instance bestowed-bespoke a kind and distinguishing welcome for its wearer; and that the captain who commanded the packet in which I crossed Lake Ontario, in addition to other marks of courtesy, begged, on parting with me, to be allowed to decline payment for my passage.'

Now for the Falls:

"When we arrived at length at the inn in the neighbourhood of the Falls, it was too late to think of visiting them that evening; and I lay awake almost the whole night with the sound of the cataract in my ears. The day following I consider as a sort of æra in my life; and the first glimpse I caught of that wonderful cataract gave me a feeling which nothing in this world can ever awaken again. It was through an opening among the trees, as we approached the spot where the full view of the Falls was to burst upon us, that I caught this glimpse of the mighty mass of waters folding smoothly over the edge of the precipice; and so overwhelming was the notion it gave me of the awful spectacle I was approaching, that, during the short interval that followed imagination had far outrun the reality; and, vast and wonderful as was the scene that then opened upon me, my first feeling was that of disappointment. It would have been impossible, indeed, for anything real to come up to the vision I had in these few seconds formed of it; and those awful Scriptural words, The fountains of the great deep were broken up,' can alone give any notion of the vague wonders for which I was prepared.

"But in spite of the start thus got by imagination, the triumph of reality was, in the end, but the greater; for the gradual glory of the scene that opened upon me soon took possession of my whole mind; presenting, from day to day, some new beauty or wonder, and, like all that is most sublime in nature or art, awakening sad as well as elevating thoughts. I retain in my memory but one other dream-for such do events so long past appearwhich can in any respect be associated with the grand vision I have just been describing; and, however different the nature of their appeals to the imagination, I should find it difficult to say on which occasion I felt most deeply affected, when looking on the Falls of Niagara or when standing by moonlight among the ruins of the Coliseum."

We shall look with pleasurable anxiety for every additional volume, were it but for the Prefaces.

ART. VII.-Tour to the Sepulchres of Etruria, in 1839. By MRS. HAMILTON GRAY. With numerous Illustrations. London: Hatchard and Son.

IN 1837, Dr. Butler, the late Bishop of Lichfield, directed Mrs. Gray's attention to an exhibition of Etruscan tombs in Pall Mall, and so excited her interest not only by conversation upon the merits of these remains, as compared with the ancient wonders of Egypt, but by his own collection of antiquities, as appears to have set her mind upon a sphere of new studies. In fact, she not long after visited, along with a party of friends, the scene of so many buried marvels

of art and indices of far advanced civilization, thousands of years old, as the portion of Italy contains from which Campanarie's specimens exhibited in London were taken, and which together with Dr. Butler's influence, had awakened within her an extraordinary degree of curiosity. Even this curiosity, however, fell short, as we shall more fully hear, of what the reality is calculated to inspire and to satisfy.

Having repaired to Italy, and fixed their head-quarters in Rome, Mrs. Gray and her friends may be said to have gone through a course of preparatory study to enable them to appreciate the character and value of the antiquities which had drawn them thither; for before making tours, for the sake of research and examination into the sites of the ancient cities of Etruria, and for exploring the tombs, they availed themselves of the information, variously and plenteously afforded, to be met with in the papal capital. Not only were rich museums, and choice private collections diligently and earnestly frequented by them, as well as the shops of dealers, but the members and transactions of the Archæological Society lent them peculiar light; for it seems impossible to have exceeded the courtesy, the liberality, and frankness, which characterized the conduct and manners of the learned and illustrious of Rome towards the English tourists. But without actual visits to the great storehouses which have either been rifled already, or remain to be more fully explored, no satisfactory idea could be formed by a traveller, or conveyed in writing to others; therefore numerous and diversified were the scenes and spots which the tourists investigated throughout the land of the ancient Etruscans, or, according to modern designation, of Tuscany.

The results of Mrs. Gray's studies and tour are before us, thrown into a popular and exceedingly captivating shape, so as indeed to constitute a text and guide-book to any one who purposes to traverse and explore the same, although to the English, frequently unbeaten track. Whether the matter be entirely her own-the expression of her individual deductions and feelings, or the cream gathered from the descriptions and opinions of others, the whole is so imbued with judgment and sentiment,-the fresh utterances of a penetrating and an accomplished mind,-that the book comes upon us with an original power and effect.

Besides the antiquarian matter which occupies the main portion of Mrs. Gray's book, there are many sketches of scenery and character, as well as of incident and anecdote freely interspersed, which, had the writer been any one of the majority of English tourists, would have formed the staple and indeed the only material of twice as many pages. But although, as served up by our author, these things be good and generally racy, yet they are much more commonplace than her antiquities, whether the subject or the manner of

treatment be considered. Mrs. Gray's classical reading is no less apparent in these pages, than her taste and liveliness are charming. Etruria, if at all, is hardly less stored with antiquities than is the land of Egypt; remains too which communicate facts and detail histories of surpassing interest, and which are extremely valuable to the student of human nature, or to him who would become acquainted with the extent and forms of civilization of a people three thousand years back. In a late paper, on ancient Italian art, some account was given of Etruscan architecture, statuary, and sculpture, &c.; works which whether taken in regard to style or execution, bespoke genius and high refinement. Their vases alone demonstrate that their mechanical skill was masterly. More than enough, too, can be read in their relicks to demonstrate that their institutions were systematic and their government formal and fixed, and well understood by themselves. Their luxuries must have been sumptuous and abundant also; and all this long before their conquerors, the Romans, who afterwards owed them much both in regard to usages and intitutions, had emerged from barbarism; for in the inscrutable ways of Providence, one great nation has arisen after another, to swallow up its neighbours, to obliterate the very names of races and empires, or at least to make these names only the subjects of remembrance and the themes of history. It is to be observed, however, that although the downfal of a highly polished and once powerful people must awaken a multitude of sorrowful reflections, that yet no such catastrophe has ever occurred when that people were true to themselves, or had not fallen into a degree of decay which a fresher and more vigorous growth in their vicinity was sure. to overshadow. Besides, perhaps most of what was really sterling and remained uncorrupted, among any conquered nation, has only been transfused to be preserved from utterly perishing by the change; and therefore the world after all has been thereby a gainer. Certain it is that some of the excellencies and beauties of Etruscan art have been transmitted to us through the agency of the Romans; while the usages and splendour of the latter people, and which ever accompanied their armies, were far more lasting and productive than their hostile efforts.

The tombs of Veii, Vulci, Clusium, and Tarquinia, were among the number of those which Mrs. Gray examined or visited; for in nothing do the solemnities and pomp of the Etruscans seem to have been more extravagant than in their burial customs; all which labour, art, and wealth could supply having been lavished upon their sepulchres and their dead. Had it not been so, how very meagre must have been our knowledge of such a race, seeing that even in the time of Cicero the Romans were to a great extent ignorant of the ancient inhabitants of the land. But, as in Egypt, the Etruscan funeral monuments have transmitted an almost ineffaceable his

tory; and, considering the eagerness with which these antiquities are now sought after, and the practice of deciphering them which so many now pursue, there is a probability, if the triumph has not already been realized, that ere long we shall be made much more fully acquainted with the primeval people of Italy, than was the Roman orator or any of his contemporaries.

The following extract conveys a striking idea of the vast population of Etruria:

"Signor Carlo Avolta informed us that the necropolis of Tarquinia was computed to extend over sixteen square miles; and that, judging from the two thousand tombs which had of late years been opened, their number in all could not be less than two millions! What an extraordinary idea this gives of the dense population of ancient Etruria! for though the necropolis of Tarquinia may have been a favourite spot for family sepulchres, even beyond the pale of its own immediate citizenship, it is surrounded on all sides by cemeteries scarcely inferior in extent to itself-Tuscania and Vulci and Montallo, without naming Castel d'Asso, which we shall afterwards describe as having probably been the Westminster Abbey of central Etruria. Truly the voice from the dead which these princes and lucumones of the early world send forth, tells us great things of their potent sway over a numerous people, and leads us to contrast the desolation and barbarism of Imperial, and still more of Papal Italy, with the flourishing state of things which must have existed there when the world was young. We now often see a few squalid emaciated individuals, half scared away by pestilential air and half starved with insufficient food, straggling over the barren waste, whose only trace of real habitation is to be found in the records of its former inhabitants, dead three thousand years ago. This was dreadfully the case at Pæstum ; but in a measure it is true of every place where the malaria prevails. The ancient inhabitants must have been a populous, wealthy, and to judge from their paintings, a merry and somewhat Epicurean race, who knew how to make the most of the good things which the home of their fathers produced, before the Roman sword brought with it the malaria, and sent conscriptions and pestilence to depopulate the land. These were bright and sunny days in old Etruria, when every man sat under his own vine and under his own fig-tree, when Tages taught how to read fortunes from the swoop of an eagle's wing, and when Tarchon presided on the magisterial bench."

That the Etruscans were expert manufacturers, ingenious mechanics, and cunning artists, is abundantly proved. That they engaged in trade and commerce with foreign nations is also fairly presumed, were it only from the vestiges of them left in distant countries. Indeed the single circumstance of their tombs being so numerous and splendid, would satisfy us not merely that the country was densely populated, but that they must have carried on an extensive foreign traffic. Otherwise, how would the people be fed, employed, and supplied with superfluities?

Although the monuments and remains of the Etruscans have

been clearly and extensively interpreted, their written records have either perished, or what has been discovered of them has hitherto baffled, or nearly so, the deciphering powers of the learned and inquisitive. A deeply interesting passage must here be quoted, which will throw not only some light upon the sort of contents which the tombs frequently contain, but on the subject of language. Our extract requires no introduction.

"It was about this time that we found Rome filled with amazement, and all her wise men occupied in speculations about the stupendous discovery of the Regulini Galassi tomb, which I have mentioned at Cervetri. We may call it stupendous, for we may use this word to a child's toy when upon it depends some mighty result. The Alciprete Regulini had discovered this extraordinary tomb; and General Galassi, one of the officers of the highest rank in the Papal army, had bought from him the articles therein found. The English used to call it 'Galassi's grave.' All these articles are now purchased by the Government, and to be seen, properly and separately indicated, in the Gregorian Museum; but in 1838 they were exhibited in the General's own house; and having obtained his permission to visit them, he was, like most of his countrymen, so polite and courteous as to explain them himself.

"If we had been surprised at Campanari's exhibition, we were petrified at the General's. Here we saw an immense breastplate of gold, which had been fastened on each shoulder by a most delicately wrought gold fibula, with chains like those now made at Trichinopoly. The breastplate was stamped with a variety of arabesques and small patterns, as usual in the Egyptian style. The head had been crowned with fillets and circular ornaments of pure gold; and a rich mantle had covered the body, flowered with the same material. In this grave also had been found a quantity of arms, round bronze shields with a boss in the centre, which was stamped, spears, lances, and arrows; a bier of bronze, as perfect as if made a year ago; a tripod, with a vessel containing some strange-looking lumps of a resinous substance, and which on being burnt proved to be perfumes so intensely strong that those who tried them were obliged to leave the room. There were many small images, perhaps of lares or of ancestors, in terra cotta, that had been ranged in double lines close to the bier; also some large common vessels for wine and oil, and some finely-painted vases and tazze, with black figures upon a red ground, which had been consecrated to the dead. There were wheels of a car upon which the bier had been brought into the sepulchre, and many other things which I do not remember. But the wonder of all these treasures was a sort of Inkstand of terra cotta, which had served as a schoolmaster's A. B. C. On it were the Etruscan letters, first in alphabet, and then in syllables; and both the letters and the syllaare the same as the oldest form of the Greek. It was deciphered by Dr. Lepsius, and is the key to all we at present know, and will be the basis of all we are ever likely to know of the Etruscan tongue."

We are told that the custom is for the curiosity-hunters to speulate in leases of the graves, without, however, having any right