The 2906. Of the colleges in Oxford, Christchurch is past question the most magnificent. Its extent, towards the street, is 400 feet. Its hall is 115 feet long, 40 feet broad, and 50 feet in height, and the entrance to it is by a very noble staircase. The chapel is the cathedral of Oxford, and is 154 feet long, and the breadth, including aisles, 54 feet. great quadrangle is nearly 280 feet square, and this communicates with another called Peckwater quadrangle, of considerable dimensions, in which, on the south side, stands the noble library of the college, the upper room whereof is 141 feet long, 30 feet broad, and 37 feet high. At the side of and adjoining the last are the Canterbury quadrangle and Fell's Buildings, and on the other side the chaplain's quadrangle. What is called the Christchurch Meadow, attached, affords the most delightful walks for the exercise and recreation of the members, being bounded on the east by the Cherwell, on the south by the Isis, and on the west by a branch of the same river. The whole establishment is worthy of the princely founder, whose spirit seems still to reign in the conduct of those connected with it. Such a magnificent foundation cannot elsewhere be referred to. 2907. In Cambridge, the library and court of Trinity College, the former one of the finest works of Wren, and the extraordinary and beautiful chapel of King's College, are the principal features of the university. There are also some beautiful pieces of architectural composition; but as there is nothing we could select as a model for a college, which is the principal object of the section, we do not consider it necessary to detain the reader by an account of them. We may, however, mention that the chapel of King's College is 316 feet long, 84 feet broad, and 90 feet from the ground to the top of the battlements. Corpus Christi College is, perhaps, the last college in either of the universities that has been rebuilt; but in disposition, and most especially in design, it is rather an index rerum vitandarum than a model we should recommend to the student's attention. SECT. IX. PUBLIC LIBRARIES. The 2908. Although a public library would seem to require a grave and simple style of treatment, it is, nevertheless, properly susceptible of much richness, if the funds admit, and it comports with the surrounding buildings to use much decoration. A public library may be considered as the treasury of public knowledge; indeed its treasures are even more important to society than the public treasures of gold and silver. It is also to be considered as a temple consecrated to study. Security against fire is the first important consideration in its construction; indeed that point ought to be deemed indispensable; and the next consideration for the accomplishment of its purpose is quietness. first requires that no materials except stone, brick, and iron should be employed in the walls, floors, and roofs; and the last, that it should stand far removed from a public thoroughfare. Within, especially in this climate, there can scarcely be too much light, because there are always modes of excluding the excess in the brightest days of our short summers; and in the dark days of our winters no such excess can occur. Neither should the light be placed high up for the purpose of obtaining more room for the presses which are to receive the books, because even a greater space may be obtained, as in the magnificent library at Trinity College, Cambridge, by Wren, by making the presses stand against the piers at right angles with the longitudinal walls, and placing the windows between them. Moreover, the presses, when placed longitudinally against the walls, the windows being above, have the titles of the books they contain indistinct, from being too much in shadow. The library just mentioned is in every respect one of the finest works of Sir Christopher Wren. It stands on an open arcade, at the north end whereof is a vestibule, whence the ascent is by a spacious staircase to the library itself, which is 200 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 38 feet high, floored with marble, and decorated with pilasters and an entablature of the Corinthian order. Though this library is of no mean extent, we do not adduce it as an example of a large public library suited to a nation, but as a perfect model of the mode of distribution, which might be carried in principle to any extent. If the readers be very numerous, a reading room, of course, becomes necessary, which should be placed as centrally as may be to the whole mass of building, so that the labour of the attendants may be lessened, and the readers at the same time more readily served with the books wanting. The best mode of warming the apartments is by a furnace and boilers, not at all adjoining to or communicating with the building, but by carrying pipes round the apartments or in the floor, through which pipes a constant circulation of the boiling liquid is kept up, and from which a radiation of the heat takes place. 2909. The most ancient and celebrated library in existence is that of the Vatican; in the latter respect, as well on account of its size as of the number of valuable manuscripts it con tains it occupies in the suite of its apartments one of the sides of the Vatican 900 feet in length. The presses containing the books are decorated with the finest specimens of Etruscan vases. The long gallery terminates at one end by the Museum Christianum and the Stanza de' Papyri, and at the other end by the new museum, with which it communicates by a marble staircase. The ante-salon to the library is about 200 feet long and about 87 wide. In the architecture or arrangement there is nothing particularly to admire, and indeed it was not originally intended for the purpose to which it has been appropriated. 2910. We do not think it necessary to stop the reader for an account of the Medicean library at Florence, though the work of Michael Angelo. Its proportions are grand, but the details are as capricious as that great man could possibly have invented; but of the library of St. Mark at Venice we entertain the greatest admiration. We have already described this in the First Book when speaking of the Venetian school. Notwithstanding the difficulties that Sansovino had to encounter in respect of its site and connection with other buildings, which restricted the design in the façade, because of the height of the adjoining Procurazie Vecchie, and the width of the ground; - notwithstanding all these, and the jealousy of his enemies superadded, Palladio considered the success of it to have been so great as to have made it worthy of any age. - 2911. The splendid collection of books at Paris, containing 900,000 and upwards printed volumes, called the Bibliothéque du Roi, is, speaking architecturally, though of immense extent, little more than a warehouse for holding the books: that, however, of the abbey of St. Geneviève in the same city, though containing less than a quarter of the number just mentioned of printed volumes and 30,000 MSS., is a well-conceived and well-designed building, and particularly suited to its destination. The plan is that of a large Greek cross, which affords on the plan four large halls, connected by a central circular apartment crowned with a dome. 2912. Perhaps one of the most absurd dispositions of plan for the buildings under consideration is to be seen in the Radcliffe Library at Oxford. It is circular on the plan, and hence vast loss of room is experienced; but we do not think it necessary further to enter into its demerits, merely stating here that it was unworthy of Gibbs, who in most of his works exhibited great good sense. SECT. X. MUSEUMS. 2913. A museum is a building destined to the reception of literary or scientific curiosities, and for that of the works of learned men and artists. The term was first applied to that part of the palace at Alexandria appropriated solely to the purpose of affording an asylum for learned men; it contained buildings and groves of considerable magnificence, and a temple wherein was a golden coffin containing the body of Alexander. Men of learning were here lodged and a onmodated with large halls for literary conversations, and porticoes and shady walks, where, supplied with every necessary, they devoted themselves entirely to study. The establishment is supposed to have been founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who here placed his library. It was divided into colleges or companies of professors of the several sciences, and to each of such professors was allotted a suitable revenue. Museums, in the modern sense of the word, began to be established about the sixteenth century, when collections were formed by most of the learned men who studied natural history. 2914. Museums on a small scale are becoming every day more common in the principal towns of this country, and we hope the day is not distant when none will be without its collections of science, literature, and art. Where economy requires it, and the collection in each department be not too large, the whole may be properly and conveniently comprised within one building. In respect of security against fire, and quietness of the situation, the same precautions will be necessary as are indicated for libraries in the preceding section, and must always be observed. 2915. Great skill is necessary in introducing the light properly on the objects in a museum, inasmuch as the mode of throwing the light upon objects of natural history is very different from that which is required for pictures, and this, again, from what sculpture requires. 2916. Specimens illustrating natural history sculpture, vases, and the like, should, if possible, be lighted vertically; and we have seen in subsec. 2774., where reference is made to the light introduced into the Pantheon, how very small an opening in a spherical ceiling will produce abundance of light. There are subjects, nevertheless, in all these classes, (in mineralogy for example,) for which strong side lights are essential to an advantageous exhibition of them. In such cases small recesses may be practised for the purpose. At the Hotel de Monnaies at Paris, the presses which contain the collection of mineralogy form a circle which encloses a small lecture theatre, and thus become doubly serviceable. We mention this en passant that the student may be aware how room is to be gained when the area of a site is restricted. Picture galleries in a museum, as elsewhere by themselves, when containing large paintings, should be lighted from above. In this case the lights should be in square or polygonal tambours, whose sashes should be vertical or slightly inclined inwards, their forms following the form on the plan of the rooms. The noble pictures of Paul Veronese at the Louvre could not be seen with side lights. For small cabinet pictures side lights are well adapted to their display. Every one will recollect how miserably lighted for exhibiting the pictures is the long gallery of the Louvre; the same may be said, though not to so great an extent, of the collection of sculpture, whilst the models and other objects, paintings excepted, in the Vieux Louvre, are exhibited to perfection. 2917. Where the same museum is to contain several classes of objects the suites of rooms for the different departments should be accessible from some central one common to all: this may be circular or polygonal, as may best suit the arrangement and means; and, if possible from the site, the building should not consist of more than one story above the ground; on no account of more than two. 2918. For the objects it contains we question whether the British Museum is surpassed, as a whole, in Europe; and those of the Vatican, of the Uffizj at Florence, of Portici, and of Paris, are none of them of sufficient architectural importance to detain the reader by description; neither would they, if so described, be useful to the student as models. At Munich the Glyptotek for sculpture, and the Pinacotek for pictures, are in some respects well suited to the exhibition of the objects deposited in them, better, indeed, than is the museum at Berlin. These have all been much praised by persons of incompetent judgment as specimens of fine architecture; but we cannot recommend the study of them to any one who is desirous of acquiring a pure taste in the art, nor indeed any other works of the modern German school. 2919 In the composition of museums decoration must not be exuberant. It must be kept in the interior so far subordinate as not to interfere with the objects to be exhibited, which are the principal features of the place. With this caution we do not preclude the requisite degree of richness which the architecture itself requires. Using the shorthand of the previous chapter ——, the Greek cross, connected by a dome in the centre, for the great hall of communication, is perhaps as good a form for a museum on a small scale as could be adopted: however, this is a matter which would form an admirable exercise for the student. SECT. XI. OBSERVATORIES. 2920. We had great doubts upon the admission of this section, not because of its want of importance, but because we can scarcely bring ourselves to the conviction that traversing domes for equatorial instruments and chases in a roof for fixed ones can be ever united with beauty of design. The observatory at Paris, from the designs of Perrault, is a noble building, but, we believe, is universally admitted to be very ill suited to the purposes for which it was built. Hence we shall be brief in what we have to say under this section. 2921. A regular observatory is one where instruments are fixed in the meridian, whereby, with the assistance of astronomical clocks, the right ascensions and declinations of the heavenly bodies are determined, and thus motion, time, and space are converted into measures of each other. On the observations and determinations made in such establishments they are therefore, to maritime states, of vital importance, and ought to be liberally endowed by their governments. As the subject will be better understood by a plan, we subjoin, in fig. 1031., a plan and elevation of the observatory at Edinburgh. The general form of the plan, as will be therein seen, is a Greek cross, 62 feet long, terminated at its feet by projecting hexastyle porticoes, which are 28 feet in front, and surmounted by pediments. The intersecting limbs of the cross at their intersection are covered by a dome 13 feet diameter, which traverses round horizontally, and under its centre a pier of solid masonry is brought up of a conical form 6 feet in diameter at the base, and 19 feet high. This is intended for a portable astronomical circle or for an equatorial instrument for observations of the heavenly bodies made out of the meridian. In the eastern foot of the cross (bb) are stone piers for the reception of the transit instrument; c is the stone pier to which the transit clock is attached; and d is a stone piece on which an artificial horizon may be placed, when observations are taken by reflection: this is covered by a floor board when not in use, being just under the level of the floor; aa are the slits or chases running through the walls and roof, but closeable by means of shutters when the observation is completed On the western side (ee) are chases as in the transit room; fa large stone pier for the reception of a mural circle; g the clock pier; h the pier for an artificial horizon as before; i is the conical pier above mentioned, over which the moveable dome is placed, having an opening (1) in the elevation for the purpose of observation; k is the observer's room; and m the front entrance. 2922. It is to be especially observed that the piers for the reception of the instruments must not be in any way connected with the walls of the building; they should stand on the firmest possible foundation, which, if at all doubtful, must be formed with concrete, and the piers should, if possible, be out of a single block of stone; but if that cannot be obtained, the beds must be kept extremely thin; partial settlement being ruinous to the nicety of the instruments as well as to the observer's business. The observation applies also to the clock piers, all vibration and settlement being injurious also to them. At the Campden Hill observatory, near Kensington, belonging to Sir James South, there is a traversing dome 30 feet diameter in the clear. 2923. A dry situation should be chosen for the site, for, except in the computing rooms, no fire heat can be allowed; and it is important that the brass whereof the instruments are made should not be corroded by the action of moisture. In large public observatories there should be the readiest access from one part to another, and rooms for a library and SECT. XII. LIGHTHOUSES. 2924. It may perhaps be thought that we are touching on the province of the engineer in devoting a section to lighthouses; but we cannot forego the completion of the previous section by some few observations on lighthouses, which are the handmaids to the important results which flow from observatories, being the spots which verify the course of the navigator, and serve as precautions for his guidance when near the shores of a country. 2925. The lighthouse dates from the earliest period; and without entering into the question whether the ancient lighthouses were dedicated to the gods, or whether the towers erected for the purpose of warning the mariner were nautical colleges, where astronomy and the art of navigation were perfectly taught, we may at once proceed to state that in the earliest times they appear to have consisted of a tower of masonry, sometimes of a circular form, but usually square, and consisting of various apartments, as the establishment was greater or less, wherein was a raised altar upon which the beacon was established. 2926. Those who wish to pursue the history of the lighthouse must be referred by us to Jacob Bryant, whose theory is so pleasant that to it we must apply the old Italian saying, "Se non è vero è ben trovato.' We therefore leave the reader to consult our author on the subject of the purait or fire-towers. So also we shall not touch upon their perversion, nor the alleged dissoluteness and barbarity of the priests and priestesses who had the care of them, which we believe to be fables. 2927. Certain however it is that the whole of the ancient establishment of fire-towers or lighthouses at an early period common on the shores of the Mediterranean, the Archipelago, the Bosphorus, and Red Sea, have long since disappeared. Among the most celebrated of these was the Pharos of Alexandria, which has given its name in French and Italian to all lighthouses. It was accounted one of the seven wonders of the world, and, in history at least, has perpetuated the glory and name of its founder, Ptolemy Philadelphus. If Pliny may be relied on, it was the work of Sostratus, 300 years before the Christian æra, and bore an inscription to the following effect: "Sostratus the Gnidian, the son of Dexiphanes, to the gods preservers, for the benefit of those who use the sea." Lucian, however, says that this inscription was craftily covered with plaster, on which the name of Ptolemy was inscribed, but that the decay of the plaster left the name of Sostratus only. The story is however improbable, and is dependent entirely on the authority of the satirist. The dimensions of this building are not satisfactorily known: some have said its height was 300 cubits, or 100 times the height of a man, which would assign to it a height of 550 feet. On its top a fire was constantly kept, which, according to Josephus, was seen at the distance of three hundred stadia, equal to about forty-two British miles, which is a reasonable account; but those who have delighted in marvellous stories have made the distance one hundred miles, and others have wonderfully gone beyond the last by assigning seven hundred miles as the distance, from which the speculum used distributed light! That this work was one of extraordinary magnificence cannot be doubted; the cost has been stated at 800 talents (300,000l. sterling); and there is reason to suppose that it was quasi the parent of all others: but all we have said must be taken with great allowance, except that we believe it was a splendid monument of the time. 2928. We have thus far extended in this case our observations, not perhaps in very strict accordance with the plan of this chapter, which relates rather to principles than history; and the only excuse we offer is, that we know not where in our work they might have been more appropriately introduced. We perhaps may not better satisfy the reader in what follows; which, from the nature of the subject, must be more instructive from what has been actually executed than from the general principles upon which the construction of a lighthouse depends. 2929. The most architectural of modern lighthouses is that of Corduan on the coast of France, which stands on a large rock, or rather on a low island, about three miles from land, at the entrance of the river Garonne. Like that of Alexandria, this lighthouse seems to have been intended for the commemoration of an æra in the history of France from the eminent utility of the building and the magnificence of its structure. Founded about the year 1584, in the reign of Henry II. king of France, it was carried on under the reigns of three successive monarchs, arriving at its completion in 1610, in the reign of Henry IV. It stands upon a platform of solid masonry, and is surrounded by a parapet about 145 feet in diameter, which is equal to the height. The lightkeepers' apartments and store rooms are not in the main tower, but form a detached range of buildings on the great platform, the interior of the tower itself being finished in a style of magnificence too splendid for the use of common persons. Over the fuel cellar, which is formed in the solid masonry of the platform, is the great hall, 22 feet square, 20 feet high, with an arched |