In a recent lecture on "Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities," at the British Museum by Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen, the architecture and ornaments of a typical palace were described. The palace, next to the local temple, was, the lecturer said, the most important edifice in the ancient city, and the explorations conducted by Sir Henry Layard, Mr. Rassam, M. Botta, and others, had resulted in the discovery of the ruins of many of the most famous of royal residences in Nineveh and Babylon. The palace was called in the inscriptions the "great house," as the temple was "God's house," though in later times it was also named "the abode of royalty," "the dwelling-place of kings," while the great palace of Nebuchadnezzar at Babylon, the ruins of which are marked by the Kasr mound, was called "the wonder of the earth." The arrangement of the palace was one which varied but little in ancient and modern times, the same grouping of quadrangles, with intermural gardens, being alike common to the Assyrian palace and the Turkish serai. The earliest of the Assyrian palaces were those built in Assur, which dated probably from the nineteenth century before the Christian era; but the seat of royalty was at an early period transferred from Assur to Calah, the site of which is marked by the great mounds of Nimroud at the junction of the greater Lab and the Tigris. Here large palaces were erected by the kings of the Middle Assyrian Empire, the most lavish of royal builders being Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmanisar; while a third palace was built by Tiglath Pileser II. (B. C. 742). Mr. Boscawen described the explorations carried out by Sir Henry Layard on this site.