CATACOMBS OF ALEX- THE catacombs of Alexandria are very extensive, they are situated along the shore, about half a league flected from the cement, is very grand. The chamber preceding the rotunda also affords access to another corridor, leading to various apartments, presenting similar appearances to those already described; in one of them there is the spring-west of the present city, and consist ing of a brick arch running round it, intended, apparently, to support a gallery; beneath is a hole, about half a yard square, which is the entrance to a winding passage, but it is impossible to penetrate it far, on account of the sand and water; it is conjectured to have served for some religious mystery, or for some imposition of the priests on the common people. Through the centre portico of another chamber, similar to that before described, but left unfinished, like many other parts of this magnificent tomb, an apartment is entered, each side of which has three ranges of holes for the reception of embalmed bodies, and pits of various dimensions are dug in the floors of several of the rooms. There is a great symmetry in the arrangement of all the apartments, so that the plan of the excavation is perfectly regular. It was probably intended for a royal cemetery, the bodies of the sovereigns being deposited in the rotunda, and the other chambers serving as places of burial for their relatives, according to their rank, and two large side chapels, with collateral rooms, being appropriated to the religious rites of the goddess Hecate, as is rendered probable by the crescents which ornament various parts of the place. Whatever was its destination, like all the other cemeteries of Egypt, it has been ransacked at some remote period, and the bodies of its tenants removed. of long galleries, with apartments on each side cut out of the rock, and so numerous and complicated that the guides take the precaution of tying one end of a ball of thread at the entrance, by means of which they are enabled to find their way out again, which otherwise would be scarcely possible. The present entrance is by a small hole, through which a person can only pass on his hands and knees, and the precaution of shouting out loud, or firing a gun, must be taken, to alarm and disperse the jackals or beasts of prey, who make this their place of retreat. After these necessary preliminaries, the place may be explored; but it has been so often ransacked by plunderers or tra vellers, that there is little to reward the labour of the expedition, except the gratification of curiosity. Some of the chambers have vaulted ceilings and pilasters, with cornices cut out of the solid rock, and are consequently more pleasing to view than the monotonous long galleries, which compose the greatest part of these excavations. Many stone sarcophagi are found in them, but no bodies are now left, and the walls are unadorned with the paintings, which render the catacombs of Thebes so beautiful and interesting. This difference possibly arises from those of Alexandria having been the work of the Greek colonists, who peopled that wonderful city, and whose customs differed from the native and aboriginal Egyptians. CATACOMBS AT CAIRO. THE catacombs near Cairo are situated beneath a mound in the middle of a plain, adjoining the pyramids of Saccara: they extend about half a mile. Dr. Clarke, who visited these as well as those of Alexandria, descended into them by means of a rope-ladder. The first chamber he entered contained scattered fragments of mummies, which had originally been placed on a shelf cut out of the rock, and extending breast-high the whole length of this apartment: there are two tiers or stories of these chambers, one above the other, all presenting the same appearance of violation and disorder, and smelling very offensively. At some distance from these, which were apparently appropriated to man, are those in which the sacred birds and animals were deposited; one apartment of which Dr. Clarke found filled with earthen jars entire, laid horizontally in tiers on one another, something like bottles in a wine-bin, they were about fourteen inches long, and conical in form, the cover being fixed on by some kind of cement. When opened, they were found to contain the bodies of birds, (the Ibis) with white feathers tipped with black or the heads of monkeys, cats, and other animals, all carefully bandaged up in linen. OUR CATHEDRALS. FOR my part, I am old-fashioned enough to prefer God's sanctuary to a room, and the prayers of the Church to any of recent date. They chime in with our everlasting sympathies. I love too, with special love, an old cathedral; all its inspirations are heavenly; I seem to tread on holy ground,-" the pillared arches over my head, and beneath my feet the bones of the dead." I love its "long-drawn aisles "ed vaults;" its clusters of like the sacred grove in the Jewish temple, and whose forms the art of man has haply borrowed from the sylvan beauties of nature. I love the subdued mellow light which streams through painted glass, where angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven, and saints and martyrs, and holy men of yore, are emblazoned in bright array. I love to worship when and where my fathers worshipped; and to feel that every scroll, every stone, every relic of bygone days, is the outward and visible emblem of the faith once delivered to the saints. perpetuated in the Church, and through her ordained ministers appointed to be preached until time itself shall be no more. Bishop after bishop, priest after priest, lie buried in this cathedral*; since the earliest amongst them had knek and prayed, and blessed his flock, on the very spot, perhaps, where I then stood, I knew that a thousand years had become as one day: but the same everlasting Gospel which they preached was in my hand; the same prayers, the same songs of praise rose up on high; and glory was ascribed to the same Tri-une Jehovah, "as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end." The same apostolical exclamation, with which the Book of Life closes, sealed our ascent to the same things,-nothing added, nothing taken away. But how did that word resound in my ears? Not in the unmeaning lifeless form which modern innovation has substituted for ancient practice: it rose and fell in accents loud, solemn, and universal; accents which every voice might have responded to, every ear heard, and every heart felt to its inmost core, throughout that immense edifice.-Tour in Ireland. * Christ Church, Dublin. KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON, Now constitutes the left wing of the grande façade of Somerset House, and supplies a striking defect, which has been long a reproach to the metropolis in the eyes of all persons of good taste. Indeed, the completion of this noble edifice was one of the conditions upon which the grant of the ground was made, and all who will now look at this part of the building, from Waterloo Bridge or the river, will be ready to testify how wisely the pledge was required, and how honourably it has been fulfilled. united Churches of England and of Christianity, as taught by the Ireland, shall be for ever combined with the other branches of useful education. The College was established by Royal Charter, the patron being the King, and the Archbishop of Canterbury the visitor. The first meeting of the Founders took place on the 21st of June, 1828; the building was commenced, September, 1829, and the College opened, the 8th of October, 1831. The government is vested by the Charter in a Council consisting of forty-one members, namely, nine perpetual governors, eight life governors, and twenty-four others, of whom six go out every year by rotation, whose places are filled up at the annual meeting. To this Council, of which the Bishop of London is the official President, all important matters connected with the welfare and constitution of the College are committed; the care and distribution of the revenue, the fees for lectures and instruction, the election of professors and masters, the selection and regulation of the studies, and the formation of all rules and The King's College was founded under the Royal sanction, by a body of eminent men engaged in various departments of life, but united by a common bond of attachment to that form of Christain doctrine and discipline established in the English Church. Upon this principle the plan was formed, and under this view it was presented to the public; and although the promoters of it were desirous, in conformity to the spirit of the times, as well as to their own taste, to render the instruction they had in view as various, comprehensive, and enlight-orders. ened as possible, yet from first to last they have omitted no occasion of putting forth Christian instruction as the striking feature of their scheme, and their best claim to the public approbation.. Accordingly it is described in the charter, as "a College for general education, in conformity to the Established Church," in which, while the various branches of literature and science are made the subjects of instruction, the minds of youth will be imbued with a knowledge of religious truths and of moral duties; and the preamble further declares, that His Majesty highly approves of the design of instituting a College, in which the doctrines and duties The discipline, instruction, and active management, are intrusted to a principal, who superintends the whole, and above thirty professors and masters, acting with due authority in their several classes. Since the foundation of this College, several schools in this metropolis, and in the populous villages in its neighbourhood, have been founded by subscription, for affording a liberal education at a moderate expense, upon the same principle as the King's College, that is, making religious instruction, in conformity with the Established Church, an important part of the education. Already, many schools in confor | mity with this principle, have respective stalls, and above the ca united themselves with the in-nopies are displayed the banners of stitution, and there is reason to arms of the knights, emblazoned on hope, from the communications flags of silk. There are at present already received, that the King's forty-two of these banners, the SeCollege will soon become the cen- vereign's banner being of fine vel tre of an extended system of edu- vet, and larger than those of the cation, combining all the advan- Knights: his stall is under the or tages of a liberal cultivation of the gan, immediately on the right in intellect, with a careful instruction entering the choir. in Christian doctrines and duties, according to the principles of the Established Church. ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOR. The roof of the choir, which is very beautiful, was built in 1508, when the florid and highly-ori mented style of architecture was in use; and it is enriched with the rose, the portcullis, and the royal arms of that period, as well as those of various distinguished families, and of Sir Reginald Bray, minister to Henry the Seventh, and a liberal contributor to the erection of the chapel. THE ancient town of Windsor abounds in objects worthy of notice. The Saxon derivation of the word, the Winding-shore of Father Thames, must occur to the minds of many as The great east window is a me they approach it; and those who dern work, from a design, repre are acquainted with English his-senting the Resurrection, by West tory cannot but feel a deep interest The same artist has also supplied, in viewing the stately old Castle, over the communion-table, a paintonce the dwelling of the early Eng- ing of the Last Supper, in which lish kings, and the favourite resi- the countenance of Judas, turned dence of some of their successors, from the group towards the spec as well as in contemplating the ve- tator, possesses a terrible malignity nerable chapel, within whose walls of expression. On the north of the many of royal blood have found a communion-table is a most curious resting-place. piece of work of wrought steel, in the form of a pair of gates, between two towers, executed, as it is reported, by the famous Quentin Matsys, the blacksmith of Antwerp, who afterwards became an eminent painter. In describing this last-mentioned structure, the CHAPEL of Sr. GEORGE, we will begin with the Choir. Here divine service is regularly performed; and here the Knights of the Garter are installed. The stalls, or seats of the Sovereign, and of the several members of the order of the Garter, are ranged along the sides of the choir. These are richly carved in wood, and at the back of them are copper plates, gilt and coloured, containing the names, titles, and arms of the noble persons by whom they have been, and now are filled. The mantle, helmet, crest, and sword of each knight, are lecod on the canopies over their In the reign of Henry the First, a small chapel, dedicated to Edward the Confessor, in which the king had placed eight secular priests, stood on the spot now occupied by St. George's Chapel; and in the park was a royal chapel, for thirteen chaplains and four clerks. King Edward the Third removed these chaplains and clerks out of the park into the castle, and added to their number. But that mighty prince T wishing to raise Windsor, the place of his birth, to still higher splendour, re-founded and built afresh this ancient Chapel Royal. The mode of obtaining workmen for the purpose in those times justly appears strange and harsh at the present day. For the building of Windsor Castle, as well as of this chapel, a person was appointed to manage the works, who had the power of impressing artificers and labourers, and of employing them, even though it were against their will. We are told that in the course of this very work some of the men left the place, in consequence of an infectious disorder prevailing among them; but they were compelled to return, and to labour for less pay than they could have got elsewhere. Shortly before this, Edward the Third had instituted the "Most Honourable and Noble Order of the Garter," the first installation of which took place on St. George's day, 1349, that Saint having been appointed the patron of the order, as well as of the chapel. The building was much enlarged and improved by Edward the Fourth and Henry the Seventh; and, during the reign of George the Third, underwent an entire repair, at an expense of upwards of 20,0007. On approaching the nave by the usual entrance of the south door, the spectator is struck with the grandeur as well as grace of the pillars, the beauty of the roof, and of the rich west window. The latter is one of the most perfect and pleasing specimens of ancient stained glass now existing; and when sparkling in the sun with the brilliancy of jewels, it puts to shame the efforts of modern skill which appear in the east and west windows of the south aisle, and in the west window of the north aisle. The screen is of modern erection, formed of Coade's artificial stone. In the north aisle are many interesting monuments; among them, on the ground, on a black marble slab, is that of "King Edward the Fourth and his queen, Elizabeth Widvill." Near to this is a simple but elegant tablet, to the memory of Louise, Duchess of Saxe-Weimar, the niece of the Queen Dowager, who died at Windsor, in 1832, at the age of sixteen. In the south aisle is a large flat grave-stone, under which was placed the body of the unfortunate Henry the Sixth, after its removal from Chertsey Abbey. It bears the simple inscription "HENRY VI." Pope alludes to the affecting circumstance of this monarch, and his powerful rival Edward the Fourth, thus becoming such near neighbours after death; The grave unites where c'en the great find rest, And blended lie th' oppressor and th oppressed. Some fine monuments in excellent preservation are found in small chapels and chantries, which are divided from the nave and the aisles, by stone screens. Nearer the south door is Bray Chapel, so called from Sir Reginald Bray, whose crest, a machine anciently used for breaking hemp, occurs repeatedly as an ornament. Here, among other monumental figures, is one, well carved, of Bishop Brideoak, in the reign of Charles the Second. At the east end of the south aisle is Lincoln Chapel, containing the magnificent tomb of the Earl of Lincoln, Lord High Admiral in the time of Elizabeth. Rutland Chapel, in the centre of the north aisle, contains several interesting monuments, particularly one in the middle, to the memory of Sir G. Manners, Lord Roos, and Lady Ann his wife, niece of Edward the Fourth. |