This imposing fortress,
externally, is a handsome, smooth-faced, demi-fortified specimen of
modern Turkish architecture, erected with ancient materials. Within is a
spacious court, partly shaded with date trees. The whole of the town
towards the desert is defended by a pretty deep ditch, overlooked by a
proportionate number of brick-built towers (all the spoil of Babylon)
flanking the intermediate compartments of wall. In this rampart are three
gates.
As far as the eye can reach, both up and down the river, the banks are
thickly shaded with groves of dates, displacing, it should seem, the
other species of trees, from which Isaiah names this scene "the Brook or
Valley of Willows," although the humble races of that graceful tribe, in
the osier, &c. are yet the prolific offspring of its shores.
G.L.S.
* * * * *
CURIOUS EXTRACTS FROM CURIOUS AUTHORS, FOR CURIOUS READERS.
(_For the Mirror_.)
Hollingshed, who was contemporary with Queen Elizabeth, informs us,
"there were very few chimneys (in England in his time) even in the capital
towns; the fire was laid to the wall, and the smoke issued out at the
roof, or door, or window.
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