[48] In hot climates, for an encampment no soil appears to me so good (and I had some experience) as a sandy soil, covered with tufted grass or turf.

[49] “Two miles south of Majdil are the ruins of six Roman baths of mineral water.”—Mangles and Irby’s Travels, p. 299.

[50] c. xiii., v. 3.

[51] I. Kings, c. vi.

[52] Lib. 10.

[53] The above notices of Ascalon are extracted from Noris, de Ep. Syromac, to whose learned researches the reader is referred for more copious information.

[54] How far this justifies the epithet of “prodigious thickness,” used by d’Arvieux, is for the reader to decide. Indeed, they are so much covered with sand, that I should not wonder if any cursory observer conceived them to be of four times that thickness.

[55] Looking at the result of Lady Hester’s search, some wag may be disposed to say—“Certainly, the fittest day in the year.”

[56] Named Ashur, if there be such a name in Arabic; for I do not recollect the like to it.

[57] “Participa ella del colosso, avanzando molto l’ordinaria statura d’uomo; sapendosi per osservanza degli eruditi, che cosi erano soliti farsi per i ré e pergli imperadori.”—Statue antiche e moderne, No. 15.