F you think the inclofed fketches of Dawley (Plate II.), built by the famous Lord Bolingbroke, of political memory, of which there is not now a veftige left, are worthy a place in your entertaining Mifcellany, they are very much at your service.

It must have been erected in the

year 1727, foon after he came from

abroad, and where he wished to retire, and fpend the remainder of his days in agricultural amufements.

In Pope's Works (vol. IV.) there is a letter from him to Dr. Swift, dated Dawley, June 28, 1728, in which he fays,

"I now hold the pen for my Lord Bolingbroke, who is reading your letter between two haycocks; but his attention is fomewhat diverted by cafting his eyes on

the clouds ; not in admiration of what you

fay, but for fear of a shower."

And again, in the fame letter, he fays, "Now his lordship is run after his cart, I have a moment left to myself to tell you, that I overheard him yesterday agree with a painter for 200l. to paint his country hall with trophies of rakes, spades, prongs, &c. and other ornaments, merely to countenance his calling this place a farm."

Thefe ornaments were well painted; but they were not in character with the houfe, which might be looked upon as a capital mauion; the apartments were large, and elegantly fitted up. It was built with brick, and the tops of the windows arched, which had not a good effect with the flat roof. Some years after Lord Bolingbroke's death, it was purchafed by the late Earl of Uxbridge, with whom I was intimately acquainted, and have spent many plealant days at Dawley. The prefent worthy Earl of Uxbridge, who was heir to the late earl, if I am not miftaken, fold it to a gentleman in the city, who foon after pulled it down. It was fituated between the Uxbridge road and that which goes over Hounflow-heath to Colnbrook, and within three miles of Hounslow.

Fig. 1. is the Weft front; fig. 2. the South; they both looked into the garden. II. R.

Mr. URBAN,

Aug. 2. INCLOSE you the exact drawings of two antique copper keys; and will thank you to infert them in your entertaining Magazine, in hopes to obtain from fome of your numerous correfpondents the probable date of their origin. They are both pipe-keys; and that of fig. 3. runs through the whole fhank to the ring.

Fig. 4. weighs 24 oz. and fig. 3. 14. Fig. 5. is a ring fent for explanation. It was found at Kendal. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

J. H. E.

Aug. 10.

of

WE E are to hope the Master of the Board of Works, as profeffing himself an Antiquary, will prevent the deftruction of that ineftimable piece architecture, the porch at the West end of St. Stephen's chapel, Weftminfter, as it is now under the workmen's hands to undergo fome change. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

A. A.

Aug. 11. YOUR readers have already been told,

vol. LXXI. p. 1194, of a treble infeription brought from Rofetta, in Egypt, where it was dug up by the French, and, with other antique fragments, made by capitulation the property of the British nation. Copies had been previously taken of it by its former poffeffors, who, with their accustomed vivacity, have anticipated us in the attempt to illuftrate it. Silvefter de Sacy. well known for his fkill in Oriental literature, in a letter addreffed to Chaptal, minifter of the interior, juft imported by Du Boffe, has made out 15 letters and feveral proper names. This part of the infcription confifts of 32 lines; the Greek one below of 54. The uppermoft, in Egyptian hieroglyphicks, confifted of 40, not one of them entire, part of both fides being broken away; and fome parts of the Greek have fuffered at both ends; but the Egyptian has loft part of the first 40 lines, which will form'a great obftacle to the decyphering of it. Of the three copies communicated to Sacy, one was taken from the ftone by a printer (les pracedes typographiques), another by an engraver (les procedes de la chalcographie, ou imprimerie en taille-douce), a third, like the first, after the printer's return to France.

That the three infcriptions commemorate the fame thing is clear from the words

words at the clofe of the Greek, ordering it to be engraven on hard ftone in facred, native, and Greek letters: σερες λίθες τοις τε ιεροις και εγχωρίοις και Ελληνικές.

By measuring the lines, Sacy found, as he had prefumed, that the proper names occupied the fame place in the lines of each. He difcovered the name of Alexander in the fourth line of the Greek and third of the Egyptian, the four first letters in the latter being in capitals; a circumftance very unufual in fuch an antient nation, and fo nearly refembling the Afiatics. The firft letter refembles the Hebrew, the fourth the Greek E. The name of Alexandria in the 17th Greek line and 10th Egyptian refembles the other. The name aufwering to Ptolemy (which occurs 12 times at leaft) is AFTOUOLMA, with a capital A prefixed, as in Arabic words, aflatoun for Plato, and others. Arfinoe begins in the fame manner, and reads Arfinioua. There is a word answering to Epiphanes after Ptolemy; and to theos between both is fubftituted one like the modern Coptic abnoudi or abnouda for God.

In this infeription as is exprefly diftinguifhed from Hosos, with whom moft criticks have confounded him:

for Ptolemy is faid to be as long-lived as H1150s, the great king, and beloved οι φθας.

Where in the Greek Orus is faid to be the fon of Ifis and Ofiris, Sacy finds in the Egyptian If ouh Ofnih. The difficulty here is to account for the introduction of n inftead of r, as all the antients appear to have written Ofiris and not finis: the former is explained MUCH feeing; while the French critick applies the other to power or firength.

He imagined the name of Egypt was here Mifr (q.d. Mifiaim); but recollecting that this name was never given to it by its inhabitants, he fuppofed the characters to be Phenician; a fuppofition fet up only to be controverted.

Clemens Alexandrinus fpeaks of three forts of writing ufed in Egypt, epiftolographic, hieratic, and hieroglyphic; 150) Fan, patio, & çoλ. The laft only of thefe Sacy confiders as facred, and thinks the characters on the handages of mummies, and fome other inferiptions publifhed by Montfaucon and Caylus, may be the hieratic, and

this monument the epiflolographic writing.

To the Greek names clustered together in lines 4 and 5, as Berenice, Pyrra, Philinus, Diogenes, &c. Sacy finds no correfponding ones in the Egyptian.

The Greek month Xandicus, explained by the Egyptian Mechir, is unfortunately effaced on the ftone.

Fully imprefled with the imperfection of his illuftration, for want of a thorough knowledge of the language, and greater kill in the Coptic, our Orientalift concludes with withing that, in whatever hands this precious monument may remain, the efforts of the it, may be better rewarded than his;, learned, who fhall apply themselves to

and he thall feel real fatisfaction at their

fuccefs, even though they should prove him miftaken in the value he has affigned to a very inconfiderable portion Til an exact fac-fimile is publifhed by the Society of Antiquaries of Lon(which, we underftand, will fhortly be

of the characters on this monument.

don, from the hand of Mr. James

Bafire, jun.), he contents himfelf with giving a plate of a long portion of it, where the characters appeared to him more clear and diftinct, as alfo fpecimens of the proper names before explained.

I have only to obferve on this fubject, that the Frenchman has undertaken the explanation of the most difficult infeription before the English Literati are in poffettion of a fingle copy of the easiest. D. H.

*The various Egyptian Antiquities collected by the French army, and fince become the property of the conquerors, have lately been conveyed to the British Mufeum, and may be feen in the outer court of that building. Many of them were fo extremely maffive, that it was found neceflary to make wooden frames for them. They confift of an immenfe bath of granite, about 10 feet long, and 5 feet deep and over, covered within and without with hieroglyphicks; another bath of fmaller dimenlions equally adorned; a granite coffin with the shape of the head, and covered alfo with hieroglyphicks; a hand clenched, the ftatue belonging to which muft have been 150 feet high; two ftatues in white marble, in Roman habits, one of them without a head, the features of the other much defaced;

the head of a ram, in reddish fione, measuring about 4 feet from the nofe to the crown of the head, and every way proportionate, the right horn broken off; feveral human figures fitting, with the heads of beafts, and in the lefthand the crux anfata, or crofs, with a handle and ring; fimilar heads without bodies; two marble obelifks, the four fides charged with hieroglyphicks; a large cylindrical pillar of granite, meafuring 12 feet in length, and 31⁄2 in diameter. The finalleft bath weighs about 11 tons, and there were 11 horfes to draw it to the Mufeum; the largeft only 9 tons, the tone not being fo mailive, required only nine horfes. The whole weight of the collection is calculated at about 50 tons.

THE PURSUITS OF ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATION. No. LI.

IN

N wading through the courfe of thefe Eflays, it is not once or twice I have allowed that arches of a pointed form, that objects ftrained out into appearances fomewhat like niches, but trelles, pinnacles, &c. may have at certain periods prevailed in certain parts of the globe; yet at the fame time I have contended that their decorations, ornaments, and minute mouldings, were widely different from the perform ances of this caft among us which are purely of native growth. I affert this, not from any vain theoretical propofitions, but from earnett furveys and fiudies among our antent edifices for no leis a time than the compafs of my whole life. I have called alfo for thofe who may have drawings by PLANS, ELEVATIONS, and the DETAIL, taken from any of thofe foreign ftructures, fuppofed to have given example to our own works, to bring them forward, and by comparifon w us our antient architectural ftyles are fpurious, bafe, and fervile copies of Gothic and Saracenic fcience. Alas! where is the means, inclination, or ability, to do this good office, whereby foreign Art may have under its feet the poor efforts of that skill which we, calling ourselves Antiquaries, prefume to alert is the creation of Englishmen ? What is it to me if fome writers on our antient Architecture have refied fatisfied with the term Gothic as to it applied (fee p. 622)? It is no reason why I and others fhould flavishly follow the opinions of anen fuch as Lowth, Addifon, Grofs, &c. who perhaps never nicely exa

mined, or correaly drew, the minutia of our fublime edifices, to conv.nce them in a profeflional way how inapplicable and unworthily the barbarous name has been affixed. The two first characters were, from their fentiments delivered, entirely carelets about the trae dignity of that architecture they were difpofed to treat of; the latter convivialiti has on many occations, both by merry tale and touriftical fkit, reviled thofe buildings of which he has taken fo many " fhadows." I declare this is no paradox; intereft engaged him to the drawing part, and natural habit difpofed him to the theme of religious irony. As for Bentham and Milner, their names but ill clafs with the above authors: thefe latter reverend gentlemen fhew in their illuftrations a true and unbiaffed admiration for our antient ftyles, and have never mentioned thein under the head Gothic but with reluctance; and have owned the deepeft concern that fuch an abufive title fhould ftain the fcience which by their learned labours has been brought into public notice and public eftima tion; but not that eltimation which fome profefs to imbibe, who, while they give their fieering eulogies on one hand, wound with the other. I mean that open unequivocal conduct which fhould ever attend thofe who come forward and fay, thus I am charmed, and thus I am delighted; the principle I maintain, I will courageoufly defend, faithfully protect, and never defert. Under fuch banners I have fet up my powers; they may be weak and few; yet, however contemptible in the eyes of fome, let them reinember, an animal of the humbleft nature once faved the life of the royal lion!

When reverend gentlemen defcend from their theological difquifitions to take upon themselves the part of tourifts; when they thatch from the hands of architectural men the rule and compals; how carefully ought they to attend to the truth of their memoranda, and to the ufe they make of implements which, from the nature of their pious functions, they can have but little knowledge or! How has that clerical author, in his Excursion from Bath" (vol. LXXI. p. 913), wantoned in the idle paths of low buffoonery, and be. trayed how ill he had profiled by his ftudies in architecture! So far has he forgot the means which thould have conducted him in his "Excurfions," as

a lover