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refined period of Grecian architecture; and Sir Stratford Canning received from the sultan Abd-ul-Megid some sculptured remains, which appear to have formed the frieze of an extensive building. They were found among the ruins of Halicarnassus, and are said to have belonged to the Mausoleum. They consist of eleven bas-reliefs, and are now in the British Museum.

The subject of the frieze is the battle of the Greeks and Amazons, and Hercules appears among the combatants. In A.D. 1522 these sculptures were discovered amidst a heap of ruins, and were by the knights of Rhodes employed in the construction of the castle of St. Peter at Halicarnassus,—the present fortress of Bûdrûn,-in the walls of which edifice they remained encased till their removal in 1846, when they were removed by order of the sultan. But that they are not calculated to give a very exalted idea of the art of the period, appears from the following remarks of that able antiquarian, Vaux :—

"The bas-reliefs cannot be considered as forming any one complete side of the building; nor is it now possible to arrange them so as to form one continuous subject.

“The idea which these reliefs suggest is that of works executed rather in the decline of Greek sculpture than in its finest period; made rather for subordinate architectural decoration than as the chefs-d'œuvre of great artists. The general composition, indeed, is not deficient in the symmetry of arrangement which characterizes Greek art; but the action of the groups is theatrical, the attitudes of the figures strained, and the forms meagre and unnaturally slender. On comparing them with the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, the

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date of which we know to have been about B.C. 334, we may perceive a considerable resemblance in style. In both, the extreme elongation of the forms, and the spareness, not to say meagreness, of the muscular development, are characters which at once strike the eye. It is possible that the portions which remain of the sculptures of the Mausoleum are only the subordinate part of the whole design, and that Scopas and Praxiteles executed larger bas-reliefs, which have perished in the demolition of the edifice."

There is also in the Museum a draped female statue wanting the head, which had also been inserted in the walls of the fortress; two bas-reliefs representing gladiatorial combats; and two others, votive offerings to Pluto and Esculapius—all from the same site.

Halicarnassus was a chief city of the Cares, a Dorian race, and the residence of its sovereigns. Its site is now occupied by the Turkish port of Bûdrûn, in Asia Minor. Mausolus, who was one of the most powerful kings, here constructed a magnificent palace, which was standing in the time of Pausanias, about 500 years afterwards; it was built of brick, covered with slabs of Proconnessian marble, so highly polished that they reflected like glass. Mausolus, who was born at Mylasa, established himself here on account of the situation being so well fortified by nature, and the port being admirably adapted for commerce. The site of the city in form resembled an amphitheatre; in the lowest part, near the harbour, was the Forum; up the hill, in the middle of the curve, was a large square, in the centre of which was afterwards erected the Mausoleum; on the summit of this hill stood the Temple of Mars, which contained a colossal statue of the god,