With regard to the vexed question whether the singular conical chamber at Mycenæ is to be considered as a treasury or a tomb, I think that the old traditional name "Treasury of Atreus," given to it by Pausanias, should be retained, if only for convenience, though there is much to be said in favour of the theory that it is a tomb. Perhaps, as Dodwell suggests, this building may have been at once a tomb and a treasury. From the few fragments of the sculptured decorations of the doorway, which have been found on the spot, and which are now in the British Museum, it may be inferred that it was inlaid with marbles of several colours, and that the ornaments were like those on the earliest Greek fictile vases. The style of decoration seems more like that of the doorways of the tombs at Doganlu, in Phrygia, than anything we know of in Greek architecture; and this is an additional ground for connecting the early art of Mycenæ with Asia Minor.13
III.
Mytilene, May 10, 1852.
On our return from Mycente we proceeded by steamer to Constantinople. After passing the Dardanelles we found ourselves in a climate almost as wintry as we had left behind us in England, and though the month was April, the shores on each side were covered with snow. It was a miserable sleety morning when we approached the Golden Horn, and I cannot say that the first aspect of
