'Narrative of a journey to the site of Babylon in 1811, now first published: memoir on the ruins; with engravings from the original sketches by the author: remarks on the topography of ancient Babylon, by Major Rennell; in reference to the memoir: second memoir on the ruins; in reference to Major Rennell's remarks: with narrative of a journey to Persepolis: now first printed, with hitherto unpublished cuneiform inscriptions copied at Persepolis: by the late Claudius James Rich, Esq., formerly the Resident of the Hon. East India Company at Bagdad. Edited by his widow.' [‎74] (158/474)

MEMOIR ON THE RUINS
by any other traveller. Rennell, on the authority
of D'Anville, admits Pere Emanuel's ruin into the
limits of Babylon, but excludes Niebuhr's, which
he says cannot be supposed to have been less than
two or three miles from the S.W. angle of the city.
No one, who had not actually examined the spot
could ever imagine them in fact to be one and the
same ruin.
I visited the Birs under circumstances peculiarly
favourable to the grandeur of its effect. The morn
ing was at first stormy, and threatened a severe fall
of rain; but as we approached the object of our
journey, the heavy clouds separating discovered the
Birs frowning over the plain, and presenting the
appearance of a circular hill, crowned by a tower,
with a high ridge extending along the foot of it.
Its being entirely concealed from our view, during
the first part of our ride, prevented our acquiring
the gradual idea, in general so prejudicial to effect,
and so particularly lamented by those who visit the
Pyramids. Just as Ave were within the proper dis
tance, it burst at once upon our sight, in the midst
of rolling masses of thick black clouds partially ob
scured by that kind of haze, whose indistinctness is
one great cause of sublimity, whilst a few strong
catches of stormy light, thrown upon the desert in
the back-ground, served to give some idea of the
immense extent and dreary solitude of the Avastes in
which this venerable ruin stands.