I HAD the good fortune and happiness to remain under the hospitable roof of this distinguished lady for a period of nine days, during which I received the greatest possible kindness from every one in her service, as well as from her ladyship's own hands. I arrived at the convent in a state of extreme illness and exhaustion; in such a debilitated condition, indeed, as would have afforded little hope of recovery, had I continued in that state to be exposed to the privations which are almost inseparable from travelling in such a country as Syria. By the agreeable and invaluable relief which I found here, in the combinations of medical skill, nutritious diet, quiet shelter, and intelligent society, I recovered more rapidly than my most sanguine hopes had ventured to anticipate: and

STAY AT THE RESIDENCE OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE.

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when I quitted the convent to pursue my journey, I was as fresh and vigorous as on the day of my first setting out from Egypt. During the period of my stay there, I preserved no notes of what passed. The exertions of my mind having been already as much overstrained as those of my body, and contributing their full share to my illness, it was indispensable to my restoration to relax in the efforts of both; and I was surrounded by so many objects of welcome delight, that I very readily abandoned myself, during this period of my gradual recovery, to the mere enjoyment of existence, to breathing the pure and bracing morning air of the hills, basking in the sunny noon of the vales, inhaling the evening breeze, and enjoying the breakers of the sea on the borders of the coast till sun-set: all these being within the range of two or three miles at most from the convent itself. Books, conversation, and repose, filled up the remainder of the time: so that during the nine days of my stay here, with the exception of one visit to the town of Sidon, and one to the examination of some curious subterranean chambers in the vicinity, I literally did nothing but enjoy, and that intensely, the pleasures by which I was surrounded, and the rapidly progressive improvement of my health and strength. Some letters, addressed to friends in England from this distant spot, and now in my possession, with the several preparatory extracts from ancient writers, made for the purpose of guiding my enquiries before I set out on my journey, and these connected chiefly by the aid of recollection, have formed the only materials from which I have been able to draw up an account of what ticularly attracted my attention during this short interval.

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The town of Sidon, which is not more than five or six miles distant from the convent of Mar Elias, where Lady Hester Stanhope resides, was the first object of my examination as soon as I had acquired strength enough to venture out: and being accompanied in my visit to this place by her ladyship's physician, Dr. Meryon, whose intelligence and urbanity rendered him a valuable and agreeable companion, it was an excursion of pleasure rather

than of research. The very name of Sidon is so perpetually associated with that of Tyre, that they are always regarded as sister cities; and the traveller must enter each with nearly the same feelings of admiration for their former grandeur, and regret for their subsequent decay.* Renowned, however, as the Tyrians were, the Sidonians were regarded as their superiors, as well from the greater antiquity of their city, as from its being especially distinguished by the epithet of " the great." Among the extracts made to direct my enquiries in those parts of the East which it might fall to my lot to visit, and to which I had, for years past, directed my attention; there is one so interesting, as well as so much to the purpose, in proof of the ancient strength and splendour of Sidon, that it may be appropriately introduced into the body of the text.

In the history of the war of Artaxerxes Ochus, with the Phoenicians, Sidon is mentioned as one of the most powerful cities of that country and at this place, indeed, the first flames of the war were kindled. The historian, after describing the importance of Tripolis, and its share in this affair, says,

"The kings, lords, lieutenants, and generals, then in Sidon, carrying themselves by their severe edicts rigorously and haughtily towards the Sidonians; the citizens being so abused and not being able longer to brook it, studied how to revolt from the Persians. Upon which, the rest of the Phoenicians, being wrought upon by the other to vindicate their liberty, sent messengers to Nectanetus, the king of Egypt, then at war with the Persians, to receive them as confederates, and so the whole nation prepared for war. And being that Sidon then exceeded all the rest of the cities of Phoenicia

* Quintus Curtius, in recording Alexander's passage through Sidon, on his way from the Issus to Tyre, calls it a city famous for its antiquity and for the renown of its founder. Vol. i. b. 4. c. 1.

By the Jewish Prophets, Tyre is sometimes called the daughter of Sidon: and in the very earliest of the books of Moses, it is said, perhaps figuratively, that Canaan begat Sidon, his first born (Gen. x. 15.), as if Sidon were one of the very first towns built in the land of Canaan, as well as called after Canaan's first born.

↑ Joshua xix. 28.

in wealth, and even private men, by the advantage of trade, were grown very rich, they built a great number of ships and raised a potent army of mercenaries, and both arms, darts, and provisions, and all other things necessary for war, were prepared; and that they might appear first in the war they spoiled and ruined the king's garden, cutting down all the trees where the Persian kings used to recreate and divert themselves. Then they burnt all the hay which the lord lieutenants had laid up for the horses. At last they seized upon the Persians who had so insulted them, and haled them to punishment. And in this manner began the war of the Persians with the Phoenicians.

"Mentor, the general of the Sidonians, having despatched Thessalion, a servant of his own, to Artaxerxes, offering to betray the city into his hands, the Persian monarch sent into Greece for auxiliaries, and was furnished by the Thebans with 1000 heavy armed men, and by the Argives with 3000. His own alacrity was so great, that before these had come up to their appointed stations, he had himself marched from Babylon, through Syria and Phoenicia, and was already encamped before Sidon. In the mean time, (says the historian) while the king spent a considerable time in making preparations, the Sidonians had been very active and diligent in providing themselves with arms and provisions; and, besides, had drawn a treble deep and broad trench, and a high wall round the city. They had likewise a brave body of tall, handsome, and stout men of the citizens, well exercised and trained up in a martial discipline out of the schools. And this city went far beyond all the cities of Phoenicia for wealth and all other sumptuous ornaments, both for state and grandeur. And that which was not the least, among the rest, they were furnished with 100 galleys of three and four oars on a bank.

"Mentor, their general, and Tennes, another commander, succeeded, however, in their treason; and after the entrapping of 100 of the first people of the city who went out as senators, and were all put to death by Artaxerxes, 500 other of the chief in

habitants who had come out with olive branches in their hands as emblems of their mission of peace, were also treacherously murdered with darts. Even after this, the traitor Tennes persuaded the Egyptian mercenaries, who were commanded by Mentor, to let him and Artaxerxes within the walls, when, by this successful treachery, Sidon came again into the hands of the Persians. In the mean time (adds the historian) the Sidonians had burnt all their shipping before the king came, lest any of the inhabitants, consulting their own particular safety, should get away by sea. At length, when the Sidonians saw that the army was entered, and many thousands of men ranging here and there and dispersed all over the city, they shut themselves up with their wives and children in their houses, and set them on fire, and so all were consumed together. It is said, that there were above 40,000 (with household servants) that perished in these flames.

“After this destruction of the Sidonians, by which the whole city and inhabitants were consumed to ashes, the king sold the rubbish and relics of the fire for many talents. For, being that the city was very rich, there was sold a vast quantity of gold and silver melted down by the flames. Thus sad was the calamity under which the Sidonians suffered; the rest of the cities, being terrified with the destruction, presently surrendered themselves to the Persians."*

This description of Sidon, in its most flourishing days, and the recital of the sad calamity which effected its destruction then, was read by me with a deep and powerful interest on the spot. It had revived again at a subsequent period †: but so great are

Diodorus Siculus, b. 8. c. 8.

+ About the time when Demetrius returned from Greece into Syria, after his initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries while at Athens, (A. C. 300) Ptolemy led a well-appointed army out of Egypt, and reduced all the cities of Cœlosyria to his obedience; but when he lay before Sidon there came a false rumour to his ear, that a battle had been fought, wherein Lysimachus and Seleuchus were routed and fled to Heraclea, and that Antigonus thereupon was hastening into Syria with his victorious