the works were stopped, or the
palace was destroyed by fire. Scarcely any of the new sculptures had
been executed. The only exceptions were the bulls and lions at the
various portals, a few reliefs in close proximity to them, and some
complete figures of crouching sphinxes, which had been placed as
ornaments, and possibly also as the bases of supports, within the span
of the two widest doorways. There was nothing very remarkable about the
bulls; the lions were spirited, and more true to nature than usual; the
sphinxes were curious, being Egyptian in idea, but thoroughly
Assyrianized, having the horned cap common on bulls, the Assyrian
arrangement of hair, Assyrian earrings, and wings nearly like those of
the ordinary winged bull or lion. [PLATE CXLVI., Fig. 2.] The figures
near the lions were mythic, and exhibited somewhat more than usual
grotesqueness, as we learn from the representations of them given by Mr.
Layard.

While the evidence of the actual monuments as to the character of
Esar-haddon's buildings and their ornamentation is thus scanty, it
happens, curiously, that the Inscriptions furnish a particularly
elaborate and detailed account of them. It appears, from the principal
record of the time, that the temples which Esar-haddon built in Assyria
and Babylonia--thirty-six in number--were richly adorned with plates of
silver and gold, which made then (in the words of the Inscription) "as
splendid as the day." His palace at Nineveh, a building situated on the
mound called Nebbi Yunus, was, we are told, erected upon the site of a
former palace of the kings of Assyria. Preparations for its construction
were made, as for the great buildings of Solomon by the collection of
materials, iii wood, stone, and metal, beforehand: these were furnished
by the Phoenician, Syrian, and Cyprian monarchs, who sent to Nineveh for
the purpose great beams of cedar, cypress, and ebony, stone statues, and
various works in metals of different kinds. The palace itself is said to
have exceeded in size all buildings of former kings. It was roofed with
carved beams of cedar-wood; it was in part supported by columns of
cypress wood, ornamented and strengthened with rings of silver and of
iron; the portals were guarded by stone bulls and lions; and the gates
were made of ebony and cypress ornamented with iron, silver, and ivory.
There was, of course, the usual adornment of the walls by means of
sculptured slabs and enamelled bricks. If the pre