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TO CORRESPONDENTS.

It is with regret that we have been obliged to postpone the continuation of Mr. Sharpe's Essay on Gesture to our next. We, however, do it with the less regret, as the sequel forms a complete and distinct series of illustrations, of which the preceding part was only introductory.

The same reason, want of room and overflow of excellent matter, from various friendly and able correspondents, although we have much exceeded our original quantity in every Number, also compels us to postpone to future Numbers the account of dresses of various nations, an account of Danneker, the celebrated German sculptor, an article on the difficulty and expense of obtaining Architectural and Sculptural Casts from the British Museum, two or three interesting letters from Rome, the Review of Pyne's Royal Residences, just completed, and several other recent publications and new prints, &c. &c.

"Hortensius Tickle" is requested to favour us with his proposed article, and an address where we can send him his requested answer.

ANNALS OF THE FINE ARTS.

"I am no prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but I will venture to predict, that if ever the ancient, great and beautiful taste in painting revives, it will be in England."

RICHARDSON.

ART. I.-A critical Examination of the Architecture of the NELSON COLUMN erected at Yarmouth, 1817—19. W. WILKINS, Esq. Architect.

* Όσος δε τύμβος εν καλῷ κεχωσμενός,
Τους εμπόροις προσρησις εσαι πανταχε
Τις τ' εμπλεονίας εισπλεονίας τ' οψεται,
Χὡποιαν ἀμιλλ ̓ ἦ των νεῶν θεασείαν.

Plato Com. ap. Plutarch. in Themist.

IMITATED.

Thy tomb thus proudly o'er the ocean gazing,
Shall view each passing sail;-to deeds of might
Exhort the seaman; and when fires war-blazing
Burst from embattled ships, shall stand spectator of
the fight.

AFTER the lapse of an interval not altogether honourable to the zeal of his native county, the memory of Nelson has at length received its due tribute in the erection of a monumental column,

* For the above lines the writer is not indebted either to his own research or reminiscence; they were suggested to him by VOL. IV. NO. 15. N n

the elegant and classical design of which well entitles it to a pre-eminent rank among the most successful productions of modern architecture. Other places in the empire have long since erected memorials of the hero, and his victories, some of which reflect credit both on the public spirit that commanded, and on the artists who executed them. Yet although it must be confessed that Norfolk has been somewhat tardy in commencing a monument to him, whose achievements have cast such a brilliancy on his name, that which she has at length produced, may, as well by its magnitude, as by the excellence of its design, proudly assert its claim to the foremost rank.

Previously to entering upon a critical analysis of its composition, let us be permitted to make a few introductory remarks.

Works of architecture are not to be judged by precisely the same rules by which we appreciate the productions of the poet, the painter and the sculptor. These, indeed, require no external assistance in order to enable them to embody the conceptions of their mind: with the architect it is different; he is dependent upon circumstances, over which he possesses but small control; and perpetually subjected to restraints arising from

a passage of a critique on Monk's Alcestes in the Quarterly Review, where it is said, "they have often struck us as affording an apposite inscription for the monument to be erected to Nelson on the coast." Hence he has been induced to appropriate them as his motto.

the caprice and interference of others. To these causes, in conjunction with others of a pecuniary nature, is to be attributed the vast disproportion, both as to number and excellence, between buildings which have been executed, and those merely projected.

In estimating the merit of a piece of architecture the question is, has the artist availed himself to the fullest extent of all the capabilities of his plan has he effected as much as it was possible to accomplish in the allowed extent? has he obviated the peculiar difficulties with which he has had to contend? After mature examination we are sometimes led to admire not only the skill by which obstacles have been surmounted, but also the happy contrivance by which, in effecting this, positive beauties have been created. This circumstance however is not always of very obvious detection; indeed it may happen that by a near approximation to faultless excellence the architect has incurred the reproach of having fallen short of that point, of which an inferior ability would never have reminded us.

Owing to the very nature of the art, great opportunities for the display of talent must necessarily be but of rare occurrence: nor even then are works of importance always committed to the charge of those most distinguished by their genius, and their taste. In the present instance however such an accusation cannot be made: if the compatriots of Nelson did not act with precipitancy in

decreeing to him this posthumous honour, so neither have they bestowed it parsimoniously; at the same time their choice of an architect was most judicious, since the model selected by them manifests throughout a well-matured plan; a taste imbibed from a profound study of, and an intimate acquaintance with, the purest remains of Grecian art; and a happy originality yet coherence of design equally removed from common place and from extravagance. A structure, like the one under consideration, may be said to offer a carte blanche to the architect, since while it allows him full scope for the display of ornament, it does not fetter him by the restraints imposed by the necessity which occurs in more complicated buildings of reconciling clashing interests: its insulation also liberates him from the necessity of modifying his design by existing circumstances, which almost invariably attends all public edifices. In compositions of this nature inventions must be sought for rather in the accessories, than in the column itself. In this portion of the structure the architect has made no attempt at novelty, nor deviated from established rules: he has however shewn great judgment in adopting the Athenian Doric order, whose masculine proportions render it appropriate to its destined character and situation. In order to avoid the solecism of placing a pedestal beneath a column belonging to an order, which admits not even of a base, the architect has, with most admirable felicity, placed it upon a substructure greatly

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