MERGE TO GYRENE. 437 of the roads, where they descended from one range to another, were ornamented with sarcophagi and monumental tombs, and the whole sloping space between the galleries was completely filled up with similar structures. These, as well as the excavated tombs, exhibit very superior taste and execution ; and the clusters of dark green furze and slender shrubs with which they are now partly overgrown, give an additional effect, by their contrast of forms and colour, to the multitude of white buildings which spring up from the midst of them. We have endeavoured in the drawing here annexed, to give some idea of this remarkable scene ; but although we have copied it with fidelity, and with all the care which our time allowed, the effect of our view falls very far short of that which is produced by the scene itself*.

On leaving the fountain and the temple of Diana we descended the side of the hill and took our course along the galleries we have mentioned, passing with some difficulty from one to another, through the thick furze with which the ground is overspread, and entering the most conspicuous of the excavated tombs which we passed in our route along the roads.

They usually consisted of a single chamber; at the end of which, opposite the doorway, was an elegant, highly finished facade, almost always of the Doric order, cut in the smooth surface of the rock itself with great regularity and beauty of execution. It generally repre-■* We may add, that the circumstance of being obliged to reduce our dravving (which is a large one) to the size of a quarto plate, has, at the same time, operated to its disadvantage, as might naturally indeed have been expected.