Lycian room.

In a few preliminary words we may indicate the points of Lycian history.  Situated in Asia Minor, Lycia is said to have taken its name from the Athenian prince Lycus, who conquered it, and laid it open to his countrymen.  This Greek period of its history was interrupted by Cyrus, who added it to the Persian empire about five centuries and a half before our era; it was only regained about two centuries after by Alexander the Great.  It subsequently became a Roman province, then yielded to the Byzantine empire, and now owns the rule of the Turk.  This eventful history gives an interest to the country that has excited the curiosity of the learned for ages.  The period of its greatest prosperity ensued upon its being reconquered by Alexander, when it included no less than seventy cities, of which Xanthus was the capital.  Of all these cities, only scattered ruins under Turkish villages now remain.  Of Lycian remains it may be said nothing was known before Sir Charles Fellows started on his exploring expedition in 1838.  One or two travellers had made some scattered observations with regard to the sites of ancient Lycian towns before that time, and their hints first drew the attention of the learned in this direction; but, we repeat, it cannot be said that anything was known of Lycian remains before Sir Charles pressed the soil of Asia Minor, and looked about for the sites of some of the seventy towns mentioned in ancient history.  He succeeding in fixing the sites of many of the cities, including Xanthus, and on his return to England prevailed upon the government to send out vessels to bring home the remains he saw scattered about the rocky site of the ancient Lycian metropolis.  Messrs. Spratt and Forbes subsequently added eighteen sites of towns to the list made by Sir Charles.  The collection of sculpture now popularly known as the Xanthian marbles, are a few ruins gleaned from the rocky eminence which is the site of ancient Xanthus.  These fragmentary remains of an ancient people consist chiefly of sculptures from their temples and their tombs; upon which, like the Egyptians, they appear to have expended a vast amount of labour, and to have employed their greatest artists.  The Greek mind is clearly traceable in these Xanthian marbles,—­the Greek imbued with local traditions and feelings.  The first object that will attract the visitor’s attention on entering the room, is the most remarkable of

LYCIAN TOMBS,

called the Harpy Tomb.  This tomb, which occupied the highest point of the hill on which Xanthus stood, is described by Sir Charles Fellows in his account of the Xanthian marbles, published in 1843.  The tomb was a square shaft, in one solid block, weighing no less than eighty tons.  “Its height,” says Sir Charles, “was seventeen feet, placed upon a base, rising on one side six feet from the ground, on the other but little above the present