AN OLD ENGLISH CITY GATEWAY. FIVE hundred years ago, and later than that, almost all of the large cities of England were walled round, and the only entrance into them was by a gateway like that in the picture, the doors of which were closed every night. In the old town in which I sit to write this we have places called "East Gate," "South Gate," and "North Gate; not West Gate, for there was a bridge over the river which no doubt answered the same purpose. And there are yet in this place some of the old stone walls remaining which went all round the town. The stones are very large, and have marks on them of having been battered by the cannon balls

of King Charles the First's army.

A great part of the old wall round Coventry yet remains; but at Chester the wall is nearly entire, and you may walk all round the old city on the top of it.

There are many of these old Gateways yet standing, and they are always regarded as objects of curiosity. There is one at Scarbro' in a good state of preservation; and the picture, we are told, represents that at Southampton.

Well it is well for us that we do not need to have walls and gates round our towns in England now; and it is well, too, that our nobles do not live in castles now, full of armed men, ready to go out and fight their neighbours. Since Englishmen gave over fighting with one another, they have found time to learn the arts of peace; and so they have become the most busy and prosperous people upon earth. London had once walls all round it; but who could wall it in now, or Manchester, or Liverpool, or Birmingham? Why all these places are enlarging so fast that they never could be kept within walls!

And better than all this, instead of walls and gates, castles and towers, dungeons and tortures, we have places of worship and schools, hospitals and infirmaries, asylums and almshouses, such as our forefathers never saw. And better still, we have the Bible, and full liberty to worship God and hear his blessed gospel, no man forbidding us.

So when you see one of these old Gateways, or an old Castle in ruins, you need not be sorry. It is a good thing for us that they are become useless, and will never be wanted again in England.

You have been told something about this great country and about the sad things which have been done there by the black soldiers called Sepoys.

Some of the grandest buildings in the world are to be

found there, built by the former Kings of the country, who robbed the people of their money to build for themselves magnificent palaces to live in, and grand tombs, called mausoleums, in which they were buried, as well as splendid temples for their false religion. I am about to tell you of some of them, which were built chiefly by the Mohammedans, who are believers in the false Prophet Mahomet. These proud and cruel Kings, like all other tyrants, lived in splendour, grand beyond all description, while the people lived in mud huts in poverty and wretchedness. We should not be sorry to hear that all these grand places were destroyed; for to get them back again they have begun to fight, and as long as they remain they will do all they can to get them, that they may live in idleness and pride as they did before the English went there.

THE CROWN OF EMPIRES AT AGRA.

THE Taj Mahal, or Crown of Empires, at Agra, is a mausoleum built by the Emperor Shah Jehan, in honour of his empress the Begum Narr Mahal. It is built of white marble, raised on a terrace, and in the form of a mosque, with minarets. The mosaic ornaments of the interior, including even the marble pavement, are extensive, rich, and elaborate, the flowers and arabesques being composed of no less than twelve different stones, such as agates, jaspers, and various coloured marbles, the numerous quotations from the Koran being in black marble. A garden, with fountains and highly ornamented gateways, surrounds this grand mausoleum; which is supposed, whether for extent, symmetry, mate

rial, or execution, to surpass any thing in the whole world of the same description! This is the uniform opinion, even of those who have seen the master pieces of Italian art. "It is possible," says the celebrated Bernier, "I may have imbibed an Indian taste; but I decidedly think that this monument deserves much more to be numbered among the wonders of the world than the Pyramids of Egypt." The architect was a Mohammedan, and the whole building is said to have cost £750,000.

The Tomb of the emperor Acbar, six miles from Agra, is also a wonderful building, and would be so regarded in any place which had not the Taj Mahal to boast of. There are other mausoleums of astonishing size and grandeur. There is also the Mosque of Acbar, a building superior to the famous Mosque of Soliman at Constantinople. Its red granite walls are encrusted with plates of gold, and a cornice runs along the foundation. The Mosque of Aurengzebe, on the river side, is supported by upwards of one hundred columns. In addition to all these, Agra boasts of the Palace of Acbar, one of the finest buildings in Asia, It stands on an eminence; its walls of red granite present the appearance of a single block of stone, extending in a crescent shape along the river side, leaving between its walls and the water, a beach which is used as a harbour, where numerous trading vessels and pleasure-boats are continually calling. Three days in a week the great square of the palace, planted with several rows of oriental plane-trees, is employed as a market-place. Round this square a fine gallery extends, and at regular distances are six triumphal arches of entrance,