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tion, massive pillars, and rich sculptures, nearly rivals its neighbour in grandeur. Although different in design and exterior appearance to Keylas, it equally demands the undivided attention of the observer, and be he ever so taciturn or indifferent to works of antiquity, his feelings would be animated, and his admiration excited, at viewing these august works works that I hesitate not in affirming are equalled by nothing in Europe, and surpassed by nothing in Egypt. What a golden opportunity would this be for a learned antiquary to riot in! and what a literary treat would the pen of a classical and highly-talented tourist afford while delineating these wonders! How the "Great Unknown" would banquet on these eternal monuments of a past age, revelling in delight amid its ancient walls and altars! All that I can contribute will be a correct, and, if possible, a particular account of this singular House.

We must first premise that it has three stories, and is entered by a door-way eleven feet high and eight feet two inches broad, left in the front wall, which encloses the area: this wall has been left standing as the excavation was first formed. The entrance leads us into a fine area, which widens as we proceed a few feet. Here the entire front of the three floors, or stories, appears to great advantage. The front is open, and to each story is placed eight square pillars and two pilas ters; those on the second and third stories form the outer part, or the viranda division; they are not ornamented in any way, with the exception of two in the centre range on the ground-floor. This latter story is level with the area, and, like the upper stories, is open in front, and it has six pillars in the depth. There is a recess in this room, containing a large figure of Seesha. The room will be seen by the dimensions to be considerably smaller than the stories above; nor have the artists bestowed the same pains on the work as on the upper ones. Here, as at Keylas, are cisterns, containing an abundant supply of very fine water. This room is one hundred and eighteen feet long, and forty-one feet six inches deep: the height is very disproportioned, being only eleven feet eight inches.

Besides the gigantic figure already noticed, there are very large figures of Angari and Adanaut; these are in a sitting posture, and are nearly the entire height of the room, the crowns of their heads touching the ceiling within four inches. There are other figures here also, but of no note. The recess has a room within it of nineteen feet by twelve, the ceiling of which is two feet six inches higher than

that of the large room; the recess itself is forty-three feet five inches in depth. This room, which in any other place would be thought a wonder, is not, upon the whole, well-finished; and the same remark holds good with the ground-floor of the excavation at the entrance of the left-hand piazza at Keylas. The upper story there, as at this place, is a beautiful excavation, accurately proportioned, the stone of a very fine polish; while the basement story of both appear to have been negligently completed, as if the artificers considered that their skill and labour would be seen to greater advantage in the upper stories than in the basements. Whether these singular workmen commenced their operations upon the upper part or stories, first working downwards, and getting tired of their light and easy task, as it proceeded towards its completion, or whether the basement of the two excavations (Keylas and this one), were appointed to inferior purposes (for neither of thein contain any altar or lingham), is a matter of interesting inquiry.

Quitting this ground-floor, we ascend to the second story by twenty-four fine stairs, on the right-hand side. Twelve stairs up is a recess, twenty-five feet by twenty feet six inches, containing a large figure of Cuvera, one of the seven genii, but subordinate to the gods of the Triad: he is the Indian Plutus; but the Brahmins affirmed to me, he was the maker of bread to the great Rama. This is the chief figure; but there are some others. A few stairs continued on from this room, is the noble viranda, or rather large room, one hundred and fourteen feet in length, and in depth across eighty-two feet six inches; the height of the ceiling (which is likewise the floor of the third story), twelve feet four inches. At each end of this spacious viranda is a door-way, leading to four small apartments in each extremity of the rock. The wall is continued, so as to make room for the four small apartments, one on each side: this contracts the opening of the temple with the viranda or two pillars and two pilasters. At the extreme end is a recess, sixteen feet deep, having a gigantic figure of Lakshaman (an inferior deity), half brother of Rama: he is in a sitting posture, and two large figures of Balraj are on each side the door-way. The wall here again lessens the size of the room, and interrupts the uniformity of the pillars; for, by leaving the wall standing, a portion is taken off to afford space for the small rooms, that are, as it were, partitioned off, There are but six large square and ornamented pillars that are entirely clear of the wall. At the further end of the vi

randa is a sitting figure of Jambhu, a hero and partisan of Rama. Proceeding from the viranda, by a good stair-case, consisting of twenty-four stairs, and situated at the opposite end to which we entered on the second floor, is the grand and spacious viranda of the upper story, unquestionably the finest excavation in the whole series, whether we consider its great dimensions, its variety of rich sculpture, massy pillars, or perfect preservation and fine polish.

At the first view on entering the upper story, the most intense interest cannot fail to be excited, as we reflect that man, with his limited powers, has been able to effect such glorious works, surpassing all possible belief; and did we not actually know that such places exist in the retired and peaceful solitudes of Elora, the relation would be doubted.

Capt. Seely's Wonders of Elora.

GRIMALDI; A JEU D'ESPRIT.
THE pantomime was all rehears'd,
And puff'd off in the bill,
When, full of grief, in Fawcett burst,
To Kemble crying," Hear the worst,
Great Joe Grimaldi's ill!"

"Grimaldi ill!" the monarch cried,
"Say, what, then, shall I do?
Had I Macready at my side,
Clown's part with him would I divide,

And show folks something new "But is it true, my Fawcett, say,

Has fate thus spoke her will,---
Is all we've done, for many a day,
Cut up,---our hopes all cast away,---
Is Joe Grimaldi ill?

"He is, he is---that woeful brow
Declares my piteous lot;

But come, cheer up, and tell me how
To act in this dire moment now,

For some one must be got."

"I've heard," said Fawcett---as he spoke,
Great Kemble felt less pain---
"He hath a son, all full of joke;
Could he be got, 'twould take the spoke
Out of our wheel again."

Cried Kemble," Bring him hither straight,
Then puff him in the bill;

The son will share the father's fate---
Be grinn'd at; I'm with joy elate,
Though Joe Grimaldi's ill."

Biography of the British Stage.

PROPOSED CHAIN BRIDGE
OVER THE THAMES.

WHEN
so many projects are on foot
for joint-stock companies, we are glad to
see that some portion of our superabun-
dant wealth is likely to be appropriated
to the improvement of the metropolis.
One project of this class is the erection of
a bridge of suspension over the Thames,
at St. Catharine's, near the Tower, the
estimates have been made by James
Walker, Esq., Civil Engineer, F.R.S.E.,
and the calculations formed with the

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.£392,000

The designs are projected by James Walker, Esq. F.R.S.E., Civil Engineer, and Captain Brown.

There are three spans of 600 feet each, and two side spans, supported by the back-stay bars, of 300 feet each. The total extent of the suspended bridge, including the width of the towers, is 2,400 feet.

The embanked approaches, which form an integral part of the plan, are together 900 feet, the whole extent being 3,300 feet, or little more than half a mile.

The road on the north-side takes its rise on Little Tower Hill, near the bottom of the Minories; that on the south-side near Dockhead, in Bermondsey, which forms a central point to the streets leading to the great Kent and Surrey roads.

The rise from its commencement on each side is formed by an easy acclivity of one foot perpendicular in twenty feet horizontal.

The carriage-road of the bridge will be twenty-one feet wide, the foot-paths on each side eight feet wide.

The bridges will be constructed of strong beams of Baltic timber, covered with three-inch plank. The centre, or carriage-road, will be defended with wrought-iron bars of different thicknesses, laid across, forming ribs, which will secure a secure foot-hold for horses.

The height of the bridge, as shown in the design, above high-water mark, is seventy feet in the front of the towers, rising gradually to seventy-five feet in the centre. The height will allow ships of 200 tons to pass under without striking their top-gallant-masts, and ships of 300 or 400 tons to pass with main-top-gallant masts down.

The least force that would break down the whole of the main suspending chains in any one span is 3,904 tons; and the least force that would strain them to stretching is 2,176 tons.

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SAGACITY OF THE DOG. THE following (in my opinion) extraordinary anecdote of the sagacity of the dog, was related to me by a game-keeper to a certain noble Lord, in whose word I can place the strictest reliance. Here it is verbatim: "One day I was out shooting towards Mwhich is, as you know, three miles hence, and in going through a thick wood on my return, I lost my powder flask, a very large one, which I never discovered till I had arrived home. I then took out a dog, in whose sagacity I placed the greatest reliance, and after rubbing my hand in the pocket of my shooting jacket, gave it him to smell, and then pointing towards the place where I had lost it, said, now you go find.' The creature set off immediately, and in about three hours returned with the flask in his mouth, which was bleeding, from its weight, and the long way which he had to carry it."

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VYVYAN.

A PLEASANT CLIMATE. THE following is the Calendar of a Siberian, or Lapland year :-June 23, Snow melts.--July 1, Snow gone.-July 9,

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The Play is very happy, on Probe and Proba, and the language classic, but totally lost in the English.

THE custom of Popes changing their names, is ascribed by Rycaut to the following circumstance: It is said that Sergius was surnamed Bocca do Porcu, or Hogs Mouth, which, for shame of it he changed for Sergiis, and that from thence came the custom down to our times, that when any one is made Pope he laid by his own name, and took one of some of his predecessors, though some have not observed it."

HUMAN LIFE ESTIMATED BY

PULSATION.

AN ingenious author asserts, that the length of a man's life may be estimated by the number of pulsations he has strength to perform. Thus, allowing 70 years for the common age of man, and 60 pulses in a minute for the common measure of pulses in a temperate person, the number of pulsations in his whole life would amount to 2,207,520,000; but, if by intemperance, he forces his blood into a more rapid motion, so as to give 75 pulses in a minute, the same number of pulses would be completed in 56 years; consequently, his life would be reduced

14 years.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

P. T. W., Clavis, Mummius, W. L., and several other correspondents, whose favours have been received, shall have early insertion. Alphonso is informed that the MIRROR never professed or intended to profess what he asserts. Mr. Pepper is informed, that the answer to which he alludes, was intended for him.

We fear G. D.'s communication is too long; but, at all events, as we possess a copy, we will not trouble him to transcribe any farther R. M. in our next.

Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset House,) and sold by all Newsmen and Booksellers.

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WHITEHALL was long the residence of the British sovereigns after the ancient palace at Westminster, of which Westminster Hall was an appendage, had become dilapidated; and although our kings have, for more than a century, occupied St. James's Palace, yet many of the royal notices in the Gazette, and other public documents, are still dated from Whitehall. Oliver Cromwell also resided at Whitehall, in a house of which we present a view from an old print: he, however, frequently resided at Hampton Court, and occasionally visited Windsor Castle. In short, in the office of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, he possessed nearly all the prerogatives of royalty; and, although he was ambitious and overbearing, and paid little respect to personal or public liberty, yet he ably supported the honour of the country, and made the name of an Englishman respected and feared in every quarter of the globe. These services did not, however, protect his memory or his body after death; and although his funeral was as stately as that of any monarch, yet, on the restoration of Charles II., even the grave could not shelter the once head of VOL. III. X

the British nation from insult. The king returned to Whitehall on the 29th of May, and on that evening the effigies of Cromwell were burnt. On the 14th of June, his effigies in wax (which had been made and shown with great pomp at Somerset House) were exposed out of one of the windows in Whitehall with a cord about his neck; and on the 4th of May, 1661, the bodies of Cromwell, Henry Ireton, John Bradshaw, and Thomas Pride, were dug up and conveyed on a hurdle to Tyburn, and there hanged, "at the three several angles of the gallows until sunset." They were then beheaded, and the trunks thrown into a deep pit under the gallows, and the heads set upon poles on the top of Westminster Hall. Tradition relates, that on a stormy night, in the beginning of the reign of James II., the head of Cromwell was blown off the top of the pole, and afterwards presented to the Russell family.

Cromwell had a house at Clerkenwell, where he resided previous to his obtaining the office of Lord Protector; and, it is said, at this house he, with Ireton, Bradshaw, and others, held those conferences which paved the way to his elevation.

305

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ye;

List! then, oh, list! while I unfold my story. Thebes was my birth-place---an unrivall'd city With many gates: and here I might declare Some strange, plain truths, except that it were pity

To blow a poet's fabric into air.

Yes! I could read you quite a Theban lecture,
And give a deadly finish to conjecture.

But then you would not have me throw discredit,
On grave historians, or on him who sung
The Iliad: it is true, I never read it.

But heard it read when I was very young;
An old blind minstrel, for a trifling profit,
Recited parts---I think the author of it!
All that I know about the town of Homer,

Is that they scarce would own him in his day; Were glad too when he proudly turned a roamer, Because by this they saved their parish pay. The townsmen would have been ashamed to flout him,

Had they foreseen the fuss now made about him. One question I can fairly set at rest

He says that men were once more big and bony,

Than now---which is a falsehood at the best;

I'll just refer you to my friend, Belzoni, The resurrection-man, a stately figure; Now look at me, and tell me, am I bigger? Not half so big but then I'm sadly dwindled! Three thousand years, with that embalming glue, Have made a serious difference, and have

swindled

My face of all its beauty---there were few Egyptian youths more gay: behold the sequel! Nay, smile not; you and I may soon be equal. For this same hand hath whilom hurled the lance

With deadly aim; this "light fantastic toe" Threaded the mystic mazes of the dance;

This heart hath throbbed to tales of love and woe;

fashion;

These locks of scattered hair once set the This withered form inspired the tender passion! In vain---the skilful hand, and heart so warm;

The foot that figured in the gay quadrille ; 'The soul of genius, and the manly form,

All bowed at once to death's mysterious will, Who sealed me up where mummies sound are sleeping,

In cere-cloth, and in tolerable keeping.
Where cows and oxen, not in rich brocade;

And well-dressed crocodiles, in painted cases; Hawks, bats, and monkies, cats in masquerade,

With scarlet flounces, and with varnished faces.

Men, fishes, birds, and brutes, all crammed together,

With ladies that might pass for well-tanned leather

See Mirror No. 34.

Who'd think these rusty hams of mine were seated

At Dido's table, when the wond'rous tale Of Juno's hatred was so well repeated;

And, ever and anon the queen turned pale: Meanwhile the brilliant gas-lights hung above her,

Threw a dim light upon her shipwrecked lover. Aye! gas-lights! mock me not; we men of yore,

Were up to all the knowledge you can mention;

Who hath not heard of Egypt's peerless lore;
Her patient toil, acuteness of invention?
Survey the proofs; our pyramids are thriving,
Old Memnon all but breathes, and I'm surviving.
How, when, and why, our people came to rear
The Memphian pyramid (gigantic pile!)
E'en this, with other mysteries, thou shalt hear,
I will unfold, if thou wilt stay awhile,
The history of the sphinx, and who began it,
The Memnons, hawks, and monsters made of
granite.

Well then, in grievous times, when king
Cephrenes---

But, ha! what's this? the shades of bards and kings,

Press on my lips their fingers; what they mean is,

I am not to reveal these hidden things. Mortal! farewell! till fate herself unbind them,

The world must take these secrets as they find them. MUMMIUS.

TESTS FOR OXALIC ACID.

It

(To the Editor of the Mirror.) SIR, An error in the tests for Oxalic Acid you have quoted from a little work induces me to trouble you with this. is stated, that if tincture of litmus be poured into a solution of the suspected article, if it be Epsom salts, the blue will be changed to red: it should have been, "if Oxalic Acid be present." It is true you afterwards state the vegetable blues are changed red by the acid, but not acted on at all by the salt; and any person with common sense might perceive the error. But lest it unfortunately should be depended on, and a serious result occur, its immediate correction becomes necessary. It must not be supposed, however, that every fatal result arising from Oxalic Acid is the consequence of mistake, though always attributed to such. Setting aside the inhumanity of not having a proper regard for the lives of his fellow creatures, the druggist has two yery interested motives for being particular: first, the hurt which such error occasions his business; and next, the price of the article, Oxalic Acid being eight times the value of Epsom Salts. A slight consideration of the subject must convince an impartial mind of the improbability of mistakes occurring so frequently; and there is much reason to fear, that three-fourths of what are called mistakes are wilfully so on the part

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