I HAVE obferved, p. 821, that the Thames at Gravefend is near 1400 yards wide, and 25 deep, at high-water. The quantity of water here is, therefore, not inconfiderable. It may alfo be remarked, that the river here partakes more of the nature and quality of feawater than would be at firft imagined, I was glad to find that fome well-difpofed men, for the accommodation of this town and its vifitors, have of late erected bathing-machines, They are of a fimple and ufeful conftruction. They have four low wheels and an umbrella, and are let down into the water and brought back eafily, at the will of the bather, by a capfiern on the bank. The fhore having an eafy declivity, and being kept clean every tide, preferves a good bottom. A fimilar contrivance was observed at Deal, in this county, many years ago; but, as that shore at the top of the tide runs off bold and at once, the machine had a gallery run out under the umbrella, on which the bather might ftand, and fear no danger from a wave. From the fhore you afcend the Cliffe to a coffee-room for the ufe of the company, fupplied with the Prints and Magazines of the day. It has been thought that the falutary object of fea-bathing cannot be obtained at. Gravefend. I would afk why not? Look round, and you will fee a fleet of Dutchmen at anchor with large cargos of live cod and turbot from the Dogger Bank, where they lie to fupply your markets for feveral days together. Thefe fifh would not live half an hour out of fea water; and the skippers know that, were they to attempt to advance nearer to Billingfgate, the fresh water predominating over the falt would foon difqualify the fish for any market. Salmon trout and fome other fith will live in a much higher and lefs filt part of the river, namely, at Erith below Woolwich, but for one good reafon; for, though this fish and others of the fame fpecies are known to delight in vifiting the fea, it is a native and inhabitant of a freshwater ftream, It therefore endures the mixture of both fresh and falt-water; and, were it not to meet with the impurities of a large river washing off filth from the foul fewers of a manu- Permit me to add, that the best crite- preferving fea fith alive for a long pe riod of time. Thefe fifh are propa- When we turn our thoughts to the We next, in our way to Northfleet, of of most bivalves, as cockles, oyfters, and muscles; alfo turbinated fhells. In the Hints alfo are many curiofities worth notice, to afford amufement, if not to aftonish, both young and old. We alfo paffed through the premifcs of Mr. Thomas Pitcher, fhip-builder, which are very extenfive and commodious; and where fome of our fine Indiamen have been, and are building. There is a large wet dock; and they are now employed in alto forming a very large dry one. (To be continued.) Mr. URBAN, 02. 6. IT T was with a mixture of pleasure and concern that I read, p. 775, that "a fubfcription is forming for the repair of the church of Malvern, and to collect into one window the fiained glafs," &c. Allowing, by way of argument, that, in a bulinefs of this kind, an antient building may receive a certain degree of reparation by the gloffing-over and patching-up of fome fractured and decayed parts (according to the ufual practice in this refpect), whereby its walls may gain a refpite from deftruction to fome thort-diftanced day; yet thofe pettiferous ills, fo hoftile to all their charms, their hiftoric, their fcientific relations, in their decorative characters, mouldings, ornaments, &c. &c. fuch as "BEAUTIFYINGS," "IMPROVEMENTS," "INNOVATIONS," work more towards the extinction of all their intrinfic qualities, than even Time itself in their downfall; where, though lying in a state of ruin, thofe objects, undamaged, till appear, even as they were at first, original and pure. I confider myself, Sir, as addrelling a wide circle of those who love our antient ftructures, and particularly fuch a one as the church at Malvern. It was in the year 1788 that I made a furvey of this edifice, where, I am free to declare, I was shocked to the utmoft fenfe, in beholding fo fumptuous a pile, Weltminster-abbey-church, though of finaller dimenfions, doomed to the worst of defilement and neglect. On the North fide of the church was a play-ground for "unreftrained youth,' whole recreations confifted in throwing ftones at the numerous windows, all full of the finest stained glafs; and adjoining this play-ground was a kennel of hounds, whofe hideous yells filled up at intervals (fervice-time or otherwife) the cry of the headstrong juvenile allailants. In the interior of the another " church, on the North fide, is a chapel dedicated to our Lord, and called fuck up on its Eaftern wall a large "Jefus chapel." Here I faw actually pigeon-houte, belonging (as my conductor informed me, but to which I could not give any credit) to the perfon prefiding over the facred place wherein. I then stood; he being equally cents through the ailes and vaults, happy to fee the flights of kich innoas to hear the harmonious founds of the furrounding canine rangers of the fportive fields. I need not at this time, in imitation of our friend the "Architect," go into the detail of "rubbishholes," 66 tar-tables," and the like modern church pew lumber," "broken alpeculiarities; but fhall remark, in referring to the tained glafs, that no more than two pieces then remained perfect, in having efcaped the various forts of rages that have had dominion among us from the time of Edward VI. to the prefent fchool-boy pattime as above hinted at. Thefe illuminated pieces of glafs gave the finall whole-lengths of Prince Henry, fon to Henry VII. and Sir Reginald Bray, the famous architect of Henry the Seventh's chapel, Welimintier, and St. George's chapel, Windfor*. Those who, from information by a channel which it is unneceflary to point out, fuppofe that there are more perfect fubjects remaining, will find on a nice examination Indeed, at a first glance in coming into that they have been led into an error. the church, any one may naturally conclude, when feeing every window full of lineal objects, colours, and fhadows, that a general affemblage of wholelength portraits and hifiorical well-preferved compofitious pervade every part of the ftructure; but thofe fuppofitions will foon vanifh. Hence, whatever may fculptural beauties of the church, for be the deftiny of the architectural and the fake of History and Antiquarian inttruction, we, Mr. Urban, may warn the fubfcribers not to confent to the difturbing of the tranfparent fhew, the enthufiaftic tinge, the "dim religious light," of Malvern's ftory, which, to the fenfitive mind, mutt ever emit delights inexpreflible, when muling on holy rites and former glories. But enough. Depend upon it, Mr. Urban, if the feveral windows are gutted, to * Engraved in "Antient Sculpture and Painting." place CO place a moiety in " one window *" (a proportion of the whole, as one-fixteenth part of an inch to a thoufand feet), as premifed by the fubtcription receivers, what a diforganized, what a farragoed jumble of heads, armis, legs, crowns, croziers, shields, fwords, and fpears, will then meet our ght! What a chaos of lines and lours to confuse the inquifitorial Antiquary will then appear, while all around one continued light of "garith day" will break in upon his head, eyes, and foul, in multifarious quarries of modern glazier's work, new-cut, iquared, diamonded, and leaded! By-thebye, what is to become of the refuge of this prodigious mine of illumined fiory? May not fome ftained-glafs importers from the rifled religious buildings on the Continent be confulted on this occafion? There have been feveral fales Jaft Spring of thefe faid imported articles. J. C Surveyor (by inclination) of the various Styles of the Anticnt Architecture of England. Mr. URBAN, IT Od. 2. Ir. U doubted that the perfe ring the original Scriptures with copies, to your future indulgence, only obferving here, that even the brevity of that admirable inftance of the fublime in the firft of Genefis 118 118 is not departed from in the Spanish of Sea luz y fue luz; Be light, and light was." W. H. REID. IN oa. 5. Mr., URBAN, N the Appendix (No. III.) to the Antiquities of St. Peter's, or the Abbey Church of Wefiminfier, third edition, is "an account of the finding the crucifix and gold-chain of Edward the Confeflor, after 620 years interment, and prefenting it to King James H. By Charles Taylor, gent. Extracted from a narrative, printed in the year 1688." It would doubtlefs be gratifying to many of your antiquarian readers, to be informed what became of the faid crucifix and chain after they were delivered into King James's poifeffion: and whether they, or any drawing of them, be at present in being. H. Mr. URBAN, vering application of any perfon to Several of the European languages, will often introduce firong rays of affinity hetween them and our own; and, if fome vanity may be excuted in claiming much experience of this kind, I would add, that, after my engagement in the original plan of a religious publication in the commencement of 1801, the department I had taken foon calling for a better acquaintance with the originals of the Sacred Writings, I was eventually led to fuppofe, that if any European language approached nearer the Hebrew idiom than our own, it must be the Spanish; and this perfuafion increased almost every time I confulted a Jewith verfion of the Old Teftament in that language. Bun this being a point in which any fcholar may easily be fatisfied, I fhall no farther infift upon its validity than to affirm that its trial upon fome texts, which in English are rendered from the Hebrew with fome obfcurity, are highly in favour of my opinion. I could mention various inftances of fuperior perfpicuity in this Spanish verfon; but fhall leave them, with other. remarks made in the course of compa* Read what has been done at Cirencefter, p. 827. of which it w:473, are fome lives. ther they had ever appeared in print. line of the fecond quatrain, “Afk me In your prefent volume, p. 8, the first no more where Jove betiones," is quoted as the beginning of a poem "without a title," and I prefume anonymous, fubjoined to an edition of Poems by Shakspeare; and it is faid, it was allo printed in the first edition of Carew's Poems, 1640." Was Carew the author of the lines in queftion? or is the au thor of them unknown? THE R. C. PURSUITS OF ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATION. No. LIII. THE CHURCH AT BIBURY. SHOULD not have noticed this edifice but for the neatnefs fhewn in every part, particularly the churchyard (an infiance rarely to be met with), and for a very perfect Saxon door-way on the North lide, well meriting the attention of the curious, BURFORD. I do not know a town in this kingdom that has fo well efcaped the general sweep of alteration, and where fo many antient ftone buildings (manfious) are to be found, as at this place. Some of them have their fronts highly enriched; which, upon mature deliberation, well convinces me, and I pre fume fume muft others, that all splendour was not confined to caftellated and religious structures (as many Tourists, whether Antiquaries or otherwife, maintain was the cafe, and that the habitations of the merchant and trader, &c. were meer holes and cabins); but that the fame defire to render inferior orders of buidings bear a tendency towards the fplendid, manifetted itfel" over every part of the land, from the cathedral to the fmall-planned parish church, from the palace to the narrowed come of an artizan i fome city or hamlet. The church is on a magnificent fcale; and the South porch is one of the moft beautiful works of the kind any where to be met with. Its extreme richness of parts is governed by that happy tafte, wherein no one part is in an unappropriate oppofition to the other, as monftrafity to littleness, fantaftical improvement to ridiculous imitation, fuch as ard over the erections of our mode us, when run up in a way fo as to ftare Antiquity in the face, as who hould fay, "Our glories are equal to thine!" OXFORD. My purpofe is now, to particularize the Architectural Innovations that have been made on the exteriors of the feveral Churches and Colleges within thefe 150 years; whereby thofe who may not be thorougnly verfed in ar chitectural files, and their dates, may be made fenfible how and when many of the heterogeneous objects were fuck over their various fronts. That they render fuch magnificent edifices ridiculous and conteniptible at thofe particular lines where they are fo impofed, furely none will deny. How they have ufurped fuch fituations, is one queftion; and how they are permitted till to hold their order, is another. It is perhaps from the want of genius or tafte in the firft infiance, and a waut of fenfibility and due refpect to founders names in the latter. However, we are prepared to do our office, and therefore continue on our furvey.' The titles of the innovatory fubjects will be diftinguished by being printed in Italicks St. MARY'S CHURCH. The moft remarkable innovation is the Grotefque Porch, fet up against the original one on the South fide of the building (fome of its original beautiful groinwork fill appearing) in the reign of Charles I. We except the flatues of the Virgin and the Infant Jefus from our cenfure, as appropriate to be introduced, being. fo illuftrative of the defignation of the building. However, the act proved in fome meature fatal to him who placed them there. It will admit of fome doubt, whether the destruction of the original porch will fubject the authar of it to be brought in to fwell Sir Henry Spelman's "Hiftory and Fate of Sacrilege." ALL SAINTS CHURCH appears to have been erected about a century back, with a material new in our archí tectural hiftory; Portland fione, or a fpecies of the fame nature. Hence we cannot but obferve the fearifying faces of the whole building; a circumftance barely feen in our remote buildings, many of which ftand as far back in their foundations as the time of our Saxon ancestors; prefenting in many inftances the exterior walls as finooth on their furfaces as when at first mafoned. It is a fact, that the quality of the ftone now in ufe for our public buildings is of a perishable nature, liable to continual decay; and particles from fix to twelve inches fly out from the body of the fquared courfes, in all fituations and in all directions, their fuperficies likewife peeling off, as though baving fuffered from fire, or any other inflaminable caufe. I leave it to the impartial decifion of my readers to declare, if they ever faw one of the exteriors of our antient buildings bear fo lamentable an appearance as that on which we are now defcanting. Though prefent cuftom has established Portland tone as the grand fpecific whereby to conftruct edifices; yet, as we are prefuning to revive our antient ftyles, why not revive the use of thofe freestones which compofed the walls diftinguishing fuch grand and durable examples of architectural skill? ALL SOULS COLLEGE South front has had modern fash and garret windows introduced. Pats through an Ionic colonede into the fecond court; on the Weft fide of which is a Doric colonade. On the South fide of the hall is an improved or Fantafiic doorway on the North fide of the Chapel a ditto doorway. NEW COLLEGE. The firft court fhews, by its battlements, the original walls, though the windows in form and dreflings tell out the node of 100 years paft. In the grand court of the Chapel, the fquare fafhioned fashioned windows of Henry the Eighth's day are all befahed in the modern way, with Venetian blinds, and all that. The doorway under the chapel, as well as thofe to the feveral lodgings, are pitiful imitatious of our antient Architecture. MAGDALEN COLLEGE. Not yet improved. The futile erections fet up on the Eastern fide of the College fhew the defpicable littlenel's of the Fantastic order. They are meer appendages, of but common ufe; and, with the line of chambers in the North distance of the confines, and the gate of entrance into the College, are all, we fervently hope, the only architectural contaminations to noble an edifice will ever endure. JESUS COLLEGE. The Eaft façade, where entrance is had, is entirely altered in the modern houte-finishing way. The Eaft window of the Chapel remains pure. Entrances on South fide, and the Weft fide of the faid chapel, have facings of the Fantallic order. Batty Langley, no doubt, was the Architect. -Second court. Some modern fafh windows, one or two ditto doorways, and fome interftices by way of battlements, have been here introduced. LINCOLN COLLEGE. Two or three modern fafh windows put in on the Welt façade. In the court, the half has modern fufh and garret windows. ORIEL COLLECE does not bear any particular marks of architectural change. CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE. Not any thing by way of improvement occurs, except fome late dialed fort of columns and arches, &c. reared up by way of an apology for a cloifter. MERTON COLLEGE. Additions have been made about the hall in the first court, the decorations of which are far from being defpicable. We fee, in looking round, many modern garret windores.-Second court. A fanciful façade, or frontispiece, has been introduced, comprizing a whimsical affoeration of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, with a sprinkling here and there of compartments in our antient styles; in fhort, one of thofe in termezzios, which tell the architecture of Elizabeth's reign. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. In the firft court, work is going on, intended as improvements on the original parts; which will prove an unaccountable amixture of the old mallive lines, and the new wire-drawn detail of mouldings, &c. The fecond porch has had many vile interpolations crammed on the original beautiful groins.-Second court. Its North fide has received an unalimilating façade, or decorated wall. St. JOHN'S COLLEGE. Safh windows over the Weft entrance. Every other furrounding feature remains in order.-First court. Many modern fufh. windmes, and two feroll-headed doorways, of the mode of some 60 years paft, make up the changes here. Second court; on the Weft fide of which is introduced a frontispiece of two orders, the Doric and the Ionic. In a niche is a fiatue of one of the Henry's. The reft of this fide of the court fill prefents many of its original characters. A Doric colonade has alfo a thare on this fide to make up the general view. On the Eaft fide of the faid court much of the above fort of difplay is repeated, and the ftatue of Charles I. is here fet up; evincing that thefe improvements were done in his reign. On the Eaft front of this college next the garden is another melange of Charles the Firft's architecture; and, among their difcordant dreffings, we find fome late bow windows of the Fantaliic order. BRAZEN-NOSE COLLEGE. Two modern fafh windows over the Eaft entrance; and many others of the like fort in the first court. In the second court, a good reparation of a tower, fafh windows; and an Ionic entrance to the chapel, with a fort of cloifier in the fame ftyle. The Weft window and the whole of this end of the chapel has been repaired. but in a doubtful ftyle: the buttreffes have had fet on their tops Corinthian capituls, fupporting an entablature in the fame tafte. Vafes allo are placed on the parapets, which run over this odly-introduced Corinthian olio. TRINITY COLLEGE. The hall and the Eaft fide of the first court original; the reft of the buildings, as the chapel, chambers, &c. entirely modern. The Schools. Eaft fide of the court, a frontispiece of Elizabeth's and James the Firft's times, with the several ordinances of the Five Orders; these are larded over the primitive defign of the edifice; notwithstanding which depravity of introduction, we here and there find much of the original enrichments peeping out from among these said patchings-on. |