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ceded those constructed upon mechanical principles; of which, I believe, there are no examples anterior to the Macedonian conquest *. The ornaments of this monastic Gothic consist of indiscriminate imitations of almost every kind of plant and animal, scattered with licentious profusion, and without any pre-established rule or general principle; but often with just taste and feeling, as to the effect to be produced. No part of the interior of King's chapel is unornamented; and though the ornaments, considered with reference to parts only, often appear crowded, capricious, and unmeaning, yet the effect of the whole together is more rich, grand, light, and airy, than that of any other building known, either ancient or modern.

40. The system of regularity, of which the moderns have been so tenacious in the plans of their country houses, was taken from the sacred, and not from the domestic architecture of the ancients; from buildings, of which the forms were prescribed by the religion, to which they were consecrated; and which, as far as they

*The gates of Pæstum and the Cloaca maxima of Rome, said to have been built by the first Tarquin, may seem exceptions; but the gates now remaining are probably those of the Roman colony, not of the old Greek city Posidonia; and the Cloaca may have been altered or rebuilt more than once in later times. See Mr. King's very elaborate researches on the subject, in his Munimenta Antiqua. Vol. II. p. 223-73, and Vol. IV. Introd.

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were meant to be ornamental, were intended to adorn streets and squares, rather than parks or gardens. The Greek temples were, almost always, of an oblong square; and, as the cells were, in general, small and simple, their magnificence was displayed in the lofty and spacious colonnades, which surrounded them; consisting, sometimes of single, and sometimes of double rows of pillars; which, by the richness and variety of their effects, contributed, in the highest degree, to embellish and adorn the cities; and, by excluding the sun and rain, and admitting the air, afforded the most grateful walks to the inhabitants: where those, who could afford to be idle, passed the greatest part of their time in discussing the common topics of business or pleasure, politics or philosophy.

41. These regular structures being the only monuments of ancient taste and magnificence in architecture, that remained, at the resurréction of the arts, in a state sufficiently entire to be perfectly understood, the revivers of the Grecian style copied it servilely from them, and applied it indiscriminately to country, as well as town houses: but, as they felt its incongruity with the surrounding scenery of unimproved and unperverted nature, they endeavoured to make that conform to it, as far as it was within their reach, or under their control. Hence probably arose the Italian style

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of gardening; though other causes, which will be hereafter noticed, may have co-operated,

42. Since the introduction of another style of ornamental gardening, called at first oriental, and afterwards landscape gardening (probably from its efficacy in destroying all picturesque composition) Grecian temples have been employed as decorations by almost all persons, who could afford to indulge their taste in objects so costly: but, though executed, in many instances, on a scale and in a manner suitable to the design, disappointment has, I believe, been invariably the result. Nevertheless they are unquestionably beautiful, being exactly copied from those models, which have stood the criticism of many successive ages, and been constantly beheld with delight and admiration. In the rich lawns and shrubberies of England, however, they lose all that power to please which they so eminently possess on the barren hills of Agrigentum and Segesta, or the naked plains of Pæstum and Athens. But barren and naked as these hills and plains are, they are still, if I may say so, their native hills and plains the scenery, in which they sprang; and in which the mind, therefore, contemplates them connected and associated with numberless interesting circumstances, both local and historical-both physical and moral, upon which it delights to dwell. In our parks and gardens,

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on the contrary, they stand wholly unconnected with all that surrounds them-mere unmeaning excrescences; or, what is worse, manifestly meant for ornament, and therefore having no accessory character, but that of ostentatious vanity: so that, instead of exciting any interest, they vitiate and destroy that, which the naturalized objects of the country connected with them would otherwise excite. Even if the landscape scenery should be rendered really beautiful by such ornaments, its beauty will be that of a vain and affected coquette; which, though it may allure the sense, offends the understanding; and, on the whole, excites more disgust than pleasure. In all matters of this kind, the imagination must be conciliated before the eye can be delighted.

43. Many of the less important productions of ancient art; such as coins, &c. owe much of the interest, which they excite; and, consequently, much of the value, which they have acquired, to the same principle of association. Considered individually, as detached specimens of art, their value may seem inadequate to the prices sometimes paid for them: but, nevertheless, when viewed in a series, and considered as exhibiting genuine though minute examples of the rise, progress, perfection, and decay of imitative art, employed upon the noblest subjects, the images of gods, heroes, and princes,

among those nations, from which all excellence in art and literature is derived, they stand connected with subjects so interesting and important, that they become truly interesting and important themselves; as far at least as any objects of mere elegant taste and speculative study can be interesting and important. It is true, that, in this, as in all other pursuits of the kind, the province of taste and science has been sometimes usurped by vanity and affectation displayed in the silly desire of possessing, at any price, that which has no other merit than being rare but, nevertheless, I believe that instances of it are much less common, than they are generally supposed to be:-at least very few have come to my knowledge, during a very long and extensive acquaintance with such pursuits and their votaries, through most parts of Europe. As for the hacknied tales of Othos, &c. so often employed to ridicule collectors, they are, I believe, entirely fictitious; every collector, who has any knowledge of the subject, being well aware that no such coin as the Latin one of Otho, supposed to be the ultimate object of his hopes and desires, ever did exist; and as for those struck in the eastern provinces of the empire, they are neither rare nor valuable in any high degree. Rareness certainly adds to the value of that, which is in itself valuable and interesting, either as an object of taste or

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