And all rare blossoms from every clime
Grew in that garden in perfect prime."
All these varied delights of nature were ranged in rows on the side of the ascent as well as on the top, so that at a distance it appeared to be an immense pyramid covered with wood. The situation of this extraordinary effort of human skill, aided by human wealth and perseverance, adjoining the river Euphrates, we must suppose that in the upper terrace was an hydraulic engine, or kind of pump, by which the water was forced up out of the river, and from thence the whole gardens were watered, and a supply of the pure element furnished to the fountains and reservoirs for cooling the air. In the spaces between the several arches, on which the whole structure rested, were large and magnificent apartments, very lightsome, and commanding the most beautiful prospects that even the glowing conceptions of an eastern imagination could dream to exist.
THE GREAT BELL OF BURMAH.
At a temple in the environs of Amarapoora, the capital of Burmah, there is an enormous bell, which is thus described by Captain Yule:—"North of the temple, on a low circular terrace, stands the biggest bell in Burmah—the biggest in the world, probably, Russia apart. It is slung on a triple beam of great size, cased and hooped with metal; this beam resting on two piers of brickwork, enclosing massive frames of teak. The bell does not swing free. The supports were so much shaken by the earthquake, that it was found necessary to put props under the bell, consisting of blocks of wood carved into grotesque figures. Of course no tone can now be got out of it. But at any time it must have required a battering-ram to elicit its music. Small ingots of silver (and some say pieces of gold) may still be traced, unmelted, in the mass, and from the inside one sees the curious way in which the makers tried to strengthen the parts which suspend it by dropping into the upper part of the mould iron chains, round which the metal was run. The Burmese report the bell to contain 555,555 viss of metal (about 900 tons). Its principal dimensions are as follow:—External diameter at the lip, 16 feet 3 inches; external diameter 4 feet 8 inches above the lip, 10 feet; interior height, 11 feet 6 inches; exterior ditto, 12 feet; interior diameter at top, 8 feet 6 inches. The thickness of metal varies from six inches to twelve, and the actual weight of the bell is, by a rough calculation, about eighty tons, or one-eleventh of the popular estimate. According to Mr. Howard Malcolm, whose authority was probably Colonel Burney, the weight is stated in the Royal Chronicle at 55,500 viss, or about ninety tons. This statement is probably, therefore, genuine, and the popular fable merely a multiplication of it by ten."
This monster Burmese bell is, therefore, fourteen times as heavy as the great bell of St. Paul's, but only one-third of that given by the Empress Anne to the Cathedral of Moscow.
BANDOLIERS.
We here engrave a set of bandoliers, a species of weapon much in vogue about the close of the sixteenth century. The specimen before us consists of nine tin cases covered with leather, with caps to them, each containing a charge of powder, and suspended by rings from a cord made to pass through other rings. The caps are retained in their places by being contrived so as to slip up and down their own cords. Two flaps of leather, on each side, are intended to protect the bandoliers from rain, and attached to one of these may be perceived a circular bullet-purse, made to draw with little strings. This specimen was buckled round the waist by means of a strap; others were worn round the body and over the shoulder. The noise they made, agitated by the wind, but more especially the danger of all taking fire from the match-cord, occasioned their disuse, as Sir James Turner tells us, about the year 1640.