were broken to pieces, and the fragments hurled down by the soldiers of Belisarius upon the Goths, who attempted to take the building by storm. Thẹ uppermost stage of the edifice assumed the form of a circular battlemented temple, whose diameter was one-third of the larger circle. Of this stage not a vestige remains. Tradition asserts, that the peristyle consisted of the twenty-four beautiful marble Corinthian columns, which afterward decorated the basilica of St. Paul; and that the dome of the edifice was surmounted by a colossal pine-apple in bronze, now placed in the gardens of the Vatican.

Procopius says: "The tomb of Hadrian stands without the Porta Aurelia, at about a stone's throw from the walls; and is undoubtedly well worth seeing, for it is built of Parian marble. The square stones of which the basement is built are joined alternately to each other without any cement, and it is divided into four sides of equal dimensions; each is of such a length, that a stone thrown from one angle would just reach the other. In height it surpasses the walls of the city. There are on it statues of men and horses, finished with wonderful skill, of Parian marble."

It received its present appellation of the Castle of St. Angelo from Pope Gregory the Great, who, it is said, in crossing the bridge, as he went to offer up prayers for the deliverance of Rome from a pestilence then raging, beheld, on the summit of the tomb of Hadrian, the figure of an angel waving a sword. In commemoration of this vision, the brazen statue which crowns the building was erected, and the name given by which it is at present distinguished.

The tomb of the Scipios, discovered in 1780, is one of the most ancient of the Roman mausoleums. It is cut out of tufa, a light porous volcanic stone; and consists of a series of dark chambers, in one of which was an elegant sarcophagus of Peperino, surmounted with a bust of the same material, which contained the ashes of L. Scipio Barbatus: the sarcophagus has been removed to the Vatican.

The tomb of Cecelia Metella, erected on an eminence on the side of the Appian Way, is of circular form, on a square basement; it is constructed with magnificent blocks of travertine, or concrete limestone. This mausoleum is surmounted with a beautifully-decorated frieze and cornice, and from it is supposed to have risen a dome or conical-formed roof, now destroyed. A sarcophagus was found here, which was removed, and placed in the Farnese Palace.

The tomb of St. Constantia, erected probably by Constantine the Great, to contain the bodies or ashes of his sister and his daughter, which were placed in a magnificent sarcophagus of porphyry, now in the museum of the Vatican. The edifice was turned into a church by Pope Alexander IV. The style is rather remarkable for its arrangement of double Corinthian columns, supporting a dome, and also for its mosaics.

Although the term "mausoleum" is more generally applicable to detached buildings, yet, from its magnificence, the tomb of the Emperor Maximilian, in the Franciscan Church at Inspruck, the capital of the Tyrol, deserves notice here, among even the extravagant expenditure of the ancients.

This majestic tomb is placed in the center of the

middle aisle of the church, upon a platform approached by steps of red marble. The sides of the tomb are divided into twenty-four compartments, of the finest Carrara marble, on which are represented, in bass-relief, the most interesting events of the emperor's warlike and prosperous career. The workmanship of these tablets is exquisite; and, taken in connection with the lofty deeds they record, are the most princely decorations ever seen. Each tablet contributing to the splendid biography which the sculptures exhibit, is in size two feet four inches by one foot eight inches; and every object contained in them is in most perfect proportion, while the exquisite finish of the heads and draperies requires a magnifying-glass to do it justice. The tomb is surmounted by a colossal figure in bronze of the emperor, kneeling in the act of prayer; and around it are four allegorical figures of smaller size, also in bronze.

But, marvelous as is the elaborate beauty of this work, it is far from being the most remarkable feature of this imperial mausoleum. Ranged in two long lines, as if to guard it, stand twenty-eight colossal statues in bronze, of whom twenty are kings and princes, alliances of the house of Hapsburgh, and eight their stately dames. Anything more impressive than the appearance of these tall dark guardians of the tomb-some clad in regal robes, some cased in armor, and all finished with the greatest skill-it would be difficult to imagine.

In the death-like stillness of the church, the visitor who, for the first time, contemplates the tomb and its gloomy guards, is struck by a feeling of awe, approaching to terror. The statues, with

life-like individuality of attidude and expression,each solemn, mournful, dignified, and graceful; and all seeming to dilate before the eye into enormous dimensions, and, as if framed to scare intruders, endowed by a power more than mortal, to keep watch and ward around the mighty dead. They appear like an eternal procession of mourners, who shall cease not, while earth endures, to gaze on, mourn over, and protect the relics of him who was the glory of their noble race on earth.

Hindoostan abounds with mausoleums, which even in that land of "barbaric gold" are marvelous for their splendor and extent. The most remarkable for its beauty is at Agra, called Taj Mahal, or Crown of Edifices. It was erected by Shah Jehan about 1650, as the burial-place of his favorite wife, Noor Jehan. The mausoleum is entirely of white marble, and raised on elevated terraces of white and yellow marble. Within the building is a central hall, which contains the tombs of the begum and Shah Jehan himself; and around the hall are several apartments and corridors. The construction is said to have cost £750,000. The country round Agra is a perfect desert, and visitors, after winding their way through an arid plain, diversified only by sand-heaps and crumbling masses of stone, come, as if by enchantment, upon the luxuriant gardens that still adorn the mausoleum where Shah Jehan and the beautiful partner of his throne sleep in undisturbed repose. The grounds attached to the building are kept by the British government in most excellent order; and being watered dayly, during the dry season, the trees and flowers are clothed with perpetual verdure.

At Sasseram, in Northern India, rises in majestic solemnity and sober plainness the dark gray pile covering the remains of Shere Shah, who did not leave the care of his ashes to posterity, but constructed his mausoleum during the most flourishing period of his reign. The mausoleum emerges from the center of an immense reservoir of water, four hundred yards square. It is surrounded by a high embankment, and on each side is a flight of stone steps, affording access to the tank. The tomb stands on an elevated platform, at the angles of which are low cupolaed towers. The tomb itself is octagonal in form, consisting of two stories beneath the dome, each having a flat terrace running round it, and adorned with turrets open at the side and covered at the top. This mausoleum, although wanting the gorgeous beauty of the Taj Mahal, commands admiration for the vast and massive grandeur of its construction: but time and neglect -the inevitable destroyers-will, ere long, sink in ruins even the solidity of the building; the redundance of foliage, now springing through the interstices of the basement, is fast undermining the foundations.

At Bejapore, the capital of a considerable province in the Deccan, are the ruins of the mausoleum of Ibrahim Adil Shah, who died in 1626: the tomb is fifty-seven feet square, and consists of a plain chamber, surrounded by a verandah twelve feet broad and twenty-two feet high. The exterior is most elaborately ornamented; the ceiling of the verandah is covered with passages from the Koran, sculptured in bass-relief. The whole of the town of Bejapore may be termed a city of tombs; many of these