1816. Mr. Fosbrooke's Remarks on the Townley Statues.. ber bosom. In Beger and La Chausse ate females holding butterflies: all referable to the same fiction of Psyche. The word Psyche signifies either the soul or a butterfly, which the ancients made the symbol of the former, and it has this allusion in numerous funeral monuments. In some of the above. nientioned instances it seems to be placed in the hand of a female, inerely as a distinctive attribute of Psyche: but in funeral monuments the meaning may be only allegorical. 1 No. 63 to 67 are hands and fragments. No. 68. A left foot covered apparently with linen, round which bandages are justined. Mongez says (Enc. des Antig. . Bandages), the ancients possessed the knowledge of bandages the most proper for every case, to such a degree of perfection, that the moderns cannot flatter themselves on having added much to the excellent treatise of Galen upon the subject. It was the custom, as is well known, of putting in the temples the figures of the limbs of which they thought the cure was effected by the favour of the gods, a custom which obtained to the middle ages. Er-Votos, of some kinds at least, are often very badly formed and wrought, being sold, says Count Caylus (Rec. ii. 92), at a very low price, to country people, probably in the markets, for offerings as wanted. A foot with a huge unnatural instep, like that of Chinese woman, is engraven from Fou cault by Montfaucon (ii. p. 1. b. 9. c. 4), Another from Peiresc is just as badly formed: perhaps, however, they were intended to pourtray swelled feet, a No. 69. A large votive putera, with a bis relief on each side, one representing Silenus and the other a Satyr. La Chausse, Fafiretti, and Montfaucon have given some very magnificent pateræ, with Lasso relievos of various patterns. No. 70. A small Fragment of a Figure holding a bird. Upon a coin of Nero, bruck at Laodicea, Jupiter Philalethes holds an eagle (Nicaise); Neptunein Maffei, Fontanini, Beger,&c. holds a dolphin, This shows that the custom refers sometimes to attributes. 'In Beger, Boisut, and others, Venus holds a dove. Erernity, in the coins of Faustina and Casinus, hids a phoenix. Upon a reverse of Elagabalus, Faith holds a turtle-dove, a symbol of her, an account of that bird's conjugal fidelity. Upon funeral marbles women and boys sometimes hold birds, La domestic ones for pleasure. It is not easy, therefore, to say, who or what was this figure. a No. 72. A torso of a male figure, the arms of which appear to have been raised above the head. One arm raised to the head, in token of effeminacy, occurs in Hermaphroditus, Bacchus, and Sleep. Bacchus has often one arin elevated; so has Hymen with his torch. A Silenus in Boisot raises both his arms; but it would be rash to identify this marble from such a circumstance as merely elevated arms. No. 73. A small mutilated figure. The right breast is naked; the other parts are entirely covered with drapery. It has a necklace, from which a scarabæus is suspended. The scarabæi were worn as amulets against all kinds of misfortunes. See C. Caylus, &c. No. 74. A head of an Eagle, which appears to have served as the hilt of a sword. In the Monumenti, Antichi of Winckelmann is such a hilt of a sword. The hilt of the sword of Thyamis, described in the Ethiopics of Heliodorus (L 2. c. 4) was also an eagle's beak, It is considered as a Greek fashion. Montfaucon has published a poniard with a similar bilt. No. 75. d votive Patera, with bus No. 78. A Mercury sleeping upon rock. C. Caylus (iii. n. 1. pl. 43) says, that Mercury from his different employs is rarely represented prostrate. Upon an amethyst, in Storch, he is seated upon a rock. This rock, says Winckelmaun, is apparently intended for a promontory, because he presided over navigation. We may also conceive that Mercury TaxTios, i. s. upon the edge of the sea, who was worshipped under that appellation by the Samians, is the Mercury here represented. In Beger and a coin of Tiberius he is also seated upon a rock, but in a sleeping attitude; his figure, as noted by C. Caylus, is exceedingly rare; no sinall addition to the value of this statuc. No. 79. A head of Diana. No 80. Head of a Lion, part of a Sarcophagus. No. 81. A Cistern of Green Basalt, anciently used as a bath. On the sides are carved two, rings in imitation of handles, in the centre of which is a leaf Remarks have been given before upon Scarabai. of iey. Specimens of green basalt are more rare than those of black, and it was peculiarly admired for working upon, by Egyptian and Greek artists. In later times it was used for the imitation of Egyptian works, and Canopuses in particular. From the excellence of the busts which remain, there is reason to think that none but the most able artists worked upon basalt. (Winckelmann.) Pliny (33. 2.) mentions silver baths for women; and the luxury used in this respect is scarcely conceivable by the moderns. No. 82. A terminal head of Libera. Ovid says in his Pasti, that Bacchus gave the name of Libera to Ariadne; Cicero makes her the same as Proserpine. The heads both of Liber and Libera occur upon the coins of the Cassia family; but the real meaning of these two deities is only to be found in an indecent passage of Varro, given by Augustine de Civit. Dei. l. 6. c. 9. The head of Libera has no other especial attribute but the crown of vine-leaves: hence a perpetual confusion of her with Ariadne. No. 83. A colossal head of Antinous, in the character of Bucchus, being crowned with a wreath of ivy. Poets were crowned with ivy (see Hor. and Virg. Ecl. 7); and there are many uses of it not now understood, as that of its being so often put in the hands of numerous figures. The first colossal head of Autinous is that of the Villa Mandragone, of such marvellous beauty, that, next to the Belvidere Apollo, and the Laocoon, Winckelmann classes it with the most precious relics of antiquity. There are numerous other busts, and his portraits are the most common of any in antiquity. No. 84. A small domestic fountain used for sacred purposes. No. 85. A bust of Minerva. No. 86. An upright narrow piece of marble, ornamented with branches of the olive and the pine. This concludes the collection which does honour to the nation. The absurd prejudice, which, in this country has limited archæology to topography, the black letter, and antiquities only of the middle age, will then, it is hoped, be lessened. Swift, Pope, and a junta of wits, who were men of more genius than political wisdom, excluded from the scale of sciences honourable to the mind, almost every study but ethics, poetry, and the classics. The studies which apply to the wants and elegances of exist ence are however wisely considered by the present age; and who would hold the finest poetry ever written to be of equal value with the invention of the steam-engine. Taste and the arts havě so intimate a connection with commerce in rendering goods more marketable and pleasing, that, by consequence, the maintenance of the population is considerably aided in an indirect way, by collections of this and every kind, relative to the formation of pure taste. Sculpture seems, to the honour of the nation, never to have been here in a de graded state. Church-yard work is to be found in Greek and Roman ages; but it is not generally known, that in Dunbury Church, Essex, are or were two cross-legged figures of the 12th century, in wood only, which for spirit and execution are admirable. Several figures in Westminster Abbey, &c. are very fine. The catalogue upon which the above remarks, professedly made not to interfere with Mr. Dallaway's, have been made is only "a compendious synopsi intended for persons who take the usual cursory view of the Museum." The learned officers have therefore nó concern with any mistakes in it. They promise scientific catalogues, but to them, and to every writer upon ancient statuary (even Winckelmann himself), bught to be extended the fullest liberality, if the writers evidently appear persons not ignorant of the subject. "There exist,' says Mongez, "many ancient marbles, &c. which cannot be explained in a satisfactory manner, either because they proceed from the bizar imagination of the arsist, or because the facts and traditions to which they refer are utterly forgotten. The signification of many symbolic figures was lost even among the ancient Greeks themselves. Pausanias confesses that he did not know what was the meaning of the pome granate and strobilus of a fir, placed in the hand of Theoguetes, and surely Pausanias must have much more knowledge upon this subject than any modern." Winckelmann, the Sir Isaac Newton of the science, lays it down as a sine qua non, that explications are to be sought only in mythology and in Homer, concerning basso relievos and groups, yet this limitation is so narrow as to be repulsive to probability, however true in am under much obligation to the French Encyclopædia, 1811] Letters of a Wanderer through England and Wales. the main. Thirty thousand different gods, according to Varro, were worshipped in the single city of Rome; it is, therefore, impossible for Winckelmann, or any other person, to be uniformly certain, according to his own rule; and C. Caylus justly observes, that there are numerous superștitions of the ancients with which we are utterly unacquainted. Winckelmann, by induction, pronounced the dying Gladia tor to be a Greek Herald, from the cord around the neck; yet Mongez (Mem. Instit. Nation. Literature, Tom ii. p. 435) clearly shows, that it was a collar, made rope fashion, of which there are three in Montfaucon. The figure too has mustachoes, the most constant of the characteristics which designate figures of Barbarians. He has clearly shown the mistakes of Winckelmann all through, and pronounces this illustrious relic to be an unknown dying barbarian or slave, evidently not a gladiator. All these errors proceed from the names not being inscribed on the leg, as in use among the Etruscan and early Greek sculptors, the base being liable to be broken off. When the scientific catalogues of the Townly collection are finished, it is to be hoped that a denomination of each marble will be annexed to it. How much more pleasant and instructive would be the exhibition at the Royal Academy, if the spectator were released from the tiresome fatigue of searching the Catalogue, especially as the pictures do not follow in so regular a procession as the successive kings of Banquo's line, in Macbeth. The antique casts of this school of painting are nained upon the base; though erasures show great fears of an alias being applicable in several instances. For the Monthly Magazine. LETTERS OF A WANDERER. LETTER VII. CONCLUDED my last letter by informing you it was our intention to prosecute a mountainous excursion on the morning after our arrival at the inn in Patterdale; and, with that view, having made an early breakfast, we mounted our horses, and, preceded by a guide carrying a basket of cold provisions for our day's repast; we entered the sequestered, narrow, plain, from the distant view of which we had anticipated much gratification on a nearer survey of its beauties. 'Where the expectations are highly raised, disappointment is too frequently the consequence; on this occasion, we, however, found the promised pleasure far short of MONTHLY MAG. No. 216. From one extre the reality; and the wild, romantic, Not far from the extremity of the dale, there is an ancient family mansion, now fallen into disrepair; but whose situation is singularly picturesque, placed as it is at the foot of some of the highest mountains, and embosomed amidst a grove of trees, whose age appear coeval with the building. There are also several romantic, interesting, spots in Patterdale, which, with the objects already mentioned as belonging to it, render it a scene of considerable beauty and sublimity. At a cottage, about half way up the dale, we left our horses, and on foot began to ascend the steep and rugged mountain on the castern side of the plain, the surface of which is covered with an intermixture of stunted-grass, grey rocks, and heath, unvaried by a single tree or bush, and, far as the eye can reach, presenting a wide-extended tract of par tial vegetation and the bleakest wildness. After ascending about a mile and a half, we found ourselves on the summit of the mountain, and expected to have feasted B our our sight with a view of the delightful lake of Ullswater, and the wild recesses of Patterdale. But rocks and mountains, still higher than the height on which we stood, extended far on every side, and presented a prospect as bleak, dreary, and unfruitful, as imagination can picture; the lofty fells of Martindale completely shutting out the view of the lake beyond, and the dark frowning precipices of Helvellyn, on the further side of the valley, though at the distance of several miles, appearing close at hand. The day was, however, delightful, and particularly favourable for our excursion. The air was mild, the sky clear and serene, and the whole firmament without a cloud or vapour to obscure the distant objects (a circumstance by no means frequent in those mountainous districts); and, after resting for a short while to regain our breath, and look around us, we proceeded with renovated strength, and buoyant spirits, to cross, for the space of another mile and a half, a boggy heath, strewn over with an immense number of whitish chalky stones; and in the spots, even where a constant moisture encouraged vegetation, scarce a blade of grass shot up, to vary the dismal hue of the dark-brown heath, through which we scrambled with considerable difficulty, till we reached the edge of a descent, and looked down on Angle Tarn, a piece of water about two miles in circumference, varied by a couple of rocky islets, in one of which a stunted tree or two starts from the craggy crevices, their foliage withered by the winds that pass across the heights, and their whitened trunks adding wildness to a scene, where all is bleak, inhospitable, cold, and cheerless; grey rocky precipices, unadorned by the many-coloured mosses, or the luxuriant fern, that in other places beautify their weather-beaten sides, and piles of stones confusedly thrown to gether, as if cast upon the earth by some terrible convulsion of nature, cover, with patches of heath and rushes, the space as far as eye can reach, around this melancholy Tarn. The trouts, however, which inhabit its depths, are of the richest flayour, and of a moderately large size. Our guide, who was an expert angler, soon caught some of them, while we rested and partook of our cold viands; and we afterwards found them most delicious, when cooked for us at our ino. Some wild-fowl occasionally inhabit the banks of Angle-Tarn; but they are not stationary there, and none were to be seen when we visited it. Having walked some way farther across the ridge to the south of this little lake or Tarn (which you must recollect is the provincial name for a small piece of water, as Beck or Gill is for streams and rivulets); we still vainly sought to gain a peep at Ullswater; but the bleak heights of Martindale defeated our wishes; and, tired of a scene so uninviting and dreary, we bent our course towards the east, still keeping on the heights, and, after traversing about two more miles of this cheerless waste, we arrived in view of Hays, or Haize-water, deep sunk betwixt stupendous rocky mountains, and, like its neighbour we had recently quitted, unadorned by trees or bushes, and presenting an aspect of singular wildness and romantic grandeur. Hays-water is nearly a mile and quarter in length, and scarce half a mile in breadth. Secretly and unruffled it laves the base of a prodigious craggy mountain on the right; while, on the opposite shore, a succession of little green knolls intervene betwixt the mountains and the water, and gives animation and diversity to the landscape, which is bounded by a line of lofty precipices, composed of slaty rubbish, that after every storm rushes in stripes over the almost-perpendicular points of the ridges, while immense masses of solid rock guard well the entrance to this sequestered spot, on that part where the mountains do not unite, and, at first sight, seem to bid defiance to the stranger. I strolled towards the upper end of the lake, while my companion, with our guide, bounded over the narrow footpath on the opposite. rugged mountain, where the steepness of the heights, the craggy precipices they had to pass, and number of inconveni ences to undergo, deterred me from venturing to follow their lead, and I slowly retraced my steps along the gravelly beach, indulging in that pleasing pensiveness, the surrounding scenery and the mildness of the air were calculated to inspire: for there the world, and all its busy, bustling, cares, seemed wholly at a distance; not a sound broke in upon the solemn illness of the scene. The evening was advancing, and the sun had cast a rich glow of colouring on the summits of the distant heights; while the pure azure of the firmament was reflected on the glassy surface of the lake, which, gently undulating with the breeze that occa sionally wafted through the air, presented the sweetest picture of serenity and universal calmness. Wild unquestionably was the prospect; but it was, notwiths standing, 1811.] Letters of a Wanderer through England and IVales. 11 standing, indiscribably interesting, and, in my opinion, more deserving of a visit than a number of the highly-celebrated scenes which are resorted to, and extolled as the most sublimely beautiful in nature, Sweet scenes of peacefulness! never, in all human probability, shall I revisit you, nor again explore your wild sequestered recesses! But, though distant, while the brittle cord, now nearly severed, retains its hold, never shall I cease to reflect with satisfaction on the hours which, during two long summers, I was wont to pass amidst your interesting beauties; when oft, with no companion, save my own reflections, I have wandered round the unfrequented mountain-lakes; explored the most sequestered vallies, and viewed the "bright tumbling of the waters" of many a roaring torrent, known only to the shepherds of the neighbouring plains; or, seated on a craggy point, have sketched the promment features of the landscape, the "world forgetting," and perfectly indifferent if not equally "by the world forgot." On quitting Hays-water we pursued the Course of the stream that issues thence, and, falling over rocks and precipices, hastens to unite its waters with the little lake in Patterdale. On this stream (or Beck) there are several romantic scenes, and one cascade is particularly deserving of notice, from its grand effect in falling in two distinct sheets, on heights of upwards of fourscore feet, environed by Crags, and a profusion of mountain-ash and other trees, whose pendant boughs drop into the stream, and, until you descend towards its banks, obscure it from sight. There are other lesser and very pretty falls on this stream; and the mountains, which are only separated by a narrow gulph, rise to an astonishing height; their pale-green sides covered with flocks of sheep, of a small and hardy race, and their surface broken by many a rough projecting crag. As the last beams of the sun had gilded the horizon, and shed the sweetest rays of light upon the face of nature, we again reached the cottage where we had left our horses in the morning; when, having procured some delicious new milk to allay our thirst, and refresh us after our long walk, we retraced our way to the inn, well pleased with our excursion, and ready to undertake another nountainous expedition on the following morning. The day, however, proved unfavourable for the purpose. The vallies were free from moisture, but the heights were covered by heavy va pours; and it was only at intervals the dark lofty sides of Helvellyn, and its scarce less-awful neighbours, were discernible; we therefore gave up the idea of visiting two small lakes amongst the mountains, called Grisedale Tarn, and Red Tarn, and passed the early part of the day in wandering over a part of the beautiful banks of Ullswater, and taking a peep into the romantic dells I before mentioned as interrupting the mountainous line upon its western shore. In the evening we bade adieu to Patterdale; and, after traversing the road that leads to its extremity, we began to ascend the steep and fearful pass of Kirkstone, where the lofty rugged mountains are separated only by a narrow rill of water, and the precipices thickly strewn with stones, parted from their summits by wintry storms, altogether presenting the most frightful picture of sterility and desolation it is possible to imagine. Not a single bush, or scarce an appearance of vegetation, diversifies the gloomy horror of the scene, which continues no less dreary and inhospitable for the space of several miles; when suddenly the eye. rests on the distant view of Windermere, and at each succeeding step towards the little town of Ambleside, the contrast becomes still stronger, twixt the vale to which the traveller is approaching, and the desolate region he has lately tra versed. On reaching Ambleside, we engaged apartments at the Salutation (a very com fortable inn), intending to make that place our head-quarters, while we visited some of the most picturesque spots of the adjacent country; and, ordering an early supper, we strolled out while it was preparing, and enjoyed a delightful ramble along a path that led us past the head of the lake, and carried us by the side of the little river Rothay, near to Rydal water (whence it issues), and where the scenery is peculiarly interesting and romantic-where rocks rest on rocks, and mountain hangs on mountain, with all their beautiful accompaniments of woods and single trees, starting from the crevices in the wildest precipices, and drooping over the path in the most picturesque and graceful manner. Charmed with our ramble, we heeded not the lateness of the bour, but continued to admire and trace the various scenes of loveliness around us, which were rendered doubly interest. B2 ing |