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 THE REMAINS 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 LORD VISCOUNT ROYSTON, 
 
 A MEMOIR OF HIS LIFE "^ > 
 
 THE REV. HENRY PEPYS, B.D., 
 
 
 miKBENUARY OF WELLS, ^ 
 
 AND LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHn's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. j^ 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 MDCCCXXXVIII.
 
 LONDON : 
 rillNTlin BY \¥. NICO]., PALL MALL
 
 btack 
 Annex 
 
 MEMOIR, 
 
 Philip Lord Viscount Royston, whose premature 
 death by shipwreck in the year 1808 was so deep- 
 ly lamented, and whose literary remains are now 
 offered to the public, was the eldest son of the late 
 £arl of Hardwicke, and born on the 7th of May, 
 1 784. Sprung from a family so long distinguished 
 for their talents and literary accomplishments, he 
 early shewed himself not unworthy of his extrac- 
 tion. After having been for two or three years 
 under the care of Dr. Weston, prebendary of Can- 
 terbury, who had been his father's tutor at Cam- 
 bridge, he was sent to Harrow at the age of eleven 
 in the year 1795. He was here placed as private 
 pupil under the immediate superintendence of Dr. 
 Drury, and even at this early age he evinced 
 strong marks of that anxiety for the acquisition of 
 knowledge and the cultivation of his mind, whicli 
 afterwards so much distinguished him, and whicli 
 is so rarely found to prevail over the more natural 
 and exciting amusements of boyhood. He was 
 i^jmJ^ seen in the cricket-field or at foot-ball, nor 
 
 206G235
 
 did he join generally either in the society or the 
 amusements of his school-fellows. It was perhaps 
 in consequence of these retired habits that his ex- 
 traordinary talents and attainments were not fully 
 appreciated till he came to St. John's college, 
 Cambridge, in the year 1801. There the few se- 
 lect friends, with whom he associated, had reason 
 to be astonished at the stores of knowledge, which 
 he had accumulated during those years, which are 
 usually devoted to amusement or at best to lighter 
 studies, and in that pleasant and most intimate 
 intercourse which prevails among young men of 
 congenial habits at the University they were 
 sometimes delighted by the playfulness of his hu- 
 mour, and at other times astonished by the accu- 
 racy and retentiveness of his memory. Here, 
 however, as at Harrow, the same reserved habits 
 prevented his talents and attainments from be- 
 coming generally known, and the little inchnation 
 he ever evinced for mathematical pursuits pre- 
 cluded the chance of his becoming distinguished 
 by his success in the peculiar studies of that Uni- 
 versity. Probably he may have thought that, cir- 
 cumstanced as he was, the knowledge of History, 
 the study of the best classical writers, both ancient 
 and modern, and the attainment of considerable 
 facility in speaking and writing a variety of lan- 
 guages, were likely to be both more agreeable and 
 more profitable to him than a progress in those 
 abstruse sciences, by which the University of Cam-
 
 
 
 i/ ■^9**>'-y ■^-y^*-*y 7/^^r / ^t-*-*-^ 

 
 
 i^c^i^i Kr
 
 
 /^f^ /tJ--x// ^^^y^' 
 
 ^7 /^ /^.^^^-dl^
 
 
 « -^
 
 bridge has become so much and so justly distin- 
 guished. Although, however, on this account he 
 failed to attract attention by obtaining academical 
 distinctions, his time was by no means misspent 
 during his residence at St. John's college. He 
 devoted himself most assiduously to the study of 
 the classical writers, and it is probable that he 
 there commenced that translation of the Cassandra 
 of Lycophron, which is now for the first time pub- 
 lished, and which, independent of its merit as a 
 poem, evinces a knowledge of history and mytho- 
 logy, a profundity of research, and a combination 
 
 ^•^ of taste and learning altogether astonishing in so 
 
 •;• young a writer. 
 
 Probably to the same period may be referred an 
 English poem, which was found among his papers 
 upon " Nothing." The idea seems to have been 
 suggested by those celebrated lines of Shakespeare, 
 which are prefixed as a motto to the poem, — 
 
 " And as Imagination bodies forth 
 The form of things unknown, the poet's pen 
 Turns them to shape, and gives to airy Nothing 
 A local habitation and a name." 
 
 As a trial perhaps of his ingenuity, the poet at- 
 tempts literally to give 
 
 " A local habitation and a name" 
 
 , to Nothing, by making it the subject of a very ela- 
 'M borate poem. Though the whole possesses very
 
 considerable merit, it would perhaps be thought 
 too long for a mere Jeu d^ Esprit, and the following 
 extracts have been therefore selected, as favom*able 
 specimens of his power in English versification. 
 Speaking of the various Nothings, which sometimes 
 occur in poetry, he adds, personifying Nothing, 
 
 " Thine are the shapes, and thine the airy train. 
 Which haunt Invention's visionary brain ; 
 Thine are the guardian Dryads of the woods, 
 And all the sea-green daughters of the floods, 
 The sylphish forms, who on the clouds recline. 
 And the swarth spirits of the gloomy mine. 
 See from thy lap the starting Phoenix springs, 
 ^therial perfume dropping from his wings. 
 High swells his haughty crest, his plumes disclose 
 The varying tints of azure and of rose. 
 Round his sky-tinctured bosom, fold on fold. 
 The sapphire gleams and gleams the downy goldj 
 He mounts renewed in all his feathery pride. 
 Spreads his broad pinions in the rain-bow dyed. 
 High o'er the clouds a second sun he sails, 
 Quaffs nectar'ous dew and wooes the spicy gales. 
 And O ! might young-eyed Fancy ever bring 
 Such forms as these incumbent on her wing, 
 Such forms as flit before the favoured bard. 
 The source of deathless verse and the reward, 
 Who would not scorn the business of the day, 
 And sit and think and dream his life away ? 
 But oft, how oft ! to \asionary eyes 
 Infernal furies from the deep arise, 
 Borne on the winds, descend a spectre train. 
 And shadowy horrors float across the brain.
 
 No rest, no joy, the wretched victims kno%A', 
 Lost in a sad variety of woe. 
 Hast thou ne'er seen Devotion's gloomy child, 
 Now sunk in sorrow, now with frenzy wild. 
 Sit in some ruined aisle, while o'er him roll 
 The chilling forms, the visions of the soul. 
 Round his pale head the gloomy Nothings float, 
 His heart beats trembling to the fancied note, 
 Through the thick night he darts his straining eyes 
 To catch some shape commingling with the skies. 
 Or hears the winds, which round him murmur low. 
 Breathe sad the sentence of eternal woe." 
 
 After describing the " Nothingness" of female 
 beauty, which so soon passeth away and is gone, 
 he proceeds to consider how far the fame of the 
 warrior is likely to be much more durable. 
 
 " But though the charms of loveliness decay. 
 And graceful forms successive pass away, 
 Yet when the hero, bom of generous kind, 
 With limbs of adamant and ardent mind, 
 Shall yield to time or to the foe his breath, 
 And close his glories in the night of death, 
 High o'er its base the trophied form shall rise. 
 Eternal brass shall glitter in our eyes. 
 From her dark brows Obh\aon shall unbind 
 Her poppied wreath, and cast it to the wind. 
 Ah ! no — how vainly shall Ambition trust 
 Recording marble and historic bust, 
 For e'en the tower sublime, the vaulted roof. 
 Aerial arch and column — massy-proof — « 
 
 All ! all by Fate's immutable decree 
 Shall sink, O ! Nothing, and shall yield to tliee."
 
 Alluding to the spirit of minute philosophy, 
 which has led some to doubt the existence of a 
 God, on account of certain defects which they 
 think they have discerned in the works of creation, 
 he has the following powerful lines : — 
 
 " Go then, ye fools of Science, ye who stray 
 Led by false light from truth how far away, 
 Search for defects in the all perfect plan. 
 Debase your God, exalt created man, 
 Scan immortality with mortal eyes. 
 And teach unerring wisdom to be wise." 
 
 In another part of the poem he describes the 
 power of his imaginary Nothing to be limited to 
 matter, and not to affect the mind. 
 
 " Yet is thy sway by certain laws confined, 
 Great Power of space, to matter not to mind. 
 Grasped by thy chilling hand the body lies. 
 Far far aloof the aetherial spirit flies : 
 O ! lives there in this dark terrestrial ball. 
 Who, blind to Reason, deaf to Nature's caU, 
 Proclaims the soul a meteor of the night. 
 Whose blaze of glory and whose beaming light 
 To darkness yield their undulating fire. 
 Rise but to fall and live but to expire. 
 That this bright spark of intellectual flame 
 Shall sink and die with its inclosing frame, 
 Back to its blank original shall tend, 
 And sprung from Nothing, shall in Nothing end ? 
 If this be truth, then ne'er may truth destroy 
 The shadowy phantoms of ideal joy;
 
 No, ne'er shalt thou, inertly strong, control. 
 Or stretch thy leaden sceptre o'er the soul. 
 Whose purest essence, kindling as she flies. 
 Shall mount through air, assume her native skies. 
 Back to her source of kindred light shall burn. 
 And sprung from heaven shall unto heaven return." 
 
 In such pursuits as these, and in the society of 
 a few friends of congenial habits, were passed the 
 two years which are usually considered as sufficient 
 for the academical education of young noblemen. 
 Having taken his degree he passed some time in 
 Ireland, where his father, the Earl of Hardwicke, 
 was at that time Lord Lieutenant,* and soon after- 
 
 * It is impossible for the Editor to mention the name of this 
 respected nobleman without feeling a strong desire to pay some 
 tribute to the memory of one, who, though justly appreciated for 
 his talents and integrity as a statesman, was perhaps less known 
 than he deserved to be as a scholar and a man of letters. Lest, 
 however, a grateful sense of obligations conferred, and a vivid 
 recollection of the pleasure derived from a most intimate inter- 
 course of friendship during nearly thirty years, might be sup- 
 posed to bias his judgment, he wiUingly adopts, as expressing his 
 own sentiments, the following passage from a sermon preached 
 before the University of Cambridge by the learned Dean of Peter - 
 borough upon the death of H. R. H. the Duke of Gloucester : — 
 
 " It was just before we had announced to us the melancholy 
 event which we now deplore, that we were deprived of the vene- 
 rable nobleman, who held the office next to the highest in our 
 academical body. Tlie family of that highly respected person is 
 so well known to the history of the last century, has exerted so 
 ;, beneficial an influence in this part of the island, and has been so 
 long connected with these institutions, that whatever of good or 
 ill may befal it, we feel the circumstance as affecting ourselves.
 
 8. 
 
 wards turned his tlioughts towards the advantages 
 and amusement he might derive from foreign travel. 
 He had now completed his translation of the Cas- 
 sandra, and, although from a modesty creditable 
 to so young a man, (for he was then only two and 
 twenty,) he felt afi'aid of venturing upon publica- 
 tion, he was naturally anxious that the result of 
 his labours should become known to his particular 
 friends, and to a few accomplished scholars, who 
 were able to appreciate their difficulty. He deter- 
 mined, therefore, upon printing a few copies at the 
 University press for private distribution, and, being 
 impatient to commence his tour, left to me the 
 task of carrying his wishes, in this respect, into, 
 effect. Accordingly in the summer of 1806, about 
 1 00 copies were printed, and, though the circula- 
 
 ' Our late High Steward, indeed, descended to the tomb in his old 
 age : but his life had not been without its trials and its troubles. 
 Three of his sons had been borne to the tomb of their ancestors 
 before him : another had perished, and the father was not per- 
 mitted to have even the satisfaction of consigning his mortal part 
 to the same place. With regard to the son who thus perished, 
 all who recollect him dwell with admiration upon the splendour 
 of his talents, the extent of his learning, and the nobleness of his 
 disposition. Such calamities must assiu-edly have been felt as 
 very grievous, but the father, whose lot they were, still bowed 
 with pious resignation to the divine will. 
 
 "The late Earl of Hai'dwicke was indeed a man of excellent 
 qualities, an accomplished scholar, and a liberal patron of what- 
 ever seemed conducive to the public advantage. He was at the 
 same time kind to his dependants, conciliating in his demeanour, 
 and most exemplary in all the relations of domestic life,"
 
 I 
 
 9 
 
 tion was so limited, the extraordinary merit of the 
 execution soon acquired him a reputation among 
 the learned. A_copy had been sent to Professor 
 Porson, as well as to Dr. Edward Clarke, the well- 
 known traveller, and I had afterwards the satisfac- 
 tion of seeing the following note, written in the 
 blank leaf of Dr. Clarke's copy. 
 
 *' To the praise which every lover of poetry must 
 
 bestow upon this extraordinary production of a 
 
 young nobleman, I am able to add the testimony 
 
 of Professor Porson * concerning its merits as a 
 
 translation. It was by him compared with the 
 
 original text, and found to be as near the truth as 
 
 it could appear, consistently with the dignity of 
 
 the representation. 
 
 *' E. D. C." 
 
 The late Bishop of Bristol, Dr. Gray, seems to 
 have formed an equally favoral)le opinion of its /^^J^ o^->*- 
 merits, for in his " Connection between the , 
 sacred writinsrs and the literature of Jewish 
 and Heathen Authors,*' he observes, '" The late //^j^/0^-^^*T' 
 lamented Lord Royston, whose talents would have n/--/^^/ ^K^cauh 
 
 * A further confirmation of the favourable opinion entertained "^ 
 by Professor Porson of Lord Royston's classical attainments is- 
 afforded by the correspondence, recently published between Jebb 
 and Knox. 
 
 " Is it not curious, for instance, that Porson should have 
 professed himself astonished at Lord Royston's knowledge of 
 Greek?" — Correspondence between John Jebb, D.D. and Alexander 
 Knox, Esq. Vol. ii. p. (iQ.
 
 10 
 
 rendered him an ornament to literature and to 
 his country, published a complete translation of 
 Lycophron, executed by himself in a very superior 
 manner, so as to illustrate many of the obscurities 
 inherent in the text of that Author." 
 
 Many other similar testimonials of approbation 
 were received from Dr. Parr,* Dr. Butler, of 
 
 * The letter from Dr. Parr is subjoined in a note, as any 
 thing from the pen of that distinguished scholar must always 
 excite an interest in the literary world. 
 
 " Holton, August 26, 1806. 
 
 " Dr. Parr presents his compliments to Lord Royston, and 
 begs leave to thank his Lordship for the translation of the Cas- 
 sandra, which came yesterday to Holton parsonage, and which 
 he will read attentively when he has leisure to compare it with 
 the original. From a finn and serious conviction that the cha- 
 racter of mind, impressed by a classical education, is the best 
 preservative against the poison of a specious, but spurious, phi- 
 losophy, and the best preparation for the purest and most sacred 
 duties of society. Dr. Parr feels the highest satisfaction in 
 finding that so many of his countrymen, distinguished by 
 splendoiu- of birth and eminence of rank, employ their talents 
 advantageously and honourably in a right direction, and with 
 the happiest effect. 
 
 " Dr. Parr would be glad to hear that Lord Royston is here- 
 after disposed to turn his attention to a masterly paper, which 
 he believes to be in the possession of Lord Hardwicke, and 
 which was drawn up by Mr. Chancellor Yorke, for the vindica- 
 tion of Demosthenes fi-om the charge of bribery. Doubtless the 
 materials were within the reach of many scholars, but the ele- 
 gance of its style, the clearness of the arrangement, and the 
 force of its reasoning, bear strong indications of an intellect 
 largely indebted to the bounty of nature, and disciplined by long 
 exercise in the investigation of evidence. The subject, as Lord
 
 11 
 
 Harrow, and others distinguished for their clas- 
 sical knowledge, to whom copies had been sent, 
 but as these were conveyed in the shape of Letters 
 to Lord Hardwicke, they might be supposed to 
 speak the language of flattery or compliment, and 
 are, therefore, omitted. 
 
 While the friends of this lamented young noble- 
 man were thus employed in obtaining for him the 
 reputation so justly due to his extraordinary acquire- 
 ments, he was himself shaping his course through 
 Denmark and Sweden to the Russian Empire. The 
 political state of Europe did not at that time 
 permit Englishmen to visit its most interesting 
 parts, and perhaps Lord Royston was not sorry 
 for an excuse to diverge from the beaten track, 
 and explore countries which, though containing 
 fewer objects of interest than France or Italy, 
 were less generally known. The first letter re- 
 ceived by his father was from Gotheborg, and 
 dated July 1, 1806. 
 
 Royston must be aware, is interesting to all men of letters. 
 The fate of Mr. Yorke's papers, destroyed by fire at Lincoln's 
 Inn, the fortunate preservation of his argument on a favourite 
 topic, in the short-hand of Dr. Taylor, and the accuracy of the 
 transcript, which required only five or six alterations when it 
 came under the eye of the writer, are circumstances very grati- 
 fying to public curiosity, but above all the justice amply and 
 effectually done to the reputation of the Grecian orator, will be 
 most creditable to the erudition, the sagacity, and the moral 
 feelinsrs of his illustrious advocate.
 
 12 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Gotheborg, Tuesday, July 1, 1806. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 I have been about six hours on this side of the 
 water, where I can assure you I am not a httle 
 glad to find myself, having been a good deal 
 tossed about, and met with some bad weather. 
 We saw scarcely any vessels on our passage here, 
 but some Americans, and Dutch fishermen under 
 Oldenburgh colours, for the Prussians have en- 
 tirely evacuated these seas, and not a flag of theirs 
 is now to be seen. The first land we made was 
 the northern coast of Jutland, which we saw yester- 
 day about twelve o'clock, and after beating about 
 during great part of the night off the Skaw, we sailed 
 up the river this morning. My fellow passengers 
 consisted of Mr. Smith, the Swedish Consul, a 
 young lady, a relation of his wife, and Mr. Damm, 
 an iron merchant. On Sunday I reconnoitred the 
 inns, one of which, from the country of the land- 
 lord, dignified itself with the name of the Caledo- 
 nian Hotel, but on inspection they both seemed 
 so equally bad, that I saw no substantial reason 
 for preferring the Scotchman to the Scandinavian. 
 If this reason, however, had been bad, I should 
 soon have been supplied with a better, for the 
 North Briton was completely full, and I am, con-
 
 13 
 
 sequently compelled to take up my lodginjij with 
 the Swede. How I shall get on here I do not 
 know, for it does not appear that either myself, or 
 my two servants, have any common language with 
 any inhabitant of the house. Our situation, how- 
 ever, will be perfectly free from one mortifying 
 circumstance, which attended the punishment of 
 Tantalus, for, from what I have observed, I have 
 no apprehension whatever of starving in the midst 
 of abundance. I have taken a cursory view of the 
 town, which certainly has a very neat appearance; 
 and where considerable parts of it have been burned 
 do\vn (an accident it is much exposed to, being 
 almost entirely built of wood,) they are rebuilding 
 it with white brick. Upon the whole I do not 
 think I shall remain here above four or five days, 
 at the expiration of which I shall proceed to Hel- 
 sinborg, and leaving my carriage and one servant 
 on the Swedish side, shall cross over to Denmark, 
 and remain a few days at Copenhagen. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Gotheborg, Tuesday, July 8, 1806. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 I intend to set out on Thursday next for Hel- 
 sinborg, in order to proceed to Copenhagen, hav- 
 ing by this time completely satisfied my curiosity
 
 14 
 
 with respect to this town and the environs. Last 
 night I returned from an excursion to Trolhatte, 
 which is situated nearly fifty Enghsh miles up the 
 country, not far from the entrance of the Wenner 
 Lake, which is the largest body of fresh water in 
 Sweden, being about ninety miles in length. I 
 proceeded thither on last Saturday in an open 
 carriage, and having taken the precaution to 
 dispatch a peasant to order relays of horses, met 
 with no delay, except what resulted from the 
 harness breaking three or four times between every 
 post. In general the traveller drives, and the 
 peasant who accompanies him, either runs by the 
 side of the carriage or gets up behind. I scarcely 
 know how to tell you, without being guilty of a 
 solecism, that for two or three stages the ^ost-boi/ 
 was a woman ! I had, as you will readily believe, 
 some difficulty in setthng accounts in Swedish paper 
 currency, of which I knew very httle, with people 
 of whose language I was entirely ignorant, but 
 by speaking a barbarous jargon, composed of every 
 Saxon dialect, and catching every word of theirs I 
 happened to understand, I contrived to get on 
 without much delay. One inconvenience, indeed, 
 resulted from driving myself, which was that while 
 I was employed in looking at the country, the 
 horses made a sharp turn to their master's cottage, 
 and both Dousset and myself were thrown out, 
 but escaped without any injury. On arriving at 
 Trolhatte, I found a tolerable inn, kept by a man
 
 15 
 
 who understood German. The whole of the next 
 day I employed in inspecting the canal and cata- 
 racts, under the guidance of a fine old soldier, who 
 told me that he had served in the wars against the 
 King of Prussia. The canal is certainly a very 
 gi'eat work, considering that the river falls about 
 an hundred feet in a very short distance, and that 
 the cuts are made entirely through the solid granite. 
 This canal opens a free water communication with 
 Gotheborg and the Wenner Lake, and I saw se- 
 veral vessels loaded with iron and timber pass 
 through the sluices, which are eight in number. 
 It is in contemplation to unite the Wenner with 
 the Wetter and Mcehler Lakes, and by those means 
 open a communication with Stockholm, that in 
 case of a war with the Danes, or when the passage 
 of the Gulph of Bothnia is blocked up by ice, 
 shipping may proceed from the capital to the ocean 
 at all times of the year, and without passing the 
 Sound. During my stay here I have received great 
 civilities from the English merchants, particularly 
 from Mr. Smith, the Consul. At their houses I 
 have met several Swedes, but hitherto, not any 
 who spoke French, excepting the wife of one 
 Swedish merchant, at whose house I dined. This 
 gentleman was distinguished by two peculiarities, 
 which I should hope are not common in civilized 
 countries. He never, by any accident, combs his 
 hair, or shaves his beard, and never suffers a drop 
 of water to touch him. In these circumstances I
 
 16 
 
 esteemed myself fortunate in getting a windward 
 place at his table. If you ever read books of tra- 
 vels, you undoubtedly know the strong propensity 
 travellers feel to give their bills of fare, and as this 
 was the first specimen of a Swedish dinner which I 
 saw, I will conform to their custom in this instance. 
 We began with cheese and corn-brandy, we pro- 
 ceeded to raw herrings and caviar, we next attacked 
 the joints, concluding with the roast, and finished 
 with the fish and soup. During this inversion of 
 our English mode, I was presented with some 
 dishes, which reminded one of the line in Pope, 
 " Judicious drank and greatly daring dined." A 
 letter will hit me at Copenhagen. 
 
 Your affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 Lord Royston appears to have viewed with great 
 interest the falls of Trolhatte mentioned in the 
 above letter. It is well known that these are 
 caused by the waters of the Great Wenner Lake, 
 said by Dr. Clarke * to be one hundred miles in 
 length, and fifty in breadth, which force them- 
 selves down a precipice, and form the river Gotha. 
 It has been the custom to keep an album at the 
 small inn at Trolhatte, where travellers might have 
 an opportunity of inscribing their names, and re- 
 cording the impressions made upon their minds by 
 
 * Life and Remains of the Rev. E. D. Clarke. Page 349.
 
 17 
 
 these stupendous falls. Soon after the fatal cata- 
 strophe, which terminated in bitter disappointment 
 the fond hopes hitherto entertained of the lamented 
 subject of our Memoir, and rendered most valuable 
 every relic that could be obtained of his past sen- 
 timents or taste, it came to the knowledge of his 
 family that he had inscribed some Greek Anapaests 
 in this Album. With some difficulty a copy was 
 obtained of them, and they are here subjoined, 
 not only on account of their intrinsic merit, but as 
 affording a striking instance of his facility in writ- 
 ing Greek, since they must have been struck off 
 at the moment without any previous study or 
 preparation. 
 
 Tiavra SeSw/ccv ^vaic uvOpioiroig, 
 A /iisv £v KoXiro) KpvTTTH juiag 
 Ifpoc KevO/iiwv, a c^e Kai ttovts 
 Ylop(f)vpe£(y(nv Kvf.iaTa pivOecnv, 
 AAA' s/c apyoig, s Tf^vrj^ anp' 
 H Trip apiaTr]g dvyarrip ^o(l>iagj 
 Awn; S 'epy<x)v ovKiT aicpig, 
 Kvpara Travel, (paiva yaiag 
 Kev6i.iu)va jiciOvv, yjalrag r avcpog 
 <l>vAXot(Ti (ro^8 
 MrjTTOTE A?/-yei (7T£^av8(ra. 
 
 VeiOpa TpoXuTTag, davfia loegOai. 
 Tlwpara KaQapiov utto Kprjvioiov, 
 SkottjAoi t aKpoi, avrpa rt vn/u^wv, 
 C
 
 18 
 
 AatTKtoc wArj, Kai cpvaoeioe^ 
 Kpj/vwv (j)eyyog, Qeioi r avifxoi, 
 AvTT/vouvTEC Kprjvwv keXciow, 
 M?/7ror£ firjTroTe \r]<TOinai vfnov. 
 
 We are indebted to the late accomplished Lady X^ 
 V, Margaret Fordyce for the following very spirited^ 
 translation of the above lines : — 
 
 Nature her wondrous gifts with Hberal hand 
 Has scattered round to deck the smihng land : 
 Her hidden treasures in earth, sea, or sky. 
 Impervious are to the neglectful eye. 
 For wisdom''s daughter opes not nature''s store 
 To sloth or ignorance ; but crowns the lore 
 Of him, whose ardent gaze and onward course 
 Follows untired and seeks her at her source. 
 On him the Goddess smiles with gentlest air. 
 And binds the deathless laurel round his hair. 
 In ease immersed these eyes had ne'er survey'd 
 These sacred caves where smihng Naiads play'd. 
 
 Waves of Trolhatte, wondrous to behold, 
 Rocks, which the dawning sun-beam tips with gold, 
 Forests, to brightest beams impervious yet, 
 Thy varied charms I never can forget. 
 
 The next letter is from Copenhagen, and dated, 
 July 14, 1806.
 
 19 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 I left Gotheborg pursuant to my intentions, 
 which I detailed to you in my last letter, on the 
 10th instant, having provided myself with the 
 necessary passports for Denmark, and purchased 
 harness for six horses, which are fastened to the 
 carriage four abreast and two leaders. I did not 
 forget the necessary precaution of sending forward 
 a courier to order relays ; and this magnificent 
 way of travelling costs me, or to speak more pro- 
 perly, costs you less than a chaise and pair in 
 England. I proceeded through Kiana, Kongs- 
 backa, Asin, Backa, Warburg, and Moruss to Fal- 
 kenberg, where I slept at a tolerable inn. The 
 country through which I passed was uncommonly 
 dreary, destitute of wood, exhibiting scarcely any 
 marks of cultivation, and covered with sand or 
 rock. On the 11th I passed by Stringe, Quibile, 
 Halmstadt, Kierby, Warrup, and Margaretta Torp 
 to Engelholm. Part of this country, in the pro- 
 vince of Skone, is very beautiful, well wooded and 
 watered, and bearing crops chiefly of rye or barley ; 
 a few fields of wheat, and occasionally hop grounds 
 present themselves. Halmstadt was originally a 
 fortified town, but the ramparts are now dis- 
 mantled, and the ditch converted into gardens. 
 The bridge having lately fallen down, we were
 
 20 
 
 forced to convey tlie carriage and horses over 
 the river by means of a raft, an operation which, 
 though troublesome, was less disagreable than 
 passing over many of the bridges of this country, 
 for the wood, of which they are built, is generally 
 become very rotten, and they appear scarcely able 
 to support the weight of a carriage. The roads in 
 other respects are excellent, and equal to the best 
 in England. They are not made by government, 
 nor are they the work of the military, as in many 
 parts of Europe, nor of societies of individuals, 
 reimbursed by the privilege of collecting tolls, but 
 the landholders and peasantry are obliged to keep 
 in repair each a certain portion contiguous to their 
 property, and if this is neglected, the road is made 
 by some person who has authority so to do, and 
 the expences charged to the defaulter. This is 
 certainly a most oppressive and unjust mode, for I 
 cannot find that the landholders are thus taxed in 
 proportion to their property, but in proportion to 
 their vicinity to the road ; and the traveller, who 
 is alone, or at least chiefly benefitted, pays no toll, 
 and is completely exonerated from the expence. 
 Between Halmstadt and Engelholm, I observed 
 marks of intrenchments, and barrows, or burying 
 places, which the postilion said were the graves of 
 those who fell in an eno^asfement between the 
 Swedes and Danes which took place upon that 
 spot. On the 12th I proceeded through Heminge 
 to Helsinborg, and crossed a river by means of a
 
 21 
 
 float, similar to that at Halmstadt. Immediately 
 upon my arrival my baggage was searched, a cere- 
 mony which was renewed ii])on the following day, 
 and my passport countersigned. I found the 
 operation of searching, in general, more expensive 
 than troublesome, having discovered that the rea- 
 diest way to open the heart of a Custom House 
 officer is to open your purse. It should appear 
 that certain European Powers have an aversion to 
 the sight of new clothes, and with a laudable wish 
 to promote commerce through their dominions, 
 have absolutely prohibited their importation, not 
 only in wholesale quantities by merchants, but by 
 travellers, even though their stock should be 
 barely sufficient for their own consumption. Had 
 the search been public, my breeches would infal- 
 libly have gone to increase the revenues of govern- 
 ment ; but I hinted to the commissioner that if he 
 would accompany me to the inn, and examine 
 there, certain dollars would be forthcoming. This 
 information, though conveyed to him in a language 
 to which he was a stranger, vibrated delectably 
 upon his auditory nerves, and the sounds, though 
 foreign to his ears, were not so to his understand- 
 ing, and it is probable that the subject of the 
 discourse marvellously facilitated his comprehen- 
 sion of the language. On the 13th, I crossed the 
 Sound, which is not more than four or five miles 
 broad, and observing to my great surprise a 
 flock of geese swimming in the sea, I tasted the
 
 22 
 
 water, and found it merely brackish, so much so, 
 that I imagine it might be drank without much 
 inconvenience. The sea is allowed generally to 
 decrease in saltness in proportion to its vicinity 
 to the North Pole ; but here, I conceive, the 
 effect is increased by the innumerable freshes and 
 rivers which fall into the Baltic. The Straits 
 were full of shippings chiefly English merchant- 
 men waiting for a wind, and two or three English 
 sloops of war. I stopped at Helsinoer, merely 
 till I could procure a post waggon, for as I must 
 necessarily pass that way on the road to Stock- 
 holm, I considered it expedient to delay my inspec- 
 tion till my return. My carriage I had left at 
 Helsinborg, and as the Danish post-boys rival the 
 Germans in slowness and obstinacy, I was five 
 hours passing over the twenty-four English miles 
 to Copenhagen, though the road and horses were 
 some of the best I have seen. As we proceeded, 
 every thing indicated that we were approaching a 
 great city. Extensive plantations of wood, crowds 
 of people, numbers of carriages, and a high state of 
 cultivation showed we were approaching a metro- 
 polis. Of the city itself my knowledge is at pre- 
 sent limited to the streets I have driven through, 
 in my way to the hotel, and the walls of the room 
 in which I am sitting. Tomorrow I shall present 
 my letters of recommendation, and call upon the 
 English Minister. At Helsinborg I was alarmed 
 by a report of a peace with France, but at Helsi-
 
 23 
 
 noer I procured an English paper of the 4 th in- 
 stant, by which 1 see that nothing was then known 
 with respect to the negociations. 
 
 I have reason to be satisfied with my servants, 
 particularly Poole, who is active and intelligent. 
 
 I am lodged at Miiller's Hotel, and shall pro- 
 bably continue here a fortnight, and then set out 
 for Stockholm. 
 
 I remain your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Copenhagen, Sunday, July 20, 1806. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 I do not imagine my stay in Copenhagen will be 
 protracted beyond the end of this week, for in the 
 absence of the Court, all that is at all interesting 
 to a stranger can very soon be seen. The Prince 
 Royal is now with the troops in Holstein, and 
 the Danish Nobility have mostly retired to their 
 country houses. Since the Revolution, they 
 have become so completely insignificant, and 
 hereditary rank, without the addition of the Key 
 of a Chamberlain, or the Ribband of an Order, 
 confers so little importance, that if I may judge 
 from the accounts of persons resident here, every 
 thing like hospitality is confined, even when the
 
 24 
 
 town is full, to a very few persons indeed. 
 Mr. Garlike, the English Minister, has been very 
 civil to me, and has presented me to most of the 
 ministers and nobihty who still remain in Copen- 
 hagen. I have accompanied him to the country 
 houses of Counts Schimalman, Rautzan, and 
 Bernstoff ; and have dined at the country seat of 
 Mr. De Coninck, who has for many years been 
 considered the first merchant in Zealand, and has 
 made an enormous fortune by supplying the French 
 with those articles which we have declared contra- 
 band of war. Some of his ships, however, have 
 been captured by our cruizers, and he has lost, I 
 understand, to the amount of two hundred thou- 
 sand pounds. At his house I met forty persons, 
 among whom was Lisakswitch, the Russian Minis- 
 ter, whom you probably remember in England. 
 The other persons, upon whom I have called, or 
 from whom I have received cards, are Hauch, the 
 great Marshal ; Von Brienen, the Secretary to the 
 Russian Embassy ; Merbiz, the Charge des Affaires 
 de la Cour de Saxe ; Revenfeldt, Chamberlain to 
 the King; the Chamberlains de Bille and Sches- 
 tedt ; Baron Taube, the Swedish Charge des Af- 
 faires ; De Kaas, President of the Danish Chan- 
 cery ; Count Grunne, the Austrian Minister ; 
 Counts Molke and Reventlow, and Messrs. Ben- 
 ners and Duntzfeldt. Baron Oxenstierna, to whom 
 I had letters, and whose house was constantly 
 open, returned to Sweden on the day on which I
 
 25 
 
 arrived at Copenhagen. Upon the whole I have 
 been well amused during my stay here. The city, 
 though not large, is handsome and well built, and 
 looks exactly what I should expect to find it, 
 a neat and compact capital of such an island as 
 Zealand. It is small, and I have not been able to 
 count in it more than eight churches, but there is 
 no appearance of poverty, none of the wooden 
 houses of Sweden, and the people are well dressed, 
 and in many respects put me much in mind of their 
 English relations. With the native Danes the 
 people of the Island of Amak form an amusing 
 contrast. The island was granted to a colony of 
 Dutchmen, and is now become the garden of Co- 
 penhagen, which is supplied from thence with 
 butter, milk, and vegetables. They have in other 
 respects assimilated with their neighbours, but still 
 preserve their national dress, and I believe enjoy 
 some distinct privileges. In returning from thence 
 to Copenhagen, I walked along the shore till I 
 came to the Dockyard. I entered it, and counted 
 thirteen ships of war, of which two sail of the line 
 were undergoing repairs, but before I could make 
 any accurate observations, a soldier tapped me on 
 the shoulder, and desired me to accompany him to 
 a naval officer at a small distance. The officer was 
 very civil, and told me that no person was allowed 
 to examine the dockyards without permission from 
 the Port Admiral. The uniform of both the army 
 and navy nearly resembles the English. The time
 
 26 
 
 of doing duty is limited, but then every male is 
 bound to military services, by sea or land, at the 
 option of government. From the age of seventeen 
 or eighteen he serves for eight years, is embodied 
 for three years out of the second eight ; he then 
 becomes a mihtiaman, and is called out for a few 
 days in spring and autumn till the age of forty-five, 
 after which it is his turn to be defended. Fo- 
 reigners are, I understand, not now allowed to 
 serve in the army without being naturalized, and 
 naturalization is only granted to those who possess 
 twenty thousand dollars in the country ; an excep- 
 tion is however made, from the necessity of the 
 case, I believe, with respect to non-commissioned 
 officers. 
 
 On Friday or Saturday I shall depart for Hel- 
 singoer, and from thence to Sweden, but I am not 
 determined whether to proceed straight to Stock- 
 holm, or to make a detour to Ystad, from whence 
 a packet sails regularly for Pomerania, and visit 
 Stralsund before I proceed further north. At 
 Helsinborg I shall probably have decided, and will 
 take care to let you know immediately. 
 
 I remain your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON.
 
 27 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Stockholm, Tuesday, August 5, 1806. 
 
 My dearest Father. 
 
 On Wednesday last I left Helsinborg, at four 
 o'clock in the morning, and travelled all night and 
 the following day, till I reached Ion Koping, which 
 is the first town on the road, about an hundred 
 and sixty English miles from Helsinborg, and si- 
 tuated on the Wetter Lake, of which it enjoys a 
 most magnificent prospect. On the following day 
 I reached Lindkoping, on the second I slept at 
 Nykoping, and late on the day before yesterday 
 arrived at Stockholm. The roads, with a few ex- 
 ceptions were equal to the best English turnpike 
 roads, and wound through extensive forests of fir 
 and birch. The Province of Smoland is exceed- 
 ingly barren, and thinly inhabited, and for the first 
 two days I only met one solitary traveller ; but 
 Scania, Ostrogothia, and Sudermania, are pretty 
 well cultivated, and well watered with lakes and 
 rivers. I experienced no delay whatever, and 
 though during the whole route I found but one 
 man who could speak German, I contrived, by 
 means of a little bad Swedish, which I had picked 
 up from a grammar, and by talking with the com- 
 mon people, to make myself sufficiently understood 
 at the inns and post-houses. Poole contrives to 
 get on by composing a language of English, Dutch,
 
 28 
 
 German, Swedish, and Danish, in which euphony 
 is certainly not the most predominant feature. Till 
 I arrived at lonkoping I got nothing to eat hut 
 some rye-bread, which I should have thought a 
 priori much too hard, black, and sour, for the 
 human teeth to chew, or throat to swallow. I 
 might, indeed, if I had chosen it, have supped 
 plentifully upon some raw salt goose which was 
 brought me, but I was fastidious, and rejected it. 
 For the remainder of the route I found very good 
 accommodation. Since my arrival I have called 
 upon ^^'ennerquist, to whom I had letters from 
 Lord Kellie, and Bathurst who remains here in 
 the absence of Pierrepont. Wennerquist has in- 
 troduced me to the Stockholm Club, to which 
 every stranger, introduced by a director, has the 
 power of belonging for two months, and at which 
 every person remaining in town, who is of any 
 consequence, is sure to be found. Stockholm 
 strikes me as a very beautiful city ; the island, on 
 which part of it is situated, and the inlets of the 
 Baltic, and the Lake Moehler give it altogether a 
 very singular appearance, and, though not so regular 
 as Copenhagen, it is indisputably more magnificent. 
 I shall probably remain here some weeks, and before 
 I leave Sweden I shall visit Upsala and the mines 
 of Fahlun and Danamora, then cross the Gulph, 
 and proceed through Finland to St. Petersburgh. 
 There are now very few English at Stockholm ; I 
 have not hitherto met with any of them. Some of
 
 29 
 
 them do not appear much liked, and if I may judge 
 from the manner in which they are spoken of, 
 some of my predecessors do not seem to have 
 behaved in a very concihatory manner. I cannot, 
 for example, go any where without hearing of the 
 absurdities of ***** *, who seems to have 
 exposed himself all round Europe. " Europe he 
 saw, and Europe saw him too." 
 
 Adieu my dear father, as soon as I am a little 
 more settled, and have a little more to tell you 
 than what I have seen from my post-chaise, or 
 room window, I will write again. 
 
 Your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Stockholm, August 14, 1806. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 T have not decided how long I shall remain at 
 Stockholm, probably not for any considerable time, 
 for the absence of the King, who is now at Stral- 
 sund, and of the Queen, who is passing the sum- 
 mer in Scania, have almost emptied the town of 
 its inhabitants. Count Fersin's and the Countess 
 Piper's are almost the only Swedish houses where 
 I have been invited, and at the clubs and tables 
 d'hote, the principal persons to be found are offi-
 
 30 
 
 cers and members of the corps diplomatique. I 
 have been employing myself chiefly for the few last 
 days in seeing all the sights which a traveller con- 
 ceives himself forced to see from a sense of duty. 
 Of these I have been most gratified by the works 
 of Sergei, a sculptor, whom I should imagine to be 
 the second in modern Europe, and inferior only to 
 Canova. I have also been to the Arsenal, which 
 contains the sword and armour of Gustavus Vasa, 
 the skin of the horse which carried Gustavus Adol- 
 phus at the battle of Lutzen, and the clothes in 
 which Charles the Twelfth was shot. It has been 
 mentioned, as a circumstance proving his assassi- 
 nation, that his hand was found on the hilt of his 
 sword. He is supposed, from this, to have seen a 
 person, standing very near to him, taking aim at 
 him with a pistol, and to have put himself in an 
 attitude of defence ; but I observed that the glove 
 of the right hand is covered with blood, and the 
 marks of the bloody fingers are visible on the 
 sword hilt ; he must, therefore, have^r*^ put his 
 hand to his wound, and the action of grasping his 
 sword must consequently have been merely mecha- 
 nical. 
 
 Before I cross the water to Abo, it is my inten- 
 tion to pay a visit to the University of Upsala, and 
 after seeing there whatever is interesting, not for- 
 getting to pay my compliments to the Rector Mag- 
 nificus, I shall proceed to the iron mines and 
 forges at Danamora, from thence to Gefle, and
 
 31 
 
 afterwards to the copper works at Fabliin, from 
 which latter place I shall probably make a short 
 excursion into the interior of Dalecarlia, and after- 
 wards return to Stockholm by the most direct road. 
 This tour will not, I imagine, take more than eight 
 or ten days to accomplish, and then I shall cross 
 the water before the navigation of the Gulph is 
 obstructed by the frost, which sets in, I believe, 
 pretty early in October. 
 
 From the circumstance of Pierrepont being \^^th 
 the King of Sweden in Pomerania, I have not been 
 able to profit by the letter of introduction which 
 Lord Manvers was so good as to give me ; but I 
 have received great civilities from Bathurst, the 
 Secretary of Legation, who is here in the absence 
 of the former. 
 
 I remain, your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Stockholm, August 25, 1806. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 The Lions of Stockholm are very soon seen. I 
 have been to the palaces of Haga and Drottning- 
 holm, which do not contain much that is remark- 
 able, and have seen the trophies and standards taken 
 by the Swedes in their various wars ; these amount
 
 32 
 
 to a prodigious number, but I tbink it is bigb time 
 tbat tbose wbicb were taken at Narva should be 
 removed, since the cession of tbose provinces to 
 tbe Russians, wbo may find consolation for their 
 defeat in tbe acquisition of tbe country in wbicb it 
 was sustained. Being a good deal annoyed by our 
 prosing cicerone, we asked him in as good Swedish 
 as we could muster, whether, as be had showed us 
 tbe trophies of Narva, he could not inform us if the 
 standards taken at the battle of Pultava were not also 
 in tbe collection. He answered, " Nej," with tbe most 
 perfect sang froid. My great amusement during 
 the evenings on wbicb I have not been engaged, has 
 been to read accounts of Sweden, and tbe different 
 travels through the country, which have been 
 lately published ; to contrast the absurd abuse of 
 one man with tbe equally absurd praise bestowed 
 upon the Swedes by another; to taste the milk 
 and water of Coxe, or the vinegar of Acerbi, whose 
 name is execrated in Sweden ; and wbo, I can 
 venture to say, from my own observation, has been 
 guilty of tbe grossest mistakes, and indulged in 
 invention, even more than beseems a traveller. I 
 have also been to tbe theatres whenever they have 
 been open ; tbe performances are entirely in Swed- 
 ish, for tbe present king has sent off the company 
 of French actors and tbe Itaban Opera. The 
 theatres are handsome but small, and I have been 
 infinitely amused by seeing some translations of 
 English plays, but more especially by the comedy
 
 33 
 
 of Tom Jones, winch certainly produced upon me 
 one legitimate effect of comedy, very great and 
 continued laughter. 
 
 I have been surprised to find, what I had by no 
 means been led to expect, and what renders a resi- 
 dence in Sweden less agreeable to an Englishman, 
 that our countrymen are in general very unpopular, 
 and that from a political feeling. The Swedes 
 affect to lament our naval victories, and remember 
 with too great an attachment their ancient al- 
 liance with France. The sentiments of the Court 
 are totally different, but then the Court shares the 
 general unpopularity of the cause, and I have heard 
 expressions made use of with respect to the go- 
 vernment, and wishes formed, which, if used in 
 England with reference to our king, would not be 
 tolerated even in private society. This feeling ap- 
 pears to me, both from the little observation I have 
 been able to make, and from the accounts of those 
 resident in the country, as well natives as fo- 
 reigners, to be much too generally diffused, and 
 the Swedes exhibit the strange phenomenon of a 
 brave and warlike people disliking their king for a 
 little military Quixotism, and ridiculing his con- 
 duct in having put himself at the head of so small 
 an army. It is impossible to dissemble the disgust 
 which every one must naturally feel upon hearing 
 men talk as they do with respect to the enemy, and 
 with respect to their sovereign, who though with 
 small means, has certainly acted the most dignified 
 
 D
 
 34 
 
 part of any sovereign on the Continent ; and who 
 is ahiiost the only king who does not crouch be- 
 neath the power of France. 
 
 I have received your letters to No. 3, and have 
 seen English newspapers to the twelfth of this 
 month, by which I see nothing has been received 
 from Lord Lauderdale. If any newspaper contains 
 any reflections on the conduct of Sweden, it is 
 immediately suppressed, and private letters from 
 abroad are, I believe, pretty diligently inspected. 
 It is possible, therefore, that this may, before you 
 receive it, pass through the hands of a commis of 
 the Post Office, who I hope understands English 
 sufficiently to appreciate the thorough contempt in 
 which I hold him. 
 
 I remain your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Westeras, Sep. 7, 1806. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 On the thirty-first I set out from Stockholm for 
 Upsala, and arrived there early in the evening. On 
 the following day I visited the Cathedral, and fortu- 
 nately found there a man who could speak Latin very 
 fluently. His account, however, would have been 
 more intelligible if he had not enriched the natural
 
 poverty of the language by borrowing a few gi'aces 
 from the Swedish idiom. The hbrary contains 
 very few vahiable manuscripts, with the exception 
 of the famous Codex Argenteus, which was origi- 
 nally taken at Prague, but stolen from Queen 
 Christina and restored to Sweden by Delagardie. 
 It contains a version of the Gospels in the Moeso 
 Gothic language, and is universally allowed to be 
 of the very highest antiquity. The letters are of 
 silver, and the titles of the chapters are gold. 
 Having read it at Cambridge in the Oxford edition, 
 by the help of an Anglo-Saxon version, I astonished 
 the librarian by reading a few sentences. He took 
 me to be a Vir Illustrlssimus. I then walked 
 round the botanic garden, and the collection of 
 Natural History formed by Linnaeus. Before I 
 left the University I wished much to see a Pro- 
 fessor, whose name ended in us, but Professor 
 Aurivehus was out of town. Professor Apshelius 
 was ill in bed, and the Rector Magnificus was not 
 at home. On the second I proceeded to the iron 
 mines of Danamora, but did not descend, because 
 from the very large opening it is possible to see 
 to the bottom. If I did not misunderstand my 
 Swedish conductor, the men who work there do 
 not receive above sixpence, English, a-day, and a 
 bucket full of ore, which they are allowed to con- 
 vert to their own profit. On the third I pursued 
 my journey to Gefle, which you will find in about 
 latitude sixty-one, and which is a sea-port, carrv-
 
 36 
 
 ing on a little trade, the good effects of which are 
 visible in the appearance of the place, which is one 
 of the best Swedish country towns I have seen. 
 On the fourth, I went to Fahlun, the appearance 
 of which is not prepossessing, nor, I should ima- 
 gine, the air very wholesome, from the perpetual 
 cloud of sulphur which hangs over the town, and 
 which is caused by the roasting of the ore. Early 
 the next morning, myself and Mansfield, a cotem- 
 porary of mine at Cambridge, who accompanied 
 me from Stockholm, having put on miners dresses, 
 descended into the mine. Having got down a deep 
 pit, we entered a door in the side, having each a 
 conductor carrying a torch composed of slips of 
 deal. We passed through long galleries, some- 
 times down winding staircases, sometimes down 
 ladders of wood or ropes, till we came to the 
 bottom of the mine, which is eleven hundred and 
 seventy-six feet below the surface of the earth. 
 The staircases were exceedingly easy, but the 
 operation of going down ladders tied together, 
 when by the hght of torches it is impossible to see 
 the depth beneath, I should not recommend to a 
 person of weak nerves. The next day I went to 
 Sala, and was detained some time in a forest of fir 
 and birch, by the axletree breaking, but w^e con- 
 trived to mend it sufficiently to last a few miles, and 
 having procured a smith, were enabled to arrive 
 to-day at Westeras, a neat town on the banks of the 
 Mcehler, about sixty-five English miles from Stock-
 
 holm, whither I purpose to proceed to-morrow ; by 
 which time my friends at Gotheborg, who told me 
 that it was absolutely necessary to procure a Swedish 
 servant, will I think find that they laboured under 
 a mistake, for I have now travelled nearly a thou- 
 sand English miles in Sweden without ever finding 
 the want of such an animal ; notwithstanding that 
 I have not met with above one or two men at the 
 different stations who could speak German ; French 
 is out of the question. My Swedish, however, I 
 suspect not to be perfectly pure, from the grin 
 which sometimes affects the risible muscles of the 
 ostler or post-boy, to whom it is addressed. The 
 greatest bore is that sometimes on entering a town 
 you are obliged to drive about looking for private 
 lodgings, and having procured them, it is neces- 
 sary to commence a fresh search after a traiteur, 
 for the avocations are frequently divided, though 
 I do not find that this division of labour produces 
 a greater degree of perfection in the several de- 
 partments. 
 
 Believe me to be. 
 
 Your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON.
 
 38 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Stockholm, Sep. 16, 1806. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 I received your letter a day or two after my re- 
 turn from Westeras, and find, on reference to a 
 memorandum, that the letter, which has either 
 miscarried or been delayed, was written to you 
 fiom Helsinborg immediately on my return to the 
 Swedish side of the Sound. I shall certainly not 
 prolong my stay here beyond a week, so that it will be 
 safer to direct any letter or parcel at once to Peters- 
 burg, than to run the risk of its lying for a consider- 
 able time at the Post-office, or at Mr. Wennerquist's 
 counting-house. You yourself will probably in a 
 short time receive a parcel of considerable weight, 
 consisting of two Swedish pieces of money, which 
 passed here as current coin, till within a few years. 
 Part of the salaries of public officers were paid in it, 
 and on the receipt of a quarter's allowance, as well 
 as on any other considerable payment, it was ne- 
 cessary to bring a cart to carry away the money. 
 As well as I recollect the largest weighs about seven 
 pounds. Thanks, however, to increasing civiliza- 
 tion, corruption has now " lighter wings to fly," 
 and in the course of a few days I intend, by the help 
 of a little more modern money, to transport myself 
 to the other side of the Gulf of Bothnia. There is
 
 39 
 
 a curious regulation on the Russian frontier, which 
 prohibits, as contraband, the importation of every 
 description of Russian coin or notes ; and an Eng- 
 hshman, who passed through this place a few days 
 ago, was detained under a guard for a considerable 
 time, because, not being aware of the prohibition, 
 he offered some Russian money to be changed. 
 It was immediately confiscated, an additional fine 
 imposed, and his baggage detained. This is one 
 instance among many of the facilities which the 
 different governments of Europe afford to travel- 
 lers. It was my intention, partly from laziness, to 
 have proceeded directly for Petersburgh by water, 
 but now I think it more probable that I shall cross 
 to Abo, and go by land through Finland, which is 
 the more common route. Under this idea I have 
 hired a servant, who can speak Finnish and Rus- 
 sian, for though a person may travel very well in 
 Sweden by himself, yet I should not like to ven- 
 ture it in a country, of whose language I do not 
 understand one word. I have been stopped in my 
 endeavours to acquire the Russian language by 
 what I think rather extraordinary ; I have not been 
 able to procure a Russian grammar at any book- 
 seller's shop at Stockholm ; the only book of the sort 
 I have seen, is one calculated to teach a Russian the 
 German language, but as it did not contain a 
 Russian alphabet, I was stopped in limine. 
 
 We have been all very much surprised here to 
 learn that Russia has refused to ratify the treaty
 
 40 
 
 signed by Oubril, whom I should recommend forth- 
 with to order his horses for Siberia. 
 Beheve me to be. 
 
 Your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Abo, Sep. 23, 1806. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 I sailed from Stockholm on the day before yes- 
 terday, and early this morning disembarked at Abo. 
 The passage is in length about two hundred and 
 eighty miles, but the sea is so thickly sprinkled 
 with islands, that at no time is the vessel out of 
 sight of land. During the whole of Monday we 
 seemed to be sailing down a river, and the shores, 
 which are mostly granite rock, are generally co- 
 vered with wood down to the surface of the water. 
 The channel is sometimes so very narrow that a 
 person on board might easily converse with the 
 inhabitants of either side. Abo contains little that 
 is curious. The university library is not very rich, 
 either in scarce books or valuable manuscripts, and 
 being principally composed of the spoils of some 
 collections taken in Germany, it is not, what I 
 had expected to find it, well stocked with Runic 
 monuments. They are building a college, which
 
 41 
 
 when completed, will be what is called a handsome 
 edifice. I saw lying on the ground, ready to be 
 erected, a number of columns of the most beauti- 
 fully polished gTanite, but the excellence of the 
 material serves only to set in a more conspicuous 
 light the bad taste of the architect. I have not yet 
 been long enough in Finland to have seen or sub- 
 mitted to the discipline of the bath, which consists 
 in being parboiled iii steam, and then heartily 
 flogged with birch rods dipped in cold water; if 
 there is snow on the ground it is also part of the 
 etiquette to roll in it. 
 
 To-morrow I set out on my journey to St. Peters- 
 burgh, which is distant from this place about four 
 hundred and twenty miles, and shall take the com- 
 mon route by Helsingfors, Louisa, Frederickshams, 
 andWiburgh. Petersburgh, I understand, is not now 
 the same magnificent and hospitable place which it 
 was in the reign of the Empress Catherine. The 
 late check they have experienced has thrown a 
 gloom over the Russian court, though they con- 
 sole themselves for their defeat in Moravia, by 
 the contemplation of their victory at Trafalgar, of 
 which they justly claim the honour, from the zvell 
 known fact that the French ships fell an easy prey 
 to the English, in consequence of all their cannon 
 having been sent to batter down the Russian co- 
 lumn at Austerlitz. 
 
 I remain, my dear father. 
 
 Your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON.
 
 ^2 
 To THE Earl of Hardvvicke. 
 
 St. Petersburgh, Oct. 1. 1806, New Style. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 On the morning after I arrived at Abo, I put 
 myself into my carriage, and proceeded on my 
 journey through Finland. My suite consisted of 
 four persons, for, as I am writing to an Ex-Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland, I think I may be permitted 
 to include in that number my avant courier. I 
 find that I could have travelled very well to the 
 frontiers of Russia without the additional incum- 
 brance of an interpreter, for, though Finnish is the 
 general language of the country, on the road and 
 at tlie inns Swedish is universally understood. I 
 thhik I met but with one person who could not 
 comprehend me. By the bye it has made most 
 terrible havoc in the little German I know, for I 
 do not think that I shall ever be able again to dis- 
 tinguish the languages, such a barbarous compound 
 of both have I lately been accustomed to speak to 
 my laqiiais de place. On my journey I was stiTick 
 with the lateness of the harvest, which is not yet 
 got in, though for the most part reaped. I ob- 
 served, however, but little ground employed in 
 agriculture. The soil is in general granite rock, 
 covered with immense forests of fir, which, though 
 at first they strike the imagination, become tedious
 
 43 
 
 from their excessive uniformity. The first night I 
 slept at Bjorsby, which is nothing but a miserable 
 post-house, and early in the morning set off for 
 Helsingfors, a tolerable sea-port town, defended 
 by the fortress of Sveaborg, said to be the 
 strongest in Finland. As dining and sleeping com- 
 prised the whole of my operations there, I can 
 only say that I performed them both very commo- 
 diously, particularly the former with the assistance 
 of partridges and a cock of the woods, of which 
 there are a prodigious number. On the twenty- 
 sixth I arrived at Louisa, which, as well as I 
 remember, Coxe represents to be a neat town ; on 
 this subject I can only say that his ideas of neat- 
 ness by no means coincide with mine. The follow- 
 ing day I crossed the frontier into Russian Finland, 
 when my baggage was searched at both extremi- 
 ties of a bridge, which divides the territories of the 
 King of Sweden from those of the Emperor ; and after 
 having obtained an order for horses from the officer 
 stationed on the frontier, I found myself in the even- 
 ing at Frederickshams. As this country formerly 
 belonged to the Swedes, the inhabitants preserve 
 their own customs and religion ; but as I advanced 
 I found every thing getting more and more Rus- 
 sian ; the churches began to be ornamented with 
 gilt domes, and the number of persons wearing 
 beards, continued to increase. Being exceedingly 
 fatigued I retired very early to bed, where I had 
 scarcely been, when I was awakened by a prodigi-
 
 44 
 
 ous noise, occasioned by a number of persons as- 
 sembled in the next room to celebrate the anniver- 
 sary of the Emperor's coronation. Music was soon 
 introduced and followed by a ball. This roused 
 me so effectually that I almost determined to get 
 up and join them, but so thoroughly was I tired, 
 that in a few minutes I heard no more of them. 
 On the twenty-eighth I was delayed at the first 
 stage, for the person who ought to have delivered 
 me my podoroslma or order for horses, having in 
 the excess of his loyalty got exceedingly drunk, 
 gave me one which belonged to a Russian General. 
 Fortunately the General came up, and finding 
 himself in the same dilemma, an explanation took 
 place, followed by an exchange of passports, and 
 we both proceeded on our journey ; Wiburgh, 
 where I next halted, is a handsome town, ceded to 
 the Russians during the last century, and said to 
 contain about ten thousand inhabitants. The inn 
 is kept by an Italian, who was much gratified by 
 an opportunity of speaking his own language. The 
 Governor being gone to bed, I was unable to pro- 
 cure my passports till ten o'clock the next morning, 
 when I proceeded on my journey to Petersburgh. 
 At one of the stages the Postmaster addressed me 
 in Latin ; I was in hopes that this knowledge " of 
 the liberal arts would have softened his manners, 
 and not suffered him to be a savage ;" on the con- 
 trary, he would not produce horses, without ex- 
 acting more than the regular payment, and, though
 
 45 
 
 perfectly aware of the imposition, I was obliged 
 most unwillingly to submit. From thence to Pe- 
 tersburgh I travelled all night, when nothing oc- 
 curred worthy of notice, excepting that in some 
 places the roads w^ere so bad that eight horses 
 could not draw me along, and I was forced to pro- 
 cure the assistance of some peasants to enable me 
 to get up the mountains. I saw two wolves, one 
 ran away into the woods ; the other, a very fine 
 fellow, and in exceeding good condition, stood 
 within a few yards of the carriage, and looked at us 
 with the greatest possible composure. Yesterday 
 at eleven in the morning I approached Petersburgh 
 to my great joy, and crossing the Neva over a 
 wooden bridge, landed safely at the hotel du Nord. 
 This morning has been spent chiefly in paying a 
 few visits, hiring a Russian servant, and a carriage 
 and four horses, a necessary appendage here, where 
 scarcely anybody walks the streets. I am amused 
 with finding here my old friends the Irish jaunting- 
 cars. 
 
 I have heard confirmed here the news of the 
 success of General Stuart, which has produced a 
 great sensation both here and in Sweden. A cir- 
 cumstance which is a sufficient answer to those 
 who ask " where is the benefit, will he not be 
 forced to re-embark for Sicily V Nothing contri- 
 butes so much to the victories of the enemy as the 
 idea of the futility of resistance. We have also 
 received the inteUigence of the death of Mr. Fox,
 
 46 
 
 and the capture of Buenos Ayres. England is 
 chiefly supplied with tallow from Russia : the 
 enormous quantity of cattle, and consequent plenty 
 of that article at Buenos Ayres, occasions long 
 faces among the merchants, who deal largely in 
 that commodity. It is amusing to see how, upon 
 the receipt of a piece of news, every man considers 
 how it will affect his own immediate interest. 
 I remain your most affectionate 
 
 and dutiful son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 The next letter from Petersburgh is addressed 
 to his uncle, the Right Honourable Charles Yorke.* 
 
 St. Petersburgh, Oct. 5th. 1806, New Style. 
 
 My dear Uncle, 
 
 I am safely landed in Petersburgh after a fati- 
 guing journey from Stockholm, from which capital 
 
 * The Right Honourable Charles Yorke was for twenty suc- 
 cessive years Member for the County of Cambridge, having been 
 first elected in 1790. In 1801, during the administration of Mr. 
 Addington, he was appointed to the office of Secretary at War, 
 and in 1 803 he succeeded Mr. Pelham as Secretary of State for 
 the Home Department. In 1810 the office of one of the Tellers 
 of the Exchequer was conferred upon him, and in the same year 
 he received the appointment of First Lord of the Admiralty, 
 which high office he relinquished much to the regret of the Navy 
 in 1812.
 
 47 
 
 I set sail on the 21st of September, and after no 
 very interesting route through Finland, arrived 
 here on the thirtieth. 
 
 The transition is very great from a free pea- 
 santry, professing the Lutheran religion, to a 
 nation of slaves, sunk in all the superstition of the 
 Greek church, and the difference is very strongly 
 perceptible upon crossing the boundary between 
 Russian Finland and the government of Peters- 
 burgh ; for the district of Wiburgh having formerly 
 belonged to Sweden, retains its ancient privileges, 
 language, and manners. Indeed a traveller on en- 
 tering Russia is not disposed to be in good humour, 
 and is apt to have his patience a little exhausted 
 by the frequent delays caused by the constantly 
 recurring interposition of the police and military. 
 I have found since my arrival here, that the officer 
 on the frontier who granted me my passport, and 
 who pretended to know no language but his own, 
 speaks exceedingly good French, and consequently 
 must have affected ignorance for the purpose of 
 overhearing our conversation, in hopes I presume 
 to discover whether or not we possessed any con- 
 traband property. In order to obtain the neces- 
 sary number of horses, I was obliged to anticipate 
 a little, and call myself a Lieutenant-Colonel, for 
 by a recent order, no person below a certain rank 
 can take more than a given number, and military 
 rank alone in this country confers precedence. 
 Thus a Count, or Baron, or Knaes, which we ab-
 
 ^8 
 
 surdly translate Prince, has, if unemployed, merely 
 the rank of a common soldier, and the scale of 
 civil offices corresponds exactly with that of mili- 
 tary commissions. For example, an Arch-Bishop 
 ranks as a Field Marshal, an Abbot as a Colonel 
 Commandant, and a Maid of Honour as a Major- 
 General. The regiments I have seen here seem 
 exceedhigly well equipped and disciplined, but it 
 is a crime almost amountinor to treason to make 
 mention of the battle of Austerlitz, though I pre- 
 sume some recollection of it must have been float- 
 ing in the grand Duke's brain, when, on being 
 informed that the English army had beaten the 
 French in Calabria, he answered, " They are the 
 only people who know how ;" they do not however, 
 as far as I am able to judge from the few specimens 
 I have seen, manoeuvre with the vivacity and alert- 
 ness of the Swedish soldiers, who form a very fine 
 body of men. Those however, whom I saw in 
 Sweden, composed part of the regular garrison 
 battalions, whose number does not I believe exceed 
 eight or ten thousand men. I had no opportunity 
 of seeing any of the provincial regiments or militia, 
 who are however equally liable with the rest to be 
 marched out of the kingdom. The constitution of 
 this latter force is very singular, and their subsist- 
 ence chiefly arises from the revenues of the crown 
 lands, which were resumed from the grantees by 
 Charles the Eleventh. Every soldier is provided 
 with a house and a farm, and in his absence the
 
 49 
 
 nearest grantee of crown land is obliged to assist 
 in the cultivation, and provide a successor in case 
 of his death, in failure of which he is bound to 
 serve himself. In consequence of this mode of 
 payment, the situation of a common soldier is in 
 great request among the peasantry, and even the 
 officers are subsisted in the same manner, the 
 colonel of a regiment enjoying a pretty considera- 
 ble landed estate. This connection of agriculture 
 with the military profession has considerably 
 tended to increase the estimation in which it is 
 held, a circumstance which in so barren a country 
 as Sweden cannot but be productive of very good 
 effects, and at the same time that recruiting is 
 facilitated, desertion is much checked by the idea, 
 that a relinquishment of the army is to the soldier 
 a relinquishment of his wife, children, house, and 
 estate : There result how'ever these bad effects ; 
 both ofUcers and men are anxious in time of war 
 to return to their farms, which suffer considerably 
 in their absence, and this spirit has more than once 
 necessitated a peace, for the whole army has some- 
 times refused to act, as for example in the last w^ar 
 with Russia. As far as I could learn the officers 
 are now exceedingly zealous in their attachment to 
 the King. Discontent however seems exceedingly 
 general; the merchants hold a language which 
 approaches nearly to treason, and the common 
 people are much shaken in their attachment from 
 an idea that the kins: is not the son of Gustavus
 
 50 
 
 the third. The partizans of a hmited monarchy 
 are angry that even the constitution of 177*2 has 
 not been preserved, for the royal prerogative has 
 since that time been considerably increased par- 
 ticularly in the power of taxation, for Sheridan is 
 wrong in asserting in his account of the revolution 
 that in case of pressing necessity the king could 
 impose taxes, that of this necessity he alone was 
 to be judge, and responsible only to the states, 
 whom he might summon or not at his pleasure ; 
 on the contrary he was allowed by that constitu- 
 tion to exercise that power only in case of actual 
 invasion by an enemy. The hatred too which all 
 ranks of men bear towards Russia renders a con- 
 nection with this court a very unpopular measure. 
 From the combination of all these causes I am sorry 
 to say I observed in all but those immediately 
 connected with Government a great and decided 
 preference of France. In this country fortunately 
 people are saved the trouble of thinking, and the 
 government is divided between the Emperor, the 
 Knout, the Bayonet, and the Cane. 
 
 I have conceived a high idea of the civil admi- 
 nistration of justice here, by having found that 
 several officers of police dine every day at the 
 hotel where I lodge, never pay, and oblige the 
 unfortunate landlord to give them every month a 
 receipt in full of all demands ; by the testimony 
 of all foreign residents here that nothing is to be 
 done without a bribe, and by finding in the Russian
 
 51 
 
 language a single word to express " the perversion 
 of Justice by a Judge," a circumstance which 
 could not have taken place without many and 
 notorious instances, and which is not I believe to 
 be paralleled in any language but Arabic, where 
 they have a word to express " a bribe offered to a 
 Judge," and the corruption of the Cadis is pretty 
 well known. Of the criminal code my admiration 
 has not been raised by witnessing yesterday the 
 punishment of the knout inflicted on a murderer, 
 the operation of flogging with that dreadful instru- 
 ment, the branding his face and tearing his nostrils 
 with pincers, form a punishment more cruel than 
 hanging or beheading, and the effect is infinitely 
 less upon the spectators : and, though the boasted 
 abolition of capital punishment is rendered nuga- 
 tory by in some cases the refusal of all medical 
 assistance, and the effects of the journey to Siberia, 
 yet from these circumstances not being seen, the 
 benefit of example is lost, and there is taken away 
 from the malefactor, the salutary fear of death, the 
 strongest bit in the mouth of man. There was 
 assembled to see the execution a prodigious crowd 
 of people, but I think it is to the honor of the 
 common people of Russia, that in all the multitude 
 I could only count four or five women ; those how- 
 ever who were present seemed to think it a vastly 
 good joke. 
 
 I shall send this letter by a gentleman who 
 leaves Russia to-morrow : all foreisjn letters what-
 
 52 
 
 ever are opened at the Post-office. If there is any 
 mixture of pohtics the letter does not go, but if 
 the pohtics displease the Postmaster of the autocrat 
 and self-upholder, in that case the stay of the 
 writer in Russia is either very long or very short. 
 I remain, your most affectionate nephew, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 St. Petersburgh, Oct. 16, 1806. New Style. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 I have received since my arrival at this place 
 your letters of September the tenth, which were 
 brought to me from Sweden by Count Michel 
 Woronzow, whom I have met two or three times 
 at dinner ; his stay I believe will be very short, 
 so that I shall not be able to avail myself in any 
 great degree of my introduction to him in London, 
 for the purpose of extending my acquaintance 
 among the principal families of this capital ; Mr. 
 Stuart,* however, the English Minister, has pre- 
 sented me at some Russian houses, in which if I 
 do not often appear, it certainly will be my own 
 fault, for after the first general invitation no farther 
 summons is ever given ; on the contrary it is an 
 
 * Now Lord Stuart de Rothsay.
 
 53 
 
 incivility not to appear occasionally at their even- 
 ing parties. There is much more Russian spoken 
 at these meetings than I had been led to imagine, 
 for, though French is almost the native language 
 of persons of rank in this country, and though it 
 is common to hear people conversing in it to one 
 another, yet, if strangers are not joining in the con- 
 versation, they very naturally prefer their own 
 dialect. These assemblies however do not exactly 
 suit the taste of those who have been accustomed 
 to English society ; cards or dice form almost the 
 sole occupation and amusement, and I should 
 imagine that this must be almost the only town 
 where the women at private parties play at hazard. 
 It would however be well if rubbers at whist were 
 the price paid for conversation, or even amusing 
 chit-chat, but they appear to me to lead to little 
 else but more whist and more cards, which of all 
 methods of passing time I consider as the most 
 dull and unentertaining, not even excepting those 
 of spitting over a bridge, or tapping a tune with a 
 walking stick upon a pair of boots, expedients to 
 which a captain of militia is said to be obliged to 
 have recourse when in country quarters. At the 
 theatres, which are handsome, there are plays 
 performed in the Russian, German and French 
 languages. 
 
 The general appearance of the city is certainly 
 magnificent and affords a proof of what may be 
 done with brick and plaster, for, though there
 
 54 
 
 are not I believe more than two or three stone 
 houses in Petersburgh, the excellent colour of the 
 stucco, gives it the appearance of being altogether 
 constructed of that material. The columns, of 
 which there are a prodigious number, are all of 
 brick, of which one side forms a segment of a 
 circle, and covered afterwards with plaster. The 
 style of architecture is not Grecian (would that it 
 were) but generally Roman or Palladian ; some 
 houses particularly the palace, are after the man- 
 ner of the French architects, and others exhibit a 
 most extraordinary mixture of the most incon- 
 gruous orders. The general effect however is 
 striking, and no person who has not studied 
 thoroughly Stuart's Athens, ought to be trusted 
 in Petersburgh. I have not yet been to Schlussel- 
 burgh, Oranienbaum, Cronstadt, or any of the 
 objects of curiosity more immediately situated near 
 this city. The surrounding country is very flat, 
 dull, and marshy, and travelling in winter during 
 the frost so much more commodious that I shall 
 postpone these excursions till that time, which is 
 now very fast approaching. 
 
 The weather begins to be cold, and a stove 
 within, and a pelisse without doors are precautions 
 by no means to be despised. The days are shorten- 
 ing very rapidly, and the gilt steeples and domes 
 which rise in different parts of this metropolis be- 
 gin at an early hour to shine in the setting sun. 
 This method of ornamenting churches, which is
 
 55 
 
 by no means uncommon in Russia, presents a very 
 singular appearance. In general there is one large 
 dome, surrounded by four smaller, symbolical, as I 
 have been told, of Christ and the four Evangehsts. 
 
 Parliament I suppose is not likely to be dissolved 
 so soon as you appeared to think it probable ; the 
 death of Mr. Fox must have much changed the 
 sentiments of the cabinet in that particular. I 
 shall be obliged to you to send me, to the care of 
 the British consul, a copy of Cassandra. The 
 book I have not yet seen, but I have a great regard 
 for the Author. 
 
 My present intentions are to stay here till the 
 beginning of January, and then to depart for Mos- 
 cow. 
 
 I remain your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 St. Petersburg!!, Sunday, Nov. 2, 1806, New Style. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 This city is certainly the metropolis for lying 
 reports, and improbable pieces of intelligence. We 
 have been kept in great anxiety about the opening 
 of the campaign on the Continent. One day ru- 
 mours of victories are circulated, which are soon 
 followed by accounts of defeats, and all that we
 
 56 
 
 can collect with any certaint}' seems to prove that 
 the French arms have been too successful. It is 
 some time too since we have heard from England. 
 The last letters I have received are dated the 10th 
 of September. 
 
 I have been to see the regular and established 
 sights of Petersburgh, of which Coxe's account, 
 when stripped of exaggerated descriptions of mag- 
 nificence, is sufficiently just and accurate. The 
 most striking objects here are certainly the common 
 people ; the men in their loose Asiatic dress, and 
 long beards, and the women in a most singular 
 costume, surmounted with a very glittering head- 
 dress, covered with white paint (of which among 
 the lower orders the use is universal), and so pro- 
 digiously rouged, that I have ceased to wonder 
 that in the Russian language, they have only one 
 word to express the ideas of red and beautiful. 
 By the by the Romans must have been of the 
 same opinion, as is evident from the use of the 
 W'ord purple, which they also used without any 
 reference to colour, as for instance, ''purple snow."* 
 With respect to the manners of the upper orders, 
 inform such ladies as abuse us unfortunate young 
 Englishmen for inattention, incivility, and apathy 
 (for that I believe is the word), that the following 
 
 * In like manner, the epithet purpureus is apphed by Horace 
 to the Swan. 
 
 " Purpureis ales oloribus." 
 
 Lib. iv. Ode I. v. 10.
 
 57 
 
 is the summary of the entertainment to be met 
 with in a Petersburgh ball-room. The women alto- 
 gether stand or sit at one end of the room, the men 
 form a separate commonwealth at the other. No 
 conversation appears to me to take place between 
 these rival communities, except the simple question 
 of whether or not a lady chooses to dance ? After 
 the dance is over each party joins its respective 
 corps, nor on any account does the gentleman sit 
 down with his partner. In short I am not con 
 scious of any exaggeration when I say that at a 
 ball I have not yet seen any one man sit by any 
 one woman. The pleasure to be derived from the 
 supper, which follows this agreeable ball, consists 
 in the gratification of the appetite of hunger, an 
 amusement which seems to be pursued with sin- 
 gular avidity. It is not uncommon to see all the 
 men in one room and all the women in another, 
 and it is impossible to mix in society without per- 
 ceiving at first sight that Petersburg is situated in 
 the latitude of sixty degrees. The ground is now 
 covered with snow. We had a little the bemnninor 
 of October, and have usually a shower every two 
 or three days. The frost and thaw succeed each 
 other very rapidly, and I am impatient for the 
 freezing of the Neva, and the steady setting in of 
 winter, which last year had taken place long before 
 this time. I wish to see the ice-hills and sledges, 
 and frozen markets, which in this country form 
 such remarkable and striking features, and I am
 
 curious to experience the effects of a cold of sixty 
 degrees below the freezing point of the thermo- 
 meter used in England. Twenty degrees below 
 that point (at which the thermometer stood in the 
 winter of ninety-five in England) is considered here 
 as a fine and bracing temperature. What is ex- 
 traordinary is, that during this whole time the 
 carriages, horses, and servants remain in the open 
 air during the whole day and a great part of the 
 night. If I go out to walk, I am followed by 
 my carriage and four horses, coachman, postilion, 
 and lacquais de place. While I am dining or 
 otherwise amusing myself, the coachman spreads 
 a truss of hay before the horses, which are never 
 unharnessed, and procures his meal from one of 
 the shops, which stand at all corners of the streets, 
 in which are sold bread and other Russian deli- 
 cacies called Kasha, Shtshi or Quas, not forgetting 
 monstrous urns full of a hot liquor, in which ginger 
 is the principal ingredient. 
 
 I am so much annoyed with my ignorance of 
 the language of the country (more particularly 
 the other night at a Russian Tragedy of five acts, 
 to which I went by mistake instead of a French 
 Opera), that I have taken a master and expect 
 in course of time to be able to converse with my 
 friends the Sclavonians, that is if I do not lose 
 my front teeth in endeavouring to pronounce some 
 of their consonants; an accident by no means 
 improbable, as my interpreter desires me to pro-
 
 59 
 
 nounce one letter as if it was written Schtsch ; 
 I am tempted to reply to him as Voltaire replied 
 to a German, '^ Monsieur, je vous souhaite plus 
 d'esprit, et moins de consonnes." 
 
 Adieu, yours affectionately, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 St. Petersburg, November 20, 1806. 
 
 My dear Father. 
 
 To my list of sights, I have lately added the 
 Tauride, formerly in the possession of Potemkin, 
 but now lapsed to the crown. It is composed of 
 an Ionic colonnade of four rows, before which 
 is a magnificent entrance hall, and behind a winter 
 garden. These three form in fact but one room, 
 and are filled with statues, either antique or copies 
 of some of the best. The winter garden is laid 
 out in parterres and gravel walks, filled with orange 
 trees and other exotics, and an equal heat is 
 maintained by means of a great number of stoves. 
 This is a species of luxury peculiarly agreeable 
 in a country, which is covered with snow for six 
 months in the year. About the sixth or seventh 
 of this month the Neva was blocked up by large 
 pieces of ice, floating down from the Ladoga, and
 
 GO 
 
 lias continued closed ever since, although it has 
 thawed on several days. The sledges too have 
 never been unable to run. We have not yet, 
 however, experienced any great cold, and Fah- 
 renheit's thermometer has never been lower than 
 twenty degrees below freezing point, which is here 
 considered as nothinaj at all. 
 
 Five or six days ago, the cannon announced to 
 us that the Empress was brought to bed of an 
 Arch-duchess, and as the Court consequently as- 
 sembled on Sunday to pay their respects, I took 
 the opportunity of being presented, together with 
 Lord Somerton and the other English at St. Pe- 
 tersburgh ; we assembled about half past eleven, 
 and soon afterwards the Emperor made his ap- 
 pearance, and proceeded to chapel, whither he was 
 followed by every body present ; and after mass 
 had been celebrated according to the forms of 
 the Greek church, strangers were presented in a 
 room allotted to that purpose. Upon the news 
 of the birth of a Princess, immense numbers of 
 the common people carried to the palace presents 
 of fish and every sort of provision, more particularly 
 bread and salt. These two latter they also carry 
 to any house, in which they are admitted for the 
 first time. It is amusing to see these remains of 
 ancient oriental customs still preserved by this 
 semi-asiatic nation. The person at the levee, who 
 most attracted attention, was Prince Hypsilantes, 
 the Hospodar of Wallachia, and the Greeks of his
 
 61 
 
 train, wlio are just arrived hither after their flight 
 from Bucharest. Hypsilantes has proved himself 
 to be a wise man, for the Grand Signior had al- 
 ready sent to supersede him and take off his 
 head. 
 
 There is not much variety in my mode of hfe. 
 In the morning I study Russian, and walk or drive 
 in my sledge. In the afternoon I dine with who- 
 ever will ask me ; and in the evening, after the 
 play, I attend some party or ball, where I gene- 
 rally stay supper. Farther experience has not in- 
 duced me to alter my opinion already expressed 
 to you of the style and manner of society in this 
 capital, and I wish much for the great winter 
 amusements to begin, in order to relieve the uni- 
 formity. I still adhere to my determination of 
 proceeding to Moscow about the latter end of De- 
 cember, and shall endeavour to arrive and be set- 
 tled there before the general migration of my 
 English fellow travellers. Kerr Porter, who painted 
 the Battle of Agin court, and, I believe, the Siege 
 of Seringapatam, has been here, and painted for 
 the Emperor a large picture of Peter the Great, 
 in which, I think, he has succeeded very well ; the 
 likeness is taken from the only original bust which 
 was ever made of him. It is of plaster of Paris, 
 and the mould was taken from his face while 
 alive. 
 
 I remain, my dear Father, &c. &c. 
 
 ROYSTON.
 
 62 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 St. Peters-burg, November 28, 1S06. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 I begin to be very tired of this place and its 
 inhabitants ; of their hospitahty, which is merely 
 a remnant of the former barbarous magnificence 
 of Russia, and which consists in keeping a species 
 of table d'hote, where you are disgusted with the 
 voracious gluttony which prevails on every side of 
 you, without the satisfaction of being permitted to 
 pay your bill ; of their society, which is nothing 
 more than an assembly at a gaming house, where 
 the most barefaced cheating is carried on almost 
 without disguise ; of their conversation, in which 
 nothing is remarkable, but the most miserable lack 
 of information and ideas, and during which they 
 seem to have the fear of Siberia constantly before 
 their eyes ; of the total want of common honesty, 
 which is conspicuous in every transaction, with the 
 lower orders; and of the coldness, dulness, and 
 want of energy, which appear most eminently to 
 characterise the higher. 
 
 Of the persons I have met with here, the Poles 
 are infinitely the most gentlemanlike, and seem a 
 superior order of men to their Russian masters. 
 Besides them the best society is certainly to be 
 found among the foreign ministers, of whom I
 
 63 
 
 should particularly distiuguish the Austrian and 
 Swedish Ambassadors. Of the Russians, the most 
 ci\dl to me have been Novosilzow and Count Or- 
 loff. Still there is something so new in most of 
 the objects before one's eyes, and so curious in the 
 assemblage of nations, which are united here, that 
 it is impossible not to be interested and amused 
 with almost every thing, but those which they 
 consider as proofs of their high and increasing 
 civilisation. I shall not, however, remain here so 
 long as I had intended, but as soon as I have pur- 
 chased two sledge kibitkas, fur boots, and pelisses, 
 and laid in a stock of brandy and frozen beef- 
 steaks, I shall depart, but not for Moscow, as I 
 had intended. On the contrary, in the course of 
 four or five days I hope to be on my way to Arch- 
 angel ; as soon as I have returned fi'om thence 
 to Petersburgh, I shall resume my original plan, 
 and travel southward to Moscow. I imagine there 
 must be something curious in a winter so near the 
 Arctic circle, and in driving rein-deer upon the ice 
 of the White Sea. 
 
 We are now pretty well informed, notwithstand- 
 ing the ridiculous secrecy observed here, of the 
 disasters which have attended the campaign, and 
 of the complete annihilation of the Prussian army. 
 Great anxiety seems to prevail with respect to 
 Poland, and a considerable body of troops has 
 marched from Petersburgh. The Etat Major sets 
 off to day, and it is to be hoped that something
 
 64 
 
 may be done on the banks of the Vistula. Prince 
 Bagrathion, whose wing suffered least in the battle 
 of Austerlitz, is at present here, and will it is said 
 remain. 
 
 Before I leave Petersburgh a second time, I will 
 send you the great maps of Russia, executed by 
 the Academy of Sciences, and some of the most 
 esteemed Russian authors, who are totally (and 
 perhaps deservedly) unknown, and not to be pro- 
 cured in England, but will form a valuable and 
 scarce addition to your library, which is good 
 enough to deserve the being furnished with ano- 
 ther branch of literature. 
 
 To day is one of the coldest days we have yet 
 had, for the winter has as yet been uncommonly 
 mild. To day my little English thermometer marks 
 twenty-seven degrees below fi^eezing point. 
 ^ lam, &c. 
 
 RoYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 St. Petersburgh, Jan. 14, 1807, New Style. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 This is more a note, to tell you that I will write 
 by the next mail, than a letter. I have just heard 
 that an estafette sets out for England in an hour, 
 and shall therefore confine mvself to tellins; vou
 
 65 
 
 that on last Sunday I returned from a very cold 
 and long journey. On the 5th of December I left 
 this city and arrived at Archangel on the 15th, 
 having met with some delay on the road. As 
 there are no inns there, I was obliged, at five in 
 the morning, to knock at a private house, and 
 request lodging till day light, which was readily 
 granted me ; but while the people were getting 
 up (Fahrenheit's thermometer marking fifty-one 
 degrees below the freezing point, with a strong 
 north-east wind), both my hands were frozen, and 
 did not recover for three or four days. Pauvvells 
 had a foot frozen. 
 
 On Sunday the 28th I left Archangel and passed 
 through Cholmogori and Pinega to Mezen, which 
 is situated about three hundred miles north-east 
 of Archangel, There I procured three sledges 
 and twelve rein deer, and set out over the unbeaten 
 snow in search of a horde of Samoyedes, of whom 
 I had got information. I found them exactly on the 
 Arctic circle, not far from the frozen Ocean, in an 
 immense plain of snow, unbroken by a single 
 house, tree, or hill, surrounded by several hundred 
 rein deer, and forming altogether a most extraor- 
 dinary groupe. They are Pagans, but I did not 
 see any idols amongst them. The solstice being 
 past seven or eight days, the sun made his appear- 
 ance for a short time. He rose in the south a 
 little before twelve, looked as if he intended to 
 quit the horizon, soon disappeared, and gave us the 
 
 F
 
 66 
 
 spectacle of morning, noon, and evening, at one 
 and the same instant of time. On my arrival at 
 Archangel the cold increased. Unfortunately, I 
 lost my thermometer, but a bottle of brandy under 
 the pillow, which I had put into my sledge was, 
 with the exception of a few spoonfuls of the most 
 ardent part of the spirit, frozen as hard as a stone. 
 I was forced to bake my Madeira in an oven to get 
 at it, and to carve my meat with an axe. At 
 Archangel I found Fahrenheit's thermometer near 
 seventy degrees below the freezing point ; but 
 during this part of my journey 1 felt no inconveni- 
 ence, owing to the rein deer skin boots and stock- 
 ings, and gloves, which I bought of a Samoyede. 
 I remain, ever &c. 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 St. Petersburgh, Jan. 16, 1807, New Style. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 In this letter I hope to give you a better and 
 more detailed account of my late Northern Tour, 
 than I was able to do in the short and hurried note 
 which I was obliged to send off two or three days 
 ago. To begin " ah ovo" I purchased two sledges 
 covered with a tilt, which I furnished with a mat- 
 tress. These I stocked with frozen meat, Madeira,
 
 67 
 
 brandy, and a large saucepan. I dressed myself in 
 flannel from head to foot, over that put on my 
 ordinary clothes — over my boots I tied fur shoes of 
 considerable size, and over these I drew a pair of 
 fur boots of tremendous magnitude. I covered my 
 head, with the exception only of my nose and 
 eyes, with a cap of blue Astrachan wool ; I wrapped 
 myself in a flowing sable pelisse, and over all threw 
 a most ample bear skin. Thus equipped, on the 
 5th of December I sat out for Archangel, which is 
 distant from Petersburgh about twelve hundred 
 versts, and as along the whole road no accommo- 
 dations are to be met with, but the houses of the 
 peasantry, their manners and style of living are 
 necessarily brought much under observation. The 
 whole family live in one room, and at first it is 
 difficult to support the suffocating heat and smell, 
 nor do the number of cock-roaches, which swarm 
 in these wooden huts, at all contribute to increase 
 the comfort of the traveller. The dirt is, as may 
 be supposed, excessive. The table alone is kept 
 scrupulously clean, which circumstance I should 
 imagine rather to be the remains of some ancient 
 superstition than any attachment to cleanliness. 
 Their baths seem to form an exception ; these 
 generally consist of a small detached building, and 
 the vapour is produced by throwing water on red- 
 hot stones, exactly in the manner which Herodotus 
 describes to be practised by their Scythian ances- 
 tors. After a most profuse perspiration, the body
 
 68 
 
 is rubbed with birch twigs dipped in lather. I have 
 frequently seen them sally out and roll in the snow. 
 Both sexes use the bath at the same time without 
 any separation, or any idea of indecorum. In 
 general the people are exceedingly civil, hospitable, 
 cheerful, and intelligent, excessively addicted to 
 spirits, quarrelsome amongst themselves, and very 
 well inchned to cheat and overreach any person 
 with whom they have dealings. They are more 
 like the common Irish than any description of men 
 I have seen. Peter the Great has by no means 
 succeeded in forcing them to abandon their beards 
 and ancient customs, to which they adhere with 
 the most scrupulous veneration. In the corner of 
 every room is a picture of a Saint, sometimes of five 
 or six, generally painted upon a gold ground, some- 
 times with no colour but on the face and hands, 
 the remainder being of embossed silver; for, if a 
 common Russian acquires a little money, it never 
 enters into his head to improve his house ; the use 
 he makes of it is to adorn the shrine of his saint, 
 and to buy a necklace of pearls for his wife. 
 
 The dress of the women is very extraordinary? 
 and sometimes by no means deficient in beauty. 
 Till marriage they wear their hair in a long tress 
 tied with bows of ribbons. At the distance of some 
 hundred miles from Petersburgh, I became in my 
 turn an object of curiosity. The cottage in which 
 I was became full of persons, who came to see me 
 dine ; and while the men were gone to harness the
 
 69 
 
 horses, twenty or thirty women and girls crowded 
 round me, examined my clothes, made me tell 
 them the price of every thing, inquired whether I 
 was married, why I came thither, whence I came, 
 and who I was ? In leaving their house the general 
 salutation was — '''May you be happy. Father," a 
 name they give to all persons without any regard to 
 age ; the young men however, of nearly equal age, 
 call one another ** brother." On entering a house, 
 before addressing any of the family, they stand for 
 some minutes before the saint and cross themselves 
 very devoutly ; this ceremony they perform with 
 two fingers. There is, however, a dangerous set of 
 heretics, who wickedly and profanely make use of 
 three. In some places they are very servile in 
 their expressions of deference, prostrating them- 
 selves, and striking their foreheads against the 
 ground. Some, whom I presented with a few 
 copeks, knelt down and kissed my feet. 
 
 On Friday and Saturday I passed through 
 Schlusselburgh and Ladoga ; on Sunday I was 
 forced by a violent storm and thaw to sleep at 
 Ladeinoe Pole, in a peasant's cottage. At this 
 place they are constructing some frigates, which 
 next summer will be launched in the Lake, and 
 brought down the Neva to Cronstadt. On Tuesday 
 I passed through Vitigra, and on Thursday arrived 
 at Kargossol. The houses in all these towns are 
 little better than those in the meanest villages. 
 At this latter place I expected to find a magnificent
 
 70 
 
 city, for from a distance I counted nineteen 
 churches, most of which had five domes, of which 
 the central, by much the largest, is symbolical of 
 Christ, the others represent the Evangelists. These 
 domes are either gilt, covered with copper, or 
 painted in the most gaudy colours, and make a 
 most extraordinary appearance. They are sup- 
 ported upon a very small base, so that the sphe- 
 roid is almost complete, which circumstance gives 
 them the resemblance of balloons. Upon entering 
 the town I was surprised to find that the number 
 of churches almost equals that of the houses. Early 
 on Monday moning I arrived at Cholmogori, where 
 there is nothing remarkable but a convent and 
 church of singular architecture, situated pictu- 
 resquely upon the banks of the magnificent Dwina. 
 This convent was for many years the prison of the 
 Prince of Brunswick and the Regent Anne. I con- 
 tinued my route along the ice of the river for about 
 seventy versts, and owing to some unexpected 
 obstacles did not arrive at Archangel till five in 
 the morning ; I immediately knocked at a door, 
 which proved to belong to a Russian merchant, 
 and requested to be taken in for the remainder of 
 the night. He consented and got up to let me in. 
 The thermometer was at twenty-four of Reaumur, 
 or fifty-four degrees of Fahrenheit below freezing 
 point. The north-east wind blew with great vio- 
 lence, and both my hands and left foot were frozen. 
 Pauwels had a foot frozen. After thev were reco-
 
 71 
 
 vered by rubbing them with snow, the sensation 
 and appearance was similar to that of a violent 
 scald. I found the people at Archangel exceed- 
 ingly hospitable. The military and civil Gover- 
 nors, the Admiral of the Port, and the Arch- 
 bishop, giving me permission to see every thing 
 which belonged to their respective departments. 
 In the Dock-yards there were on the stocks three 
 ships of the line and three frigates, all built of 
 larch. Whatever oak is required is brought from 
 Casan. The largest vessels constructed are se- 
 venty-fours, there not being water enough on the 
 bar for those which require a larger draught. All 
 the works as well as the founderies at Shersh, a 
 village distant about twelve miles, seemed to me 
 to be in very bad order. The Governor, Baron 
 D'Ash, a Pole, I found to be a man of a good deal 
 of information. He gave me some very curious 
 details of parts of Siberia which he had visited, 
 and ordered a soldier to accompany me farther 
 north, and sent a courier from the Post Office to 
 station horses upon some lakes and marshes, by 
 which means he saved me some hundred versts of 
 my journey. The Archbishop spoke Latin very flu- 
 ently, and seemed to have read a good deal. I was, 
 however, somewhat surprised to find that he did not 
 know whether the Samoyedes of his diocese were 
 Pagans or Christians. After remaining ten days I 
 set off for Pinega, and soon arrived at Mezen, the 
 whole road of about four hundred versts is through 
 a thick forest of dwarf pines and ))irch. Excepting
 
 ^2 
 
 in the villages, which are very thinly scattered, I 
 did not see one animal or bird to relieve the ex- 
 cessive solitude of the woods, not even a wolf con- 
 descended to make his appearance. At Mezen I 
 drove to the house of the Gorodnichi, or petty Go- 
 vernor, who was in a terrible fright when I showed 
 him a letter from the Governor. He immediately 
 procured me three sledges composed of thin slips 
 of deal, almost laths, drawn by twelve large rein 
 deer. We mounted, and set off full gallop over 
 the unbeaten snow. The hoof of the deer is very 
 large, and the two pieces of which it is composed 
 expand prodigiously, so that the deer does not sink 
 very deep. Their swiftness is much exaggerated, 
 and they are soon tired. It is amazing, however, 
 how soon they recover from fatigue. We found our 
 Samoyedes upon the Arctic circle, in a vast plain 
 of snow, just striking their tents to move to another 
 spot. They had a prodigious number of sledges 
 to carry their provision, their tents, their kettles, 
 and themselves. Their tents as well as their clothes 
 are composed entirely of rein deer skins. I bought 
 a complete suit of clothes, including a pair of snow 
 shoes six feet long. They first draw on a pair of 
 stockings with the fur inside, over them a pair of 
 boots with the fur outside. Over their bodies they 
 have a skin, which is made like a shirt, and which, 
 including their gloves, is of one piece ; this has the 
 hair or fur inside. Over this they throw another 
 skin exactly similar, excepting that the hair is out-
 
 73 
 
 side, and that it has a cap attached to it ; and thus 
 equipped they will sleep in the snow in a cold more 
 than sufficient to congeal mercury. I was obliged 
 to adopt part of their dress, at least their boots and 
 stockings, a measure for which I afterwards ap- 
 plauded myself. Some of them are very rich, pos- 
 sessing two or three thousand rein deer ; and set- 
 ting aside that they are under the protection of 
 the Russian Government, which meddles very little 
 with them, their Government amongst themselves 
 is entirely patriarchal. Their religion is Paganism, 
 but I did not see any of their idols Not the 
 smallest attempt is ever made to convert them or 
 the other Pagan and Mahometan subjects of the 
 Empire. Even the worshippers of the Dalai Lama 
 go on chewing their unsavoury incense without 
 any molestation whatsoever ; for the Russian Go- 
 vernment is so well aware of its complete dominion 
 over the bodies of men, that it leaves every man 
 to take care of his own soul. The day was about 
 half an hour long, for we were passed the solstice, 
 and the sun at twelve o'clock caused the snow to 
 assume the brightest rose colour. After he had 
 set, the twilight and the reflection of the snow 
 lighted us back to Mezen, whither our deer took us 
 at a good brisk trot. Unfortunately I was able to 
 make very few inquiries of the Samoyedes, owing 
 to the circumstance of my Russian guide being al- 
 most ignorant of their language. I was disap- 
 pointed too in my endeavours to procure a woman's
 
 74 
 
 dress, which is more ornamented than the mens, 
 hung round with animals' tails, and slips of blue 
 and red cloth, not to mention iron chains and cir- 
 cles of brass. I left word, however, at Archangel 
 that one should be sent to me. I slept at Mezen, 
 at my friend the Gorodnichi's ; neither himself or 
 his wife understood any language but Russian, so 
 that I cannot say that I took the lead in the con- 
 versation. He was very curious about the present 
 war, and I contrived to put him au fait of all the 
 bad news. His wife, who had never been farther 
 south than Archangel, was very much astonished 
 when I told her that in England horses never gal- 
 loped upon the rivers, that the ponds were often 
 frozen only for a few days in the course of a winter, 
 and that the snow very seldom lay longer than a 
 fortnight. She answered that that was very dif- 
 ferent from her country, where the snow lay seven 
 months, and that she did not doubt that so warm a 
 cHmate produced apples and cherries. She was 
 anxious, however, to show that they too had fruit 
 and brought in some specimens preserved. In the 
 woods they have wild strawberries, raspberries, and 
 black currants, a berry with a strong taste of tur- 
 pentine, called maroshka, and another like a straw- 
 berry, of which I have forgotten the name, but re- 
 collect that in Finland they called it mamurra. In 
 the course of the evening the Golova, or Mayor, 
 came in and made me a speech in Russian, three 
 quarters of an hour long. On my return to Arch-
 
 75 
 
 angel the cold increased, a bottle of brandy under 
 my pillow was frozen, my hashed veal I was forced 
 to cut with an axe, and, had I not been well de- 
 fended by my rein deer boots, I think 1 should 
 never have brought back my toes. I had lost my 
 thermometer, so cannot tell the precise cold during 
 the night, but in the morning I found at Archangel 
 nearly seventy degrees by Fahrenheit below freez- 
 ing point, scarcely three above the point of conge- 
 lation of mercury. I pursued my route immediately 
 to Petersburgh, whither I arrived last Sunday very 
 tired, having been in bed only two days out of more 
 than a fortnight, and having come a thousand 
 miles without stopping more than one hour in the 
 the twenty-four. I have been twice to court since 
 my presentation to the Emperor, once to see the 
 christening of the young princess, and once to be 
 presented to the Grand-duchesses and the reigning 
 
 Empress. 
 
 I remain &c. &c. 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Moscow, Feb. 10, 1807, New Style. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 I have been two days in this immense and ex- 
 traordinary city, after a journey over the very 
 worst road I ever travelled in my life. The road
 
 76 
 
 is carried through a forest, which scarcely ever 
 suffers any interruption, but continues with the 
 same dreary uniformity from one capital to another. 
 There is but little to excite curiosity. The towns 
 of Novogorod, Vishnei, Voloshok, and Twer, are 
 well built, and from their advantageous situation, 
 being the entrepot between the Caspian and the 
 Baltic, seem in a sufficiently flourishing condition. 
 Nothing is more remarkable at Novogorod than 
 the immense number of churches, with which the 
 town is absolutely surrounded ; as these escaped 
 the general devastations, which have been com- 
 mitted there, it is probable that nearly the same 
 number remains for a population of six thousand 
 persons as formerly, when the inhabitants amounted 
 to almost half a million. Nothing is so like one 
 Russian village as another, the style of building, 
 the dress and manners of the peasants are the 
 same from Archangel to Astracan, but I could not 
 but remark that the furniture of the cottages was 
 something better than on the shores of the White 
 Sea. By the by, when the ice breaks up you will 
 receive from Petersburgh some costumes of my 
 friends the Samoyedes, which I bought at Mezen. 
 
 It is my intention to return once more to Peters- 
 burgh for a fortnight or three weeks. Before I left 
 that city I had been contracting my acquaintance 
 (which of course it had been my object to extend 
 upon my first arrival as much as possible), by fre- 
 quenting only the houses I found the most agree-
 
 / / 
 
 able, and going to the others only as much as was 
 necessary. I passed the latter part of my residence 
 there more to my satisfaction than the first. 
 
 I have fomid the persons here, to whom I have 
 presented my letters, exceedingly civil and hospit- 
 able. Last night at the club of the nobility (of which 
 the ball-room and accessoire is, I think, one of the 
 most magnificent things I have seen), I was ad- 
 dressed by several persons, who without any intro- 
 duction, gave me invitations on the score of my 
 being a stranger, and an Enghsh officer. At this 
 ball the company often amount to two thousand 
 persons. From the Governor, to whom I had 
 letters from Mr. NovosiltzofF, I have received every 
 possible civility. 
 
 I begin to be able to read Russian with tolerable 
 ease, and to speak it sufficiently to free myself 
 from the necessity of a native servant when I 
 travel. Poole has also picked up enough to an- 
 swer the same purpose. 
 
 I have sent by the servant of a gentleman tra- 
 velling to England, a present to Charles,* which I 
 hope will arrive safe, a Samoyede sledge and three 
 rein deer, cut out of the teeth of a sea-horse by a 
 peasant at Archangel. It is curious from its being 
 so perfect a representation. I shall take the first op- 
 
 * The Honourable Charles Yorke, second son to the late Earl 
 of Hardwicke, who survived his brother only two years, and died 
 of the scarlet fever on the 1st of May, 1810, in the thirteenth 
 year of his age. ^ ^^^^ t^///^^A^r^U///l^^^,J^^ 

 
 78 
 
 portunity to send you a translation into Russ of the 
 " Athenian Letters,"* I picked up the other day, 
 while rummaging at a bookseller's. By the title 
 page I see it is translated from the French version, 
 which is somewhere at Wimpole, 
 
 I remain, my Dearest Father, 
 
 Your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Moscow, Feb. 27, 1807, New Style. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 On Saturday next I shall leave Moscow for a 
 short time, in order to revisit Petersburg!!, where 
 
 * A very learned work, written in the form of Letters from an 
 Agent of the King of Persia, residing at Athens, during the Pe- 
 lopponesian War. It was undertaken originally for their own 
 amusement by the second Earl of Hardwicke, his brother (after- 
 wards the Right Honomable Charles Yorke and Chancellor in 
 the year 1770), Dr. Green, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, and 
 other Contemporaries at Cambridge, in the years 1739 and 1740. 
 A few copies were printed for private circulation in 1741, and a 
 farther impression in 1781, but the work was never published till 
 1798, when, in consequence of repeated applications, and finding 
 that it had already been published by a Dublin Bookseller, the 
 late Earl of Hardwicke was induced to offer it to the public. It 
 soon vei-y deservedly excited the attention of the learned, of which 
 no stronger proof could be afforded than the circumstance men- 
 tioned in the text of its having been translated into Russ.
 
 79 
 
 however I do not intend to make a long stay, but 
 shall return to this very extraordinary and interest- 
 ing city, which, excepting some of the more modern 
 parts, bears not the least resemblance to any thing 
 European. 
 
 The view fi'om the Kremlin, or ancient fortress, 
 is exceedingly magnificent ; the prodigious number 
 of churches, many of them painted with the most 
 gaudy colours, generally surmounted with five 
 domes, some of copper painted green, others gilded, 
 the gardens and wide intervals between the houses, 
 the forests, lakes and ploughed fields, which are 
 included within the circuit of the walls, form al- 
 together a most motley and magnificent assemblage. 
 There is also an abundant source of amusement 
 in examining the various rarities, which are brought 
 to this great depot of eastern commerce, fi^om 
 Turkey, from Persia, from Bukharia, from South 
 Siberia, and by the caravans fi*om Maimatchin 
 from the very heart of China, To strangers too 
 this city is rendered still more agreeable from the 
 system of hospitality which prevails and the fa- 
 cility of introducing oneself into society. The 
 higher orders of the nobility live in the ancient 
 feudal manner, keeping open tables to which no- 
 thing is ever given but a general invitation, and 
 the letters I brought with me from Petersburg!! 
 have been almost rendered unnecessary. This 
 style of li\dng is certainly agreeable to a person, 
 who makes a short residence in a city, and is a
 
 80 
 
 tiling to see. The population of Moscow is very 
 often reckoned by the Russians at half a million, it 
 is, however, ascertained that notwitstanding its pro- 
 digious extent it contains only two hundred and 
 forty thousand persons, a circumstance not to be 
 wondered at when we consider that, excepting in 
 the Kitai-Gorod, the town of Cathay— i. e. of 
 Tartary, (though China is now called by that name 
 in Russian) in no one quarter of the city do the 
 houses stand contiguous. The Kremlin is certainly 
 the most striking quarter, the ancient palace of the 
 Tzars, a building of the most singular architecture, 
 and nearly thirty gilt domes give it a most pecuhar 
 appearance. In the palace the most remarkable 
 objects are the hall where the Boiars assembled ; 
 the Hall of Audience described in " the embassy 
 of Lord Carlisle ; " the prodigious number of 
 golden vessels, which were hung round the great 
 pillar which supports the centre of the building, 
 when Alexey Michaelovech gave a dinner to that 
 Ambassador; the throne of Peter and Ivan on 
 which they sat jointly while children ; the crowns 
 worn by the Tzars of Casan and Astracan con- 
 quered by Ivan Vassilievech ; the throne of Con- 
 stantine Palaeologus given to Ivan Vassilievech 
 by his wife Sophia, the daughter of Thomas Palae- 
 ologus ; the crown of the Patriarch Nicon ; the 
 Pastoral staff of Philaretes the father of Michael 
 Fedorovech, the first of the house of Homanoflf who 
 sat on the throne ; a throne and footstool exces-
 
 81 
 
 excessively rich, given by the Shah of Persia to 
 Ivan Vassilievich, which is also remarkable, as the 
 enormous expence attending its construction is 
 brought forward by the Russian historians as an 
 article of charge against the person commonly 
 called the false Demetrius, though presented by a 
 foreign power long before his elevation ; various 
 sceptres and ornaments given by Manuel the Greek 
 Emperor; vases presented by Alexias Comnenes, 
 Emperor of Greece, Father of Anna, who wrote 
 the history, of which you have a magnificent copy 
 in your library ; helmets and swords belonging to 
 St. Alexander Neuski and other persons famous in 
 Russian History ; the robes and dresses worn by 
 every Sovereign at their respective coronations ; 
 articles manufactured by Peter, and many objects 
 relating to the antiquities of this country : — these I 
 mention, as Coxe relates in his account of Moscow 
 that he was not able to procure admittance. It is 
 a curious circumstance that with the imperial eagle 
 upon most of the ornaments, is found the lion and 
 unicorn, the supporters of the arms of England. 
 During some days past we have been much inte- 
 rested by the passage of regiments composed of 
 some of the wandering nations, which are tributary 
 to Russia; these were as much objects of curiosity 
 to the inhabitants of Moscow, as to the stranoers 
 residing in the city. On one day there passed two 
 thousand Bashkirs from the Oremburgh frontiers ; 
 their horses are small resembhns those of the
 
 &2 
 
 Cossacs, their arms consist of a lance and bows and 
 arrows ; I enquired of one who spoke Russian (for 
 their native language is totally different) if they 
 were poisoned ; he assured me not. Some of them 
 had a coat of mail composed of rings, the ancient 
 hauberk, together with an iron helmet. Their 
 chief was dressed in a scarlet caftan. Their music 
 consists of a species of flute which they place in 
 the corner of their mouths, and sing at the same 
 time. If they smg without the instrument they 
 scarcely open their mouths, and the sound appears 
 to come from the bottom of the windpipe. There 
 were several, who as they passed by recognised the 
 ci-devant Governor of Oremburgh, who was stand- 
 ing in the street to see them, and addressed him 
 with the common Arabic salutation, which they 
 use as being Mahometans. 
 
 A few days before passed a regiment of Cal- 
 mucs ; their features were scarcely human ; there 
 was nothing remarkable about their arms ; they 
 worship the Dalai Lama. There also passed a 
 number of Kirghese of the lesser and middle hordes 
 from the countries to the east of the Ural, and 
 north and north east of the Sea of Aral. Their 
 skill in archery and horsemanship is surprising ; I 
 endeavoured to converse with one I met in the 
 Bazar, or Gostinnoi Door, but could not under- 
 stand a syllable of his Tartar dialect. 
 
 I continue my study of Russian, which I of 
 course find very convenient here ; but notwith-
 
 83 
 
 standing the liarmony of the language, which is 
 very sonorous, and one of the most copious and 
 elegant of the Sclavonic dialects, I think it would 
 scarcely repay any person for the trouble of learn- 
 ing it, from the circumstance of the scarcity of 
 original authors. Upon the introduction of litera- 
 ture it was found much easier to translate ; and 
 with the exception of a few who lived in the time 
 of Peter and the reigns immediately succeeding, 
 there are not many writers of eminence. I am en- 
 deavouring to collect the translations from the 
 Chinese, which is of course more understood in 
 Russia than perhaps in any other country of Eu- 
 rope ; but though I have seen several in private 
 libraries, I cannot say that hitherto I have been 
 very successful in purchasing; what I have got 
 being principally Essays on Morality, interspersed 
 occasionally with scraps of Chinese history, the 
 only circumstance which can render them at all 
 interesting. 
 
 You will wish to know my intentions with res- 
 pect to my further progress ; I shall divide my 
 time between Petersburgh and Moscow till the 
 middle of ^lay. I shall then proceed to the 
 East by Vladimir and Nijnei-Novogorod to Casan ; 
 from thence I shall descend the Volga passing by 
 Simbirsk and Saratof to Astracan ; and shall there 
 consider of the most eligible way to come westward 
 into the Crimea. I have letters from Novosiltzow, 
 and others to the governors of the provinces
 
 81 
 
 through which I pass, and shall make interest with 
 Lord Douglas to procure me some more. I have 
 had besides several promised me by private persons 
 at Moscow. 
 
 We are in good spirits with the accounts from 
 the Polish frontier. I hope Bonaparte may find 
 that he has advanced a point too far; it is, however, 
 extraordinary that he should have advanced so 
 suddenly from Warsaw to within so short a distance 
 from Konigsburgh. 
 
 Believe me, my dear father. 
 
 Your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Moscow, March 23, 1807. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 I have returned from my trip to Petersburgh, 
 where I only staid ten days, and shall probably 
 remain stationary in this city till I move to Casan, 
 unless I should be induced, before I proceed east- 
 ward, to make an excursion to Kiof, which is about 
 five hundred and sixty miles to the southward. 
 The only incident which occurred on my journey 
 worthy of notice was, that in proceeding along an 
 expansion of a river, which falls into the Lake 
 Ilmen, the postiHons missed their road, and coming
 
 85 
 
 to a soft place on the ice, which was rendered 
 porous by a nine days thaw, the horses broke 
 through. The kibitka, in which I lay, could not 
 be opened on the inside, and the postilions, who 
 were occupied solely with endeavouring to save 
 their horses, paid not the slightest attention to me. 
 One of them went and woke Poole, whose sledge 
 had stopped on seeing our disaster, and requested 
 an axe, but without informing him of what had 
 happened. He looked out and saw my horses 
 swimming about, and my vehicle partly floating in 
 the water and partly supported on the ice by a long 
 pole which projects from the side to prevent over- 
 setting. He had just time to open the leather 
 covering, and allow me to jump out with my writ- 
 ing desk upon the ice, before the whole went down 
 and now rests in peace at the bottom. One of the 
 horses was drowned. I got into the other sledge ; 
 and the remaining part of the stage, consisting of 
 about seven miles over the ice, during a very dark 
 night, was far from pleasant. I found that it is 
 against the post regulations to convey travellers 
 over the lake, and accordingly, on my arrival at 
 Novogorod, made complaints which produced the 
 desired effect. I got to Petersburgh in time for 
 the Carnival, which was rendered very amusing by 
 the bustle and spirit which seemed to pervade the 
 whole town. The theatres erected on the river, 
 the ice-hills, the long procession of sledges, and the
 
 86 
 
 multitudes of people assembled, formed an extra- 
 ordinary scene. I am become a great proficient in 
 the science of going down ice-hills ; so much do I 
 scorn a guide, that I officiate myself in that capa- 
 city, and divers fair inhabitants of Petersburgh can 
 bear witness to the skill with which I have con- 
 ducted them down that slippery cataract of men. 
 Public masquerades were given morning and even- 
 ing, and on the last day there must have been pre- 
 sent near four thousand persons. The change 
 which was visible on the first day of the fast was 
 surprising. It seemed as if the town had been 
 depopulated by some sudden pestilence. 
 
 I returned to Moscow, where I arrived three or 
 four days ago, without any accident. The town is 
 very dull during the fast, and I am wishing for 
 spring ; first, that I may see the country round 
 Moscow, and the style of living in their country 
 houses ; and secondly, that I may pursue my tour. 
 My idea is to get one of the large boats, which 
 convey merchandize, and building in it a sort of 
 cabin, to embark at Casan, and float down the 
 Wolga, luxurionsly sitting upon a sofa. I have 
 left my carriage at Petersburgh ; though admirably 
 calculated for Sweden and Finland, and when put 
 on sledges for the winter roads of Russia, I should 
 be afraid to take it to a country where, in case of 
 accident, nobody could repair it. The carriages I 
 shall use have not a particle of iron in their whole
 
 87 
 
 composition. I have received my two copies of 
 Lycophron.* 
 
 I remain, &c. 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Rev. George Downing WniTTiNGTON.f 
 
 Moscow, April 13, 1807. 
 
 Dear Whittington, 
 
 If you have been at the Palazzo di Yorke since 
 the receipt of my letters from Petersburgh, you 
 have probably received some account of my journey 
 
 * Lord Royston here alludes to his Translation of the Cassan- 
 dra, which had been printed during his absence at the University 
 Press of Cambridge, and of which two copies had been sent out 
 to him. 
 
 t The Rev. George Downing Whittington, to whom Lord 
 Royston was more attached than to any other of his friends. 
 Their literary pursuits were indeed very different, nor was their 
 general disposition in all respects similar, but they both possessed 
 the same elevation of character, the same buoyancy of spirit, the 
 same frankness, the same hilarity of mind ; they were also too 
 similar in their fate. Both died young. — Mr. Whittington, in the 
 27th year of his age, leaving to many friends bitter and lasting 
 regret for his loss, and to the world a work of singular good taste 
 and judgment, entitled "A Historical Survey of the Ecclesiastical 
 Antiquities of France, with a view to illustrate the Rise and 
 Progress of Gothic Architecture in Europe," in which the pre- 
 cision of a clear head and the candour of an unprejudiced mind 
 are conspicuous to every intelligent reader.
 
 88 
 
 to Archangel, of my movement from thence in a 
 north easterly direction to Mezen, of the distin- 
 guished reception I received from the Mayor of 
 that opulent and highly civilized city, who made me 
 a speech, in Russian, three quarters of an hour 
 long ; of my procuring there twelve rein deer, and 
 proceeding towards the frozen ocean till I found a 
 Samoyede camp in the desert, between the rivers 
 Mezen and Petchora, and of my ascertaining that 
 that nation, which extends over almost all the 
 North of Russia, remains still in a state of paganism, 
 a circumstance of which the Archbishop of the 
 Diocese was ignorant. I shall therefore not dwell 
 upon these circumstances, but proceed to say that 
 I returned hither from Petersburg!!, about three 
 weeks since, and am now waiting for the opening 
 of the rivers and the disappearance of the snow to 
 set off by the first summer roads. I expect there- 
 fore to be able to quit this city by the latter end of 
 April, and shall pass through Vladimir and Nijnei 
 Novogorod to Casan. After having seen the capital 
 of that ancient Tartar kingdom, I shall embark in 
 a barge, which I shall fit up for the purpose, and 
 sail down the Volga to Astracan. So much for my 
 present plans. With respect to my future progress 
 I will write to you from the banks of the Caspian. 
 
 A journey from Petersburgh to Moscow is a 
 journey from Europe to Asia. With respect to the 
 society of the former city, I am almost ashamed to 
 state my opinion, after the stubborn fact of my
 
 89 
 
 having twice returned thither, each time at the 
 expense of a thousand miles ; but though I had not 
 imagined it possible that any place could exist more 
 devoid of the means of enjoying rational conversa- 
 tion, I am now, since my residence here, become 
 of a different opinion. Not that I have not been 
 excessively interested, both during this and my 
 former visit to Moscow. The feudal magnificence 
 of the nobility, the Asiatic dress and manners of the 
 common people, the mixture of nations to be seen 
 here, the immensity, variety, and singular architec- 
 ture of the city, present altogether a most curious 
 and amusing assemblage. You, who are a connois- 
 seur on religions, should certainly travel hither. 
 You might commence with the worshippers of 
 Mahomet and of the Dalai Lama ; you might, at 
 the Armenian church, hear a very good sermon to 
 prove the existence of only the divine nature in 
 Christ ; you might in the course of the same day 
 assist at Lutheran, Calvinistic and Catholic ser- 
 vices ; and you might see the different forms of the 
 Greek church, either in modern Greek, for the 
 people of that nation ; in Sclavonian, according to 
 the established church of Russia ; or in the chapels 
 of the Raskolniks, or Separatists, who reject the 
 reforms of the Patriarch Nicon,* I have been to 
 visit an establishment of these latter, in company 
 with the governor. We afterwards dined in the 
 
 * Bom in 1613 and appointed Patriarch in 1G02.
 
 90 
 
 house of one who officiates as a bishop among 
 them, but none of them would sit down with us to 
 table, for so completely have they separated them- 
 selves from those of the establishment that they 
 will not eat with them, nor make use of the same 
 knife, nor drink from the same glass. There is 
 another sect, of which, as I had never heard before 
 my arrival in Russia, I think it possible that you 
 may be ignorant. The sect of " Eunuchs, who 
 make themselves so for the kingdom of heaven." 
 These propagated, if not their species, at least their 
 doctrines, to such an extent, and the absurdity 
 spread over such large districts, that government 
 has been forced to interfere, and Paul caused num- 
 bers to be seized and sent to the mines of Siberia. 
 I hope when I return to be able to give you a 
 much better idea of the architecture of this city 
 than it is possible to do by description. I have 
 engaged an artist to draw some of the most striking 
 views ; for the published engravings, though very 
 good and like the spots they are intended to repre- 
 sent, are not in my opinion, sufficiently character- 
 istic. The domes of the more ancient churches 
 (as, for example, the cathedral of Novogorod, built 
 in the twelfth century) are not scientifically con- 
 structed, being generally composed of plates of 
 metal and exceedingly small. The churches in the 
 Kremlin were certainly built by Solarius, the Mi- 
 lanese, who constructed the walls of that fortress at 
 the end of the fifteenth century, and are some of
 
 91 
 
 the first edifices of Moscow, not built of wood. If 
 at that time the Russians were forced to employ 
 Italians to build brick walls, a fortiori they must 
 have been ignorant of the art of constructing re- 
 gular arches and domes. In general nothing can 
 be more accurate than King, in his account of the 
 ecclesiastical establishments of Russia. I do not 
 remember whether he mentions that the great tenet 
 of the Schismatics is a very dangerous opinion that 
 it is profane to cross themselves with three fingers, 
 they therefore only make use of two. I have heard 
 a long argument between a general and one of these 
 heretics, as to the folly of their practice and the 
 superior sanctity of his own ; whenever the general 
 felt that he had the worst of the discussion he 
 appealed to his aide de camp, who invariably con- 
 firmed his asseverations. 
 
 You have of course read several descriptions of 
 the Kremlin, and of the great hall of audience in 
 which Alexey Michaelovitch received the Earl of 
 Carlisle, The view of the city from its walls is 
 singularly magnificent. The immense number of 
 churches, generally surmounted by five domes and 
 painted in the most gaudy colours, and the thirty 
 or forty gilt domes contained within the fortifica- 
 tions, present a most striking appearance. The 
 treasury, which is contained in tlie palace, is very 
 rich, both in valuable objects and curiosities which 
 relate to the history of the ancient Tzars ; such as 
 the vessels which were hung round the great pillar
 
 92 
 
 which supports the hall of audience, and which are 
 mentioned in Lord Carlisle's embassy ; the throne 
 on which Peter and Ivan sat jointly ; the regalia of 
 the Tzars of Casan and of Astracan ; the throne 
 of Constantine Palceologus, probably brought to 
 Russia by his niece Sophia, who married Ivan Vas- 
 silievitch ; various presents given by Shah Abbas 
 and Manuel, the Greek Emperor ; the Insignia of 
 Nicon, the last patriarch, which exactly resemble 
 those worn by the Emperors of Constantinople ; 
 and several other objects probably not interesting 
 to you. Upon most of the old Russian ornaments 
 are the hon and unicorn, the supporters of the 
 arms of England, as well as the eagle ; and a build- 
 ing, on the gates of which these are carved, has 
 been supposed to have been either the house of the 
 Enghsh ambassador, or to have had some relation 
 to England, but, although I cannot account for their 
 introduction, their frequency proves that supposi- 
 tion to be erroneous. 
 
 A number of troops, composed of the barbarous 
 and erratic nations under the dominion of Russia, 
 have lately passed through this city. A regiment 
 of Bashkirs, from the river Ural or Yaik, and 
 mounted upon their lean horses of the desert, some 
 clothed in complete armour, some with the twisted 
 coat of mail or hauberk, some with gi'otesque caps, 
 others with iron helmets, and all armed with the 
 lance and bow, lately caused a considerable sensa- 
 tion. These people are Mahometans, and several
 
 93 
 
 of them addressed with the Arabic salutation the 
 Governor of the Province fi*om which they came, 
 whom they immediately recognised, and by whom 
 I happened to be standing. They are almost always 
 at war with the Kirghese, who inhabit the deserts 
 to the north and north-east of the Sea of Aral, and 
 of whom some parties have also passed. Large 
 bodies of Calmucs have also marched through, 
 with faces scarcely human ; their religion is that of 
 Thibet, and those whom we saw are the remains of 
 a tribe, the greater part of which, offended at some 
 regulations of Catherine, escaped into China, fight- 
 ing their way through the Kirghese (who plundered 
 them as they passed) and storming the Russian 
 lines ; some were disheartened and turned back, 
 and their feeble remains compose the squadrons 
 whom we saw. There is also considerable interest 
 in examining the Chinese curiosities, which are 
 brought by the caravans which come directly from 
 Kiachta and Maimatchin. I have examined several 
 books translated from Chinese into Russian (which 
 language I can now read with tolerable facility), 
 but to my disappointment have generally found 
 them to consist of moral essays, interspersed with 
 such meagre notices of Chinese history or manners 
 as not to be worth extracting. Of the Russian 
 original compositions, there are not above three or 
 four authors whose works repay the trouble of 
 reading them. The national epic poem, upon tlie 
 conquest of the Tartars of Casan, would be good
 
 94 
 
 were it not for the insufferable monotony of the 
 metre in which it is written, viz. the Enghsh Alex- 
 andrine, with the caesura regularly marked, and 
 but few of the verses running into each other. 
 The language is, however, exceedingly soft and 
 sonorous, and I have given myself some trouble 
 about it, as, independently of the advantage while 
 I remain in Russia, it has always been my intention 
 to learn at least one species of the various genera 
 into which languages are divided. 
 
 I am yours, very truly, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Moscow, April 14, 1807, New Style. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 I am preparing for my journey, and think I shall 
 be able to set off by the latter end of this month or 
 the beginning of May ; I shall be accompanied as 
 far as Astracan by Mr. Poinsett, an American, of 
 South Carolina, one of the few liberal and literary 
 and gentlemanlike men I have seen emerge from 
 the forests of the New World. Our letters are of 
 a nature to procure us every civility and assistance ; 
 and if we should return into the Crimea through 
 the passes of Mount Caucasus, which is T think 
 more than probable, we shall be able to procure, if
 
 95 
 
 necessary, any required military escort. We our- 
 selves speak sufficient Russ and have hired a 
 Tartar interpreter, whom my valet de chambre, 
 Dousset, calls " Monsieur le Tartare/' and is, I 
 believe, rather afraid of him. I am in daily ex- 
 pectation of letters from Casan, to give me some 
 information of the state of the roads and whether 
 the ice of the Volga is broken up sufficiently for 
 navigation ; but now that the snow is melting, and 
 the ways are equally impracticable for sledges and 
 wheels, there is scarcely any communication be- 
 tween distant towns. 
 
 Of English and Continental news, we in this city 
 hear nothing at all ; newspapers are prohibited, 
 and an edict has appeared forbidding conversation 
 on political subjects. I have just seen gazettes, 
 brought by a private person, mentioning the re- 
 capture of Buenos Ayres, the taking of Cura9oa; 
 and letters have been received stating the destruc- 
 tion of part of the Turkish fleet by a squadron, 
 which forced the passage of the Dardanelles. A 
 considerable time has elapsed since we have had 
 news from Poland. Before I set foot in England, 
 I shall perform quarantine off some port, and read 
 all the newspapers, reviews and magazines which 
 have appeared since my departure, in order to be a 
 little aufalt of the conversation I shall hear. 
 
 I am sorry to see by your letter that Mr. B d 
 
 has gone back to the Cape, on exactly the same 
 footing that he was on before, and without any
 
 96 
 
 promises ; I do not think it a good speculation ; 
 but with respect to the distance, on which you 
 remark, in the Russian Empire, where perhaps of 
 three men whom you meet, one comes from China, 
 one from Persia, and the other from Lapland, one 
 loses one's ideas of distance. 
 
 I remain your most dutiful 
 
 and affectionate Son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE RIGHT HoNORABLE ChARLES YoRKE. 
 
 Moscow, May 15, 1807. 
 
 My dear Uncle, 
 
 I was much rejoiced by the receipt of your letter, 
 first, as giving me assurances of your own welfare ; 
 and secondly, because the topics on which you 
 wrote were, with the exception of the new plan of 
 finance, of which I had seen a detailed account, 
 perfectly new to me. We live here in a happy 
 state of ignorance, both of the general politics of 
 Europe and of the internal affairs of England ; and 
 all foreign newspapers, from whatsoever country 
 they emanate, are strictly and effectually prohibited. 
 My letter will therefore differ from yours, in being 
 any thing but a dispatch ; and as I presume that 
 my father has communicated to you an account of 
 my motions, I shall avoid repetition and send you
 
 97 
 
 a more detailed plan of my future proceedings than 
 I have hitherto been able to transmit to him. I 
 imagine that I shall be able to leave Moscow on 
 the day after to-morrow, and intend to pass through 
 Vladimir and Nijnei Novogorod, as far as Casan ; 
 I shall there purchase one of the large barks, which 
 convey merchandize down the Volga, and fitting 
 up a sort of cabin, shall embark, and passing by 
 Simbirsk and Saratof, arrive at Astracan. From 
 thence my route must be guided by the movements 
 of the Russian troops, and by the state of the Per- 
 sian war, (of which at Moscow we hear no more 
 than of a rebellion in Japan) but the following is 
 the plan I at present intend to put in practice : 
 from Astracan I shall coast the Caspian, and dis- 
 embark at Derbend ; putting myself again on })oard, 
 I shall proceed to Baku, in the province of Shir- 
 vaun, and pay my respects to the eternal fire of 
 the Guebres, interesting both as a great natural 
 curiosity and as the last remains of the worship 
 introduced by Zoroaster, preserved only there and 
 at Gueberabad, near Ispahan. Having sufficiently 
 adored the God Ait, I shall ride through Shamakee 
 to Teflis, and from that capital of Georgia my 
 route will be over Caucasus to Mosdok ; I shall 
 then turn west, and proceed by Fort St. George, 
 and along the river Cuban, to the island of Taman, 
 and cross over into the Crimea at Kerch ; and 
 after having well viewed all the southern parts of
 
 98 
 
 that peninsula, by no means forgetting the sites 
 of the Greek colonies which existed there, 1 expect 
 to find myself in Odessa about the latter end of 
 September. 
 
 During the whole of this progi'ess I shall be 
 accompanied by Mr. Poinsett, an American, of 
 South Carolina, whom, during an acquaintance of 
 some months, I have found a well informed and 
 gentlemanlike man. I have letters to several Go- 
 vernors of towns and provinces, from members of 
 the Russian ministry, as well as from individuals. 
 He too is well provided with them, as also with 
 recommendations from the Empress Mother, so 
 that I have no doubt of obtaining every possible 
 assistance. By the means of the brother of the 
 commandant near Teflis, I have sent my march 
 route into Georgia, and expect to receive letters at 
 Astracan informing me whether I shall find an 
 escort at Baku ; upon the whole 1 expect to per- 
 form this journey, though not with the same accom- 
 modations and comfort, yet with the same ease and 
 security that I have been accustomed to find from 
 Wimpole to St. James's Square. The only dis- 
 agreeable circmnstance attending this tour, from 
 which otherwise I promise myself much satisfac- 
 tion, is, that in addition to my ignorance of public 
 events, I cannot reasonably expect to receive any 
 domestic intelhgence before my arrival at Odessa ; 
 as I conceive, however, that you will remain pretty
 
 99 
 
 stationary in England, tlie same reason will not 
 hold good in preventing yon from receiving letters 
 from me. 
 
 Moscow is still more the capital of Russia than 
 Petersburgh ; the Asiatic appearance of the city, 
 and the eastern magnificence of the nobility, who, 
 if not attached immediately to the court, principally 
 reside here, render it much more striking than the 
 present residence, which does not differ so widely 
 from the generality of European towns as this 
 ancient metropolis of the Tzars. I have in general 
 been surprised to find the ancient accounts of the 
 dress, religion, and manners of Muscovy so appli- 
 cable at the present day. Excepting some historical 
 mistakes, the account of the expedition undertaken 
 by the embassadors of the Duke of Holstein, in 
 1633, is very accurate ; and many features, of which 
 the author takes notice, are still to be recognized 
 in 1807. This is to be understood, however, solely 
 of what fell under his own immediate inspection : 
 his account of the Samoyedes, for instance, I can 
 take upon myself to assert is very erroneous. 
 King, on the Greek church, is almost always to be 
 depended upon. In general the higher orders of 
 the clergy, with whom I have conversed in latin, 
 profess great regard for our church, and respect for 
 the authority of our bishops ; but to tlie tenets of 
 the Roman catholic religion, though much more 
 resembling their own, they profess great antipathy. 
 I imagine that this arises from some attempts hav-
 
 100 
 
 ing been formerly made to unite the English and 
 Greek churches, for which purpose the New Testa- 
 ment was translated into modern Greek and printed 
 at Oxford. I have assisted at all the ceremonies 
 performed at Easter by the Archbishop of Moscow; 
 and mounted at one o'clock in the morning to the 
 top of a high tower to see the magnificent spectacle 
 of Moscow, with its hundreds of churches illu- 
 minated on Easter Eve. Having gone to sup at 
 one of the houses, which I have most frequented, 
 I was a good deal surprised on vespers being ended, 
 to find all the females of the family run up to me, 
 and, crying out " Christ is risen from the dead !" 
 embrace me and present me with eggs, either 
 painted or gilt; this, however, is the only salutation 
 used during this week, nor can any person refuse 
 the kiss or egg of any other. Having ascertained 
 the custom, I immediately conformed; my religion, 
 however, did not extend so far as to cause me to 
 give the kiss of charity to old and ugly women. 
 
 I have been to visit the establishments of the 
 Separatists from the Greek church, who are toler- 
 ably numerous. The great difference between 
 them and the Conformists is that they will not bow 
 to images of modern manufacture, nor read the 
 liturgy from any book but an ancient manuscript ; 
 and esteeming it profane to cross themselves with 
 three fingers, make use of only two. So complete, 
 however, is their separation, that they will not eat 
 with any person not of their sect, they will not even
 
 101 
 
 make use of the same plate, or knife, or gUiss ; and 
 though the chief man among them, after we had 
 examined their chapels, gave us a very good dinner, 
 neither himself nor any of his brethren would sit 
 down and partake of it. They esteem it also a 
 renunciation of their religion to quit the caftan and 
 long beard. Besides these there are many other 
 sects, of whom the most remarkable is that of 
 *' Eunuchs, who make themselves so for the king- 
 dom of heaven." This species of fanaticism spread 
 so considerably as to threaten the depopulation of 
 districts, and I have been told that Paul, an admirer 
 of vigorous measures, caused numbers to be seized 
 and sent to Siberia. 
 
 Our cavalcade, independent of escorts, will make 
 a formidable appearance. Myself and Mr. Poinsett 
 are each armed with a double barrelled gun, a brace 
 of pistols, a dagger, and a Persian sabre ; each of 
 our four servants also has his pistols and cutlass ; 
 " sed arma non magis oneri sunt quam crura mit 
 maniis, arma enim membra milifes esse diicunt.'^ 
 Being, however, an admirer of pacific measures, I 
 have got letters into Georgia from some Georgian 
 princesses, who, together with the son of the famous 
 Tzar, Heraclius, reside here in the palace, and 
 have done so since the occupation of their country 
 by the Russian troops. They have given me intro- 
 ductions to their relations ; and if their country 
 women resemble them, the nymphs of Teflis have 
 no reason to fear the loss of their reputation for
 
 102 
 
 beauty. Notwithstanding all the pleasure I pro- 
 mise myself from my tour, I shall be sorry to leave 
 Moscow ; the hospitality of the people is very great, 
 and it is disagreeable to be always forming new and 
 pleasant acquaintance, with the certainty of shortly 
 leaving them and the probability of never seeing 
 them again. On quitting Petersburgh, notwith- 
 standing my general opinion, I felt very strongly 
 how disagreeable it is to leave for ever a place in 
 which we have resided for some time, and believe 
 it was solely that feeling which caused me to return 
 thither from Moscow. This makes me look for- 
 ward with great satisfaction to the time when I shall 
 meet again my friends in England, and renew an 
 intimacy not liable to be so interrupted. In the 
 mean time, my dear uncle. 
 
 Believe me, &c. 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 PS. My letter was written three days ago, but 
 not dated ; I leave Moscow to-day. May 5th. 
 
 To THE Rev. George Downing Whittington. 
 
 Casan, May 16, 1807, New Style. 
 
 Dear Whittington, 
 
 As I have now pretty well arranged my plans for 
 the route which I intend to pursue, I am enabled 
 to give you a more accurate account of it and of
 
 103 
 
 the countries which I propose to visit after leaving 
 Astracan. I shall embark on the Caspian, and, 
 after landing at Derbend, shall proceed to Baku, in 
 the Persian province of Shirvaun, which, during 
 the course of the existing war with Persia, has 
 been occupied by the Russian troops. I expect 
 there to find an escort, for which purpose I have 
 caused letters to be sent from Moscow into Georgia, 
 and after examining the sources of Naphtha and 
 the eternal fire, so great an object of veneration to 
 the followers of Zoroaster, I shall pass through 
 Shamakee to Teflis. Some Georgian princesses, 
 who, together with the son of the Tzar Heraclius, 
 the sovereign of that country during the reign of 
 Catherine, have resided in one of the imperial 
 palaces at IMoscow since the occupation of their 
 country by the Russians, have given me letters 
 for their relations, as well as for the Tzarina Anna, 
 the Queen of Imiretia (the ancient Colchis) whom 
 I intend to visit in her capital, Cutais, on the banks 
 of the Phasis. It is singular that this name should 
 have subsisted so long ; Medea is constantly called 
 KvTuig MjjSaa, in the accounts of the Argonautic 
 expedition, and the name occurs in Lycophron and 
 Propertius. After visiting this princess, who is in 
 fact merely a nominal sovereign, being entirely de- 
 pendent upon the will of Russia, I shall return to 
 Teflis, and from thence come north over the Gla- 
 cieres of Mount Caucasus to Mosdok ; then east- 
 ward along the line of the river Cuban, and after
 
 101 
 
 passing through the island of Tanian (the ancient 
 Phanagorium) shall cross the straits to Kerch 
 (Panticapeum). I shall then pursue my journey 
 through the southern part of the Crimea, by Theo- 
 dosia and Balaklava, reconnoitering the site of all 
 the Greek colonies to Odessa ; and then if I hear 
 that the war with Turkey is over, it is unnecessary 
 to tell you to what part of the world I intend to 
 proceed. So much for the future. I left Moscow 
 on Tuesday the 5th of May, and the first town at 
 which I arrived was Uladimir, formerly the capital 
 of an independent sovereignty and the residence of 
 a grand duke. Tlie accommodations are such as 
 are alone to be met with all over Muscovy ; one 
 room, in which you sleep with the whole family, 
 in the midst of a most suffocating heat and smell ; 
 no furniture to be found but a bench and table, 
 and an absolute dearth of provisions. It is there- 
 fore necessary to take every thing which may be 
 wanted from the place whence you start. As I 
 proceeded I found the Tartars in the villages in- 
 creasing very considerably in numbers, and the 
 Russian fur cap gradually giving way to the Maho- 
 metan turban, or the small embroidered coif of the 
 Chinese ; I also met considerable numbers, under 
 the command of their chiefs, going to join the 
 armies ; thousands of Bashkirs were also on their 
 march with the same intention, armed with their 
 long lances, the bow and the sabre, and forming a 
 long and picturesque caravan.
 
 105 
 
 From Uladimir I came on to Nijnei Novogorod, 
 having met with no obstacle but from the numerous 
 ferries which I was under the necessity of crossing, 
 on account of the floods occasioned by the sudden 
 melting of the snow. At Mauroma, for instance, 
 the river Occa, which connects the Mosqua and 
 the Volga, had swollen so considerably as to be 
 full five and twenty versts broad. Nijnei Novogo- 
 rod itself is a handsome town, magnificently situated 
 on the elevated banks of the Volga, which are 
 covered with oak and elm, forming a great con- 
 trast to the pine forests and plains which fatigue 
 the eye throughout Muscovy ; indeed, since my 
 entrance into 'J'artary I have found the country 
 more picturesque and better cultivated. From 
 Nijnei I proceeded into the country of the Tchere- 
 misses, whose language resembles neither Russian 
 nor the Tartar dialects, and whose dress and cast 
 of countenance sufficiently distinguish them from 
 both those nations. I slept in one of their cot- 
 tages, which have neither chimney nor window. 
 The men wear a dress very loose, composed of 
 white linen trimmed with red, and coarsely em- 
 broidered on the sleeve. The women have their 
 petticoats only to the knee, and plait their hair in 
 long tresses, to which are tied a number of brass 
 cylinders, forming altogether a most extraordinary 
 appearance. • 
 
 Upon advancing we found ourselves among the 
 Tchouasscs, whose language and features arc also
 
 106 
 
 peculiar ; the majority of the nation are I am in- 
 formed pagans and, as their sacrifices are forbidden 
 they are obliged to perform the ceremonies of their 
 religion in remote places and with great secresy. 
 Soon after leaving this tribe I embarked on the 
 Volga and late on Wednesday the thirteenth ar- 
 rived at Casan, which is about five hundred and 
 fifty miles east of Moscow, the Tartar kingdom 
 of which it was the Capital once gave laws to 
 Moscow, and made the Grand Dukes tributaries, 
 but it was conquered and reduced under the power 
 of Russia about the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. The Tartar fortifications and towers still 
 subsist, though gone to decay, and on contemplat- 
 ing these, the singular architecture of the churches 
 the ranges of shops, and the groupes of Tartars, 
 Tcheremesses, Tchouasses, Bashkirs and Arme- 
 nians no man could for a minnte, although Casan 
 is in Europe by courtesy, suppose himself in that 
 quarter of the globe. A considerable number of 
 noble Russian families reside here, which is not 
 general in the provincial towns, and the quarter 
 they inhabit is built of brick and stuccoed ; the 
 Tartars have their quarter, which is of wood : the 
 exercise of their religion is allowed and the Em- 
 press Catherine caused the Koran to be printed for 
 their use. 
 
 I have by the means of my Tartar interpreter 
 who also speaks Armenian contracted for a boat to 
 Astracan with an Armenian merchant, who pro-
 
 107 
 
 mibcs to be ready in two or three days, and by that 
 time I hope to be on my way down the Volga ; 
 we are well armed, myself and Mr Poinsett, who 
 goes with me, have each a double barrelled gun, 
 brace of pistols, dagger and sabre, each of our four 
 servants has his pistols and broad-sword, and when 
 mounted on our Cossac horses we expect to make 
 a formidable appearance. 
 
 Yours very sincerely and affectionately, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Astracan, Jsf^udo 13, 1807. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 On the 22nd of May I left Casan, where I re- 
 mained a few days longer than I had originally 
 intended in consequence of some delays in the 
 equipment of my boat, and proceeded on my jour- 
 ney down the Volga. The stream at this season 
 of the year is so rapid, that notwithstanding the 
 southerly winds which prevailed we seldom made 
 less than an hundred versts a day. In general I 
 have been much gratified both with the opportu- 
 nities of inspecting the inhabitants, and also with 
 the beauty of the scenery ; the right bank being 
 in general very moimtainous, and well wooded ; 
 where the river forms the frontier between Europe
 
 08 
 
 and Asia the left side is very low, and at present 
 overflowed for a considerable extent ; and after 
 passing Tsauritzin, where both banks are in Asia, 
 there is nothing on either side but vast deserts of 
 sand. We provided ourselves with provisions from 
 the villages as we passed along, and our guns pro- 
 cured us considerable supplies of every species of 
 aquatic fowl, and several birds which are described 
 in Pallas (whose book I have with me) but which 
 I believe are not known or at least very uncommon 
 in Europe. Pelicans I saw in vast numbers, in 
 some places the islands were absolutely white with 
 them; there were also a prodigious quantity of 
 eagles, one, which I killed, measured more than 
 six feet from one wing to the other. Upon Sterlet, 
 and the caviare we extracted from them, we fared 
 most sumptuously, altho' to obtain them we were 
 sometimes forced to put out a boat and proceed 
 on a piratical expedition : I should imagine that 
 the peasants on the banks are occasionally subject 
 to have their property taken away without return, 
 for I observed an extreme unwillingness to sell. 
 At a village to the south of Simbirsk (of which 
 suffice it to say that it is an inconsiderable town) 
 we were detained a whole day by a gale of wind ; 
 the people absolutely denied that they had any 
 thing to sell, which as we were out of provisions, 
 gave us the prospect of starving till we arrived at 
 another. At last an old woman ventured on 
 board with some fowls, we paid her what she
 
 109 
 
 asked for them (about three pence a piece) and in 
 the course of half an hour all the inhabitants of the 
 village brought fowls, fish, sheep, &c. sufficient to 
 stock our boat. For the sheep we gave about 
 half a crown for each. We hailed a fishing boat, 
 but the men denied that they had caught any thing, 
 until a Tartar called out in his own language to 
 our Tartar interpreter and told him where they 
 were concealed; we immediately presented our 
 double barrelled guns, and having compelled a de- 
 livery, requested them to set their own price on 
 our capture, a demand which not a little astonished 
 and pleased them. The number of fish of all 
 species, which inhabit the Volga, is amazing, but 
 the superstitious prejudices of the Russian peasants 
 prevent their making use of several sorts. Having 
 many more than I could consume of a sort which 
 resembles the Chad, I offered them to our boat's 
 crew ; they refused them, alledging as a reason 
 that all those fish were insane and swam round and 
 round, and that if they eat them they would be- 
 come insane too ; in consequence vast numbers of 
 them are sold at very low prices to the Tartars, 
 Calmoucs, Cossacs, Tchouasses, Mordouans, and 
 German colonists who inhabit the banks, and who 
 profit by the ignorance of their neighbours. Pigeons 
 they also refused from some religious idea and to 
 hares also for some reasons or other they had an 
 equal aversion. Samara which is the next town 
 worthy of notice, has lost nearly two thirds of its
 
 no 
 
 houses by a conflagration ; it is during winter tlie 
 residence of a number of Calmouks, who have 
 been converted from Lamaism, and are half re- 
 claimed from their nomad life ; for it is only during 
 the summer that they wander with their flocks in 
 the vast steppes on the Asiatic side, and encamp 
 in their circular tents of felt. The Mordouans 
 speak a language resembhng the Finnish, and it is 
 probable that they both are descended from some 
 tribe which has emigrated from the interior of 
 Siberia, where traces of their dialect are still to be 
 found. At Saratof, which is a handsome and well 
 built town, we were detained four days by a violent 
 gale of wind ; while wandering about on the eastern 
 side of the River, 1 came to a village as distin- 
 guished for the excessive cleanliness of the exterior 
 and interior of the houses and the neatness of the 
 gardens as the Russian habitations are for their 
 dirt and filth. I found I could not make them un- 
 derstand me, tho' I perceived they spoke a dialect 
 of Sclavonian, and learnt through the medium of 
 an interpreter that they were a colony from little 
 Russia and part of the Ukraine, and spoke only 
 the patois of their own country. From Saratof the 
 banks are covered with neat towns and villages 
 built by the German colonists, several are not 
 marked in the maps ; their numbers have much 
 encreased, and such of them with whom I con- 
 versed informed me that they succeeded extremely 
 well. At Tsaritzen, the Desert assumes an ap-
 
 Ill 
 
 pearance very different from those I had seen 
 higher up the River, which tho' they extend up 
 the country for some hundred miles without trees 
 or water are nevertheless well covered with vege- 
 tation. The heat in the Steppe is suffocating ; The 
 blasts of wind during the summer destroy imme- 
 diately the flocks exposed to them and instant pu- 
 trefaction ensues ; the mirage, which has so often 
 been described in all accounts of Arabia, is also 
 perceived here. Below Tzaritzen the colony of 
 Sarepta is very curious and remarkable ; It is in- 
 habited exclusively by Hernhuters or Moravian 
 Brethren ; They manufacture a great variety of 
 articles for the Moscow market, and also for the 
 Calmouks and Cossacks. All the profits of the 
 sale are thrown into one common fund under the 
 direction of the elders, who fi'om thence supply 
 the common tables, and manage the concerns of 
 the community. The excessive neatness of the 
 town and gardens forms a strong contrast with the 
 neighbouring Russian towns, and we obtained there 
 with ease a supply of several sorts of provisions we 
 had long gone without, for the Russian peasantry, 
 tho' they have a gi'eat quantity of milk, have not 
 yet acquired the art of making cheese or eatable 
 butter; though they have before their eyes the 
 example of the Tartars and Calmouks, who make 
 every species of laitage known in Europe, besides 
 the ardent spirits which they distil as well from 
 cows as mares milk. I have found that the account
 
 112 
 
 given by the Secretary to the ambassadors from 
 the Duke of Holstein is always to be depended 
 upon, but the drawings never have the smallest 
 pretension to accuracy ; 1 suspect that they must 
 have been foisted in by some editor, more especially 
 as the accompanying map contains all the errors 
 which Olearius himself condemns and explodes. 
 The appearance of Astracan at a small distance is 
 very deceitful; the inside by no means corres- 
 ponds to its magnificent exterior. Excepting the 
 principal square and buildings, the town is entirely 
 built of wood, and the Taitar fortifications are dis- 
 mantled and crumbling rapidly into decay. The 
 streets of this great mart of oriental commerce 
 present a striking spectacle to an European, from 
 the union here of all the Russian and eastern na- 
 tions. Numbers of Greeks come hither to supply 
 the Levant with caviare, and a considerable quan- 
 tity of silk is brought by the Persians and Arme- 
 nians. The town is inhabited by thirteen or four- 
 teen different nations, whom it is no difficult mat- 
 ter to distinguish at first sight. Each description 
 of merchants live, distributed according to the 
 country from which they come, in a separate cara- 
 vanserai, which contains a place adopted to their 
 mode of worship, an advantage which all here 
 possess except the Persians. This circumstance 
 I the more wonder at, as they cannot make use 
 of the numerous mosques of the Tartars who abhor 
 the sect of Ali and follow that of Omar. Perceiv-
 
 113 
 
 ing in the caravanserai of tlie Hindoos that they 
 were assembling for evening prayers, I addressed 
 one, whom I supposed to be a Bramin by the holy 
 ointment on his forehead, and requested leave to 
 assist in the devotion paid to Brama and Vishnoo ; 
 He acquiesced with great civility, and I followed 
 them into the temple which was lighted with 
 lamps. The Priest appeared perfectly naked, ex 
 cepting a linen cloth round his loins, and pre- 
 sented himself before the Idols which were elevated 
 on a large platform, upon which every person who 
 attended the worship mounted without his shoes, 
 and touched the ground with his forehead ; he 
 then drew a curtain before the images behind 
 which he retired and reappeared in his pontifical 
 robes and the zennar flowing over his shoulder. 
 He then began a kind of chaunt, to which the 
 others kept time by clashing small cymbals, and 
 ringing two bells, occasionally prostrating them- 
 selves on the ground. The priest waved a small 
 chafing dish of incense before the idols, which he 
 afterwards set down and took a species of cup and 
 offered to each of them ; he then kneaded paste, 
 which he placed before the Gods, and drew a small 
 curtain that they might eat in privacy : after the 
 Gods had done, he made three libations of milk, 
 I presume in honour of the Hindoo Trinity, and 
 plentifully sprinkled every person with water; the 
 ceremony concluded by his pouring water into 
 every person's liand, which he sprinkled with flour 
 
 1
 
 114 
 
 — this the devotee swallowed at a moutliful and 
 put his hands on the top of his head. They then 
 saluted me and departed. 
 
 The gross number of inhabitants in the town is 
 about thirty thousand ; when the caravans come 
 in the total is supposed to be between sixty and 
 seventy thousand. The principal support of the 
 town is derived from the enormous quantity of 
 sturgeon &c. caught at the mouth of the Volga, 
 and the number of barrels of caviar extracted from 
 them. It is a fortunate circumstance that all the 
 lakes of the desert adjoining produce salt ; in some 
 it is already crsytallized ; besides this a great deal is 
 found in a fossil state ; but, though Russia possesses 
 in its southern provinces more fish within a few 
 versts of more salt than perhaps any other country, 
 and though the means of communication are so 
 great, it is an extraordinary fact that the importa- 
 tion of salted fish for the consumption of the em- 
 pire is very great and the exportation exceedingly 
 small ! — My next excursion before I proceed to the 
 northern provinces of Persia will be for a short dis- 
 tance into the Desert to the habitation of a Cal- 
 mouk Prince. I wish to see the manner of living of 
 the chief persons of that nation, and take the diver- 
 sion of hawking with the Princess, his daughter, 
 who with her pipe at her mouth, hunts on the un- 
 broken horses of the Desert. The Calmouks here 
 are a branch of the Mongols (who now inhabit the 
 provinces adjacent to China) and separated from
 
 1J5 
 
 them before the time of Zengis Khan, when they 
 conquered almost the whole of Asia and great part 
 of Europe. I am curious to see their mode of wor- 
 ship which is that of the Dalai Lama. The fields 
 in the neighbourhood of this city are principally 
 employed in the culture of the vine, and vast quan- 
 tities of grapes are sent from Astracan to Moscow 
 and Petersburgh. The vineyards are watered by 
 means of machinery, and by these means the fruit 
 is rendered larger and sooner comes to maturity, 
 but the wine produced is execrable ; the sale of 
 the fruit is so much more profitable that this is but 
 a secondary consideration. The wine made at 
 Kizliar on the frontiers of Georgia, which is almost 
 the only species to be met with here, is .pretty 
 good, and I immediately recognized it to be the 
 same, which, when adulterated, I had often drank 
 under the specious names of burgundy and cote 
 roti. Here, where it is pure and passes under its 
 own name, I think it preferable to most French 
 wines imported into Russia and mixed up for the 
 market of Petersburgh. I am persuaded that with 
 proper attention paid to the vineyards, by laying 
 aside the custom of irrigation, by employing the 
 best instead of the refuse grapes, and by obtaining 
 proper instructions as to the mode of making and 
 preserving the wine, Russia might considerably di- 
 minish the importation of those articles and supply 
 her own consumption. The culture of the Olive 
 which has been attempted here, has fiiiled. It
 
 116 
 
 succeeds however I understand, a little lower down 
 upon the banks of the Terek, through which coun- 
 try I shall pass on my way to Derbend ; for from 
 various reasons I propose to proceed by land in- 
 stead of water; As far as Kizliar I shall travel in 
 my carriage and afterwards on horseback to Baku. 
 I regret however to hear that the commander in 
 chief on the Georgian and Persian frontier, to whom 
 we have strong recommendations, is no longer at 
 Teflis, but has advanced to Erivan ; I do not, 
 however, imagine that this will prove any obstacle ; 
 there are at present no actual hostilities carried on 
 between the Russians and Persians, though they 
 can scarcely be considered as at peace. I should 
 imagine that the attention which it is necessary to 
 pay to the Polish frontier, will prove favourable to 
 the adoption of pacific measures here. 
 
 I remain &c. &c. 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 SoUanka, June 22, 1807. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 An opportunity of writing has occurred sooner 
 than I had imagined, owing to an unavoidable 
 delay in this village, which is situated not far fi-om 
 Astracan, but on the other side of the Volga ; I
 
 117 
 
 shall be obliged to remain here three or four days 
 more before I obtain leave to cross the Georgian 
 fi'ontier. The village is inhabited exclusively by 
 Tartars ; though most of the better sort possess 
 wooden houses, they prefer pitching a circular tent 
 of felt, and only make use of the former in winter. 
 In consequence I have taken possession of a cot- 
 tage close to the mosque, and five times a day have 
 it dinned in my ear that there is no God but God 
 and that Mahomet is his prophet. Upon leaving 
 the village you immediately enter the great desert, 
 which stretches from the Volga to the sea of AzofF; 
 The surface is scattered with aromatic plants, 
 which serve as pasture to the horses and camels, 
 which accompany the Tartar and Calmouk camps. 
 I made a short excursion a day or two ago to visit 
 one of the latter nation, and entered the tent of 
 the chief Lama or Priest ; He received me with 
 great civility, and at my request shewed me all the 
 idols and sacred books, of which he was the de- 
 positary. His tent, which served as the temple, 
 was exceedingly neat and covered with white felt, 
 the floor was matted and strewed with rose leaves ; 
 opposite the door was a shrine, within which were 
 nine idols of gold and other metals : the priest 
 took them out of their coverings of silk, and re- 
 questing me not to touch them suffered me to ex- 
 amine them. One was an image of the Dalai La- 
 ma, others represented the Boorkans or deified 
 men, who, after having undergone several trans-
 
 118 
 
 migrations, had been translated to Heaven. One 
 resembled the images of Briareus in having a pro- 
 digious number of arms. I then requested to see 
 the banner, on which the twelve signs of the Zo- 
 diac (each of which gives name to a year of their 
 cycle of twelve) are painted ; he was angry at their 
 being called signs and said they were Gods — He, 
 however, produced the Banner, which was of silk ; 
 the twelve signs, (which differ from ours, inasmuch 
 as one is a horse, another a serpent, &c.) were 
 painted in a circular form ; and in an exterior con- 
 centric circle were represented a number of Devils, 
 which the Gods were driving away. Some of the 
 Banners were inscribed with prayers. These are 
 placed at the door of the tent, in the wind, and the 
 suffering them to flutter about is supposed to be 
 equivalent to saying the prayer. The turning 
 round a great cylinder with inscriptions in Mongol 
 characters is also supposed to produce the same 
 effect. Opposite to the idols was an altar con- 
 taining vases full of rice and rose water, and before 
 the altar was a staff supporting a vase, into which 
 they always pour a little of what they are going to 
 drink. The Lama then ordered tea, of which the 
 leaves and stalks are pressed into a large square 
 cake ; this was boiled up with butter and salt after 
 the Mongol manner, and formed a nauseous mix- 
 ture. The Priest handed me a large bowl, which 
 I drank out of civility, and having looked at the 
 astronomical and sacred books, which are said to
 
 119 
 
 be written in the Thibetian language, I took my 
 leave ; all the village left their tents and accom- 
 panied me to the water side. I remarked that at 
 least a third of the men were priests ; this is not 
 surprizing, considering that whatever a priest takes 
 a fancy to, must be given him, and the hottest 
 parts of hell are reserved for whoever refuses. 
 
 My next letter will probably be dated from 
 Teflis. 
 
 I remain, &c. 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Derbend, July 17, 1807, 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 On the 30th of June I left the vicinity of As- 
 tracan and proceeded on my journey thro' the 
 desert which with the exception of the cultivated 
 ground near Kizliar extends to the foot of Mount 
 Caucasus. As I went along, I could not help re- 
 marking how different the scene was from what I 
 had witnessed in the beginning of the year to the 
 north of Archangel. I had exchanged intolerable 
 cold, for intolerable heat, a plain of snow, for a 
 plain of sand, and flocks of rein-deer for numerous 
 herds of camels, belonging to the Calmouks who 
 inhabit the steppe. The part nearest to Astracan
 
 120 
 
 is the most peopled on account of the pools of 
 water, and long creeks caused by the overflowings 
 of the Volga which extend for some miles up the 
 country. In the vicinity of these we saw several 
 Tartar camps attended by multitudes of cattle and 
 horses. The posts are served as far as Kizliar, and 
 a certain number of Nogay Tartars are bound to 
 relieve one another at short intervals. The ground 
 is so flat that we had no difficulty in getting along 
 in our kibitkas ; we were often, however, deceived 
 by the appearance of extensive ranges of hills on 
 the horizon, which proved to be merely small ine- 
 qualities magnified by the intervening vapours. We 
 had brought with us a small cask of water, great 
 part of which was lost by the negligence of the 
 servants, when we had to suffer from extreme 
 thirst, for the pools are as salt as sea water, and 
 their bottoms and sides are covered with very 
 beautiful crystals, exhaling a strong smell of violets. 
 The plants all taste of salt, the dews are salt, and 
 even some milk I procured from a Tartar was 
 brackish. As we advanced farther we were an- 
 noyed by swarms of musquitoes, against which 
 even smoke was no defence ; it was impossible to 
 eat or speak without having a mouthful of them, 
 and sleeping was out of the question ; it was in vain 
 that I tied my handkerchief over my face for they 
 stung me on all sides thro' my clothes in a manner 
 of which I had before no idea. In this way we 
 advanced to within two posts of Kizliar, the first
 
 121 
 
 stage took us the whole day on account of the 
 overflowing of the waters, which take their rise in 
 Caucasus, of which we could see a most magnifi- 
 cent chain on the southern horizon. After havine: 
 reached the last post we had two rivers to cross ; in 
 performing the operation, the water came as high 
 as the windows of the carriage which floated, and 
 the horses were obliged to swim all the way. We 
 afterwards crossed a marsh four miles broad, and 
 three or four feet deep, and arrived at a Cossac 
 village where we procured fresh horses and pro- 
 ceeded to Kizliar, where we arrived about five in 
 the afternoon ; the last ten miles cost us two days 
 and a nights unremitting labour. 
 
 At Kizliar I took up my abode in the house of 
 an Armenian, where I staid four days to recruit, 
 and settle my farther proceedings ; the comman- 
 dant, who had been apprized of our intended 
 arrival, had written to the Tartar Princes and re- 
 ceived answers assuring him of their assistance. 
 Having sold my kibitka and sent my carriage back 
 to Moscow, I left Kizliar with an escort of Cossacs 
 and proceeded on horseback thro' the remainder 
 of the desert. The first night we were not able to 
 proceed very far ; having arrived at the site of a 
 Tartar camp we found they had changed their 
 situation ; I accordingly sent out Cossacs in difte- 
 rent directions with orders to make fire signals in 
 case they discovered any tents, which they soon 
 did and we past the night in their encampment.
 
 122 
 
 They brought us koumis, composed of sour mare's 
 milk, kaimali or milk kept till it has become solid, 
 and airan, or sour curds, salted and dissolved in 
 water; I found to my great surprize that they 
 expected us, and had received orders from the 
 Tartar Prince, to whom they are subject, to furnish 
 us with guides. Early in the morning we arrived 
 at his residence on the banks of the river Soulac, 
 and by his advice staid there till the next day. He 
 furnished us with provisions, and the people of the 
 village brought an enormous sturgeon yet alive 
 which they laid at my feet. In his courtyard I 
 observed a man with long hair contrary to their 
 custom which is to shave the head. I learned 
 that having murdered another in a quarrel, he had 
 taken refuge there, till he could make an accom- 
 modation with the friends of the deceased, and in 
 the mean time suffered his hair to grow. In the 
 morning our host. Prince Sefi Temirof, accom- 
 panied us fifty miles further, to Tarki situated 
 within two miles of the Caspian Sea, on the eastern 
 extremity of the northern chain of Caucasus, and 
 surrounded with cemeteries, more extensive than 
 the town. All the houses are flat roofed accord- 
 ing to the oriental custom, and the whole together 
 made a beautiful though extraordinary appearance. 
 This town belongs to the Shemkal or chief of the 
 various Lesgee Princes of this country, and at the 
 time of my arrival he was absent to quell some 
 difference which had arisen between two of them.
 
 123 
 
 He is in alliance with Russia, from whom he re- 
 ceives an annual subsidy, and assisted them in the 
 capture of Derbend, which the Persians surrendered 
 about a year ago. I found a very good apartment 
 prepared for me with its proper equipment of car- 
 pets and cushions, and supped with mine ancient 
 host, and some of the principal inhabitants, and 
 considering that it was my first public attempt at 
 sitting cross-legged on the floor, and eating hot 
 rice with my fingers, I think I acquitted myself 
 tolerably well ; Prince Sefi spoke a corrupt Sclavo- 
 nian he had learned from the Cossacs, and as my 
 knowledge was about equal to his, we conversed 
 pretty well without an interpreter. He was very 
 inquisitive about Europe, and his questions in 
 general very good and to the purpose. I was 
 forced to hammer out a geographical and statis- 
 tical account of all the kingdoms of Europe, and a 
 history of the life, origin and progress of Bonaparte ; 
 as fast as I harangued lie translated into Tartar 
 for the benefit of the country gentlemen. He en- 
 quired what had become of the Venetians, whose 
 eastern conquests formerly have made their names 
 known in these parts, and was surprized to hear 
 that they had become dependent on France. He 
 asked about Egypt, and said he had heard that 
 Bonaparte had taken it. I was happy to be the first 
 to make it known in these parts that we had 
 wrested it out of his hands. He enquired why the 
 Turkish Sultan was not so powerful now as for-
 
 124 
 
 merly. I knew no better reason to give liim, than 
 that he shut himself up with his women, and never 
 went to war himself. One of the party, having 
 occasion to go to the next house, applied to me to 
 lend him a pistol ; upon my appearing surprized 
 he said, that the land where I was, was not Russia, 
 that the people were Asiatics, and that it was im- 
 possible to go unarmed without running the risk of 
 being assassinated. In fact I have not yet seen 
 one man without his sabre, dagger, gun and pistols, 
 even when working in the fields and getting in 
 the harvest. My guides and escort have always 
 formally delivered me up from one to the other, 
 as their friend and guest ; and if any thing had 
 happened, I am informed that the last party never 
 would have rested till they had put to death all 
 who should have been my protectors. In the 
 morning I found two men, whom the Shemkal 
 had sent to call on me, one to make a compli- 
 mentary visit, the other to order an escort to 
 attend me to Derbend, and in the evening having 
 made the customary presents I set out. Our cara- 
 van was very^ oddly composed ; myself and my 
 American compagnon de voyage, a Swiss, a Dutch- 
 man, a Mulatto, a Tartar of Rezan, a Lesgee 
 escort (for the Cossacs returned to Kizliar) two 
 Jews, an envoy from one of the native Princes re- 
 turning from Petersburg!!, and three Circassian 
 girls, whom one of our guides had bought in the 
 mountains and was carrying to sell at Baku. The
 
 125 
 
 first night we passed a la belle etoile. The second, 
 we were not so fortunate, as it rained all the time, 
 and early the next morning we arrived at Derbend. 
 I had dispatched a messenger to the Russian com- 
 mandant who provided us lodgings in the house of 
 a Persian, who was absent, where on my arrival 
 he came to call on me accompanied by several of 
 the Persian inhabitants. The principal of these, 
 Elfina Bey, sent me carpets and cushions to fin'- 
 nish the rooms, and I have been inundated with 
 fruit and pilaus, which have poured in from all 
 quarters. I find that my apparent magnitude is 
 directly, and not inversely as my distance, if I was 
 a great man at Kizliar, w^here I had one orderly 
 man to wait upon me, here T am twice as great, as 
 I have two. Next morning I returned the visits 
 of my Persian friends, and in the evening rode out 
 with them on a white horse with his tail dyed 
 scarlet. They amused themselves, as did also 
 a Hetman of Cossacs, with galloping round and 
 round and trying to unhorse each other, and 
 throwing the Djerid. The ride round Derbend is 
 beautiful, for though the town and fortifications 
 (which are composed of a wall and towers without 
 a ditch) are in a state of decay, yet the view of 
 the Caspian Sea, the steep rock, on which the 
 town is situated, the gardens which surroimd it, 
 and part of the chain of Caucasus rising behind, 
 contribute to render the whole singularly pictu- 
 resque. Having obtained an escort farther on, I
 
 126 
 
 shall proceed tomorrow ( Friday ) to Baku, by 
 which time I shall have seen quite enough of this 
 town, where I arrived on Tuesday last. From Baku 
 I still intend going to Teflis, my first stage from 
 hence will be to the present residence of Jekale 
 Khan, the late Khan of Derbend, who lives about 
 sixty miles to the south. 
 
 Your affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Right Hon. Charles Yorke. 
 
 Teflis, August 26, 1807. 
 
 My Dear Uncle, 
 
 I presume my Father, if he has received my let- 
 ters, of which I hope there is no doubt, will have 
 made you acquainted with my route as far as Der- 
 bend — I shall therefore give you as short an ac- 
 count as is possible without omitting any thing 
 material, of my journey onward to Baku, and from 
 thence to the capital of Georgia. The Russian 
 commandant gave me a small body of Cossacs as 
 an escort, and Elfina Bey ordered some Persians to 
 accompany them armed, and appointed a guide or 
 mehemandar. He also sent a considerable num- 
 ber of men to the river Samoor, to point out the 
 most fordable parts, and assist in conveying us 
 over. The merchant of women continued to ac-
 
 127 
 
 company us with his Tcherkess or Circassian girls, 
 whom I pitied not a httle, for, being afraid that 
 they had attracted some attention in the former 
 part of their journey, he enclosed them in great 
 sacks of felt, notwithstanding the burning heat of 
 the Sun. On the first night we stopped at a vil- 
 lage not quite fifteen miles from Derbend, where 
 we were received by an officer of the Shemkal, 
 who has been appointed commandant of the neigh- 
 bouring country — the houses in this as in most of 
 the villages consist of two apartments, one com- 
 pletely under ground, the other mounted upon 
 poles twenty feet high, and open at the four sides. — 
 In the morning we proceeded and arrived early at 
 the Samoor, which we passed without experienc- 
 ing much difficulty ; the rapidity, which the river 
 acquires by its fall from the mountains, is so great, 
 that if it touches the belly of a horse, he is infalli- 
 bly carried away. Its force is so great as even to 
 sweep down camels : its various branches occupy 
 an extent of four or five miles. — The country on- 
 ward for about half way to Baku, is fit to be the 
 garden of the world, the plains and first ridge of 
 mountains are beautifully wooded ; on one side the 
 prospect is terminated by the distant view of the 
 Caspian, and on the other by part of the chain of 
 Caucasus, far exceeding in magnitude any moun- 
 tains I have seen and covered with eternal snow. 
 The chief objects of cultivation appeared to be 
 rice, maize, cotton, millet, and a species of bearded
 
 28 
 
 wheat ; the natural productions of the woods were 
 apples, pears, plumbs, pomegranates, quinces and 
 white mulberries, the latter often covered with 
 pods of silk, which, though in some degree at- 
 tended to by the people, may be said in compari- 
 son with the improvement of which it is suscepti- 
 ble, to be neglected. Almost every bush and 
 forest tree had a \ine creeping up it covered with 
 clusters of very tolerable grapes. But few camels 
 were to be seen, they abound more in the deserts 
 near Baku. The chief draught animals are Buffa- 
 loes ; the Antelope is the principal wild animal I 
 saw. The howls of the Jackalls in the mountains 
 would have disturbed our rest, had we not in ge- 
 neral been so thoroughly fatigued. On the second 
 night we slept at a village, having determined not 
 to go to Cuba, being apprehensive of delay, and 
 the town lying a little out of the direct road. On 
 the next day after we had ridden thirty or forty 
 miles, we met a large party of Persians, headed by 
 two brothers of Elfina Bey, Gerbat and Hajali, 
 who begged of us to turn back to the Kahn of 
 Cuba, who, would be displeased at our passing thro' 
 his territories without our seeing him ; on our ob- 
 jecting to the distance we should have to return, 
 they begged that we would spend the remainder of 
 the day with them at their village. We acquiesced 
 and turned back, but on questioning them whither 
 they were conducting us, they changed their de- 
 sign, and took us to a small cluster of houses in
 
 129 
 
 sight, where they received us with as much hospi- 
 taUty as the place would admit. In the morning 
 they again pressed us to go back to the Khan, who 
 they said was not at Cuba, but somewhere very 
 near. We absolutely refused ; and immediately 
 collected our horses ( over which I had set a 
 guard of Cossacs) and mounted. Upon this Ger- 
 bat declared we should not proceed further, and 
 that we should fight our passage through, which 
 we accordingly prepared to do. In the mean- 
 time seeing us equal in number to themselves 
 and better armed, they retreated to a considerable 
 distance, and probably we should have then passed 
 on without molestation, but the woman merchant 
 came in great tribulation saying that if we deserted 
 him he should be completely ruined, for that dur- 
 ing the night they had stolen his horses, and threat- 
 ened that if he did not sell his women at their price 
 they would put him to death. We found too that 
 they had stolen the horse of one of our guides — I 
 immediately sent to Gerbat to say, he must see 
 that it was in vain to attempt to stop us, that we 
 could beat him and all his troop — that I recom- 
 mended him to restore the horses, for I intended 
 immediately to return and strike off to Cuba and 
 complain to the Khan. After some consultation 
 they gave back his horse to our guide ; Hajali and 
 the remainder of his troop disappeared, and Ger- 
 bat and another rode with us. We took not the 
 least notice of him nor of his solicitations to stop 
 
 K
 
 130 
 
 and rest ourselves, nor of the messages he pre- 
 tended to receive that the Khan was at such or 
 such a place — but without answering him rode 
 strait to Cuba. Being arrived, he made difficulties 
 about informing his master that we were there, 
 which vanished on his being told that he should 
 answer with his head for any delay — After some 
 time the Khan sent to say he was ready to receive 
 us. We found him seated in a room near his 
 house, supported by scaffolding and open at the 
 four sides, except where closed with carpets ; this 
 apartment commanded a most beautiful view ter- 
 minated by the mountain Shach-dag or "the hill 
 of the King" so called I believe from some occur- 
 rence, which took place during Nadir's unfortunate 
 expedition against the Lesgees. I had ordered a 
 Persian of our suite to introduce himself along with 
 us, post himself behind the chief officers and report 
 to me their private conversation about us. Cheik 
 ali Khan began by asking whether we had travelled 
 fortunately, without experiencing molestation. I 
 answered that the only molestation I had met with 
 was in his territories, that persons saying they 
 acted by his orders had behaved with excessive 
 insolence, had threatened with violence a subject 
 of mine host the Shemkall, who was travelling with 
 me, had stolen his horses, and prepared to attack 
 the troops of the Emperor of Russia — that there- 
 fore I desired to know if the Khan (who was also 
 Khan of Derbend before its capture by the Rus-
 
 131 
 
 sians) was, or was not at peace with the Emperor ? 
 I was answered by Iman Khouli Beg the vizier, 
 that some persons had been sent to invite me to 
 come and see the Khan, but that if they had used 
 threats, they had been guilty of folly — I replied, that 
 to stop officers travelling on affairs of high impor- 
 tance was a circumstance of too serious a nature to 
 be termed folly, that as for my self I was easily re- 
 conciled to any delay, which gave me the pleasure 
 of standing in the presence of the Khan, but that in 
 what light the Emperor of Russia might consider 
 it I could not tell. My friend Gerbat was then 
 disgraced, and the Persian I had posted in the cor- 
 ridor reported that Iman Khouli Beg harangued on 
 the infamous conduct of the Khan's officers, and 
 said, that if he were to relate that strangers passing 
 through the territories of Cuba were liable to in- 
 sult, it would be eternal disgrace to the Khan his 
 master. A good sturdy mussulman offering some 
 reflections on strangers in general, the Khan called 
 him to him, asked him if he knew what persons he 
 had under his roof, and ordered him to be silent if 
 he valued his head. Dinner was then introduced, 
 and the Khan together with his court forgot, I am 
 sorry to say, the sober principles of Mahomet. 
 Every person who drank, whenever he filled his 
 glass called out, "to the health of the Khan," 
 which was repeated by all present. When the 
 Khan was himself disposed the physician wlio sat 
 by him, on giving him the glass first cried, "to
 
 132 
 
 the health of the Khan" — when he raised it to 
 his hps and when he took it away he said, " may it 
 pass well," and when he set it down he again re- 
 peated " to the health of the khan," and this was 
 repeated by all present ; so that the noise cannot 
 be described, particularly when music and dancing 
 girls were introduced — Having sat seven hours I 
 took leave, the entertainment lasted three hours 
 longer. 
 
 In the morning the Khan sent me and my fellow 
 traveller a present of a horse each, and having 
 paid him a visit we departed ; we slept that night 
 at a village near that where we remained the after- 
 noon with Gerbat and Hajili ; and on the evening of 
 the next day rested at the remarkable rock Besh- 
 barmak or " the five fingers/' which is a great sea 
 mark on the Caspian. From thence to Baku is 
 almost a desert, with here and there a ruined ca- 
 ravanserai, all of which together with the bridges 
 which now subsist were built by Shach Abas the 
 first — all castles of more ancient date are ascribed 
 to Iskander, who is lord of all waifs and strays, as is 
 Hannibal in Spain, Julius Caesar in England, &c. &c. 
 
 Not wishing to enter Baku late at night I stopped 
 at a village about fifteen miles off; most of these 
 contain in their centre a small redoubt for the in- 
 habitants to retire to in case of invasion by the 
 mountaineers. Our party was now complete, the 
 woman merchant, whose horses had been restored, 
 had again joined us ; one of his attendants having
 
 133 
 
 contrived to procure a horse had rode full speed 
 to Baku to inform the commandant. General 
 Gurief, of our detention. Though the account he 
 gave was very imperfect the general dispatched a 
 courier to Cheik Ali Khan, with threats in case we 
 were not hberated. This man I met, and took 
 the liberty of sending back, but I had sent a 
 Cossac to Derbend upon my entering Cuba, so 
 that after our departure our host would probably 
 get a rap on the knuckles ; the next morning I 
 entered Baku which is a pretty considerable com- 
 mercial town, and of which the fortifications, which 
 are entirely after the ancient model, are in very 
 good condition. Without the walls there is scarcely 
 a house, and the country is an absolute desert. 
 From the southern side the city presents a pic- 
 turesque appearance, the most conspicuous build- 
 ing is a palace built by Shach Abas, and intended 
 for his residence in case he chose to visit Baku, 
 but now it has quite fallen to decay. On the day 
 after my arrival I received the visit of Cassim Beg, 
 the principal Persian of the place, for the Khan, 
 who caused General TzitnianofF to be assassinated 
 when he came to receive the surrender of the 
 town, wisely made good his retreat when the Rus- 
 sians took the city. General Gurieff, the com- 
 mandant had made a party for us to see the 
 famous sources of Naphtha, and in company with 
 him, the above mentioned Beg, and several other 
 persons, we rode to the principal wells, which are
 
 131 
 
 about ten or twelve miles to the north of the town. 
 The smell is perceptible at a very great distance, 
 and the soil for a considerable distance round 
 seems to be a composition of clay and bitumen ; 
 only one of the wells, which are twenty or thirty 
 in number, has any sort of machinery. The 
 Naphtha when raised is as fluid as water, and a 
 very considerable profit is made by the sale, for 
 the peasants of Ghilan, and the adjacent provinces 
 have a prejudice that no other matter can be em- 
 ployed to hght the rooms, where they keep their 
 silk worms, without destroying those insects. After 
 viewing these we dined at an adjoining village, the 
 general returned to Baku, and I rode on to the 
 peninsula of Afsharon to see the everlasting fire, 
 about which I was the more curious, as Olearius, 
 who however did not see it himself, asserts that 
 the worship of the Guebres no longer subsisted, 
 and the relation in Hanway is not taken from an 
 eye witness. About five or six miles from the 
 sources of Naphtha, (that is, from the principal 
 sources, for there is a well of white Naphtha much 
 nearer) there is a spot of ground of pretty consid- 
 erable extent, of such a nature, that if a hole is 
 dug in it, or the first coat of earth removed, and 
 fire applied, the vapour which issues forth burns 
 with great intensity, and continues to do so, till it 
 is extinguished by some violent storm. The heat 
 is sufficient to calcine lime-stone and the peasants 
 accordingly burn their lime in no other manner.
 
 135 
 
 About the centre of this spot is a large quadran- 
 gular building of stone, built round a court, in the 
 centre of which is a perforated tumulus, from the 
 top of which blazes up the everlasting fire, sur- 
 rounded by smaller fires of the same nature. The 
 building is divided into cells, each with a separate 
 entrance designed for the accommodation of the 
 worshippers ; on each door was a tablet with an 
 inscription in characters, of which I am ignorant ; 
 one of them seemed to have a translation of which 
 the characters were Persian ; but the language was 
 neither Persian, Arabic, nor Turkish, and therefore 
 most probably modern Hindostanee. I went into 
 one of the cells, which was inhabited ; a small 
 platform of earth was raised on each side, perfo- 
 rated and a tube introduced ; one of these is always 
 kept burning according to the direction of the wind. 
 The first Zerdusht forbad to raise temples or enclose 
 the sacred fire, asserting it to be impious to confine 
 the image of the deity, but the second raised altars 
 and temples. I asked the inhabitant of the cell 
 what was his country ? he said he was a Hindoo, 
 (I presume a Parsee from the frontiers of India) 
 and that the building was erected entirely at the 
 expense of the Hindoos. I asked for what pur- 
 pose he came thither ; he replied without hesitation, 
 " to worship that fire" ; and said that persons were 
 sent from India to relieve each other in the em- 
 ployment of tending the everlasting flame, and 
 that he and his companions were then waiting to
 
 3G 
 
 be relieved. I observed a great pile of fuel, for 
 they esteem the other fire too pure for culinary 
 purposes. The quadrangle contains a well of fresh 
 water. If the vapour which issues from the earth 
 is collected in bladders and carried to a distance, 
 it remains equally inflammable, and from its burn- 
 ing with a red flame, I conclude it to be carbonated 
 hydrogen gas ; now though carbon and hydrogen 
 are contained in naphtha, I know of no way in 
 which naphtha, could be decomposed in such a 
 manner as to set the gas free. The sources are 
 at some distance, the soil is not bituminous but 
 calcareous, and the only smell is a faint odour of 
 Harrowgate water, which shews the presence of a 
 small quantity of sulphurated hydrogen, blended 
 with the carbonated. I do not beheve the naptha 
 to be an agent in producing the phenomenon. I re- 
 mained four days at Baku exclusive of those, on 
 which I arrived and departed ; and then set off 
 across the desert to Shamachee. We travelled 
 about seventy versts, and then stopped at a stream 
 of water. One of the party put up a large panther, 
 which made its escape into the mountains. Early 
 the next morning we came to old Baku, now com- 
 pletely in ruins, and in the evening to Shamachee. 
 This you will recollect to have been the great 
 mart of commerce between Europe and Persia ; 
 and I can easily beheve its flourishing condition 
 from the extent of its walls, which enclose a space 
 of several miles, and the ruins of domes and ar-
 
 137 
 
 cades, but it was completely destroyed by Nadir 
 Shach in 1734, and the few huts that were rebuilt, 
 so entirely razed by the father of Cheik Ali Khan, 
 that now there is not one house standing. I took 
 up my abode for the night in one of the cells of a 
 ruined caravanserai, and the wretched peasants, 
 who inhabit the ruins, had been ordered by their 
 master, Mustapha Khan, to provide provisions ; 
 though they complained of the hardship they 
 were afraid to accept money, and only begged me 
 to say that they had obeyed the orders. On the 
 next day, the 1st of August, we travelled over 
 some very beautiful hills covered with fruit trees, 
 and descending into a valley passed the villa<ie of 
 Soulout or new Shamachee, from thence we as- 
 cended a very steep mountain near the summit of 
 which we entered the town of Fettag, the resi- 
 dence of Mustapha the Khan of Shirvaun. He 
 resides entirely in tents, and appears to me to be 
 the most unpolished, ignorant and stupid of any of 
 the native Princes I had seen. I quitted him the 
 next morning without great reluctance, and passing 
 by another ruined town, slept at an Armenian vil- 
 lage. All the country round is perfectly beautiful, 
 and the mountains most magnificent ; in the even- 
 ing we came to a camp occupied by Azai Sultan, 
 whom we found in high glee. The mountaineers 
 and people belonging to the next Sultan had made 
 an incursion and carried off their cattle, but they 
 had followed, and after a pretty smart engagement
 
 138 
 
 had recovered their property and made several 
 prisoners. Azai Sultan informed me that the 
 next town was the resort and refuge of every 
 robber and murderer who fled from justice, the 
 truth of which was afterwards confirmed to 
 me. There however we passed the next night in 
 perfect safety under the protection of their hos- 
 pitable prejudices. An Armenian came to me and 
 desired me to permit him to accompany my escort 
 to Sheki, which I granted, he then begged I would 
 speak in his favour to the Khan, without which he 
 said he was afraid to go. I asked him what he 
 had done to cause his banishment, but he refused 
 to tell : I then informed him, he might come with 
 me, but that when he w^as there, if the Khan chose 
 to order him to be decapitated I should not inter- 
 fere; on these terms he declined the journey. The 
 next night we slept at a village, Giafar Kouh Khan 
 having sent to desire I would not come into Sheki 
 late at night, as he should not be prepared to re- 
 ceive me. In the morning we rode to his palace, 
 which is a quadrangle, built round a garden, and 
 fitted up with considerable magnificence : in the 
 garden was a fountain of very pure water, and an- 
 other in the room where he was sitting ; the rooms 
 were painted with the battles of Nadir Shach. 
 Giafar Kouli Khan was formerly possessed of Eri- 
 van and the adjacent provinces, and gave me a 
 long account of the manner in which he beat the 
 Shach's troops with an inferior number. It is
 
 139 
 
 dangerous to puzzle a potentate, otherwise I would 
 have asked him, how it happened that the Shach 
 has dispossessed him of his Khanate ? I remained 
 with him the whole of that day, and the next, and 
 nothing could be more civil than the whole of his 
 conduct ; when I departed he gave me a guide, and 
 an escort, and made me a present of silks and 
 shawls. The first night after leaving him I slept 
 at a village, and the next at another on the banks 
 of the famous river Koor, the Cyrus of the ancients, 
 supposed to be the boundary of the expedition of 
 that prince when he came to attack the Massagetae. 
 I believe too, that Pompey did not penetrate farther, 
 when he attempted to march northwards into Pon- 
 tus, to attack Mithridates ; but having no books I 
 am not sure of these facts. On the next night 
 I arrived at Ganja, famous for having often re- 
 pulsed the Turks, and for having yielded to Nachr, 
 when he marched to Teflis. It was taken by 
 assault three or four years ago by the Russians, 
 and is now in a very ruinous condition. A mosque 
 and convent are almost the only buildings that re- 
 main perfectly entire. I staid there a day to re- 
 cruit and set off for Teflis. On the road my secre- 
 tary Pauwells fell ill, which obliged me to stop at 
 the first station. I received false intelligence that 
 farther on was a village, where a cart could be 
 procured ; unfortunately there is not a town or vil- 
 lage between Ganja and Teflis ! so that three 
 nights we were obliged to lie out exposed to the
 
 HO 
 
 unwholesome dews of the Koor. On the fourth 
 we reached a Cossac station, where I left him, 
 and riding on to Teflis I sent back a cart, but 
 notwithstanding medical and every other assis- 
 tance he died within four or five days! — myself 
 and my fellow traveller, Mr. Poinsett, have been 
 both confined to our beds by a violent attack of 
 fever, and our other three servants have been ill 
 also, but I am now perfectly recovered and intend 
 in the course of four or five days to leave Teflis. 
 I have written to Count Gudovitch, the comman- 
 der in chief, who is now in upper Armenia, for 
 permission to join him. I wish to ascertain from 
 him the possibihty of embarking on the Black sea, 
 whether at the mouth of the Phasis, or elsewhere 
 for the Crimea, in order to avoid the numerous 
 quarantines to be performed along the Line ; if I 
 do not hear, I shall set off over Mount Caucasus 
 for Mozdok, and submit to the very disagreeable 
 delay. I unfortunately arrived at Baku a few days 
 after four English officers with despatches from 
 India (who were prevented by the war from pass- 
 ing thro' Turkey) embarked there for Astracan ; 
 I could not ascertain what were their names ; they 
 reported that there was a French ambassador with 
 the Shach, who had refused the invitation of Bona- 
 parte to attack the Indies on one side, and Russia 
 on the other. The Shach now resides in summer, 
 between Saltaniah and Casbin, and in winter at 
 Tehiran ; Ispahan cannot any longer be considered
 
 141 
 
 the Capital of Persia. Count Gudovitch has lately 
 obtained a victory near Cars over YussufF Pacha, 
 whose name appears in Bonaparte's expedition to 
 Egypt. I have heard of peace between France 
 and Russia ; nobody knows if England is included. 
 
 I am &c. 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Mozdok, September 15, 1807, New Style. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 I would have written to you from Teflis, but 
 having finished a pretty long epistle to my uncle, 
 I had neither time nor spirits to begin another 
 before the departure of the post, knowing as I did 
 that the circumstance of his having heard from me 
 was sufficient to prevent any anxiety upon my 
 account. I am not a little glad to have left the 
 unwholesome climate of Teflis, which in summer 
 is singularly prejudicial to strangers ; myself my 
 fellow traveller, and four servants had been per- 
 fectly well since leaving Petersburgh, but we were 
 all taken ill in Georgia and Pauwells fell a victim to 
 the effects of a putrid fever. Accordingly as soon 
 as I could sit a horse we quitted the town, and the 
 snow and ice of mount Caucasus, together with the 
 assistance of some bark I got from a Roman Ca-
 
 142 
 
 tholic missionary, restored me to perfect health 
 and strength almost as soon as I began to ascend 
 the mountain ; not wishing to expose ourselves any 
 more to the night dews, now that we could procure 
 as many baggage horses as we wanted, we pur- 
 chased a tent, which proved very useful in another 
 way, for the plague having spread through several 
 villages on our route, we made a circuit and en- 
 camped at some distance, thus avoiding all danger 
 of infection ; but as of course our own words can- 
 not be taken for our caution, we are at present 
 under quarantine and I mention the circumstance 
 that you may not be alarmed at the pricking and 
 smoking of this letter. Having taken leave of my 
 Georgian friends not forgetting the Queen of Imire- 
 tia, I left Teflis on the third of September, and 
 crossing the river Rakva, just above its junction 
 with the Koor, rested at the distance of about 30 
 versts. The country is very beautiful, and a vast 
 number of castles and ancient fortresses, some of 
 which are entire, present very picturesque objects. 
 On the 4th, we made 37 versts to the village of 
 Ananoor ; we had been ascending ever since we 
 left Teflis, but on the morning of the 5th the slope 
 became so steep that we could scarcely ride up : 
 Caucasus is inhabited by about twenty nations, most 
 of them speak a distinct language, and the inha- 
 bitants of one valley, insulated from the rest of the 
 world, cannot often make themselves understood, 
 if they cross the adjacent mountain. Some indi-
 
 143 
 
 viduals of the tribe of the Caftouras with an inten- 
 tion as supposed to attack us and our escort, con- 
 cealed themselves in a wood, but mistaking some 
 Cossacs who passed through, for their prey, they 
 fired upon them ; the alarm being given, and dis- 
 appointed of plunder they retreated into the moun- 
 tain, and when we arrived about half an hour after- 
 wards, we found the coast clear of the enemy and 
 one soldier killed, and a Cossac mortally wounded. 
 I accordingly remained that day at the post of 
 Beshonavoor and then proceeded on the 6th to 
 Koshavoor and the source of the Terek, which 
 rises in a valley close to the highest spot of ground 
 over which the road passes. Near the source I 
 found a mineral spring of the best aerated water I 
 ever tasted. The hills on each side are tipped 
 with snow ; beyond them rises a ridge covered 
 with snow to the base, and beyond this is the 
 highest chain, which I did not see till the 7th, and 
 which from my tent as I see them now at the dis- 
 tance of 120 miles, present a most magnificent 
 appearance. On the 6th I made 36 versts to 
 Kobia, on the 7th I passed by Kazbek, the highest 
 part of Caucasus, and arrived after making 2S 
 versts in the rocky valley of Dagran, a pass through 
 which it is necessary to go, but a few yards wide, 
 and commanded by a Russian post. On the eighth 
 I quitted the mountain, and advanced to the for- 
 tress of Vladi Caveass. Count Irelitch the com- 
 mandant told me, that feeling answerable for my
 
 144 
 
 safety, he would not permit me to go on till he 
 could detach a sufficient number of troops to con- 
 voy me, for that about a week before a Russian 
 colonel and several Cossacs had been attacked by 
 the Chickentses, and lost eleven men and their 
 baggage ; the remainder made their escape to Moz- 
 dok ; in the fort I saw eleven or twelve boys of 
 different barbarous nations, whom he kept as hos- 
 tages. On the 11th he told me that he had pro- 
 vided for me seventy cavalry, fifty regular infantry 
 and a piece of cannon, and accordingly we set off 
 for a small redoubt about 30 versts distant. The 
 next day I made 60 versts to this place, our " im- 
 posing attitude" having kept the Chickentses at a 
 respectfull distance. On the road I had the con- 
 xirmation of what Count Irelitch had said concern- 
 mg the Russian colonel in the sight of the dead 
 bodies of the Cossacs and the fragments of their 
 lances which remain strewed about. Being now 
 again in Russia I am not sorry to have quitted the 
 country, where making a journey is making a cam- 
 paign. I am glad however to have been at Teflis : 
 it is one of the best cities of this part of Asia, not- 
 withstanding it was taken by the Persians and 
 much damaged during the time of the Czar Hera- 
 clius, by the then Shach, Aga Mehmet Khan. The 
 baths are suppHed by a fine natural warm spring. 
 The women certainly deserve their reputation for 
 beauty, those that are sold for slaves to the Mahome- 
 tans are those we call Circassians, for the Circassians,
 
 U6 
 
 or Tcherkesses wlio are themselves IVIahometans, 
 seldom sell their children ; the practice is prohi- 
 bited now both by the Russians and native Princes, 
 but it has almost depopulated great part of Imire- 
 tia, Georgia, Guriel and Mingrelia — the language 
 and alphabet of the people is peculiar to them- 
 selves but many understand Turkish, and several 
 Russian. Tt will be some time before I get into 
 the Crimea, for I am entangled in quarantines. I 
 do not yet know what road I shall take, whether to 
 Taman along the Cuban and so cross over the Cim- 
 merian Bospherus to Kerch — or whether perhaps 
 time may not be ultimately saved by crossing the 
 desert to Tzaritzin, from thence to Tamboff and 
 so to the Crimea — my course homewards from 
 thence must depend on the state of Europe, from 
 which I have received no news for some time : 
 my last letter from England is dated February 
 the 4th. 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 ROYSTOX. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Georgievsk. Sept. 28, 1807, 
 
 ]\[y Di'.AR Father, 
 
 I remained till the 23rd in my agreeahle situa- 
 tion near Mozdok ; the ground having been re- 
 
 L
 
 146 
 
 cently over-flowed by the Terek, my tent not being 
 water-proof and the country famous for fevers, I 
 could not expect to depart without a relapse ; ac- 
 cordingly I had the pleasure of lying several days 
 upon the earth with a violent fever, surrounded 
 with basins to catch the rain, with which however 
 I was well drenched ; It was fortunate that I had 
 medicines with me for it was quite impossible to 
 procure any ; change of situation and a thorough 
 tanning of bark have set me upon my legs again, 
 but I am detained at Georgievsk by the illness of 
 my fellow-traveller, who will probably be well 
 enough to set out the day after tomorrow. We 
 shall proceed along the Cuban and cross the straits 
 into the Crimea. We shall have another quaran- 
 tine to encounter before we enter the Crimea ; 
 there is however at present no plague on the road 
 through which we have to pass ; in this town there 
 has been none for three months and then only one 
 or two persons were affected, but precautionary 
 measures are necessary, for on the other side of the 
 Russian frontier it commits the most dreadful ra- 
 vages and almost threatens the extirpation of some 
 of the Mahometan nations. In some of the vil- 
 lages of the little Cabarda, through which I passed 
 in my way from Teflis, all the inhabitants had died, 
 others were completely deserted and I scarcely saw 
 a man in the whole country. The few we did see 
 we sedulously avoided and when we halted posted 
 sentries to keep all together and prevent straggling.
 
 147 
 
 Adieu, my dear Father, I will write again from my 
 next halting place. 
 
 Your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To (Colonel Pollen. * 
 
 Georgievsk September 28, 1807. 
 
 Dear Pollen, 
 
 I received your letter at Teflis, where, besides 
 the pleasure of hearing from you, it was addition- 
 ally welcome in our most lamentable dearth of all 
 intelligence public and private ; you will probably 
 have heard of our having abandoned our intention 
 of going by water to Baku ; in lieu of which we pro- 
 ceeded through the territories of the Shemkall and 
 the Dagestan. I am glad that we were compelled 
 
 * Colonel Pollen was the son of the Rev. George Pollen, Rec- 
 tor of little Bookham Surr)\ He was born about the year 1775. 
 and in 1798 he sat in Parhament for the borough of Leominster. 
 In 1799 he raised a fencible regiment to serve in America, which 
 he accompanied to Halifax ; after his return to England he went 
 in 1803 to Petersburgh, where he married the same year the 
 daughter of Charles Gascoigne, Knight of the Russian Order of 
 St. Anne and a Major General in the civil service of Russia. 
 From that time he was principally occupied in making an exten- 
 five tour over a great part of the Continent of Europe, till, as 
 will afterwards appear, he was unfortunately lost with Lord 
 Royston ofFMemel on the 6th of April 1808.
 
 148 
 
 to do so, for it gave us an opportunity of seeing a 
 most beautiful country, and a very extraordinary 
 people, by whom we have in general been hos- 
 pitably received, as well as by those Chans, who no 
 longer acknowledge allegiance to the Shach ; from 
 Derbend we pursued our journey to Baku, but I 
 reserve the eternal fire and worship of Zoroaster 
 for our meeting, which I hope will be soon ; it is 
 singular that Olearius, who by the bye never went 
 to Afsharon, should assert that the adoration of 
 fire no longer existed, for I myself saw Parsees 
 from the frontier of Hindostan employed in tend- 
 ing the flame.* The relation in Hanway is taken 
 from hear-say and of course inaccurate ; from 
 Baku we went to Ganja and saw on our way seven 
 or eight ruined towns, the most considerable of 
 which are old Baku and Shamakee ; the walls of 
 
 * The following extract from the journal of the late Sir James 
 Mackintosh proves the existence at the time he wrote of this 
 fire worship at Bombay. 
 
 " In the evening went to an ' Aighairee' or fire temple, which 
 it is some reflection upon my curiosity that I have not seen 
 before during a residence of more than six years. It is a very 
 plain building with nothing of that peculiarity which religious 
 edifices generally have. In a hall or large room in front we 
 were received by Mulna Perose the Parsee Priest who was edu- 
 cated fourteen years in Persia, and is not without information 
 and agreeable manners ; through a bar of a window in the wall 
 we saw the ' Holy of Holies,' a small back-room, in one of the 
 sides of which we observed a silk curtain hanging over a small 
 aperture, where the sacred fire was burning." — Life of the Rt. 
 Hon. Sir J limes Mackintosh Vol. 2. page Al .
 
 149 
 
 the latter enclose an extent of several miles and 
 the ruins of large caravanserais, the remains of 
 arcades and domes attest its flourishing condition 
 before its destruction by Nadir ; the whole country 
 bears marks of great former civilization, but is 
 completely ruined by constant war; we were re- 
 ceived at Fettag by Mustapha Chan, the Chan of 
 Shirvaun, who forwarded us to Sheki where we re- 
 mained two days in the house of Giafar Kouli 
 Khan, who gave us a convoy to Ganja; from 
 thence we came on to Teflis ; where myself and 
 my two servants, Poinsett and his two servants 
 were all taken ill with a violent fever : one of my 
 servants died. 
 
 Teflis is one of the most picturesque towns I 
 have seen, though much damaged by the last Shach, 
 Aga Mehmet Khan, who took it in the time of He- 
 raclius. We were much amused to find that ***** 
 had indulged in the common fault imputed to tra- 
 vellers. He never was in Imiretia, but went merely 
 from Mozdok to Ganja and into the province of 
 Kaketi. The story of the cave in which he dined 
 with the Queen of Imiretia is drawn from the 
 stores of his own fertile imagination ; she received 
 us in the same house in which she received him, 
 not at Cutais but at Teflis, in a room fitted with 
 sofas, ornamented with looking-glasses and liung 
 round with pictures of the imperial family in gilt 
 frames ; so much for his cave, which I assert to be 
 a house, not a magnificent one, but bona fide a
 
 150 
 
 house ; from Teflis we came to Mozdok over Mount 
 Caucasus and crossed the httle Cabarda with an 
 escort of one hundred and twenty men and ar- 
 tillery, a precaution we were convinced was neces- 
 sary by the sight of eleven or twelve dead bodies 
 murdered about a week before by the Chickentses. 
 At Mozdok we performed our quarantine, when 
 I had the pleasure of suffering a relapse in a tent 
 not water-proof. Poinsett is now ill, but will proba- 
 bly be well enough to set out the day after to- 
 morrow. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To The Rt. Hon. Charles Yorke. 
 
 Georgievsk, September 29, 1S07, 
 
 My Dear Uncle, 
 
 My father will probably have informed you of 
 my departure from Teflis, and my safe passage 
 over Caucasus, and through the little Cabarda ; I 
 found the description given by Strabo of the en- 
 trance into Georgia tolerably accurate, and at the 
 entrance of the pass which leads into Armenia, at 
 the junction of the Cyrus and Aragus, now called 
 Koor and Rakva, I observed the remains of a for- 
 tress, which from its massy construction, infinitely 
 superior to any thing now built in the country, is
 
 151 
 
 probably that described by him to have existed on 
 that spot. Teflis itself is certainly the Acropolis 
 of the Romans, and from the bold and picturesque 
 appearance of the citadel it well deserves that 
 name. The town itself has suffered less by war 
 than most of those in that part of Asia ; it seems 
 not to have been injured by Nadir, when he took 
 it from the Turks, and the only damage it has re- 
 ceived was from Aga Mehmet Khan, the late Shach, 
 who took it in the time of the Czar Heraclius. 
 From its long subjection to Persia, the inhabitants 
 have adopted the Persian manners, and the native 
 Princes affect their dress. They even consider 
 the country as far as Teflis as part of Persia, and 
 only call that Georgia which lies to the north. 
 In case you should be curious to know the suc- 
 cession of Shachs since Nadir, more especially as 
 I do not find it published, I enclose it as given to 
 me by a Mollah attached to the son of Giafar 
 Khouli Khan, to whom I had a letter from his father 
 whom I had seen in Persia. Of the family of Nadir, 
 
 Adil Shach. 
 Ibrahim Khan, 
 Azat Khan. 
 
 Kerem Khan Vakeel succeeded by his relation, 
 Almurath Khan, do. by his Brother, 
 
 Giafar Khan, do. by his Son, 
 
 Lutf AU Khan, 
 
 Aga Mehmet Khan, an Eunuch, 
 
 Baba Khan, the present Shach, 
 
 Thus in the space of sixty years, nine Kings and
 
 152 
 
 four families have sat on the throne of Persia. It 
 is curious that no notice is taken of Shahrokh the 
 son of Riza Khouh (the son of Nadir hy a 
 daughter of Shach Hassein,) nor of SuHman, the 
 brother of Shach Taehmas, for both these were 
 proclaimed, though certainly not recognized by 
 any great part of the nation, and had the best 
 right to the crown as the last of the blood of the 
 Sefi dynasty. 
 
 My journey over Caucasus has been highly in- 
 teresting. The scenery is certainly the most mag- 
 nificent I have seen. I was mistaken however in 
 imagining that I had passed by the highest ridge, 
 which lies between the road from Georgia and the 
 Black Sea, and which in coming along the Russian 
 chain of posts from Mozdok, appeared to me to 
 rise as high above the other snowy mountains, as 
 they do above the plain. After leaving the moun- 
 tains, I crossed the little Cabarda, which is en- 
 tirely depopulated by the plague : more than a 
 third of the nation have died, the remainder have 
 fled into the mountains. This country I crossed 
 with an escort of a hundred and twenty men and a 
 piece of cannon, in order to defend myself against 
 the Chickentses, who only a week before had at- 
 tacked and defeated a body of seventy Cossacs the 
 dead bodies of whom still remained by the road 
 side. These precautions I was not the less dis- 
 posed to take, from having narrowly escaped being 
 shot bv some individuals of the Kassoora nation ;
 
 1.53 
 
 a miserable Cossac had the honor of representing 
 me on that occasion, and was murdered by them. 
 It is much to be wished some account of these 
 countries was given by a person quahfied for the 
 task, though correctness is to be attained with 
 great difficulty on account of the ferocity of the 
 people, and their many different languages. Some 
 towards the Ossetian side have still I am told tra- 
 ditions of Mithridates having taken refuge among 
 them ; what these are, it would be curious to as- 
 certain ; it would also be equally worth the while 
 of a traveller to enquire into the traditions of a 
 colony of Jews who inhabit the Dagestan, who live 
 near the Samoor, upon which was a castle formerly 
 called Samarieh : the ground work of their lan- 
 guage is Hebrew, though not I am told intelligible 
 to the Jews of other countries. They possess, how- 
 ever, the sacred writings, and have, I am informed, 
 a series of documents up to their entrance into the 
 country, which they date at the time of Shalmane- 
 ser. If I remember right, there is some mention 
 in the Old Testament of the king of Syria having 
 transplanted Jews to the countries between the 
 Caspian and Black Sea.* The best accounts of 
 
 * Reference is probably made here to the second Book of 
 Kings, Ch. xvii, verse 6. 
 
 " In the ninth year of Hoshea the King of Assyria took Sa- 
 maria and carried Israel away into Assyria and placed them in 
 Halah and in Habor by the river Gozan and in the cities of the 
 Medes." Upon wliich passage Bishop Patrick observes " The
 
 154 
 
 these parts are that of Reinix, and an " Histoire 
 des pays qui sont situes entre la mer noire et la 
 nier Caspienne," by I know not what author. At 
 Mozdok I suffered a relapse of my Georgian fever, 
 from which I am now perfectly recovered, but am 
 detained at this place by the illness of my fellow 
 traveller. I hope, however, we shall be able to set 
 out the day after to-morrow. We are decided on 
 our route, which will be along the Cuban to Taman, 
 the site of the Greek colony Phanagoria ; and so 
 over the Cimmerian Bosphorus to Kerch, the an- 
 cient Panticapseum. I cannot at present decide 
 on my route after leaving the Crimea ; it will depend 
 entirely upon political circumstances, of which I 
 am not sufficiently informed here to determine. I 
 have, however, seen a copy of the treaty between 
 France and Russia. 
 
 Adieu my dear uncle, &c. 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 very places are now to be found into which the Israehtes are said 
 here to have been carried ; for what was Halah (or Chalach) but 
 Ptolemy's Chalachena on the north of Assyria, and Habor (or 
 Chabor) is plainly enough the same with the ^a/Swpae, a moun 
 tain between Media and Assyria, between which mountain and 
 the Caspian Sea there is the city of Gauzania, that is Gozan, be- 
 tween the two channels of the river Cyrus." 
 
 So Josephus informs us that Shalmaneser demolished the 
 government of the Israelites and transplanted all the people into 
 Media and Persia. — Antiq. Lib. ix. Ch. 14.
 
 155 
 To THE Rev. George Downing Whittington. 
 
 Georgievsk, October 1, 1807. 
 
 Dear Whittington, 
 
 As it is nearly three months since I wrote to you 
 from the quarantine ground near Astracan, I shall 
 in my present letter confine myself to very short 
 notices of my route since that time. From Astra- 
 can I crossed the desert to Kizliar, whither I 
 arrived on the 5th of July, having suffered much in 
 the first part of the journey from want of water, 
 for all the springs and pools are so much impreg- 
 nated with salt as not to be drinkable. From Kiz- 
 liar, which is inhabited almost exclusively by Ar- 
 menians, we proceeded across the remainder of the 
 desert, which stretches to the foot of Caucasus, 
 and passed the first night at a Tartar camp with 
 which we were so lucky as to fall in. They had 
 received orders from their prince to conduct us to 
 him, for he had been apprized of our arrival by 
 letters from Kizliar ; accordingly, on the next day, 
 we proceeded to his residence on the river Soulac, 
 and found to our great joy that he understood 
 Russian sufficiently to converse without an inter- 
 preter. He escorted us on the following day to 
 Tarku, which is a pretty considerable town, situated 
 within three miles of the Caspian, at the north 
 eastern extremity of Caucasus ; it is the residence
 
 156 
 
 of the Sliemkal, who is sovereio;n over the Tartar 
 princes of the Dagestan ; he was then absent, but 
 sent a messenger to order a body of Lesgees to 
 escort us to Derbend. Our suite was rather oddly 
 composed. It consisted of an envoy from one of 
 the native princes, who was just returned from 
 Petersburgh, a convoy of Lesgees, two Jews, and 
 a merchant with three Circassian girls he was 
 carrying to sell at Baku. On the fourteenth we 
 arrived at Derbend, which was taken by the Rus- 
 sians about a year and a half since. Cheik Ali 
 Khan, who was also Khan of Kuba, retired to that 
 province upon the surrender of the town, after 
 having put to death some of the inhabitants, whom 
 he supposed connected with the enemy. His vizier. 
 Elfin a Beg, escaped and from him, to whom the 
 immediate government of the town is entrusted, 
 as well as from the Russian commander, I received 
 every possible assistance and civility ; but Persian 
 manners and Persian feasts it is not necessary to 
 describe. After leaving Derbend I crossed the river 
 Samoor, of which the current is so rapid as some- 
 times to be very dangerous. On this river was 
 formerly a castle, called Samarieh, and near it is a 
 colony of Jews, whose language is derived from 
 Hebrew, but from their situation it has become so 
 cjrrupt as not to be easily intelligible to the re- 
 mainder of that nation. They possess the old 
 Testament and chronological documents up to 
 their entrance into that coiuitrv, \\hich thev date
 
 157 
 
 from Shalmaneser.* If I am right there is some 
 mention in the Bible of that king of Syria having 
 carried away Jews and settled them to the nortli- 
 ward. After riding for some time we fell in with a 
 party of Persian horse, commanded by two brothers 
 of Elfina Beg, Hajali and Gerbat. They told us 
 we must stop and go to the Khan ; we refused. 
 They then threatened force ; upon which, as we 
 were in all thirty persons, and they were very little 
 superior in number, we took to our arms. They 
 retreated, but in the mean time we discovered that 
 they had stolen the horses of our guide and of the 
 woman merchant, who begged us not to force a 
 passage, for that if we did he must remain behind, 
 and would be murdered for the sake of his women. 
 
 1 therefore sent to Gerbat, to say that I should go 
 to Cuba to complain to Cheik Ah Khan and demand 
 restitution of the horses. Upon this he came to 
 us alone, and seemed very anxious to prevent our 
 going, pretending to receive messages sometimes 
 that the Khan was in this place, sometimes in 
 another. We rode off, however, to Cuba, where, 
 upon complaint being made, the Khan compelled 
 
 * This tradition exactly corresponds with the scripture account, 
 
 2 Kings, xvii. 3. " Against him came up Shalmancser, king of 
 Assyria ; and Hoshea became his servant and gave him presents." 
 Then follows the sixth verse of the same chapter before quoted, 
 in which Shalmaneser is said to have taken Samaria, and to have 
 carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and 
 Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Mcdes. — 
 Edit.
 
 1.53 
 
 restitution, disgraced the Begs who had molested 
 lis, and made us remain with him a day, during 
 which he gave us a feast where the precepts of 
 Mahomet were totally disregarded ; at the conclu- 
 sion, singing and dancing girls were introduced 
 according to the Persian custom. When we de- 
 parted he made us a present of two horses, carpets, 
 tS:c. To Baku we proceeded without farther mo- 
 lestation, and arrived there on the 24th. The 
 town is pretty considerable, enjoys the best port 
 on the Caspian, and appears in a flourishing state. 
 It is surrounded by a double wall and towers, 
 exactly resembling the old style of fortification. 
 The most considerable building is a palace erected 
 by Shach Abbas, and intended for his residence 
 whenever he came to Baku. The palace of the 
 Khan is a gothic building, as are most of those I 
 have seen in Asia. Among the innumerable arches 
 I have seen all are pointed excepting the gate of 
 this very city of Baku ; but as we know that that 
 part of the fortifications was repaired by the Rus- 
 sians, when the town was taken, during the reign 
 of Peter the Great, and as opposite to the gate is a 
 bastion known to have been erected by him, there 
 is every reason to believe that this solitary specimen 
 is of very modern and European workmanship. 
 On the city coming into possession of Russia, about 
 a year since, the Khan made his escape to the 
 Shach, for as he had been instrumental in the mur- 
 der of General Tsitzianoff h^ knew that he could
 
 159 
 
 expect no mercy. While at Baku, I rode out in 
 company with Cossim Beg and other chief Persians 
 of the place, to the famous sources of Naphtha, 
 which are distant about ten miles to the north east. 
 The strong smell is perceptible at a great distance, 
 and the ground about appears of the consistence of 
 hardened pitch. One of the wells yields white 
 Naphtha; in all the others it is black, but very 
 liquid. The revenue derived is considerable ; and 
 the peasants of Shirvaun and Ghilan have a preju- 
 dice that it is the only matter they can burn in the 
 rooms where they keep their silk-worms, without 
 injuring those insects. 
 
 I did not of course omit to ride about five miles 
 farther to the peninsula of Afsharon, to see the 
 everlasting fire and the adoration of the Magi ; the 
 more especially as Olearius, who though at Baku 
 never was at Afsharon, asserts that worship to have 
 long ceased ; and Hanway, in his travels in Persia, 
 gives a description with which he was furnished by 
 another, who only writes from hearsay. For about 
 two miles square, if the earth is turned up and lire 
 applied, the vapour which escapes inflames and 
 burns till extinguished by some violent storm. In 
 this manner the peasants of the adjacent villages 
 calcine their lime. In the centre of this spot of 
 ground is a square building, enclosing a court. 
 The building contains a number of cells with sepa- 
 rate entrances ; the arches of the doors are pointed.
 
 160 
 
 and over each is a tablet with an inscription, in 
 cliaracters unknown to me. It is possible that it 
 mij^ht be the Zend, the ancient Persian language. 
 On one of the tablets was likewise engraven what 
 seemed to be a translation. The characters were 
 Arabic, with some slight variations ; what the lan- 
 guage was I could not tell, but it was neither 
 Arabic, Turkish, nor Persian, and might perhaps 
 be modern Hindoostanee. I much regret that not 
 expecting to find inscriptions, I was not prepared 
 to copy them. In one of the cells which I entered 
 was a small platform of clay, with two pipes con- 
 veying the vapour, one of which is kept constantly 
 burning. The inhabitant of the cell told me that 
 he was from Hindostan ( I apprehend, a Parsee, 
 from the south of Candahar), that the building was 
 erected at the expense of his countrymen, and that 
 a certain number of persons were sent from India 
 and remained till reheved. To my question of 
 " Why were they sent ?" he answered, " To vene- 
 rate and adore that flame." In the centre of the 
 quadrangle is a tumulus, from an opening in which 
 blazes out the eternal fire, surrounded by- smaller 
 spiracles of flame. In the court I observed a large 
 pile of fuel ; for the Magi esteem the fire, which 
 burns without visible element, to be the self-exist- 
 ing and incorruptible image of the deity, and too 
 pure for culinary purposes. I will not dwell upon 
 the reasons which induce me to believe that the
 
 161 
 
 phenomenon has no relation to the naphtha, and 
 that the vapour is carbonated hydrogen gas, with a 
 small portion of sulphurated gas. 
 
 On the twenty eighth I left Baku and the next 
 morning arrived at old Baku, of which I find no 
 mention in any author. It seems to have been a 
 considerable town but now is completely in ruins ; 
 In the evening I came to Shamachee, which in the 
 seventeenth century was one of the most flourish- 
 ing and commercial towns in Persia ; its walls, 
 which are almost entire, enclose an extent of some 
 miles and its broken arcades and domes, the num- 
 ber of ruined caravanserais and large quadrangles 
 attest its magnificence before its destruction by Na- 
 dir Shach. If any thing was spared by that con- 
 queror it was completely destroyed by the father 
 of Cheik Ali Khan who took it from the Khan of 
 Shirvaun, at whose residence at Fettag, a fortified 
 town, I arrived the next day. Every part of this 
 country, excepting that immediately about Baku, is 
 a perfect garden. The fields produce rice and 
 Indian corn ; in the woods every species of fruit, 
 including grapes, pomegranates, and figs, come 
 spontaneously to perfection. These rich plains 
 are bounded by the Caspian on one side and finely 
 wooded hills, behind which rise the snowy moun- 
 tains of Caucasus, on the other. At Fettag I was 
 received by Mustapha, the Khan of Shirvaun, who 
 gave me horses and escorts to the camp of Azai 
 Sultaun, whom I found in high glee, having just 
 
 M
 
 162 
 
 returned from a successful expedition against some 
 mountaineers who had carried off the cattle be- 
 longing to an Armenian village under his protec- 
 tion. The various Sultauns and Begs passed me 
 on to Sheki, the residence of Giafar Khouli Khan, 
 whom I found living with a greater degree of 
 eastern magnificence than I had yet seen among 
 the native Princes ; I remained with him at his 
 house nearly three days, when he dismissed me 
 with presents of silks, shawls, &c. on the eighth of 
 August I came to the banks of the celebrated river 
 Koor, above its junction with the Araxes now 
 called Aras ; this river is famous for Cyrus having 
 given it his name, instead of Corus which it for- 
 merly bore. On the following day I arrived at 
 Ganja which was retaken from the Turks and re- 
 annexed to Persia in the time of Nadir, but taken 
 by the Russians about three years ago. The Khan 
 died in the breach having refused to surrender. I 
 took up my lodgings in his palace now pretty well 
 dilapidated. On the fifteenth I arrived at Teflis, 
 when myself, Mr. Poinsett and our four servants 
 were all taken ill ; my secretary Pauwells died 
 after an illness of a fortnight. Teflis is one of the 
 most picturesque towns I ever saw, though da- 
 maged by the late Shach Aga Mehmet Khan who 
 invaded and took it in the time of the Tzar Hera- 
 clius ; from its long subjection to the Persians the 
 inhabitants have adopted almost every thing from 
 them but their religion and language ; the latter
 
 163 
 
 together with its written character is peculiar to 
 themselves. I had letters from the members of 
 the reigning family at Moscow to the Patriarch 
 and several of the Georgian princes, amongst others 
 one to the Queen of Imiretia. The husband of 
 this princess, the Tzar David, was driven from the 
 throne by the present Tzar, Solomon : after the 
 death of David she proceeded to Petersburg!!, to 
 sohcit the interference of the Emperor of Russia 
 to release her son from the captivity in which he 
 was held by the usurper, and has ever since resided 
 at Teflis of which she is a native. 
 
 On the third of September I left Teflis and 
 came north over mount Caucasus, the snows and 
 bracing cold of which restored me to perfect 
 health ; on the sixth I came to the highest part 
 of the pass through which the road winds and 
 found near the source of the Terek a fine spring of 
 aerated water. The rocks which enclose the pass 
 are tipped with snow. The hills beyond are covered 
 with snow to their base and to the westward of these 
 rises the highest chain of Caucasus, which even at 
 the distance of an hundred and fifty miles presents 
 a very magnificent appearance. Some individualn 
 of the Kassoora nation, having an intention of way- 
 laying us, concealed themselves, but mistaking some 
 soldiers and Cossacs who passed about half an hour 
 before, they fired upon them ; the alarm having 
 been given and finding no opportunity to plunder 
 they retreated into the mountain. When we ar-
 
 164 
 
 rived we found a soldier killed and a Cossac mor- 
 tally wounded. On the eighth we quitted Cauca- 
 sus and came to the Russian Fort of Vladi-Cau- 
 cass, whence we took an escort of fifty soldiers, 
 seventy Cossacs and a piece of cannon in order to 
 cross the little Cabarda which is exposed to the 
 incursions of the Chickentses ; as we went along 
 we saw the dead bodies of eleven or twelve Cossacs, 
 part of seventy who had been attacked and de- 
 feated a week before. But of the Chickentses we 
 saw nothing and passed without molestation. The 
 Cabarda is almost depopulated by the plague, for 
 which reason we performed quarantine at Mozdok 
 in a tent not water-proof, the consequence of which 
 was a relapse of my Teflis fever. When suffici- 
 ently recovered we came on to Georgievsk where 
 we were detained by Poinsett's catching a most 
 violent fever ; at Stauropol I had a third fever 
 which reduced me so low that I could not stand 
 without fainting away. 
 
 The two preceding sheets of my paper were 
 written at Georgievsk but I had no opportunity to 
 send them. Since then I have come along the 
 frontier of Circassia to Taman (Phanagoria) the 
 only remains here are Genoese ; medals of the 
 Bosphoric Kings are sometimes found and on ex- 
 cavating I have no doubt that much might be dis- 
 covered. At Kertch (Panticap^eum) there are one 
 or two bas-reliefs and Greek inscriptions, set in the 
 wall of a church ; these are the only Greek re-
 
 165 
 
 mains; here (at Caifa) there are nothing but Ge- 
 noese ruins ; I was in hopes to have sailed from the 
 Crimea for Constantinople. Unfortunately this is 
 impossible. I shall, therefore, when I have reco- 
 vered strength, proceed to Moscow, from thence to 
 Vienna, and if there is a possibility in the spring to 
 Greece. If not, I shall come home and wait for 
 peace. 
 
 Yours, very sincerely, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE EaUL OF HaRDWICKE. 
 
 Caffa, November 5, 1807. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 I shall remain here near three weeks to recruit, 
 having sustained, since I left Georgievsk, a third 
 most violent attack of fever ; I recovered by using 
 James's powder in very large doses, but remained 
 some time very deaf, subject to alarming palpita- 
 tions of the heart, and so weak that I could not 
 stand long without fainting. Being exceedingly 
 anxious to quit so pestilential a climate I came on 
 as soon as I possibly could, and finding that along 
 the river Cuban there were no quarantines, and 
 also that it was by far the shortest way, I proceeded 
 by that route. The only difficulty arose from the 
 Circassians ; but I procured orders from the com-
 
 166 
 
 manding generals for escorts, and came on without 
 any molestation along the southern frontier of the 
 territory of the Cossacs of the Black Sea. At the 
 fortress of Ust Labinskaia we fell in with an army 
 of Circassians, who, having made peace with Rus- 
 sia, came to request the assistance of some troops 
 and cannon, to enable them to repulse a tribe, 
 which had invaded them. This they obtained and 
 marched jointly for two or three days, but the 
 enemy retired without fighting. Their princes were 
 very civil, and wished us to make a short excursion 
 with them into their country to see their villages, 
 but reasons of health obliged me to decline. At 
 Taman we were detained some time by our inter- 
 preter falling ill, and thinking repose would be of 
 use to us we determined to wait there for his reco- 
 very, but grew rather weaker than stronger, being 
 housed in a damp lodging. My fellow traveller, 
 Poinsett, who had suffered severely from a bilious 
 fever, became so weak that I was very apprehen- 
 sive for him, but since we crossed the strait into 
 the Crimea, we have recovered in a surprising 
 manner. I am perfectly well, with the exception 
 that I am not yet quite so strong as I ought to be, 
 but am however rapidly regaining strength ; to 
 w^hich not a little contribute the change of climate, 
 some slight frost which has taken place, living in 
 the European manner, and the great attention of 
 General Fanshaw, the Governor of the Crimea, 
 who, as you will perceive by his name, is an Eng-
 
 167 
 
 lishman. Since my arrival I have got information 
 as to the state of Europe, of which before I had 
 only imperfect accounts. I regret that I cannot go 
 straight from the Crimea to Constantinople ; but as 
 affairs are circumstanced, I have come to the fol- 
 lowing determination : — I shall return to Moscow, 
 and obtain all necessary passports from Petersburg, 
 some new regulations being enforced on that head ; 
 I do not imagine I shall stay more than a month, 
 and then proceed to Vienna. If in the spring there 
 is not a general peace, I shall come by the shortest 
 line that is open to England. 
 
 Adieu my dearest Father, &c. 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Moscow, January 5, 1 808. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 I have been arrived in this city a week, after a 
 long and tedious journey from Caffa. I took rather 
 a circuitous road through NicolaefF and KiofF, in- 
 stead of the more direct one, which passes through 
 a desert, where it is necessary to carry water and 
 where no tolerable accommodation can be procured ; 
 w^herccis on the Pohsh side, and more particularly 
 through the Ukraine and Little Russia, it is pos- 
 sible to stop and sleep every night, which in my
 
 16S 
 
 state of health was essential. I certainly left Caffa 
 with more strength than I brought thither, but was 
 a good deal thrown back by a fever which I caught, 
 as did also Poinsett ; though this was soon removed 
 by the attention of an English surgeon we fortu- 
 nately found there, yet it brought many bad symp- 
 toms, of which I shall only mention the most 
 alarming. The optic nerves, sympathising with 
 the general debility of the body, became so relaxed 
 as to occasion what I may almost call blindness ; 
 with my right eye, which was most affected, I could 
 scarcely distinguish at night the flame of a candle. 
 The surgeon assured me that as I regained strength 
 my sight would return, and to my great joy his 
 prediction has been fully verified. Feeling con- 
 vinced that I could not live in the south of Russia* 
 I set off as soon as possible for Moscow, where I 
 have put myself under the direction of a Scotch 
 physician. Dr. Keir, who prescribes absolute repose 
 for the next four months, and in the mean time 
 
 * Dr. Clarke gives a similar account of the extreme unhealthi- 
 ness of the ciimate in the Crimea. 
 
 " Fevei5 are so general dui'ing summer throughout the Penin- 
 sula that it is hardly possible to avoid them. If you drink water 
 after eating fruit, a fever follows ; if you eat milk, eggs, or butter, 
 a fever ; if during the scorching heat of the day you indulge in 
 the most trivial neglect of clothing, a fever ; if you venture out 
 to enjoy the delightful breezes of the evening, a fever. In short, 
 such is the dangerous nature of the climate to strangers, that 
 Russia must consider the country a cemetery for the troops sent 
 to maintain its possession." — Clarke s Travels, vol. I. p. 571.
 
 KW 
 
 has ordered me a course of bark and vitriolic acid^ 
 beef, mutton, and claret. I have lost the other 
 servant who followed me from England. At Caffa 
 he grew lethargic, obstinately refused to take exer- 
 cise, which was recommended as essentially neces- 
 sary, and, imagining his medicines did him harm, 
 privately threw them away. He of course grew 
 worse, and I asked advice on the subject of remov- 
 ing him to Moscow or leaving him behind. The 
 surgeon gave as his opinion that the only chance 
 he had of recovery was to travel, and he himself 
 was so afraid of being left where he did not under- 
 stand a syllable of the language, that he begged to 
 come on. I therefore had a bed made for him in 
 a long kibitka, and we set out to go about 12 miles 
 to the house of an English merchant. About half 
 way he got out, and, with the assistance of a ser- 
 vant, ascended again. I conjecture that he imme- 
 diately fell into a lethargic sleep from whence he 
 never woke ; this appeared from the calmness of 
 the features and easy position of the arms. I was 
 very much shocked, on going up to his kibitka, to 
 find him dead. To get rid at once of all these 
 topics of mortality, our Tartar interpreter, after a 
 very short illness, was found dead in his kibitka on 
 our arrival at our inn at Moscow. Thus of four 
 servants, who left this city with us, only one has 
 returned, a stout negro of Poinsett's, who, though 
 he suffered considerably, bore the climate better 
 than any of us.
 
 170 
 
 I expected to find here my carriage and bag- 
 gage, which I sent back from Kizhar, but it has not 
 arrived and I do not expect to recover it. I must, 
 therefore, fit myself out entirely anew ; my ward- 
 robe, when I came hither, consisting of one coat 
 and one pair of pantaloons. 
 
 On the 24th of November I left CaiFa and slept 
 at the house of an English merchant, from whence 
 on the following day I went to Karas-Bazar.* This 
 place is remarkable for being the only Jewish town, 
 without a mixture of Christians, in the world. 
 They are all manufacturers, and sell their wares 
 through the Crimea, and are generally esteemed an 
 honourable people. They are of the sect called 
 Karaites, and look on all other Jews as hert- tical ; 
 for they only acknowledge the text of the old 
 Testament, and reject the traditions which the 
 others consider as of equal force with the law. 
 This circumstance had led me to imaoine that their 
 name was derived from the Hebrew *' Karn," to 
 read ; whereas I am now convinced it is from the 
 Turkish '* Kara," black, for they wear a long black 
 dress peculiar to themselves, and the name of their 
 town in Tartar or Turkish, which are only different 
 dialects, means " the Black Market." They have 
 
 * Dr. Clarke, speaking of the same place, observes " We were 
 highly interested by the singularity of having found one Jewish 
 settlement, perhaps the only one upon earth, where that people 
 exist secluded from the rest of mankind in the free exercise of 
 their ancient customs and peculiarities."
 
 171 
 
 been settled in Crim-Tartary from time immemo- 
 rial, and assert that they settled there before the 
 Babylonish captivity, which I own myself inclined 
 to believe, for they not only reject the rabbinical 
 interpretations, but also the Chaldee paraphrase, 
 which was necessary after the retm^n from Baby- 
 lon, when the people had forgotten Hebrew. From 
 Karas-Bazar, our several days journies terminated 
 at Akmetchet, now called Simpheropol, Perecop, 
 BerislafF, and Cherson ; and on the 30th we arrived 
 at NicolaefF, the place where the ships of war 
 destined for the Black Sea are built. We remained 
 there till the 3rd of December, and received every 
 attention from the Marquis de Traversey, the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the fleet. After a stay of two 
 or three days we proceeded to Kioff, which is 
 esteemed the third city in Russia, and is remarkable 
 for containing, I believe, more churches in propor- 
 tion to its size than any other city in the world. 
 There are also catacombs of some antiquity, but of 
 these I cannot speak, for I was not well enough to 
 venture the seeing them. We departed from Kioff 
 on the 11th, and travelled through a fine country, 
 but the roads were so bad that we did not arrive at 
 Sevek till the 19th. At Kioff and the environs I 
 made myself understood with some difficulty, for the 
 language is more Polish than Russian. In Little 
 Russia too they speak a provincial dialect, scarcely 
 intelhgible. At Sevek we were detained three days 
 by the necessity of taking off our wheels and fixing
 
 172 
 
 the carriages on sledges, in which manner we tra- 
 velled to Tula, a large town famous for its manufac- 
 tories of iron. There we only remained a night, and 
 from thence proceeded without halting to Moscow, 
 whither we arrived on the twenty ninth. 
 
 I am your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Moscow, January 16,1 808, 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 If I continue to improve in health as rapidly as 
 I have hitherto done I shall probably make a move- 
 ment to Petersburgh by the winter roads. My 
 physician is, like Dr. Brocklesby, astonished at his 
 own success, though I attribute much of it to three 
 and twenty and a good constitution. I have com- 
 pletely lost every bad symptom, a pair of very re- 
 spectably dropsical legs are reduced to a gentle- 
 man-like slimness, a fair round belly, not " lined 
 with good capon," but swelled and as hard as a 
 board, has shrunk into its former insignificance, 
 and I am no longer annoyed by palpitations of the 
 heart and pulsations of the head, so that I sing " te 
 Deum," " lo triumphe," &c. So much for my bulletin 
 of health. As I do not go out in the evening, I 
 have seen but few of my Muscovite friends ; and
 
 173 
 
 were it not that I can here procure books, and in- 
 dulge in the occupation of reading, which has at 
 present to me all the charms of novelty, I should 
 scarcely know how to pass my time. Poinsett sets 
 off for Petersburgh in a fortnight, and when he has 
 left me quite alone, I shall probably set about 
 writing a journal of my tour from Kizliar to Caffa. 
 I think I can recall to memory every the most 
 minute circumstance, but the only memoranda I 
 have preserved are the dates, for the mode of tra- 
 velhng during the first part of the journey, together 
 with the scarcity of chairs and tables, was, no less 
 than the illness of the second part, very unfavou- 
 able to journalizing. The very few notes T had 
 taken were rendered illegible by crossing a torrent. 
 I congratulate my mother upon the recovery of 
 her voice with a great deal of fellow feeling, for 
 within these three days I have recovered vimey 
 which I had quite lost for two months. With me 
 however this did not proceed from the slightest 
 affection of the lungs, but simply a relaxation of 
 the throat, which has yielded to a few days of brac- 
 ing cold weather, and probably would have ceased 
 sooner, but the season has been unusually and dis- 
 agreeably mild, with a great deal of fog ; and a 
 thaw, which lasted longer than usual, caused great 
 havoc among the frozen provisions. On the west- 
 ern fi'ontier of Siberia there has been a cold of 
 thirty degrees below zero of Fahrenheit, but here 
 and at Petersburgh we have not had more than
 
 174 
 
 four or five degrees below zero, and the average 
 has not exceeded ten or twelve below freezing 
 point (Ft.) I hope soon to hear from you on the 
 subject of our domestic concerns ; your last letter 
 bears date the beginning of November ; the pre- 
 ceding one was written early in August ; some 
 which I have received from Odessa of anterior date 
 ^#/i3 from you and Pepys, have brought me the dis- 
 
 2^ r / / tressing intelligence of the death of my poor friend 
 ^ f ^ Whittington. I received it in a striking manner ; 
 
 the first letter I opened was from himself, and men- 
 1t />^^^/J^ tioned that his brother had died of a dysentery ; 
 he appeared very melancholy and expressed a wish 
 that I might return soon, as from some accident 
 happening either to myself or him it was possible I 
 might never see him again. The next letter was 
 from Pepys and informed me that he had died of 
 the very same disease : I had promised myself very 
 great satisfaction from meeting him and shall feel 
 his loss with still more acuteness when I return to 
 England. Robinson* has I presume returned to his 
 own country ; he has I find been attached to Lord 
 Pembroke's embassy at Vienna. That capital, as 
 you will have perceived, is quite out of my plans. I 
 wish I could be set down amongst you at Wimpole. 
 As I must vegetate for a few weeks I could wish to 
 do it in my Q\NXijardmpotager. 
 
 Your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 * Now Earl of Ripon.
 
 17i 
 
 To THE Earl of Hardwicke. 
 
 Moscow, no date 
 [received in March.] 
 
 My dear Father. 
 
 I intend in a day or two to leave this place for 
 Petersburgh, whither Poinsett proceeded about a 
 week ago. I intended to have accompanied him, 
 but thought it prudent to wait a little longer. 
 I write merely to let you know of this change 
 of position, and of my continuing in good health, 
 for (more particularly since the departure of Poin- 
 sett) I doubt whether any Monk of the grande 
 Chartreuse ever led a more retired and solitary 
 life. A slight fit of ague tried to make its appear- 
 ance about ten days ago, but was immediately 
 knocked on the head by some doses of bark, and 
 marched off without any farther mischief. 
 
 Adieu till I arrive at Petersburgh ; I hope that 
 in the summer matters may be on such a footing 
 as to permit me to sail directly from that port for 
 Harwich. 
 
 Your most affectionate son, 
 
 ROYSTON. 
 
 The above was the last letter ever received from 
 this accomplished young nobleman and it now be- 
 comes my painful task to record as far as they 
 have been ascertained the circumstances which led
 
 176 
 
 to his unfortunate loss on board the Ship Agatha 
 off Memel on the 7th of April 1808. Agreeably 
 to the intention expressed in the foregoing letter 
 he appears to have left Moscow for Petersburgh 
 soon after it was written, and would probably have 
 sailed from thence straight to England if all com- 
 munication had not then been prevented by the 
 unfortunate war which broke out between the two 
 countries after the peace of Tilsit. At Peters- 
 burgh he found his friends Colonel and Mrs. Pollen, 
 with whom he had lived in habits of the closest 
 intimacy ever since his first arrival in Russia. It 
 was agreed that they should all proceed together 
 to Liebau in the Dutchy of Courland, from whence 
 they might find an opportunity of embarking for 
 Sweden in their way to England. During this 
 time Lord Royston was still suffering fi^om the 
 shock which his constitution had received in the 
 south of Russia. He had frequent attacks of fever 
 and ague, during the continuance of which he was 
 nursed with the greatest attention by Colonel and 
 Mrs. Pollen. They appear to have remained a 
 fortnight or three weeks at Liebau, when they en- 
 gaged a passage to Sweden in the English ship 
 Dorothea : disgusted however by finding the crew 
 all intoxicated at different wine houses on the day 
 they intended to embark, they renounced their en- 
 gagement with the captain of the Dorothea and 
 agreed for a passage to Carlscrona on board the 
 Agatha, a Lubeck vessel which happened to be
 
 177 
 
 the harbour. In this they embarked on the 2d of 
 April, 1808. Among the passengers was an English 
 seaman, named Thomas Smith, who had been mate 
 on board a merchantman in the Baltic trade, and 
 having been made prisoner in Russia in Nov. 1807, 
 had escaped from thence on board the Agatha. He 
 was one of the few survivors of the fatal catastrophe 
 which occurred on the 7th, and afterwards pub- 
 lished a full account of it in the Gentleman's Ma- 
 gazine for June 1811 ; this is here subjoined as 
 containing the most correct details of the melan- 
 choly event, which abruptly terminated at two and 
 twenty a youth of so much promise. 
 
 "On the second of April 1808, at two o'clock 
 P. M. we sailed from Liebau, the wind N. E. and 
 fine weather, the ice lying close about a mile from 
 shore, but we got through it without injury at the 
 rate of about two miles an hour, when we were in 
 clear water at three o'clock P. M. All that day 
 and the next (the 3d) we had light breezes from 
 the S. E. On the 4th about two o'clock P. M. 
 we got sight of the Island of Q^land at the dis- 
 tance of eight or nine miles. It was at that time 
 blowing very hard : in an hour we got close in and 
 perceived the ice about a mile from the shore ; 
 Colonel Pollen asked me if I thought we could 
 anchor under (Eland. I gave it as my opinion that 
 we could not, as the ice would drift off and cut the 
 cables ; he then asked the captain what was best to 
 be done, and he said that he would stand on to the 
 
 N
 
 178 
 
 southward till eight o'clock, and then return to the 
 island, but neither at eight or twelve would he go 
 back : it now blew a gale of wind from the west- 
 ward with a very heavy sea ; the vessel made much 
 water and the pumps were choked with the ballast : 
 the water partly over the ballast and the crew 
 would bale very little, by which it gained very fast 
 upon us. On the 5th we kept the whole of the day 
 running before the wind. At meridian (12 o'clock) 
 on the 6th, Colonel Pollen consulted me what was 
 best to be done, and if the vessel could keep the 
 sea ; I told him unless the sailors made more exer- 
 tions in baling she could not live long, as we had 
 already three feet water in the hold, it was certainly 
 gaining upon us, and that the best way to save our 
 lives was to steer for some port in Prussia ; the 
 Colonel being of my opinion, told the Captain he 
 thought it necessary that we should bear away for 
 some harbour, to which he readily assented and 
 recommended Liebau, but Colonel Pollen object- 
 ing on account of a Mr. Renny and myself, who 
 had escaped from Russia without a passport (and 
 Lord Royston being also very desirous not to re- 
 turn to Liebau) the Captain agreed to go to Memel, 
 but said that he had never been there in his life, 
 but that if I would take the ship in he would give 
 it up to my charge whenever we came to the bar : 
 to this I readily consented, having been there three 
 times and knowing the harbour perfectly well. At 
 two o'clock on the mornincr of the 7th we eot sie'ht
 
 i7y 
 
 of land to the southward, about fifteen miles from 
 Memel and close mto a lee shore, through the 
 Captain's ignorance and carelessness in running so 
 far in the dark : we hauled the ship to by the wind 
 on the larboard tack, and at four o'clock we got 
 sight of Memel, which the Captain took for Liebau, 
 and, when I told him it was Memel, expressed 
 much surprize. I went down to the cabin, and 
 told Colonel Pollen we were in sight of Memel. 
 He immediately came on deck (as well as Lord 
 Royston and the other gentlemen) and said to the 
 Captain " Now you will give the charge to Smith," 
 which he accordingly did. At six we came to the 
 bar, the sea running very high with two men at the 
 helm. A short time before the passengers kept 
 pressing so much around the helm, that I feared 
 they might impede my sight or be in the way at a 
 moment of such consequence, and also that some 
 accident might happen to some of them if the sea 
 should break much over the ship in crossing the 
 bar. I therefore requested the favour of Lord 
 Royston and Colonel Pollen to go down below, as 
 the only means of persuading the others to do so. 
 To this they consented, but, as it proved, most un- 
 fortunately ; for as soon as the Captain saw the sea 
 breaking over the bar, he was so frightened that he 
 ran immediately to the helm and with the assist- 
 ance of his people put it hard-a-port. All my striv- 
 ino: agrainst this was in vain, and in ten minutes we 
 were on the Southlands ; the third time the ship
 
 180 
 
 struck she grounded and filled with water. The 
 distance from the shore was ahout a mile and an 
 half. A dreadful scene now succeeded ; there was 
 a small round-house on deck into which Mrs. Pol- 
 len, Mrs. Barnes, her three children, two gentlemen, 
 (Messrs. Pereira and Focke) a man and a maid- 
 servant got to save themselves from the sea. Col- 
 onel Pollen and myself immediately began to clear 
 the boats out ; the sailors would not assist us. We 
 soon got the small one out and three sailors got 
 into it with the Captain. Lord Royston, who was 
 in a very weak state of health, would have followed, 
 but I prevented him, assuring him it was not safe ; 
 upon hearhig which the Captain got out, and the 
 moment the boat left the ship's side, she upset and 
 the three men were drowned. We then began to 
 clear out the large boat. She was lashed to the 
 deck by strong tackling to the ring-bolts. A sea 
 came and forced away part of the tackling, upon 
 which I called to Colonel Pollen to jump out or 
 the next sea would carry her and us away. We 
 were scarcely out of her when she w^as washed 
 overboard, and now we had no hope left but in the 
 mercy of Providence. At nine o'clock we cut away 
 the mast to ease the vessel, but could see nothing 
 of the life-boat, which gave the gentlemen much 
 uneasiness, for the sea was tremendous, breaking 
 right over our heads, and it was so very cold that 
 it was im})ossible to hold fast by any thing. Col. 
 Pollen asked me '' if the round-house where the
 
 181 
 
 ladies were would stand," I told him, " Yes, as lonij^ 
 as the bottom of the vessel," he said " thank God ! 
 we must hold as fast as we can for the life-boat must 
 soon be here." I then left him and went aft the 
 vessel. About this time Colonel Pollen went to 
 the door of the round-house, spoke to Mrs Pollen 
 and begged she would not stir for that the hfe-boat 
 would soon come ; it was now about half past nine 
 but no boat was to be seen ; our situation was 
 now truly dreadful, the vessel being entirely full 
 of water all but about the round-house. Mr. 
 Renny was soon washed over-board and after him 
 about ten o'clock Lord Royston, Colonel Pollen, 
 Mr. Baillie and JVIr. Becker, one sailor, Lord Roys- 
 ton's servant and Mrs. Barnes's servant were all 
 washed away within a few seas of each other." 
 
 The following lines by the late lady IVIargaret 
 Fordyce so beautifully express the bitter affliction 
 which was the result of this sad event that the Editor 
 feels he could not conclude the task which he has 
 undertaken with more effect than by subjoining 
 them. They immediately follow the translation of 
 the Greek anapaests inserted at page 18. 
 
 Thus sang the youth, almost a parting strain, 
 
 The matchless youth, for whom we mourn in vain. 
 
 No flimsy freight he purposed to import 
 
 Of each vain trifle from the vainer court : 
 
 Far from his native land, in keen pursuit 
 
 Of science only and of wisdom's fruit, 
 
 Where arts or laws or poetry were found, 
 
 There lay his course through wild or cultured ground,
 
 182 
 
 Mine, niouTitain, city that deserved renown 
 Or classic ground forgot or horde unknown. 
 No danger stopped him — vain primeval snow, 
 Vain parching plains, where noxious vapours blow. 
 Onward he pressed, and like th' industrious bee 
 Knowledge he drew from weed or flower or tree. 
 Oh ! precious honey ! what had been the store 
 Of him, whose cruel fate we now deplore. 
 Had heaven restored him to our vows alive, 
 With all his sweets to deck his parent hive. 
 
 ****** 
 Thine was the eye that blessed with ray divine 
 Saw at a glance and made all nature thine, 
 'Gainst thee in vain had language power to bar 
 Thy steady way with momentary war, 
 While yet the unmeaning sounds still mocked thine 
 
 ear 
 That rapid ray had taught thee how to hear : 
 Though blessed with youth, health, beauty, rank, and 
 
 power, 
 All that could gild or could ensnare the hour. 
 With even purpose, like the sapient King, 
 Knowledge thou soughtest, upborn on eagle's wing ; 
 While other youths pursued the chace, the dance, 
 The flute, the goblet, led by whim or chance. 
 Thy comprehensive powers and buoyant mind 
 In tender youth left wond'ring age behind. 
 Witness Cassandra, prophetess of ill, 
 Obscure by fate, yet lucid by thy skill :
 
 183 
 
 Nor had gay Fancy on thy favoured head 
 
 Forgot her motley flowers to twine or shed ; 
 
 Oft have I seen thee in the social hour 
 
 Lead with thy chosen few the mirthful power, 
 
 Thy playful verse sprang instant at thy well 
 
 In brilliant bubbles sparkling as they fell. 
 
 Ah ! hadst thou reached once more thy native soil, 
 
 Fraught with the treasures of thy gen'rous toil, 
 
 How had the hearts exulted that now sink 
 
 In sorrow's wave immersed ! Yet, while they drink 
 
 The bitter cup ordained e'en to the lees, 
 
 They bend to him who past and future sees ; 
 
 Who brings to nought the justest pride of man 
 
 At his blest will ! and who that will shall scan ? 
 
 Yet is it nought, mother with grief undone, 
 That thou hast borne and fostered such a son ? 
 Father, who bleed'st like her at every vein. 
 Who gavest him life, is't nothing that in vain 
 Thou didst not toil to form from thine his heart 
 For that bless'd country, where we never part, 
 Where no dire storms destroy the hope of years 
 And drown the parent's heart in endless tears ? 
 Pure shall ye meet in spirit freed from pain. 
 And knowledge bloom on hfe's fair tree again.
 
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 CASSANDRA 
 
 TRANSLATED 
 
 FROM THE ORIGINAL GREEK OF LYCOPHRON 
 
 AND 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH NOTES. 
 
 K, 'Iw ya^oi, yujiOL TLnpicoc oXidpioi 
 
 4>t'\wv. 'Iw ^KafjLavBpov izdrpioy tvotov. 
 Torf ^tv afjiifl ctuc ciluyat^ rdXaiv 
 'WvvTo^av Tpo^iCic' 
 ^iiv ^'dfi(pl Ku)KVT6i'jrt Kayjipovaiovv 
 "Ox^owc 'ioiKu 0£(r7rtw^»/(T£U' ro'xa. 
 
 AESCHYL. AGAM. V. 115S.
 
 187 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Lycophron, to whom this Poem has generally been 
 ascribed, was the son of Socleus the grammarian, and 
 born at Chalcis in Euboea. He was the author of many 
 tragedies, of which nothing has reached us but the 
 names, and of several satirical and critical compo- 
 sitions, of which a few fragments are quoted by Athe- 
 naeus. These productions caused him to be held in 
 such estimation at the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
 that he was one of the Seven Poets who were honoured 
 with the title of The Pleiades. Though for this dis- 
 tinction he was probably not a little indebted to the 
 flattering anagrams which he composed on the names 
 of his royal patron and the queen Arsinoe, deriving the 
 one fiTTo ^eXiTOQ, " from honey," and saying of the other, 
 that she was "lov ''Hpac, '^ a violet of Juno." These are 
 almost the only particulars of his life which are related 
 by Suidas ; and we are left to collect from two verses 
 of Ovid that his death was occasioned by an arrow : 
 
 Utque cothurnatum periissc Lycophrona narrant. 
 
 Hjercat in fibris fixa sagitta tuis. Ovid. Ibis,
 
 188 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 There is however internal evidence in the Poem (see 
 verse 1226) which seems to prove that the Prophecies 
 of Cassandra are not indebted for their origin to Ly- 
 cophron of Chalcis ; * for till Greece became a Roman 
 province, it is by no means probable that the national 
 vanity of a Greek would have allowed him to mention 
 any nation but his own as above all others celebrated 
 in war : 
 
 Ai^YjuaTc TO TT ptoToXeiov ufjavTtg aTti^OQ' 
 
 and afterwards, 
 
 T»)v TrXaarov vfivrjBtlaav tv \apfj.aig irciTpav' 
 
 still less can we suppose that one whose recorded flat- 
 teries have been noticed above would have thus insisted 
 on their pre-eminence in the court of a powerful sove- 
 reign, a successor of Alexander the Great. But the 
 question does not rest solely on hypothesis ; for the 
 passage, in which universal empire is attributed to the 
 descendants of Romulus and Remus, seems to be com- 
 pletely decisive : f 
 
 kXIoc 
 
 Miyjtrrov uvti'iaovcnv afivctfioi ttote, 
 
 rf/c k:«( 6a\a(rai]g aK7]TrTpu kui Movap\iav 
 
 AajSovrtCj ovc apvt}GTov' aOXia TTiiTp'ig, 
 
 Kv^oQ papavOlv EjKaTaKpvxl^itc tocfx^' 
 
 Toiovc 8' Ipog Tig avyyovog Xt'i^ei ^inXovg 
 
 "SiKVfivovc Xiovrag, t'^o;;^ov 'Fwpi]g jivog. Ver. \22iy. 
 
 * It is evident, from the manner in which the passage alluded to 
 is connected with the subsequent lines, that it cannot be an interpola- 
 tion ; nor is it probable that the author would have omitted so impor- 
 tant a part of his subject as the wanderings and destinies of -^neas. 
 
 t These lines did not escape the notice of the commentators before
 
 PREFACE. ISf) 
 
 It was not liowever in the time of Ptolemy Philadel])luis 
 that the Romans could he said to have ohtained the 
 sole power and dominion over the earth and sea. On 
 the contrary, that prince had already sat upon the 
 throne of Egypt for five and twenty years, when Duil- 
 lius engaged the Carthaginians in the four hundred and 
 ninety-fourth year of the city, and, first of all the 
 Roman commanders, was honoured with a naval tri- 
 umph. Nor was it till after the succession of Euergetes 
 that Hamilcar caused his son Hannibal to swear upon 
 the altar eternal enmity to Rome ; at which period so 
 fiir was the empire from being consohdated, that it was 
 still destined to see a victorious army lay waste it's ter- 
 ritories, and to contend not for glory, but for existence. 
 These considerations induce us to refuse to this Poem 
 that antiquity which it claims : * and as we learn from 
 
 Tzetzes, who records the opinion of a schoUast, and, taking advantage 
 of an incorrect expression, treats it with unmerited contempt. Ta ce 
 Xonra tov (T'^^nXiov yeXoia, (paa'i yap Av/co^poroe tTEpov i'lyai to iroii^fia, 
 ov roil ypciipai'Tuc ri^r Tpwc'tfa' (TviijdrjQ yap wi' -w Q}i\aciX(f)io oiiK at' 
 TTSpl 'PcjfjLaiwy dieXiytro' .... cai ciXXiji' (fXvapiav , y jjdXXoy <pXv- 
 apiac ^adip. 
 
 * These considerations are strengthened hy the lonisms which occur in 
 the Poem, which were scattered with a sparing hand by the tragic poets 
 in their Iambic verse, and which would probably not have been intro- 
 duced so frequently by Lycophron of Chalcis. We find Movrhov, 
 which is an lonism for Mov/rou. Movirog 'Iwjocwr nera rov v Trpo(j)ipEi 
 AvKUippwv Eustath. It cannot however be denied that the Tragedians 
 used U'li'oc, noiivoc, yovvara, KovpoQ' (Vide Porson. Pracfat. Eurip. 
 Hecub.) we find the augment not unfrcquently rejected, a licence which 
 Professor Porson declares to be contrary to the rules of the Attic dialect, 
 and the practice of the Tragedians.
 
 190 PREFACE. 
 
 the eighth book of the Chihads of Tzetzes that there were 
 several grammarians of the name of Lycophron, it is 
 possible that a similarity in that particular may have 
 caused the author of " Cassandra" to be confounded 
 with the poet of Chalcis. * 
 
 This supposition allows us to search into times more 
 modern than those of Ptolemy for the interpretation of 
 an obscure prophecy near the close of the monodram : 
 and if that interpretation be correct, the passage in 
 question must have been written subsequently to the 
 hundred and fifty-second Olympiad. The passage is as 
 follows : 
 
 — HaXacQaioQ Xtwv 
 
 ***** 
 
 ^Q, Sf) |U£0' f/cDji' yii'vciv ahOatjiicov efxog 
 E(c Tig TraXaiarrig, an^/poAwi' aAKriv copog, 
 TlovTov T£ KOI yT]g hc ciaWajag jUoAwv, 
 npl(T|3to-roc iv (piXoiaiv vf.ivr}6)i(TeTai, 
 SicuXwv a7rap\aQ Tag oopu»cr/jroi»c Aopwi'- Ver. 1411. 
 
 Tliesprotian, Chaladraean, forth shall rush 
 The Lion form — 
 
 But when athwart the empty-vaulted heaven 
 Six times of years have rolled, War shall repose 
 His lance, obedient to my kinsman's voice, 
 Who rich in spoils of monarchs shall return 
 With friendly looks, and caroUings of love, 
 While Peace sits brooding upon seas and land. 
 
 Chiliad, lib. Vlll. hist. -204.
 
 PREFACE, 1 [) 1 
 
 These lines have exercised the ingenuity of commen- 
 tators ; but fettered by the supposed antiquity of the 
 Poem, they do not seem to have adopted the most 
 natural and obvious solution. The Scholiast affirms, 
 that by the expression avQaifxiov k^oq, "my kinsman," 
 Cassandra alludes to Tarpinius a Roman ; others have 
 chosen Taxiles or Porus : Wolfius conjectures Ptolemy 
 Lagus : Potter, Meursius, and Canter, are silent : 
 Ricard conceives the passage to foretell a treaty which 
 took place between the Roman senate and Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus ; and computing the " six generations" 
 from the rape of Helen, (which time, according to his 
 own opinion, embraces a period of nearly nine hundred 
 years,) gives about a hundred and fifty to each gene- 
 ration. Nothing, he tells us, can be so probable as 
 that Lycophron should mention a treaty recently con- 
 cluded, and by that mention flatter his sovereign, and 
 the Romans his allies. To this it may perhaps be an- 
 swered with some reason, that if, as is apparent, the 
 Poem is a later production, the treaty was not very 
 recent, and was scarcely of sufficient importance to 
 have been noticed by a more modern author ; and even 
 granting that the Work was composed in the reign of 
 Ptolemy, it were assuredly a most extraordinary mode 
 of flattering a prince to allude to the spoils of which he 
 had been })lundered, and commemorate the defeats 
 which he had sustained. Besides, it may be doubted 
 whether Canter is accurate in his statement of the time 
 which intervened between Cassandra and Ptolemy ; 
 Potter and several other authors arc of a different
 
 192 PREFACE. 
 
 opinion ; and even if we allow his computation to be 
 correct, still it is by no means probable that Lycophron 
 would have styled a portion of time, bounded by such 
 indistinct and arbitrary limits, by the name of yewa, by 
 which term he perhaps might have meant a generation 
 of men calculated at about thirty years ; or more pro- 
 bably, if we consider it's etymology, a descent in the 
 direct line by blood. When we cast our eyes upon the 
 passage, we perceive immediately that the relative ''Q 
 can refer to no name but that of Alexander the Great, 
 who is evidently and allowedly pointed out by the 
 term XaXa^pa'iog Xi(ov, or "Macedonian Lion:" but 
 Cassandra foretells that her kinsman shall prove vic- 
 torious in the contest, and bring back o-kuXwv awap^ag 
 dopvKTiiTiov, " the first-fruits of the spoils of war." Now 
 as Alexander the Great was never conquered in his 
 own person, it must necessarily follow that he was con- 
 quered in the person of one of his successors, or perhaps 
 he may be considered as the representative of the whole 
 Macedonian nation : in the same manner, by " my 
 kinsman" Cassandra may allude to some Roman com- 
 mander, or generally to the Roman people descended 
 from her kinsman i^neas. This victory is said to hap- 
 pen fxi& t/crrjv ykvvav, "after a sixtli generation:" and 
 though more than six sovereigns intervened between 
 Alexander and the subjugation of IVIacedon, during 
 that period there were only six lineal descents of the 
 family of Antigonus, the contemporary and companion 
 of Alexander, who after the death of his master caused 
 himself t© ])e proclaimed King of Asia, and whose son
 
 PREFACE. 193 
 
 Demetrius Poliorcetes seized the Macedonian govern- 
 ment. This is apparent from the subjoined table. 
 
 Alexander III. Magnus. 
 
 Philip Arid^eus. 
 
 Cassander. 
 
 Philip IV, 
 
 Antipater. 
 
 Alexander IV. 
 
 DEMETRIUS, Son of ANTIGONUS King of Asia. 
 
 Pyrrhus. 
 
 Lvsimachus. 
 
 Seleucus. 
 
 Ptolem^us Ceraunus. * 
 
 ANTIGONUS GONATAS, Son of Demetrius. 
 
 DEMETRIUS II. Son of Antigonus Gonatas. 
 
 Antigonus Doson. 
 
 PHILIP V. Son of Demetrius II. 
 
 PERSEUS, Son of PhiUp V. 
 
 From this statement it appears highly probable that the 
 passage alludes to the victory obtained over Perseus by 
 
 * Ptolemy Ceraunus, after having reigned little more than a year, 
 was slain in battle with the Gauls, who (although Meleager the brother 
 of Ptolemy, and Antipater the brother of Cassander, enjoyed the empty 
 title of Sovereign, the one for two months, the other for forty-five 
 days) remained in complete possession of the kingdom. At length 
 Sosthenes expelled the invaders, and restored liberty to his countiy, 
 which he governed for a short time with the title of General, constantly 
 refusing to style himself a King. Goltzius indeed pretends to have 
 found a medal with the inscription BASIAEaS SiliiOENOY ; but the 
 fallacies of Goltzius are well known. Sosthenes was destroyed by a 
 second incursion of Gauls, and Antigonus Gonatas obtained possession 
 of the government. From the shortness of their reigns, from the enemy 
 being in possession of their country, and from no mention being made 
 of them but by Eusebius, these persons arc not included in the tabic. 
 
 O
 
 194 PREFACE. 
 
 Paulus i^milius at the latter end of the hundred and 
 fifty-second Olympiad, and the spoils which were in 
 consequence brought to Rome ; and the prediction of 
 friendship between the kinsman of Cassandra (the Ro- 
 man people) and Alexander the Great (the Macedonian 
 nation) will point out the cessation of hostilities be- 
 tween the rival states, and the incorporation of Mace- 
 don with the Roman Empire. 
 
 The prophecy of which a solution has just been at- 
 tempted is the last which is uttered by Cassandra ; she 
 suddenly checks herself with the discouraging idea that 
 it is useless to foretell where no one will believe : and 
 the remainder, as well as the exordium of the compo- 
 sition, consists of a few lines spoken in his own charac- 
 ter by the person appointed to watch over her conduct. 
 The Poem thus divides itself into Three Parts ; the 
 First is the Speech of the Guard to Priam, who is sup- 
 posed to have previously demanded an account of her 
 predictions ; the Second consists in the relation of those 
 predictions, given in her own words ; and the Third 
 and last is merely a resumption of the address of the 
 Guard, and a wish that the misfortunes which have 
 been foretold may still be averted from his country. 
 The time of the Second Part (which is by far the most 
 considerable in size and consequence, and of which a 
 Synoptical Analysis is subjoined to the Preface) is im- 
 mediately subsequent to the break of day, just as the 
 ships of Paris are about to set sail for Sparta. Cas- 
 sandra is represented as standing upon a mountain near 
 Troy, gazing upon the scene before her. It is remar-
 
 PREFACE. 195 
 
 kable that Ovid has also chosen this instant of time : 
 
 Imposita est factse postquam manus ultima classi, 
 
 Protinus JEgeis ire jubebar aquis. 
 Et pater et genetrix inhibent mea vela rogando, 
 
 Propositumque pia voce morantur iter. 
 Et soror effusis ut erat Cassandra capillis. 
 
 Cum vellent nostrse jam dare vela rates. 
 Quo ruis, exclamat, referes incendia tecum. 
 
 Quanta per has nescis flamma petatur aquas ! 
 
 Ep. Heroid. XVI. 115. 
 
 In the execution of this plan, though we meet with in- 
 stances of false taste, and a mixture of metaphor which 
 could scarcely be borne in a translation, we must allow 
 that the author possessed great energy of language, a 
 facility in calling to our view the most sublime images, 
 and a copious fund of mythological and historical in- 
 formation. He seems to have been particularly con- 
 versant in the works of the tragedians ; and we find 
 that he has parodied their verses, imitated their phra- 
 seology, and adopted their traditions, in preference to 
 the more simple narrative of Homer. Above all, the 
 harsh combinations and unusual expressions of iEschy- 
 lus seem to have been most congenial to his plan ; and 
 it is probable that some of the more sublime parts 
 of the " Agamemnon " were the exciting cause and 
 prototype of his " Cassandra." Having said thus much 
 of the reputed author, date, and plan of this Poem, it 
 remains to give a brief account of the Greek Scholia by 
 which it is illustrated. These, though tedious from 
 their excessive prolixity^ and disgraced by the most
 
 196 PREFACE. 
 
 puerile vanity and egotism, contain a mass of informa- 
 tion which has been found highly useful to succeeding 
 commentators. They are ascribed to Isaac Tzetzes ; * 
 but Potter has produced a passage which proves them 
 to be the work of John Tzetzes, his brother, upon 
 whose voluminous writings Milton has passed a severe 
 censure in his preface to The Defence of the people of 
 England against Salmasius. " Nihil elaborate, nihil 
 distincte, nihil quod sapiat in lucem emittere aut soles, 
 aut potes, sed veluti Crispinus alter, aut Tzetzes ille 
 Graeculus, modo ut multum scribas, quam recte non 
 laboras." f These Scholia are undoubtedly claimed by 
 the author of the Chihads, in that barbarous series of 
 unconnected chronicles, which, with the melodies of 
 Homer still sounding in his ears, he has clothed in the 
 
 * Bt'/jXog fitv reXidovaa AvKocjiporoQ aa^aroKOfnrov 
 'Hv akaoQ Trpowdpoidev, acepKea tipyfiara iyovaa, 
 Nvj^ ^£ fxe ^tpKa\ir)v ep^eir] QijKaro te^vij 
 Titl^rjg 'IfraaK'ioc, evaTpo(ba TreiajJLura Xvaac, 
 ■f Scholia on Verse 84. <I>a'Aa«i'a i^wvcpiov karh' ralg Xwj^j'/aic 
 tTTiTTtTo^iEroi', o KOI TTvpav(TTovjxopoc, KOI '^^X'^> '^'^'^ \puipa KuXelrai, 
 Xeytrai Ot (pdXaiya irapa to ilc (pwc aXXeirduf ----- Kai rrepi 
 ^uv tTiq (paXairrig, tov "^^tpaaiov (wiKhiov o Kcil KavcrjXo&piaTpiav 
 IhiOTiKiJjQ (pairh', eiTTOfxey, Earl /cat (pdXaiva KrjTwSrjg i-)(^d{iQ, Compare 
 this with the ninth book of the Chihads, Hist. 296. 
 
 ^aXaiya tiq tj^flvr ItTTi daXdatriOQ icrfTwSrjs 
 
 Uapa TO ciXXeadai tit; <(>^>Q (pciXaira KaXovfiivr)' 
 
 ***** 
 
 'EoTt Kal Ti i^ujvXXiop (pnXaiya fcoXouyiier?/ 
 "O Talc Xv^r/otc 'Iw-aTai, T(o wvpi tt OyijUKti, 
 Ilopa TO ciXXetrdai e'ic <p(jjc (paXaiva KuXov^iyt] 
 'Ev c£ rote £tc AvKocppoi'a 'EMOT ti,i]yi]Qtiai,
 
 PREFACE. 197 
 
 politic or accentual metre, exactly resembling the songs of 
 the modern Greeks, excepting in the absence of the double 
 rhyme. Notwithstanding all it's defects, the commentary 
 was held in gi*eat estimation when it first made it's ap- 
 pearance, during the twelfth century, and was considered 
 as removing much of that obscurity which had till then 
 rendered the poet of Cassandra nearly unintelligible, 
 and which is still objected to him by those who do not 
 reflect how necessary it was, and essential to his plan. 
 
 Darkness is placed by Burke among the Sources of 
 the Sublime ; and though he may be mistaken as to the 
 cause of that sublimity, we shall scarcely deny the effect, 
 when we find him supported by the high authority and 
 sanction of Virgil. The sensations which are produced 
 upon our minds by the absence of light are perhaps 
 analogous to those which we feel when that mode of 
 writing, metaphorically termed obscure, prevents the 
 formation of distinct ideas, and sets no limits to our 
 conceptions of power. Even Johnson, who was so 
 fond of subjecting poetry to the test of a severe analysis, 
 allows that an image may be undefined without being 
 incorrect, and that it is sometimes allowable to a poet, 
 " to hover over the abyss of un-ideal vacancy." Let us 
 then, before we condenni that obscurity which pervades 
 the oracles of the Daughter of Priam, examine w^hcther 
 a stronger light might not destroy the grandeur conse- 
 
 Kai TTfpl TOVTOv 'i.ypa\pa tqti tov ^lovWiov, 
 'Effri Kal ^woi' erepov (pdXaiyu K£K\r]i.iei'Ov, 
 ^dXairu, xpv^t], xpwpare, Kai TvypavrTTOVfJiOpOQ ?e. 
 "Oirep, (pu(j\ KoiioTfpov Twtc KfjiySrfXoffftearpav.
 
 198 PREFACE. 
 
 quent to supernatural impulse, and, by leaving nothing 
 to the imagination, be calculated for but a weak im- 
 pression upon the memory. The priests who presided 
 at the shrines of Delphi and Dodona were obliged to 
 conceal their impostures from the multitude, by myste- 
 rious phrases, and studied ambiguity ; this necessity 
 gave rise to the idea that obscurity and prophecy were 
 of necessity connected, nor are poets ever among the 
 first to discard a reigning superstition. Hence the 
 names of animals are appropriated by those persons 
 who are supposed to resemble them in disposition ; for 
 simile would be too tranquil, and even metaphor too 
 cold for the dictates of inspiration. The Hero is not 
 compared to the Lion, but is himself represented as 
 falling upon the herds ; the Love-sick Maid becomes a 
 Dove ; the Ravisher is invested with the talons of an 
 Eagle ; and the selfish and sanguinary Monarch is in- 
 variably personated by a Boar. This is the constant 
 practice of all writers of prophecy, real or fictitious ; we 
 meet with it at every step, whether we listen to the 
 ravings of Cassandra, sympathise with the patriotism 
 of the Cambrian bard, or meditate on the sublime 
 visions of Isaiah. Nor is it by these arts of composition 
 alone that the author of this monodram has laboured to 
 escape from the trammels of common speech, but, 
 taught by Homer that the Gods use not the language 
 of men, he has selected words from the storehouse of 
 antiquity, and raised his diction by whatever phrase in- 
 vented or antiquated deserved to be adopted or revived. 
 If, not to lose entirely this characteristic of the Poem,
 
 PREFACE. 199 
 
 expressions bearing the stamp of time have occasionally 
 been introduced into the following lines, it is hoped that 
 none have become so obsolete as not easily to be intelli- 
 gible ; for there cannot be a greater absurdity than that 
 a translation should stand in need of a glossary, or, in 
 other words, should itself require to be translated. 
 
 Nor do the compound epithets, which may occur in 
 this volume, bear any proportion in number to those 
 which are scattered through the original with more 
 than dithyrambic profusion. The genius of our lan- 
 guage admits very sparingly of this ornament, nor 
 should we find it easy to express by one word the com- 
 plicated ideas involved in yiyavTopaiaToq, ywaiKOKXioip, 
 iov\o7nt,o(;, ^teXXovu/Wf^oc, XapvaKocjjOopog, TrAf/CTOT'ocTToXof,", 
 
 ^HpoTraiq, KV(DTr6/.iop(j>og, and a long list of others, 
 
 'Q,g aXX6\p(i)g oirXoiai, /itsoj3a|o/3ajooc 
 
 EuRip. Phceniss. v. 138. 
 
 These, if literally translated, would sound harsh and 
 unmusical to a modern ear, though doubtless they ap- 
 peared far otherwise to the Greeks : 
 
 quibus est nihil negatum, 
 Et queis"Ap£e"Ap£c licet sonare, 
 Nobis non licet esse tarn disertis, 
 Qui Musas colimus severiores. Martial.
 
 [ 199* ] 
 
 NOTE BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 In a letter from the late Right Hon. Charles James Fox to Gilbert 
 Wakefield, published in 1813, the following passage occurs by which it 
 appears that the difficulty, of which a solution has been attempted in 
 the foregoing Preface, had been observed likewise by that distinguished 
 scholar ; and that he had arrived at a similar conclusion from it as to 
 the date of the poem. 
 
 " I have lately read Lycophron, and am much obliged to you for 
 recommending it to me to do so : — besides there being some very charm- 
 ing poetry in him, the variety of stories is very entertaining. Without 
 Tzetzes I should not have understood, however, a tenth part of him ; 
 nor would they perhaps, who treat this poor Scholiast with so much 
 contempt, have understood much more. There remain after all some 
 few difficulties, which if you can clear up to me, T shall be much obliged 
 to you, and upon which neither Canterus, Meursius, nor Potter give 
 me any help. The most important of these is that which belongs to 
 the part where he speaks of the Romans in a manner that could not 
 be possible for one who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, that 
 is even before the first punic war. Tzetzes speaks, it is true, of such 
 an observation having been made ; but remarks only upon the absurd 
 way in which it has been expressed without answering the observation 
 itself, and the other commentators above mentioned are silent upon it. 
 I see no remedy but leaving out verse 1226 and all the following verses 
 down to verse 1281 ; and in favour of doing this it is to be observed 
 that 1281 and 1282 have a much more correct sense if they follow verse 
 1225 than placed as they now are, for 
 
 ol T))v ini)v fiiWovTiQ 'atariorrat Udrpai' 
 cannot well apply to .^Eneas or the Romans ; and roaavra in verse 1281 
 naturally applies to the last- mentioned calamities. If these verses are
 
 [ 200* ] 
 
 to stand I think it must be admitted that the poem is not so ancient as 
 is supposed, and that, if the author's name was Lycophron, it was not at 
 least that Lycophron who hved in Philadelphus's time. If this hypo- 
 thesis is admitted, then Tzetzes's interpretation of verse 144G and the 
 following verses is not so absurd as the other commentators state it to 
 be ; and they may very well relate to the first of the Ptolemies, who 
 was in alliance with Rome (I forget his surname) ; or still better to 
 Philip of Macedon, if the poem was written soon after his peace with 
 Rome, and prior to the Roman war with his son Perseus." 
 
 In a subsequent letter he further states — " The more I consider the 
 passage I once before mentioned to you in Lycophron the more I am 
 convinced that it is morally impossible that a man living in the time of 
 Ptolemy Philadelphus (that is before the first punic war) could have 
 written the verses concerning Rome beginning at verse 1226 ; still less 
 those beginning at 1446, and yet I believe nothing of the sort is more 
 generally believed than that Lycophron did live in the time of Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus." 
 
 Correspondence of Wakefield and Fox, pages 128 and 171.
 
 SYNOPSIS 
 
 Ul- 
 
 THE SPEECH OF CASSANDRA, 
 
 
 I. 
 
 
 II. 
 
 
 III. 
 
 LAMENTS THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY. 
 
 
 LAMENTS THE MISFORTUNES 
 
 
 RELATES THE WARS BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. 
 
 I. BY HERCULES, 
 
 2. BY THE GREEKS. 
 
 1. OF THE TROJANS. 
 
 2. OF THE GREEKS BEFORE RETURN. 
 
 3. OF THE GREEKS AFTER RETURN. 
 
 1. EXPEDITIONS FROM ASIA. 
 
 2. EXPEDITIONS FROM EUROPE. 
 
 A. who rescued Hesione, 
 
 A. who shall bring to Troy, 
 
 A. Paris, 
 
 J^. Some perish : 
 
 _ 3- Some wander : 
 
 A. Agamemnon, 
 
 A. Phteoicians bear oflf lo. 
 
 «. Cretans bear oflTEuropa. 
 L Argonauts. 
 
 B. murdered his children, 
 
 a. Neoptolemus, 
 
 a. who goes to Sparta, 
 
 A. Ajax, 
 
 
 1 eucer. 
 
 a. who is deceived by Nauplius, 
 
 B. Laomedon to Thrace. 
 
 c. wounded Juqo, 
 
 /3. Ashes of Pelops, 
 
 /3, ravishes Helen. 
 
 B. Phoenix, 
 
 
 Agapenor. 
 
 (3. murdered by Clytemnestra, 
 
 f Tyrrheuus 
 
 c. Theseus. 
 
 D. wrestled with Jupiter, 
 B. slew Scylla, 
 
 y. Arrows of Hercules : 
 
 y. is deprived of her by Proteus, 
 
 r Calchas, 
 
 
 a. Ancaeus killed by a boar. 
 
 y. revenged by Orestes, 
 S. adored after death. 
 
 c. \ to Italy. 
 
 d. Hercules. 
 
 B. receive aid from (Enone, 
 
 aa. who came from Thrace 
 
 c.-| Idomeneus, 
 
 
 Acamas, 
 
 Uydus 
 
 e. Agamemnon to Troy. 
 
 F. died poisoned by the blood 
 
 aa. who shall see Paris 
 
 to Egypt. 
 
 L Sthenelus, 
 
 
 aa. who had a son by 
 
 aa. Digression to the worship 
 
 D. Paris to Sparta. 
 
 E. Midas to Crete. 
 
 /. Orestes to Tauria. 
 
 of Nessus. 
 
 pierced by Phi- 
 locletes, 
 
 f>b. expelled Paris : 
 
 f Mopsus, 
 ■ I Ampliilochus. 
 
 
 Laodice. 
 
 paid to Cassandra by vir- 
 
 ff. Neleus to Miletus. 
 A. The Dorians. 
 
 
 0. returns without Helen, 
 
 
 U. Mthra. borne oflf by 
 
 gins. 
 
 F. Xerxes. 
 
 
 b6. throw herself from 
 
 aa. who had five husbands, 
 
 
 
 the Dioscuri. 
 
 B. Locrians, 
 
 
 ('. Alexander the Great. 
 
 
 a tower : 
 
 1. Theseus, 
 
 
 cc. Digressions to Castor 
 
 'I. who send two virgins annu- 
 
 
 «. who restores peace by con- 
 quering both Greeks and 
 
 
 c. destroy the tomb of Dardanus, 
 
 2. Menelaus, 
 
 
 and Pollux, Pro- 
 
 ally to Troy. 
 
 
 
 aa. who canoe from 
 
 J^. Digressions con- 
 
 
 tesilaus, Idas and 
 
 J<. Digression to the trans- 
 
 
 Asiatics. 
 
 
 Samothrace to 
 
 cerning Pelops, 
 
 
 Lynceus, Anius and 
 
 formation of Hecuba. 
 
 
 p. The remaining Prophecy 
 probably alludes to the 
 destruction of the Ma- 
 
 
 Phrygia. 
 
 (Eaoinaus, and 
 Myrtilus : 
 
 
 his daughters. 
 Praxander, 
 
 2- Translation of Hector to 
 Elysium. 
 
 
 
 
 3. Paris, 
 
 
 . Cepheus, 
 
 fldomeneus, 
 
 
 cedonian Empire by 
 Paulus ^milius. 
 
 
 
 4. Deiphobus, 
 
 Ii. Diomede, 
 
 c. \ Meda, 
 
 
 
 
 5. Achilles. 
 
 c. Breotians, 
 
 I^Clisithera. 
 
 
 y. Conclusion of the Speech 
 of Cassandra. 
 
 
 
 m. Peleus obtains 
 
 rf. Ulysses, 
 
 aa. Digression to the origin 
 
 
 
 
 from Jupiter 
 
 e. Menelaus, 
 
 and universality of the 
 
 
 
 
 
 the metamor- 
 
 r Guneus, 
 
 Roman Empire. 
 
 
 
 
 
 phosis of ants 
 
 /A Prothous, 
 
 bb. Wanderings of ^.'Eneas. 
 
 
 
 
 
 into an army. 
 
 L Eurypylus, 
 
 cc. Founding of Rome. 
 
 
 
 
 
 e. rouses the Greeks, 
 
 5". Pbiloctctes, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 J^. who sacrifice Iphigenia, 
 
 //. Epeus. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3. bind themselves by an 
 
 a. Some of the Trojans to 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 oath, 
 
 Sicily. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 J. conquer Troy. 
 
 P. Some to Siris and Lcutaroia. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B. Hector, 
 
 1'. Greeks to the Tullesian HiUs. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 c. TroUus, 
 
 X- Digression to Clete 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 D. Laodice, 
 
 E. Polyxena, 
 p. Hecuba, 
 G. Priam. 
 
 H. Herself. 
 
 the Amazon, Pcn- 
 thesilea, and Ther- 
 sites. 
 ,;. to Terina. 
 
 MSaT- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 /. Some to Malta. 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 m. Elpenor. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 n. PodalJrius to 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Italy, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 »a. where the .(Etolian 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 embassadors were 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 buried alive. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 0. Sailors of Schedius, and Epistro- 
 phius. 
 
 X- Death of Setea. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 /'■ 
 
 (irecks to Lamctus. 
 
 

 
 201 
 
 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Mark then my words, for I will speak, O King, 
 
 Though long the task, and tedious be the toil ; 
 
 For not with sweet and soothing blandishment 
 
 Flowed from the Maiden's lips the gentle stream 
 
 Of oracles benign, but sounds of woe 5 
 
 Burst dreadful, as she chewed the laurel leaf. 
 
 And ever and anon, like the black Sphinx, 
 
 Poured the full tide of enigmatic song. 
 
 All shalt thou hear, which Memory can retain. 
 
 And through th' obscure of prophecies explore 10 
 
 Thine uncouth way ; for now the barriers yield. 
 
 And o'er th' enchanted ground mine eager soul 
 
 Starts like a steed, and wings her rapid flight. 
 
 Ver. 1 . The first twenty-nine lines of the Poem are spoken by the 
 Guard, appointed by Priam to watch over Cassandra, in his own 
 person. 
 
 6. Before the priests delivered their oracles, they were accustomed to 
 chew the leaves of the laurel ; which tree, from being sacred to Apollo, 
 was supposed to communicate inspiration : 
 
 Sic usque sacros innoxia lauros, 
 Vescar. Tibuli.. 
 
 7. The Sphinx is called black probably from the darkness and obscu- 
 rity of her enigmas.
 
 202 CASSANDRA. 
 
 The Morn had left thy brother's bed, the couch 
 Of aged Tithon, near to Cerne's isle, 15 
 
 And o'er the misty mountain-tops had flown 
 Jocund, upborne on Pegasean wing ; 
 The busy crew their moorings had unloosed. 
 And heaved their heavy anchors from the sand : 
 And now th' Idean Daughters of the grove 20 
 
 Spread their white wings athwart the Hellespont, 
 Walking with insect feet upon the waves 
 
 14. Tithonus was son of Laomedon by Rhaeo or Strymo, and conse- 
 quently half-brother to Priam. 
 
 15. The situation of Ceme is variously laid down by different authors : 
 some, with Nonnus, place it in the east : Dionysius, in his Geogra- 
 phical Poem, speaks of it as lying towards the south ; and Eustathius, 
 in his Commentary, tells us, that by some it was supposed to be far to 
 the west : Lycophron speaks of it as near to the residence of Aurora, 
 and, consequently, must have imagined it to lie east of Phrygia. 
 
 17. Homer, in the twenty-third book of the Odyssey, gives to Aurora 
 two horses for her car ; and calls them Lampus and Phaethon : 
 
 ipaog dvOpwiroun ^spovrag 
 AdfiTTov Kal fpaiOovra, Odyss. "¥'. 246. 
 
 but subsequent poets give her the epithet of MopottwXoq, and mount her 
 upon Pegasus alone. 
 
 20. Cassandra is represented as standing upon the hills of Ate, near 
 Troy, and gazing upon the ships in which Paris was about to set sail 
 from Phrygia. These galleys are called " Daughters of Ida," from 
 being built of wood felled upon that mountain. This expression is 
 similar to that of Horace : 
 
 Quamvis Pontica pinus, 
 
 Sylvae filia nobilis. Hor. Od. I. 14. 
 
 From the number of their banks of oars they are compared to Cen- 
 tipedes.
 
 CASSANDRA. 203 
 
 Beyond Calydna's isle ; their swelling sails, 
 
 White as the plumage of the crane, were filled 
 
 With breezes issuing from the stormy North : 25 
 
 When, phrenzied as a moon-struck Bacchanal, 
 
 Cassandra wandered upon Ate's hills. 
 
 Hills crowned with thousand herds, and poured aloud 
 
 Presaging sounds, and prophecies of woe. 
 
 " Ah ! luckless Nurse ! enwrapped in ruddy flame 30 
 Then when the Lion, sprung from triple Night, 
 Steered his dark pine across th' i^gean wave. 
 And hid an host within her hollow womb : 
 Who fearless leaped into the caverned jaws 
 Of the sea-monster, through the black abyss 35 
 
 Cleaving his bloody way : whose shadowy locks. 
 Singed in the flameless furnace, wave no more : 
 
 23. The Calydnse are two small islands near Tenedos, according to 
 Strabo. 
 
 30. Cassandra breaks forth into a lamentation on the miseries of 
 Troy : for, previous to the rape of Helen, Hercules had invaded Phrygia, 
 and burnt the metropolis. He is said to have sprung from " triple 
 Night," because Jupiter retarded the rising of the Sun for three nights, 
 while, under the form of Amphitryon, he lay with his mother Alcmena. 
 In the poem ascribed to Theocritus or Simmias the Rhodian, Philoctetes 
 is styled rpietnripoio Kaxirac, in allusion to the funeral rites of Hercides. 
 
 34. After Neptune, with the assistance of Apollo, had erected the walls 
 of Troy, Laomedon refused to pay them the stipulated reward ; which 
 so incensed the former, that he sent among the Phrygians a monster of 
 the sea, whose wrath was only to be appeased by the daily sacrifice of a 
 virgin. "When the lot fell upon one of the three daughters of Phseno- 
 damas, he persuaded the people to substitute Hcsione, the daughter of 
 the king; but Hercules leaped down the throat of the monster, and
 
 204 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Who dyed his hands in infant blood, the pest 
 
 And fell pollution of my native towers : 
 
 Who 'gainst his stepdame's deathless bosom winged 40 
 
 The iron shaft ; and, wrestling with his sire, 
 
 (Fast by the rocks of Cronus, where the tomb 
 
 Of Earth-born Ischenus, gigantic birth. 
 
 Rears its cold marble, whence the courser starts) 
 
 Twined round his limbs the sinewy strength of arm : 45 
 
 Who slew the fiend, that frowning on the wave, 
 
 destroyed him. In performing this exploit, he lost his hair, which was 
 burnt by the violence of the internal heat. 
 
 38. When Hercules, after dragging up Cerberus to light, returned 
 to the city of Thebes, in a paroxysm of madness brought upon him by 
 Juno, he murdered his wife Megara, and his own children, conceiving 
 them to be those of Lycus. 
 
 40. Hercules, as we are told by Homer, wounded his stepmother 
 Juno in the breast, oiarf rpty\a»)^i)/i, "with an arrow of three barbs." 
 
 41. Hercules established the Olympic Games near Elis, and there 
 wrestled with his father Jupiter, who was thence called na\at<7->/e or 
 The Wrestler. The mountain near which the games were celebrated 
 was formerly called the hill of Cronus or Saturn. 
 
 43. Ischenus was son of an earth-bom giant, and devoted himself to 
 death, that his country might be relieved from famine. His tomb was 
 in the race-course ; where a deity called Taraxippus, or " the Terror of 
 Horses," was supposed to reside ; whom, before starting, it was 
 thought necessary to propitiate by sacrifice. See the Scholia on the 
 Electra of Sophocles. 
 
 46. Hercules slew Scylla, the daughter of Phorcys : but her father 
 placed her on the funeral pile, and, when the flames had purified her 
 limbs from all mortal admixture, restored her to life and immortality. 
 She was afterwards changed into a rock between Italy and Sicily, 
 which island was called Trinacris, from its three promontories.
 
 CASSANDRA. 205 
 
 Guards all the narrow pass where billows roll 
 
 Between Ausonian regions and the shores 
 
 Of Trinacris, where, from the sea-beat rocks. 
 
 She feasts upon the scaly shoals, and laughs 50 
 
 At Death, and Hades' impotent domain : 
 
 For on the vivifying pile her sire 
 
 Heaped high her limbs, and waved the burning torch. 
 
 Kindling the bright resuscitating flame : 
 
 Whom nor with sword, nor shield, nor massive mail 55 
 
 The Dead subdued, and gave again to view 
 
 The dark pavihons and the glooms of Hell. 
 
 Ah ! luckless nurse ! again I see thee burnt 
 By stern Pelides' son ; while from the bones 
 Of Pelops, rescued from the flames, inurned 60 
 
 Beside Letrina, springs the smouldering fire ; 
 And swift from Teutarus' elastic bow 
 Fly winged shafts, and clangs the Scythian steel ! 
 
 This shall the jealous Nymph reveal, and send, 
 
 56. Hercules is said to have been subdued by " the Dead," because 
 the poisoned robe he received from Deianira was dipped in blood of the 
 dead Nessus ; and to have descended a second time to the shades 
 below, because during his life he had gone thither to drag up Cerberus. 
 
 58. It was declared by an oracle, that Troy should not be taken till 
 there were brought against it, 1st, The son of Achilles ; 2dly, The 
 bones of Pelops ; and 3dly, The arrows of Hercules. These last are 
 called the shafts of Teutarus the Scythian, because he was the in- 
 structor of Hercules in archery. 
 
 61. Letrina is a town of Elis, in which the bones of Pelops were 
 buried. 
 
 64. CEnone, with whom Paris cohabited before he deserted her for 
 Helen, was so incensed at his conduct, that she sent her son Corythus
 
 206 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Savaged by woes, her love-begotten child ; 65 
 
 Shall think upon her widowed couch, and loathe 
 The traitorous bridegroom and the foreign bride ! 
 But looking, loving, when she sees her lord 
 Groan with no med'cinable wound, and lie 
 Pierced by those shafts, which to the plume were dyed 
 In Giants' blood, down from the battlements, 71 
 
 Down shall she leap, and, frantic with remorse. 
 Breathe out her soul upon his heaving limbs. 
 
 Again I mourn thee, and again : for, lo ! 
 As swells the conquering flame before the wind, 75 
 
 Soon shalt thou see the lance's lurid gleam. 
 And blazing palaces, and dying men ! 
 
 Again I mourn thee ! fire shall wrap the tomb 
 
 to give assistance to the Grecian armies : but when she saw her per- 
 fidious husband transfixed by the arrows of Philoctetes, which inflicted 
 incurable wounds, and found that her skill in medicine (of which she 
 boasts in the Epistles of Ovid) was of no avail, she threw herself head- 
 long from a tower, or, according to some authors, strangled herself. 
 
 7 1 . When the Giants waged war against heaven, the Gods found it 
 necessary to call in the assistance of Hercules, who slew some by his 
 arrows, while Jupiter destroyed others by his lightning. To these 
 weapons Philoctetes succeeded. Ovid, in his Epistle from Paris to 
 Helen, makes the former assert, that Cassandra prophesied, before he 
 left Troy, that he should be transfixed by celestial arrows. This pre- 
 diction he imagined to relate solely to the darts of love : 
 
 Hoc inihi, nam repeto, fore ut a coeleste sagittS. 
 
 Figar, erat verax vaticinata soror. Ep. XVI. 277. 
 
 78. Cassandra prophesies that fire shall destroy the tombs of her an- 
 cestors, and, amongst others, that of Dardanus the son of Electra, who 
 was a daughter of Atlas : which Dardanus, during the deluefe of Deu-
 
 CASSANDRA. 207 
 
 Of him, the son of tlie Atlantic nymph. 
 
 Who round his hmbs involved the leathern spoil, SO 
 
 Borne on his sutile bark, and rode the waves 
 
 Of shoreless seas, alone, as when the boar. 
 
 The tusky king, in solitary pride 
 
 Fares by the Danaw ; thence from Saiis' heights 
 
 Swam like the bird, who round Rithymna's steep 85 
 
 Dips her white wings in the salt ooze, and steered 
 
 From the Zerynthian cave of Hecate, 
 
 What time Jove spread the sluices of the skies 
 
 In wild uproar : Earth heard the billows break 
 
 About her, and above ; high palaces 90 
 
 Came crashing down ; and the pale sons of men 
 
 Swam, and saw death in every swelling wave : 
 
 On fruits, and acorns, and the growth of grapes. 
 
 Sea-monsters battened ; e'en upon that couch 
 
 Where Luxury had languished, cumbrous forms, 95 
 
 Dolphins, and ores, wallowed unwieldily. 
 
 calion, saved himself in a boat composed of the hides of beasts, and 
 passed into Phrygia from Samothrace, leaving the cave of Zerynthus, 
 which was sacred to Hecate, and Sails, which some call a promontory 
 of Thrace, others an island, but which the Commentator on Nicander, 
 cited by Potter, affirms to have been a mountain of Samothrace, wliich 
 was also sometimes called Saiis. This tradition is mentioned by Virgil : 
 
 Atque equidem memini (fama est obscurior annis) 
 Auruncos ita fcrre sencs, his ortus ut agris 
 Dardanus Idsas Phrygiic penetravit ad urbes, 
 Threiciamque Samum, quae nunc Samothracia fertur. 
 
 iliN. Vn. 205, 
 
 85. Rithymna was a town in Crete. Tlie shores on which it was 
 liuilt abounded with sea-gulls, and other marine birds.
 
 208 CASSANDRA. 
 
 I see the Gryphon spread his leathern wing's. 
 And mount upon the sharp winds of the North 
 To pounce the Dove, whom erst the snowy Swan 
 Engendered, walking on the wave, what time 1 00 
 
 Around the sacred secundines of gold 
 Gleamed the pure, whiteness of the circling shell. 
 
 Down the steep pass and Acherusian way 
 I see thee fare, no more on rural cares 
 Intent, or rural joys ; no more on heights 105 
 
 97. Doubts are entertained whether the word yp»yog, translated "a 
 gryphon," may not be synonymous with ypwog, " a firebrand," by 
 which name Lycophron, in a subsequent passage, has designated Paris : 
 
 A61(t9oq S' iyeipei ypvvoQ apx^-'^'^'*' tpiV 
 " The firebrand gleams, and kindles Discord's touch : " 
 
 thus alluding to the story, which relates, that Hecuba, when pregnant 
 with Paris, dreamed that she was delivered of a firebrand. FpQvoe 
 certainly bears the latter signification ; as for example : 
 
 Fpovvoi fikv daiovTo, fiiyag ^'"H^aicrroe avitrrtj. 
 But Hesychius explains it by ypv-ip, " a gryphon ; " and the word 
 EirrepojiJtivoQ, " winged," seems to warrant the adoption of that meaning 
 in the translation. 
 
 99. By the Swan is meant Jupiter, who assumed that form in order 
 to deceive Leda, and thus became the father of Helen, who was pro- 
 duced from an egg. She is called a Dove, from her resembling in 
 amorous propensities that bird, which was consecrated to Venus. This 
 fable, according to Athenseus, proceeds from the resemblance the tenn 
 wet, " eggs," bears to <oa, by which name the more ancient Greeks 
 called the apartments set apart for the women. 
 
 103. The Acherusian way was near the promontory of Tsenarus, 
 leading to Lacedsemon. Near to it was situated a cave, by which 
 Hercules is said to have returned from the infernal regions.
 
 CASSANDRA. 209 
 
 Of wood-crowned Ida shalt thou stand the judge 
 
 Of rival Beauty, but by Laas' towers 
 
 Steer on, and shoot by the Malean rock ; 
 
 For fields, and fleecy flocks, and herded kine. 
 
 And fragrant herbage, and terrestrial oar, I 1 
 
 A bark shall bear thee to the double pass 
 
 And Gythian plains, where to the yielding sand 
 
 The crooked teeth shall bind thine hollow pine. 
 
 And winds no longer vex thy folded sail. 
 
 On the soft heifer wolf-like shalt thou spring 1 1 5 
 
 With eager joy : she reckless shall desert 
 
 Her orphan doves ; and e'en Maternal Love, 
 
 With waving hand, shall beckon back in vain 
 
 The flying prey, who to the net shall rush, 
 
 108. Malea is a promontory, and Las, or Laas, a city of Laconia. 
 
 110. By the "terrestrial oar" is meant a corn-van. Tiresias, in the 
 Odyssey, commands Ulysses to carry upon his shoulders an oar, till a 
 traveller who never beheld the sea shall call it a corn-van. 
 
 'OTTTTort Ktv dijTOi ^vfij3Xi]fitvoc ciWo^ oSirrjg 
 
 Odyss. a'. 126. 
 
 111. These Sa\o'/i/3at, called also Qvpi^eg or the Gates, were two passes 
 in the mountains of Laconia. Gythium was a town and harbour in the 
 same country, according to Strabo and Polybius. 
 
 115. Helen is alluded to by the term " heifer." By this name Cas- 
 sandra is represented as calling her in Ovid's Epistles : 
 
 Graia juvenca venit, quae te, patriamque, domumque 
 
 Perdet, lo prohibe ! Graia juvenca venit. CEnon. Parid. 
 
 117. Hermione and Iphigenia : but most authors agree in giving to 
 Helen only one daughter, Hermione, who was married to Neoptolcmus. 
 
 P
 
 210 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Scared by the flutterings of the scarlet plume : 1 20 
 
 And on the beachy verge of the salt sea 
 
 Shall burn the fatlings of the flock to those 
 
 Of Ocean Nymphs who bid soft airs of heaven 
 
 Pant on the joyous ocean. Thou shalt run 
 
 Beyond Scandea and the jutting crags 125 
 
 Of vEgilus, and, gazing on thy prey. 
 
 Laugh loud, and joy in thy successful toils ; 
 
 Bathing thy soul in love, where, in his isle, 
 
 The Dragon monarch reared his blended form. 
 
 But, ah ! no more thy baffled arms shall press 1 30 
 
 120. It was customary among the ancients to catch deer by gradually 
 enclosing them with ropes, on which they tied scarlet feathers : by 
 this contrivance they were so much terrified, as to be preA^ented from 
 breaking through : 
 
 Cervum punicese septum formidine pennae. 
 
 ViRG. JEn. Xn. 750. 
 
 122. Helen, terrified by a dream, sacrificed to Leucothea and the Sea 
 Nymphs, then fled with Paris to Eg\^t ; (or was di'iven thither by a 
 storm, according to Herodotus,) passing ^gilus, a promontory of Pelo- 
 ponnesus, and Scandea, a port of Cythera. 
 
 129. Ericthonius, king of Attica, had the feet of a dragon: from 
 him the Athenians were styled Ericthonii. 
 
 130. Lycophron attributes to Proteus this substitution of a phantom 
 in place of Helen : Euripides ascribes it to Juno. The tragedian makes 
 Helen lament that her reputation should be lost, though her person 
 remains inviolate : Lycophron, on the contrary, teUs us that Paris was 
 not deprived of his prize till he had eflfected his purpose in the island 
 of Salamis : but both agree in asserting that the son of Priam brought 
 with him to Troy, not Helen, but a visionary resemblance. 
 
 Aifwffi S" oiiK iy.' , aXX' oyoKoffaa' tyoi 
 
 F.'i^wXov ffnn'o>'i . Helen. Euripip.
 
 CASSANDRA. 211 
 
 The bright-haired nymph, but clasp unto thy breast 
 
 The cold embrace, the visionary joy. 
 
 Ghost of departed love, shade of a dream. 
 
 For he who wedded the Phlegrean maid, 
 
 (On whose dark brow ne'er sits the smile of joy, 1 35 
 
 Down whose stern cheek ne'er rolls the tear of woe. 
 
 Who fled from stormy Thrace, unto the shores 
 
 Where Nile redundant with expanded ^vings 
 
 Broods on the bedded foison, not with steeds. 
 
 Nor painted ships careering o'er the main, 1 1<> 
 
 But through th' obscure and caverned gloom of Eartli 
 
 Wound as a mole his uncouth way, and heard 
 
 The waves of Ocean roar above his head ; 
 
 What time he cursed his murderous progeny. 
 
 And poured unto his sire the prayer, that then 145 
 
 Those plains he might regain, from whence he came 
 
 Far as the nurse of the gigantic brood. 
 
 Far as Pallene's desolated shore,) 
 
 Homer affirms Paris to have borne Helen to Cranae, which some under- 
 stand to mean Attica, some Cythera, others merely an epithet, but Pau- 
 sanias an island off Gythium : 
 
 "N);ff(^ 5' tv Kpai'oj/ ifiiyijv <bi\6T)]Ti Kal tvi'y. 
 
 134. Proteus, the son of Neptune, came from Egypt into Thrace, 
 and there married Torone, an inhabitant of Phlegra. By her he had 
 two sons, Polygonus and Telegonus, who gave such offence to their 
 father by their cruelty to strangers, that he asked and obtained of Nep- 
 tune that the Earth might afford him a passage through her bowels from 
 Pallene to Egypt. When his sons were afterwards slain by Hercules, 
 he displayed neither joy, because he was their father, nor grief, because 
 he execrated their wickedness. 
 
 148. Eustathius, in his Commentary on Diouysius, says that Pallene
 
 212 CASSANDRA. 
 
 He, just as Guneus, whom the sons of men 
 
 Justest extol, by sacred Themis led, 150 
 
 Ichnaean maid, high arbitress of right. 
 
 Shall seize thy wanton bride, and drive thee far 
 
 From the soft cooings of thy billing dove : 
 
 For not the loves of Antheus, nor the guests 
 
 Who poured on Lycus' and Chimasreus' tomb 155 
 
 is a town of Thrace, and also a triangular peninsula, formerly inhabited 
 by giants. 
 
 149. It is for his justice that Proteus is compared to Guneus, who 
 was renowned for that virtue throughout Arabia ; and who, according 
 to the Scholiast, was sent by Semiramis to assist the Babylonians 
 against banditti. 
 
 151. We learn from Strabo that Themis was styled Ichnaean, from 
 Ichnse a city of Thessaly : (cai "Ixvat, owov r/ Qifiic 'l-)(^yaia Tifjarat. 
 She is also called Ichnaean by Diodorus and Homer. The Scholiast is 
 evidently wrong in deriving the epithet fromT^^voe. 
 
 154. Antheus, the son of Antenor, was much beloved by Paris, by 
 whom he was accidentally slain while Menelaus was at Troy. Paris, 
 dreading the anger of Antenor, fled to Sparta, and became in his turn 
 the guest of the husband of Helen, but violated the rites of hospitality, 
 and disregarded the obligations contracted by partaking of his salt, 
 which among the ancients was considered sacred, and without which 
 no sacrifice was ever undertaken ; whence Lycophron gives it the 
 epithet of ayviTr^Q, or " hallowed." Among the Arabians salt is the 
 symbol of hospitality ; and when they would express the greatest ab- 
 horrence and detestation, they say of a man that he is "a bread and 
 salt traitor." 
 
 155. Lvcus and Chimsereus were sons of Prometheus, and buried at 
 Troy : when afterwards a famine oppressed the Spartans, an oracle 
 commanded them to send a deputation to Phrygia for the purpose of 
 sacrificing at their tombs : in consequence, Menelaus came to Troy, and 
 returned with Paris to Lacedsemon.
 
 CASSANDKA. 2 I 3 
 
 Their dark libations, nor the hallowed salt 
 
 Of earth-encircling Neptune, nor the rites 
 
 Of hospitable Jove could move thy soul, 
 
 Stern as the bear which nursed in Ida's woods 
 
 Thine infancy, fit nurture for fit child : 160 
 
 Wherefore all joyless shalt thou strike the lyre. 
 
 Trilling vain chords and bootless melodies. 
 
 And pour the fruitless tear, when thou shalt mark 
 
 Thy native towers, which erst the son of Jove 
 
 Mantled in ruddy flame, and in thine arms 165 
 
 Embrace the fleeting shade of her who hears 
 
 Pleuronian M^nad, for whose beauteous form 
 
 Five times the bridal torch shall shed around 
 
 159. Paris, while an infant, was exposed in the forests of Ida, where 
 some authors assert him to have been nursed by a she-bear. 
 
 161. Nequicquam Veneris prsesidio ferox 
 
 Pectes CEesariem, grataque fceminis 
 Imbelli citharS. carmina divides. Hor. Od. I. 15. 
 
 167. Pleuron is a town of Peloponnesus, whence Helen is called 
 Pleuronian ; but Pausanias tells us that Pleuron was the grandfather of 
 Leda, and that his descendants bore his name as a patronymic. Helen 
 is styled a Msenad, or priestess of Bacchus, from her frantic conduct. 
 
 168. Lycophron, in the following verses, particularizes the five hus- 
 bands of Helen ; in which enumeration he confounds the shadow with 
 the substance : for if her image went to Troy, she cannot with propriety 
 be said to have espoused Deiphobus. This passage is not repugnant to 
 another, in which she is called Tpiaviop Kopr], or " the Bride of Three 
 Husbands ;" for Theseus carried her off when only seven years of age, 
 and restored her inviolate ; and Achilles is merely said to have wedded 
 her in a dream, or after death, in the Elysian Fields,
 
 214 CASSANDRA. 
 
 It's saffron light of love ; for so the Fates, 
 
 Ancient of days, dread daughters of the main, 170 
 
 Have stamped their web, and ratified her doom. 
 
 Two Eagles, stooping from the clouds, shall seize 
 
 The trembling Bird, and swoop upon their prey. 
 
 A scyon next, who blossoms from the roots 
 
 169. The Fates are said by Orpheus and Hesiod to be Daughters of 
 Night, because their decrees are hidden from mortals. By Lycophron 
 they are called Children of the Ocean, either because to water was 
 ascribed the genesis or production of every thing, or perhaps from their 
 cruelty and inexorability. In the Orphic Hymns all foreknowledge of 
 events is limited to them and Jupiter. Lucian has a Dialogue in which 
 a philosopher is introduced labouring to prove to Jove that he possesses 
 no power of altering their decrees, and, consequently, that it is useless 
 to pay any adoration to him. But whatever were the sentiments of the 
 ancients upon this head, they mostly seem to have imagined that man- 
 kind were subject to a blind and unalterable destiny : though indeed 
 Homer teUs us, that the companions of Ulysses perished (r^eripriaii' 
 araadakirjniv, " by their own proper foUy;" and Cleanthes inculcates 
 the absolute free-will of man : 
 
 Ouce ri yiyvtrai tpyov tTri x^ovl Sow ?ixa Aaifiov, 
 OvSe Kar alQ'iQiov Qiiov Tlokov, ovS' tin ttovti^, 
 nXr/V OTToaa pkZovtn KaKoi ff^srlpjjfftv avoiaiQ 
 
 which lines may be translated by these two of Pope : 
 
 And binding Nature fast in Fate, 
 
 Left free the human will. Univ. Prayer. 
 
 172. Theseus and Paris, who are called eagles from their having each 
 carried off Helen. 
 
 174. Menelaus is said to spring from branches flourishing bv Cari- 
 cus, a river of Laconia, and Plynos, a city of Africa, because Hippo- 
 damia, the mother of his father Atreus by Pelops the Laconian, Avas 
 descended from Atlas the African. Atreus married Aerope the grand-
 
 fASS.WDMA. 215 
 
 Which sprout by Caricus' immortal stream, 175 
 
 Or Afric Plynos, sprmig from Cretan seed. 
 
 Shall twine his branching honom^s round her limbs ; 
 
 Whose kindred blood in dreadful banquet quaffed 
 
 Erinnys, mistress of the mystic sword, 
 
 Queen of the fields of Enna, and entombed 180 
 
 The shoulder, soon with ivory white to gleam ; 
 
 But youth again illumed his cheek, again 
 
 He rose to light and life ; strong passion seized 
 
 Erectheus, monarch of the main, he snatched 
 
 His prize, and bore to Letrinaean plains, 185 
 
 daughter of Minos king of Crete : for which reason Menclaus is called 
 fjfiiKpfiQ, " half a Cretan;" and (Sapfiapoc, " a barbarian," because Tan- 
 talus, the father of Pelops, came into Greece from Lydia, according to 
 Pindar : according to others, from Phrygia or Paphlagonia. 
 
 178. Pelops was slain by his father Tantalus, and served up at a 
 banquet of the Gods, but was afterwards restored to life ; and a shoulder 
 of ivory, given to him by Jupiter, replaced that which had been eaten 
 by Ceres. 
 
 179. Ceres is called Erinnys by Callimachus. Enna is that plain of 
 Sicily where 
 
 Proserpine, gathering flowers, 
 Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis 
 Was gathered. Milt. Par. Lost. 
 
 184. Pelops, after his resuscitation, was carried off by Neptune 
 Erectheus to the plains of Letrina in Elis, there to contend with 
 CEnomaus, who had promised his daughter Hippodamia to whoever 
 could conquer him in the chariot-race, but annexed to his challenge an 
 express condition, that his competitor, if vanquished, should be put to 
 death.
 
 216 CASSANDRA- 
 
 (Where Molpis rears on high his marble form, 
 
 Molpis, whose blood to Jove ^Ethereal flowed,) 
 
 There on the course the guilty lover slew 
 
 The guilty father of the fair ; such wiles. 
 
 Such impious arts, such subtleties of death 190 
 
 Th' unhallowed son of Cadmilus disclosed. 
 
 Disclosed to his own ruin ; for he drank 
 
 The wave Myrtoan, and the bitter stream, 
 
 Whelmed in his watery sepulchre : Wliat now 
 
 Avails that flying o'er the dusty plain, 195 
 
 Swift Psylla whirled the rattling chariotry, 
 
 186. Molpis was a noble youth of Elis, who devoted himself to death, 
 in obedience to an oracle, that his country might be relieved from exces- 
 sive drought. The gratitude of his fellow- citizens erected a temple to 
 ZevQ "On^pwQ, or " Jupiter the God of Rain," and placed in it a statue 
 of their benefactor. 
 
 188. Pelops conquered by the treachery of Myrtilus the charioteer, 
 who removed the iron linch-pins from the naves of his master's chariot- 
 wheels, and substituted wax in their room. 
 
 191. Myrtilus was the son of Mercury, who was adored by the 
 Boeotians under the name of Cadmilus. Meursius grounds his alteration 
 to CasmQus upon a passage in the Scholia on Apollonius, where Casmi- 
 lus, adored by the Samotkracians as one of the Cabiri, is asserted to be 
 the same with Mercury. We read in Van'O, that in the Samothracian 
 mysteries the minister of the great Gods was named Camillus : " Ca- 
 millus nominatur in Samothraces mysteriis, deus quidam administer 
 Deis magnis." This employment agrees with that ascribed to Mercmy 
 by the Greeks and Romans, though the latter consider him as himself 
 forming one of the Dii majorum Gentium. We learn from Servius, in 
 his notes upon Virgil, that the children who officiated at the altars were 
 anciently called Camilli and Camillse ; for which reason ^lercury is 
 styled Camillus in the old Etruscan. This name is formed by syncope
 
 CASSANDRA. 217 
 
 Or fleet Harpinna, borne on harpy wings ? 
 
 The fourth, the Brother of the ravening Hawk, 
 Shall wed the shining Mischief; loud acclaim 
 In supple wresthngs and in sinewy force 200 
 
 Shall hail him conqueror of the second prize. 
 Round her the fifth, in dream-created joys. 
 
 from Casmilus. In the same manner, in the ^neid. Camilla bears the 
 name of her mother, omitting the letter * ; 
 
 -Matrisque vocavit 
 
 Nomine Casmiliae, mutate parte, Camillam. 
 
 Joseph Scaliger translates the passage 
 
 qui trucidavit procos 
 
 Justis nefandis, quae Camilli filius 
 Paravit. 
 
 197. Myrtilus had stipulated with Pelops, that, in reward for his 
 treachery, he shoidd pass a night with Hippodamia, of whom he was 
 enamoured ; but, when he claimed performance of this promise, Pelops 
 threw him into the sea, which was called from his name " Mare Myr- 
 toum." This act of cruelty is constantly referred to by the Greek tra- 
 gedians, who date from it all the calamities which afterwards befell the 
 unhappy house of Atreus. 
 
 198. De'iphobus became the husband of Helen after the death of 
 Paris, having gained the victory in the games instituted by Priam on 
 that occasion. We learn from an old Scholiast on Homer, that Priam 
 had promised her hand to the successful competitor : Uplafxog T^g 'EXeV/jc 
 yafiov tiradXoy edrjKe -if apiffrevaavTi kutU ti)i' na-^riv, Arjiipofiog ^c 
 yeyvaloQ ayu)yianfieyoc yrifiev avrtji'. Deiphobus was considered as 
 inferior only to Hector, whence he is said to bear off the second prize 
 of strength. Paris is called a hawk in allusion to the rape of Helen. 
 
 202. Achilles dreamed that he was married to Helen ; and Cassandra 
 prophesies that in process of time he shall marry Medea, who fled with
 
 218 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Shall clasp his visionary arms, whose bride, 
 
 Cytsean Masnad, on the stranger forms 
 
 Shall gaze with frantic eyes ; son of the sire 205 
 
 Who, flying from CEnone, poured the prayer, 
 
 Nor poured in vain ; strait, from the genial earth 
 
 Blackening with insect swarms innumerable. 
 
 Rose the tall troops of marshalled Myrmidons 
 
 Jason from Cyteea, a city of Colchis. Her words are, in the original, 
 
 Tov fitWowiiipov tvveTijv KvrdiK^iQ 
 
 In Scaliger's translation, 
 
 Sponsum futurum Angitiae CytaiCce 
 Ardentis hospitem ; 
 
 from which it is clear that he conceived the passage to allude to Medea. 
 Meursius gives no opinion ; but Canter and Potter agree with Scaliger, 
 as does also the schohast Tzetzes. Medea is called Cytaeis by Proper- 
 tius ; and Euphorion gives her the name of Kuraig Mt)ceia, " the Cy- 
 tsean Medea," in a quotation produced by Eustathius, who alludes to 
 these verses of Lycophron. But we are informed by Stephanus that 
 there is another town of the same name in Scythia, " k'ori cs aWt] 
 'S>Kvdiag :" — so that perhaps may be meant Iphigenia the daughter of 
 Agamemnon, to whom Achilles was betrothed at Aulis, and who sacri- 
 ficed, on the shores of Scythia, all strangers who fell into her hands. 
 In this case, for " hospites depereuntis," in Canter's version, shoiild be 
 substituted " hospites mactantis ut Msenas." The translator has per- 
 mitted the passage to remain as ambiguous as Lycophron has left the 
 original. 
 
 206. Peleus, having accidentally killed his brother Phocus, and being 
 consequently compelled to fly from the island CEnone or CEnopia, which 
 afterwards took the name of ^gina the daughter of Asopus, entreated 
 of Jupiter to raise him up an army, with which to supply the place of 
 those attendants whom he had lost : the Deity granted his prayer, and 
 caused a swarm of ants to assume the human form. The men so pro- 
 duced were called Myrmidons, from /^i/p/,(?/i;, mynnex, " an ant."
 
 CASSANDRA. 219 
 
 In serried files, or goodly front of war! 210 
 
 Son of the sire who snatched him from the flames 
 Where six had left their infant lives in fire. 
 
 The perftmied youth, retracing all his way. 
 Shall rouse the Wasps, thick clustering in their cells. 
 E'en as a boy who wraps in smoky steams 215 
 
 The winged swarms, sons of the peopled air. 
 
 Whence is that Heifer ? whence upon her brow 
 
 211. The Scholiast avows his ignorance of the source from which 
 Lycophron drew this story, but quotes Agamestor to prove that Achilles 
 was formerly called Ilvpi(7(7ooc, " saved from the fire." But Meursius 
 has produced a passage from the Scholia on Homer, which tells us, that 
 Thetis, incensed at having been compelled to marry a mortal, destroyed 
 six of her children, by throwing them into the flames as soon as bom ; 
 but that the seventh was saved by Peleus, who named him Achilles, 
 from A, and ^£7Xoc,b ecause he lost a lip in the fire. But this is con- 
 trary to Homer himself, who makes Achilles say that Thetis had no 
 other child ; " 'AW eva Tralca riicit'." The poem, ascribed to Sim- 
 miasor Theocritus, which bears the name of Bw/ioc, " an Altar," given 
 to it from the subject, or the shape which it assumes owing to the vari- 
 ous length of the lines, alludes to this story of Achilles in the word 
 airocevvaQ, derived from cnrocuc, "ashes," and evyt), " abed;" if indeed 
 the Commentary in the edition of the Poetse Graeci by Stephanus, said 
 to be taken from some old Scholia, is correct in the explanation which 
 it gives ; for the beginning of the poem is very different in the various 
 editions, and is supposed by some to relate to Troilus. 
 
 213. Paris is intended by the "perfumed youth," who, returning to 
 Troy with Helen, roused the Greeks, who are styled " wasps," to follow 
 and regain her. 
 
 217. Iphigenia, whom the Greeks would have sacrificed at Aulis, in
 
 220 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Pour they those floods of libatory wine ? 
 
 Red to the winds shall flow her fated blood ! 
 
 What ! though enwombed within the sacred shrine 220 
 
 Of her chaste body pant the Dragon boy. 
 
 Whom stern arbitrement of war shall style ! 
 
 Long 'mid the Salmydesian waves shall seek 
 Her hapless bridegroom, and shall waste the hours. 
 The tedious hours, within the whitening isle, 225 
 
 Where feebly through the marish Celtus flows ; 
 And ages of revolving years revere 
 " The Bridegroom's Course" upon the sounding shore, 
 
 order to appease Diana and procure a favourable wind ; but the goddess 
 substituted an hind. The boy, with whom Lycophron tells us she was 
 pregnant, was Neoptolemus, whose name is derived from vioQ, " young," 
 and TTToXefioc, " war." Other authors, however, assert him to have 
 been the son of Achilles, by Deidamia. 
 
 223. Achilles, after the disappearance of Iphigenia, sought for her in 
 Scythia, and, not succeeding, dwelt long in the island Leuce, or White 
 Isle, which was afterwards called the Insula Achillea, and appears to be 
 the same with that of which Calaber introduces Neptune making men- 
 tion to Thetis : 
 
 Kai 01 ciopov tywye 9tovSia vrjaov oiraffaoj 
 
 Ei^tivov Kara ttovtov, k. t. X. 
 
 And Pindar, 
 
 'Ev S' Ev^EviiJ TTfXayei 
 ^aevvav 'AxtXXsvc 
 'Saaov. 
 
 Salmydessus is a river of Thrace, which falls into an inlet of the Euxine, 
 and gives to it the name of the Salmydesian Sea. 
 
 226. Celtus is the name of a lake connected with the northern parts 
 of the Euxine. 
 
 228. The Scholiast on Dionysius tells us, that on the shores of Scythia
 
 CASSANDRA. 22 1 
 
 There where he wept his fruitless search, and sighed. 
 
 Reft of his regal spousals ; but the nymph, 230 
 
 'Mong lustral urns and sacrificial steams. 
 
 Shall blow the flames which round the caldron blaze 
 
 Of Hades, boiling from th' abyss, and still 
 
 With frequent corpses glut it's sable jaws. 
 
 Thus shall he wander on the Scythian shore, 235 
 For five long years shall wander wearily. 
 While thick round Saturn's marble altar swarm 
 The thronging hosts, and view devoured in death 
 The fluttering mother and the callow young. 
 
 An oath ! an oath ! they have an oath in heaven ! 240 
 
 was a broad strand, called Apo/joe 'A^tXXEwe, or " the Course of 
 Achilles :" it is a peninsula near the mouth of the Borysthenes, the 
 shape of which is compared by Pliny to a sword, Pomponius Mela 
 says that Achilles entered those seas with a hostile armament, and cele- 
 brated his victory by games and races : " Cum ab armis quies erat, se 
 etsuos cursu exercitavisse memoratur, ideo dicta est Apo^oc Aj^tXXttoc,-." 
 Lib. II. cap. I. 
 
 230. Iphigenia was priestess of Diana in Scythia, and compelled to 
 sacrifice to the goddess all strangers who were cast upon the shores : 
 See the Iphigenia in Tauris, by Euripides. But all these stories are 
 contrary to Homer, who makes Agamemnon, during the siege of Troy, 
 propose to AchiUes to marry his daughter Iphigenia, or, as she is there 
 called, Iphianassa. 
 
 238. While the Greeks were sacrificing, a serpent was seen to steal 
 to a nest, and devour nine birds, and lastly their mother. Tliis prodigy 
 was interpreted to mean, that Troy should resist for nine years, and be 
 taken in the tenth. 
 
 240. The suitors of Helen bound themselves by an oath to nuiintain
 
 222 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Soon shall their sail be spread, and in their hands 
 
 The strong oar quivering cleave the refluent wave ; 
 
 While songs, and hymns, and carols jubilant 
 
 Shall charm the rosy God, to whom shall rise. 
 
 Rife from Apollo's Delphic shrine, the smoke 245 
 
 Of numerous holocausts : Well pleased shall hear 
 
 Enorches, where the high-hung taper's light 
 
 Gleams on his dread carousals, and when forth 
 
 The Savage rushes on the corny field 
 
 Mad to destroy, shall bid his vines entwist 250 
 
 His sinewy strength, and hurl him to the ground. 
 
 I see the long and linked chain of woes 
 
 in the possession of her whomsoever she should chuse to be her 
 husband. Tliey afterwards renewed their engagement, while the fleet 
 lay wind-bound at AuUs : 
 
 Quam multo repetet Grajcia milite, 
 
 Conjurata tuas rumpere nuptias. Hor. Od. 1. 15. 
 
 245. Agamemnon, according to the Schohast, sacrificed to Bacchus 
 in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, where those Deities were jointly wor- 
 shipped : 
 
 Cui numine misto 
 
 Delphica Thebanse referunt Trieterica Bacchse. 
 
 LucAN. lib. V. 
 
 247. Enorches is a name of Bacchus, who, in return for the sacrifices 
 of Agamemnon, overthrew his enemy Telephus, king of Mysia, by en- 
 tangling his feet in a \-ine. By the " corny field " is meant the Grecian 
 army. In the second of those books, which bear the name of Dictys 
 of Crete, Telephus is said to have stumbled against the tnmk of a vine, 
 while pursuing Ulysses through a vineyard ; at this juncture he was 
 wounded by Achilles in the left thigh. 
 
 252. By the " chain of woes rippling the deep" is meant the line of
 
 CASSANDRA. 223 
 
 Rippling the deep, and drawing on my Troy 
 Wide-wasting storms, and deluges of flame I 
 
 Oh ! ne'er had Cadmus on the beachy verge 255 
 
 Of Issa thee engendered ; thee, the fourth 
 From giant Atlas ; thee, who to the Greeks 
 Shalt prophesy of wars and victories, 
 Prylis, and teach thy kindred blood to flow ! 
 Oh ! that my sire had wrapped in Lemnian flame 260 
 The fated pair, nor scorned the voice divine. 
 And Terrors walking round the couch of sleep 
 In moody march ! then not upon our shores 
 Had burst such billows of o'erwhelming woe. 
 
 And now Palemon, to whom infant shrieks 265 
 
 Grecian ships proceeding against Troy, or perhaps simply that misfor- 
 tune on misfortune would follow the rape of Helen. Martial has an 
 expression similar to Lycophron's mrelpu Kakwr : 
 
 Expectant curaeque, catenatique labores. Lib. 1, Ep. 12. 
 
 256. Lesbos was anciently called Issa : T>/c AtV/soi; Ka\ovi.iti7fc 
 TrpoTepov'IfftTTjQ. Strabo, lib. I. 
 
 259. Mercury was called Cadmus, or Cadmilus, by the Boeotians. 
 (See note on verse 191.) Prylis, his son, is said to be the foui-th from 
 Atlas, because Maia, the mother of Mercury, was daughter to that CJod. 
 The Trojans are called his " kindred blood," because Dardanus was the 
 son of Electra, who was also the daughter of Atlas. 
 
 261. Hecuba and Paris. When the former dreamed that she was 
 delivered of a fire-brand, .^sacus, the son of Priam and Arisba, advised, 
 that, in order to avert the impending calamities, both mother and son 
 should be destroyed ; but with this advice Priam neglected to comply. 
 
 265. Palemon, or Melicerta, was the son of liio, who, flying from
 
 224 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Rise from red furnaces of sacred flame. 
 
 Shall see the plains, where rules the regal spouse 
 
 Of old Oceanus, Titanian queen. 
 
 Rippling with sea-birds, as they wave their wings 
 
 Of corded plumes, and on the waters fly. 270 
 
 And now the dark and damp embrace of Death 
 Entwines the children and the sire ; from high 
 The missile marble rushes on their heads 
 Thundering from stern Pelides' hand : ah ! now. 
 Now what avails that, when the fabling bard 275 
 
 the rage of Athamas, leaped with him, while he was yet an infant, into 
 the sea, where he was received into the rank of marine Deities. He 
 was worshipped at Tenedos, and children were sacrificed at his altars 
 in memorial of his having been himself a child. 
 
 267. Tethys, the wife of Oceanus, was one of the Titans, the children 
 of Earth and Uranus. By the sea-birds are understood the Grecian 
 vessels. 
 
 271. Cycnus, the son of Apollo or Neptune, being shut up in a chest 
 as soon as born, and cast into the sea, was found and educated by some 
 fishermen. He afterwards married Proclea, by whom he had two chil- 
 dren, Tenus and Hemithea. After the death of his wife he married 
 Phylonome, or Polybea, who, according to Plutarch, became enamoured 
 of Tenus, and enraged at his not returning her passion, suborned Mol- 
 pus, a musician, to swear that Tenus had ofifered violence to his step- 
 mother. Cycnus confined his children in the chest, and set them adrift ; 
 but they floated to the island of Leucophrys, of which Tenus became 
 king, and called it, from his own name, Tenedos. Cycnus, having dis- 
 covered the truth, slew Phylonome, and came to dwell at Tenedos, but 
 was killed by Achilles, together with his son. Hemithea, while flying 
 from the conqueror, was swallowed up by the earth.
 
 CASSANDRA. 
 
 225 
 
 Poured his rank venom in their father's ears, 
 
 Safely they rode upon the surging wave 
 
 In crazy bark, as erst had roamed their sire. 
 
 Consorting long with dolphins of the deep. 
 
 And forms marine, till tangled in the nets 280 
 
 Of labouring mariners ? And with them lies 
 
 Mnemon, whose mind the Nereid Mother stored 
 
 With precepts sage ; but Memory to his eyes 
 
 Ne'er shall unroll her truth-recording page, 
 
 Till biting falchions feast upon his gore. 285 
 
 Hark, how Myrinna groans ! the shores resound 
 With snorting steeds, and furious chivalry : 
 Down leaps the Wolf, to lap the blood of kings, 
 
 282. Mnemon was placed near Achilles by Thetis, in order to remind 
 him that death would be the consequence of his slaying a son of Apollo ; 
 but he forgot the admonition, and was killed by AchiUes for his negli- 
 gence, as soon as that hero perceived that in putting Cycnus to death 
 he had unwarily fulfilled the prediction. Meursius says that Mnemon is 
 not a proper name, but signifies " a monitor," and understands it to 
 allude to Phoenix : but Lycophron, in a subsequent passage, tells us that 
 Phoenix survived Achilles. 
 
 286. Myrinna was a town not far from Troy, so called from the tomb 
 of Myrinna the Amazon. Homer says that it was called Batiea by 
 mortals, but Myrinna by the gods : 
 
 Trjv ijToi dvS(>ig BarUiav KiK\r](TK0V(rii', 
 'AQdvaroi Se n (S?){ia iroKvaKapdj.ioio MupiVvijc- 
 
 It was at this place that the Trojans collected an army to oppose the 
 Greeks. 
 
 288. Achilles, who is said to have leaped down from his ship with 
 such force that a fountain sprung up from under his heel. This story is 
 mentioned by Euripides. 
 
 Q
 
 226 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Down oil our strand ; within her wounded breast 
 Earth feels the stroke, and pours the fateful stream 290 
 On high, the fountains of the deep disclosed. 
 
 Now Mars showers down a fiery sleet, and winds 
 His trumpet-shell, distilling blood, and now. 
 Knit with the Furies and the Fates in dance, 
 Leads on the dreadfid revelry ; the fields 295 
 
 With iron harvests of embattled spears 
 Gleam ; from the towers I hear a voice of woe 
 Rise to the stedfast Empyrean ; crowds 
 Of zoneless matrons rend their flowing robes. 
 And sobs and shrieks cry loud unto the night 300 
 
 One woe is past ! — another woe succeeds ! 
 
 This, this shall gnaw my heart ! then shall I feel 
 The venomed pang, the rankling of the soul. 
 
 293. Shells were used by the ancients instead of trumpets : hence 
 Theocritus, 
 
 KO)(\ov tXCov fxvKaaaTO KoiXov. 
 He sounded an hollow shell. 
 
 It is difficult to prove a writer of prophecy guilty of an anachronism, 
 more especially when speaking of a Deity; but it does not appear from 
 Homer that trumpets were used at the time of the Trojan war, since he 
 only mentions them in a simile. Virgil has either overlooked or disre- 
 garded this, when he gives Misenus to ^Eneas as a trumpeter : 
 
 Quo non prsestantior alter 
 .^re ciere viros, Martemque accendere cantu. JE^. VI. 164. 
 
 302. The following passage alludes to the death of Hector, and to 
 the circumstance of his being dragged at the chariot- wheels of Achilles, 
 who is called an eagle.
 
 CASSANDRA. 227 
 
 Then when the Eagle, bony and gaunt and grim. 
 
 Shall wave his shadowy wings, and plough the winds 305 
 
 On clanging penns, and o'er the subject plain 
 
 Wheel his wide-circling flight in many a gyre. 
 
 Pounce on his prey, scream loud with savage joy, 
 
 And plunge his talons in my Brother's breast, 
 
 (My best beloved, my Father's dear delight, 310 
 
 Our hope, our stay !) then, soaring to the clouds. 
 
 Shower down his blood upon his native woods. 
 
 And bathe the terrors of his beak in gore. 
 
 I see the Murderer trim with reeking hands 
 The golden balance nicely poised ; but soon, 315 
 
 In mortal mart, and dread exchange of war. 
 For him the beam shall vibrate, and for him 
 With shining ingots, and with precious sands 
 Gleaned from Pactolian shores the scale shall gleam. 
 Ere in that urn, which erst the rosy God 320 
 
 314. Achilles restored the body of Hector to Priam upon condition 
 that he should receive a great weight of gold : when therefore he was 
 himself slain by Paris in the temple of Apollo Thymbraeus, the Trojans 
 refused to give up his body unless the ransom was refunded. 
 
 316. "O xp?)(Ta/tot/3oc c' 'A.py}C trw/uirojv, 
 
 ^scHVL. Agam. 447. 
 which lines are thus translated by Potter : 
 
 Thus in the dire exchange of war 
 
 Does Mars the balance hold. 
 Helms are the scales, the beam a spear, 
 And blood is weighed for gold. 
 320. The urn which contained the ashes of Achilles was given to 
 Thetis by Bacchus,
 
 228 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Gave to the Daughter of the Waves, be laid 
 
 His funeral ashes mouldering ; him the Nymphs 
 
 Shall mourn, who love the streams of Bephyrus, 
 
 Or waters welling from Pimplean founts 
 
 Beside Libethrus, and shall heave the sigh 325 
 
 For him, who, not for pity, but for gold, 
 
 Gave the sad remnants of the mighty dead ; 
 
 Who, fearing death, shall round his sturdy limbs 
 
 Throw the soft foldings of the female robe 
 
 Effeminate, and tease the housewife's wool ; 330 
 
 Who last shall print upon our sand his steps. 
 
 His tardy steps, and oft from troubled sleep. 
 
 As Hector's image walks around the bed. 
 
 Start at the lance's visionary gleam. 
 
 323. Bephyrus is a river of Macedonia ; but Pausanias tells us that 
 Helicon is so called when it rises again after having lost itself in the 
 earth. Libethrus is a mountain of Macedonia, according to Tzetzes ; 
 but Pausanias gives the name of Libethra to a city near Mount Olympus, 
 Boeot. cap. xxx, Pliny calls Libethra a fountain near Magnesia : 
 Thessalise adnexa Magnesia, cujus fons Libethra." lib. IV. cap. 9. 
 Pimpla is a fountain, or a hQl according to Catullus and others. By 
 the Nymphs, Lycophron may mean the Muses, who are called Libe- 
 thrides ; though Pausanias tells us, that at the distance of forty stadia 
 from Coronea was the mountain Libethrius, where were the statues of 
 the Muses and the Libethrian Nymphs. Paus. cap. xxxiv. 
 
 Movffai S' fvvka iraaai afiiijiofiivai owi KaXy 
 
 Qpijveov. HoM. Odyss. 
 
 328. Thetis, when the oracle declared that Achilles would die before 
 Trov, sent him to the island of Scyros, where he remained some time 
 in the court of Lycomedes, disguised as a virgin. See the Achilleid of 
 Statins, and the Fragment of Moschus on the Loves of Achilles and 
 Dei'damia.
 
 CASSANDRA. 229 
 
 Oh God ! what column of our house, what stay, 335 
 What massy bulwark fit to bear the weight 
 Of mightiest monarchies, hast thou o'erthrown ! 
 But not without sharp pangs the Dorian host 
 Shall scoff our tears, and mock our miseries. 
 And, as the corpse in sad procession rolls, 340 
 
 Shall laugh the loud and bitter laugh of scorn. 
 When through the blazing helms and blazing prows 
 Pale crowds shall rush, and with uplifted hands 
 And earnest prayer invoke protector Jove 
 Vainly ; for then nor foss, nor earthly mound, 345 
 
 Nor bars, nor bolts, nor massy walls, though flanked 
 With beetling towers, and rough with palisades. 
 Ought shall avail ; but (thick as clustering bees. 
 When sulphurous steams ascend, and sudden flames 
 Invade their populous cells) down from the barks, 350 
 Heaps upon heaps, the dying swarms shall roll. 
 And temper foreign furrows with their gore ! 
 
 Then thrones, and kingdoms, potentates whose veins 
 
 335. Cassandra calls Hector the column and support of the House of 
 Priam : 
 
 With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
 The weight of mightiest monarchies. 
 
 Milton, Par. Lost. 
 
 342. Hector, in the Iliad, pursues the Grecians to their entrench- 
 ments, bursts the gate, and sets their vessels on fire. Homer informs 
 us that these fortifications consisted of a wall and foss, defended by 
 palisades : 
 
 'EktooOiv St (iaOiiav in' aiTip ra^poi'opu^oj', 
 
 Vjvpfiav, fiiya\t)v, iv ?e (tkoXottu^ KaTfTrt)^ai>. 11. H'. 440.
 
 230 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Swell high with noble blood, whose falchions mow 
 ** The ranks, and squadrons, and right forms of war," 
 Down e'en to earth thy dreaded hands shall crush, 356 
 Loaded with death, and maddening for the fray. 
 But I shall bear the weight of woe, but I 
 Shall shed the ceaseless tear ; for sad the dawn. 
 And sad the day shall rise when thou art slain ! 360 
 Saddest, while Time athwart the deep serene 
 Rolls on the silver circle of the moon. 
 
 Thee too I weep ; no more thy youthful form 
 Shall blossom with new beauties, now no more 
 Thy brother's arms shall twine about thy neck 365 
 
 In strict embrace, but to the Dragon's heart 
 Swift shalt thou send thy shafts entipped with flame. 
 And round his bosom weave the limed nets 
 Of love ; but loathing shall possess thy soul ; 
 Thy blood shall flow upon thy father's hearth, 370 
 
 And low the glories of thine head shall lie. 
 
 Ah me ! thy sorrows, and thine altered form ! 
 
 363. Troilus, whom Achilles passionately loved; but meeting with 
 no return of affection, slew him in the temple of Apollo Thymbrseus, 
 whose son he was reported to be by Hecuba, though Priam was his re- 
 puted father. 
 
 TO. yua TTVQi TravTci liiSaTrrai. 
 
 MoscHus, 'Epw^ ApuTT. 
 
 For all the shafts of love are dipped in flame. 
 
 372. The first line of this section refers to Hecuba, who was changed 
 into a dog ; and the second to the sisters of Cassandra, Laodice and 
 Polyxena.
 
 CASSANDRA. 23 I 
 
 And you, ye sad harmonious niglitingales ! 
 
 For one the riven earth shall wide disclose 
 
 A horrid chasm, and hell shall gape beneath, 375 
 
 E'en in that grove, where oft the Heifer strayed 
 
 Awaiting secret love, there where my Sire 
 
 Sent forth the dread behest, and in one fate 
 
 Involved the mother and her child, ere yet 
 
 With lustral dews and purifying streams 380 
 
 The hapless nymph had purged Lucina's stain. 
 
 Thee shall the Lion son of Iphis drag 
 
 374. Laodice, lamenting the miseries of her situation, and the misfor- 
 tunes of her country, asked and obtained that the earth might open and 
 swallow her up, before she was dragged into captivity : 
 Kai TOTS TTOV Tlpidixoio iroXvKTi'iTouy Ovyarpa 
 AaoSiKi]v iv'iTTovcTiv tf alGepa x^^C'^S opt^ai 
 Evxon'svi]v fiaKctptrrmv ciTtipiaiv, o^(j« « yaia 
 'Afi(pi-)(cn'y, Trpiv x«pa fSaktXv iiri SovXia spyct' 
 TjjC ^' Oidv TiQ cLKOvai, Kui avTiKa yetiav tvepOfv 
 'PTl^tv aTTtipicriTjv. Cai.ab. lib. xii. 
 
 376. Lycophron tells us that Laodice was swallowed uj) by the earth 
 in the grove where Cilia and her son were put to death by order of 
 Priam, who chose to understand the prediction of -^sacus as applying 
 to them. (See note on verse 261.) The name of the son of Cilia is no 
 where mentioned in this poem ; but the Scholiast calls him Munippus, 
 and accuses his author of confounding him with Munippus the son of 
 Laodice, of whom mention is made in a subsequent passage : but as 
 Canter has truly observed, Lycophron has' no where named Munippus, 
 and calls the son of Laodice " Munitus." The supposed inconsistency 
 results therefore from the mistake of the Scholiast, who should have 
 been more sure of his grovmd before he ventured to call his author 
 o /3af)/3apoc Kal aivpotrtKToq AvKofpioy, i. e. " the barbarous and intoler- 
 able Lycophron." 
 
 382. Polyxena was betrothed to Achilles, whose phantom appeared
 
 232 CASSANDRA. 
 
 To bloody rites, and nuptial sacrifice. 
 
 Like his dark mother on the Taurid shore. 
 
 Who, crowned with chaplets of infernal bloom, 385 
 
 Shall stand, and pour her life into the bowl. 
 
 What time her side shall feel Candaon's blade. 
 
 Raised by the priestly Dragon, who from oaths 
 
 Shall free the wolves which howl about her tomb. 
 
 Thee, venting curses on the Thracian shore, 390 
 
 The stony shower shall crush, and high shall rise 
 The rocky mount upon thy mangled limbs. 
 Changed to a dog, thy fierce eyes glaring fire ! 
 
 after his death, and commanded the Greeks to sacrifice her at his tomb. 
 By " the Lion son of Iphis" is meant Neoptolemus the son of Achilles 
 and Iphigenia ; (other authors make him the son of Deidamia ;) for 
 Iphis is merely a contraction, and not, as Meursius erroneously imagines, 
 a daughter of Helen and Theseus, of whom mention is made by Festus. 
 
 QvfiaTOQ c iTTiaraTTfc 
 'lepsvc iirkarn rovCi ttoXq 'Aj^iXXfwc- Hecub. Eurip. 
 
 385. Doubts have been entertained whether, in the original, by 
 " the Heifer crowned with flowers" is meant Polyxena or Iphigenia. The 
 circumstance of the Greeks having been bound by an oath seems to re- 
 strict the meaning of the passage to the latter ; in which case, as it was 
 the second time they had sworn to assist the husband of Helen, by the 
 words TrpioTocrfaKTOi' bpKiov Lycophron must mean the first oath conse- 
 crated by sacrifice. 
 
 390. Hecuba was carried away captive into Thrace after the destruc- 
 tion of Troy. She was there stoned by the Greeks, who were incensed 
 by the bitterness of her reproaches, and was afterwards said to have 
 been changed into a dog. 
 
 394. Literallv, " stretched at the altar of Agamemnon." Jupiter
 
 CASSANDRA. 233 
 
 Stretched at the altar of Hercean Jove, 
 His grizzled locks shall sweep the marble floor, 395 
 
 Clotted with blood, whom, tor his sister's veil 
 Ransomed, again the conqueror sent to view 
 His ruined city rushing from her seat ; 
 Whene'er the wily Serpent shall display 
 The torch on high, whose meteor flame shall gleam 400 
 With baleful glories and fell floods of light, 
 Then loose the bars, and free the prisoned host 
 Who pant for blood within the piny womb ; 
 And he, the subtle son of Sisyphus, 
 Shall teach his perjured kinsman to unveil 405 
 
 The guiding star, the cresset of the night, 
 To those who, steering by Leucophrys' rock, 
 
 was called Agamemnon, and vice versa. (See Note on verse 1596.) 
 Virgil tells us that Priam was killed at the altar of Hercean Jove. 
 
 396. After the conflagration of Troy by Hercules, Priam was ran- 
 somed with the veil of his sister Hesione, on which occasion he assumed 
 the name of Priam, from irpinfjMi, " to buy," because his sister iirpiuru 
 KaXvTrT^ar yvyaiKeictQ. Eustath. — Till then he had been called Podarces. 
 
 399. The Serpent is Antenor, who is said to have betrayed Troy to 
 the Greeks, seduced by their promises to make him king, and to have 
 released them from their confinement in the wooden horse. 
 
 404. Ulysses is perpetually called the son of Sisyphus by the trage- 
 dians ; Laertes, his reputed father, having married Anticlea while 
 pregnant. 
 
 40.5. Sinon was first-cousin to Ulysses, for Ji^symus his father was 
 brother to Anticlea. Sinon deceived Priam by representing himself as 
 a deserter from the Grecian army. See the /Eneid. 
 
 407. Leucophrvs was the ancient name of Tenedos, whither tlie 
 Greeks retired to induce u belief that tliev had abandoned their designs
 
 234 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Shall pass those isles where sleep the venomed coil, 
 Who round the sons, and round the sire, shall twine 
 Their folds, and tie the snaky knot of death. 410 
 
 But I, who fled the bridal yoke, who count 
 The tedious moments, closed in dungeon walls 
 Dark and o'er-canopied with massy stone ; 
 E'en I, who drove the genial God of Day 
 Far from my couch, nor heeded that he rules 415 
 
 The Hours, Eternal beam ! essence divine ! 
 Who vainly hoped to live pure as the maid. 
 The Laphrian virgin, till decrepid age 
 
 against Troy. From this island came the serpents which destroyed 
 Laocoon and his two sons. 
 
 411. Apollo conferred upon Cassandra the gift of prophecy, on condi- 
 tion that she should yield to his desires; but when he discovered her 
 deceit, and found himself unable to resume his gift, he decreed that her 
 prophecies should never be believed : 
 
 Dei jussu non unquam credita Teucris. 
 Of this incredulity she is represented as complaining towards the end of 
 this poem : 
 
 niarLv \6yiov yap Aeif/ttiig iv6(J<pi.<yt 
 
 '^ivdiip'ioiQ (piifxaimv eyxpjcrac ^tj;, 
 
 Kai GtcTcpaTiov Trpojuavrtj' d;|/fD^j} (ppovip, 
 
 AsKTpwv ffTepijGiiQiWV tKaXxan'tv Tvxiiv. Verse 1434. 
 
 Such woes has Lepsieus heaped upon my head. 
 Steeping my words in incredulity ; 
 The jealous God! for from my virgin couch 
 I drove him amorous, nor returned his love. 
 
 She was consequently considered as mad, and inclosed by Priam in a 
 vaulted dungeon. 
 
 418. The epithet "Laphrian," given to Minerva, is by some gram-
 
 CASSANDRA. 235 
 
 Should starve my cheeks, and wither all my prime ; 
 
 Vainly shall call on the Budean queen, 420 
 
 Dragged like a dove unto the vulture's hed ! 
 
 But she, who from the lofty throne of Jove 
 
 Shot like a star, and shed her looks benign 
 
 On Ilus, such as in his soul infused 
 
 Sovereign delight, upon the sculptured roof 425 
 
 Furious shall glance her ardent eyes ; then Greece 
 
 For this one crime, aye for this one, shall weep 
 
 marians derived from An^vpa, " spoils," and considered as synoiiimous 
 with Ageleia, otTro tJ dyeif Xeiay. This conjecture derives support 
 from the name being also ascribed to Mercury, among whose attributes 
 skill in stealing holds a very conspicuous place : 
 
 Kai tot' h/dvuTO TraTca ■ko\vtqotzov, aiyiv\ofiiiTr]v, 
 AjfiaTlip'. HoM. Hymn, in Mercur. 
 
 But Pausanias says that she was worshipped under that name bv the 
 Calydonians, and Messenians, because her statue was erected by 
 Laphrius, a Phocian. 
 
 420. Budean is an epithet of Minerva, given to her in Thessalv. 
 " 3ovceiar Xiynvaii' 'A0>jj'a)' ey GeffortX/^." Eustath. 
 
 422. The palladium or statue of the Goddess is said to have fallen 
 from heaven, and to have rendered by it's presence the city impregnable. 
 When the temple in which it was enshrined was on fire, Ilus rushed in 
 and rescued it from the flames : he lost his sight, but it was restored by 
 the favour of Minerva. 
 
 425. Cassandra was violated by Ajax Oileus in the temple of Mi- 
 nerva, whose statue averted her eyes, and fixed them upon the roof, 
 that she might not behold that abomination. 
 
 427. The crime of Ajax is said by Juno in the yEneid to have been 
 the sole cause why Pallas dispersed the Grecian fleet : 
 Pallasne exurere classeni 
 Argiv6m, atquc ipsos potuit siibmergerc ponto, 
 Unius ob noxam et furias Ajacis Oilei T Virg. A'.n. I. 39.
 
 236 CASSANDKA. 
 
 Myriads of sons ; wo funeral urn, but rocks 
 
 Shall hearse their bones ; no friends upon their dust 
 
 Shall pour the dark libations of the dead ; 430 
 
 A name, a breath, an empty sound remains, 
 
 A fruitless marble warm with bitter tears 
 
 Of sires, and orphan babes, and widowed wives ! 
 
 Ye cliffs of Zarax, and ye waves which wash 
 Opheltes' crags, and melancholy shore, 435 
 
 Ye rocks of Trychas, Nedon's dangerous heights, 
 Dirphossian ridges, and Diacrian caves. 
 Ye plains where Phorcys broods upon the deep. 
 And founds his floating palaces, what sobs 
 Of dying men shall ye not hear ? what groans 440 
 
 Of masts and wrecks^ all crashing in the wind ? 
 What mighty waters, whose receding waves 
 Bursting shall rend the continents of earth ? 
 What shoals shall writhe upon the sea-beat rocks ? 
 
 434. Cassandra proceeds to enumerate the promontories on which 
 the Grecian vessels shall suffer shipwreck. Opheltes, Zarax, Nedon, 
 Dirphossus or Dirphys, and the Diacrian Heights, are mountains or 
 headlands of Euboea. Trychas is said to be a city, by Stephanus. By 
 the palace of Phorcys is meant the sea, in which he resided as a marine 
 deity. 
 
 444, Literally, " How many thunny-fishes }" The metaphor is bor- 
 rowed from the Persse of ^schylus, in which tragedy he compares to 
 thunny-fishes the subjects of the Great King, after having sustained a 
 defeat in a decisive naval engagement : 
 
 Toi S' looTS Ovvvovc, »/ riv' l^Qvbjv /36Xov 
 'Ayalfft KoiTTwi', 6pat'i/i«(T(V r' tp«i7ritt)v 
 
 "ETTrttOJ'.
 
 CASSANDRA. 237 
 
 While through the mantling majesty of clouds 445 
 
 Descending thunderbolts shall blast their limbs, 
 
 Who erst came heedless on, nor knew their course, 
 
 (iiddy with wine, and mad with jollity, 
 
 While on the cliffs the nightly felon sat 
 
 Tn baleful guidance, waving in his hand 450 
 
 The luring flame far streaming o'er the main. 
 
 One, like a sea-bird floating on the foam, 
 The rush of waves shall dash between the rocks, 
 On Gyr^e's height spreading his dripping wings 
 To catch the drying gales, and sun his plumes ; 455 
 But rising in his might the King of Floods 
 
 In the translation, for Qvvi'mv is substituted a word of more general sig- 
 nification, but which preserves the metaphor. 
 
 449. Nauplius, who was enraged at the death of his son Palamedes, 
 destroyed by Ulysses and Diomede, (see the books which pass under the 
 name of Dictys of Crete) went round to every Grecian court, and ex- 
 cited the wives of the several princes to rebel against their absent hus- 
 bands. In furtherance of his plan of revenge, he hung out false lights 
 on the Capharean promontory, by which means the Grecian fleet was 
 decoyed upon the coasts of Euboea. Helen. Eurip. 
 
 452. Ajax Oileus saved himself upon the rocks called Gyrae. or 
 Gyrades, which rise out of the /Egean Sea : 
 
 rypyfft fiiv Trpiira Iloffftcaoii' iiviKaaai 
 
 ITf roj/ffi fiiyaXyai., Ka'i i^taatuai OaXaaaijt;. Od. A . 
 
 456. Ajax boasted that he had escaped against the will of the Gods, 
 on which Neptune dashed him into the sea with a stroke of his trident . 
 
 Tow Si UooiiSaiav ntyaX' iKXvtr av( ijrravroi: 
 
 AvrtK tiriiTa T(tiaivav iXdiv X*?"^' ffrt/SnpyffH', 
 
 "H/\aff£ rvpahjv irirpt^v, airb c' taxK^fv avrijv. Verse 505.
 
 338 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Shall dash the boaster with his forky mace 
 
 Sheer from the marble battlements, to roam 
 
 With ores, and screaming gulls, and forms marine ; 
 
 And on the shore his mangled corpse shall lie, 460 
 
 E'en as a dolphin, withering in the beams 
 
 Of Sol, 'mid weedy refuse of the surge 
 
 And bedded heaps of putrifying ooze ; 
 
 These sad remains the Nereid shall inurn, 
 
 The silver-footed dame beloved of Jove, 465 
 
 And by th' Ortygian Isle shall rise the tomb. 
 
 O'er which the white foam of the billowy wave 
 
 Shall dash, and shake the marble sepulchre 
 
 Rocked by the broad ^Egean ; to the shades 
 
 His sprite shall flit, and sternly chide the Queen 470 
 
 Of soft desires, the Melinean dame. 
 
 Who round him shall entwine the subtle net. 
 
 And breathe upon his soul the blast of love. 
 
 If love it may be called, — a sudden gust, 
 
 A transient flame, a self-consuming fire, 475 
 
 A meteor lighted by the Furies' torch. 
 
 464. The corpse of Ajax was buried by Thetis on the shores of Delos, 
 which island was called Ortygia, from oprv^, ortyx, because Asteria, the 
 sister of Latona, was changed into a quail, and afterwards, by a farther 
 metamorphosis, into the island Delos. We are told by CaUimachus 
 that Asteria was the more ancient name. The tomb was afterwards 
 covered with water by an irruption of the sea. 
 
 471. The Schohast derives the epithet "Melinaean" fi'om ^e'Xt, m4li, 
 "honey;" but Stephanus, with whom Potter appears to coincide in 
 opinion, says that the name was given to Venus from Melina a town of 
 Argos. MAoa, tzoXiq ' ApyovQ, U(f t/Q 'A<ppoclrr} MeXiyaia riyuarat.
 
 CASSANDRA. 239 
 
 Woe ! woe ! inextricable woe, and sounds 
 Of sullen sobs shall echo round the shore 
 From where Arasthus rolls to where on high 
 Libethrian Dotium rears his massy gates ! 480 
 
 What groans shall peal on Acherusian banks 
 To hymn my spousals ! how upon the soul. 
 Voice, other than the voice of joy, shall swell. 
 When many a hero floating on the wave 
 Sea-monsters shall devour with bloody jaws ! 485 
 
 When many a warrior stretched upon the strand 
 Shall feel the thoughts of home rush on his heart, 
 " By strangers honom-ed, and by strangers mourned !" 
 
 One, where Bisaltian Eon by the shores 
 Of freezing Strymon rises high, shall sleep 490 
 
 The sleep of death, where winter on the plains 
 Of chill Bistonia broods with icy wing ; 
 No more shall flourish in his fostering hand 
 
 479. Arsethus is a river of Epirus, and Dotium a promontory of 
 Olympus, near Libethra. The space included between tliese places 
 comprehends the whole of Greece, of which they are the extreme points. 
 
 489. Cassandra proceeds to enumerate the places whither the Greeks 
 shall retire, and the countries which shall give them burial. She be- 
 gins her list with Phcenix, who was excited by his mother Cleobule to 
 seduce Clytia the concubine of his father Amyntor : Phoenix obeyed ; 
 but Amyntor discovering the pollution of his bed, put out the eyes of 
 his son, who fled to Chiron the centaur, by whom he was restored to 
 sight, and entrusted with the education of Achilles. Eon is a city of 
 Thrace, situated upon the river Strymon, on whose right inhabit the 
 tribe of the Bisaltse. The Ristones lie between Mount Rhodopc and 
 the ^gean Sea, bounded on the east by the river Nessus or Nestus.
 
 240 
 
 CASSANDRA. 
 
 The youthful hero ; ne'er upon his eyes 
 
 Shall swell Tymphrestus, where his angry sire 495 
 
 Cursed the polluter of his parent's bed, 
 
 And quenched in night his ineffectual orbs. 
 
 Three shall the woods of Cercaphus entomb 
 Near Hales' stream ; there shall the tuneful Svvan 
 Sing, falsely sing, what farrow shall produce 500 
 
 The sylvan mother, when the rival bards 
 Provoke the conflict of prophetic song. 
 Death to the vanquished ! — thus ordained the God. 
 
 With him the fourth from Erecthean Jove 
 Shall sleep inurned, whom fabling ^thon feigned 505 
 His kinsman, when he wove the subtle tale 
 
 495. Tjinphrestus is a mountain of Trachis. 
 
 498. These three are, Calchas the prophet, Idomeneus, and Sthenelus, 
 who were buried in the forests of Cercaphus, a mountain of Colophon, 
 near the river Hales. Calchas was doomed by the oracles to die when- 
 ever he found one more skilful than himself in divination : he was sur- 
 passed in a contest with Mopsus the son of Apollo, who foretold the 
 number of young with which a sow was pregnant, which problem 
 Calchas was unable to resolve. 
 
 504. Minos, the son of Jupiter, begot Deucalion, the father of Ido- 
 meneus, who on his return to Crete, after the destruction of Troy, was 
 driven from the island by Leucus, to whom he had entrusted the guar- 
 dianship of his family. (See verse 1422.) The Schohast is mistaken 
 when he supposes Lycophron to say that Idomeneus wandered from 
 Troy to Calchas; he merely asserts them to have both been buried 
 upon the same mountain. 
 
 505. Ulvises, on his return to Ithaca, assumed the name of .Ethon,
 
 CASSANDRA. 24 1 
 
 The third, whose sire with more than mortal arm 
 Shook the strong walls of Thebes, but lightening flames 
 Rushed down, and on his head the fiery flood 
 Burst dreadful, launched from the red arm of Jove ; 510 
 What time the Daughters of Tartarean Night 
 Rose sable-stoled, their eyes with Gorgon glare 
 Frowned on the brothers of their impious sire. 
 Scattering the flames of hate, the thirst of blood. 
 Infernal strife, and dire exchange of death. 515 
 
 Two near the streams of Pyramus shall fall 
 By mutual wounds ; around each priestly head 
 The sacred fillet shall be dyed in gore : 
 I hear, beneath those towers where reigned the Queen, 
 
 and gave himself out as the son of Deucalion and brother of Idomeneus. 
 
 AevKaXiujv di fi triKTE, Kai 'l^o^fvj/a ch'aKra, 
 'AAA' 6 [.iiv h' vi'itaoi Koohjviaiv 'IXiov tiffoj 
 'Qx^t' li/i' ' ATpti6t](nv,tnoi S' bvojia kKvtov AWiov. 
 
 HoM. Od. T'. 181. 
 
 507. Capaneus, the father of Sthenelus, was one of the seven chiefs 
 who fought against Thebes ; and while he boasted that he would take 
 the city, even though the Gods should oppose him, he was blasted by 
 the lightnings of Jupiter. 
 
 "Ho// o' VTTtQ^aivovTa yiinaa Ttix^ojv 
 BdWsi K£()avv(^ TitvQ viv, iKTvirijcrk Ss 
 X9iov. EuRiP. PhcEniss. 
 
 513. Eteocles, and Polynices, the sons of GEdipus by his incestuous 
 marriage with Jocasta. In the same manner Sophocles has called 
 CEdipus aceXipoc avruc kuI ~a~))^. 
 
 516. Mopsus, and Amphilochus, both priests of Apollo, died of mutual 
 wounds on the banks of Pyramus, a river of Cilicia, according to He- 
 sychius. 
 
 R
 
 242 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Daughter of Pamphylus, I hear the twain 520 
 
 Raise the last shout of hattailous dehght ; 
 
 I see Megarsus rising to the air 
 
 Between their tombs, that in the jaws of Death, 
 
 Purpled with blood, upon their hateful eyes 
 
 The hostile sepulchre may never gleam. 525 
 
 Five to Sphecea, to Cerastia's heights, 
 To Satrachus shall steer, to Hyle's grove. 
 There burn the incense, there with supple knees 
 Adore Zerinthian Morpho, graceful queen. 
 
 522. Megarsus is a town of Cilicia, according to Pliny, (others make 
 it a mountain) so called from Megarsus the daughter of Pamphylus, 
 who gave his name to Pamphylia. The sepulchres in which the pro- 
 phets were buried were situated on opposite sides of the city. 
 
 526. Teucer, Agapenor, Acamas, Praxander, and Cepheus took re- 
 fuge in Cyprus, which was formerly called Sphecea, or Cerastia, which 
 latter name is by some derived from Kepara, " horns," in allusion to the 
 mountainous nature of the island : but according to others, Venus 
 changed the inhabitants into bulls, in order to punish their inhumanity 
 towards strangers : 
 
 Atque illos, gemino quondam quibus aspera cornu 
 Frons erat, unde etiam nomen traxere Cerastae. 
 
 Ovid. Metam. X. 222. 
 
 527. Satrachus was a city, and also a river, of Cyprus. Hyle took 
 its name from a grove where Apollo was worshipped under the name of 
 'YXarrie, or " Sylvan." 
 
 52.9. Venus was called Morpho from her being the Goddess of Form 
 and Beauty ; and Zerinthian, from Zerinthus a cavern of Thrace, and 
 which, according to Stephanus, is also the name of a town near ^^i^nus. 
 Ovid places the Zerinthian shores by Samothrace :
 
 CASSANDRA. 243 
 
 One, through whose veins my kindred blood shall 
 
 flow 530 
 
 Ah, bitter kinsman ! from Cychrean caves. 
 From streams of Bocarus shall fly ; for Fame 
 Shall style him Murderer of the maddening king 
 His brother, who on flocks and herded kine 
 Shall pour his erring rage ; whose sinewy strength 535 
 The tawny robe, and lion's shaggy spoil 
 Circling enwraps ; whom nought of keen can pierce 
 Impenetrable ; one only mortal part 
 The Scythian quiver, like an ample shield. 
 Guards from the war : So prayed the chief, nor prayed 
 In vain, when, bowing to the King of Heaven, 
 He poured the blood of victims on the earth. 
 And waved the Eagle infant in his arms. 
 
 Venimus ad portus, Imbria terra, tuos ; 
 Inde levi vento Zcrinthia littora nactis 
 Threiciam tetigit fessa carina Samon. Ovid. Trist. 1. 9. 
 
 530. Teucer was son of Telamon and Hesione the sister of Priam, 
 and consequently cousin to Cassandra. On his return from Troy to 
 Salamis, he was driven into exile by his father, who imagined him to 
 have betrayed the cause of his brother Ajax. (See Ilor. Od. I. 7.) 
 Salamis was formerly called Cychrca, according- to Strabo ; it contained 
 a city of the same name, near to which flowed the river Bocarus, called 
 afterwards Bocalias. 
 
 534. Ajax, in a fit of madness, destroyed a flock of sheep, thinking 
 he revenged his wrongs upon the Atrida;. When he regained his reason 
 he committed suicide. (See Sophocles, Ajax Flagell.) 
 
 540. Hercules visited the palace of Telamon while the latter wa?- 
 offering sacrifice, and presented the infant Ajax with the lion's skin, 
 and prayed to Jupiter to make him invulnerable.
 
 244 CASSANDRA. 
 
 What, though Persuasion from his honied lips 
 
 Drop balm, yet never shall the sire believe 545 
 
 That HE, the Lemnian thunderbolt of war. 
 
 The mighty bull, whom Terror ne'er subdued 
 
 To flight or fearing, seized the fatal gift. 
 
 Raised high in air the suicidal hand. 
 
 Then stabbed, and breathed his sullen soul away. 550 
 
 But far the father from his isle shall drive 
 
 Trambelus' brother, whom to light and life 
 
 Brought forth that sister of my sire, whom erst 
 
 His prize of battle the destroyer bore. 
 
 When maddening multitudes had cast the nymph 555 
 
 (So bade the glozing orator, whose bed 
 
 Three daughters graced) unto the sea-born ore, 
 
 Who poured profuse from his capacious jaws 
 
 Black briny waves, and tempested the plain ; 
 
 He seized his prey, but found no trembling bird, 560 
 
 546. Ajax, whom Telamon never shall believe to have committed 
 suicide. 
 
 548. The sword with which Ajax killed himself was the gift of 
 Hector : 
 
 Aaipov ixtv avSpoQ^Ek-Topog, ^kvwv ifiol 
 
 MaXurro f.u<ji]9kvT0Q, ix^icyTOV 6' opav. Sophocles. 
 
 552. Trambelus was brother to Teucer, and half-brother to Ajax : he 
 was born at Miletus, whither Hesione, while pregnant, had fled from 
 Telamon, to whom she was given by Hercules after his conquest of 
 Troy. 
 
 553. Hesione, whom Phsenodamas proposed to substitute for one of 
 his three daughters. (See Note on verse 34.) By the Scorpion is meant 
 Hercules, who leaped down the throat of the monster, and cut his way 
 throuffh the entrails.
 
 CASSANDRA. 245 
 
 But scorpion stings, and bitter birtli of woe. 
 
 Second shall see this isle the rural chief. 
 And hear the voice divine, (who first inhaled 
 This air of life, where 'mid the wintry blast 
 In glowing embers roast their acorn food 565 
 
 Sons of the Dryad ; whose dread ancestors. 
 Ere yet the moon unveiled her peerless light. 
 Like howling wolves obscene, athwart the gloom 
 Roamed nightly ;) there the ruddy mass of ore 
 He seeks, and lurking orichalc, through veins 570 
 
 And rich recess of avaricious earth ; 
 He seeks, whose sire pierced by th' (Etean tusk 
 
 562 The second who came into the island of Cyprus was Agapenor, 
 whose Arcadian ancestors were called Ba\avr](j)(iyoi, from their feeding 
 upon acorns ; and lipofflXrjvoi, from their asserting their nation to be 
 anterior to the moon : 
 
 Astris lunaque priores. Stat. 
 
 They are called " Sons of the Dryad" from their being descendants of 
 Areas and the wood-nymph Chrysopeleia. 
 
 568. This may refer to Lycaon, who was changed into a wolf by 
 Jupiter (See Ovid. Metamorph.) ; or to a tradition mentioned by Pliny, 
 that the Arcadians were in the habit of transforming themselves into 
 that animal by means of magical incantations. 
 
 572. Ancseus, the father of Agapenor, was killed by the Calydonian 
 boar, which descended from Mount ffita into yEtolia, and gored him in 
 the groin. Lycophron afterwards says that the animal wounded him in 
 the heel, which the Scholiast considers as a great inconsistency, and 
 offers us the alternative of ignorance on his own part, or barbarism and 
 trifling on that of his author ; " >/ ftapiDapii^ovroc ^at (pXvapoviTOc rov 
 arcp6<;, ») efjiov aj.i.aQaivorTo^." When we reflect, that, after having
 
 246 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Lay gasping on the ground, the deadly tooth 
 Sheer through the grom had forced its bloody way ; 
 Then well he knew, but knowing it expired, 575 
 
 That often, while we lift the luscious draught. 
 E'en from the lips mahgnant Fate will dash 
 The bowl, and scowl upon the baffled guest : 
 Whitening with foam, and bristling high with rage. 
 On rushed the boar, and crushed the hunter's heel, 580 
 And filled the bloody measure of revenge. 
 
 The third shall boast the sire, whose giant hand 
 Heaved the huge stone, and seized the fateful arms ; 
 Th' Idean Heifer to his secret couch 
 
 overthrown Ancseus by a wound in the groin, the boar might strike him 
 in the heel, without any very great violation of probability, we shall 
 perhaps find no difficulty in extricating ourselves from this dilemma, or 
 in determining which side of the proposed alternative to adopt. 
 
 576. Tliis adage is as ancient as the time of Homer: 
 
 IToXXa fiETa^v Trkrei (vulgo TTfXti) KvXtKog, Kai ^siXtoQ aKpov, 
 
 Of which line our own proverb is a literal translation: "Many things 
 happen between the cup and the lip." 
 
 582. The third who came into Cv'prus was Acamas, whose father, 
 Theseus, raised a stone pointed out to him by his mother -^thra, and 
 took from thence the arms placed there by ^Egeus, with which he pro- 
 ceeded to the court of Athens : 
 
 'Ev yap fiiv rpoiZrjvi KoXovpaiy vtto Trerpy 
 
 OrjKE (Tvv apTTi^icrffi. Fragm. Callim. emend, a Bent. 
 
 584. The Heifer is Laodice, who became enamoured of Acamas when 
 he was sent to Troy with Diomede, to treat for the restoration of Helen. 
 She afterwards bore to him a son, Munitus, who, while on a hunting
 
 CASSANDRA. 247 
 
 Shall steal enamoured ; then unto the shades 585 
 
 With sullen looks, as hating Hfe, shall rush ; 
 
 Mother of Munitus, whose heel shall pierce 
 
 The Thracian viper, and infix her sting. 
 
 What time the beldame to his sire's embrace 
 
 Shall give the boy, whose infancy was nursed 590 
 
 In night, the beldame on whose neck alone 
 
 The iron chains of slavery shall gleam, 
 
 excursion into Thrace, was killed by the bite of a viper. The original 
 stands thus : 
 
 Bpr]voi(nv ivTaKtlaa, 'Movvitov ro/caf, k. r. X. 
 
 Who (Laodice) shall descend alive to the shades below, 
 Worn out with sorrow, mother of Munitus, &c. 
 
 The Schohast, having the word Munitus before his eyes in this passage, 
 has taken no notice of his former charge against Lycophron, viz. that he 
 has called the son of Laodice " Munippus," but renews his attack with 
 an affected exclamation of pity ; <lfev, a> AvKo^pov, irwq avaKoXovda 
 ypaipEig' " Alas, Lycophron, how inconsistently you write !" and ac- 
 cuses him of having asserted in a former passage that Laodice was 
 swallowed up by the earth (see Note on verse 377), but now, that she 
 died of grief for the loss of Munitus. Tlie Scholiast therefore must 
 evidently have omitted the comma after hTatceicra, and read the sen- 
 tence Qp})roi(nv IvTaKfAaa Moviitov, i. e. " worn out with sorrow for the 
 death of her son Munitus." 
 
 589. vEthra, the mother of Theseus, to whom Laodice delivered lier 
 son, in order that she might place him under the care of his father 
 Acamas. 
 
 591. When Theseus carried off Helen, he left her with his mother at 
 Athens, (according to others at Aphidnse). Castor and Pollux recovered 
 their sister, but carried away no booty but -^thra, the mother of the 
 ravisher, who accompanied Helen to Troy when she fled thither with 
 Paris, and returned to Greece after the destruction of that city.
 
 248 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Fit hostage for the ravished Bacchanal. 
 
 So willed the wolves, who howled on Attic shores. 
 
 Upon whose crested hemisphere the lance 595 
 
 Falls harmless, and rings loud the blunted sword : 
 
 All else the seal's vermicular impress 
 
 Shall guard, and thus unto the stars of heaven 
 
 Each twin Lapersian demi-god shall rise. 
 
 Oh, never, never may those lions rush, 600 
 
 Protector Jove, to free the captive Dove ! 
 
 Ne'er may their swift-winged vessels to these shores 
 
 Ride tilting o'er the waves ! ne'er may they leap 
 
 Thirsting for blood upon the Phrygian plain ! 
 
 594. By the wolves are meant the Dioscuri, who, in memory of their 
 generation from an egg, wore helmets resembling the half of a divided 
 egg-shell. 
 
 597. Tlie ancients (and, if we may believe Hesychius, more particu- 
 larly the Laconians) were accustomed to use seals made of worm-eaten 
 wood, before the invention of cutting metal or gems : these seals were 
 termed dpLTrrjCEara. " Ol Aa^-wvec (T<ppayiaiv i-^^ptLvro ^vXvlq vtto 
 OpiTTwv joejjpiofiivoie. 
 
 599. The author cf a commentary on Homer, cited by Meursius, 
 says that Castor and Pollux were called Lapersse, from their destniction 
 of Las (styled Laas by Homer), a town situated between Teuthrona and 
 the river Eurotas, Didymus says they were so called from the city 
 Lapersa. 
 
 600. " Oh, never may those twin-lions. Castor and Pollux, come to 
 " rescue their sister Helen! no, nor their cousins Idas and LjTiceus, 
 " much stronger than them! for the walls of Troy, though raised by 
 " Apollo and Neptune, could not resist them for a day, not though Hec. 
 " tor were to stand before them powerful as a Thracian giant, and defend 
 " them with that spear with which he shall kill Protesilaiis."
 
 CASSANDRA. 249 
 
 No, nor that stronger twain, whom Mars inspires. 
 Whom Ate loves. Ate come hot from hell. 
 And dread Tritonia, goddess of the spear ! 
 For not those bulwarks, which the watery king 
 Prophantus, Cromnian monarch of the main. 
 And Drymas reared unto the peijured prince, 610 
 
 One day, one little day, would stand their shock ; 
 Not though the giant, rising in his might 
 Like Thracian ]\Iimas, by the massy gate 
 Stood like a tower ; not though within his hand 
 Th' impatient lance waved quivering to destroy 615 
 
 The ravening wolves, the spoilers of the herd ; 
 That lance which first shall pierce the warrior bird. 
 The Hawk, who leaps upon our hostile shores 
 
 609. Apollo was stvled Drymas by the Milesians. Neptune had a 
 temple at Cromne, a city of Paphlagonia, and was worshipped under 
 the name of Prophantus by the Thurians. 
 
 610. The "perjured prince" is Laomedon, who refused to give to 
 Apollo and Neptune the reward which he had promised them for build- 
 ing the walls of Troy. 
 
 613. Mimas was one of the giants who waged war against Jupiter. 
 
 617. The oracles had denounced death against the first Greek, who 
 should land upon the Trojan coast. 
 
 618. Protesilaiis, who is pointed out by the term " hawk," was the 
 first who disembarked, and was slain soon after by Hector ; he was 
 buried on the shores of the Thracian Chersonese, near the promontory 
 Mazusia or Mastusia, where, according to Pliny, a temple was raised to 
 his honour : " Chersonesi Mastusia promontorium adversum Sigeo, 
 
 turris et delubrum Protesilai." Arrian, in his first book on the 
 
 Expedition of Alexander, says that he offered sacrifice on his tomb 
 " Qvi.1 I]pu)-£(n\(i(j) tTTi TO) rd(j>o) Tov IlpoTeaiXdov."
 
 250 CASSANDRA. 
 
 First of the Greeks, whose sepulchre shall rise 
 
 There where the Thracian Chersonese extends, 620 
 
 And swells projecting, like the milky globes 
 
 Which deck maternal beauty, to the main. 
 
 Shout, shout, and raise the song of joy ! — there is. 
 
 There is who pities wrongs, and will relieve, 
 
 Gyrapsian, Drymnian, ^Ethiopian Jove ! 625 
 
 Then fill the sparkling bowl, and as ye list 
 
 Receive your bridegroom, pour the sacred stream 
 
 In red libation to the mystic Queen ; 
 
 Soon shall ye eat the bitter bread of tears, 
 
 625. I have followed the Scholiast, and Canter, in supposing Jupiter 
 to be meant by this passage. He may be called Gyrapsius, Tvpn-ipios, 
 from the spherical shape of the aether ; and ^thiops, either because the 
 Gods were accustomed to feast in Ethiopia — sfxeJo fier AlQioTrttjaiv 
 iovTOQ, (see the speech of Neptune in the fifth book of the Odyssey,) or, 
 as Eustathius observes, ira^a to a'idu), from the luminous natm-e of the 
 atmosphere : though undoubtedly all these qualities will apply equally 
 well to Apollo, who is called Drymas in verse 610. 
 
 626. Paris was the guest of Menelaus at Sparta, and was consequently 
 hospitably entertained by Menelaus, the Dioscuri, and their cousins the 
 Apharidae. At an entertainment given by the latter in honour of 
 Ceres, a quarrel arose, produced by the following transaction. The two 
 daughters of Leucippus, Phoebe and Ilaira, had been betrothed to Idas 
 and Lynceus, the sons of Aphareus, but were forcibly taken away by 
 Castor and Pollux, who, when upbraided by the Apharidae for having 
 given their brides no dowry, stole the oxen of their unsuccessful rivals, 
 and gave them to their father-in-law Leucippus. This produced a 
 battle : Lynceus killed Castor, but was himself struck to the ground by 
 Pollux ; Idas struck at Pollux with the column or cippus erected on the 
 tomb of Aphareus, but for this impiety Jupiter killed him with a thunder- 
 bolt. (See Pindar and Theocritus.)
 
 CASSANDRA. 251 
 
 Banquet on woes, and blood shall flow for wine : 630 
 
 From Cragus' height the Deity looked down, 
 
 The Lycian God ; he gave the word, and straight. 
 
 Unbidden guest, sat Discord at the feast : 
 
 First scoffing words and foul reproach arose, 
 
 Jeerings, and biting jibes, and taunting scorn, 635 
 
 Then brazen war ; — the kinsmen strive to free 
 
 From dowerless nuptials, and unkindly force 
 
 Their kindred doves ; What arrowy storm shall rise, 
 
 (Say, Cneceus, for your waves shall see,) what clang 
 
 Of eagle wings shall hurtle in the air ! 640 
 
 The fiery Bull sheer through the knotted oak 
 
 Shall gore the Lion ; the Twin-whelp shall seize 
 
 The writhing Bull, and hurl him to the earth 
 
 Biting the bloody ground in pangs of death ; 
 
 Full on the victor shall the marble rush, 645 
 
 Columns of Hades, trophies of the tomb ; 
 
 But vain the blow, the martial prowess vain. 
 
 For steel, and floods of lightning, shall destroy 
 
 The monarchs of the herd, whose matchless skill 
 
 631. Cragus was a mountain in Lycia, from which Jupiter was some- 
 times called Cragus. 
 
 638. Phcebe and Ilaira were cousins to the Apharida?, as well as to 
 Castor and PoUux ; for Tyndarus, Aphareus, and Leucippus, were 
 brothers. 
 
 639. Cneceus is a river of Laconia, on whose banks the contest 
 took place. 
 
 645. 'EvOtv aprrd'^avrtQ dya\- 
 
 -fi aiSa, ^icTTof Tr'tT(toi>. 1'indar.
 
 252 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Not e'en Telphusian Orchieus contemned 650 
 
 To wing the shaft, or round the mooned horn. 
 
 These to the shades, but those the starry heavens 
 
 Receive alternate, with such kindly fire 
 
 Glows in each pious heart fraternal love ! 
 
 Thus shall they sleep, and with them sleep the gleam 
 
 Of hostile spears, and with them sleep my woe. 
 
 But through the dark and drear expanse of heaven 
 Shall rush the Cloud, and bear upon its wings 
 Storm, nor the son of Rhago shall restrain. 
 Nor soft persuasion hang upon his lips ; 660 
 
 Oft shall he lure the ravening host to stay 
 For nine long years, nor scorn the Voice divine ; 
 Oft shall he swear to spread the jovial feast 
 
 650. Apollo was called Orchieus by the Laconians, and Telphusius, 
 from Telphusa a city of Arcadia near Hersea ; called also Thelpusa by 
 Pausanias. Some for Telphusius would read Tilphossius, grounding 
 their opinion upon a passage of Strabo, who tells us that near the 
 mountain Tilphossus in Bceotia there was a temple of Apollo : " Avrov 
 CE Kai ro Ti\(j}io(Taaiov 'AttoWojvoq lepov." 
 
 651 . Idas contended with ApoUo in archery for Marpessa the daughter 
 of Evenus : 
 
 Non Idse et cupido quondam discordia Phoebo 
 
 Eveni patriis filia littoribus. Propert. 
 
 653. The story of the alternate death and resuscitation of Castor 
 and PoUux is so well known, that it is unnecessary to dwell upon the 
 subject. 
 
 658. The Grecian army, from it's numbers and extent, is compared 
 by Cassandra to a cloud. 
 
 659. Anius, the son of Phoebus and Rhseo, was king of the island of
 
 CASSANDRA. 253 
 
 To those, who, wandering upon Cynthian heiglits. 
 
 Shall drink Inopus' streams, whose secret source, 665 
 
 When Nile pours down his heaven-descended wave. 
 
 Swells o'er it's banks with sympathetic flow. 
 
 With such a power Problastus, rosy God, 
 
 Gifted the progeny of Zarex, red 
 
 Flows from their hand the nectar of the vine, 670 
 
 The corny grain, and yellow floods of oil. 
 
 When to the tomb of the Sithonian maid 
 
 They hasten, scowling Famine shall retire 
 
 Delos, where rise the Cynthian mountains. He had three daughters, 
 to whom Problastus or Bacchus gave the power of making com, wine, 
 and oil ; for which reason they were named Spermo, ffino, and Ela'is. 
 By the ministry and assistance of these, he offered to supply the Gre- 
 cian army with provisions, if they would remain in Delos during the 
 nine years which his skill in divination taught him would elapse before 
 the destruction of Troy. 
 
 665. Tnopus is a river of Delos, which, by some secret connexion, or 
 sympathy, overflows at the same time as the Nile : 
 
 'H ^' uppijTov d\)]c aTmravaaro XvypFic, 
 'I^tro S''\vioTroio Trapa poov, ovrs fSaOiffrov 
 Vaia tot' iS,avir)(nv ote itXi^Govti f)et6p({) 
 NsiXoc aTTo KpijjxvoTo (caripxcat AlOiontioQ. 
 
 Callim. Hymn, ti'c AijXoi', v. 205. 
 
 669. The daughters of Anius are called the progeny of Zarex, be- 
 cause he became the husband of Rhseo after she had borne Anius to 
 Apollo. In the same manner Hercules is called Amphitryoniades, and 
 Castor and Pollux the Tyndaridte. They were sent for to Troy by 
 Agamemnon, in order to supply his army during a dearth of provisions. 
 Their story is told by Dictys of Crete, and Ovid ; but the latter asserts 
 them to have been forcibly carried off. 
 
 672. Rhaetea, who gave her name to the Rhaetean promontory, was 
 daughter of Sithon the son of Mars.
 
 254 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Far from the host, and gnash her teeth in vain. 
 
 Such webs the fateful sisterhood have wove, 675 
 
 Such threads from brazen distaffs have they spun. 
 
 Fourthly, and fifth, shall seek the Cyprian shrine. 
 Where dwells the Queen of Golgi, names obscure, 
 Praxander, Cepheus, from Therapne one 
 Shall lead his Spartan tribes, from Dyme one, 680 
 
 From Bura, and Achaean Olenus. 
 
 I see the towers of Argyrippa rise 
 
 678. Golgi is a city of Cyprus, where Venus was worshipped witli 
 peculiar honours, and of which she is styled the Queen by several 
 
 authors : 
 
 At O cffiruleo creata ponto 
 
 Quaeque Ancona, Cnidumque arundinosam 
 
 Colis, quaeque Amathunta, quaeque Golgos. 
 
 Catull. in Annal. Volus. 
 
 679. Praxander and Cepheus came together into the island of Cy- 
 prus. Praxander led his party from Therapne, which was a city of 
 Laconia, not far from Sparta, but situated on the opposite side of the 
 river Eurotas, and containing a temple of Castor and PoUux : 
 
 Et vos Tyndaridae, quos non horrenda Lycurgi 
 Taygeta, umbrosEeque magis coluere Therapnae 
 
 Statius, Sylv. lib. IV. 
 
 680. The followers of Cepheus came from Dyme, Bura, and Olenus, 
 all cities of Achaia, and included in the twelve which were the founda- 
 tion of the famous Achsean league. Polyb. lib. II. cap. 41. Olenus 
 was afterwards swallowed up by the sea; as also Bura, or Buris, accord- 
 ing to Ovid : 
 
 Si quaeras Helicen, et Burin, Achaiadas urbes, 
 
 Invenies sub aquis. Met. lib. XV. 25)3. 
 
 682. When Diomede was compelled to fly from ^tolia, he took re-
 
 CASSANDRA. 255 
 
 On Daimia's plains ; so wills th' unhappy chief 
 
 vEtolian, who shall see his friends beloved 
 
 Expand their snowy wings, shall see the down 685 
 
 In feathery pride come mantling o'er their breast. 
 
 Shall see them rush into the waves, and sail 
 
 Swan-like, pursuing with capacious beak 
 
 The scaly shoals, while on their prince's isle 
 
 Tier above tier shall rise their frequent nests, 690 
 
 Scooped like a sylvan theatre ; there long. 
 
 In rural peace, like Zethus, shall they dwell, 
 
 fuge with Daunus, and built in Italy the city of Argyripe or Argyrippa, 
 called also Argos Hippium, and, according to Pliny, Argippa. 
 Vidimus, O cives, Diomedem, Argivaque castra. 
 
 Ille urbem Argyripam, patriae cognomine gentis, 
 Victor Gargani condebat lapygis agris. 
 
 ViKGiL. iEn. XI. 242. 
 
 G84. After the death of Diomede, his companions were changed into 
 marine birds, resembling swans : 
 
 Si volucrum quae sit dubiarum forma requiris ; 
 Ut non cygnorum, sic albis proxima cygnis 
 
 Ovid. Met. XIV. 509. 
 
 Tliis transformation Diomede is figuratively said to have seen. 
 
 689. The Insula Diomedea, or island of Diomede, was in the Adriatic, 
 where these birds built their nests round the temple of their former 
 chief, maltreating all persons who approached, except those in Grecian 
 habits. (See Aristotle Ilfpt QgLVfiaaiuyv aKovrrndruyy.) Virgil mentions 
 in his fifth book the amphitheatrical appearance of the hiUs, where their 
 nests were erected tier above tier : 
 
 Media.que in valle theatri 
 Circus erat. Ver. 288. 
 
 692. ITie companions of Diomede are said to imitate Zethus, because 
 he assisted his brother Amphion in building Thebes.
 
 256 CASSANDRA. 
 
 And hunt their prey, when Night descends on earth 
 
 Darkling ; with screaming voice and wild affright 
 
 Far from each barbarous rout they wing their way, G95 
 
 Smit with the love of Grecian stoles, and oft 
 
 From Grecian hands shall snatch their wonted food, 
 
 Sleep in their bosoms, every motion watch 
 
 With upward eyes, and chirp the loving song. 
 
 Oh Hand divine ! O Source of all his woes ! 700 
 
 How shall he weep the wound whence ichor flowed 
 
 In ruddy drops from Troezen's Queen ; what time 
 
 To baleful love-rites shall the Wanton lure. 
 
 The spear her dowry, and her bed the grave. 
 
 He flies on wings of winds ; Hoplosmia's fane 705 
 
 700. Diomede, as is well known fi-om the Iliad, wounded Venus in 
 the hand with the assistance of Minerva. Venus, in revenge for this 
 injury, seduced ^gialea, the wife of Diomede, to commit adultery with 
 Cometes the son of Sthenelus. 
 
 702. Venus is called Trcezenian from Troezen a city of Argolis, where 
 Phaedra dedicated a temple to the goddess. Strabo relates that the 
 city was sacred to Neptune, and thence called Posidonia. 
 
 705. Juno was worshipped by the Eleans under the name of Hop- 
 losmia ; in her temple Diomede took refuge, when he discovered, that, 
 notwithstanding the apparent joy of ^gialea upon his return, she was 
 engaged in a design against his life. He afterwards fled to Daunia. 
 and associated himself with Daunus ; with whom when a dispute arose 
 concerning the division of some booty, the matter was referred to 
 Alsenus the brother of Diomede, but, enamoured of Euippe the daughter 
 of the king, he decided unjustly in favour of Daunus ; in consequence, 
 Diomede cursed the soil, and prayed that it might never reward the 
 labour of the husbandman, except when cultivated by one of his ^tolian 
 countrymen.
 
 CASSANDRA. 257 
 
 Receives him trembling ; thence Itahan shores 
 
 Shall view him striding on the column's height. 
 
 Marble on marble heaped, which erst the King 
 
 Of waters, Amoebean architect. 
 
 Piled to the clouds, but in the piny womb 710 
 
 Of some great ammiral the massy bulk 
 
 Flew lightly o'er the waves. Can brothers wrong 
 
 Their kindred blood ? — Alasnus shall deceive ; 
 
 For which the chief shall curse the barren soil. 
 
 That never dews dropped from the dripping wings 715 
 
 Of Twilight, nor the morning showers on earth 
 
 Descending soft from aether, nor the wreathes 
 
 Of curling mist, shall fill the corny reed 
 
 With fatness, and enrich the furrowed soil ; 
 
 Save when th' i^tolian arm shall tame the ground 720 
 
 Sturdy, and drive the stubborn team afield. 
 
 And still through rolling years he shall possess 
 
 The stedfast base, nor power of mortal arm 
 
 Shall move the marbles ; for the shores along 
 
 Soft gliding without step shall they return, 725 
 
 Hold the chief honours, and the shrine command. 
 
 Him all the children of Ionian plains 
 
 707. After the death of Diomede a statue was erected to him upon a 
 pedestal formed of the stones which had been brought in his ships as 
 ballast, but which had formerly been part of the walls of Troy erected 
 by Neptune, who is styled "Amoebean," from a^ioifir], anioibe, " an 
 exchange," because he exchanged with Apollo his oracle in Delphi for 
 one the latter possessed in Calabria. 
 
 725. Daunus cast the statue of Diomede into the sea, but it swam 
 upon the waters, and returned again to its pedestal. 
 
 727. By the "Ionian plains" is meant the Ionian Sea, which lies
 
 258 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Godlike adore ; for in Phaeacia's isle. 
 
 Pierced by his spear, the dragon writhed in death. 
 
 Some to the sea-encircled rocks shall sail, 730 
 
 Gymnesian Isles, and wrap their sturdy limbs 
 In shaggy spoils of blood-polluted fur. 
 Unrobed, unsandaled ; round them shall they twist 
 Three slings of double cord, and missile power ; 
 For ne'er the mother for her child shall spread 735 
 
 The nurturing viands, till the certain aim, 
 
 immediately south of the Adriatic, and is so called from lo the daughter 
 of Inachus. The inhabitants who dwelt upon it's shore worshipped 
 Diomede, because, according to the Scholiast, he destroyed in Phaeacia 
 the dragon which guarded the golden fleece, and which had come 
 thither in quest of it. 
 
 730. Cassandra proceeds to enumerate the wanderings of the Greeks, 
 and foretells that the Boeotians will be driven to the Baleares, or Balea- 
 rides, called also the Gymnesian Islands, (now Majorca or Mallorca^ 
 and Minorca). Diodorus Siculus says that they are called Gymnesise 
 from the inhabitants going naked during the summer :' " Tvfxvi](nai cia 
 TO TovQ kvoiKovvraQ yvfxvovQ rrjc iaOfiroQ (iiovv." The name Baleares is 
 by some said to be of Phoenician origin, and Bochart derives it from two 
 Hebrew roots ; but the Greeks, according to their custom derive it from 
 the Greek finXXeiv, " to throw," and say that it was given to these islands 
 from the skill of the inhabitants in slinging. " IIpoffayopEvorrcu 
 BaXiape'ic; airo rod j3aXX£iv ralg afei'Coraig XldovQ f-ieyaXovg." Diodor, 
 Sic. lib. V. cap. 17. One of these slings was carried in the hand, one 
 twisted round them like a girdle, and one hung from the neck : they 
 were composed of a piece of leather suspended by two strings. 
 
 735. Vegetius relates the manner in which children were taught bv 
 their mothers to strike down their food from the top of a pole. " Ita 
 perite exercuisse dicuntur, ut matres parvulos filios nullum cibum con- 
 tingere sinerent, nisi quern ex funda destinato lapide percussissent."
 
 CASSANDRA. 259 
 
 Impetuous whirling from the skilful arm. 
 
 Shall strike the cates as high they hang in air. 
 
 Thus by Tartessus, by the fertile shores 
 
 Of far Iberia, westward shall they dwell 740 
 
 Temmician race ; how oft upon their soul 
 
 Shall Arne rise in visionary woes, 
 
 Arne, where erst their childhood strayed ! how oft 
 
 Shall memory raise to view the flowing streams 
 
 Of famed Hypsarnus, and Thermodon's wave, 745 
 
 And Scolus, and Tengyra, scenes beloved 
 
 Of Leontarne, and Onchestus' towers ! 
 
 Nor these alone shall stem the stormy main : 
 
 739. Tartessus is a city to the west of the Columns of Hercules, 
 situated in an island at the mouth of the river Bsetis, where it di\ndes 
 into two streams, and falls into the Sinus Gaditanus. 
 
 741. Tlie Temmices were a nation which formerly inhaljited ])art of 
 Boeotia. 
 
 742. Arne is mentioned by Homer : 
 
 OV rt 7roXr'OTo0?iXoj' "Apj'j/v t^ov. Hom. H. 
 
 It is said to be the same with that city which was afterwards called 
 Chseronea. 
 
 745. Hypsarnus and Tliermodon are rivers of Boeotia: the latter is 
 mentioned by Pausanias, and must not be confounded with the cele- 
 brated river of that name whose banks were inhabited by the Amazons. 
 
 746. Scolus, Tengyra, Leontarne, and Onchestus, are towns of 
 BcEotia. Onchestus is mentioned as a town by Pausanias : it was pro- 
 bably built near the site of the sacred grove of Onchestus, mentioned 
 by Homer : 
 
 'Oy\i](r-bi' B' leitui' Y[o(nci)ioi', liyXaov dXffog. Catalog, vor. 1'?. 
 
 748. The following lines relate the sufferings of Ulysses, and are, 
 with a few variations, an epitome of the Odyssey.
 
 260 CASSANDRA. 
 
 • 
 
 By Afric Syrtes, and by Lybian plains. 
 
 Through narrow straits, where rolls the Tuscan wave 
 
 By Scylla's mingled form, whom erst subdued 751 
 
 The Herdsman, mantled in the lion's hide, 
 
 By those fell rocks where sing the Siren maids. 
 
 Uttering such dulcet and harmonious sounds 
 
 That raptured mortals cannot hear, and live, 755 
 
 All, all shall Hades seize within his net. 
 
 Worn by a weight of woe ; one, only one. 
 
 Shall tell the tale, who bears upon his shield 
 
 The dolphin form, whose sacrilegious hands 
 
 Shall snatch the statue of the Martial maid : 760 
 
 Then shall he view the caverned rock, the den 
 
 Of the fell Lion of the mount, whose eye 
 
 750. The straits between Italy and Sicily, which connect the southern 
 parts of the Tuscan and Adriatic seas. 
 
 752. Hercules, who slew Scylla. (See Note on verse 46.) 
 
 753. The Insulse Sirenum, called also Sirenusae, are three small 
 rocky islands on the western coast of Italy, not far from Surrentum. 
 " Nj/fftcta rpia TrpoKtijieva, Vprifia, Trerptjcr], a KaXovai ^eiprfvovcraQ. 
 Strabo, lib. I. Homer, however, makes Ulysses speak only of one 
 island. 
 
 759. Ulysses bore the figure of a dolphin impressed upon his shield, 
 in memory, according to Plutarch, of his son Telemachus having been 
 saved from drowning by that fish. The use of emlilems, and armorial 
 bearings of this nature, is of very high antiquity. Telamon, according 
 to Euripides, bore an eagle : and ^schylus, in his "ETrra etti 0>j/3aic, 
 emblazons very accurately the various devices of the chieftains. 
 
 760. Ulysses entered Troy in disguise, and carried ofi* the palladium 
 or statue of Minerva, whose presence was supposed to render the city 
 impregnable. 
 
 762. Polyphemus, the Cyclops, who had but one eye in the centre of
 
 CASSANDRA. 261 
 
 Gleams in his forehead hke the full-orbed moon. 
 Whose hands, yet red with blood, shall seize the cup. 
 And pour the draught of darkness on his soul. 765 
 
 On sails the chief; what deaths shall deal around 
 The relics of the Wrestler's archery ! 
 Before his eyes they slay like scaly shoals 
 His loved companions, as the mariner 
 Thrids on the reed the vainly-struggling prey. 770 
 
 One woe is past ! — another woe succeeds ! 
 What dark Charybdis shall not glut her maw 
 With frequent corpses ? and what virgin form 
 Girdled with black and howling dogs obscene ? 
 What Siren songs shall he not hear? What notes 775 
 From those, who erst with Acheloiis dwelled 
 Between ^Etolian regions, and the shores 
 Of Acarnania now, on sea-beat rocks 
 Whitening with bones of famished mariners, 
 
 his forehead, which was put out by Ulysses, who had previously intoxi- 
 cated him with wine. 
 
 767. The Lestrygonians are a people of Sicily formerly vanquished 
 by Hercules, for which reason they are styled " the relics of his 
 archery." In the same manner Virgil calls the Trojans who escaped 
 with yEneas, " Reliquias Danaum, The relics of the Greeks." 
 
 768. This simile of the fish is borrowed from Homer, who has made 
 use of it on the same occasion : 
 
 'ixdvQ S' tie TTtipovTec artpTTta ^aira (pkpovTo. Mom. Odyss. 
 
 776. The Sirens were daughters of the Muse Terpsichore and the 
 river Acheloiis, on whose right bank is Acarnania, and on whose left 
 ^tolia.
 
 262 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Sit tuning like the bird of night, and strew 780 
 
 Their lures of linked sweetness to the winds ? 
 
 What Serpent in the planetary hour 
 Shall spell with words of might the venomed bowl. 
 Infusing deadly drugs ? whence brutal forms 
 Stabled in styes shall champ the marc of grapes, 785 
 And browse, and batten on the spilth of wine. 
 But him shall save the black and bitter root 
 Of sweetly-flowering moly ; him the God, 
 Nonacrian Ctarus, triple-formed, severe 
 In youthful grace, and comeliness divine. 790 
 
 Thence to the confines of the dead he wends 
 His anxious way, and views the ghostly seer 
 Loved as a maid, and loving as a man ; 
 
 782. Circe, who transformed by her magic potions the companions 
 of Ulysses into swine. 
 
 789. Mercm-y, or Ctarus, was called ," Nonacrian" from Nonacris a 
 city situated in Tripohs, a district of Arcadia. He gave to Ulysses the 
 herb moly as a safeguard against the incantations of Circe. The roots 
 of this plant were said to be black, and the flower white, to signify alle- 
 gorically that the commencement of destruction is disagreeable : 
 
 n6p£ (papfiaKov ' A(iyti(l)6i'T)]C 
 'Ek yairiQ igvaag, Kcii fioi (pvaiv avTOV tSfiS,ev 
 'PiZy jJ-tv fJii^av 'iaKi, yaXaicTi ci tiKtXov avdoq, 
 MwXv li fiiv icaXkovm Geoi. Hom. Odyss. K'. 302. 
 
 Mercury is said to be " tripled-formed" as well as Prosei-pine, and pro- 
 bably for the same reason, from his officiating in heaven, earth, and the 
 shades below. 
 
 793. Tiresias was metamorphosed into a woman by kUling a female 
 serpent on Mount Cithaeron ; and afterwards, by killing the male, re- 
 assumed his former sex.
 
 CASSANDRA. 263 
 
 There round the foss, where flows the boihng blood 
 
 In red hbation to the powers of hell, 705 
 
 Stern shall he brandish the terrific sword. 
 
 And hear the short thick sob, the howling ghost, 
 
 The shrill sound rattling from the chattering skulls 
 
 Of skeletons obscene : thence steer his bark. 
 
 His only bark, to where the giant brood, 800 
 
 Pressed by th' enormous weight of Sicily, 
 
 Lie gasping ; whence Typhceus pours on high 
 
 The fiery volumes of tempestuous flame. 
 
 Where erst the sire of men and Gods in wrath 
 
 Planted the race of apes ; fit successors 805 
 
 794. The ancients sacrificed to the Infernal Gods by digging a foss 
 into which they poured the blood of their victims, after having made li- 
 bations of honey, wine, and water. The ghosts were supposed, on 
 tasting the blood, to recall the past circumstances of their lives, which 
 had been blotted from their memory by the waters of Lethe : but 
 Tiresias retained even in death, by the especial favour of Proserpine, his 
 recollection of the past, and power of anticipating the futm-e : 
 
 T(j7 Kal rtOvtiwri 'Soov irooi Iltp(Tt(p6vsia 
 
 Oiy TrtnvvaQai. HoM. Odyss. 
 
 And Calliraachus : 
 
 Kat fiovog, evrt Bdvy, imrvvfievoc tv viKViaai 
 4>otra(TH, fityaXtji rifiiOQ ' Xytaikq.. 
 
 Ei'c XouT-ptt Ti]Q WaWd^oQ. Ver. 129. 
 
 805. After the giants were overthrown in their war against the Gods, 
 and Tvphon was buried under Mount /Etna, Jupiter peopled with 
 monkeys the islands on the west of Italy, in contempt of their former 
 inhabitants. They were thence called Pithecusse, from 7r(6i?»«.oc " an 
 ape." Another story is told of the metamorphosis of Candulus and 
 Atlas into monkeys by Jupiter, whom these brothers vainly endeavoured 
 to deceive :
 
 264 CASSANDUA. 
 
 To those who vainly thought with giant strength 
 '* Up to high heaven to force resistless way." 
 
 Then by the tomb of Baius shall he steer. 
 His hapless pilot ; by Cimmerian shades, 
 And hoarse-resomiding Acherusian waves ; 810 
 
 Inarimen, Prochytenque legit, sterilique locatas 
 Colle Pithecusas, habitantum nomine dictas. 
 Quippe Deilm genitor fraudum et perjuria quondam 
 Cercopum exosus, gentisque admissa dolosse, 
 In deforme viros animal mutavit ; ut idem 
 Dissimiles homini possent, similesque videri. 
 
 Ovid. Metam. XIV, 89. 
 
 In which hnes it is to be remarked, that the poet has made a distinc- 
 tion between Inarime and the Pithecusse ; but Phny asserts both these 
 names to belong to one island, called also yEnaria : "^naria a statione 
 navium ^nese, Homero Inarime dicta, Grsecis Pithecusa." Lib. III. 
 cap. 6. Strabo and Ptolemy, who mention the Pithecusse in several 
 passages, take no notice of Inarime or ^naria; and Antoninus, who 
 gives the position of vEnaria, never has the word Pithecusse ; which 
 phsenomena would seem to point out their identity. 
 
 808. Baius was pilot to Ulysses, and gave his name to the celebrated 
 Baise, according to Strabo, with whom agrees Silius Italicus : 
 
 Primores adsunt CapuEe, docet ille tepentes 
 Unde ferant nomen Baise, comitemque dedisse 
 Dulichice puppis stagno sua nomina monstrat. 
 
 Lib. XII. ver. 144. 
 
 809. According to Homer, the nation and city of the Cimmerians 
 were at the extremity of the ocean. Phny places their city in Cam- 
 pania: " Lacus Lucrinus, et Avernus, juxta quern Cimmerium oppi- 
 dum." Strabo treats the whole as a fable. 
 
 810. Acheron was a river of Italy, in the country of the Bruttii. It 
 may be collected from Pliny, that near it was a city called Acherontia ; 
 and coins have been found inscribed with the word AXEPONTAN.
 
 CASSANDRA. 265 
 
 By Ossa's heights ; by where the Lion trod, 
 
 Seeking the herd ; by where Proserpine's grove 
 
 With gloomy fohage sheds infernal night ; 
 
 By the red waves of fiery Phlegethon, 
 
 Where rises high to this aethereal air 815 
 
 The rocky chain, whence every lapse of streams. 
 
 Each secret som'ce of waters gushing down 
 
 Rolls o'er Ausonia's cultivated plain : 
 
 Thence from Leth aeon's hills I mark him fiire 
 
 By black Avernus ; by Cocytus' wave, 820 
 
 Where sobs, and shrieks, and other voice than song 
 
 Pierce the dull ear of Night ; by Stygian founts. 
 
 Where falsehood never comes, so Jove ordained. 
 
 By the " Acherusia palus" Lycophron probably means that between 
 Cumse and Misenus, confounded by some with Avernus, and the Lucrine 
 lakes. Ossa is a mountain in Italy. 
 
 816. Hercules bridged the river Orontes by casting rocks into it, on 
 his return from an expedition in which he brought off the herds of 
 Geryon. The bank between the Lucrine lake and the sea was called 
 Via Herculeana : it is mentioned by Cicero and Silius Italicus. 
 Et sonat Herculeo structa labore via, Paop. lib. III. 
 
 816. " HoXvceyjjun' Xocpog." The Apennines, from whence spring 
 most of the rivers of Italy. The Scholiast absurdly supposes ttoXv- 
 SiyfAiop to be the name of the mountain. 
 
 819. Lethseon is a mountain of Italy. Avernus or Aornos is a lake 
 near the Lucrine, and surrounded with woods, according to Virgil : 
 
 Divinosque lacus, et Averna sonantia sylvis. 
 
 ^n. ni. 442. 
 
 923. When the Gods conspired with the Titans to dethrone Jupiter, 
 he received assistance from the river Styx, whence he decreed tliat an 
 oath by her waters should be for ever inviolable. According to Hcsiod,
 
 266 CASSANDRA. 
 
 When 'gainst th' enormous brood, the Titan race. 
 
 The volhed thunders of his arm prevailed. 825 
 
 I mark him pour the stream from urns of gold 
 
 To gloomy Dis, and to the Queen of Hell 
 
 Hang high his helm, and consecrate his plumes. 
 
 Daughters of Tethys' son, whose carols sweet 
 Your tuneful mother gave to charm the soul 830 
 
 Netting the breeze with winding melodies. 
 When by your rocks the bark careering flies. 
 Unheard your song, down from the beetling steep 
 Impetuous shall you leap, and dip your wings 
 Deep in the Tuscan billows : so the fates 835 
 
 Have spun the deadly tissue of your line. 
 
 One shall Phalerus' beachy verge receive, 
 
 if a Deity swore by Styx, and afterwards was guUty of perjury, he was 
 deprived of his divinity for one hundred years. 
 
 828. Ulysses, on his return from the shades, raised a column to the 
 Infernal Deities, and on it suspended his helmet. Meursius brings several 
 unnecessary authorities to prove that the ancients were accustomed to 
 offer up in their temples votive shields, and other pieces of armour. 
 
 829. It has been already mentioned that the sirens were daughters 
 of the muse Terpischore and Acheloiis the son of Tethys. They threw 
 themselves into the sea from grief that Ulysses escaped their incan- 
 tations. 
 
 837. Naples, which according to some authors was buUt by Phale- 
 rus, tyrant of Sicily, was originally called Parthenope, and received it's 
 name from the Siren " ipsa Parthenope a tumulo Sirenis appellata." 
 
 Plin. lib. III. cap. 5. 
 
 MiXaOpov 
 
 napOtvoTrrjC, >)v ttovtoq tolg virtSk^aro jcoXttoic;. Dionys.
 
 CASSANDRA. 267 
 
 And dewy Glanis, there the fane shall rise. 
 
 And still Parthenope the voice shall hymn 
 
 When circling years return, the sacred bull 840 
 
 Fall for Parthenope, and stream the wine : 
 
 Aye, and for thee, sweet maid, in rapid race 
 
 Shall gleam the torch, when to the chief who rules 
 
 Mopsopian navies speaks the Voice divine : 
 
 And all who dwell by Naples shall revere, 845 
 
 While flows the tide of Time, and all, who roam 
 
 Where towers Misenus, shall thy name adore. 
 
 Leucosia, thrown upon Enipeus' rock. 
 Shall name her monumental isle, where Is 
 And neighbouring Laris to the vasty deep 850 
 
 Press on their tide, and roll their watery war. 
 
 838. The Glanis is a river of Campania, and is the same with that 
 called Clanius by Vu-gil. Dionysius of ilalicarnassus mentions it as 
 near the Vultunms : " Uapa to. orparoTTfOa peovrec av-Qv ttv-u^ui, 
 Oi/o\rovp)'oc otojxa Oaripu) tm ct kripu) TXavig." Lib. \ II. p. 419. 
 
 843. Diotimus sailed from Athens to Naples, in obedience to an 
 oracle which commanded him to sacrifice at the tomb of Parthenope ; 
 he there instituted games in imitation of those at Athens, wherein the 
 competitors in the foot-race carried torches, in honour of Vulcan or 
 Prometheus. 
 
 844. Attica was formerly called Mopsopia. 
 
 847. Misenus was trumpeter to yEneas, and gave his name to a pro- 
 montory not far from Cumse. 
 
 Monte sub aerio, qui nunc Misenus ab illo 
 
 Dicitur. Virgil. /En. VI. 234. 
 
 849. Is, and Laris, arc both rivers of Italy.
 
 268 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Ligea, floating to Tereina's towers. 
 
 Shall cleave the waves ; around her Ocean wreathes 
 
 His crisped smiles, and with funereal rites 
 
 Shall dank and dripping mariners invoke 855 
 
 Her parted shade, and raise the rustic tomb. 
 
 And he, the God who rears his horned brow. 
 
 Shall lave the marbles with the purest lymph 
 
 Where rolls Ocinarus, Ausonian stream. 
 
 I see the patient chief where he confines 860 
 
 The strugghng winds, and sinks to short repose ; 
 But soon the storm shall rise, the mountain waves 
 Shall drive the bark swift reeling o'er the main. 
 Lashed by a scourge of lightning ; he shall grasp 
 The olive branches glancing from the rock, 865 
 
 And tremble at the seas which foam below. 
 
 852. Tereina, or, as it is spelled by Strabo, Terina, is a city in the 
 country of the Bruttii : it was built by the Crotoniatse, and, according 
 to Strabo, destroyed by Hannibal. It gave it's name to the bay 
 near which it was situated, now called Golfo di S. Eufemia. Near it 
 flows the river Ocinarus. 
 
 857. The ancients were accustomed to represent their river- gods 
 with horns. Acheloiis is so described by Ovid in his Metamorphoses ; 
 and Horace gives to the Aufidus the epithet of " Tauriformis." 
 
 860. Cassandra proceeds with the wanderings of Ulysses, and fore- 
 tells that his associates will open the bags in which the winds have 
 been enclosed by ^olus. The story is well known. 
 
 865. Ulysses after his shipwreck clung to the wild olive which over- 
 hung Charybdis, on which occasion Homer compares him to a bat : 
 T(^ TrpoCT^'jrf £;^6/x»/v wg vvicrtpig, HoM. Odyss.
 
 CASSANDRA. 269 
 
 I see him wasting in th' Ogygian isle 
 The fleeting hours, and clasp the beauteous nymph. 
 Old Atlas' daughter ; soon to roam the main 
 With oar and sail, when he shall build his bark 870 
 With restless hands, and drive the iron cramps, 
 And close-compacted keel ; then launching forth. 
 Alone he cuts th' immeasurable way. 
 But now the God, who girdles round the world. 
 Shall heave his oceans on the raft, and burst 875 
 
 The bars, and scatter o'er the swelling tide 
 Sail-yards and sails, and dash into the brine 
 The chief, entwined with cordage, like the brood 
 Of callow wing which fill the halcyon's nest. 
 Long shall he roam, and dwell with him who loved 880 
 Anthedon, seat of Thracian kings, on waves 
 Now here, now there upborne ; as when the winds 
 Toss high the lightsome cork, or mountain pine. 
 The rattUng branches wave, the leafy growth 
 
 867. The island of Calypso the daughter of Atlas. 
 
 881. Anthedon is a city of Boeotia, on the shores of the Eurijjus, and 
 on the frontier of the Locri Opuntii : it is the last port on the coast of 
 Boeotia, and is so mentioned hy Homer in the Catalogue : 
 
 ' Av6t]S6va 5' laj^^ctTouxsav, Catal. ver. 15. 
 
 It is said to have been formerly occupied by a colony of Thracians, and 
 was the birth-place of Glaucus a fisherman, who perceiving that the 
 fish he had caught, on tasting a certain herb, revived, and leaped into 
 the sea, tried the experiment upon himself, and became a marine deity : 
 
 Et juvcncm possnm snperarc Palacmona nando, 
 Miraque (juein siibito reddidit hcrba Deum. 
 
 Ep. Heroid. XVIil. ver. 159.
 
 270 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Cowers in the blast : entwined around his breast, 885 
 And arms of oary strength, the fillet saves. 
 Gift of the sea-nymph ; but the bloody rocks 
 Shall jag his hands, and tear his manly flesh 
 With pointed crags, and dye the gi'een to red. 
 
 The scythe by Saturn hated shall receive 890 
 
 Unrobed, unhoused, an orator of woes. 
 Whose specious glozings twine about the soul 
 The maze of fabling eloquence ; not yet, 
 O God, not yet let winds disperse in air 
 The blinded giant's curse ; not yet the king, 895 
 
 Th' equestrian lord, Melanthus, in repose 
 
 887. Leucothea appeared to Ulysses after Neptune had destroyed the 
 raft on which he was endeavouring to reach Phseacia, and gave him a 
 fillet which had the virtue to preserve him from drowning. 
 
 887. Homer compares Ulysses to a polypus, torn from the rocks, 
 and mangled by the violence of the waves. 
 
 890. Corcyra, now Coi-fu, called also Scheria, and Phaeacia by 
 Homer, was originally named Drepane, from ApeTrayor, Drepanon, 
 " a scythe," or "reaping hook," because in that island was buried the 
 scythe wdth which Jupiter mutilated his father Saturn. The words 
 Kpoj'w arvyovfiivrtv, "hated by Saturn," restrict it to this stoiy, and 
 not, as Canter thinks it may be interpreted, to the same cruelty exer- 
 cised by Saturn upon his father Uranus ; though Apollonius says, that 
 this latter circumstance gave rise to the name of Drepane. The island 
 was probably so called from the curvature of it's form. 
 
 895. Polyphemus, who was blinded by Ulysses, and prayed to his 
 father Neptune that his enemy might never reach Ithaca, or at least 
 not tUl he had experienced many wanderings, and seen the death of all 
 his companions. 
 
 896. Neptune was called Melanthus bv the Athenians. In the con-
 
 CASSANDRA. 271 
 
 Steep his immortal eyelids : he shall come, 
 
 Yes, he shall come, and view the watery cave 
 
 Joyous, and shades of Neritus beloved. 
 
 Hills forest-crowned, but see his noble house, 900 
 
 And rich magnificence of pillared halls. 
 
 By lusty lovers from it's base o'erthrown ; 
 
 And she, the modest harlotry, shall waste 
 
 His wealth in riots, and Misrule shall lord. 
 
 What woes the king shall bear ! what fiercer toils 905 
 
 test which he maintained with Minerva he caused a horse to spring out 
 of the ground, for which reason he was sumamed " equestrian." 
 
 899. Neritus, by some considered as an island, is said by Homer to 
 be a mountain in Ithaca : 
 
 Nateraw S' 'iGaKt^v tvoiuXov, iv S' opog avry 
 
 N/jpiroi' dvoai<pvKkov . Odyss. 1.21. 
 
 903. By the " modest harlotry" is meant Penelope, of whom some 
 authors relate a good deal of antiquated scandal. She is accused of 
 having borne a son to Mercury, called Pan : others say that this name, 
 signifying in Greek " All," was given to him because he was the son of 
 all the suitors. Ovid appears to insinuate that her motive in proposing 
 the trial of the bow was different from that ascribed to her by Homer : 
 
 Penelope vires juvenum tentabat in arcu ; 
 Qui latus arguerct corneus arcus erat. 
 
 Canter ridicules the Scholiast for supposing the word " TiCir " in the 
 words 
 
 oiptrai Sk Trav 
 MlX.afipoi' dph]i' t/c (3d9po)i' avaararov, 
 
 to be a proper name ; but unjustly, for what he has said wil] by no 
 
 means bear that interpretation. The author of a poem attributed to 
 
 Theocritus, or Simmeas the Rhodian, calls Ulysses " the husband of the 
 
 mother of Pan : " 
 
 WnvoQ re 
 
 MaTpoQ Et'VtraQ, <j>o)p, Pi^u>0(;.
 
 272 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Than those, when Scaea's gate beheld him wade 
 
 Through lakes of Trojan blood ! How shall he bear 
 
 (E'en while revenge sits brooding on his heart) 
 
 Threatnings of slaves ! How shall he brook the blows 
 
 Of caitiff hands, and scorn the traitor stone ! 910 
 
 For well he knows the scourge ; the bloody wale. 
 
 Sealed on his flesh, still swells where Thoas plied 
 
 Frequent the lash, when not with coward groan 
 
 Stubborn he stood in voluntary pains. 
 
 Conceiving wiles wherewith to snare his foes, 915 
 
 And fraught with fables, and warm-flowing tears 
 
 Wind him into the easy-hearted king : 
 
 Our greatest curse ! whom Bombylean realms 
 
 Of old engendered, and Temmician hills ; 
 
 Who saved alone, shall view his comrades sink 920 
 
 Transfixed by lightnings in the wave ; shall seem 
 
 A fowl marine swift scudding on the seas 
 
 With rippling wing ; or lie upon the shore. 
 
 Bedded in oozy foison, like a shell 
 
 Long worn by waters, and by tempests tost : 925 
 
 906. The contest for the dead body of Patroclus was carried on be- 
 fore the Scsean gate. 
 
 911. Ulysses pennitted himself to be scourged by Tlioas, that he 
 might appear a deserter from the Grecian army, when he entered Troy 
 in order to carry off the Palladium. 
 
 AvTov fiiv TrXijyriffiv atiKiXiyffi dajxaaaaQ. Hom. 
 
 917. Priam, whom Ulysses deceived by stratagem. 
 
 918. Autolycus, the father of Anticlea the mother of Ulysses, inha- 
 bited Boeotia, which contained the mountain Bombylea, and part of 
 which was formerly inhabited 1)y the Temmices.
 
 CASSANDRA. 273 
 
 Shall view the Bacchanal of Sparta waste 
 
 His treasured stores, to feast the Pronian rout. 
 
 And die long Hngering through decrepid age. 
 
 Far from the shores, where Neritus shall shield 
 
 The hoary raven, and enclose his war : 930 
 
 Deep in his side shall sink the bony shaft. 
 
 The fishy point Sardonic, and his son 
 
 Shall deal the blow, his son who boasts his blood 
 
 Kin to Pelides' bride : him Eurytus 
 
 Shall crown with garlands of prophetic fame, 935 
 
 And all who dwell by Trampya, where the prince, 
 
 926. Tyndarus and Icarius were brothers. Penelope was daughter 
 of the latter, by Periboea, and consequently of Spartan extraction. 
 
 927. Thucydides informs us that the Cephallenians had four cities , 
 " »/ Ke(j)aW-i]via rerpaTroXig oixra," IlaXXetc, KpaJ'tot, ^a^aloi, Ylpoyaioi. 
 The Pronaji are probably the same as the Pronians of Lycophron, by 
 whom he means the suitors, many of whom came to Ithaca from Ce- 
 phallenia. Polybius names the town itself Proni. 
 
 932. Tiresias prophesied that the death of Ulysses should proceed 
 from the sea : accordingly, when Telegonus, his son by Circe, came to 
 Ithaca to seek his father, an accidental rencounter took place, and Te- 
 legonus, not knowing him, killed him with a javelin headed by the 
 bone of a fish: 
 
 Qdvaroc is rni i% oKoq avTiji 
 ' Al3\r)xpog fiaXa rolog iXeixTtTai, og Kt ae rre^vij 
 r//p^ I'TTo \i7r«p(^ dptj^kvov, K. T. \. HoM. Odyss. 
 
 934. Circe, the mother of Telegonus, was sister to ^etes the father 
 of Medea, who became the wife of Achilles in the Ely.^iau Fields. — 
 Aristotle says that the Eurytanes were a people of .tEtolia : they were so 
 called from Eurytus. Stephanus is certainly wrong in placing them in 
 Italy. 
 
 936. Trampya is a city of Epirus, where Ulysses had an oracle. 
 
 T
 
 274 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Tymphaean chief, who leads Epirot bands, 
 
 Shall slay the royal Hercules, whose veins 
 
 With blood of Macus and Perseus flow. 
 
 And Temenus, sprung from Alcides' loins. 940 
 
 The wily chief shall lie by Perge's hills 
 Entombed in wide Gortynia, and shall weep 
 His child and bleeding spouse ; for to the shades 
 
 Tzetzes accuses Lycophron of inconsistency, and charges him with say- 
 ing that Ulysses was buried in Epirus, in contradiction to a subsequent 
 passage, in which he asserts him to have received sepulture in Tuscany ; 
 but surely the verses, 
 
 MavTLV Si vtKpbv ^vpvrat' ariipei Xewg 
 "O T aiTTv va'niiv TpainriaQ tSkOXiov, 
 
 may imply no more than that he was revered as a prophet. 
 
 937. Polysperchon, chief of the Epirots, slew Hercules, the son of 
 Alexander the Great at Barsine. Hercules derived his descent, on his 
 father's side, from Perseus and the son of Alcmena, and by his grand- 
 mother Olympias from iEacus. — The Tymphsei were a people of Epirus, 
 according to Strabo : 'H7r£ipwrai ^' elcrl /cat 'A/i^/Xo^oi - - - - teal 
 Tvid(j>a~ioi' lib. Vn. p. 225. Pliny places them under the .^tolians, 
 and, being on the frontier, they probably passed under the dominion of 
 different states. They took their name from the mountain Tympha, or, 
 as it is sometimes written, Stympha. 
 
 940. Temenus was great- great- grandson of Hercules the reputed son 
 of Amphitryon, and was one of the ancestors of Alexander the Great. 
 
 941. Perge is a mountain of Tuscany. Canter tells us that Gortynia 
 was a district of Tuscany. Gortynia, or Gordynia, is mentioned by 
 several authors as a city of Macedonia. There is extant an epitaph on 
 Ulysses bviried in Tuscany. 
 
 943. By the son and wife of Ulysses are meant Telemachus and
 
 CASSANDRA. 275 
 
 His son with blood yet reeking on his hands 
 
 Shall rush : the murderous sister shall destroy, 945 
 
 Kin to Apsyrtus, and to Glaucon kin. 
 
 These woes shall he behold, this storm of grief, 
 
 And tread once more th' irremeable path 
 
 Of Hades, never doomed to see the skies 
 
 Serene, and dream the tranquil life away. 950 
 
 Ah, wretch ! how better had it been to plough 
 
 The stubborn soil, and, feigning frantic lore. 
 
 Lash the dull beast, than thus to roam on earth 
 
 Outcast, and drag the lengthening chain of woe ! 
 
 But listening to the airy voice of Fame, 955 
 
 Th' unhappy Bridegroom, fired by hopeless love. 
 With many a toilsome march, o'er many a wave. 
 Shall seek the Sprite, the shadow of a dream. 
 What oceans shall he search ? what lands explore ? 
 
 Circe. Telemachus having married Cassiphone, the daughter of Circe, 
 put his mother-in-law to death, but was himself assassinated by Cassi- 
 phone, in revenge for her mother's murder. 
 
 946. Cassiphone is said to be kin to Apsyrtus and Glaucon, because 
 ^etes, the brother of Circe, was father to Apsyrtus, and Pasiphae his 
 sister was mother to Glaucon. 
 
 951. Ulysses, that he might not be forced to go to the Trojan war, 
 and leave his wife Penelope, feigned madness, and yoked an ox and an 
 ass to a plough ; but Palamedes placed the infant Telemachus in the 
 furrow, upon which Ulysses turned aside to avoid hurting his child, and 
 discovered his stratagem. 
 
 956. The bridegroom is Menelaus, and the sprite is the image of his 
 wife Helen, which vanished after the destruction of Troy.
 
 276 CASSANDRA. 
 
 First shall he see the rocks whose weight oppress 960 
 
 Stern Typhon's blasted limbs, and Her who rears 
 
 Her marble form upon the Cyprian shore : 
 
 Then fear the dangerous crags, the jutting cliffs, 
 
 By which the dusky nations of the Nile 
 
 Steer shuddering, and th' embattled towers, which rise 
 
 Where Myrrha wept, though clothed in woody shade. 
 
 Her odorous tears, and felt a mother's pang. 
 
 Nor shall he not behold the tomb, where sleeps 
 
 The lovely youth, 'gainst whom the Muses erst 
 
 Sent forth the tusky monarch of the grove ; 970 
 
 Whence floods of sorrow flowed down the bright eyes 
 
 Of Schoenis, amorous deity, what time. 
 
 Beside some fountain's rushy brink, she wept. 
 
 Then shall he mark the towers where Cepheus ruled, 
 
 961. Sicily and the adjacent islands, being volcanic, were fabled to 
 have been lieaped upon Typhon. 
 
 962. When Venus was concealing herself in the island of Cyprus, 
 her retreat was pointed out by a woman, who was changed into stone, 
 in order to punish her loquacity : others relate that cruelty to her lovers 
 was the cause of this metamorphosis. 
 
 965. Biblus, a city of Phoenicia, where Myrrha was changed into a 
 tree. The bark aftei-wards opened, and produced Adonis, the offspring 
 of her incestuous intercourse with her father Cinyras. See Ovid. Metam. 
 
 972. Venus, according to the Scholiast, is called " Schoenis," from 
 (TxolruQ " a rush," a species of which plant is said to have been in use 
 as a cosmetic or provocative. Perhaps she is so called from a bed of 
 rushes having been sometimes found a tolerable substitute for 
 
 Violets blue. 
 And fresh-blown roses, washed in dew. Mtlt. Alleg. 
 
 974. Cepheus was king of Ethiopia, in which countrv, while Mer-
 
 CASSANDRA. 277 
 
 And fountains springing from the printed steps 975 
 
 Of Laphrian Hermes, and the double rock 
 
 'Gainst which the monster of the ocean rushed 
 
 Eager, but found far other prize, and seized 
 
 Deep in the spacious cavern of his jaws 
 
 The vulture son of gold, who rode the breeze 980 
 
 Sandaled with wings, and with his faulchion smote 
 
 Th' enormous ore, wide wallowing on the wave ; 
 
 Who raised the steel divine, and from the trunk 
 
 Severed the snaky visage of the Fiend 
 
 Distilling blood, whence sprang the winged steed, 985 
 
 And wonderous rider ; who enclosed his foes 
 
 In marble robe, and with uncovered shield 
 
 cury was employed in guarding lo, a fountain sprung up from under his 
 heel. 
 
 976. For the epithet " Laphrian" see the Note on verse 418. — The 
 rocks to which Andromede the daughter of Cepheus was chained, that 
 she might be devoured by the monster which ravaged Ethiopia, by 
 command of Neptune, to punish the presumption of her mother Cas- 
 siopea, who challenged the Nereids to vie with her in beauty. 
 
 980. Andromede was released from her perilous situation by Perseus, 
 the son of Jupiter, who, that he might enjoy Danae, metamorphosed 
 himself into gold : 
 
 Fore enim tutum iter, et patens, 
 Converso in pretium Deo. Hor. Od. III. 16. 
 
 981. Perseus is called ap/joi/XoTTT-tpoe, because he borrowed the 
 winged sandals of Mercury. 
 
 984. The fiend is Medusa, whose head was struck off by Perseus, 
 and from whose blood sprung Chrysaor, and the horse Pegasus. The 
 head of Medusa had the power of converting into stone whosoever 
 looked upon it.
 
 278 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Froze their yoimg blood, and stiffened them to stone ; 
 Who stole upon the Sisters three, and thence 
 Joyful returned, but ne'er to them returned 990 
 
 Light, nor the guide of threefold wanderings. 
 
 Next shall he view the thirsty plains which drink 
 The Summer wave, and quaff rich floods of light, 
 Asbystes' stream, the mossy beds of ooze, 
 Where stalled with phocse, from whose reeking hides 
 Exhales no Syrian odour, shall he lie. 996 
 
 This for his Helen he shall bear, his bride, 
 His constant mother of a female line. 
 His Argive love, his many-wedded dame. 
 
 989. The Gorgons had but one eye, which each used alternately ; 
 but Perseus stole it during the exchange. 
 
 992. The plains of Egjrpt, which are annually overflowed by the 
 Nile. 
 
 994. The river Asbystes takes its name from the Asbystae, a nation 
 of Libya. 
 
 995. Menelaus and his companions deceived Proteus by wrapping 
 themselves in the skins of phocse or sea-calves, whose disgusting smell 
 is mentioned by Homer : 
 
 a\6e 7roXvj8lv0£oc 6Sfir}v. Hom. Odyss. 
 
 998. Helen had two daughters, according to Lycophron, who calls 
 
 her 
 
 TTopriv 
 
 but Other authors assert her to have brought forth none but Hermione. 
 
 999. Helen, as is well known, was not an Argive, but a Spai"tan. In 
 the term " Argos," however, the whole of the Peloponnesus is some-
 
 CASSANDRA. 279 
 
 Then shall he wander to Calabrian realms, 1000 
 
 Hanging his gifts unto the Queen of Spoils, 
 The goblet bossed with brass, the shielding hide 
 Spear-proof, and sandals which adorned his spouse. 
 From thence to Siris, and Lacinian plains, 
 Where to Hoplosmia the soft heifer gives 1 005 
 
 The garden stored with odorous sweets, and plants 
 Of every bloom ; there every maid shall weep 
 The giant seed of iEacus, the son 
 Of Ocean's nymph, the thunderbolt of war — 
 Shall weep, nor wrap around her lovely limbs 1010 
 
 The broidered vestment, nor the vermeil woof 
 Of purfled robes, for to the Queen of Heaven 
 Old Ocean's daughter consecrates the shrine. 
 Thence to th' inhospitable shore, where feats 
 
 times included, and Homer frequently calls her 'Apydrj 'EXfVrj, "the 
 Argive Helen." 
 
 1001. The "Queen of Spoils" is Minerva, to whom Menelaus 
 offered up his shield, a brazen goblet, and the sandals of Helen. 
 
 1004. Siris is a town and harbour of Lucania. There is also a river 
 of that name. — Lacinium is a promontory near Scylaceum, called Scyl- 
 letium by the Greeks : 
 
 prseterque Lacinia templa 
 Nobilitata Dea, Scylaceaque littora fertur. 
 
 OviD. Met. XV. 701. 
 
 1006. The temple mentioned in the preceding citation is that whicli 
 Lycophron asserts Thetis to have dedicated to Juno Hoplosmia, who 
 was worshipped under that name at Elis. Strabo mentions it, and says 
 that it was very rich, and full of votive offerings, " avadrjuanov i^eerov." 
 
 1008. Achilles, the grandson of iEacus, and son of Thetis. 
 
 1014. Sicily, where reigned Eryx the son of Venus, who put to death
 
 280 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Of blood and wrestling please the cruel king 1015 
 
 (Whom erst Colotis bore, Alentian queen. 
 
 Who joys to wander by Longurus' lake). 
 
 He steers, where fell from Saturn's hand the scythe 
 
 Blood-dripping, by Conchea's wave, by plains 
 
 Of green Sicania, by Gonusa's stream, 1020 
 
 The temple's raftered height, which to the wolf 
 
 Clothed in the hon's skin the gallant seed 
 
 all strangers whom he conquered in wrestling. He gave his name to a 
 mountain, and city, in which was a temple of Venus Erycina. 
 
 1016. Venus Colotis had a temple in Cyprus, and was worshipped in 
 Attica under the name of Colias, which was also the name of a promon- 
 tory in the vicinity of Phalerum. KwXiag 'A<j)poSirr]Q liriKiaXid^og earlv 
 lepov kv TTJ 'Attiktj. She is called Alentian from Ales a river of Co- 
 lophon. 
 
 1017. Longurus and Gonusa are lakes of Sicily; and Conchea, 
 which is not mentioned by any other author, is most probably a lake or 
 river of the same island. 
 
 1018. Corcyra was called Drepanum, "a scythe," from the instru- 
 ment being thrown there with which Jupiter wounded Saturn ; but 
 Canter is wrong in supposing that island to be the place now alluded 
 to. Lycophron is speaking of Sicily, and of course means Drepanuin, 
 a town and promontory of that island, whither Saturn threw the scythe 
 with which he mutilated his father Uranus. The Scholiast, as usual, 
 attacks his author, and accuses him of saying that the instrument which 
 wounded Saturn fell there, " Kpoporofiop cpeirayov" whereas Lycophron, 
 by apTTJ? Kpovov, " the scythe of Saturn," may mean that with which 
 he perpetrated cruelty, as well as that from which he suffered it. 
 
 1021. The temple of Hercules was erected near the African Syrtes 
 by the Argonauts under the command of Jason the descendant of 
 Cretheus : there they are said to have celebrated games, and to have 
 washed themselves in the sea : but the oil with which they had anointed
 
 CASSANDRA. 28 1 
 
 Of Cretheus raised, when o'er the seas he flew, 
 
 And fifty heroes filled the wonderous prow : 
 
 And still the shores, where trod the Minyae, gleam 1025 
 
 With glistening remnants, which no wave can wash. 
 
 No dews, nor showers of thick descending snows. 
 
 Hark ! how the rocks, which by Teuchira rise. 
 Sigh to the mournful echoes of the waves ! 
 The frequent corpse lies dashed upon the shore 1030 
 Where Atlas on his sandy desert stands 
 A tower of strength ; where Mopsus lies entombed 
 Sprung from Titseron, and the broken beam 
 Of Argo decks his sea-beat monument. 
 Beside Ausigda, where the fattening streams 1035 
 
 Of Cinnyphus enrobe the verdurous soil ; 
 Where erst the dame who fled from Colchis gave 
 The bowl to Triton, and the massy round 
 Of chased and chiselled alchemy ; for he, 
 
 themselves remained on the shore, nor could it be washed away by rain 
 or snow. 
 
 1028. Cassandra proceeds to prophesy the shipwreck of Guneus, 
 Prothoiis, and Eurypylus, near Teuchira (or Taucheira, according to 
 Herodotus and Strabo) a town of Cyrene, which is a district of Libya. 
 
 1032. Mopsus the Argonaut, son of Ampycus, and grandson of 
 Titseron. 
 
 1035. A city of Libya on the river Cinnyphus. ]\Iedea, who gave a 
 golden bowl to Triton, the son of Neptune, as a reward for having 
 pointed out to the pilot through what channels to steer the Argo. 
 Triton prophesied to the Libyans, that they should become subject to 
 Greece, whenever a liibyan should give back this bowl to a Greek.
 
 282 CASSANDRA. 
 
 The son of Nereus, shewed the narrow pass, 1040 
 
 And Tiphys steered swift Argo through the rocks. 
 
 Then chaunted loud the God, " Whene'er a Greek 
 
 " Again shall touch this wonderous bowl, whene'er 
 
 " The rustic Libyan shall forego the prize, 
 
 '' Mourn, Afric, mourn ; for in thy native breeze 1045 
 
 " The Grecian standard floats victoriously." 
 
 These threats shall scare th' Asbystas, they shall hide 
 
 The fatal gold deep in the gloomy shades 
 
 Of Earth, whither the stormy north shall drive 
 
 The prince who leads Cyphaean hosts, and him, 1050 
 
 Son of Tenthredon, from Palythrium, 
 
 Who sways the sceptre o'er Amphrysian streams 
 
 1 04 1 . Tiphys was the pilot of the Argonauts : 
 
 Quid mihi cum Minyis, quid cum Tritonide pina, 
 Quid tibi cum patria, navita Tiphy, mea ? 
 
 Ov. Heroid. ep. VI. ver. 47. 
 
 1047. The Asbystse, as has been already mentioned, were a people of 
 Libya. 
 
 1050. Guneus came to the Trojan war from Cyphus, a city of Per- 
 rhsebia : 
 
 Tovvtv^ o' Lk Kv(pov iiyt ^vuj Kal tluoci vrjaQ. HoM. Cat. 
 
 Dictys of Crete asserts him to have been killed at Troy. 
 
 1051. Prothous, whom Homer calls the riiler of the Magnesians, and 
 son of Tenthredon. 
 
 1052. The Amphrj^sus is a river of Thessaly, near the city Halos. 
 Ovid, in enumerating the principal rivers of Thessaly, includes the 
 A.mphrysus. 
 
 Multa quoque Apidani placuerunt gramina ripis, 
 
 Multa quoque Amphrysi. Met. VII. 228.
 
 CASSANDRA. 283 
 
 And Euryampian towers; and him who rules 
 
 The snowy plains, where stands the ravening wolf 
 
 Stiffened to stone, and all the mountains hoar 1055 
 
 Where high Tymphrestus heaves into the clouds. 
 
 Of these what numbers shall regret the plains 
 
 Of JEgonea ! nor Olosson's fields. 
 
 Nor Gonos, nor Phalanus, nor the towers 
 
 Of Castanea, nor Perrhaebian realms, 1060 
 
 Nor Irus, nor Echinus, nor the rocks 
 
 Of Titarus, nor Trachis, shall remain 
 
 Unwept, nor shores of Thessaly ; and still 
 
 Lie on the beach their bones, unburied, bare. 
 
 1053. Euryampe is a city of Magnesia. — Eunpylus, who ruled over 
 Thessaly, where was to be seen a wolf metamorphosed into stone. 
 Peleus killed the son of Psamathe the Nereid, who sent a wolf against 
 his flocks ; but at the entreaties of Thetis she transformed it into 
 marble : 
 
 Lapidis color indicat ilium 
 Jam non esse lupum, jam non debere timeri. 
 
 Ov. Met. XI. 405. 
 
 1056. Tymphrestus is a mountain of the MeUenses, a tribe of Thes- 
 Scdy ; to whom belong ^gonea, a city, and Titarus which is also the 
 name of a mountain. Echinus is a city of Thessaly near Larissa, as is 
 also Ims, and Trachis, wliich, according to Strabo, is six stadia from 
 Heraclea : "Attest r?7t' apx^tac T^a^lt'og Trepl tu, araciuvg >'/ 'IIpo- 
 kXeiu," Gonus, or Gonnus, called also Gonni, and Gonusa, and by 
 Homer Gonoessa {aiireivi) VovoEoaa), is a city of Perrhsebia, according 
 to Strabo, who also mentions as a Perrheebian city Olosson, or Oloos- 
 son, since called Elasson. '"OXooaawv, Kai »/ 'IlXwrr/, Yltppaij^iKai 
 TTokeiQ, Koi YovvoQ." Lib. IX. 303. Livy says that Gonnus is twenty 
 miles from Larissa, close upon the Vale of Tempe. Phalanus is a city
 
 284 cassandra. 
 
 One woe is past! — another woe succeeds! 1065 
 
 Where on (Enotrian shores Crimissa rears 
 Her humble walls, and on the fringed banks 
 Of iEsarus looks down, to Death shall haste 
 Who felt the viper's venom in his veins. 
 And quenched the burning brand ; (for she who loves 
 The trumpet's clang shall give the steel to fly, 1071 
 
 And guide the shaft from the Maeotian string 
 Winged from his bow, who burnt by Dyras' stream 
 The maddening Lion ; from his nervous hand 
 
 of Thessaly, or Epirus. Castanea, or, as it is written by Herodotus, 
 Casthanea, is placed by that historian in Magnesia. 
 
 106G. CEnotria is an ancient name of Italy : 
 
 Hinc Italae gentes, omnisque Qinotria tellus. Virg. ^n. VII. 85. 
 
 Crimissa is a town in the country of the Bruttii, near a promontory of 
 that name. Stephanus says it is close to Crotona and Thurium : 
 " Kplfiicra, iroXig 'IraXtag, TrXrjaiov Kporwj'oc, kui Qovniov." Near it 
 ran the river yEsarus, which, according to Livy, flowed through the 
 middle of Crotona ; but after the sacking of that city by Pyrrhus, the 
 dimensions of the inhabited part were so much contracted, that the 
 iEsarus was not included within the walls. 
 
 1069. Philoctetes, who was wounded in the foot by a serpent, or by 
 one of the arrows dipped in the blood of the Hydi'a. He afterwards 
 slew Paris, who is called a Firebrand, because, as has been already men- 
 tioned, Hecuba dreamed that she was delivered of one. He came to 
 Italy after the siege of Troy, and built Clione on the promontory Cri- 
 missa, and also Macalla. 
 
 1070. Minerva, to whom is attributed the invention of the trumpet. 
 
 1073. Philoctetes, at the request of Hercides, placed him on the 
 funeral pile, near Dyras, a river of Trachinia, and received from him the 
 bow which had formerly belonged to the Scythian Teutarus.
 
 CASSANDRA. 285 
 
 The Scythian serpents hiss, the jarring chord 1075 
 
 Clangs in the lyre of Death ;) upon his tomb 
 
 Crathis shall gaze, where Patareus enshrined 
 
 Commands th' Alaean fane high-throned, and rolls 
 
 His watery car Nausethus to the main : 
 
 There shall th' Ausonian tribes, Pellenian bands, 1 OSO 
 
 Destroy the hero, while his arm assists 
 
 The Lindian chiefs, whom far from Carpathus, 
 
 1075. The arrows are compared to serpents, from their length, swift- 
 ness, and hissing noise. The resemblance is rendered more exact from 
 the circumstance of the darts alluded to having been dipped in the blood 
 of the Hydra, and rendered poisonous. Horace has, if I may so express 
 myself, the convei'se of this simile : 
 
 Rumpat et serpens iter institutum, 
 
 Si per obliquum, similis sagittae, 
 
 Terruit mannos. Od. HI. 27, 
 
 iEschylus too calls an arrow Trrrjroi' 6(j)ii', " a winged serpent." 
 
 1077. Crathis is a river of Lucania, near Thurium and Sybaris : it 
 falls into the bay of Tarentum. — Patareus is a name given to Apollo by 
 
 Horace : 
 
 Qui Lyciae tenet 
 
 Dumeta, natalemque sylvam 
 
 Delius et Patareus Apollo. Od. HI. 4. 
 
 1078. Philoctetes dedicated a temple to Alaean Apollo, because he 
 had at last found a place of rest from his wanderings. iVlsean is said to 
 be derived from aXdadai, and Patareus from a town of Lycia. 
 
 1079. Nausethus. or, as it is called by Strabo, Nesethus, is a river in 
 the district of the Bruttii, flowing between Crotona and Petelia. 
 
 1082. Lindus is a city, and Thermydrus a harbour of Rhodes, where 
 the name Lindo is still to be found. This city is mentioned by Homer : 
 
 O'i'Po^ov cif-Kptt'eftoyTO ciu Tpi\a )C0(T;tjj6evrfc; 
 Aivcor, 'lijXiX^oov ri, Kai apywvivTa Kcifiiipov. 
 
 Catal. V. 162.
 
 286 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Far from Thermydrus' heights, shall Thrascias drive 
 To weep and wander through the sad sojourn : 
 There by Macella shall the natives raise 1085 
 
 The temple o'er his tomb, and shed the blood 
 Of holocausts, and as a God adore. 
 
 And HE shall dwell deep in Langarian vales 
 Whose arm shall form the steed, who from the spear 
 And strife of men with coward hurry starts. 1090 
 
 How shall he mourn his father's perjuries. 
 Who, when the bridegroom on Comaetho's towers 
 Rolled all the thunder of the battle, dared 
 For flocks and herds, the prizes of the sword. 
 
 Carpathus is an island between Rhodes and Crete. From Rhodes a 
 colony came to Italy, where they met with great resistance from a num- 
 ber of emigrants from Pellene, a town of Achaia, who killed Philoctetes, 
 while he was in the act of assisting the Rhodians. Straho bears witness 
 to the fact of a Rhodian colony landing in Italy. 
 
 1085. Macella is a city of the Bruttii, more generally called Macalla, 
 (Holstenius in this passage reads Macalla, on the authority of a manu- 
 script). Canter refers to Varro, to prove that, among the lonians and 
 Sicilians, Macellus means an enclosure, and thinks that such may be 
 the signification here. 
 
 1088. Epeus, the fabricator of the Trojan horse, dwelt in Langaria 
 subsequently to the taking of Troy, and suffered for the perjuries of his 
 father Panopeus. For when the children of Pterelas carried off the 
 herds of Electryon, he promised the hand of his daughter Alcmena to 
 the person who should bring them back. Amphitryon undertook the 
 expedition, in conjunction with Cephalus and Panopeus, and conquered 
 by the assistance of Comsetho, the daughter of Pterelas, who betrayed 
 her father from the love she bore to Cephalus. Amphitryon and his
 
 CASSANDRA. 287 
 
 Swear, falsely swear, by the Cydonian maid, 1095 
 
 And thee, gi-eat God of Spears, who rulest wide 
 
 On Thracian hills, or hear'st thou rather King, 
 
 Candaon, or Mamertus, lord of war ! 
 
 Nor this alone, for in his mother's womb. 
 
 Ere heaven had dawned upon his infant eyes, 1100 
 
 Round the twin-babe he twined the wrestling arm ; 
 
 For which the Gods with weak and timid soul 
 
 Gifted his seed, well knowing how to shine 
 
 In bloodless contests of gymnastic oil. 
 
 Well fraught with wiles, well stored with subtleties 
 
 Of specious art, but in the strife of death 1 1 06 
 
 Coward, and trembling at the lance's gleam. 
 
 Far from his native home, by Ciris' stream. 
 
 By Cylistarnus shall he dwell, and hang 
 
 High in the temple of the Myndian maid 1110 
 
 Mechanic steel, and all those instruments 
 
 soldiers had sworn to conceal no part of the plunder, which oath was 
 violated by Panopeus. — Langaria, or, as it is called by Stephanus and 
 Strabo, Lagaria, is a town of Lucania, to the south of the river Soiis. 
 
 1095. Minerva Cydonia was worshipped by the people of Arcadia. 
 Pausanias tells us that she had a temple in that district: 'Ej^ TQ.VT7] rij 
 )(wp9 - — - ^AdT]va.Q ecrriy k-KiKXriaiv KvC(i)vlac raog. 
 
 1098. The names of Candaon and Mamertus are again given to 
 Mars, in verse 1636. 
 
 1099. Panopeus fought with his brother Crissus before either were 
 bom. To punish him, the Gods caused his son Epeus to turn out a 
 good wrestler, but a coward in battle. (See Homer's Iliad.) 
 
 1108. Ciris, and Cylistarnus, are rivers of Italy. 
 
 1111. Aristotle tells us, in his book Heni Oav^arritov 'AknvcTfinrojt',
 
 288 CASSANDRA. 
 
 By vvhicli the pest of imaged beams shall rise. 
 Leap from the den, and ramp upon our walls. 
 
 And some shall tread the lone Sicihan shore. 
 Whither the perjured prince Laomedon 1115 
 
 Sent erst the bark which bore the triple charge 
 Of lovely maids ; for still upon his soul 
 Weighed every word Phasnodamas had breathed. 
 Still to his eyes his daughter's form arose 
 Prey to the ravening ore ; wherefore he bade 1 1 20 
 
 To cast the nymphs unto the savage brood 
 Which howl on barren Lestrygonian shores. 
 But flying from the solitary strand. 
 To soft Zerinthia shall they build the fane 
 Who bore the Wrestling King : thence as they roam, 
 One shall the River-god Crimissus press 1126 
 
 With fierce embrace, and wrap his limbs divine 
 In likeness of a hound : the nymph shall bear 
 A wonderous boy, who on Sicanian plains 
 Shall build three cities castellated pride ; 1130 
 
 that Epeus consecrated those instruments with which he made the Tro- 
 jan horse, in the temple of Minerva situated in Calabria. Minerva was 
 called Myndia, according to Canter, from a city in Caria. 
 
 1115. Laomedon, incensed that his daughter Hesione had been sub- 
 stituted for one of the three daughters of Phsenodamas (see Note on 
 verse 34), sent them to be exposed on the shores of Sicily, part of 
 which island was colonized by the Laestrygones, a nation of Italy, called 
 afterwards Leontini : 
 
 Prima Leontinos vastArunt praslia campos, 
 
 Regnatam duro quondam Laestrygone terram. • Sil. Ital.
 
 CASSANDRA. 289 
 
 Who from Idean shores shall bear away 
 Anchises' spurious branch, and in the soil 
 Of rich Trinacria plant the budding germ. 
 
 Segesta, thee the sanctities of Heaven 
 Have steeped in sorrows; ne'er to thee shall come 1135 
 Joy, nor the voice of song, since Ilium blazed 
 Wrapped round with flame ; alone shalt thou deplore 
 It's towers and sacred shrines, and heave the sob 
 Ceaseless, and groan through ages ; sable robes 
 Of woe shall clothe thine habitants, and all 1 1 40 
 
 Squalid with grief, and savaged by despair. 
 Dishevelled tresses of entangling curls 
 Shall float upon their shoulders, signs of woe. 
 
 These three daughters were preserved by Venus, and one of them bore 
 to the river Crimissus a son named Egestes, or Acestes, who built three 
 cities, ^gesta or Segesta, Eiyx, and Entella. 
 
 Occurrit Acestes 
 Horridus in jaculis et pelle Libystidis ursae : 
 TroVa Criniso conceptum flumine mater 
 Quern genuit. Virg. ^En. V. 38. 
 
 The Crinisus of Virgil is probably the same with the Crimissus of Ly- 
 cophron, which is a river of Sicily, flowing into the Hypsa. 
 
 1131. Egestes, or Acestes, came to Troy, and took back with him 
 Elymus, an illegitimate son of Anchises. 
 
 1133. The three promontories of Sicily, from which it obtained the 
 name of Trinacris, are Pachynus, Lilybseura, and Peloris. 
 
 1134. The inhabitants of Segesta continued to wear mourning in 
 memory of the misfortunes of Troy. Tlie use of this dress is confirmed 
 bv history. 
 
 U
 
 290 
 
 CASSANDRA. 
 
 By Sins some shall hold Leutarnia's plain. 
 Where Calchas, skilled in Sisyphean lore, 1145 
 
 Lies hearsed in death, and bleeds his clotted hair. 
 Where Sinis murmurs in his bed, and rolls 
 O'er Chonia's field his fertilizing wave. 
 There shall th' unhappy exiles raise them towers 
 Like those which never more shall they behold, 1150 
 And build a Mttle Troy ; but Rage shall seize 
 
 1144. Leutarnia and Siris are cities of Italy. Siris was a sea-port, 
 attached to Heraclea, situated near a river of the same name ; and 
 Strabo says that a tradition existed of it's having been colonized by 
 Trojans. 
 
 1145. The death of Calchas, after his defeat by Mopsus, has been 
 already mentioned in the Note on verse 498. Lycophron has there 
 asserted that Calchas was buried in Colophon ; and, as usual, the Scho- 
 Hast accuses him of inconsistency ; but a few lines farther on, the poet 
 informs us that this tomb by Siris and Leutarnia was merely a ceno- 
 taph : 
 
 "O S' Avffoveiojv ayyi KaX^avroc ratpwv 
 
 AvoTv aSeX^olv arepoQ tlnvSripiuv . Verse 1047. 
 
 Nor is he more successful with respect to Mopsus, who was killed in 
 single combat with Amphilochus, (see Note on verse 516); for he 
 accuses his author of saying that Mopsus was killed by Hercules, and 
 triumphantly asks how that could be possible, when Herculus had died 
 so many years before on Mount CEta. This is a most extraordinaiy 
 charge, considering that, in the passage under examination, neither 
 Mopsus nor Hercules are once mentioned. — The name of Sisyphus was 
 proverbial i or knowledge : 
 
 OvS' II GW(pQo<Tvvr}v fiiv exoig 'PaSafidvOvog aiirov, 
 
 nXiiova S' eiSdt}Q AioXiSioj ^iffv^ov. Theog. v. 521. 
 
 1148. Canter asserts, on the authority of Hesychius and Stephanus, 
 that Italy was formerly called Chonia, and thinks the name might have
 
 CASSANDRA. 291 
 
 The Laphrian virgin, who shall blow the blast 
 
 From her shrill clarion, and collect her might ; 
 
 For e'en within her fane shall Murder stalk 
 
 And slay the sons of Xuthus, and the race 1155 
 
 Of Ion, nor shall spare her kindred blood. 
 
 Then shall the statue roll her bloodless eyes 
 
 To shun th' Achaean wolves, for in her view 
 
 Not e'en his fillet saves the blameless priest. 
 
 Who first shall dye her altars with his gore. 1160 
 
 Some on TuUesian hills, and rugged steeps 
 
 originated from Hercules, who was called Chon by the Phoenicians ; but 
 Apollodorus, as quoted by Strabo, tells us that Philoctetes built the city 
 of Chone near the promontory Crimisa, from whence the inhabitants of 
 that district were called Chonians : " Xw^tjv ''^oXiv virep Kpifxiatjg 
 rifcpag olKTJaai, a<pi' j'/c ol ravrrf Xwvec eKXi'idTjaav." Lib. VI. 
 
 1152. Minerva. (See Note on verse 418.) 
 
 1154. When the Trojans fled to Italy after the taking of Troy, the 
 inhabitants of Crotona, though originally of Achaean extraction, assisted 
 them in an attack upon an Athenian tribe which had settled there, and 
 murdered the fugitives who had fled to the temple of Minerva, whose 
 statue is said to have averted her eyes. 
 
 1156. Attica was formerly called Ionia, from Ion or laon, the son of 
 Xuthus, (or, according to Stephanus, of Apollo). Ion is supposed by 
 some to be the same person with Javan, the descendant of Noah, the 
 radical letters of whose name in Hebrew may be pronounced Javan, or 
 Ion, according to the manner in which they are pointed. Homer calls 
 the inhabitants of Attica laones, as also iEschylus ; and Herodotus, by 
 informing us that they dropped the name, bears witness to the same 
 efibct. 
 
 1161. Some of the Greeks settled in Thessaly, the birth-place of
 
 292 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Of sea-beat Linus swelling to the clouds 
 
 Bow down their heads to the brave Amazon, 
 
 Who borne on foreign waves round foreign shores 
 
 Shall seek her queen ; what time in fields of war 1 165 
 
 Brass binds her helmed head, brass round her limbs 
 
 Gleams dreadful to the sun. Th' ^EtoHan Ape 
 
 Shall wound the martial glories of those eyes. 
 
 As closed in night they slumber ; but the spear 
 
 Shall nail the dark deformity to earth. 1170 
 
 These towers, these bulwarks of the mighty maid 
 
 Crotona's children shall despoil, and slay 
 
 Clete, the queen of Clete : Well I know 
 
 That Laure's sons shall win no easy field. 
 
 Nor cloudless be the tempest ; for what troops 1 175 
 
 Pierced by her steel shall bite th' inglorious dust ! 
 
 What clenched hands shall grind the gory soil ! 
 
 Clete the Amazon, who, while in search of her mistress Penthesilea, 
 was driven by a stonn to Italy, where she built a city, and called it by 
 her own name. — The TuUesian mountains, and Linus, are in Thessaly. 
 
 1167. When Achilles had slain Penthesilea, on raising her helmet, 
 and discovering her beauty, he lamented his victory, and slew Thersites 
 the iEtolian, who had wounded her in the eye. Sophocles, in his Phi- 
 loctetes, differs from almost all other authors, in asserting that Ther- 
 sites survived Achilles. The Scholiast on Homer says that Achilles 
 killed him with a blow of his fist, because he slandered her memory. — 
 Thersites is called an ape on account of his deformity. 
 
 1174. The Crotoniatse, descendants of Laure, the wife of Croton 
 their founder, after sevei'al generations attacked and destroyed Clete, 
 the queen of which city was herself always called Clete. They slew the 
 last of the race, but not till they had severely suffered from her courage- 
 ous resistance.
 
 CASSANDRA. 29 
 
 What sobs of death come bubbhng up in blood ! 
 
 Some by Terina, where Ocinanis 
 Rolls down his limpid crystalline, shall dwell 1 1 SO 
 
 In sad repose, worn down by bitter toils. 
 
 The bloody Boar, the soil of Gorge bold, 
 Who drinks Lycormus' waters, and the Chief 
 Of feeble spear, who boasts the second prize 
 Of beauty, tost on stormy seas shall roam ; 11 85 
 
 For now the North shall rush on frozen wings 
 From Thracian caverns, drive their shattered pine 
 Where Libya's sands unwet with morning dews 
 Spread barren ; now shall Afric's sultry son 
 
 1179. Others dwelt in Terina, a city of Italy, by the river Ocinarus. 
 (See Note on verse 852.) 
 
 1182. Thoas and Nireus were driven to Libya, and afterwards by a 
 southerly wind to Epirus. Thoas was the son of Andrasmon and Gorge, 
 and by birth an .^tolian, for Lycormus is a river of .^tolia. He is 
 termed a Boar from his martial spirit : 
 
 The bristled Boar in infant gore 
 
 Wallows beneath the thorny shade. Gray's Bard. 
 
 1183. Nireus, the son of Charopus and Aglaie, was considered as 
 inferior to none but Achilles in beauty ; but he was a bad soldier, and 
 brought but few followers with him to Troy. Homer mentions him 
 once, and only once, in the Iliad : 
 
 'SiptvQ c' av 'S.vntjOei' dytv rpelg vijagtiaac, 
 Nip£t?c, 'AyXairjQ 9' vlbg, XapoTToto r avaKTog, 
 "Sipivgyog KaWitTTog avi]p virb'lXiov ijXOi 
 Taiv d\Xu)v Aavawv fitr cifivfiova T[T)\tiwva' 
 'AW aXuTraCvog tijv, iravpog c'e o'l tiiriro Xaog.
 
 294 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Roar from the South, and fraught with bickering storms 
 
 In dark encounter ride upon the waves ; 1191 
 
 Till, bursting from the bosom of the deep, 
 
 Epirot ridges and Ceraunian woods 
 
 Shall bound the black horizon of the main. 
 
 There long they roam, and drink swift Msls' stream. 
 
 Outcast, exiled; and by Mylacian realms, 1196 
 
 By Crathis shall they wander, by the towers 
 
 Of Colchian Polae, where those dwell beside 
 
 Dizerus, deeply flowing stream, whom erst 
 
 The Prince of Corinth and of JEa. sent 1 200 
 
 To seek his daughter o'er the waves ; they flew 
 
 1193. The Ceraunia, or, as they are sometimes called, Acroceraunia, 
 are mountains of Epirus, part of which country was inhabited by the 
 Mylaces. The river ^as takes it's rise in Mount Pindus. " 'O A'iac 
 
 TTOTttfioQ Trapa tov IIiV^ou npovQ TrapappeT," Scylax. — Crathis 
 
 rises in Mount Pindus. 
 
 1198. Poise, or Pola, was a city of Istria, built by the Colchians 
 whom ^etes dispatched to recover Medea. They failed in their pur- 
 suit, and, in consequence, were afraid to return. The stoiy is men- 
 tioned by Pliny, who tells us that in his time it was called Pietas Julia. 
 These exiles are said to have given their city the name of Polas from a 
 word in their language signifying banishment : 
 
 To fiEV <pvydSa)7' tiq tvi(Tiroi 
 FpaiKog, drap Kiivuiv yXuKTa ovofiyvs TloKag. 
 
 Fragment. Callim. cit. Strab. 
 
 1199. Dizerus, according to Stephanus, is a river of lUyria, otto tov 
 ^a^eadai, " from the search made for Medea." 
 
 1200. ^etes, the father of Medea, was the founder of the city ^a. 
 The Scholiast informs us, that, not content with the sovereignty of 
 Corinth, he quitted it for that of Colchis.
 
 CASSANDRA. 295 
 
 Swiftly, but swifter fled the bark divine. 
 And bore the bride, the wiUing prize, away. 
 
 And some to Malta, near Othronus' isle 
 Shall steer, where round the rocks the chafing wave 
 Still urges, flowing from Pachynus' shores, 1 206 
 
 And Ulyssean hills, (things by their names 
 I call, as yet unnamed,) where the fell son 
 Of Sisyphus reared high the marble fane 
 To dread Longatis, and Helorus laves 1210 
 
 The pillared height with coldly-flowing stream. 
 
 Euboea's Wolf, whose unrelenting fangs 
 
 1202. The Argo, in which Jason bore off Medea. 
 
 1204. Melite, now called Malta, lies opposite to the promontory 
 Pachynus, the most southern part of Sicily. Lycophron makes the 
 penultimate long, MeXirrf, of which there are other instances to be met 
 with, but it is most generally used as short : 
 
 Fertilis est Melite, sterili vicina Cosyrse. Ov. Fast. HI. 567. 
 
 Othronus is an island in the Ionian Sea, between Epirus and Italy. 
 
 1207. The Odysseiim Promontorium, or Promontory of Ulysses, was 
 near to Pachynus. There Ulysses built a temple to Hecate, that he 
 might appease the spirit of Hecuba, whom he had caused to be stoned. 
 
 1209. Anticlea, the mother of Ulysses, is said by some authors to 
 have been pregnant by Sisyphus when she married Laertes. 
 
 1210. Longatis was a name of Hecate. It is derived by Potter oVo 
 rwv Xoyywv, " from tombs." — Helorus is a river of Sicily, which flows 
 near a city of that name, near Pachynus. ""EXwpoQ ttoXiq StK-eXme, 
 otTTO 'EXwpou TTOTafxov Tov KaTO. Iluj^yyov." Stephanus. It is said to 
 inundate the surrounding country, in the same manner as the Nile. 
 
 1212. Elpenor, intending to strike a servant who was negligently
 
 296 ' CASSANDRA. 
 
 Tore out his grandsire's heart, shall still regret 
 
 Coscynthus' native wave, and on the shores 
 
 Of bleak Othronus dwell ; upon a rock 1215 
 
 High frowning o'er the seas he shall indite 
 
 The glozing speech, and with him shall entice 
 
 Full many a mariner ; for from his home 
 
 While the year circles shall Erinnys lash 
 
 The murderous wretch, and Justice watch her prey. 
 
 And Furies rising from Ladonian waves. 
 
 Thence shall he roam, and fly the batthng snakes. 
 
 And dragon coil implicit ; then shall steer 
 
 To famed Abantia's towers, Epirot realms. 
 
 And dwell upon the shores, and quaff the stream 1225 
 
 Which down Chaonian Polyanthes Hows. 
 
 conducting his grandfather Abas, missed his aim, and killed the latter ; 
 for which reason being forced to submit to banishment for one year 
 (oLTreviavTiafxoQ, the usual punishment of homicide among the ancients,) 
 he persuaded a body of his countrymen to foUow him to Troy, from 
 which he afterwards went to Othronus, but was driven from thence by 
 serpents to Abantia, a city of Illyricum. Homer however tells us that 
 he was killed at Troy by Agenor, and an epitaph is extant " upon 
 Elpenor buried at Troy." 
 
 1214. Coscynthus was the ancient name of the Euripus, a strait be- 
 tween Boeotia and Eubcea. 
 
 1219. Ceres Erinnys was worshipped at Telphusa, a town of Arcadia, 
 near the river Ladon. 
 
 1226. Polyanthes is a river of Chaonia, which is a district on the 
 eastern coast of Epirus, to the south of the mountains called Acroce- 
 raunia. Apollonius fables that Phaeton fell into the mouth of this river : 
 
 AifivriC ig Trpoxoat; UoXvavQeoQ. Apoi.lon.
 
 CASSANDRA. 297 
 
 By where the marbles on Ausonia's plain 
 Rise, empty semblance of a tomb, and bear 
 Then* Calchas' name, one of the healing pair 
 Shall heap a foreign dust upon his bones. 1 230 
 
 In fleecy spoils the curious crowd shall sleep 
 Fast by his sepulchre, and dreams divine 
 Draw back the veil which clothes futurity. 
 Wet with Althsenus' wave the Daunians pour 
 Their soul into the prayer, and call the God 1 235 
 
 Loudly, to scatter from his healing wing 
 Health on the herd, and busy tribes of men. 
 There what a sun shall on the heralds burst, 
 
 1228. See Note upon verse 1145. 
 
 1229. Podalirius, the son of ^sciilapius, and brother of Machaon, 
 was buried in Italy, near the cenotaph of Calchas. Thither the neigh- 
 bouring tribes resorted for oracles, and, wrapping themselves in the 
 skins of sheep, awaited prophetic dreams ; which custom is mentioned 
 by Strabo, lib. VI. ; and by Virgil : 
 
 coesarura ovium sub nocte silenti 
 Pellibus incubuit stratis, somnosque petivit. ^En. VII. 87. 
 
 1234. The persons who came to consult the oracles washed them- 
 selves with the water of the river Althaenus, whose name is derived 
 from a word signifying "to heal," dTro rov aXduireu'. 
 
 1238. Diomede cursed the soil of the Daunians, and prayed that it 
 might never prove fertile till cultivated by yEtolian husbandmen. (See 
 Note on verse 70o.) In process of time, the /Etolians demanded the 
 inheritance of Diomede, and sent ambassadors, who, after having con- 
 sulted an oracle, received for answer "That they should hold the land 
 in perpetuity." These delegates made their requisition, but were in 
 consequence buried alive ; and thus was the prediction fulfilled. The 
 Scholiast confounds these persons, both here and in a preceding note.
 
 298 CASSANDRA. 
 
 i^tolian fools, and light them to their graves. 
 
 When from Salangian and Anggesan tribes 1240 
 
 They claim their chieftain's heritance, the fields 
 
 And fattening furrows of sustaining earth ! 
 
 Deep in the tomb, and caverned gloom of Death, 
 
 Alive shall they descend, unwept, unmourned. 
 
 And roofed with horrent stone the Daunian race 1 245 
 
 Raise the rude monument ; thus shall they hold 
 
 The plains beloved, the portion of the king. 
 
 Son of the Boar, who ground with cruel jaws 
 
 The warrior's head, and dyed his tusks in blood. 
 
 Where Lampetes erect with horned head 1250 
 
 Juts from Hipponian hills into the main, 
 
 with the man and woman of Greece and Gaul who were buried by 
 Fabius Maximus in the Roman Forum, and then proceeds to attack his 
 author with his usual sagacity and acuteness of criticism. 
 
 1241. The Salangi and Angsesi are tribes of Italy. 
 
 1248, Diomede was the son of Tydeus, who was mortally wounded 
 before Thebes by Melanippus. Amphiaraus kUled the latter, and 
 Tydeus died gnawing the head of his antagonist. Tydeus is called a 
 boar, because he wore the skin of that animal. Adrastus consulted an 
 oracle with respect to the marriage of bis daughters, Deiphile and 
 Argia : he received for answer an injunction to give them to a boar and 
 a lion, and, in obedience to this command, bestowed them upon Tydeus, 
 who was drest in the hide of a boar, and Polynices, who wore that of a 
 lion : 
 
 Cui Phoebus generos (monstrum exitiabile dictu, 
 Mox adaperta fides) aevo ducente canebat 
 Setigerumque suem, et fulvura adventare leonem. 
 
 Stat. Theb. lib. I. 
 
 1251. Hippo, or Hipponium, was a city of the Bruttii, built, accord-
 
 CASSANDRA. 299 
 
 Shall steer the troops whose chiefs derive their race 
 
 From ancient Naubolus, nor more shall plough 
 
 Fair Crissa's heights, but on Crotonian shores 
 
 (As slow they drive the sturdy team afield) 1 255 
 
 Think on their loved Anemorean plains, 
 
 Lilsea's towers, Amphissa's Phocian wall. 
 
 And Abas, rolled in the records of Fame. 
 
 ing to Strabo, by the Locrians : it was afterwards called by the Romans 
 Vibo Valentia. Lampetes was a mountain upon the adjacent coast, 
 whither came the Phocians, the followers of Schedius and Epistrophus, 
 the sons of Iphitus, and grandsons of Naubolus : 
 
 Atrdp 4>(j/c»/wr 'S^s^iOQ Kai 'ETritrrpo^og iipxov, 
 
 'YuiQ 'l<pirov, fiiyaBvfiov 'fiavjioXiSao. HoM. Catal. 24. 
 
 1254. Crissa was a city of Phocis, built by Crissus the brother of 
 Panopeus : it was not far from the Bay of Corinth, which was by many 
 called the Sinus Crissseus, though this name applies properly to a creek 
 which runs up by Crissa. 
 
 1256. Anemorea was a city of Phocis, but its situation is not exactly 
 ascertained : it is mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue : 
 
 Ol t' ' Avifiijjpuav Ka'i 'YojUTroXtv aiKfiivkfiovTO. Hom. Catal. 28. 
 
 1257. Lilsea was a city of Phocis, situated at the fountains whence 
 springs the river Cephisus, according to Strabo and Homer : 
 
 Ol rt K'ikaiav txov, TTjjyi/C sTrt Kj/^htctoTo. Cat. 30. 
 
 The site of Amphissa is not very exactly ascertained. Lycophron, by 
 mentioning it in the same list with so many cities of Phocis, would seem 
 to place it in the same district, and is supported by the authority of 
 Pliny. It is probable that the limitg of Phocis were reduced much 
 within their ancient bounds, for Dionysius carries their northern boundary 
 nearly to Thermopylae. Ptolemy and Stephanus place Amphissa among 
 the Locri Ozolse, as does also Pausanias, who tells us that it was one 
 hundred and twenty stadia from Delphi. 
 
 1258. Aba; was in Phocis, and was renowned for an oracle, which 
 was prior to that of Delphi, and existed in the time of Herodotus.
 
 I 
 
 300 
 
 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Unhappy dame, Setea, wave thy torch. 
 Throw flames upon the hehn, flames on the prow : 12G0 
 Chained to the rocks, how shalt thou call on Death, 
 When iron cramps, and clasping bands of brass 
 Inextricable, knit thy limbs ! on liigh 
 The screaming vulture, circling round thy head. 
 Shall scent his prey, shall banquet on thy blood. 12G5 
 Hark ! Crathis echoes to thy groans : the rocks 
 Named from thy woes, and sacred to thy grief, 
 Shall rise, and scowl upon the Tuscan main. 
 
 Thy waves, O Membles, and the barren shores 
 Of Cyrnus, shall behold the Grecian barks 1270 
 
 Steer mournfully ; beyond the Tyrrhene seas 
 Safe in Lametus' waters shall they ride, 
 
 1259. Tzetzes relates that Setea, one of the Trojan captives, con- 
 spired with her fellow- sufferers to burn the Grecian fleet near Sybaris. 
 She was discovered, crucified, and affixed to a rock which afterwards 
 bore her name. Canter, in his Commentary, imagines her to have set 
 fire to the Trojan fleet, and thus confounds this story with that in the 
 ^Eneid ; but Cassandra is describing the miseries of the Greeks, and the 
 words in the text, ceinroTuiv aroXor, " the fleet of her masters," seem to 
 confirm the interpretation of the Scholiast, with whom Stephanus 
 agrees. "^Treiat rag Xonrag avjUipXe^ai rac t'avg tmv 'E\\//j'wj'.' 
 
 1266. Crathis is a river which runs by Sybaris into the Bay of Ta- 
 rentum. 
 
 1269. Membles is a river of Italy. 
 
 1270. Cvrnus, or Corsica, (which island is probably meant by the 
 KtpvsaTLQ vTiaoc) was colonized, according to Seneca, by the Phocians, 
 who afterwards inhabited Marseilles. " Phocide relicta, Graii, qui 
 nunc Massiliam colunt, prius in hac insula consederunt." 
 
 1272. The Lametian Bav was on the eastern coast of Italy, so called
 
 CASSANDRA. 301 
 
 Ride safe — but ne'er return ! their crews shall dwell 
 For ever there, and tread Lucanian shores. 
 O'er these shall Sorrow brood ; still shall they weep 
 My forceful spousals, and the foul embrace. 1276 
 
 Some to their realms, their native realms, shall ride 
 Gallant, and gay ; but not for them shall glow 
 Propitious flames of sacrificial light 
 To please Larynthian Cerdylas : Such arts, 1280 
 
 Such wiles, the mining Hedgehog shall infuse. 
 Steal to the nests, and in each female bird 
 Raise fraudful hopes, inordinate desires ; 
 While impious fires of luring flame shall stream. 
 And guide their navies on the rocks ; for still 1285 
 
 Revenge sits lurking, since the filial branch 
 
 from the river Lametus, or Lametia, a city towards the south of Lu- 
 cania. Cassandra concludes here her enumeration of the wanderings 
 of the Greeks, and proceeds to foretell their sufferings after their return. 
 
 1280. Jupiter is termed " Cerdylas" because he is the source of all 
 gain and good fortune, and " Larynthian " from a city where he was 
 worshipped. 
 
 12S1. Nauplius, in revenge for the death of his son Palamedes, em-- 
 ployed himself in corrupting the wives of the absent princes, and ex- 
 citing their subjects to rebel. The manner in which he lured their 
 fleet to destruction, by displaying false lights upon the Capharean pro- 
 montory, has already been mentioned. From his cunning, he is styled 
 an hedgehog, the sagacity of which animal was proverbial among the 
 Greeks. 
 
 1286. This "branch" was Palamedes, who was buried at Methymna, 
 one of the five cities of Lesbos.
 
 302 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Bowed it's green honours to the severing steel. 
 And Hes all withering on Methymna's shore. 
 
 Borne down, and struggling in the bath of blood. 
 The King of Men shall feel the tangling robe 1290 
 
 Twine round his manly limbs in traitorous folds 
 Inextricably knotted, and shall search 
 The clasping sutures with unseeing hands : 
 Then streams, and blood, and battered brains shall dye 
 Urn, tripod, laver : hand on hand up-heaved, 1295 
 
 The cleaving axe shall lay his warrior head 
 Low : from the mad and mangling Lioness 
 To Stygian waters, to Tsenarian shores 
 His soul shall wing her melancholy way. 
 But I shall lie upon the lap of Earth 1 300 
 
 Smit by the piercing steel, and in my gore 
 Weltering ; while on my neck bowed to the ground 
 Shall strike with many a stab, and many a blow. 
 The Dragon queen : As on the mountain tops 
 
 1289. Lycophron agrees with the Greek tragedians in stating Aga- 
 memnon to have been murdered in a bath ; but Homer asserts him to 
 have been killed at a banquet, and compares his death to that of an ox 
 at the stall : 
 
 ijQ TiQ Tt KUTiKTave fiovv iiri (pdrvy. 
 
 1290. Clytemnestra, according to ^Eschylus, threw a robe over the 
 head of Agamemnon, and then cleaved his head with an axe. 
 
 1293. This metaphor, which confounds the senses of feeling and 
 sight, is analogous to the Scriptural " darkness which may be felt," and 
 the " palpable obscure" of Milton. 
 
 1304. The Dragon queen is Clytemnestra.
 
 CASSANDRA. 303 
 
 The youthful woodman cleaves with sturdy stroke 1305 
 
 Cedar, or pine, or knotted oak, so she 
 
 Shall stride infuriate on my bleeding limbs, 
 
 Wreak her mean vengeance on a captive slave. 
 
 And satiate all her savage soul with death. 
 
 With sobs and shrieks my spirit issuing forth 1310 
 
 On wings of winds shall seek my wedded lord : 
 
 But ah ! I see, I see the Lion's whelp 
 
 Rush from his lair, and ranging for revenge 
 
 Strike his fell talons to the Viper's heart. 
 
 Wash blood with blood, and expiate woe with woe. 1315 
 
 My spouse, the master of the captive maid. 
 Though low in death, shall still on Sparta shed 
 His influence benign, like Jove adored 
 By all the sons of (Ebalus ; nor night 
 Shall steep my glories in Lethaean dews, 1320 
 
 Nor veil my honours, for the Daunian chiefs, 
 
 1305. This simile of the woodman is borrowed from the Electra of 
 Sophocles : 
 
 MijTijp 5' »/ 'fir), x<t> Koivo\tx>ie 
 AlyirrOog, ottuq Spvv vXoTOfioi 
 S^^i^ovffi Kcipa (povicfi TreX'tKsi. 
 
 1312. Orestes, who avenged the death of Agamemnon upon his 
 mother Clytemnestra. 
 
 1317. A temple was erected at Sparta to Agamemnon, who was 
 caUed Jupiter ; and, vice versd, Jupiter, was called Agamemnon. This 
 piece of flattery to princes was very common among the ancients. 
 
 1319. (Ebalus, according to some authors, was the progenitor of 
 Tyndarus and his brothers.
 
 304 CASSANDRA. 
 
 And those who dwell in Dardanus, shall build 
 
 The fane which rises fast by Salpe's lake ; 
 
 And still, when maidens loath the bridal yoke, 
 
 (Of chaste delights enamoured) and the song 1 325 
 
 Of spousals, and th' obtrusive bridegroom proud 
 
 Of flowing tresses and Hectorean curls, 
 
 But base of blood, or cast in vulgar mould. 
 
 Graceless of form, about their beauteous limbs 
 
 They wrap the sable robe, the garb of fiends 1330 
 
 Eumenides, and dye their cheeks with juice 
 
 Spelled with dark words, and waving high the wand 
 
 Throw their white arms around my marble neck. 
 
 Ah me ! what floods your tear-distilling eyes 
 
 1322. Dardanus was a city of Italy. 
 
 1323. Salapia, or Salpe, was a city of Apulia, not far from Cannae : 
 near it was a lake called the Palus Salapina. 
 
 1324. When the Daunian virgins were averse to marriage, they 
 arrayed themselves in mourning, carried a wand or staff, and embraced 
 the statue of Cassandra, having previously tinged their cheeks. 
 
 1327. A peculiar method of combing back the hair, and suffering it 
 to flow upon the shoulders, was called Hectorean. Hesychius adds 
 that this manner of wearing the hair was used by the Daunians and 
 Picentini. 
 
 1334. Minerva was so much incensed at the rape of Cassandra by 
 Ajax the Locrian, that she visited the Locri with pestilence. Tliey con- 
 sulted the oracle of Apollo, which commanded them to send two virgins 
 annually, chosen by lot, to minister in her temple at Troy ; and to con- 
 tinue so to do for the space of a thousand years. This custom is men- 
 tioned by Plutarch, who states it to have continued till within a short 
 space of his own time.
 
 CASSANDRA. 305 
 
 Shall pour! what groans in evil hour shall cause 1335 
 
 The forceful bridegroom, 'gainst whose fierce embrace 
 
 Struggling I strove with unavaiUng strength ! 
 
 Unhappy virgins ! whom the cruel lot 
 
 Condemns to sad celibacies of woe : 
 
 Larymna, Spercheus, ye Boagrian streams, 1340 
 
 Ye towers of Thronium, ye Pyranthian woods, 
 
 Phalorias, Cynus, Naryx, Scarphe's walls. 
 
 Hearth of Oileus, what a weight of woe 
 
 Gygean Pallas heaps upon your heads ! 
 
 A thousand years shall roll, and still the lot 1345 
 
 Leap from the fatal urn ; through barren plains. 
 
 Wide wastes, and sands washed by the frequent wave. 
 
 Slow shall the maidens wind their toilsome march. 
 
 By foreign hands upon a foreign shore 
 
 1340. Larymna is a city of Boeotia. Spercheus, a river on the 
 southern frontier of Thessaly. Boagrius, a river of the Locri Epicne- 
 midii, flowing near Thronium : 
 
 Qpoviov Ti, BoaypioD ayi(pi pktGpa. HoM. Catal. 40. 
 
 Phalorias is a city of Locris. Cynus is on the frontier of the Locri 
 Opuntii. Naryx, or Narycium, is a city of Locris, the seat of Oileus : 
 Ncipv^ TToAic AoKpicoQ, TLVEQ CE ^apvKov Tr]v TToXtj' (j)a(rir, El, »/e AVof. — 
 Minerva w^as called Gygsean from the Gygaean marsh, according to 
 Canter. Hesychius explains yvyaia vv^ to mean " black night." 
 
 1349. The first virgins who came to Troy sufiered death from the 
 resentment of the Trojans, and their ashes were thrown into the sea. 
 The Scholiast conceives Traron, in the verse 
 
 Tj/e tK Xocftiov Tpapwvoi; i(p9irwfikv))c, 
 
 to be the name of a hill near Troy. Ricard, in his Paraphrase, imagines
 
 i 
 
 30(3 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Shall rise the tomb, which tides shall wash away. 1350 
 
 Trees by the lightning blasted, cypress shades. 
 
 Branches, whence never fruits nor blossoms sprung. 
 
 Shall heap their funeral pyre, Vulcan consume 
 
 The Dove who died upon the Phrygian hills. 
 
 And strew her ashes to the rolling seas. 1355 
 
 The rest shall steal where Sithon's daughter rules. 
 
 Pale as the cheek of Death, and looking round 
 
 Start at each sylvan whisper of the breeze ; 
 
 From hallowed urns shall pour the lustral dews 
 
 Brightening the rich Mosaic, and adore, 1360 
 
 Low-cowering at her shrine, the mighty Maid. 
 
 There shall they lurk, a race proscribed, a mark 
 
 For Scorn to point at ; for each Tvojan eye 
 
 Shall scowl upon the damsels ; every boy. 
 
 Youth, or grey-bearded sire, shall seize or stone 1365 
 
 Or axe, or staff hewn upon Ida's hills. 
 
 Or spear of ashen length, or sword of proof. 
 
 And quench the thirstings of his hand in blood. 
 
 it to be the proper name of one of the virgins : " Earum cinis in mare 
 dissipabitur velut cuidam Traroni accidit." Scaliger translates the 
 passage, 
 
 Cinerem procellis ventilabit Mulciber 
 Columbae ab altis interemptas montibus : 
 
 from which it is plain that he read not Tpdpuyog, but Tpi'jpwpoc, " a 
 dove." Lycophron so constantly gives the name of Dove to his 
 heroines, that this interpretation is adopted in the translation. 
 
 135G. Rhsetea, the daughter of Sithon, gave her name to the Rhse- 
 tean Promontorv near Trov.
 
 CASSANDRA. 307 
 
 O Mother ! Mother ! neither shall thy fame 
 Float on the wings of Silence, but the spouse 1370 
 
 Of gloomy Dis, queen of the triple form, 
 Persean Brimo, shall in brutal vest 
 Thy members clothe, and limb thee like an hound ; 
 Around the conch of Sleep with nightly tread 
 Stern shalt thou stalk, while from thy glaring eyes 1375 
 Gleam terrors, such as in their souls infix 
 Plagues who with torches honour not the queen 
 Of Thracian Strymon, and Pherean plains : 
 And on Pachynus' shore thy cenotaph 
 Shall rear it's sacred marbles ; round it Dreams 1380 
 Shall spread their wings of soporific shade. 
 So wills the lord who by the flowing streams 
 
 1369. It has been already mentioned that Hecuba was changed into 
 a dog by Hecate : which goddess was worshipped under the name of 
 Brimo, or Obrimo. Hesiod feigns that she was the daughter of Perses 
 and Asteria, for which reason she is styled Perseis by ApoUonius and 
 Ovid. 
 
 1377. Torches were used in the Eleusinian mysteries and the sacri- 
 fices to Proserpine, in memory of those which Ceres lighted at Mount 
 yEtna when she sought her ravished daughter. 
 
 1378. Before the extension of the Hmits of Macedon, the river Stry- 
 mon was the boundary between that country and Thrace. — Hecate was 
 worshipped at Pherae, a city of Thessaly, not far from the Pagassean 
 Bay. Cicero mentions it, and adds, that it was possessed of great 
 power. " Pheras - - - quae erat urbs in Thessalia admodum nobilis." 
 Lib. I. cap. 25. de Divinat. 
 
 1382. Ulysses, as has been mentioned above, was the first who cast 
 a stone at Hecuba. He was afterguards terrified by a dream, and built 
 a temple near the promontory of Pachynus, beside the river Hcloms. —
 
 308 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Of famed Helorus pours the sacred wine. 
 
 Dreading the triple queen ; for on thy hmbs 
 
 First of the Greeks he heaved the murderous stone, 
 
 And offered thee, priest of the rites of Hell. 1386 
 
 But not in vain, O Brother, not in vain. 
 Light of my life, dear as my fostering blood ; 
 No, not in vain thy princely care shall pile 
 
 Hecuba is feigned to frighten all persons who neglected to pay adoration 
 to Hecate, in conformity with the mythology which represented that 
 deity as attended by dogs whenever she was present at nocturnal incan- 
 tations : 
 
 Serpentes, atque videres 
 Infernos errare canes. Hor. Sat. I. 8. 
 
 The Dii Manes, and the spirits of those who had been unjustly put to 
 death, were supposed to have the power of punishing and alarming the 
 guilty : 
 
 Quin ubi perire jussus expiravero, 
 
 Nocturnus occurram furor; 
 Petamque vultus umbra curvis unguibus ; 
 
 QuEe vis Deorum est Manium. Hor. Od. V. 5. 
 
 1389. Homer makes mention of the piety of Hector, whose spirit 
 was translated after death to the Islands of the Blest. Between the 
 ages of Brass and Iron, Hesiod places a fourth generation of heroes, 
 some of whom he says were killed at Tliebes, others at Troy, 'EXirrjc 
 ivEK t)\}k6ijoio. These were placed by Jupiter in the Happy Isles, at the 
 extremity of the earth, or, as Milton phrases it, " The earth's green 
 end." 
 
 ZevQ KpovicTjQ Karsi'aane Hari'ip tg ■Treipara yairjg, 
 ***** 
 
 'Ev i^iaKcipuji' vj/jvoKTi. Hesiod. 
 
 Tliese fortunate regions the Scholiast does us the honour to tell us are
 
 CASSANDRA. 309 
 
 The heaps of numerous holocausts, and burn 1390 
 
 Ambrosial mcense and ambrosial flowers 
 
 To Him, who sitting on Ophion's throne 
 
 Looks o'er the world ; thee to his native shores 
 
 (Shores hymned by every song, by every Greek 
 
 Voiced tunefully) the grateful God shall bring, 1 395 
 
 Where erst his mother wrapped in secret shade 
 
 (Who wrestling with the consort of the skies, 
 
 Hurled her to night profound) brought forth in woe 
 
 The wonderous boy, what time the Goddess fled 
 
 The bloody banquets of her spouse, and feasts 1 400 
 
 Infanticide ; but not the tender limbs 
 
 Of his own son the cruel father crushed. 
 
 Of his own seed the murderer and the tomb. 
 
 But glutted down the stone, and linten folds 
 
 Of swaddling robe: there in the blissful isles, 1405 
 
 Shores of the Blest, with heroes shalt thou dwell. 
 
 Beneficent in death ; for the sown race 
 
 Of Ogygus shall hear the Voice divine 
 
 the British Islands, about which he relates several most marvellous 
 anecdotes. 
 
 1392. The throne of Jupiter was formerly filled by Ophion and Eury- 
 nome ; they were dispossessed, and hurled to Tartarus, by Saturn, aud 
 Rhea the mother of Jupiter. Ophion is mentioned by ^schylus, Pin- 
 dar, and ApoUonius. 
 
 1400. Saturn, that he might not be in his turn expelled by his own 
 children, devom'ed them as soon as born. Rhea secretly placed Jupiter 
 under the care of the Curetes and Corybantes, and gave to Saturn a 
 stone wrapped up in swaddling-clothes. 
 
 1408. Ogygus, the son of Neptune and Alistra, was one the
 
 310 CASSAN JIA. 
 
 Sound from Terminthiau Lepsius, healing God, 
 
 And burst the cearments of thy tomb, and bear 1410 
 
 To lands Aonian and Calydnus' towers 
 
 Thy saviour bones, when battle shall deface 
 
 Their fields and shrines of Tenerus destroy ; 
 
 And still with songs and sacrificial blood 
 
 Thee shall th' Ecteni like a God adore. 1415 
 
 To Cretan Gnossus, to Gortyna's towers. 
 Shall roll the tide of slaughter ; Ate there. 
 The bridemaid of my nuptials, shall o'erwhelm 
 Thrones and dominions. Not in vain the bark 
 Bounds on the surge of the careering wave 1420 
 
 To bear the mariner, whose subtle wiles 
 
 ancient kings of Boeotia. The inhabitants of Thebes are said to have 
 sprung from the dragon's teeth which were sown by Cadmus. They 
 consulted the oracle of Apollo while their city was suffering from pesti- 
 lence, and were commanded to bring the bones of Hector from Phrygia 
 to Thebes. 
 
 1409. Apollo is called " Terminthian," from Terminthus, an herb 
 used in medicine. 
 
 1411. Boeotia was formerly called Aonia. — Calydnus was a king of 
 Thebes. 
 
 1413. Tenerus was the son of Apollo and Melia : he had an oracle 
 and temple near Thebes. 
 
 1415. The Ecteni, according to Pausanias, fonnerly inhabited Boeotia. 
 Nonnus, in his Dionysiacs, gives the name of Ecteni to the Theban 
 chiefs. 
 
 141 G. Gnossus and Gortyna are two of the principal cities of Crete. 
 TloXeiQ ilffh' ky rij Kpijri] nXtiovc /^<£)', f^ieyi(j-ai rt Kai ETnijiiaiaraTm 
 Tfiuc, TyMafToc, Tvprvya, Kvcwyla,' — Strab. lib. X.
 
 CASSANDRA. 311 
 
 Shall twine round Leucus, guardian of the realms : 
 
 Then shall he spare nor blood of infant babes. 
 
 Nor Meda, beauteous queen ; no, nor the charms 
 
 Of CHsithera, which th' unhappy sire 1425 
 
 Had promised to the Dragon whom he nursed ; 
 
 But all shall die where rears her hallowed porch 
 
 1422. When Idomeneus sailed to Troy, he entrusted his kingdom 
 and family to the care of Leucus his adopted son, and promised, on his 
 return, to give him his daughter in marriage. Nauplius sailed to Crete, 
 and persuaded Leucus to seize on the government, and put to death 
 Meda and Clisithera, the wife and daughter of Idomeneus. 
 
 1427. Ceres Erynnis was worshipped at Oncae, a city of Arcadia. 
 The Scholiast explains the goddess Onca to mean Ceres, and teUs us 
 that she was so called from Oncse, a town of Arcadia ; hut iEschylus, 
 in the Seven against Thebes, gives the epithet Onca to Minerva : 
 
 TiTaproQ ciWog, yiirovag rrvXag t^wv 
 
 'Oyxag 'A9i]vag, ^iiv jSoij irapicrraTai, Ver. 492. 
 
 And afterwards, 
 
 UpwTov jxkv 'OyKa HaWdg, iJT' ayxtTTToXic, 
 
 TlvXaiai ysirwv, k. t. X. Ver. 507. 
 
 The Scholiast upon this passage informs us that it is an Egyptian or 
 Phoenician name, given to Pallas by Cadmus, when he came to Thebes 
 in obedience to the oracle of Delphi. Fictitious inscriptions have been 
 palmed upon the world, in which mention is made of the goddess Onga 
 or Oga ; but the forgery has been detected, and most ably exposed, by 
 R. P. Knight, in his Analysis of the Greek Alphabet. The quotations 
 from TEschylus have influenced the Translator to adopt the interpreta- 
 tion which confers the epithet on Minerva ; but it is difficidt to decide 
 in a mythology where the appellations and attributes of the Goddesses 
 are so much mixed and confounded ; — a circumstance which wiB not 
 surprise those who have been accustomed to consider them as one and 
 the same, " ttoXXoiv di'o^/ctrwv juo()0>/ ju/o," and as representing the 
 passive principles of nature.
 
 312 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Great Onca Pallas, in her very fane 
 
 Die by his hand, and welter in their gore. 
 
 " Visions of glory, crowd not on my soul ;" 1 430 
 
 Immortal sons of an immortal sire, 
 Bomid on yom' brows (so valour should be crowned) 
 The laurelled meed of conquest shall entwine ; 
 O'er earth and seas extends your dread domain. 
 Powerful of realms ; o'er empires and o'er waves 1435 
 In solemn majesty your sceptred hand 
 Rules far and wide, and shakes the conquering spear. 
 Nor yet, my country, no, nor yet thy fame 
 Shall fade in darkness ; such a martial pair, 
 Twin Lions, shall my Kinsman leave, who springs 1440 
 From Choeras and the Castnian Queen, well skilled 
 
 1430. Cassandra foretells the power and extent of the Roman 
 empire, its origin from ^^neas, and the birth of Romulus and Remus, 
 whom she calls Twin Lions, .^neas was kinsman to Cassandra, as 
 will appear from the following table : 
 
 Tros 
 
 I 
 Ilus . * , Assaracus 
 
 Laomedon — ^ y — Capys 
 
 Priam — -i y — Anchises 
 
 Cassandra — \ 
 
 K — ^neas 
 
 1441. Venus is styled Castnian, from Castanea, a city of Magnesia; 
 and Chceras, from the hogs sacrificed to her by the A.rgives : or per-
 
 CASSANDRA. 3 1 3 
 
 To pour the honied words, or guide the war ; 
 Who to Rhaecelus first shall fare, and dwell 
 By Cissus' heights, where the Laphystian maids 
 Exult, and rear their Mimallonian horns : 1445 
 
 Him from Halmopia shall the Tuscan wave 
 Receive, and Lingeus, from whose smoking founts 
 Springs out the boihng stream, and Pisa's towers. 
 
 haps the epithet was applied to the Venus na»'C7;/noc" x°'^P^°^ ^ Greek 
 being synonymous with -u alculov ywaiKe'iot'. 
 
 1443. Rhaecelus is a city of Macedonia; and Cissus, according to 
 Canter, is a mountain of that country, but Strabo mentions it as one of 
 the villages of which the inhabitants were transferred to Thessalonica 
 by Cassander : " MfT-w'ictffe TcnripiE, 7roXt)(j'ia elg airTivo'iov XaXnfT-pav, 
 Aivdav, Ktcro-ov." Strab. lib. VII. 
 
 1444. The Bacchanals are called Laphystian maids from Laphystius, 
 an epithet of Bacchus, said to be given to him ft-om a mountain in 
 Bceotia. 
 
 1446. The text of the original reads "Halmonia;" and Pausanias 
 says that the Halmones occupy a village in Boeotia ; but Lycophron is 
 now speaking of Macedon, and Stephanus quotes this verse to prove 
 that Halmopia is a district of that country : " 'AX/Ltwrrta, x^^P" '"'/f 
 M-aKthwriaQ." Tlie Almopi are situated to the north of the river Pa- 
 nyasus, at the junction of the ridges of Scardus and Ha?mus. They are 
 called Almopii, Almopi, or Almopes. 
 
 1447. Lingeus is a warm spring of Italy. 
 
 1448. Pisa or Pissa, as it is called by the Greek authors, but by the 
 Italian, Pisse, in the plural number, is a city between the rivers Amus 
 and Auser. It was built by the Pisaei, or Pisatse, who came from a 
 district of Ehs named Pisatis. Some authors think that Pisa was the 
 ancient name of Olympia ; 
 
 '0/\ii/n7r(a, »'/ TTfiOTtfiov Hiaa Xiyojiivt], Steph.
 
 314 CASSANDRA. 
 
 And green Agylla crowned with snowy herds. 
 
 With him the Foe shall mix his friendly host, 1450 
 
 Pledge of their plighted loves, and bend the knee 
 
 To Powers unseen, and write an oath in heaven. 
 
 The wandering chief, who o'er the pathless tracts 
 
 Of land and seas explores his anxious way. 
 
 With him the princes (sons of Mysia's king, 1455 
 
 About whose struggling limbs the God shall twine 
 
 His tendrils, and break short the spear) shall lead 
 
 Their armies, Tarchon and Tyrrhenus, sprung. 
 
 Celestial seed, from great Alcides' loins. 
 
 Then shall he view, while Famine frowns around, 1 460 
 
 The tables crushed by hungry jaws, and know 
 
 The voice of seers, and own the prescient God. 
 
 As many porkers as the fruitful womb 
 
 1449. Caere was built by the Greeks, and anciently caUed Agylla : it 
 was under the government of Mezentius, the king of the Etrurians, and 
 at no great distance from Rome, on a small river which runs nearly 
 parallel to the Tiber. 
 
 1450. "The Foe" is Ulysses, who entered into a treaty with ^neas, 
 in which he was joined by Tarchon and Tyrrhenus, the sons of Telephus 
 the king of Mysia, who, stumbling against the roots of a vine, was 
 wounded by Achilles. (See Note on verse 247.) 
 
 1459. Telephus was the son of Hercules and Auge. 
 
 1461. This alludes to the prophecy given to ^neas by the harpy 
 Celseno ; viz. that his associates should be compelled by famine to con- 
 sume their very tables, which prediction was fulfilled by the soldiers 
 eating the cakes upon which they had laid their provisions : 
 
 Heus ! etiam mensas consumimus, inquit lulus. 
 
 ViRG. .En. VII. 116. 
 
 #
 
 CASSANDRA. 315 
 
 Of her produced, who from th' Idaean hills 
 
 Sailed on the deep, and gave her brood to breathe 1465 
 
 Thrice ten this air of hfe, so many towers 
 
 Shall rise beneath his forming hand, and frown 
 
 O'er Latium's realms^ and Daunia's martial sons ; 
 
 And in the fane the sculptured brass shall stand. 
 
 And thick the bristling progeny shall throng, 1470 
 
 And seem to draw the stream ; the marble roof 
 
 Shall rise to Myndian Pallas, and around 
 
 His Household Lares press the sacred floor, 
 
 Gods of his love ; for from the smouldering flame 
 
 He saves nor spouse, nor children, nor the gold 1 475 
 
 Of garnered stores, but in his sinewy arms 
 
 Snatches their imaged forms, and with them bears 
 
 His aged sire, and wraps them in his robe. 
 
 For when the dogs of war shall feast on death 
 
 Blood-happy, when the leaping lot shall give 1480 
 
 Our fields and fair possessions to the foe, 
 
 146G. This passage is translated in conformity to the interpretation 
 of Meursius. Lycophron never could mean that ^neas buUt thirty 
 cities : he must mean thirty towers on the walls of Alba Longa. Virgil 
 tells us that that city was built in commemoration of the white sow and 
 litter which ^neas discovered ; but Lycophron asserts that hero to 
 have brought her from Troy, and adds the epithet keXuipi], " black," 
 which, unless it means delighting in mud, is repugnant to all other 
 authors. Nor is this interpretation overthrown by the circumstance of 
 Alba having been built by Ascanius. In prophetic language, persons 
 ai"e said to perform whatever is performed by their descendants : in 
 like manner, a few verses below, iEneas is said to have built Rome. 
 
 1477. ^neas preserved his father and household-gods from the con- 
 flagration of Troy, but lost by the way his wife Creusa. (See Virgil.)
 
 316 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Him, him alone, shall they permit to cull 
 
 From treasured heaps vvhate'er is next his soul : 
 
 Such reverence e'en from foes his pious love 
 
 Shall win. He bids, and straight the towers arise 1485 
 
 Which every bard shall hymn, war-proof, of might 
 
 Invincible, while flows the tide of Time : 
 
 And high the wall shall rise by Circe's wood, 
 
 i^etes' port, where from the stormy main 
 
 Rested swift Argo, by the Marsic Lake 1490 
 
 Of Phorce, by Titonian waves, which hide 
 
 Their sapping waters in the gloom of earth. 
 
 And by Zosterian mountains, where the fane 
 
 Echoes the sounds which from the Sybil's lips 
 
 Flow fearfully, and rears its roof of stone. 1 495 
 
 Such woes shall they endure who storm these towers ; 
 
 1484. The piety of vEneas made such an impression upon the Greeks, 
 that they permitted him to retain all his possessions, no part of which 
 was exposed to plunder. " 0« iroXefxioi fioru tKtivio aJv tKpaTT]atv ev 
 Tpoia iloaav fit^ avXrjdfjvai." Xenoph. 
 
 1485. Rome, which was founded by the descendants of jEneas. 
 
 1488. The Circsean Hills are in Latium, not far from Alba, accord- 
 ing to Eustathius. Near them was the city Cerceii, colonized by Tar- 
 quin the Proud. 
 
 1489. jfEetes was an harbour of Italy, into which the Argo entered, 
 that Jason and Medea might be purified from the murder of Apsyrtus. 
 
 1491- Phorce is a lake in the country of the Marsi. — ^Titon is a river 
 near the Circsean moimtains, which falls into an abyss. 
 
 1493. Zosterium is a mountain of Italy, in which is the cave of the 
 Cumsean SybU Phsemonoe. 
 
 1496. Cassandra having foretold the misfortunes which must follow
 
 CASSANDRA. 317 
 
 And if they give, shall they not feel despair? 
 
 When did Prometheus' mother ever love 
 Sarpedon's nurse, since flowed between their shores 
 The seas of Helle, since the jostling rocks 1500 
 
 Rose dreadful, since th' inhospitable wave 
 And Salmydessus roared on Scythian strands 
 
 the rape of Helen, enumerates the wars between Europe and Asia, be- 
 ginning with the rape of lo by the Phoenician mariners. 
 
 1498. Asia, according to some authors, was the wife of lapetus and 
 mother of Prometheus, and gave her name to the continent. Hero- 
 dotus however calls her the wife of Prometheus, whom Hesiod affirms 
 to have been the son of lapetus and Clymene. 
 
 1499. Europa, from whom Europe derives its appellation, was 
 mother of Sarpedon by Jupiter. 
 
 1500. Lycophron enumerates the boundaries of Europe and Asia, 
 which he says are, The Hellespont ; — The Symplegades, which, from 
 appearing to join and separate as they were viewed under different 
 aspects, were fabled to meet and crush the vessels which attempted to 
 pass between ; (these rocks were also called Cyanese, and were situated 
 at the entrance of the Black Sea;) — The Euxine or Black Sea, which 
 was formerly called Axenus, or Inhospitable, either from the ferocity of 
 its borderers, or the dangers of its navigation : 
 
 'Exdpo^evoi; vavTijai, ixi]T()Via vtuiv. iEscHYL. 
 
 This name, from the inhabitants of the coast becoming more civilized, 
 or perhaps from motives of superstition, was altered to " Euxine," sig- 
 nifying the reverse. 
 
 1502. Salmydessus, a gulph opening into the Euxine ; and the 
 Tanais, a river running into the Meeotic Lake, through the country of 
 the Sarmatse. Tliis river Dionysius makes the boundary between 
 Europe and Asia :
 
 3 1 8 CASSANDRA. 
 
 There where Maeotis sleeps, and Tanais cleaves 
 
 The stagnant lake, upon whose frozen shores 
 
 The unclad tribes with chilled and painful step 1505 
 
 Stalk on in ice, and pace the snowy marie ? 
 
 Cursed be the mariners, the Carnian wolves. 
 Who bore their prize unto the Memphian king. 
 The Heifer maid, who cropped the tender flowers 
 Where humid Lerne spreads her swamps around : 1510 
 Then Discord waved her torch, and reared on high 
 Flames of immortal hate, strife ne'er to cease. 
 Rage ne'er to cool , for straight th' Idean Boars 
 
 EiipwTTjjv ^' 'Aff('r;c Tavaig ha fxecrrrov opi^ii 
 ***** 
 
 IIpoc Bop'irjv. Ver. 14. 
 
 but a few lines below he tells us that by some the boundary was fixed 
 at an isthmus between the Caspian and Euxine seas. Herodotus brings 
 Europe as far south as the Phasis ; and Plato tells us that the Europeans 
 extend from the Phasis to the Columns of Hercules : Me^piQ 'Hpa/cXc/wv 
 arrjXwp cnro ^atricog. 
 
 1507. Certain mariners from Carne, a city of Phoenicia, sailed to 
 Argolis, and bore off lo, the daughter of Inachus ; then carried her to 
 Osiris, the king of Egypt. In mythology she is said to have been 
 ravished by Jupiter, and transformed into a heifer ; in which fonn, after 
 many wanderings, she arrived in Egypt, and became the goddess Isis. 
 
 1510. Lerne is a marsh near Argos, 
 
 1513. The Curetes, to whose care Jupiter was committed by Rhea, 
 retaliated by sailing from Crete to Sarape (called also Sarapta, or 
 Sarepta) a city of Phoenicia, between TjTe and Sidon, whence they 
 brought back Europa in a vessel whose head was ornamented with the 
 figure of a biUl. From this circumstance the poets have feigned that
 
 CASSANDRA. 3 1 9 
 
 III dread reprisal seized upon the maid : 
 
 In gallant trim the sculptured vessel flew 1515 
 
 Lightly on Ocean's wave, the figured Bull 
 
 High on the prow drove back the dashing surge. 
 
 And swift the virgin of Sarapte bore 
 
 To Dicte's hills, and on the Cretan lord 
 
 Bestowed the lovely maid, the captive bride. 1520 
 
 Shall War then sleep ? Shall this then sate the soul 
 Of swelling Anger ? — Teucer arms his host. 
 With him Scamander, Cretan sire, and leaps 
 In dread array down on the Phrygian sands, 
 Warring with earth-born foes ; great Dardanus 1525 
 Shall wed their seed, the noble maid of Crete, 
 Arisba, mother of my kindred line. 
 
 Again rush forth the famished Wolves, and seize 
 
 Europa was carried off by Jupiter in the shape of a bull. Vide Mos- 
 chus, Horace, Anacreon, &c. 
 
 1519. Dicte is a mountain of Crete, 
 
 1523. Not contented with this achievement, Scamander the Cretan, 
 and his son Teucer, invaded Phrygia, where they settled, in obedience 
 to an oracle, which commanded them to found a city on the spot where 
 they should be attacked by an earth-born enemy. While they slept, 
 the leather of their shields was gnawed by mice, and thus was the pro- 
 phecy fulfilled. 
 
 1527. Arisba, or Batea, was daughter to Teucer: she married Dar- 
 danus, from whom, in regular succession, descended Ericthonius, Tros, 
 Ilus, Laomedon, Priam, and Cassandra. 
 
 1528. The adventures of Jason in Colchis are too well known to re- 
 quire illustration.
 
 320 
 
 CASSANDRA. 
 
 The fateful fleece, and charm the Dragon guard 
 
 To sleep ; so bids the smgle-sandaled king, 1530 
 
 Who to Libystian Colchis won his way 
 
 Fearless, and drugged the soporific bowl. 
 
 And ploughed th' enchanted earth, and to his yoke 
 
 Bowed down the monsters, brazen-footed bulls. 
 
 Whose voice is thunder and whose breath is flame ; 
 
 Thence bore the fleecy gold, (but in the rear 
 
 Revenge scowled on her prey,) and with him fled 
 
 The Lamb, whose white a brother's blood shall dye. 
 
 And children's slaughter on her bosom reek. 
 
 On glides the speaking oak, instinct with thought 1540 
 
 1531. The Libystini, according to Stephanus, are a people near 
 Colchis ; for which reason the Translator has preferred the reading 
 AtfivarivTqv to the AiyvarLKriv of the text, to support which it is neces- 
 sary to suppose the Colchians to have been a Ligurian colony. None 
 of the more modem commentators have noticed the epithet ixovoKprjirlg, 
 " single-sandaled," in the preceding line : the following is said to be the 
 reason of the appellation. Pelias having seized on lolchos, the birth- 
 right of Jason, the latter was forced to fly : the usurper consulted the 
 oracle, and received for answer a caution to beware of the stranger with 
 one sandal. Soon afterwards, at the festival of Neptune, he observed 
 Jason, who had lost one of his sandals in crossing the river Anaurus. 
 Pehas inqvdred of him in what manner he would get rid of a person of 
 whom an oracle had cautioned him to beware : he replied, " by sending 
 him in quest of the Golden Fleece." Pelias in consequence dispatched 
 him upon that expedition. Philistratus alludes to this story in the 
 twenty-first epistle : KpjjTrIca evaj^^Edijvai t(3 pEv^art eIq di'Ti\i]\piv rfjc 
 IXiioc yeyojuevrjg. 
 
 1539. The Lamb is Medea, who slew her brother ApsjTtus, and her 
 children by Jason. 
 
 1540. The ship Argo was built of the celebrated oracular oaks, cut
 
 CASSANDRA. 321 
 
 Whose vocal beams upon the waters fly 
 Self-moved, self-winged, and prescient of the port. 
 
 With stubborn strength he heaves the huge rough 
 stone. 
 Thence takes his father's sword, and belt where hung 
 The dreadful steel, but for th' unhappy seed 1545 
 
 Of Phemius rises high the Scyrian rock. 
 Whence whirling down, his mangled limbs shall lie 
 Unhonoured, unlamented, uninurned. 
 With him shall come the Lion-whelp who drew 
 The milky globes which swell on Juno's breast, 1550 
 Who seized the girdle, raised the double storm 
 
 down in the forest of Dodona : from her mast proceeded voices and 
 prophecies, according to Orpheus and Apollonius. Lycophron feigns 
 that she knew her course. In hke manner, Alcinoiis, in Homer, asserts 
 that the ships of the Phaeacians flew spontaneously upon the -waters. 
 
 1543. yEgeus, the father of Theseus, left with ^thra a sword, belt, 
 and slippers, and covered them with an enormous stone ; at the same 
 time he left orders that when Theseus could raise the stone he should 
 immediately proceed to the court of Athens. 
 
 1546. Tlieseus, in the latter part of his life, took refuge with Lyco- 
 medes, in the island of Scyrus, one of the Cyclades. Lycomedes fear- 
 ing that he might be involved in his misfortunes, treacherously led his 
 guest to the summit of a cliff, and threw him headlong into the sea. 
 
 1549. Theseus invaded Scythia jointly with Hercules, and bore off 
 the zone of Hippolyte the queen of the Amazons, and afterwards the 
 queen herself, to whom Lycophron gives the name of Orthosia, which 
 properly belongs to Diana, who is called Orthosia, or Orthia, from a 
 mountain of Arcadia. 
 
 Y
 
 322 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Of war ; for far from high Themiscyra 
 
 He bore the zone, and what of love the zone 
 
 Rounded, Orthosia joying in the bow 
 
 And shafts of missile might : but on shall come 1555 
 
 Her kindred virgins, like a cloud of night. 
 
 Breathing revenge, from Telamus shall come, 
 
 Eris, and Lagmus, and Thermodon's stream ; 
 
 Thence rush by Danaw's wave dark as the storm. 
 
 And spur their Scythian steeds, and on the sons 1560 
 
 Of famed Erectheus and the Grecian host 
 
 Pour the loud shout of battailous delight. 
 
 Throw down the leaguered towers, and roll the tide 
 
 Of ruddy flame o'er all Mopsopia's field. 
 
 Then rules o'er Thrace and Chaladrean plains 1565 
 My warlike ancestor, who fixed the bounds 
 Where Peneus flows ; to him each realm shall bow 
 With fettered arms and chain-encircled neck, 
 
 1552. Themiscyra is a city of Paplilagonia, inhabited by Amazons. 
 
 1556. In revenge for the rape of Kippolyte the Amazons invaded 
 Attica, which was formerly called Mopsopia. 
 
 1558. Eris, Lagmus, and Telamus, are mountains of Paplilagonia. 
 
 1565. Charadra, Chalastra, Canastra, or Galadra, are said by Canter 
 to be either the same place, or to be confounded with one another. 
 Chalastra and Canastra are names met with in Macedonia. Charada 
 is said to be a city of Phocis ; but, in another place, Lycophron gives 
 the epithet Xapadpaiog to Alexander the Great. 
 
 1566. According to Herodotus, Ilus extended the Trojan empire over 
 Thessaly and Thrace, as far as the river Peneus. (Herodot. Polyhymn.) 
 Some ascribe this achievement to Laomedon.
 
 CASSANDRA. 323 
 
 15nlliant in bravest youtli, the mould of form, 
 
 Veins rich with noble blood, a soul of fire. 1570 
 
 Shall Greece then sleep ? Six vessels sail : and now. 
 The perjured to dethrone, the proud to whelm, 
 Th' Avenger comes. — Who stands upon the prow 
 Clad in the lion's robe ? He stands whom soon 
 In dread divan and council of the skies, 1575 
 
 His might revolving in her altered soul. 
 Shall Gorgas raise, — a God among the Gods. 
 
 From Tmolus' heights the Hawks expand the wing. 
 And dash from Cympsus, from Pactolian streams 
 Sanded with gold, and from that horrid lake 1580 
 
 Where Typhon's consort, caverned round with gloom, 
 Sleeps on the blasted rock ; thence on they rush 
 By fair Agylla, nurse of snowy herds. 
 And break their spears with those who boast the blood 
 Of giant sires and with Liguria's race : 1585 
 
 1571. Hercules invaded Troy with six sliips, and vanquished Lao- 
 medon, who had refused to give the stipulated reward to Apollo and 
 Neptune. 
 
 1577. Juno is denominated Gorgas Trapa tijv yopyo-rjra, " from her 
 power of producing affright." 
 
 1578. Tyrrhenus and Lydus deserting Cympsus, Pactolus, and Tmo- 
 lus, of which the first is a village, the second a river, and the third a 
 mountain of Lydia, quitting the Gygean Lake, where inhabits Vipcra 
 the consort of Typhon and mother of Chimsera, settled in Italy, whither 
 had come the Thracian giants, who afterwards inhabited the Pithecusae. 
 
 1583. Ca;re, near Rome, was anciently called Agylla'.
 
 324 CASSANDRA. 
 
 O'er Pisa Conquest waves her crimson wing, 
 And all bow down beneath the sword who dwell 
 From Alpine ridges far as Umbria's plain. 
 
 The Firebrand gleams, and kindles Discord's torcli : 
 Beneath the ashy steep the sleeping flame 1590 
 
 Rouzes ; then Rhyndacus beheld the bowl 
 By Grecian hands deep-dipped within his flood : 
 But Greece shall well revenge, the venomed sting 
 Shall rankle round her heart, then twice and thrice 
 Shall she repay, and desolate our shores. 1595 
 
 First He, who boasts, Lapersian King of Gods, 
 Thy name, descends, from whose avenging arm 
 Red, as he moves, shall blaze the bickering flame : 
 With him, with him I rush unto the shades, 
 And as I walk amonor the dead shall hear 1600 
 
 '& 
 
 1586. Pisa is a city between the rivers Arnus and Auser. (See Note 
 on verse 1448.) 
 
 1589. Paris, of whom, when Hecuba was pregnant, she dreamed 
 that she was dehvered of a firebrand. 
 
 1592. The story of Menelaus coming to Troy to sacrifice at the se- 
 pulchres of Lycus and Chimaereus, has been related in the opening of 
 the Poem. 
 
 1596, Jupiter, as has been already mentioned, was sometimes called 
 Agamemnon, and vice versd. 
 
 1599. Cassandra was murdered by Clytemnestra at the same time as 
 Agamemnon : 
 
 0'iKpordTi]v iiKovaa oira Unut^oio GuyarpoQ 
 
 Kaffcravcpijc, riji' KTtivt KXiTrti/ir/jcrrp/j coXo^/jnc 
 
 'A ftp' ifioi. UoM. Odyss.
 
 CASSANDRA. 325 
 
 A voice cry loud unto the dark sojourn, 
 One woe is past ! — another woe succeeds ! 
 
 Second the chief (whose father died enwrapped 
 In meshed toils, e'en as the finny brood 
 Sons of the Wave) shall burn the foreign clime 1605 
 With many-languag-ed hosts ; for thus ordained 
 The healing God, and poured the Voice divine. 
 
 Third shall the offspring of the peasant King 
 Lure the Branchesian Maid to give the seal. 
 And temper with the stream the ductile eartli ; 1610 
 Shall found the Phthirian monarchy, and slay 
 The host of Caria's mercenary sons. 
 
 1603. Orestes, who, after the death of yEgisthus, went to Tauris in 
 obedience to the oracle, and brought back the statue of Diana. This 
 account is not strictly consonant to that of the Tragedians. 
 
 1608. Codnis, king of Athens, when that city was attacked bv the 
 Lacedaemonians, having learned from the soothsayers that that nation 
 should conquer whose king should fall in the contest, disguised as a 
 peasant issued forth from the gates, and provoked one of the enemy to 
 put him to death. By his descendant is meant Neleus. 
 
 1609. Neleus, in obedience to an oracle, requested of the daughter 
 of a potter to give him some clay tempered with water, pretending that 
 he wanted it for a seal, for wliich purpose the ancients made use of 
 argillaceous earth. Among the Eastern nations, to send earth and 
 water was a token of submission ; and we find that Xerxes requested it 
 of the Grecian States as a proof of obedience to his authority. 
 
 1G12. Caria, of which country the Phthirians are a tribe, was called 
 Branchesia, from Branchus, who built a temple at ]\liletus. The Carian 
 soldiers were the first who served other states in the capacity of mer-
 
 326 CASSANDRA. 
 
 Fourth shall Lacmonian offspring, Dymas' seed, 
 Race sprunt!; from Codrus, sons of Cytinum, 
 Rush from the hills of Satnius, Thingrus' plain, Uj15 
 And the broad Chersonese, where /Ethon dwelled 
 Abhorred by Ceres, father of the maid 
 Of changeful form, whose daily subtleties 
 Soothed the fell famine of her sire, who ploughed 
 The barren borders of another's land. 1G20 
 
 cenaries. - - - Here follow, in the Original, three lines, relating to Pero 
 the daughter of Neleus, which are omitted in the Translation. 
 
 1613. Dymas was king of the Dorians, who are called "Lacmonian 
 offspring," from Lacmon a mountain of Perrheebia. — Cytinum, or Cyti- 
 nium, is one of the cities of the Dorica Tetrapolis mentioned by Strabo : 
 IIoXEfc icrypv 'Epiyedv, Boio}', 11/) cnj', Kvririov. — Satnium is a foimtain, 
 and Thingrus a city of Icaria. 
 
 1616. Erisicthon the Thessalian cut down a tree sacred to Ceres, 
 who punished him with perpetual hunger. Having reduced himself to 
 utter poverty in appeasing the cravings of his prBeternatural appetite, 
 he sold his daughter Mestra, who had previously transformed herself 
 into the shape of some animal, a power which she had obtained from 
 Neptune. Mestra resumed her former shape, and returned to her 
 father, who by these means supported himself for some time. He is 
 called J^Ithon, from a'idio, "to burn." See Ovid. Metam. 
 
 1620. This expression seems analogous to that in the Psalms, 
 
 if the Septuagint have rightly translated it by eav Kuifirjdijre ava^enov 
 rwj' KXi'ipiov, " Though ye have lien between the inheritances." In our 
 English Version it is rendered " Though ye have lien among the pots ;" 
 but the discrepancy of the Chaldee and Arabic Versions may perhaps 
 make it probable that this resemblance proceeds solely from a mistake. 
 If the Seventy are correct, the expression seems to have been used pro- 
 verbially, to denote the most abject state of poverty.
 
 CASSANDRA. 327 
 
 But swift the Phrygian swoops to his revenge : 
 All shall He raze where'er the land extends 
 Nurse of the King who now in Stygian shades 
 Sits on his throne, and rules the trembling dead 
 With laws severe, unknowing how^ to yield : 1G25 
 
 All shall He raze, upon whose temples wave 
 The lengthened ears, from which blood-sucking flies 
 Dart fearfully : To him shall Phlegra's plain, 
 Thrambusian hills and Titon's rocky ridge. 
 And Sithon's pastures lowly crouch, and fields 1630 
 
 Corn-waving of Pallene, where the streams 
 Of fattening: Brvchon wander, on whose shores 
 Rose in their might the giant sons of Earth. 
 
 1621. Cassandra prophecies that Midas the king of Phrygia shall 
 revenge the death of his sister Cleopatra (the particulars of which are 
 quite unknown) and desolate Europe, which continent received it's 
 name from Europa the mother of Minos, one of the judges of hell. The 
 story of the ass's ears is too well known to require illustration. 
 
 1631. Pallene is a peninsula of Macedonia, formerly called Phlegra, 
 in which is the city Thrambus, which probably gave it's name to a 
 mountain. Titon is a promontoiy of Thrace. Sithonia a district of 
 Macedon, near the Sinus Toronseus. 
 
 1639. Xerxes, the king of the Persians, who derive their origin from 
 Perseus, the son of Jupiter and Danae. The Greeks are particularly 
 fond of dwelling upon this story of Xerxes building a bridge across tlie 
 Hellespont, and sailing through Mount Athos : but not u vestige re- 
 mains of the canal he is said to have cut there, and the account does 
 not seem to have been believed in the days of Juvenal : 
 
 Crcditur olim 
 Velificatus Atlios, ct quicquid GrKcia nicndax 
 Audet in historia. Jlv,
 
 32S CASSANDRA. 
 
 Murder shall walk in bloody robe arrayed. 
 
 And Havoc's haughty stride, and Mars shall rage, 1635 
 
 Candaon, or Mamertus, or what name 
 
 Suits Thee, who feastest on the blood of men. 
 
 Nor yet shall Asia yield ; for she shall send 
 A mighty giant, sprung from Perseus' seed, 
 Who o'er th' unsolid surface of the wave 1640 
 
 Shall walk, and through the continents of earth 
 Steer on his floating palaces, and wrap 
 In fiery mantles of avenging flame 
 The wooden walls, nor spare the sanctuary 
 And pillared temples of the martial Maid : 1645 
 
 Wherefore shall evil days and evil tongues 
 With impious railings taunt the God of Light, 
 Scorning his word, and scoffing at his truth. 
 Then Famine shall devour each blade, and on 
 The locust armies warping, on the bark 1650 
 
 Of oaks shall batten, nor the olive boast 
 
 1640. This antithesis of " Avalking upon the sea, and sailing on the 
 continent," is constantly recurring : An epigram in the Anthologia 
 styles Xerxes, 
 
 "SavTriv j/TTEipov, Tre^oTropov TrtXdytvg. 
 
 1644. When the Athenians consulted the oracle upon the best 
 manner of defending themselves from the attack of Xerxes, they were 
 ordered to build wooden walls : 
 
 TtlxoQ TpiToyivsi ^vXivov SiSol EvpvoTra ZtvQ. 
 They took the command in it's literal acceptation, and erected bulwarks 
 of timber, which Xerxes afterwards burnt, together with the temple of 
 Minerva.
 
 CASSANDRA. 329 
 
 Her verdant honours, nor the river roll 
 
 His undiminished tide, so oft shall Thirst 
 
 Dip her insatiate goblet in the stream ; 
 
 High o'er their heads a sleet of arrowy shower 1655 
 
 And iron clouds shall canopy the globe 
 
 With dreadful shade, veiling the light of heaven : 
 
 And now he rushes like the crackling flame 
 
 Rolling through ripened corn the ruddy wave ; 
 
 Till fading, falling, as the Locrian rose 1660 
 
 Of short-lived bloom, a beechen skiff shall hide 
 
 Yntp Kupa (fTi]aovai. 
 
 " Clouds of arrows hurled from afar shall stand over their heads." It 
 is remarkable that Lucan has precisely the same expression : 
 
 Slant ferrea coelo 
 Nubila. 
 
 This is not so correct an image as that of Gray, who represents the 
 arrows as a descending sleet. 
 
 1657. For the word nippa, which is explained by the Scholiast to 
 signify " the sun," the Commentators would substitute virpa, which by 
 some authors is applied to that luminary. It is true that Trtppa is to be 
 met with in no other author, but that is no proof that it was not written 
 by Lycophron, who has not scrupled to use (j)vXafioc, Xapu:, and TrrtXac, 
 which are not to be found elsewhere. The word is perhaps of 
 Persian origin ; for when mentioning the disasters of a Persian army, 
 our author may be supposed to have given a Persian name to a Persian 
 Deity, j " Ber" in the modern Arabic and Persian languages signi- 
 fies " a globe : " if adopted by a Greek, he would give a Greek termi- 
 nation to this monosyllable, and 11 would be the nearest approximation 
 he could make to the sound of its initial, for B was probably jjronounced 
 soft, like our V.
 
 330 CASSANDRA. 
 
 The Monarch, trembhng like a girl who runs 
 
 To sheltering darkness and the silent cave, 
 
 Scared by the brazen gleamings of a sword. 1664 
 
 Then w^oes, and wars, and wasting tides of blood. 
 Shall sweep conflicting armies from the world ; 
 For some in plains shall bow their heads to death. 
 And some on ridges of the mountain rock. 
 And some on seas shall sink beneath the wave. 
 All murdered : nor till then shall grisly War 1670 
 
 Sheath his fell sword, and break his iron car. 
 Till sprung fi'om Dardan seed from ^acus, 
 Tbesprotian, Chaladraean, forth shall rush 
 The Lion form, and ranging for revenge 
 Spring from his lair, and lap his kindred blood : 1675 
 Round him in fawning blandishment shall cower 
 And cringe, and crook the hinges of their knees. 
 The chiefs of ancient Argolis, and yield 
 Sceptres, and realms, and diadems, and thrones. 
 
 1672. The following verses allude to the predominance of Alexander 
 the Great. By his mother's side he claimed a descent from ^acus 
 and Dardanus. 
 
 1673. Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, was an Epirote, 
 for which reason he is called " Thesprotian," from Thesprotia a dis- 
 trict of Epirus. His father was a Macedonian, from which circum- 
 stance he is designated as a Chaladraean lion. (See Note on verse 
 1565.) 
 
 1675. The Persians are called his kinsmen, because they derived 
 their origin from Perseus, an ancestor of Hercules, from whom Alex- 
 ander claimed to be descended.
 
 CASSANDI{A. 331 
 
 But when athwart the empty-vaulted heaven 1()S() 
 Six times of years have rolled. War shall repose 
 His lance, obedient to my Kinsman's voice ; 
 Who rich in spoils of monarchs shall return 
 With friendly looks, and caroUings of love. 
 While Peace sits brooding upon seas and land. 1 685 
 
 Why pour the fruitless strain ? to winds, and waves. 
 Deaf winds, dull waves, and senseless shades of woods 
 I chaunt, and sing mine unavailing song. 
 Such woes has Lepsieus heaped upon my head. 
 Steeping my words in incredulity ; 1690 
 
 The jealous God I for from my virgin couch 
 I drove him amorous, nor returned his love. 
 But fate is in my voice, truth on my lips ; 
 What must come, will come ; and when rising woes 
 Burst on his head, when rushing from her seat 1695 
 
 1680. These verses are perhaps allusive to the peace made witli 
 Macedonia (after it's sulijuf^ation by the Romans, who were descended 
 from vEneas the kinsman of Cassandra), and incorporation with the 
 Roman Empire. See Preface. 
 
 1686. Cassandra, havinc; related the woes which the expedition of 
 Paris must occasion, suddenly checks herself upon reflecting that no one 
 will believe her oracles ; she then derives a melancholy consolation from 
 the knowledge that justice will be done her, when vengeance has over- 
 taken the guilty. In the same manner in yEschylus she exclaims, 
 
 Kal ToJvS' ofioiov ti Ti firj TTtiBo), ri yap ; 
 
 To fikWov i)i,u, Kai av fi})v Tuxn Traputv 
 
 "Ayav y' ci\i]9nfiavTiv olKTiipag fndc. ^scHYL. Agam. 
 
 1689. Lepsieus is a name of Apollo. 
 
 1691. For the story of Cassandra, see Note on verse 411.
 
 332 CASSAMDIIA. 
 
 His country falls, nor man nor God can save. 
 Some wretch shall groan, " From her no falsehood 
 
 flowed. 
 True were the shrieks of that ill-omened bird." 
 
 Such was her strain ; she hurried to her cell 
 With troubled steps, and took th' astonished soul 1 700 
 With Siren songs and mournful melodies ; 
 Or phrenzied as a moon-struck Bacchanal, 
 Or furious Sybil, or Phicean Sphinx, 
 Shewed her dark speech, and muttered oracles. 
 But I to thee have borne her words, O King, 1 705 
 
 Her frantic words, for me thou hast ordained 
 Guard of her cell, and every sound which flows 
 Fast from her lips I straight relate to thee. 
 But, oh ! may all these woes be turned to joy ! 
 Still may the God who watches o'er thy House 1710 
 Spread round thy bosom his protecting shield. 
 And guard with arms divine the Phrygian throne !* 
 
 1703. The Sphinx is called Phicean, from Phiceum a mountain near 
 Thebes. 
 
 1704. " I will shew my dark speech upon the harp." Psalm xlix. 4. 
 * The fourteen last verses are spoken l)y the Messenger, in his own 
 
 person. 
 
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