The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-18 00:00:00

the L ie; ells I! 4 ci 46 , .] Z ) 1 4 .1 -4 4 BLIGHTED FLOWER. A szsirLE plant was roaming wild Within the sunny bowers, b nconcious of the thorns of life, Amid the summer hours. 411 d not until the tempest came, And summer took its flight, /as it aware how insincere Is all that's fair and bright. par though the sun did gaily shine h e neath her welcome bower, le chilling blast stole round at last To nip the budding flower. And now she droops her youthful head, And mournful looks around — Dow carelessly she trod upon The blight and Weedy ground. And weedy ground doth spread afar To smite each blighted flower, And lead them up some gaudy Pat h Into a thorny bower. hut 0 revere this withered plant, And turn not from the page ; le Or worms will blight the buds of youth, .',.._ k ud kill the roots of age. REVIEWS. 1 )0 " I 'd set veY 3 Or' of 1) 11 ,e 6 '.4 \' • ` ? .,„ . in Damascus; including an A ccoun t history, Topography, and Antiquities City , 2b/ • ..th Travels and Researches in ,4 Lebanon, and the Hauran. By the Porter, A.M. With Maps and Mus t. London : John Murray. t)l tl e of this book, wh* - 1 is in two hand .o,raes, will of itself be sufficient to insure Welcome among biblical scholars, and it 4 ° t its contents will confirm the welcome '44 1 name had secured for it. Its author, to e c l in the country for five years as the l'Q'e of a Christian mission, employed t t 4 the good purpose in acquiring a know -414, people, the language, the country, a nti quities. Besides a zealous discharge qlonary duties, Mr. Porter seems gra ave been drawn into the studies of the 1 11 ) . antiqua r y and the specul a ti ons o f th e tq, in both of which characters he ap tilleb. advantage in the work now under ' 'itql 3 a. His attention, however, has not it lk Y absorbed by the details of those o S tudies ; he h as a l so found time and t , J ti t'Portunity for carefully observing and it tt' :tinn- the peculiarities of Eastern life. 7eether with the scenes in which they Al i Observed are so felicitously grouped, th . ,Y outline:l, and so dashingly filled in accessories of g orgeous colour and „ti t e t and s h a d e, t h at t h e sp l en d ours o f Ith_rientali sm are placed before the reader f orce an d b eauty of Eastern romance. gmina r N ith its shining domes and resplen '4tiets—its sn ow - w hit e terraces s h a d e d ',44et,led by refreshing patches of verdant nits l o gl°wing bl ossoms , an d me ll ow-t i nted 1. hp 4 to stretch es o f glittering bazaars— •tb h t t k , l ing fountains—it rich array of Ener u the p i cturesque costumes of the ti ogg wn , o crowd its marts and give ko i „, places o f pu bli c resort —i ts qua i nt °‘ chitecture, and the intense azure of SUPPLEMENT TO tbr atbrrimota£s. taubavi AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER. RPOOL, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1855. its cloudless skies, are all thrown together with the careless prodigality of an enthusiastic yet con summate artist, and the result of the whole is a series of tableaux of rare power and suggestive beauty. The skill of the descriptive artist and the zeal of the evangelizing missionary are not by any means the only claims to notice which are put forth by Mr. Porter. He is scarcely less enthu siastic as an archaeologist, or less devoted as a scholar ; and although in these latter points his success may by some be considered equally great, success on these matters, which are almost from their very nature controversial, are less generally understood, and by the multitude are looked on in a great degree as " caviare," when compared with a lively na r rati ve , or co ntrasted with the glowing picture of some scene instinct with life, and richly coloured with the vivid hues of Oriental manners. Damascus, as is well known, is situated in a beautiful plain on the east margin of the Eastern Lebanon. The plain is watered by numerous streams, which flow from the mountains eastward into the Desert, where their surplus waters form a lake or marsh, called Bahr-el-margi, or Lake of the Meadows. This plain is so large, that its bound ing hills on the north and south are barely visible from the opposite sides ; and the combination of plain and city is striking and beautiful, from whatever point the picture is surveyed. The city of Damascus has long occupied a conspicuous place on the page of Eastern history, and the lustre of its beauty, together with its renown, keep it still gratefully before the eye of the learned, as its mercantile fame gives it interest in the ranks of the commercial world. It forms a central emporium to Indian and Persian traders, and absorbs the carrying trade of a large portion of the East. The silks and fruits of Damascus are sent to all quarters of the East ; and its cut lery has acquired a fame which it would be diffi cult to destroy. Such a city and such a district, with its long-drawn traditions stretching far into the mists of hoar antiquity, and easily traceable through a series of revolutions which connect it with the present, under the treatment of even an ordinary writer, could not have failed to form a theme of interest, and might have constituted a tale of wonder, as they have often done before. In the hands of Mr. Porter they have been invested with the charming vivacity of romance, combined with the solid value of reality. To him all is suggestive—all is full of meaning. He details many scenes charming in the voluptuous luxury of their accompaniments, and striking in their intrinsic and rich beauty. Take as an illustration of Mr. Porter's descriptive style, and of the usually luxurious taste in which the rich inhabitants of Damascus decorate their mansions, the annexed LIV GLANCE AT THE WORKSHOPS OF DAMASCUS. Let us pass through this diminutive old gateway, and we enter a vast covered area, whose shattered roof, dimly seen through clouds of smoke, is supported here by massive pier, and there by stately column. The din of hammer and anvil is almost deafening, and swarthy figures are seen through the gloom sitting on dirty bobs and round miniature furnaces. Heaps of the precious metals, and ornaments of various forms and chaste designs, are by their side, while diamonds, emeralds, and rubies glitter in their hands. Passing through this busy scene, we enter another bazaar, no less noisy. Here are scores of carpenters engaged in the manufacture of the ornamental clogs worn universally by the Damascus ladies. Observe how they work, all squatting. One is planing a board, holding it with his toe ! Others are carving pieces of wood, or inlaying them with silver and mother-of-pearl ; and while the hands ply the mallet and chisel, the toes do duty as a vice ! In the preceding picture the peculiarities of DESCRIPTION OF A PALACE IN DAMASCUS. The interior court, or harim, is a quadrangle from fifty to sixty yards square, with a tesselatq pavement of marble; a large marble fountain stands in the centre, and several smaller ones of great beauty sparkle around, and give a delicious coolness to the air, even amid the heat of summer. Orange, lemon, and citron trees diffuse their fragrant odours ; while gigantic flowering shrubs and rare exotics are disposed in tasteful groups, and climbing plant s are trained on trellis-work overhead, affording grateful shade and pleasing variety. All the great re- [GRATIS. ception-rooms and chamth on this court ; the former are upon the first floo e latter above, having in front a narrow corridor c. with glass. On the southern side is the Malan, u alcove, similar in design to those found in the exte, courts, but loftier, and far more gorgeously decorated. he grand salon is a noble room. It is divided into two compartments by a beautiful arch richly ornamented with gilt fretwork. The floor of the first compartment is of the rarest marbles of every hue, arranged with admirable precision and pleasing variety in mathematical designs. In the centre is a fountain inlaid with mother-of-pearl and rare stones. The walls to the height of twenty feet are covered with mosaic in panels, in the centre of each of which is a slab of polished granite, porphyry, or finely-veined marble, with the exception of those in the upper tier, which are in scribed with sentences from the Koran, written in letters of gold. Several niches relieve the plainness of the walls ; in their angles are slender columns of white marble with gilt capitals, and the arches above are richly sculptured in the Saracenic style. The upper part of the walls is painted in the Italian style. The ceiling is about thirty feet high, and delicately painted. The central ornaments and cornices are elaborarely carved and gilt, and inlaid with innumerable little mirrors. The other and principal part of the room is raised about two feet. The walls and ceiling are similar in design to those described, except that the former are in part covered with a wainscoting, carved, gilt, and ornamented with mirrors. Around the three sides run the divans. covered with the richest purple satin, embroidered with gold, in chaste designs of flowers and scrolls, and having a deep gold fringe descending to the floor. It is only (says he) when the " bright-eyed houris" of this sunny clime assemble in such a salon, decked out in their gay and picturesque costumes, and blazing with gold and diamonds, and when numerous lamps of every form and colour pour a rich and variegated flood of light all round, to be reflected from polished mirrors, and countless gems, and flashing eyes, that we can fully comprehend the splendour of oriental life, and the perfect adaptation of the gorgeous decorations of the mansions to the brilliant costumes of those that inhabit them. Such a description savours little, it must be ad mitted, of the self-denying abstinence and simple habits of the anchorite ; but its glowing richness and uncrowded fulness convey a lively picture of Orientalism surrounded by its splendours. If the court of such a dwelling is thus lavishly adorned, the cost of ornamentation is not, it would appear, stinted when applied to individual apartments ; the sum of £2,000 sterling being not unfre quently expended in ornamenting a• single chamber. That industry which, for so great a number of centuries, has chiefly conduced to the fame of Damascus, and out of which the means for sup porting this luxury are in a pre-eminent degree created, was sure to attract the attention of so acute and intelligent an observer as Mr. Porter, and on this subject lie presents his readers with several pic tures, out of which let us select the following