true, have, like the French, generally disguised historical personages by what I should call anachronisms in costume. Thus we see the Charleses and the Jameses clothed in the Roman toga, and the royal perriwigs are disregarded; an omission very creditable to the taste of the artists. In our busts and statues of Louis XIV. the wig usually encircles the brow of the grand monarque.

There is, however, nothing offensive in the figure of Charles Fox, represented in a consular robe, in Bloomsbury-square; for there was a certain degree of Roman eloquence in the Parliamentary speeches of that leader of the opposition. He is represented seated, with his right arm extended and supporting Magna Charta. His name forms the only inscription on the pedestal. The countenance is said to present a striking resemblance to that of the distinguished statesman. The attitude is dignified and the statue, upon the whole, reflects great credit on the talent of Westmacott. In Russel-square, in a situation facing the monument of Fox, there is another statue, which also calls to mind one of those illustrious statesmen of ancient Rome, whose time was divided between the labours of the senate and the care of their Sabine farms. This statue represents the late Duke of Bedford, on a plough, and in the other holding some ears of corn. There are four emblematic figures of the Seasons at the pedestal of the monument, which is adorned with various rural attributes, in bas-relief.

with one hand resting

I shall take another opportunity of speaking of Westmacott and his rivals in sculpture.

LETTER XI.

TO M. C. NODIER.

MY DEAR CHARLES,

THOUGH rich in architecture, England has been obliged to acknowledge the still greater riches and comparative superiority of France in edifices of every style; but she has addressed to us a reproach which we may repeat without blushing, since your magnificent work has developed to us the poetry of our religious and historical monuments.

The English have said that they renounce the honour which has sometimes been claimed for them, of having been the inventors of the gothic architecture; but, it is affirmed that the English alone seek to preserve the monuments of Normandy, which have been doomed to destruction by the shameful and ignorant apathy of the French. It is observed that the English topographers, who, indeed, are for the most part a wretched class of writers, could never have risen up except among a people fondly attached to their native soil, and to every thing connected with their history. In France, on the contrary, all that revives the recollections of old times is regarded with indifference,

or even with hatred. In the opinion of the English, no work having for its object the celebration of the national edifices of France, would meet with success; and it is asserted that the task of describing the antiquities of France has devolved on the English. "We have not," they say, "either conceived or executed those noble pledges of the piety and magnificence of past ages; but while the inhabitants of the soil to which they belong, remain insensible to their beauty, we make them English property, as we have already done by the Alhambra and the Parthenon, the temples of Elora, and the sepulchres of Thebes, the mosques of Delhi, and the ruins of Palmyra.”

Such is the disgrace to which France may be exposed by the negligence of the ministers of his most Christian Majesty! Such are the consequences of consigning to government the task of erecting and preserving public monuments! The statues of Richard Coeur de Lion, and other kings of the race of the Plantagenets, remained buried in France near a well, and daily exposed to mutilation. Can it be true that an English artist, Mr. Stothard, was the first to call the attention of the minister of the interior to these outrages, and to solicit permission, in the name of his countrymen, to transport to the royal tombs of Westminster Abbey, the sacred monuments which were thus shamefully neglected? Is the French territory no longer worthy to contain the glorious depository of the ashes of the brave? Did it remain for Mr. Stothard to discover and restore to the tomb the head and the statue of

Clisson, the companion in arms of Dugueselin ? But at length Taylor, de Cailleux, and you my dear friend, have raised your voices, and have already expelled the mercenary bande-noir from several of our sacred temples. Thanks to your brilliant lithographic drawings and picturesque descriptions, we no longer regard as useless masses of stones, the architectural monuments which impart a moral physiognomy to our soil, and which, blending with beautiful landscape scenery, present the noblest combination of the works of nature and the productions of human genius.

In England, as in France, the epithet gothic became a term of contempt, while the rage prevailed for the almost exclusive imitations of Greek architecture. The people still respectfully kneeled down in the basilicks of their forefathers; but artists and amateurs despised those edifices, which display at once magnificence and grace. Conceding all their admirations to the most indif ferent imitators of the classic style, they became incapable of appreciating the fertility of imagination, the knowledge of human passions, and the genius required for the construction of those buildings whose splendour, ingenious mechanism, arches, tombs, painted windows, and well contrived lights, shadows, and perspective effects, excite sentiments of almost romantic piety. A classic traveller who, on his return from Athens, inspired with just admiration for all that he had seen in that cradle of the fine arts, but cherishing unjust contempt for all that was not the work of

Phidias, happened to visit the church of St. Ouen in the capital of Normandy. The imposing grandeur of the structure immediately filled him with religious veneration; but he nevertheless attempted to account for the sentiments he experienced by the strict application of the rules of ancient art. As if to justify his forced impartiality, he extolled the basilick of Rouen as a master-piece of symmetry, which proved, he said, that the architect, availing himself of former models, evinced exquisite judgment, combined with original genius and imagination.

In England the admirable talent of Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren completely faiied when they attempted the gothic style.

The Saxons brought rude imitations of Roman architecture from Italy to England. The Romans imparted a degree of grandeur, dignity, and even grace to the edifices which were built or repaired by them: Durham cathedral is one of these. But it was not until the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries that France furnished England with great models of gothic architecture. The Roman temples also produced an influence on the taste of some of the English architects of those ages.

Falaise, the birth-place of William the Conqueror, seems to have furnished a model for most of the fortified castles of England. The style of the Tudors, as it is called, which was at first applied to private houses, and then to public edifices, is but a copy of the modification to which French