BALIOL COLLEGE. Eaft, and part of the South fide of the court, fprinkled over with fome whimfies in the Doric block-manner, with modern fash and garret windows, &c. EXETER COLLEGE. The firft entrance is now in the Ionic manner; the porch, or faloon, in the like mode. The entrance to the hall in the court is of the Doric order. On the Eaft fide of this court adjoining the chapel appear fome new imitations after our antient ftyles, well felected indeed in their males; but the minute parts fhew too plain the flovenly adherence that profeffionalitis pay to thofe antient fpecimens to which, it may be inferred, they had received direct orders ftrickly to attend. re CHRIST CHURCH COLLEGE. It might have been thought, when the baJuftrade running round the entire pile, mafoned about fome 80 or 90 years paft, was taken down as entirely decayed, appropriate battlements would have been reftored. Not fo. Thefe egregious finishings have been worked and reinflated in their former ufurped order. In the great court is to be found one infipid new Fantastic doorway; the rest of fuch entrances are of the common houfe caft. We can never fuppofe the perfon who has lately been fuperintending the works done in the great porch of the hall had any concern in the aforefaid repair, as in the latter refpect fome of the new embellishments feem tolerable copies from the old parts remaining. Yet, when it is confidered that Wolfey's porch, one of the most celebrated defigns of this nature to be encountered in the kingdom, or perhaps in the univerfe, is deprived of its appropriate arrangement, and one of its chiefeft beauties partly hid by the new mafonry thored up a gainst it; our ready praife for the leaft caufe that gives credit to a faithful copy of our old mafters is entirely withheld, and our juft reprehenfion muft fuperfede every other confideration, to protect the caufe of Antiquity. Thus I enter on the merits of the queftion. The boundary line of this hall is a fquare, in the centre of which rifes a clufter of columns to a due height; when, from their capitals, the groins full of the moft elaborate tracery emerge into circular directions, and defcend again as it were to corbels, at the four angles and other parts of the walls. A grand flight of steps, afcend ing by the left (or South) fide of the porch, lead on to the upper demi porch, paling directly into the hall.. It was the delight of all travellers to view this porch. Antiquaries dwelt with raptures on its perfect delign; nay, thofe very Architects, who for a century paft have been in open hoftility to all our national structures, ftill yielded unconditionally to this triumphant fpecimen of that art againft which they had fo long rebelled. They acknowledged it to be the excellence of all fcientific labours; nay more, they almott forgot their unnatural predilections for foreign architecture; and were on the point of returning to that profeffional, obedience to which they owed all their duty. Their very knees were bent to hail the mighty principles woven round the conftruction of our religious piles. But, alas! Fate had decreed otherwife, and once more turned them into those habits which it is but too obvious they will never relinquith. Thus each hand was raifed in admiration of this porch, as comprehending every architectural charm, all convenience, and each picturefque effect, that could poflibly intereft the coldeft heart in its protection. It is at this moment I call to remembrance the fentiments of a late right honourable admirer of our antient Ärchitecture on this very fubject. Thus I heard him exclaim: "That man who could advance it as his opinion that this porch wanted either alteration or improvement, was a foe to true defign, and an irreconcileable enemy, to that mode of building which immortalizes our Cathedrals, and other autient ftructures." Notwithstanding the feveral evidences in favour of poor Wolfey's mortal pride, fome have been found to take exceptions at its particular characters, by obferving, that its cluttered columus in the centre were in the way, the enrichments too exceffive, the fiairs in a fituation not laid down according to the rules eftablithed by Sir John Vanbrugh, Bauty Langley, the Adanis's, . and others; the doorways not in their proper places; and the way to and from the kitchen, the buttery, and the hall, obftructed in a manner altogether impeding the ready connexion between culinary duties and collegiate repletion. Thele little architectural fparrings among amateur judges palled on in heedlefs cavils, till one enlightened genius arofe, who gave it as his firm opinion no further at prefent, recollecting that, in this my Oxford Term, I only ftipu lated to enter on the defeription of the exterior alterations these fuperb edifices had undergone; and it is not improbable I may, at a proper feafon, continue this fort of memoranda of the flate of their interiors, not lefs important to be laid before the publick than what has already been brought forward to their consideration. furvey with thofe walls over which you opinion, that, to render this porch complete in all its parts, and to fhew the firength of his knowledge as well as the strength of the groins, he propofed to take away the cluttered columns in the centre, and then fee, to the aftonishment of the world, and to the univerfal admiration of his conception of this mighty thought, how long the faid groins would retain their altitude with out the aid of what he maintained was an unneceflary prop. This propó- It now remains for me to afk for my sition was caught at with avidity, and larges. I work through interefied mowould certainly have been adopted; tives. Here then is my demand; I but, for fome reafon or other, it has will fay request. Learned and reverend been for the prefent laid afide. Yet, Guardians of this great and royal Semithat all these wife and mature fuggefnary, condefcend to compare this my tions should not pafs without fome attention, we find the antient flairs have been removed, and a modern double flight of Steps fet up in their fiead. The afcent is to the right and left half way; and then meeting together in one flight, adinittance is gained to the landing above, juft as we fee done at affembly-rooms, theatres, villas, and town-houses; a common practice, under the idea of elegance and the like, and that it gives a centrical object, ever to be fought after by thofe who aspire to be great Architects. But has this been entirely effected with regard to our porch? No; the cluster of columns or "prop" fupporting the groins has malicioufly prevented fo defirable an end. What then has been gained by this extravagant attempt? The juft ridicule of thofe who, while they live, remember the former fate of this improved hall with a witnefs. In commenting on the new detail of parts, if we fay the mafon was faithful to his orders as a good copyift, the carver was not fo; his hields, mitres, wheatfheaves, pine apples, foliage, &c. all betray his inattention to this fort of bufinefs, or his incapacity to follow the characters of that ftyle he was employed to imitate. Allowing we have found the mafon correct certain inftances in the porch, we find him tripping in the fall or demi porch entering into the hall. A new door-way to the left, in the bat tlements and other lines, thew the cloven-foot of mafonic improvement, there thruft out moft glaringly. We should have specified in the above tranfpofition of the decorations, that doors have given place to windows, and windows to doors; that the hall's wooden fcreen of entrance has given place to a fione wall of entrance; and~I shall proceed P.S. It is my intention to commence my next profeffional tour with an explanatory lift of the many technical terms which I from time to time have been neceffitated to ufe, to aid those who may wish to profit by any remarks which have hitherto been made, and fill may continue to be used, in thefe Ellays. Mr. URBAN, 801, Oct. 11. 50, are I believe, incorrectly decy HE words men Sermer, p. phered*; I fhould fuppofe it thould be read men et imper. The femper is often placed after the Amen in Catholic prayers. Qu. Why a goofe is ferved at tablo particularly on Michaelmas-day? Whence the origin and meaning of the Chiltern hundreds† accepted by members of parliament when defirous of feceding from it? ANTIQUARIUS. * On a re-examination of the original, we find it plainly fermer. EDIT † See vol. LVIII. pp. 885, 1870 EDIT. 187. Voyage 187. Voyage de la basse & de la baute Egypte, and can be, only a temple; and all that pendant les Campagnes de Bonaparte. Par remains there relates to a very finall Vivant Denon. (Concluded from p. 841.) fanctuary, and was fo difpofed to inBEING once more returned to fpire the veneration of which it was Thebes, for the third time, but the object; and make it a kind of tastill with as little leifure, he faw, three bernacle." Imagination despairs of dequarters of a league from the Nile, fcribing it; and our traveller, not haruins of a great temple not noticed by ving it in his power to make a plan, any author, and which may ferve to only drew a sketch, plate XCIII. Of measure the immenfity of that city by, the 100 columns of the temple, the fince, fuppofing it to be its laft build- fmallett are 7 feet diameter, and the ing Eastward, it is above two leagues largeft 11. Lakes and mountains were and an half from Medinet Abou, contained within its walls, to whofe where flauds the moft Wetterly tem- gates led avenues of fphinxes, miferaple. The village of Karnak is built on bly defaced, yet fill fhewing heads of a finall part of the fite of a single tem- women, lions, rams, and bulls; of the ple, which, it is faid, would take half latter fort were thofe in the avenue an hour to walk round. He trotted leading to Luxor, for near half a round the groupe of buildings in 25 league, presenting a line of these fiminutes. (p. 201.) He fuppofes the gures, fcattered on the right and left, temples of Karnak and Luxor, con- pieces of ftone walls, little pillars, and taining four diftinct temples, with their fragments of ftatues. This point beappendages, are to be referred to the ing the centre of the city, the quarter time of Sefoftris, when Fortune pro- molt advantageoufly fituated, one might duced the arts in Egypt, and perhaps expect to find there the palace; but, if fhewed them to the world for the first any traces could lead to this prefumptime. "The fumptuoufoefs of the Egyption, no magnificence proves it. Luxor, tians is feen at Karnak, where are piled up not only quarries, but monuments haped with malfive proportions; an execution feeble in the outline (trait), and clumfy in the connexion (groffiere 'dans l'appareil), barbarous reliefs, hieroglyphicks, without tafte or colours, in the manner of which fculpture is confufed (fouille). Sublimity of dimention and perfection of workmanfhip appear only in the obelifks and fome ornaments of outer gates, which are wonderfully pure. If the Egyptians, in the rest of this building, ap pear giants, in this latter production they are genii (genies); for, I am perfuaded that thefe fublime embellishments have been added to thefe coloffal monuments at a later period. It cannot be denied that the plan of the temple of Karnak is noble and grand; but the art of fine plans has always, in architecture, outstripped that of the fine execution of the details, and furvived it many ages after its corruption, as the monuments of Thebes atteft, compared with thofe of Efne and Tintyra, and the buildings of Dioclefian compared with thofe of the age of Auguftus. The great building at Karnak is, * Some hiftorical ones he has given in the fineft village in the neighbourhood, plate CXXXIII. perhaps the conquests plate LIII, raifed a little above the of Sefoftris, very fmall town of Contra Latopolis, which GENT. MAG. Odober, 1802.. which was built round it. It feems to have been a custom, that all the great towns built on the bank of the Nile fhould have, on the oppofite bank, another leffer town or port, perhaps for the convenience of trade. A quarter of a league before the town of Chnubis are two tombs, cut in the rock, and a little fanctuary, furrounded by a gallery, with a portico, which he drew, plate LXXV, and then galloped off to ketch the temple or temples of Chaubis, in the fine plate; for, the ruins in this town are fo heaped up, and of fuch different proportions, that it is not eafy to afcertain their plan. Six coTuinns, three and three, with different capitals, united by an entablature, fhewed they were not built at the fame time, the capitals of three not being finished, any more than a portico, whofe foundations appear in front. More to the South is a piece of granite, which feems the remains of a co loffal Statue; and, to the Faft, a piece of water, furrounded by a gallery of pillars; to the Weft, a gate of a fanctuary, and two fmall fragments, whofe afe it is not eafy to affign: alfo, fome remains of ftatues three feet high, the heads much defaced, and a piece of conic wall, of unburnt bricks, above 25 feet thick. His first view of this place was taken under full fail going down the river, and his fecond full gallop going up by land. After riding an hour next day, he faw the ruins of three temples, of which it was impoffible to take plan or view, but which he afligns to the fite of the town of Juno Lucina, which the infallible D'Anville placed here. He hoped to have examined at his eafe the fublime temple of Apollinopolis (Elf), the fineft in Egypt, and largeft next to thofe of Thebes, built at a time when the arts and feiences had attained to their full fplendour, all the parts being equally beautiful in their execution, the work of the hieroglyphicks equally attended to, the figures more varied, the architecture more perfect, than at Thebes, whofe buildings must be pla'ced earlier. To this temple he has allowed himself time to do more juftice than to thofe of Thebes. Plates LVI, LVII, LVIII, the capitals; plate LX. 9, the hieroglyphicks; plate CXVI. 6, CXXXI. 3; from which he prefumes it was dedicated to Typhon, the evil genius*. In his laft vifit to Thebes Reprefented as an ill-favoured old (p. 202), French levity confeffes itself hurt in contemplating the folemn fcenes which thefe matlive, uniformlydefigned buildings afforded even ruins. He quitted it, with more drawings and lefs regret, perhaps for ever. Its fituation, remote from every fettle. ment, the ferocity of its inhabitants, the miri or tribute paid, all convinced him that he muft renounce all hope of returning, though he had not feen the tombs of the kings, nor could he fee them without a guard. At Kene they were 40 days journey from Darfour, and 100 more from Tombout. The route to the former is laid down, p. 206. Our author regrets that he could not fend a crocodile alive to France. Gen. Belliard had a little one, 6 inches long, which began to be mischievous, though it had lived 4 months without eating or feeling uneafinefs, and without growing leaner or fatter, or tamer. They never hurt perfons bathing in the Nile day or night. (p. 209.) Accompanied by a party of 30 men, and 9 members of the commifiion of arts, who went to take the levels of the Nile (p. 226), he had leifure, at Dendera, to draw the celeftial planifphere on part of the cieling of the little apartment built over the top of the nave of the great temple, the low floor and darknefs of which permitted hin to draw but a few hours in the day. The cieling is divided into two equal parts by a tall female figure extending her arms above her head. In another compartment a great figure bending the hands and feet to the fame bafe, vering 14 globes on as many boats, atributed on 7 bands or zones, feparated by innumerable hieroglyphicks, and too much covered by fioked ftalactites to be copied. A fketch of this is given plate CXXIX, accompanied by a fimilar groupe leaning over men, and another from Phile in a field of ftars. In a little room behind the firft are the figures engraved in plates CXXVI, CXXIX, all referred to Ifis, and to the hiftory of the heavens and earth. On the lintels on the right and man, fitting in an indecent posture, and Ifis by his fide, in profile, on her lotus, and not, as our author conceits, defending herself from the monster. May we hazard a conjecture that thefe reprefent the creation of the fea, the fars, and man, by the three persons in the Trinity Jeft left of the crown of one of the outer Υπερ αυτοκρατορες Καίσαρος Θεου υιου θέρωσαν εκ you ou το προπυλον Ισίδι fled before the cloud raifed and borne on by the wind: we went into the river, but the mafs of duft raifed by the wind feemed to drive it out of its bed, and covered us with black dirt, which almoft blinded and choaked us." This fcene is feebly reprefented in plate XLVII. 2. "Next day the fame mafs of duft drove in like manner along the deferts of Libya, following the chain of mountains; and, when we thought ourfelves clear of it, the Weft wind brought it back, with lightning and rain, producing a violent form." (P. 214.) Two days after, the plain was covered with locufts, perhaps produced by the rain, as gnats by certain winds, They were rofe-coloured, fpotted with black, wild, ftrong, and difficult to catch. They next travelled with Belliard across the defart by Birambar, or Birralbar, the well of wells, or two wells, overagainst the paffage which leads to Kittak, another well, and el More, a fourth, down the mountains to the fea. The cafile of Coffeir was built by the Arabs, which, with an additional counterfcarp, might refift all floating-batteries and defcents from the Red Sea, in which, with an indifferent road, it is the best port, and the coaft round it wretchedly poor. They reached it in 41 hours, and returned in two days and a half. On this march our traveller difcovered that fatigue irritates the defires of the camel. (pp. 222, 223.) In one of the cells at Tentyra our author discovered a fcale of proportions, traced by a red chalk, on a figure afterwards covered by a thick fucco, a method used undoubtedly by the Egyptians to finish their bas-reliefs, and 931 paint them in a manner not to be defiroved. He drew the outline of a basrelief, and the lines traced to divide its proportions (plate CXXIV.1), to fhew the principles they had adopted, their tice, which, befides the advantage of method of applying them, their pracpreventing all miliakes, want of harmony, and bad proportions, produced that confiant equality obfervable in their works; and, however it may hurt the fpring of genius, and the touches of delicate fentiment, tends to uniform perfection, converts drawing into a mechanical art, and makes fculpture an acceffory proper to deco rate and enrich architecture, a mode of expreffion, a writing. In the Egypinto 22 parts and an half; the head tian principles the figure was divided has 2 and two-thirds, or the eighth of the whole; which proportions are thofe of the Greeks for the heroic ftyle. (I. 124, n.) "I have added to this drawing what the zeal of Chriftians, deftroyed, and endeavoured to copy as 2000 years after, fubftituted to what it faithfully, the two figures of bifhops +, as that of Horus offering to Ofiris an On another vifit to Karnak he obferved emblem of the head of Itis." (p. 227) I a figure on the outer walls of the little buildings at the fanctuary, offering two obelisks and the reprefentation of a pair of folding doors to a temple, fafiened by the fame kind of wooden lock as we now ufe. The tombs of the kings of Thebes at Kournou, the antient Necropolis, are two leagues from the palace, in caverns parallel with the ground, whofe plain long by 20 high, filled with hieroglydoor leads to a long gallery, 12 feet phicks difpofed with great tafte, which required weeks to make out. Flambeaux conducted him from one to another. At the end of the gallery was a farcophagus, by itself, of one block end, fquare at the other, covered with of granite, 12 feet by 9, round at one hieroglyphicks within and without §, We do not difcover that the tranflator has copied this. And miferable fcratches they are. tradict M. Denon, we cannot help enterThough it is not in our power to containing strong doubts of his affertions here. Mr. Aikin omits the whole paffage; we know not why. Such as he faw in the mofque of St. Athanafius at Alexandria; and fuch are now lying in the British Mufeum yard. covered |