I HAVE now before me three editions of Abdolatiph's brief Hiftory. of Egypt. The firft, in 96 pages fmall octavo, without any title exprelfing the place or time of publication, exhibits the original Arabic with a Latin tranflation; which laft breaks off abruptly (leaving one page of the Arabic untranflated) in the defeription of the pyramids at p. 99 of Dr. White's two editions, where it is flyled "Verfio Pocockiana." This, it thould feem, is that tranflation which Dr. P's fon began and left unfinished. Dr. W's first edition, publifhed at Oxford, 1788, 4to. dedicated to Abp. -Moore, was Pococke's tranflation beforementioned, and continued to the end with his own. Dr. Hunt was poffefled of a complete copy of P's tranflation given to him by P. but no more than is above printed is now to be found. Hunt himfelf intended an edition of Abdolatiph. Profeffor White published a fecond edition of his own labours at Oxford, 1800, infcribed to Sir William Scott, in the preface to which feveral paflages are added, and many in the notes to the former omitted. The original and tranflation are of the firft edition; the preliminaries and appendix are of the fecond. The feal, p. 993, is the private feal of Mathew, monk of Aberbrothoc, in Scotland. S. P. W. MATHI MONAC' D'ABURBROTHOг. Two angels are cenfing a bishop, whofe right hand is elevated to blefs. The ring fig. 5 is inferibed IH8 and AVE MARIA That fig. 6 feems to bear a crofs or key, and a fceptre. The Rulian brafs book refembles that of filver-gilt, engraved in Archæ ologia, vol. XII. pl. L. p. 832, though that is called a tablet. There is nothing in your engraving of the tiles like Offa's name, The collection of bones under Hythe church (p. 1002) feems to be only the common furniture of bone-houses, as at Rothwell and Stratford-upon-Avon (LVII. p. 952). P. 1003. The confecration of the new church at Ayot St. Laurence may be feen in your vol. XLIX. p. 374, LIX. 972; the Bishop of Lincoln (Thurlow) would not let the old one be taken down. P. 1009, col. 1, 1. 21, For Arrius * See p. 649. Proclancus, r. Annius Plocamus; and col. 2, 1. 61, for Anafioritus, probably Oneficritus. P. 1015. There does not appear to have been any baronet of the name of Wheler in 1649, that honour having been conferred, 1660, on Sir William, already a knight, and defcended to his coufin Charles, who, by marriage, acquired the prefent family-cftate and refidence at Lemington Haffang, co. Warwick.. P. 1320. The date on Hadley church has been fhewn to be 1494; the laft, like the fecond, numeral being the antient half 8, 2. P. 1023. Does not the keep of Odiham cafile remain, though not the palace? P. 1076. The village of Billingbo rough had only two vicars in a century: Peter, father of the venerable antiquary, Robert Kelham, efq. of Staple-inn (prefented 1702; who died April 23, 1752, aged 76); and the late Mr. Towers, prefented 1752. D. H. R. PORTER, p. 988, betrays M's total deficiency of hittorical and practical knowledge. The buildings at the early period he refers to were all of flone, caftellated manfions; the chimneys in which, as their ruins yet thew, were as fecure as they were capacious; the timbers of the floors, where the Hoors did not reft on arches, were inferted into fquare holes in walls of prodigious thicknefs, and fometimes fupported on brackets of ftone, projecting from the wails. The material of which fires were made was wood, the foot of which is known to cake and adhere clofely, and not to produce danger, like the foot of coal. Till, therefore, the period much after Alfred, there was no occafion for fweeping of chimneys by men brooms. The fuggeftion of the eriminal or the negro being the firft chimney-fweeper is a mere argumentum ad captandum vulgus. The hazard of fweeping modern chimneys by wifps of ftraw, or bundles of thorns, is too great to be dwelt upon, befides the difficulty of procuring bundles large enough to fweep a college-hall, or an old cottage-chimney. Care must be taken not to let Humanity get the better of Common Seufe. P. Q. or Another correfpondent recommends that neither men nor boys should be employed in this indifpenfable bufinefs; WITH all due fubmiffion to H. B. I apprehend he must have been at fome diftance from that part of the City where his new improvements are to be introduced, when he penned the account in p. 1011. Behind the Royal Exchange, he fays," the houfes in BartholomewJane will be fet back at least 50 feet;" by which I fuppofe is meant that thefe houses must come down, for I know no room behind for fuch fetting back." The Stock Exchange will then be laid open; and I am fure the good people of London will think this one of the greatest improvements of modern times. The proceedings of that houfe have of late very much required to be laid open. But what follows?"The houfes at the end of Bartholomew-lane, in Throgmorton-street, will come down, to make the opening to the grand street which will go through Tokenhoufe-yard;" and, if it does, H. B. may be affured no freet ever went in fuch a direction; for Tokenhoufe-yard happens to lie not only directly fronting the centre of the Bank, but above an hundred feet to the Weft of the end of Bartholomew-lane; and what is more, the church of St. Margaret lies between. So that, in order to make this new ftreet, the Bank muft be cut through, and then the fireet will have no more connexion with Bartholomew-lane than with Leadenhall-street. I with improvers would take the trouble to look at the ground before they begin to pull down houfes, and banks, and churches, in this loose manner. But, if H. B. infifis on cutting through the Bank, I have no objection, except the trifling difficulty of the ope. ration, not to speak of the confent of the Directors, which, after all, it would be but good manners to afk. The difficulty, I prefume, will be apparent to any one who has furveyed the improvements of that mafs of flone, brick and mortar, and the Hercules pillars which feem to defy the end of the world itfelf. Blowing up the rock at Blackwall will be a joke to our modern Gibraltar, which, if it has any merit as an edifice, it is that of giving ftockholders an idea of permanency and immovability. But I forget; here is another propofed improvement. After removing the houfes in Bartholomew-laue 50 feet back, "the church will remain, and the arch under the prefent fteeple will lead to the new foot path." The church will certainly make a fine figure ftanding by itfelf-any one may be convinced of this who will take a peep at the meaneft edifice of the kind in London; but, what the old tower is to do when the bottom is hollowed out in an arch for foot-paffengers, I know not. It looks at prefent as if it wanted all the folidity of a firm bate; and if its under-ftanders are weakened, I would advife foot-paflengers to be prepared for accidents. Still, Sir, as I know that improveTS make no more of pulling down churches than if they were chandlers fhops, I am very willing, though an old inhabitant of the parish, to give them up this church; the true way to render the lofs of a church a mere trifle, is to take away the parish itself firft. Now this parish has been of late years fo cropped by the Bank, that a moderately-fized drawing-room will hold us all; or we may be united to Ben'et-finck, the next parifh, as St. Chriftopher's was a few years ago united to St. Margaret's, in order to give room for the Weft end of the Bank. The building of a new London bridge, and the removal of Bedlam, are alfo parts of our new improvements, to which no objection can be made, if we did not talk of fuch undertakings with as much coolness as if we were giving orders for a new parish Bible, or a couple of haffocks for the Churchwardens' pew. I dare fay there is not an inhabitant of Bedlam that does not know that a new Bedlam muft be finished before a blick of the old can be moved out of its place; and I humbly think this cannot be done in a day. Yet moft people feem to be of opinion that all we want is an Act of Parliament. I will beg leave to tell you, Sir, what an Act of Parliament is. It is a piece of parchment or paper, which can be made as faft as it can be read-but ever after it is one of the flowelt things you can conceive in its operation; and if any of our im provers provers chufe to doubt this, let them caft their eyes beyond Temple-bar, and recollect when the improvements there were first undertaken. Yours, &c. A BARTHOLOMEW-LANE MAN. Dec. 8. Mr. URBAN, IN p. 1066, fpeaking of the religious principles of the late much and defervedly-refpected Mr. Jofeph Harford, of Brittol, it is atlerted that "he was bred up a Quaker; but, from a thorough conviction of the fuperior excelleucy of the doctrines of the Church of England, he became a member of it many years before his death." From an accurate account of facts well known to near relations of mine from their intimate knowledge of Mr. Harford, I can affure you, that he left the Society only on account of his af fuming the magifterial character, which he avowed to the Society he entered into from a conviction that he might become more ufeful to his fellow citizens, than in his then private rank. His being obliged to take the oaths and fubfcribe to the tefts, alone prevented him remaining a member of that Society; and as farther proof that his fentiments ftill remained the fame on the leading principles of his first religious profel fion, his fon did not undergo the ceremony of baptifin till a late period of life, and in confequence of being mar ried within the pale of the Etablishment; and the two fifters of his excellent lady were and are in the habit of attending the meetings of the Society; and he himself rarely attended the church, but when obliged by his pub lic capacity. Mr. URBAN, G. H. C. Dec. 9. AMONG the curiofities which the city of London has to exhibit to the diligent purfuit of the Antiquary, but which hitherto feem to have efcaped their obfervation, is fome beautiful old carved work in wood, at the hall of the refpectable Company of Carpenters at London Wall. At the above place is to be feen a table of curious workmanship, probably about the time of James the Firft. But fill more worthy of obfervation are the arms of the Company as well as of fome private individuals, carved in pannels above the door at the entrance. If any of your correfpondents thall be induced from this hint to vifit Carpenters' hall, we may perhaps in due time have a drawing in your Magazine of a fpecimen of art which well merits prefervation. Mr. URBAN, IN ELBOW. Dec. 10. the late Dr. Johnfon's correlpondence with Mrs. Piozzi, there is a paflage (Letter LXXVII) which feems fo deficient in fenfe and connexion, as to warrant the firmife that faine effential words belonging to it may have been omitted by the printer or tranfcriber. This paflage, as printed in Mrs. Piozzi's own edition of the letters, and in Dr, Johnfon's works published by Mr. Murphy, is as follows. "A very great proportion of the people are barefoot, and if one may judge from the reft of the dress, to fend out boys into the streets or ways: there are however more beggars than I have ever feen in England, they beg, if not filently, very modeftly." Mrs. Piozzi will perhaps have the goodness to inform the publick, through your most useful Magazine, how this paffage ftands in Dr. Johnfon's Manufcript. In complying with which requeft, fhe may fpare much labour to fome future commentator on that diftinguished English claflick, and will confer a favour on her and your very fincere well-wisher, SINCE S. S. GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. No. XIIL Mr. URBAN, Portfea, Oct. 3. INCE the perfection of architecture depends on difpofition in its three modes, this ought to be clearly apprehended by those who addrefs themfelves to this art. Our matter Vitru vius, we have feen, confiders difpofition as one of the fix things, that conftitute architecture; but his illuftration of its modes leaves room for farther elucidation of the fubject, not indeed to undervalue, but to penetrate and familiarize what he has only briefly hinted. From his hints, however, when clofely followed up, we may gather, that difpofition is the principal conttituent of the art, and that order, diftribution, decorum, eurythmy, and fymmetry, are its fubordinates. By a clofe attention to this arrangement, keeping in our view the two ends propofed by architecture, convenience and ornament, we may form a diftinct notion of the nature and extent of dif pofition; for when it terminates in the bufinefs of convenience, it then acts by order and diftribution: when in af fairs of ornament, it is affifted by decorum, eurythmy, and fymmetry; thefe are perfected by experience, tafle, and knowledge; as order and diftribution are by kill and judgment.-Now to purfue thefe divifions; it is evident, that the ordination of an architectural plan is immediately fubfervient to difpofition, and requires kill in arithmetical operations, to difcover fuch dimenfions, for the feveral members and compartments of the intended firucture, as will coincide with commenfurability. And diftribution, which has to do with the procuration of inaterials, fuitable to the purposes determined by difpofition (on which therefore it is fo far dependent), certainly requires judgment to difcern the quality, and afcertain the value of materials, fo as to adequate them to the eftimate given. Difpofition again, as directed to the ornamental part, is aided by decorum, eurythmy, and fymmetry (in the fenfe of commenfuration), and thefe are perfected by experience, tafle, and knowledge Decorum is difpofition's right hand, as it were; its first care is to reftrain all improper affociations of mediocrity with magnificence, or the affumption of ornaments into any ftructure which are the characteristicks of fome other; and perfection herein depends much on historical information of customary obfervances.-Eurythmy again is the very life and ellence, as it were, of difpofition, and is an endowment of mind acquired by a familiarity with confummated fymmetries; and is brought to perfection by the refinements of architectural tafte; which is not merely the delight and approbation arifing from the enjoyment of the forms of fymmetries, but alfo a well-guided fertility of invention, by which deviations may occafionally be made from known rules and precedents, when by the change a better effect can evideatly be produced; and this refinement of the imagination is what is here fignis fied by good tafte. And fymmetry furnishes, as it were, the very tools by which difpofition works; and is, in this fenfe, the actual application of rules to the various objects, that are to receive commenfarate fizes; and this is perfected by knowledge, which is a poffeffion of architectural forms, collected and laid -up in the memory by a ftudious ap plication of the mind to the rules of fymmetry, and examples of the approved works of the antique. But fince, in apprehending difpofition under all thefe confiderations, we muft of neceflity refer to quantity; it is here the proper place to difcufs that fubject.-We are taught that our notion of quantity, as great or finall, is conceived only by comparison: or, that no limited extent is either much or little confidered in and by itfelf: but our ideas of these terms are formed by comparison. When we Tee a mountain, we call it large, if be fore we have fcen others not fo apparently extenfive. And though each man's fight deceives him, not in the gradations it forms of apparent extenfions, because he daily and hourly fees them in the fame proportions; but in. concluding hence, that any other man muft fee the fame objects in the fame apparent extenfions, as well as in the fame proportions; in this he is deceived. Peter, for example, forms an idea of the extent of a fhilling coin, by comparing it with a fixpence; but John, from a different formation of his eyes, may fee a fixpence in the extenfion in which Peter fees a fhilling, experience proves the truth of this in thort-fighted people, who fee objects in a greater apparent extention than long fighted, though not fo diftinet; and who find, on trial of concave glaffes (if required to be very deep) that a thilling is diminished to about the fize in which before they faw a fixpence, and are apt hence to conclude, that the glaffes fuit not their eyes, though they fee with them more diftinctly, and to a far greater difiance, and in fact then fee like the generality of other people, but have no criterion to convince themselves of this truth; ufe only reconciles them to thefe new appearances of extenfion.-However, by the invention of measures, which, with us are miles, furlongs, poles, yards, feet, inches, and parts, we are enabled to conceive, and communicate our ideas of quantity and extenfion without confution or any known deception, leaving to every man to make as much as he can of an inch, and of its twelve repetitions for a foot. Thefe meatures or portions of extenfion, for diftinction's fake, fhall be called arbitrary quantities; by a skilful reference to which the ordination of an architectural plan is adjusted, so as to pediment, we must find the extent of 13..6; two projectures of cornice Yours, &c. PHILO-TECHNON. to coincide with thofe quantities that arife from commenfurability, which in architecture is the idea we have of the parts of a given quantity, as they are commenfurate aurong themselves, and with the whole; as halves, quarters, eighths, fixteenths, &c; and. 10 feet; 9 intercolumniates at 14 = thirds, fixths, ninths, &c; which are conceived as referable, not to any meafure of arbitrary quantity, but only to their own integer: and by thele are adjufted all appropriate fymmetries. Now it belongs to difpofition, by the management of arbitrary and conienfurate quantities, in the manner alrealy explained, to affign the forins, Gluations, and fize, of every conftituent of a building, with fuch propriety and elegance as befpeaks good tafte.--In proceeding to the practical accomplithment of all this, Vitruvius directs us to aflume foine fmall member out of the intended work, by which we may feule the commenfurate fize of all the others; as the diameter of the column, or breadth of the triglyph: but this diameter, this triglyph, muft have its limits determined by an arbitrary quantity, before fuch an affumption can be made. For example, were it required 40 erect a decaftyle Grecian temple in the Corinthian manner, the art thing required to be known is one, at leaft, of the three extenfions, of the intended temple, either its breadth, length, or height. Vitruvius gives the breadth, for the purpose in view; but, as it may happen that a particular height may be required, and the breadth left to fall out as it may, our mafter's rule will not then obtain. Let us take a height of 39 feet, from the level of the ground, to the ridge of the pediment; and the platform, 4 feet 6 inches, to he afcended by nine fteps; here it is evident, that the height, which has in it commenfurability, is 39 lefs 44 equal 34 feet 6 inches. Then, proceeding by a fuppofed diameter, we may difcover the true one, which will be cominenfurate with the given. height. For as the height, commenfurately produced by a given diameter, is to that diameter; fo is any other height to its commenfurate diameter. Suppole a diameter one foot, and that the laws of commenfurability give the Corinthian column ten diameters and a half, and the entablature two and a quarter (as in the portico of the pantieon), this produces a beight of 12 feet 9 inches. And to aftertain the height of the GENT. MAG. December, 1802. ** In July, Letter XI. fhould be num- THE PURSUITS OF ARCHITECTURAL FARNHAM. THE CASTLE. The remains are ftill confiderable, and many of the walls appear in their primæval ftate. Thofe alterations which have taken / place on the principal range of apartments, (fuch as cafing the walls, and putting in modern doorways, windows. &c.) appear as done in Charles the Second's reign. As fuch, it is foreign to our purpofe to particularife them at this time. Our furvey leads us to note, that the fofs ftill furrounds the major part of the outworks, which bear on our fight, and are extremely romantic. The great gateway of entrance has re Three feventeenths is the height of pediment above the line that is imagined to país in front from the orlo of the cyma recta, the beight whereof in the calculation is included in the height of the entablatore, which in execution, (the cymá recta being omitted in front, in the trait line) must be added to the tree feventeenths. taine |