and wear their faces veiled, can by any possibility enter such places without being begrimed; and yet women in apparently spotless raiment may sometimes be seen emerging from them, although the majority, who squat listlessly upon the mud-heaps, are the very picture of filthiness. The children, who are unencumbered with clothes, are not so repulsive, their dark skins giving them an air of tolerable respectability.

In the neighbourhood of the Serapeum are the Catacombs, which suggest a very different train of associations. Of the many tomb-chambers once in existence only one is in a tolerable state of preservation. It was discovered in 1858, when the workmen were engaged in quarrying the rocky ground out of which the Catacombs were hewn. Entering by a flight of ancient steps, the visitor finds himself at the threshold of these chambers. In one there is an apse with the remains of a fresco representing Christ, with Peter and Andrew on either side; in another there are remains of tasteful stucco decoration and paintings in three recesses, representing the Women at the Sepulchre and the Ascension, while in the centre there is a painting of Christ treading upon serpents, and the quotation, in Greek, "He shall tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon shall He trample under foot" (Ps. xci. 13). On either side of this central figure is a large Greek cross with the inscription, "Jesus Christ conquers." There is little else to see, for there is now a quarry here, and soon all traces of these Catacombs will have gone; already a lower series of tombs has been closed up, and interesting tomb-chambers, which were open for inspection, have altogether disappeared. It is a pity; but the chambers which remain open up an interesting chapter in Church history to the visitor.

There are very few vestiges of the old canals of Alexandria. The modern Mahmoodieh Canal was constructed by Mehemet Ali in 1819, and was named after the reigning Sultan, Mahmoud. It is said to have cost £300,000; to have employed 250,000 labourers for one year, of whom 20,000 perished by accident, plague, or hunger—a horrible state of things, of which we shall have more to say when writing about the Fellahheen, or peasant population of Egypt, in our account of Cairo. It is interesting to remember that a part of the course of this canal is identical with that of the old Canoptic Branch of the Nile, and the old canal of Fooah, which was used in the time of the Venetians for carrying goods to Alexandria, and existed, though nearly dry, in Savary's time, 1777. On the right bank of the canal are the houses and gardens of wealthy Alexandrians; and here, too, are the public gardens, where are to be found a profusion of exotic plants thriving lustily in the open air, and the fashionable promenade where, when the roads are in a decent state, equipages roll by which would not disgrace the "Ring" in Hyde Park. Of the roads in Alexandria generally, it may be said that they are execrable, while in the old part of the town there are no roads at all. There were once good roads, but they have fallen into decay, as almost everything does under Turkish rule.

Although mosques abound in Alexandria, there are only two which are of any interest. One is called the Mosque of the Thousand-and-one Columns, and is supposed to mark the site of the Church of St. Mark, where the Evangelist is reported to have been put to death. When the crusaders were besieging Damietta, in 1219, this church was destroyed by the Moslems. The Copts have a convent in Alexandria dedicated to St. Mark, and they pretend to have his body preserved there, but there seems to be little doubt that if the body of

Alexandria.]

NICOPOLIS.

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the Evangelist rests in any religious edifice at all, it is in that of the Church of St. Mark at Venice. (See p. 127.)

The other mosque of interest is that of St. Athanasius, which in all probability stands upon the site of a church of that name; it was from this mosque that the so-called tomb of Alexander-now in the British Museum-was taken.

There is one spot, two or three miles outside Alexandria, of great historical interest. It is Nicopolis-so named as being the "Town of Victory" where Augustus overcame Antony and his partisans. "The first battle on this spot was followed by the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra. The second one is famous in the annals of English history. In order to put an end to French supremacy in Egypt an expedition was sent out by the British Government in 1801; part of the troops comprising which, under the command of Sir David Baird, proceeded down the Red Sea with the intention of landing at Kossier and marching across the desert into Egypt, while the remainder, under Sir Ralph Abercromby, disembarked at Aboukir Bay, the scene of Nelson's victory three years before. Advancing on Alexandria, the English attacked the French, under General Menou, on the 13th March. Sir Archibald Alison says, 'The ground occupied by the two armies was singularly calculated to awaken the most interesting recollections. England and France were here to contend for the Empire of the East in the cradle of ancient civilisation, on the spot where Pompey was slain to propitiate the victorious arms of Cæsar, and under the walls of the city which is destined to perpetuate to the latest generation the prophetic wisdom of Alexander.' On the 21st of March, 1801, the decisive engagement took place which ended in the defeat of the French, though the victory was dearly purchased by the death of Abercromby."

Alexandria, as we have said, is but the threshold of Egypt-it is ancient compared with Cairo, but it is modern in comparison with that Orientalism which is to be found in Cairo, in a degree unsurpassed by any city of the East.

Origin-The First Doge-Venice as it is-The Piazza San Marco-The Church of St. Mark-Removal of the Body of the Saint-Interior of the Church-The Bronze Horses-Barbarossa and the Pope-The Palace of the DogesThe Councils of Venice-The Council of Ten-The Story of Marino Falieri-of Francesco Foscari-of the Count of Carmagnola-The Lion's Mouth-The Golden Book-The Hall of the Grand Council-The Bridge of SighsAgain in the Piazza-The Campanile-" Between the Columns "-The Arsenal and the Arsenalotti-Wedding the

Venice]

THE GROWTH OF VENICE.

125

of creating the fairest one that the world had ever seen. The islands to which these fugitives fled were formed at the head of the Adriatic by means of mud and sand sent down by the rivers flowing from the Apennines and the Alps. On these islands-namely, Malamocco and Palestrina-the fugitive Veneti settled in peace and security, occupying themselves with their fisheries and salt works. By-and-by, however, as population increased, the people

spread themselves over other islands, increased the means of subsistence, built substantial dwellings instead of the mean huts they at first erected, threw bridges across from island to island, and thus grew Venice, the "Queen of the Adriatic."

At first each island was governed by a Tribune; afterwards one Tribune exercised authority over all the islands; but the system proved a failure, and in A.D. 697 Paola Luca Anafesto was elected Doge, or Duke, and this form of government by Doges continued down to the year 1798, except for a period of five years, during which time a chief magistrate was appointed annually under the title of Maestro della Milizia.

Malamocco was the capital for many years, but in the early part of the ninth century Pepin, King of Lombardy, the father of Charlemagne, attacked and seized the neighbouring islands of Chioggia and Palestrina, and then prepared to invade Malamocco. The people, counselled by Agnello Participazio, their leading man, fled before the foe to he island of the Rialto. The pursuing galleys, unable to thread the narrow and shallow channels of the lagoon, were stranded and burnt; and the isle of the Rialto* became the future capital of the Republic.

From this time forward the progress of Venice in trade and commerce, in naval and military power, and in art and science was greater than that of any other state in Christendom, until at the commencement of the sixteenth century she had reached the zenith of her glory. In the middle of the seventeenth century her power began to decline, and declined as rapidly as it had risen, so that early in the nineteenth century she presented to the eye of a famous traveller "a most deplorable aspect of decay and desolation."

But Venice never became a ruin. To-day the Queen of Cities is substantially the same as in the golden age of art-the sixteenth century-and we ask the reader to follow us through the Venice of the present, to read in her imperishable monuments the history of the Venice of the past.

Many persons are under a great misapprehension as to the means of transit or locomotion in Venice. It is a mistake to suppose that there are no streets, and that it is absolutely necessary to go from place to place by gondola. It is true that only three bridges the Rialto Bridge of the Middle Ages, and two modern iron bridges-span the Grand Canal which divides the city into unequal halves; it is true that the city is built upon 117 islands, intersected by 150 small canals and 2,480 passages; but almost every one of the water-streets has a quay or footpath bordering it, while 400 bridges unite island to island. So that it is quite possible to go to every part of the city on foot, although few perhaps would care to do so, for there is not in all the world a more difficult place for the traveller, guided only by the "light of nature," to find a given spot. That spot may be only a few hundred yards away, but to reach it he may have to cross half a dozen bridges, some leading to the right and some to the left, and traverse as many squares, of which there are 396; 127 being large squares (campi) and 269 smaller squares (campielli).

Then in

Let the reader suppose himself to have arrived in Venice by an evening train, and after entering his gondola to have been rowed through the darkness, along silent streets and water-ways, until he has been set down at the steps of his hotel. the early morning let him come forth into one of the busy narrow streets, and, guided so as to get the most imposing effect in one full burst of vision, let him pass by La Fenice, the celebrated Opera House, and emerge suddenly in the Piazza San Marco, or Great Square of St. Mark.

Το

Before him is a broad open space 576 feet long, with a breadth varying from 185 to 269 feet, well paved with marble and dark stone, surrounded with a continuous colonnade, and presenting a coup d'œil of magnificent buildings without a parallel in the world. the right and left are the Old and New Procuratie, or palaces of the Procurators, or Rivo Alto, from whence the name is derived, meaning "Deep Stream."