BOOK III, GROUP OF The explorations partially interrupted in 1847 were resumed in 1849. From the October of that year until April, 1851, they were carried on with even more than the old energy, for the means and appliances were more ample, and the encouragements drawn from success followed each the Ruins of other in far quicker succession. Discoveries in Nineveh and Babylon (1853), pp. 162, 163; 201-209, seqq. Dec., 1849. 1849, Oct, and Nov. The suspension had been but partial, for Mr. Hormuzd RASSAM, then British Vice-Consul at Mósul, had been empowered to keep a few men still digging at Kouyunjik. He had there unearthed several new sculpture-lined chambers of no small interest. But at Nimroud nothing worthy of mention had been done during LAYARD's absence. That was now his first object. Kouyunjik, however, for a long the best yield. time gave In December the south-east façade of the Kouyunjik Palace was uncovered. It was found to be a hundred and eighty feet in length, and contained, among other sculptures, ten colossal bulls and six human figures. The accompanying inscriptions contained the early annals of SENNACHERIB, and of his wars with MERODACH BALADAN.* Presently, the labours on the north-west palace at Nimroud were also richly rewarded. The somewhat higher antiquity of that building, as compared with the homogeneous structures of Kouyunjik and Khorsabad, had already impressed itself with the force of conviction on Mr. LAYARD'S individual mind. The fact now became manifest to all eyes that had the capacity to see. These Nimroud monuments belong,-according to the opinion of the best archæologists,-most of them, to the *The Berodach-Baladan of 2 Kings, xx, 12, who 'sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah, when he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.' Chap. IV. GROUP OF EXPLORERS. eighth, some of them, however, to the earlier part of the Book III, seventh centuries B.C. They now occupy the most cen- ANOTHER tral of the Assyrian Galleries in the British Museum. The monuments of Kouyunjik and of Khorsabad are probably but little anterior to the supposed date (625 B.C.) of the destruction of Nineveh. These are exhibited in galleries adjacent to the Nimroud Central Saloon.' To describe only a few of them in connection with the interesting circumstances of their respective disclosures would demand another chapter. A word or two, however, must be given to one among the earlier discoveries (October, 1846), and to one among the latest of those made (in the spring of 1851), whilst Mr. LAYARD himself remained in the neighbourhood of Mósul. OF THE MARBLE OBELISK, 1846, October (found in centre of the great mound). Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i, p. 345. (1849 edit.) At Nimroud many trenches had, in those early days, been DISCOVERY opened unprofitably. Mr. LAYARD doubted whether he ought to carry them further. Half inclined to cease, in this direction, he resolved, finally, that he would not abandon a cutting on which so much money and toil had been spent, until the result of yet another day's work was shown. 'I mounted my horse,' he says-to ride into Mósul- but had scarcely left the mound when a corner of black marble was uncovered, lying on the very edge of the trench.' It was part of an obelisk seven feet high, lying about ten feet below the surface. Its top was cut into three gradines, covered with wedge-shaped inscriptions. Beneath the gradines were five tiers of sculpture in low-relief, continued on all sides. Between every two tiers of sculpture ran a line of inscription. Beneath the five tiers, the unsculptured surface was covered with inscriptions. These, as subsequent researches have shown, contain the Annals of SHALMANESER, King of Assyria, during thirty-one years towards the close of the ninth century before our Lord. The tribu BOOK III, ANOTHER GROUP OF GISTS AND Ibid., 346. taries of the great monarch are seen in long procession, bearing their offerings. In the appended cuneiform record of these tributaries are mentioned JEHU, 'of the House of OMRI,' and his contemporary HAZAEL, King of Syria. Well may the proud discoverer call his trophy a 'precious relic.' We now leap over more than four eventful years. Mr. LAYARD is about to exchange the often anxious but always glorious toils of the successful archaeologist, for the not less anxious and very often exceedingly inglorious toils of the politician. He will also henceforth have to exchange many a pleasant morning ride and many a peaceful evening 'tobaccoparliament' with Arabs of the Desert, for turbulent discussions with metropolitan electors, and humble obeisances in order to win their sweet voices. Just before he leaves Mósul come some new unearthings of Assyrian sculpture, to add to the welcome tidings he will carry into England. He found, he tells us-in one of the closing chapters of COVERIES AT his latest book-that to the north of the great centre-hall four new chambers, full of sculpture, had been discovered. On the walls of a grand gallery, ninety-six feet by twentythree, was represented the return of an Assyrian army from a campaign in which they had won loads of spoil and a long array of prisoners. The captured fighting men wore a sort of Phrygian bonnet reversed, short tunics, and broad belts. The women had long tresses and fringed robes. Sometimes they rode on mules or were drawn— by men as well as by mules-in chariots. The captives and Babylon were the men and women of Susiana. The victor was THE DIS KOUYUNJIK OF THE SPRING OF 1851. Discoveries at Nineveh (edit. 1853), pp. 582-584. SENNACHERIB. In several subsequent years-1853, 1854, 1855, when most Englishmen were intently acting, or beholding with Chap. IV. GROUP OF ARCHEOLO EXPLORERS. suspended breath, the great drama in the Crimea-a famous BOOK III, compatriot was continuing the task so nobly initiated by ANOTHER Austen LAYARD. Sir Henry RAWLINSON (made by this time Consul-General at Baghdad) carried on new excava- GISTS AND tions, both at Nimroud and at Kouyunjik. In these he was ably assisted by Mr. W. K. LOFTUS, as well as by Mr. Hormuzd RASSAM, the helper and early friend of LAYARD, and (in the later stages) by Mr. TAYLOR. Another obelisk, with portions of a third and fourth; thirty-four slabs sculptured in low-relief; one statue in the round; and a multitude of smaller objects, illustrating with wonderful diversity and minuteness the manners and customs, the modes of life and of thought, as well as the wars and conquests, the luxury and the cruelty, of the old Assyrians, were among the treasures which, by the collective labour of these distinguished explorers, were sent into Britain. Another recension,' so to speak, of the early Annals of SENNACHERIB, King of Assyria, inscribed upon a cylinder, was not the least interesting of the monuments found under the direction of Sir Henry RAWLINSON, whose name had already won its station-many years before his consulship EARLY at Baghdad-beside those of GROTE FEND, of BURNOUF and of LASSEN, in the roll of those scientific investigators by whose closet labours the researches and long gropings of the RICHES, the BOTTAS, and the LAYARDS, were des- TIONS. tined to be interpreted, illustrated, and fructified for the world of readers at large. For it is not the least interesting fact in this particular and most richly-yielding field of Assyrian archæology that several men in Germany;—more than one man in France; and one man, at least, in Persia, had been working simultaneously, but entirely without concert, at those hard and, for a time, almost barren studies which LABOURERS ON THE ING OF BOOK III, Chap. IV. ANOTHER EXPLORERS. THE TRAVELS AND RE SEARCHES CHARLES THE ANA LOGIES AND THE CON- BETWEEN FELLOWS AND were eventually to supply a master-key to vast libraries of Scarcely smaller than the debt of gratitude which Britain owes to Mr. LAYARD and to Lord STRATFORD de Redcliffe, for the Marbles and other antiquities of Assyria, is the Idebt which she owes to the late Sir Charles FELLOWs for those of Lycia. Nor ought it to be passed over without remark that the admirably productive mission to the Levant of Mr. Charles NEWTON seems to have grown, in germ, out of the applications made at Constantinople on behalf of Sir Charles FELLOWS. In that merit he has but a very small share. The merit of the Lycian discoveries is all his own. He has now gone from amongst us,-like most of the benefactors whose public services have been recorded in this volume. How inadequate the record; how insufficient for the task the chronicler; no one will be so painfully conscious, as is the man whose hand-in the absence of a better hand—has here attempted the narrative. The Museum story has been long. What remains to be said must needs be put more briefly. But because Sir Charles FELLOWS has been so lately removed from the land he served with so much zeal and ability, I shall still venture to claim the indulgence of my readers for a somewhat detailed account of the work done in Lycia, and of the man who did it. In one respect, it was with Charles FELLOWs as with Austen LAYARD. A youthful passion for foreign travel, and what grew out of that, lifted each of them from obscurity into prominence. But LAYARD achieved fame at a much earlier age than did Sir Charles FELLOWS. Sir Charles was almost forty before his name came at all before the Public. LAYARD was already a personage at eight and |