KINGLY STATUES,-MAKING STFEL. 63 iest in the kingdom.* The interior is in a very pure state of preser vation. The statues of the kings are well executed-that of Henry V. was removed because the people began to worship it, and a modern sculpture has been substituted for it. Met a man near the Cathedral, well and neatly dressed, who said he had belonged to the corps of surveyors connected with the railroad engineers, but that since the completion of the railroads there was nothing to do. He had saved £160 and put it into the hands of some one, whom he named to me, who had died, soon after, intestate. His estate having gone into chancery, he found it impossible to obtain his own, so that he was now destitute, without employment, and had not means to take him to London, nor even to obtain his breakfast. He was looking around to see if he could find means of meeting the wants of the day. I gave him wherewith to satisfy his hunger, which seemed both to surprise and affect him, not having begged, nor given any indications of being intemperate. York has very narrow streets, and presents an aspect of great antiquity.f The road to Sheffield passed through a very fertile and beautiful region. The Queen this day was on her way to Scotland, and passed, two hours previous, by one of the stations where I stopped. I arrived at Sheffield about 1 o'clock and remained until 4 P. M., having learned that the gentleman I had come to see, had withdrawn from business and retired to Worcester. Mr. Vickers, to whom I introduced myself, of the firm of Naylor, Vickers & Co., of which my friend was formerly a partner, was very polite, and conducted me through their extensive steel works, called "Mill Road," where I saw all the processes, first of decarbonizing the steel, which is put into furnaces and heated for seven or eight days to a red heat, in charcoal-then transferred to furnaces for fluxing it, from which it is taken and poured into forms for ingots, thence to the forge for hammering it into bars, thence to the rolling mills for spreading it into plates, and finally to the machinery for drawing it out into bars and rolls of various dimensions. Leaving Sheffield, I arrived at London about 9 1-2 A. M. *It contains 80 stops and 800 pies, cost £10,000 sterling, near about, and is said to be the largest in the world. It is the gift of "the late Right Hon. and Rev. John Lumley Saville, Earl of Scarbro." Its pipes are bronzed, and its case is of gold, simply carved. "The east windows," which have been called "the wonder of the world," both for masonry and glazing, contain representations of so much of holy writ that it takes in nearly the whole of Bible history. + It was in the second century, one of the chief Roman stations. There the Emperor Severus died, who had marched against the Caledonians, the brave people whom Rome could never subdue. Here, too, died the Emperor Constantius, and for the city is claimed the honor of having given birth to his son, the Emperor Constantius the Great, but the supposition has been successfully disputed by Gibbon. Crowds of people had assembled, at different points, to get a sight at "Her Majesty" the Queen, who was on her way to Seotland. I was much amused to hear the conversation of many in the cars on the subject. "Did you see the Queen?" asked one lady, with much animation, of another. "No, but I saw the car in which she was," responded the other, with great excitement, and in such tone as to show that she was quite satisfied at the thought of having been so nearly successful in her effort. September 1st. This day was spent in attending to various matters of preparation for my journey. Sept. 2d. Visited the American Ambassador, Hon. Abbot Lawrence, who received and treated me as a friend rather than as a stranger. Sept. 3d. Visited Bath, Bristol and Northampton. I found at both the latter places the persons whom I had hoped to have seen were absent. Arrived at Worcester a little after dark, and reached, about 9 1-4 P. M., the house of my friend whom I had expected to meet at Sheffield. He received and entertained me with the greatest cordiality, and the season of our intercourse, though short, will ever be remembered. Sept. 4th. Passed from Worcester to Eversham by railroad, and thence, by stage, to Stratford-upon-Avon, where I arrived in time today to visit the early home of Shakspeare, the school house, the town house, and to see the portraits of the great poet and of Garrick, in the latter. Sept. 5th. This Sabbath I have rested at Stratford-upon-Avon, and attended Trinity Church, A. M. and P. M.; heard in the morning a discourse from Gal. vi. 11-" As we have an opportunity let us do good unto all," &c. The discourse was delivered by a Mr. Twelve, the curate, the rector being absent; but there were three besides the former, that aided in reading prayers: one, a Mr. Davis, said to be a man of wealth, quite a young man. The rector is a Mr. Hardin, of a family of note in the neighborhood. The sermon was a good one, and which I rejoiced was preached to so large a congregation. A stranger preached in the afternoon, a pretty good and somewhat Evangelical discourse. Here I saw the tombstone, immediately outside of the chancel, that overlies the remains of Shakspeare, bearing his own quaint epitaph, and nothing else: Good friende, for Jesus' sake, forbeare To digg the dust that lieth heare: Blest be the man that spares THES stones, On the wall is a bust of Shakspeare, in marble-said to be the best extant, and taken from a caste after death, enclosed in an alcove formed by an arch resting on pillars in front of an entablature, and the pillars on an appropriate pedestal, all of the same material. Spent a very calm, interesting and delightful Sabbath, profitable by its rest, as well for body as for soul. *A useless blessing and a worthless curse, indicating more of a superstitious overweening selfishness, than trust in Jesus Christ, in whose hands alone our ashes remain safe, and by faith in whose promise alone we can have any hope of their revivisence. The epitaph of his son-in-law, simply relating the fact that he died "expecting" the kingdom of God, spoke more to the sincerity of his religion, and the scriptural character of his hope, than the great dramatist's. The tombstones of his wife, and those of his son-in-law and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Hall, with Shakspeare's own,form part of the floor of the area in front of the chancel, and are laid side by side like flags ina pavement. The communicants, on their way to the railing of the chancel, pass over them on communion occasions. LAND OF THE PYRAMIDS. 65 LAND OF THE PYRAMIDS. BY WARREN ISHAM. CHAPTER VI. Overflow of the Nile-more about the causes of it-no rain in Egypt-carried overfalls upon Abyssinia, then brought back by the Nile-bed of the river rising-water wheels for elevating water of the Nile-process of irrigation Scripture illustration. Pardon me, if I pause to dwell a little longer upon this wonderful phenomenon, the overflow of the Nile, as regular in its annual recurrence, as the revolving seasons, and equally the product of an adequate All attempts of travelers to solve the mystery, by penetrating to the sources of this mighty river, have hitherto failed. All agree, however, in attributing it to the rains which fall periodically upon the elevated portion of the country, away toward the equator. cause. I left the reader searching into the causes which tend to concentrate the watery vapour of the atmosphere over that tropic region, there to be disgorged, to come pouring down the valley of the Nile, transforming it into what seems a far-reaching arm of the sea. Certain it is, that no portion of this watery vapor, or no more than a sprinkling of it at most, is distilled from the clouds upon Egypt, and the legitimate conclusion is, that if any neighboring, or distant country, has received double, treble, or quadruple its fair proportion, it has been drawn, in part at least, from the country which has been left dry. A child might thus infer, that the portion of which Egypt has been bereft, has been wafted onward, to swell the torrents which have drenched and flooded the mountains of Abyssinia. And thus, he who "sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust," appears to have made Egypt an exception, but it is only in appearance, for what other country is so blessed? From what other country are the rains of heaven drawn away, to be returned laden with so precious a burden? From a distance of more than two thousand miles they return, not only to water the thirsty earth, and gladden the heart of man and beast, but to bring along with them, and deposit exactly in the right spot, those elements of fertility, which, in other countries, are supplied at vast labor and expense-at the same time leaving the soil in a fit condition to receive the seed, without the labor of preparation, which is indispensable in every other section of the globe. It is recorded, that, in ancient times, the rains having failed one sea B son in that torrid region, an envoy was despatched with tidings of the fact to the inhabitants of Egypt, that they might be prepared for a deficient harvest, and that the usual overflow failed accordingly. From the fact that the banks of the Nile are constantly rising by the accessions they receive from year to year, it may be apprehended, that, in time, they will rise so high as to form barriers, which cannot be overflown. A little consideration, however, will relieve us from any such apprehension. It is true, there is a greater depth of deposit immediately upon the banks than further back, there being less and less as the overflowing waters recede, and consequently that there is a descent from each bank outward, the deposit upon the outer edges of the valley scarcely exceeding half a foot in depth; while, upon the river bank, it is from ten to thirty and forty feet in depth. But then, it is to be considered, that the river bottom is rising in the same ratio, by deposit from the stream within its banks, so that, however elevated the banks may become, the river bottom will be elevated in a corresponding degree, and thus an annual overflow be perpetuated. And besides, there is a constant choking up at the mouths, by which the river is thrown back. A great portion of the Delta is supposed, with good reason, to have been thus raised from the sea. But there are places too elevated to receive the benefit of the annual overflow, and to irrigate these, and for other purposes, the numerous water wheels, which have struck me with such picturesque effect, apon this my first trip, are kept in constant play upon each bank. This machine is a very simple affair, being operated by a sweep which is drawn round and round by a blinded ox, the water being raised by an endless chain, or series of revolving buckets, which dip as they descend, and empty themselves as they ascend, into a trough which conducts off the water into the field. It is rough made, as though by a boy with an axe and augur; but to see numbers of these large, bucketed wheels, in operation at the same time, on either hand, lifting and pouring, lifting and pouring, as fast as one bucket can follow another, was to me an interesting novelty. The water is conducted, in raised channels, into the field, the main channels sending off branches here and there, and these again spreading into endless ramifications, so that every ten or twelve feet square of ground is surrounded by rills, and into these little squares the tiny streams are turned as they flow along, and turned off again when sufficient moisture is imparted. The facility with which the laborer turns the flowing current, this way or that, is supposed to illustrate the passage in Proverbs: "The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers (streams) of water, and he turneth it whithersoever he will." BEAUTY AND DEFORMITY, CHAPTER VII. Entrance into Cairo,-The Acacia and the Sycamore of the Scriptures contrasted.Streets and Shops; the din in the former; how it differs from that to which the American ear is accustomed. Two miles back from the river, east, at the foot of the mountains of Mokattam, stands the renowned city of Cairo, and thither we were ariven over a way raised high above the reach of the annual deluge, and lined, on either hand, with acacia trees. Passing the city gate, we entered the great square of Cairo, covered with trees and shrubbery rejoicing in their winter glories. The tree which principally adorns this beautiful place, canopying with its pendulous foliage the entire circular way around it, is one of the most beautiful varieties of the acacia, rising to a height of sixty or seventy feet, and so spacious of top and dense of leaf, as entirely to shut out the rays of the sun, furnishing a delightful promenade by its refreshing shade. And, as though to set off its beauties by contrast, that most deformed of all the trees of the wood, the sycamore of the Scriptures, rears up its gnarled trunk and scraggy top in near proximity. The body of an old sycamore resembles, in external appearance, a granite rock, as nearly as anything else; while its top looks as though, in its efforts to throw out its branches, it had met with some antagonistic force which cramped them prodigiously. But the top is admirably adjusted to the body, which latter is very large, and rises but a few feet from the ground, so that, however deformed, both trunk and top, it must be admitted to have the beauty of fitness and proportion of parts. Its leaves and small branches have the appearance of being set to their places by a hurricane, and the body looks as though it had breasted whole vollies of thunderbolts. This is the beauty spot of Cairo. Looking out upon it, and in near proximity to this delightful promenade, stand the principal hotels, English and French. Away from this charming spot, I found little in Cairo to please the eye or interest the heart. In the entire metropolis, (of two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants,) I found but one street wide enough for a carriage way, and that is less than a rod in width. So narrow are the streets generally, that the windows of the houses (which stand out two or three feet from the walls) project past each other from opposite sides, there not being room for them to project directly opposite each other. The direct light of the sun is thus shut out, and the street below doomed to twilight at noonday. This to us would appear hideous, and |