that people followed fcrupulously the rules and proportions handed down to them by their ancestors, without adopting the variations introduced into the art by modern architects, the style of this temple marks an earlier period than the era of the Cæfars. As roofs are generally compofed of timber, lead, copper, tiles or flates, it is eafy to conceive how fuch materials may have been purloined or deftroyed, though the folidity of the columns have refifted all attacks of time and foes.

The pediments are much injured; the northern afpect is corroded by the weather; the ftone being a porous grey marine concretion. The clear colour and majestic difpofition of fo many columns, on which light and fhade are caft in various directions, and the infulated fituation of fo grand a building on a bold eminence in the midst of a defert, have fomething fingularly awful and fublime in their effect.'

During Mr. Swinburne's progrefs in this country, he remarks, that most baronial towns are built on eminences at a distance from the fhore, and out of the reach of fudden invafion; while royal burghs, having ftronger fortifications, and regular garrifons or militia, ftand more venturously on the edge of the fea.

Near Caftel Vetrano, on the 27th of December, the tra weller rode feven miles into the fouth vale, a rich inclofed diftrict like the country round Naples. It is watered by the Madiuni, a clear romantic ftream, paffing through a long line of hills, which exhibit the mcft extraordinary affemblage of ruins in Europe. These are the ruins of Selinus. They lie in feveral ftupendous heaps, with many columns ftill erect, and at a distance refemble a large town with a crowd of feeples. The body of the town food on a ridge, weft of the river, and near the fea. Its harbour was at the mouth of the Madiuni, where a part of the mole is yet exifting. The eafte ern hill, which feems not to have been within the walls, is not commanded by any other point of land, and falls with a rapid flope towards the fea, going off in a much more gentle declivity on the north fide. The top is an extenfive level, on which lie the hattered members of three Doric temples, thirty yards afunder, in a direct line from north to fouth. ruins are defcribed by our author in the following terms.

Thefe

The most northerly temple, which was Pfeudodipteros, exceeded the others very much in dimenfions and majesty, and now composes one of the most gigantic and fublime ruins imaginable. The columns of the pronaos, which fronted the rifIng fun, are fluted, thofe that fupported the fides of the temple plain; one of the former and two of the latter are ftill ftanding, though not entire; the capital and entablement are totally overturned. The columns meafure nine feet three inches in diameter

diameter at bottom, and fix feet three inches below the capital. I believe their total height did not exceed five diameters or fifty feet. The capitals are of one folid block, uncommonly bulky in the femiglobular part called the ovolo. Although these noble ruins be tumbled together in great confufion, and the means of measuring their extent be difficult, I think I may pronounce, from the meafures I took, that the length of the whole edifice was about three hundred and thirty feet, and its breadth thirty-nine.

The fecond temple is ruined with more order, and is eafily defcribed; it had fix columns in the fronts and eleven on each fide, in all thirty-four; their diameter is five feet; they were all fluted, and most of them now remain standing as high as the second courfe of tones.

The pillars of the third temple were also fluted, and have fallen down fo very entire, that the five pieces which compof ed them lie almoft clofe to each other, in the order they were placed in when upright; the cella does not exceed the vestibule

In extent.

All these temples are of the old Doric order, without a base, and of a much more maffive proportion than the Segeftan edifice. The two leffer tempies are more delicate in their parts and ornaments than the principal ruin; the tone, of which they are all compofed, is fmooth and yellowish, and was brought from the quarries of Caftel-franco, feven miles off.

It is faid that the city was deitroyed by the Carthaginians, and that thefe proud fanes were levelled to the ground by the hand of man; but it is at ieaft as probable that they were shaken and overthrown by an earthquake; their prodigious volume must have rendered it a difficult task to overfet them, and the regularity, with which the columns of the fmaller temples are thrown down argues the effect of fome uniform general concuffion. It is hard to attribute fuch devastation folely to human malice; and whoever beholds these enormous maffes, fcattered in heaps upon the plain, muft of course accufe nature of having had fome fhare in this victory over the pride of art.'

In the large village or burgh of Ribera, the traveller was received at the house of an old baronefs, a widow, who, with her fon and daughter-in-law, paid the utmost attention to a letter he had brought from their friends at Sciacca. The room they fupped in was an ordinary bed-chamber, but the entertainment plentiful and good. Ceremony predominated at firft to a troublefome degree. None of the company would taste a morfel unlefs Mr. Swinburne helped both them and himself; a fashion he was not aware of. As foon as he discovered the reason of their abstinence, we might prefume that he would not be remifs in making an atonement. He accordingly ferved each perfon with alertnefs and profufion. The ladies accepted whatever was offered, but having made their evening meal

before

before his arrival, left the meat on their plates untouched. In a fhort time they became more fociable, and converfation ran on familiarly.

The oldeft language fpoken in Sicily, of which any remains are left, was the Phoenician, which exifts on numberlefs coins of all metals, and in fome infcriptions. Greek, our author obferves, was introduced by two fets of colonies; in one the Doric dialect prevailed; the other spoke the Attic. Several learned antiquaries have afferted, that the former only was in ufe through all the fettlements; but the contrary, we are informed, is clearly demonftrated by the prince of Torremufa, from authentic documents.

trees.

The city of Girgenti ftands upon one of the highest hills on the coaft, where anciently ftood the citadel of Cocalus; the houses cover its fummit and fides completely, and seem like terraces, with the cathedral and castle above all. The road thither is good, though hilly, and the vale delightfully planted with olive-trees, in corn-fields. Among the diftant groves towards the east, the ruins of Agrigentum rife above the The traveller informs us, that it was difficult to be more judicious and fortunate than the Agrigentines, in the choice of a fituation for a large city. They were here provided with every requifite for defence, pleasure, and comfort of life. A natural wall, formed by abrupt rocks, prefented a ftrong barrier againft affailants; pleafant hills fheltered them on three fides without impeding the circulation of air; before them a broad plain, watered by the Acragas, gave admittance to the fea breeze, and to a noble profpect of that element; the port or emporium lay in view at the mouth of the river, and probably the road across the flat was lined with gay and populous fuburbs.

The gratification which the traveller here enjoyed, in examining the vestiges of old magnificence, was increased by the fweet temperature of the atmosphere. He began his circuit at the north-eaft angle, with fome foundations of large regular ftones, upon which a church has been erected. A road ap pears hewn in the folid rock, for the convenience of the vo taries that vifited this temple in ancient times. It was then dedicated to Ceres and Proferpine, the peculiar patroneffes of Sicily.

Towards the fouth-eaft corner the ground, rifing gradually, terminates in a bold eminence, which is crowned with majestic columns, the ruins of a temple faid to have been confecrated to Juno. It was raised upon a lofty bafe of regular stonework, in the heart of which was contrived a gallery, either for apartments or ftore-houfes. On the weft front, a grand flight

of

of steps leads up to the pronaos or veftibule. The fronts confifted of fix fluted Doric columns, the flanks of eleven plain ones; of thefe, few are now ftanding, many having been thrown down by earthquakes in the memory of man; and what remains is in a tottering condition.

Moving from this temple, along the brow of the hill towards the weft, the traveller reached the building commonly called the Temple of Concord.

The reafon given, fays our author, for fuppofing it was facred to Concord is, that Fazzello, and fubfequent writers, have afcribed to this building the infeription now fixed in a wall at Girgenti. It runs thus: "Concordiæ Agrigentinorum facrum Refpublica Lilybitanorum dedicantibus M. Atterio Candido Procos. et L. Cornelio Marcello D. Pr. Pr." and, as D'Orville very juftly concludes from many unanswerable arguments, is fuppofititious. Upon this flight foundation, and an expreffion in Strabo, who fays, that all the public edifices of Agrigentum had been burnt or destroyed before the time of Auguftus, Fazzello has formed his opinion that this temple was built after that period, and at the joint expence of the two cities mentioned in the infcription. If it was, it must be deemed impoffible to afcertain the age of a building by the ftyle of its architecture; for the ruins of Agrigentum feem to belong to an earlier period.'

This Doric Temple has all its columns, entablature, pediments, and walls entire; only part of the roof is wanting. It owes its prefervation to the piety of fome Chriftians, who have covered half the nave, and converted it into a church. Six columns in front, and eleven on the fides, exclufive of the angular ones, form the colonade. The cella has a door at each end, between two columns and two pilafters, and in each fide-wall fix fmall doors, with a stair-cafe that led up to the rooms in the roof. This majestic edifice ftands in the most striking point of view, on the brink of a precipice; which formed the defence of the city along the whole fouthern expofure.

The traveller and his company proceeded thence in the fame direction, between rows of fepulchres cut in the rock. Some parts are hewn into the fhape of coffins, others drilled full of fmall fquare holes, employed in a different mode of interment, and ferving as receptacles of urns. One ponderous piece of the rock, by the failure of its foundation, or the hock of an earthquake, has been loofened from the quarry, and rolled down the declivity, where it now lies fupine with the cavities turned upwards.

The next ftation of the travellers was at a fingle column that marks the confufed heap of mofs-grown ruins belonging

to

to the Temple of Hercules. It flood on a projecting rock above a chafm in the ridge, which was cut through for a paffage to the emporium. They followed this road over fome hills to the building ufually called the Tomb of Thero. It is furrounded by aged olive-trees, which cast a wild irregular fhade over the ruin.

This edifice inclines to the pyramidical fhape, and confifts, at prefent, of a triple plinth, and a base fupporting a square pedestal. Upon this foundation is raifed a fecond order, having a window in each front, and two Ionic pilafters at each angle. They are crowned with an entablature of the Doric order, of which the triglyphs and metopes remain, but the cornice is fallen. The infide of this building is divided into a vault, a ground room, and one in the Ionic ftory, communi cating with each other by means of a small internal ftair-cafe.

On the plain below are fome fragments of the Temple of Efculapius. Part of two columns and two pilafters, with an intermediate wall, fupport the end of a farm-houfe, and were, our author imagines, the front of the cella.

Returning from the plain to Agrigentum by the fame road, and pursuing the track of the walls towards the weft, the tra veller arrived at a fpot which is covered with the coloffal remains of the Temple of Jupiter the Olympian, minutely defcribed by Diodorus Siculus. It is now barely poffible, with the help of much conjecture, to discover the traces of its plan and dimenfions.

The next ruin belongs to the temple of Caftor and Pollux ; -but it is fo covered with vegetation that only a few fragments of columns appear between the vines. This was the point of the hill where the wall ftopt on the brink of a large fish-pond, fpoken of by Diodorus. It was cut in the folid rock thirty feet deep, and water was conveyed to it from the hills. In it was bred a great quantity of fish, for the use of public entertainments. Swans and various other kinds of wild-fowl swam along its furface, for the amusement of the citizens; and the great depth of water prevented an enemy from furprising the town on that fide, It is now dry, and ufed as a garden.

As nothing affords the mind greater pleasure than contem plating scenes which excite the remembrance of ancient grandeur, we have, for the fatisfaction of our readers, been more particular than ufual, in tracing the progrefs of this agreeable and well-informed traveller, whofe defcriptions are every where diftinct, and his obfervations invariably founded in juftnefs of fentiment. In a fubsequent Number we shall finish our account of the work.

A Letter