30 ON SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS. 
yet the others are lying around so little injured, 
that they might without much difficulty be re- 
placed in their original position—It was curi- 
ous to see our Turkish attendant sauntering 
amid the ruined fragments, and endeavouring 
with all the honest politeness of his nation, to 
sympathize with us in our admiration of their 
beauties ;—though evidently extremely at a loss 
to conceive, what should have induced us to 
come so far, merely to gaze upon the fallen co- 
lumns, and scattered friezes of an ancient 
Temple. 
But the description of Sardis, however beauti- 
ful or striking it may have been, is not our pre- 
sent object.—About a mile beyond the Temple, 
the glen opens into a wide plain, in which the 
cavalry of Lydia were defeated by the elephants 
of Cyrus.—It is a truly oriental scene;—the 
plain is of vast extent and is surrounded by 
hills on all sides;—at one extremity stand the 
Lake of Gyges, and the renowned Tumulus of 
Alyattes—The sun was setting, as we caught 
the first glimpse of this lovely landscape;—its 
lurid rays shone over the still surface of the 
lake, the habitation of innumerable swans;— 
the black canvas tents of the Turcomans (a 
wandering Asiatic horde) were scattered in 
