lion impressed upon it in bas-relief. Another specimen is of a green hue, and bears Arabic characters. The former is of the size of a sixpence; the latter is as large as a half-crown piece. Other specimens have been placed in our hands by Mr. Bankes, the traveller in Egypt; and of these we have introduced a coloured Plate, with a detailed description. The beauty, variety, and arrangement of colours, not only place ancient Glass manufactures high in our estimation as to taste and design, but the knowledge of the chemical art in opaque and transparent colouring which they evince, deserves to be appreciated, particularly their blues, without cobalt or nickel, and their reds without gold.* It was, however, formerly doubted whether the makers of these specimens were aware of the use of lead as a solvent of white Glass. (See page 7.)

It is certain that the Glass-houses of Alexandria were celebrated among the ancient for the skill and ingenuity of their workmen; and from thence, the Romans, who did not acquire a knowledge of the art till a later period, procured all their Glass-ware. Most of the large, greenish Glass cinerary vases in the British Museum, found in Roman barrows which contained bones and bone-ashes, are, probably, the production of extensive Egyptian or Roman works; they are large, and of excellent form and workmanship; but the Glass is somewhat impure, of a greenish tint, has numerous globules and striæ (see PLATE 5), and is not unlike the modern common crown or sheet Glass in quality.† Strabo relates, that a Glass-maker of Alexandria informed him, that an earth,