Empress Matilda, and King Stephen and his Queen Maud. The style of colouring is that which was in fashion from the middle to the end of the fifteenth century. At both ends of the apartment are three archways, corresponding in size and mouldings with the windows; and on the surface of the wall, within the arches, frescoes will be painted. The arch over the throne is already filled by Mr. Dyce's fresco, "The Baptism of St. Ethelbert.' The archways at the northern end of the House are very deeply recessed, thus affording space for the strangers' gallery. Between the windows, the arches at the ends and in the corners of the House are niches, richly canopied; the pedestals within which are supported by demi-angels holding shields, charged with the armorial bearings of the barons who wrested Magna Charta from King John, and whose effigies, in all eighteen, will be placed in the niches. The demi-angels, pillars, pedestals, and canopies, are all gilded, and the interiors of the niches are elegantly diapered. Above the niches are corbels, whence spring spandrils to support the ceiling. These spandrils are each filled with one large and two small quatrefoils, deeply moulded, and having roses in their respective centres. Similar quatrefoils fill the spandrils over the windows, and all are elaborately gilded. THE CEILING. The ceiling is flat, and is divided-by tiebeams of great bulk, on each face of which is sculptured "Dieu et Mon Droit," twice repeated-into eighteen large compartments; these are each again divided, by smaller beams, into four, having in their centres lozenge-formed compartments, deeply moulded. Different devices and symbols, carved with the utmost delicacy of touch, fill the lozenges, and all of them are gilded. Amongst the devices, and immediately over the throne, is the royal monogram, crowned, and interlaced by a cord, the convolutions of which are so arranged as to form loops at the corners; whilst, similarly crowned and decorated, the monograms of the Prince of Wales and Prince Albert fill the lozenges over their respective seats. The cognizances of the White Hart, of Richard the Second; the Sun, of the House of York; the Crown, in a bush, of Henry the Seventh; the Falcon, the Dragon, and the Greyhound, are in some of the lozenges: whilst the Lion passant of England, the Lion rampant of Scotland, and the Harp of Ireland, fill others. Sceptres and orbs, emblems of regal power, with crowns; the scales, indicative of justice; mitres and crosiers, symbols of religion; and blunted swords of mercy, add their hieroglyphic interest: while crowns and coronets, and the ostrich plume of the Prince of Wales, form enrichments more readily understood, and equally appropriate. These devices are encircled by borders, some of roses, others of oak leaves; but the greater part with foliated circles, having cords twining round them and the symbols in admirable intricacy; and all of them are most elaborate in workmanship; indeed, so minute in detail, that an opera-glass is required to detect all their beauties. In the vacant corners between the lozenges and the mouldings of the beams, the ceiling is painted of a deep blue, and surrounded by a red border on which are small yellow quatrefoils. Within the borders are circles, royally crowned; and from them proceed sprays of roses, parallel to the sides of the lozenges. The circles contain various devices and shields: amongst the former are the rose of England, the pomegranate of Castile, the portcullis of Beaufort, the lily of France, and the lion of England; and in the latter are the fanciful armorial bearings of those counties which ages since composed the Saxon Heptarchy. Where the lozenges are filled with the mitre, the circles are gules and charged with a cross; and issuing from the circle are rays, instead of sprigs of roses. At the intersections of the tie-beams are massive pendants, moulded, and carved to represent crowns; and lesser pendants, or coronals, similarly carved, are at the centre of each tie-beam; whilst richly carved bosses are placed at the junctions of the smaller ones. The under surfaces of the pendants are sculptured to represent roses. The whole are gilded and enriched by colour. The ceiling is, as may be inferred from this imperfect description, most striking in its appearance: the massy tie-beams, apparently of solid gold, so richly bedight as they are with that precious metal, and the minute carving which fills up the lozenge-formed compartments, aided by the glowing and harmonious colours of the devices, painted on the flat surface of the ceiling-all produce an absolutely imposing and gorgeous effect. THE PANELING. Below the windows, the walls of the House are covered with oak paneling, elaborately wrought. From the floor, about three panels high, the pattern of the paneling is the style termed "napkin;" having, in the angles formed by the folds of the drapery, at the upper and lower parts of the panel, "V. R.," with an oak wreath and cord intertwining. The fourth row of panels from the floor has ogee arches, with crockets and finials; quatrefoils and tracery subdivide the arches, whilst in their bases runs a beautiful flower ornament. At every third panel is a pillar exquisitely wrought, and crowned with a small bust of one of the Kings of England. The busts of the very earliest kings are, of course, imaginary; but those for which authorities could be found, are perfect specimens of portrait-carving in wood, so truly is the resemblance between them and the originals carried out, in every little point. The pillars in the southern division of the House have pedestals affixed to them, on which are lions, sejant, holding shields emblazoned with the arms of England. Between the other panels are very slender angular-shaped pilasters, wrought in delicate workmanship. Above the panels, between each bust, runs the following inscription-"God save the Queen," in open-worked letters of the Tudor character; above this runs a pierced brattishing of tre foils, of great lightness of design and delicacy (Concluded from our last.) of execution. A canopy springs from this Electric Telegraphs in Present Use. brattishing, and is supported by moulded ribs arching from the pillars and pilasters. The upper parts of the spaces between the ribs are filled with richly traceried arches and quatrefoils; and the surface of the canopy is gilded, and decorated with the armorial bearings of the various Lord Chancellors of England, from Adam, Bishop of St. David's, in 1377, to the present Chancellor, Lord Cottenham. These escutcheons present a remarkably rich and unique decoration; and, since all are helmeted, crested, and mantled, the variety of colours so displayed, the mantlings partaking of the chief colour in the shields, is very striking. The arms of the various Sovereigns under whom the Chancellors have held office, are also painted in all their glowing emblazon ments. A SYSTEM of telegraphic communication, by which the message is made to record itself in a permanent and readable form, either by alphabetical marks or characters, or by actual printed letters on a strip of paper, is, undoubtedly, the most important result hitherto attained in this department of scientific discovery. By such an arrangement, all the tediousness, indistinctness, and consequent uncertainty of the former methods may be avoided; constant attendance on the part of the clerks at the distant receiving station is not required; and the system, in short, appears to combine in its operation all the advantages At the northern end of the House, the epis- that can reasonably be hoped for in the rapid copal arms fill the spaces of the canopy. The transmission of intelligence. In the method front of the cove, or canopy, is moulded, invented by Professor Morse, and for upwards having treillage in its lower moulding; and at of the last four years adopted by Congress in every space corresponding to the pillars of the America, on an extensive scale, the message is paneling is a small carved pendant; above it is recorded by short lines or indentations on long a lion's head in strong relief, and thence strips of moistened paper, drawn off by a spespring the standards to the brass railing of the cies of clock-work movement from small peeresses' gallery. This railing is of simple rollers, and made to pass continuously under but exquisite design; having a series of roses, the rounded point of a small steel pencil or deeply wrought and foliated, running along its stile, which, by the attraction of an electrobase. The standards are partly twisted; and magnet, is brought to press on the strip of between each runs a twisted rail, supported by paper, which is supported on another roller segments of arches, foliated. A twisted rail furnished with a groove in its surface, exactly passes along midway between the base and the corresponding with the position of the rounded top; and where all the rails and arches join point; so that by the alternate depression and each other, knobs, richly enamelled with release of the latter, a succession of short colour and gilding, give richness of effect and embossed marks, similar to the characters variety of outline to the whole. Admission to used for teaching the blind to read, is prothis balcony is obtained from the upper cor- duced on the yielding substance of the paper; ridor, by small doorways under each window; a telegraphic alphabet, composed on the prinand as the doors are paneled like the rest of ciple of combining the relative lengths of these the wall, and have no distinguishing features marks, and the spaces or intervals between to indicate their purpose, it would be impos- them respectively, enables the recipient of the sible to surmise the existence of so many message to decipher its meaning. A still furentrances when they are shut. A single row ther advance towards perfection in the use of of seats runs along the gallery. The paneling electro-telegraphic instruments has been above the gallery is very rich in its details. effected by the introduction of the actual The lower panels are napkin pattern, but the " Printing Telegraph," or, rather, by some upper series have in each label's running from late modifications of the apparatus used for the upper corners, interlacing each other down the same purpose. Of these contrivances, the the centre, and then passing into the lower leading principle is the graduated revolution corners, and having on each of them, in dia- of a wheel, studded on its periphery with metal glyphic work, "God save the Queen.' The or wooden type, representing the usual letters remaining portion of the panels is filled with of the alphabet, the numerals, &c., and any vine-leaves and grapes in relief. Two ele- required portion of this wheel, with its corresgantly-carved slender pillars, with capitals of ponding letter, being brought, as in the case varied design, are at the angles of the splay of of the index or pointer of the dial-telegraph, to the windows, and one on either side of the the position of rest, opposite to a strip of paper, doors under the latter; they support a cornice to which a progressive motion is imparted by with pateræ, and embattled. Above the the action of clock-work, or mechanical cornice, a richly-carved, foliated brattishing arrangement, the particular type, the surface runs all round the House, whilst at intervals, corresponding to the pillars, tall finials give diversity to the outline. From the finials at the angles of the windows rise the massive branches for the gas-lights; they are of bold and graceful form, and terminate in a coronal, whence the light issues. (To be continued.) of which, in the course of the previous revolution of the wheel, has been covered with a thin layer of printers' ink, is caused to impinge against the strip of paper, or the latter against the type, by the action of a spring or lever, impelled either by the direct action of the magneto-electric current, or by some other simple modification of motive power. The highly useful purposes to which the electric telegraph cannot fail to be applied, when once its construction and manipulation shall have been still further simplified, may justly entitle this truly great invention to rank foremost in the list of extraordinary discoveries, indicative of onward progress, by which the spirit of modern times is so eminently characterised. On "Foliage," as Applied to Ornament. many instances, from a strict imitation of nature, would appear to have been adopted, more especially in the classical times of ancient Greece and Rome. In more modern times, chiefly within the last half-century, decided tendency has been manifested towards the emancipation of decorative art from the restrictions which a too rigid adherence to, and servile imitation of, these time-honoured precedents, had imposed on the efforts of imagination and inventive genius. The eternal repetition of these conventional forms, however, in themselves, worthy of admiration, had produced a feeling of satiety, only to be THE adaptation of ornamental foliage of removed by the infusion into the details of various kinds to the purposes of architectural artistical embellishment, of greater freedom of and artistic decoration, as it is one of the most conception, freshness of tone, and, in a word, natural, would also appear to have been one of a more trustful reliance, as the source of of the very earliest efforts of human ingenuity. inspiration, on the spontaneous beauties of unThere is so direct and intimate a relation fettered nature. In all the minor departments between our natural perceptions of beauty in of design, more particularly with reference to form, and the graceful productions of the the arts and manufactures, a sensible improvevegetable kingdom, as to awaken almost in- ment in this direction has of late been observstinctively a feeling of pleasurable sensation in able throughout Europe; and if England still even the most uncultivated mind. The first continue to lag somewhat behind her comrude attempts at delineating the general form petitors of France and Germany in this noble of some particular tree or shrub, familiarly and spirit-stirring race for pre-eminence in a associated, according to local position or vary- branch of the fine arts, so calculated to ening climate, with the idea of abundant nutri-hance the value of her industrial productions, ment, refreshing shade, or grateful beverage, it is not from any dearth of native talent or soon expanded, beneath the hands of the original capacity, but rather from the absence designer, into the more elaborate combinations of that efficient system of schools of design for of the running scroll, the sculptured cornice, the formation of decorative artisans, which has or chiselled vase. The decorative system of particular nations of antiquity subsequently came to be distinctively characterised by the species of ornamental foliage adopted by them in the enrichment of their works, whether of painting or sculpture. The palm-tree, with its slender but towering stem, and gracefully spreading branches, constituted the main feature of ornament in the East; the vine, the laurel, the ivy, the acanthus, and the honeysuckle, figured in endless variety throughout the classic embellishments of ancient Greece; been productive of such highly beneficial results on the continent. In our own country, one, perhaps the most fatal and obstructive of all the impediments to a rapid advance in the career of decorative design, has lately, we rejoice to say, given unequivocal symptoms of declining influence. We allude to that mistaken sense of relative superiority and of artistical etiquette which has hitherto deterred the class of individual professors, occupying a distinguished rank in what is usually denominated "the higher walks of art," from con and the lotus-leaf and radiating palm (both of descending to devote their attention to the them, probably, adopted from India), pre- subject of internal and external decoration, as vailed in Egypt. As regards the majority of being a department incompatible with the these classes of ornamental foliage, a certain dignity of their social position. That so unconventional form, departing considerably, in favourable and depreciating an estimate of the First Steps to Geometry. DEFINITIONS OF PRACTICAL GEOMETRY. (Continued from page 14.) into 60 equal parts, called minutes; and each minute into 60 equal parts, called seconds. These divisions are thus distinguished, 30° 26' 15'; that is, 30 degrees, 26 minutes, and 15 seconds. The diameter of a circle is to its circumference nearly as 1 to 3, more nearly as 7 to 22, more nearly as 106 to 25. A chord or subtense is a a right line A B, 333, more nearly as 113 to 355, more nearly as 1,702 to joining the extremities of an arc a E B. A E B 5,347, &c. OBS.-Plane figures bounded by three right lines are called triangles. 30. A triangle which has its three sides equal, is called an equilateral triangle, as a B c. C |