e Persians at all." We bowed in amazement to find our
English friend more ignorant than Juvenal. We shall now transcribe the
observations of Colonel Leake, the most sharp-sighted and learned of
the modern travellers who have visited the isthmus of Mount
Athos:--"The modern name of this neck of land is _provlaka_, evidently
the Romanic form of the word [Greek: proaulax], having reference to the
canal _in front_ of the peninsula of Athos, which crossed the isthmus,
and was excavated by Xerxes. It is a hollow between natural banks,
which are well described by Herodotus as [Greek: kolonoi ou megaloi],
the highest points of them being scarcely 100 feet above the sea. The
lowest part of the hollow is only a few feet higher than that level.
About the middle of the isthmus, where the bottom is highest, are some
traces of the ancient canal; where the ground is lower, it is indicated
only by hollows, now filled with water in consequence of the late
rains. The canal seems to have been not more than sixty feet wide. As
history does not mention that it was ever kept in repair after the time
of Xerxes, the waters from the heights around have naturally filled it
in part with soil in the course of ages. It might, however, without
much labour, be renewed; and there can be no doubt that it would be
useful to the navigation of the Egean, such is the fear entertained by
the Greek boatmen of the strength and uncertain direction of the
currents around Mount Athos."[2]

[1] Herodotus, vii. 21. Thucydides, iv. 109

[2] Leake's Travels in Northern Greece. Vol. iii. p. 143.

THE OLD SCOTTISH CAVALIER.

I.

I'll sing you a new song, that should make your heart beat high,
Bring crimson to your forehead, and the lustre to your eye;--
It is a song of olden time, of days long since gone by,
And of a Baron stout and bold, as e'er wore sword on thigh!
Like a brave old Scottish cavalier, all of the olden time!

II.

He kept his castle in the north, hard by the thundering Spey;
And a thousand vassals dwelt around, all of his kindred they.
And not a man of all that clan had ever ceased to pray
For the Royal race they loved so well, though exiled far away
From the steadfast Scottish cavaliers, all of the olden time.

III.

His father drew the righteous sword for Scotland and her claims,
Among the loyal gentlemen and chiefs of ancient names,
Who swore