532

REVIEW.—Hog's Tour in Italy.

[Dec.

low, and blue mixed, or rather patched together, with ruffs of coarse lace, and leather caps: in short, figures more fit for a pantomime, than attending on his Holiness.”

P. 138.

In the wall of the staircase of the Museum of the Capitol, is fixed the fragment of the ancient plan of Rome, of white marble, marked with red lines, which served for the pavement of the temple of Romulus and Remus, p. 142. This plan is engraved in the Pompeii of Mazois, and is very valuable, as showing the forms of Roman houses of all kinds.

In this Museum is a Diana of Ephesus, which Mr. Hog calls (p. 143) a singular-looking pyramid, almost as absurd as the deities of the Gentoo. Such, we believe, must have been its origin, for it is utterly inconsistent with Grecian taste and principles. The figures of deities in temples were very superb things, and of striking effect, as may be seen from the very ingenious and grand work of Quatermere de Quincy.

Mr. Hog speaks highly of the Panoramic View of Rome from the top of the tower of the Campidoglio. We are glad to hear this; for the views of the interior of Rome, upon a large scale, which we have seen, have nothing picturesque in character; they are mere heaps and holes in ground composed of common and thicket. We allude to the plates of Messrs. Cassas and Bence, with Landon's Explanations, Paris, Atlas fol. 1818, embracing the whole seven hills.

The Romans imitated the Grecian junction of the stones in building, that they might all appear to be of one piece, with great success. See pp. 151, 161. It would be well if they had been as close in their imitation in other respects.

> "Near the Church of St. Stephen is a small ancient boat, or vessel, of marble, on a pedestal, placed there by Leo X. which in England, in such a situation, would certainly have been long ago injured from wanton mischief; but in Italy the natives consider their monuments as public property, redounding to their honour, and natural genius for the arts, and respect and preserve them accordingly." P. 164.

This is a very proper reprimand of a pre-eminent national disgrace.

> WE have windows with balconies under them; at Rome the balconies are over them, p. 167.

We have often heard a very indiffere nt character given to French landscape. We find, from p. 169, that the trees of Poussin are much too green for nature.

In the neighbourhood of St. Agatha, on the slopes of Monte Masscio, is now made the greatest part of the Falernian wine, though chiefly drunk by visitors at Baiæ, p. 187.

Upon the approach to Naples, Mr. Hog saw carriages, just large enough for one person, and looking like a large China jar placed upon the frame of a carriage, as they are broad at top and narrow at bottom. They are gaudily painted and gilt, and go with great velocity. P. 188.

Many of the Churches of Naples have domes covered with coloured tiles, red, yellow, and blue, disposed in stripes, waving lines, or diamonds (p. 191). This we consider bad taste; gingerbread, Birmingham, &c. Mr. Hog very properly remarks, that it is singularly improvident to place the precious collection of the Portici Museum so near to Mount Vesuvius, because it may some time or other be thus destroyed (203). For our parts, we heartily wish that it was in the British Museum.

Our Traveller had an opportunity of seeing alive the Cicada. It is like a very large fly, an inch at least in length, and thick in proportion, with four fine transparent wings, and a spot of shining reddish purple on its head, which is large and flat. P. 247.

Here we shall take our leave of Mr. Hog. He has drawn up a sketch, which is light and agreeable, though not frivolous. He had to deal with an exhausted subject; nor could he be profound in a small volume. We warn him against using *however* so often.

138. Historic Sketch of the Parish Church of Wakefield. By the Rev. J. L. Sisson, A.M. Large and small 4to. pp. 114.

THE Parish Church of Wakefield, which has lately attracted more general notice on account of the Musical Festivals of 1821 and the present year, well deserves this illustration of its history and architectural beauty. The author, who has been long resident there, has already appeared before the public in a useful little publication on the Elements of Saxon Grammar, from a provincial press

(Leeds);

1824.]

REVIEW.—Hog's Tour in Italy.

*Pilgrimage*—‘ It was anything but poetry—it had been condemned by a good critic—had I not myself seen the sentences on the margins of the manuscript?’”

Childe Harold, with all its moral faults, is beyond a doubt the great work of Lord Byron. No one, after reading it, can deny him to be a Poet. Yet was this production the ruin of his Lordship's mind. “The rapidity of the sale of the Poem,” says Mr. Dallas, “its reception, and the elation of the author's feelings were unparalleled.” This elation of feeling was the out-breaking of an inordinate vanity which had at last found its food, and which led him in the riotous intoxication of his passions to break down all the fences of morality, and to trample on every thing that restrained his excesses. Mr. Dallas rendered him essential service, by persuading him to omit some very blamable stanzas: and when he could not prevail on him to strike out all that was irreligious, he entered a written *Protest* against certain passages. This protest, which is a very curious document, is preserved in p. 124 of the volume before us. Probably Lord Byron grew weary of such lecturing; for in a few years he dropped his intimacy with Mr. Dallas, and fell into other hands, which only accelerated his degradation.

It certainly does appear that Mr. Dallas, from the first to the last of his intimacy with Lord Byron, did every thing that a friend, with the feelings of a parent, could do to win his Lordship to the cause of virtue, but unhappily in vain.

The concluding chapter of this book is written by Mr. Dallas, jun. to whom his father on his death-bed confided the task of closing these “Recollec-tions.” This Gentleman’s reflections on the decided and lamentable turn which the publication of Childe Harold gave to Lord Byron’s character, are forcible and just.

137. *Tour on the Continent in France, Switzerland, and Italy, in the Years 1817 and 1818.* By Roger Hog, Esq. 8vo. pp. 259.

IN our accounts of Travels, we wish to take notice of curiosities, and shall adopt this rule in the work before us. At Aix, horses are taken into the baths for bathing (p. 34). In travelling up the Valais not only persons afflicted

with the goitre, or glandular swelling under the throat, but *idiots* likewise, are very numerous (62). In Italy, the cot-tages are almost concealed with vines and creeping plants (65). At the palace of the Isola Bella, is a laurel, as large a full-grown forest tree, on the bark of which Buonaparte had carved his ini-tials with a knife just before the battle of Marengo, and which are still re-maining (67). At Milan the opera-house is built upon the site of a church (75). A puppet-show is the great amusement of the lower orders all over Italy (75). The Dome of the Cathe-dral at Florence is *covered with tiles* (89). At Bolsena is broom almost as high as forest trees (103).

Mr. Hog, on his arrival at Rome, makes the following remark concern-ing the Altar of St. Peter's.

“Beautiful as the interior of the Church is, on looking from the altar to the East end, by which you enter it, and which, in Gothic Churches, from the large window of painted glass, generally placed there, is frequently the grandest part of the Church; I must confess the inferiority of the Grecian architecture, compared with the Gothic in this part of the edifice.” P. 111.

“In my opinion the exterior of St. Paul's, taken altogether, is finer than that of St. Peter's, though I certainly must give the preference to the dome of the latter.” P. 112.

For our parts, without disputing the grandeur, we could never divest ourselves of the idea of being in the interior of a cavern when under the dome of St. Paul's, and certainly had no thoughts of being in a Church. It appears to us something consistent with Egypt, or an enormous mine; and alone proper to the massy architecture of the country mentioned, even the Doric being too light for such a stupendous room. We speak according to our feelings, which are, that neither the Roman or English Church are, as to plan, in the purest taste. We think them both pyramids, of the various parts of Grecian architecture, placed unnaturally upon each other for effect and display, like tumblers standing upon each others' shoulders, with a boy at top—of course, we think, that there is a whimsicalness in the patterns of both.

Mr. Hog, speaking of the Pope's servants, says, that

“Their costume resembles exactly one of the knaves in a pack of cards; red, yellow,

ther a weight.—In several commercial cities situated on the
a-coast, Serapis was worshipped as the patron of maritime
affic and of maritime adventurers. His original station, accord-
ing to Polybius, was on the coast of the Propontis, where Jason
said to have sacrificed to him when he went on the Argonautic
expedition. From thence his image was brought to Sinope in
Pontus, where it was characterised by emblems of plenty and
aval trophies; and Ptolemy Soter introduced his worship into
Egypt in order to counteract the superstitious prejudices of the
egyptians to a seafaring life. This seems to add to the argu-
ents in favor of Serapis being a deity foreign to Egypt, and as
he was reputed the god of the nether world, or the sun after his
escent into the southern hemisphere, we have no difficulty in
ecognising in this personification, Bacchus, the universal god of
antiquity. Bochart says that Mercury (a name common among
the Romans for Bacchus) is of the same import with Canaan,
which signifies Mercator; Hermes, his usual Greek appellative,
signifying interpreter. This favors the opinion of the Roman
origin of Libra, considered as a representation of the god of
raffic. It is probable that the representation of Libra in the
zodiac of the Porch of Dendera is among the most ancient in
existence. Now the date of this zodiac seems to be ascertained
from the following inscription on the Temple, copied by
Denon.¹

On account of the Emperor Cæsar, God, the son of Jupiter the deli-
verer, when Publius Octavius, being governor, Marcus Claudius Posthu-
nus, commander-in-chief, and Typhon, general, the deputies of the Me-
ropolis consecrated, in virtue of the law, the propylæum to Isis the
greatest of the goddesses, and to the associated gods of the temple in the
31st year of Cæsar.

I am unable at present to state from direct proofs, under what
emperor these officers served, but there can be no doubt that it
was under Augustus, as none other of the emperors, down to
Antoninus, the successor of Adrian, inclusive, held the sove-
gency for more than 23 years. As Augustus in the decline of

who taught to *buy and sell*; the probability is, that the symbol in this dodecatemeron is indicative of Bacchus, as the god of traffic, derived to the Romans through the Etruscans, from whom it appears they acquired the rudiments of their arts and sciences.

Mr. Pinkerton in another part of his *Essay on Medals*³ informs us, that

No coins are found which can be even imagined to belong to the Assyrian, Median, or Babylonian kings, their empire, though rich in itself, being unknown in commerce. The oldest coins found in their empire are palpably Persian and similar to the Greek. The Phœnicians, a people famous for their early civilisation, appear not to have coined money, till after the Greeks had set the example. No Phœnician coins are older probably than the year 400, B. C. From Scripture it also appears that weight alone was used in the cities of Tyre and Sidon; nor is there a hint in any ancient writer, of coins peculiar to, or at all used by them. In Egypt coinage was unknown; not a coin with a hieroglyphic is to be found in that country. India appears not to have any claim to the early use of coinage. It was the ancient Greek and Roman coins which flowed into it with the stream of commerce. Upon the whole the Lydian coins seem to be the most ancient in Asia.

From this statement then it would appear, that, as all civil institutions, as well as the rudiments of the arts and sciences, were said to be derived originally from the gods, the Lydians have the best claim to the tutelar deity of commerce, and thus, whether *Harpocrates* in this sign be considered as the god of silence, or the god of traffic, he is decidedly foreign to Egypt. The first shape in which money appeared, was certainly that of pieces of metal without any stated form or impression, but merely regulated to a certain weight. But it is well known that weight continued the standard of money after the invention coinage, and that down even to the Saxon period of England, all large sums were paid in weight. With us, weight is now applied to each particular piece, and that only in gold; whereas with the ancients weight was applied to the sum total; to silver as well as to gold, and in several instances to brass. The S