon scholar and poet—in feeling, if not in expression—is gentle without being mawkish, and his presence greatly tends to humanize the scene. In one of the most striking incidents, a stag and hounds are actors; it is vividly described, and the brawl that terminates it is dashed in, in bold colours. All here is quite in keeping. Nor should we forget, among the accessories, the Saxon sibyl in her Druidical chair, with a curious account of funeral rites, in which the superstitions of paganism are mingled with those of the obscured Christianity of the period. Jew Sampson, and his wife, Miriam, are not feebly described; but the scene where the Jewess describes a flight and struggle in the water, is by much too like Rebecca's description of the battle in "Ivanhoe." In other parts, we are more pleasantly reminded of that powerful romance; and not least agreeably so, in the person of the cellarer aforesaid, whose choice, when sentenced to select the ordeal he will go through, to prove his innocence of the introduction of the miller's daughter into the abbot's garden, is exquisitely whimsical. The ordeal of red-hot iron is first proposed to him; then, the ordeal of boiling water; next, the ordeal of hot pitch or molten lead; fourthly, the ordeal of cold water by immersion, involving the certainty of drowning. At last, a grave sub-prior addresses the court, suggesting that all there present had "forgotten the solemn ordeal of bread and cheese"—an ordeal allowed only to monks and friars in those times. All who were tried by this test spiritual, all who submitted to the trial of swallowing the bread and cheese, were sure, unless innocent, to be choked. The cellarer boldly chose this dangerous ordeal. He underwent it—and it is satisfactory to know, survived.

These travels, extending over a period of nearly three years, and carried through countries replete with historical and antiquarian interest, a great part of which were also hitherto unexplored, present us with such a variety and number of facts, that we scarcely know where to glean. Keeping, however, to what is strictly new, the identification of the tumulus of Harakah with the tomb of Hannibal appears to have been the first interesting determination effected by our traveller. This was followed by that of Prusa ad Hypium, with Cyclopean gateway and ramparts. Next comes the illustration of the labours of Hercules, accomplished on the Acherusian peninsula of Pontic Heraclea ; the description of Tium, a tasteful remnant of an Ionian colony ; the determination of the site of Claudiopolis (also Bithynium), by existing inscriptions ; that of Flaviopolis, still Zafaran Boli, " the Yellow City j" and that of Pompeiopolis, with its magnificent sarcophagus, also by inscriptions. To these discoveries, so rapidly succeeding one another, may be added as minor points, the tomb of Queen Amastria, and that of Icesius, a colossal relic of Pontic times. Quitting Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus, the Expedition visited the remote and circumscribed kingdom of Deiotarus, occupying a closed-up valley of the Halys, and where they found the towns of Blucium and Peium—the Gazophylacium, or treasury—and explored the capital, Gangra. They wintered partly at Angora, partly on the snowy mountains of the Lycanian Olympus, advancing with early spring into the unfrequented Kurd district of Haimaneh, where they found the old Baths of Yanina, and many sites of early Christianity. In Morimene they also traced out the site of Gadasena, a seat of ancient hierarchal pomp. After the survey of the celebrated salt lake of Koch-ffisar—the Tattsea Palus—a careful and nearly complete examination of the province of Garsauritis was effected. This district is peculiarly interesting, from its numerous towns and villages of Cappadocian Greeks, who are mostly Troglodytes, and who live in caves that present every variety of rock architecture, which is further added to by the strange and fantastic forms of the rocks themselves. In this district alone the sites of Osiana, Ozzala, Nitazus, Congustus, Perta, Garsaura, Comitanasse, Dio Csesarea, and others, were determined ; and Archelais Colonia, Cybistra, Soandum, and others, were explored. The ancient city of Csesarea Mazaca led the way into Commana, where an Arab site (Shohair) was first visited, and followed by explorations of Tonoza, Arabissus, Ptandari, and Arkas, on the way to Melitene, the capital of a province. From this point the Expedition advanced through Taurus, discovering the ruins of Lacobena, and determining the sites of Pelverre, Nisus, Carbanum, (the Arabic Hisn Mansur,) Claudius, and Juliopolis ; from whence they descended, by the banks of Euphrates to Birijik, exploring on their

• " Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, and Armenia. By W. Francis

Ainsworth, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., Sic., in charge of an Expedition sent by the Royal Geographical Society and the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge." 2 vols. Sro, with numerous illustrations. Parker.