_Personal Descriptions._--Is Sir Walter Scott's description of Saladin
taken from any ancient writer, or is it a fancy sketch? If the latter, I
think he has fallen into error by describing in Saladin the features of a
civilised Arab, rather than the very peculiar and unmistakeable
characteristics of the Koordish race.
In a novel now publishing in _Ainsworth's Magazine_, styled the "Days of
Margaret of Parma," the celebrated Duke of Alva is described as a very tall
man. I have never seen a portrait or read a description of his person, but
had formed a very different idea of it from the circumstance that Count
Tilly, who was certainly a short man, was said to be a striking counterpart
of him in face, figure, and dress, a resemblance which added not a little
to the terror and aversion with which Tilly was regarded by the Protestants
of Germany. Can any of your correspondents refer me to a description of
Alva?