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away to the fields and the woods, and there picking wild fruits and berries, carried them constantly, during the day, to the grated window, and dropped them in between the bars. It was in this miraculous manner, that Lady Williswind, like Elijah by the brook of Cherith, was fed by a raven—

"By that Power on high that can shield the good,

Thus from the tyrant of the wood."

Until, at length, one day when the robber-chieftain, enraged at her utter rejection of his suit, was turning away from the tower for ever, he was met by a gallant young knight, who demanded instant liberty for the captives. A fierce encounter followed, in which the robber was slain; and his vanquisher, the brave Ottmar, taking the key from his girdle, released his gentle sister, whose life and honour had been so miraculously preserved. The raven had still another duty to perform; decoying a multitude of his brethren from the surrounding country, these descended in one dense cloud upon the carcass of the robber, and commenced their cruel operations. An effigy of a raven over the castle-gate of Stolzenfels, commemorates the faithful services of Lady Williswind's pet bird, and gives a character of probability to the legend.*

THERE is not a scene, in all the sunny region of fair Italia, more sad, solitary, or singular than the desolate plain where ancient Pæstum stood, the sole memorials of which are the three grand buildings called the Temples. "Taking into view their immemorial antiquity, their astonishing preservation, their grandeur, or rather grandiosity, their bold columnar elevation, at once majestic and open, their severe simplicity of design— that simplicity in which art generally begins, and to which, after a thousand revolutions of ornament, it again returns-I do not hesitate to call these the most impressive monuments I ever beheld on earth."+ The modern history of these beautiful architectural forms is, if possible, more wrapped in mystery than the ancient; for many centuries their very existence remained in obscurity; and though their dim, gray temples are discernible with the aid of a glass from Salerno, the Calabrian road commands a distant view of them, the city of Capaccio looks down on them, yet they remained unnoticed by the best Neapolitan antiquaries down to the middle of the last century. Whether * Vide" Snowe's Legends," "Johnson's Pilgrims of the Spas," &c. Forsyth's Fragments.

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this accident is owing to the actual ignorance or culpable indifference of learned travellers, the unsafe and lawless state of the country, or other causes, the merit of the discovery is due to the miserable shepherds of the Pæstan plain, who drew to these splendid ruins the attention of a young artist, who had thoughtlessly rambled from Capaccio in search of employment for his pencil.

The origin, founder, or destination of these magnificent monuments, has occasioned as much controversy as the cause of their concealment from observation during so many centuries of time; yet nothing is supplied by the labours of the disputants, but learned conjecture-none have been able to decide, with accuracy, to what class of buildings they belong.

66 Temples, Baths, or Halls?

Pronounce who can; for all that learning reap'd

From her search hath been-that these are walls."

Etymology will sustain, with equal probability, the antiquary's choice, whether he shall assign a Phenicean, Etruscan, Dorian, or Sybaritic origin to these remains. The latter were expelled from the city and plain of Pæstum by the Lucanians, who themselves deserting their conquest, left it to be colonized by the Romans. Virgil and Claudian seem to have delighted amongst its shrubberies and gardens, and to have borrowed illustrations from the biferique rosaria Pæsti. But this poetic celebrity did not avail the ancient city, which, though built in the Cyclopean manner, with huge polyhedric stones, was plundered by the Saracens, and dispeopled by the Norman ravagers. Robert Guiscard carried away the columns, sculptures, and ornaments, to embellish the church of St. Matthew at Salerno; and the sacrifices which Pæstum made to his devotional inclination was more fatal to her duration than the injuries of the infidel.

These sublime structures have survived the extinction of the city in which they were once included; and, although Paoli can perceive the Tuscan order alone, he alone can perceive it, for the Temples of Pæstum are in the Doric style; not the Doric of the Parthenon, but perhaps a later, perhaps of the age between the Egyptian and Grecian manners, and the first attempt to pass from the huge masses of the one to the delicate gracefulness of the other. "The temples of Pæstum, Agrigentum, and Athens, exemplify the commencement, improvement, and perfection of the Doric order.”

The ruins include two temples, the larger consecrated to Neptune, the less to Ceres; and a basilica, or kind of pœcile, divided longitudinally by a row of columns, besides a Roman amphitheatre. Another temple, evidently of Roman origin, was discovered in the year 1830, between those of Neptune and Ceres; but the ruins are hardly sufficient to attest its original area. The three principal structures are all peripteral, the peristyles being still entire: the columns are not five diameters in height, and the intervals between closer than in the pycnostyle itself. The shafts are frusta of cones, fluted as in the Grecian-Doric; and the mouldings, with the exception of the ovolo of the capitals, are angular. In the Pæstan-Doric, the members which support are larger than those supported; the architraves higher than the frieze, the latter than the cornice ; "yet these very peculiarities create such an exaggeration as awes every eye, and a

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stability which, from time unknown, has sustained in the air these ponderous entablatures. The walls are fallen, the columns stand; the solid has failed, the open resists." It is impossible not to be amazed at the secret equilibrium by which these solid masses have been upheld for centuries, neither cement, iron-cramps, nor any artificial aid being discernible in maintaining their association. The other properties which they possess in common are, being built of a porous stone found near the sea-shore, and being all elevated on plateaus, or substructions, from which the columns rise directly without any pedestal or plinth.

The smallest of the temples has six columns at each end, and thirteen on each side, including the angular columns in both directions: the architrave is entire, and also the pediment at the west end. The cella occupied more than one third of the length, and had a double portico, the shafts and capitals of which, now overgrown with weeds, fill up the contracted dimensions of the interior. These temples, from the limited extent of their enclosures, rather appear to have been sanctuaries for images of the gods, into which the pontifices alone were permitted to enter, than places for all to worship in

common.

The Temple of Neptune is more perfect, varied, and majestic: it has two peristyles, separated by a wall; the outer having fourteen columns on each side, and six at each end or front; the inner having two stories of columns, separated only by an architrave, Of this singular design, seven columns remain at one side of the cella, and five at the other. The summit of the upper tier is somewhat higher than the external cornice, and appears, therefore, to have been intended to support a roof of gentle inclination. The foundations of the wall that enclosed the cella are distinct, as well as the opening by which a descent was effected into a spacious crypt beneath.

The largest structure, called a basilica, is unparalleled in architectural remains: it has nine columns at the ends, eighteen on each side, including those that stand at the angles, and is divided from end to end by a row of pillars, extending between the central columns at each end. The destination of this anomalous edifice has not been assigned: the terms, atrium, basilica, curia, or any other, are applied in vain, while the example remains unique. The odd number of columns in front, and the bisected cella, are so contrary to anything hitherto known, that antiquaries do not feel disposed to allow to this building the dignity of a temple. One of the most enlightened of our classical tourists-one who illumined every subject which he touched-confesses "that having exhausted conjecture, he returned to the idea of a temple: an open temple, which had no front-doors to fix the distribution of columns, a temple, perhaps, parted between two divinities, like that of Venus at Rome."