receive the top part, containing the drawers, doors, &c., and is
constructed in a peculiar manner on the bevel, that the eye may easily
rest on some beautiful lines from Thomson's Seasons. Over the head of
Youth, in this frame, is a basket of strawberries, cherries,
raspberries, and early fruit, surrounded with leaf work, enclosing a
panel of needlework, covered with bent plate glass, and the motto,--
"------ Chief, lovely Spring,
In these and thy soft scenes the smiling God is seen."
Then follows the carved figure representing Summer. Over the head of it
is a basket, containing currants, strawberries, gooseberries, apples,
pears, peaches, and other fruits, enriched with leaf work, the lily and
the rose completing the centre. Between the Summer and Autumn baskets
and a panel are the following mottoes, each season having one:--
"Child of the sun! refulgent Summer comes,
In pride of youth;
While Autumn, nodding o'or the yellow plain,
Comes jovial on."
Then follows the Autumn basket, containing grapes, pears, filberts, &c.,
surrounded with leaf work. The panel of needlework next appears for
Winter, with these lines:--
"See! Winter comes to rule the varied year,
Sullen and sad;"
and over the head of the Winter figure is placed a basket of walnuts,
medlars, &c. Here is the frame of the cabinet, which contains about
eighty drawers in fine walnut wood, enriched with fuschia drops in
silver, and coral beads for drop handles; the wood work is relieved with
silvered plate glass; also small doors with plate glass for needlework,
in wild flowers. This completes the interior of the frame.
The exterior represents three carved doors, in fine relief: over Spring
and Summer is the convolvulus, entwined round the frame; then follows
the centre door, in fine relief--the grape vine, full of fruit, being
very prominent. The door over Autumn and Winter is enriched with
carvings of barley and hop vine. Between each of these doors are
pilasters, forming four female figures, holding in their hands the
emblems of the seasons, and a newly-invented glass dome head, in an
elegant form, for the protection of knitted flowers in Berlin wool. The
wood work is tastefully arranged, springing from each group of flowers
over the heads of the female figures, with mouldings to receive the
bent plate glass, and is enriched with fine carvings of fruit and
flowers. At the extreme top of this glass dome stands a beautiful figure
of Peace, with extended wings, bending over the globe, holding in one
hand the olive branch, and with the other pointing to the Deity.
Having thus given a description of the carvings of this splendid
cabinet, let me turn your attention to the enrichments in needlework,
worked on black velvet, from nature, by Miss Kingsbury. The mottoes in
frame for the different seasons are worked in floss silk of various
colors; the inside doors--five in number--with wild flowers; and in
front are rich specimens of raised embroidery, extending to the inside,
and protected with plate glass. Miss Kingsbury is a young lady of
Taunton, who has made this kind of work her peculiar forte.
Above the doors, also, are knitted flowers in Berlin wools, which fill
the dome head, and are protected with bent plate glass. Almost every
flower, as they bloom, are to be distinguished in these rich bouquets,
with which the honeysuckle and passion flower are beautifully entwined.
Now, what think you of such a cabinet as this? Well, Charley, there are
scores and scores of objects as much deserving a full description as
this.
The department of machinery and steam power is entirely beyond my
ability to speak of in proper terms. I have little mechanical genius,
and I never am more out of my element than When surrounded by fly
wheels, cylinders, and walking beams.
If our friend Ike had been here, lie would have been perfectly at home;
and his pleasure and profit in this department would have surpassed any
I could experience. I have only glanced at a few of the wonderful things
in this wonderful place, and yet I have far exceeded the bounds of an
ordinary letter.
Yours affectionately,
J.O.C.
Letter 17.
LONDON.
DEAR CHARLEY:--
One evening this week we spent very pleasantly at the Royal Polytechnic
Institution for the advancement of the arts and sciences in connection
with agriculture and manufactures. There is a large theatre, where all
sorts of lectures are delivered, at various hours, upon philosophical
and other subjects. Lecturers occupy the theatre in succession, and take
up about half an hour. These are generally men of respectable abilities.
The building is full of curiosities. We saw the model of the human ear,
about one hundred and forty times larger than the natural organ. We saw
a diving bell in the great hall, which is frequently put into action,
and visitors are allowed to descend. That evening several made the
experiment. The interior of the bell is lighted by thick plate glass. A
very large number of models are to be seen, and there is much to
interest the spectator. We heard a fine lecture respecting the
experiment of Foucault, by which the diurnal rotation of the earth is
said to be rendered visible to the eye. Foucault is a young Parisian,
who, whilst engaged in some investigations with a pendulum in his
mother's cellar, made this discovery, as he claims it to be. We saw the
experiment repeated here on the same scale as it has recently been shown
at the Pantheon at Paris. A brass sphere, weighing about five pounds,
was suspended from the lofty ceiling by a piece of music wire, and made
to vibrate in one plane over a table graduated into degrees. After a few
vibrations, the direction of the pendulum appeared to be changed, as
though the table had moved round on its owns axis.
We passed an hour at the Egyptian Hall to see the opening of the
American Panorama of the Overland Route to California. It bids fair to
make a hit in London. Last Sunday, "great exhibition" sermons were
abundant in London. Exeter Hal, the largest place in London, holding
about five thousand persons, is to be used for three months for the
performance of divine service, to accommodate the strangers who crowd
the city. We all went, Sunday evening, and heard the Rev. Thomas Binney,
who has quite a reputation. The hall was as full as it could be, but we
did not think the discourse as good as it might be. It was rather
declamatory.
You no doubt remember how much our curiosity was excited by hearing that
Mr. Wyld was about to place a model of the globe, of gigantic
dimensions, in the great exhibition. Well, he was unable to obtain the
space required, and so he has erected a spacious building in Leicester
Square. This building is circular, with projecting entrances at the four
cardinal points of the compass. From the centre rises a graceful dome.
Here is placed the model of the earth, fifty-six feet in diameter. The
scale is about ten miles to an inch. The arrangement before used in the
construction of globes is reversed in this case, and the continents,
islands, and seas are seen on the _inner_ surface. This seems like
turning the world, not upside down, but inside out. The mountains and
land are elevated to a scale. The spectators travel round the globe on
winding staircases, at the distance of a few feet from the surface. I
went the other morning to the model, but was far less interested than I
expected. The rest of the party were not present, and are willing to
take my report. I heard that Mr. Wyld has spent twelve thousand pounds
upon his undertaking.
We selected a fine afternoon to visit the Zooelogical Gardens in the
Regent's Park, and, of course, had a treat. I did not think much of the
gardens as far as the horticulture was concerned; but the collection of
animals was far beyond any thing I had before witnessed. There are more
than sixteen hundred specimens. The animals are finely housed, and their
habits consulted in the arrangements of their homes. We had the pleasure
to see the young elephant, only six months old, which had just been
received. It was about the size of a donkey. A hippopotamus had recently
been added to the collection, and we were sadly vexed not to see it. It
was shut up at six o'clock, just as we reached its house. George had his
luck, and obtained a glimpse of the retiring quadruped. We have been
greatly amused with the sight of hundreds of boys about town, dressed in
blue gowns, or long coats with belts, short knee breeches, yellow
stockings, and shoes with tackles, but wear no caps or hats. In all
weathers they are bareheaded. I find that they are the boys belonging to
Christ's Hospital, a school founded by Edward VI., in 1553, and
generally known in London as the Blue Coat School. The scholars
generally range from one thousand to twelve hundred. The education, is
said to be of the best character, and many of the boys belong to
families of high respectability, and it is quite a matter of desire to
obtain scholarship here. They look very funny in their old-fashioned
rig. Each boy wears bands like a clergyman. The school is in Newgate
Street, and is a fine modern edifice in the Tudor style. The front is
flanked by towers, and has eight noble windows, which are separated by
buttresses. Over one of the galleries of the hall is a fine picture, by
Holbein, of Edward VI. granting the charter to the Hospital, as it was
then called. Some of the best scholars of England were educated here;
and we remembered particularly Coleridge and our special favorite,
Charles Lamb.
To-morrow we are to have a treat of the highest kind. We are to spend
the day at Windsor. I feel pretty well acquainted with its history and
associations, but I shall spend the evening with George in brushing up
my information. There is nothing more unpleasant than to find yourself
in the presence of things and places of which you painfully feel an
entire ignorance. If ever we meet again, how much we shall have to chat
over on our favorite topics!
Yours always,
JAMES.
Letter 18.
LONDON.
DEAR CHARLEY:--
It was a fine, clear morning when we started for Windsor by railroad, a
distance of twenty-one miles. The country is fine; but our thoughts were
on the castle. At Slough we took an omnibus, and rode into the town. It
is a pretty, quiet place, of about ten thousand inhabitants. There are
some six or seven streets, and they present but few attractions. The
castle is every thing. You know this has been the favorite residence of
most of the English monarchs, and the scene of many a tournament in the
days of chivalry. The castle was the work of William the Conqueror. John
lived at Windsor while Magna Charta was extorted from him by his barons
at Runnymede. Henry III. did a great deal to the castle, but Edward III.
invested it with its great glory. This was his native place. The
architect he employed was the famous William of Wykeham, Bishop of
Winchester, a man of great genius. He built the noble round tower. This
was in 1315. Wykeham built him a palace worthy of the hero and his noble
son, the Black Prince. Edward IV. built St. George's Chapel, and Henry
VII. and Henry VIII. both made important additions to the fortress.
Young Edward VI. resided here, and did not like its retirement and
gloom. Elizabeth made the terrace and other improvements. When Charles
II. was restored, he brought a foreign taste to the improvement of the
castle, and a great deal of elegancy was attempted, but which poorly
harmonized with the Gothic, baronial style of Wykeham's works.
George IV. was a man of exquisite taste, and he employed Sir Jeffry
Wyatville to carry out the plans of Edward III. and his architect. This
was in 1824, and his immense labors have been successful. These
improvements cost two million pounds sterling. I ought to say that
Windsor Castle was the favorite home of George III., who died here. This
palace stands on a lofty chalk hill, and commands the valley of the
Thames. Around it is the finest, terrace in the world, the descent from
which is faced with a rampart of freestone extending about seventeen
hundred feet. The whole building occupies about twelve acres.
I shall not describe all the towers, for there are some dozen or
fifteen. The round tower of Edward III. is the chief one. Here he
revived the round table of King Arthur, and established the Order of the
Garter. From the battlements of this strong fortress you gaze upon no
less than twelve counties. Prince Albert is constable of this tower.
This was the old prison, or donjon of the castle. Here James I. of
Scotland was a prisoner, and here he wrote his sweet verses and
celebrated Nature's beauties and the praises of his lady-love, Jane
Beaufort. Here, too, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, long suffered, and
sung the sweetest lays. We had a ticket to see the state apartments.
Suffice it to say that we went through the Queen's Audience Chamber, the
Vandyke Room, the Queen's State Drawing Boom or Zuccharelle Room, the
State Ante-Room, the Grand Staircase and Vestibule, the Waterloo
Chamber, the Grand Ball Room, St. George's Hall, the Guard Chamber, the
Queen's Presence Chamber. All these are very, very beautiful. I was
delighted with the Vandyke Room. Here are twenty-two undoubted
productions of this greatest of portrait painters. Charles I. and
Henrietta were favorite subjects with the artist. Here are several of
them and their children, and they are to be found elsewhere. The
equestrian portrait of Charles I. is a truly grand picture. You know the
beautiful old copy, of a cabinet size, which we have in the study at
home: it will please me more than ever, since I know how faithful it is.
That queen of Charles's who made him so much trouble with her Popery and
temper was a wonderfully beautiful woman. I should not soon be weary
looking at her portrait. She was daughter of Henry IV. of France. Her
fortune was hard, to lose a father by an assassin, and a husband by the
executioner. The Gobelin tapestry, illustrating the life of Esther, in
the Audience Room, is very rich. In the State Ante-Room are the most
wonderful carvings of fowl, fish, fruit, and flowers, by Grinling
Gibbons. They are thought to be unsurpassed in this department of art.
On the Great Staircase is a noble colossal marble statue, of that
excellent sovereign, but bad man, George IV. It is by Chantrey. The
Waterloo Chamber is adorned with thirty-eight portraits of men connected
with Waterloo, and twenty-nine of them are by Sir Thomas Lawrence. St.
George's Hall is two hundred feet long, thirty-four wide, thirty-two
high, and contains some fine portraits of sovereigns by Vandyke, Lely,
Kneller, Gainsborough, and Lawrence. On twenty-four shields are the arms
of each sovereign of the Order of the Garter, from Edward III. to
William IV. The Guard Chamber is a noble room, eighty feet in length.
Immediately on entering, we were struck with the colossal bust of Nelson
by Chantrey, A piece of the mast of the Victory, shot through by a
cannon ball, forms its fitting pedestal. Here, too, we saw the busts of
the great Duke of Marlborough by Rysbach, and the Duke of Wellington by
Chantrey, and their two banners, by the annual presentation of which to
the reigning sovereign, on the anniversaries of Blenheim and Waterloo,
they hold the estates of Blenheim and Strathfieldsaye. There are figures
in armor representing the Duke of Brunswick, 1530; Lord Howard, 1588;
Earl of Essex, 1596; Charles I., when Prince of Wales, 1620; and Prince
Rupert, 1635. These suits of armor are the genuine ones which were worn
by these characters in their lifetime. One thing greatly delighted
me--it was the gorgeous shield, executed by Benvenuto Cellini, and
presented by Francis I. to Henry VIII. at the Field of the Cloth of
Gold. The workmanship is entirely beyond anything I had imagined
possible for delicacy of finish. I hardly wonder that kings used to
quarrel for the residence of this artist.
I know, Charley, you are impatient to hear about St. George's Chapel, of
which you have so often expressed your admiration, when we have looked
at the beautiful engravings of its interior, at home. It is very fine,
and should be seen to be comprehended. It is of what is called the
perpendicular Gothic style. The interior is divided by a screen and
organ gallery, into the body of the church, and the choir. These have
side aisles, and in these are five separate little chapels. Two of these
make up the place of transepts, and the other three, and the chapter
house, form abutments at each angle of the chapel. Now, I think, you
can't fail to get an idea of the building.
The choir is filled with the stalls and banners of the knights of the
garter. Each knight has his banner, helmet, crest, and sword.
The great pointed window was _designed_ by our countryman, Benjamin
West. The altar-piece was painted by West. Here is the tomb of Edward
IV., 1483. He lies under a slab of black marble. In 1789, some workmen
discovered his lead coffin, and it was opened, and the skeleton was in
good preservation, and measured seven feet in length. Horace Walpole
obtained a lock of his hair at this time. Here are the graves of Henry
VI., and of Henry VIII. and his queen, Jane Seymour. Also of Charles I.
Lord Byron says of Henry VIII.'s tomb,
"Famed for contemptuous breach of sacred ties,
By headless Charles, see heartless Henry lies"
On the 1st of April, 1813, the coffin of Charles I. was found in Henry
VIII.'s tomb; and I think you will be pleased with an account of what,
transpired. I shall, therefore, copy a paper which is authentic:
"On completing the mausoleum which his present majesty has built in the
Tomb House, as it is called, it was necessary to form a passage to it
from under the choir of St George's Chapel. In constructing this
passage, an aperture was made accidentally, in one of the walls of the
vault of King Henry VIII., through which the workmen were enabled to
see, not only the two coffins which were supposed to contain the bodies
of King Henry VIII. and Queen Jane Seymour, but a third also, covered
with a black velvet pall, which, from Mr. Herbert's narrative, might
fairly be presumed to hold the remains of King Charles I.
"On representing the circumstance to the Prince Regent, his Royal
Highness perceived at once that a doubtful point in history might be
cleared up by opening this vault; and, accordingly, his Royal Highness
ordered an examination to be made on the first convenient opportunity.
This was done on the 1st of April last, 1813,--the day after the funeral
of the Duchess of Brunswick,--in the presence of his Royal Highness
himself; who guarantied, thereby, the most respectful care and attention
to the remains of the dead during the inquiry. His Royal Highness was
accompanied by his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, Count Munster,
the Dean of Windsor, Benjamin Charles Stevenson, Esq., and Sir Henry
Halford.
"The vault is covered by an arch half a breadth in thickness; is seven
feet two inches in width, nine feet six inches in length, and four feet
ten inches in height, and _is situated in the centre of the choir,
opposite the eleventh knight's stall, on the sovereign's side_.
"On removing the pall, a plain leaden coffin, with no appearance of
ever having been enclosed in wood, and bearing an inscription, 'King
Charles, 1648,' in large, legible characters, on a scroll of lead
encircling it, immediately presented itself to the view. A square
opening was then made in the upper part of the lid, of such dimensions
as to admit a clear insight into its contents. These were an internal
wooden coffin, very much decayed, and the body carefully wrapped up in
cerecloth, into the folds of which a quantity of unctuous or greasy
matter, mixed with resin, as it seemed, had been melted, so as to
exclude, as effectually as possible, the external air. The coffin was
completely full, and, from-the tenacity of the cerecloth, great
difficulty was experienced in detaching it successfully from the parts
which it developed. Wherever the unctuous matter had insinuated itself,
the separation of the cerecloth was easy; and when it came off, a
correct impression of the features to which it had been applied was
observed in the unctuous substance. At length the whole face was
disengaged from its covering. The complexion of the skin of it was dark
and discolored. The forehead and temples had lost little or nothing of
their muscular substance. The cartilage of the nose was gone, but the
left eye, in the first moment of exposure, was open and full, though it
vanished almost immediately; and the pointed beard, so characteristic of
the reign of King Charles, was perfect The shape of the face was a long
oval. Many of the teeth remained, and the left ear, in consequence of
the interposition of some unctuous matter between it and the cerecloth,
was found entire. It was difficult at this moment to withhold a
declaration, that, notwithstanding its disfigurement, the countenance
did bear a strong resemblance to the coins, the busts, and especially to
the picture of King Charles I. by Vandyke, by which it had been made
familiar to us. It is true that the minds of the spectators of this
interesting sight were well prepared to receive this impression; but it
is also certain that such a facility of belief had been occasioned by
the simplicity and truth of Mr. Herbert's narrative, every part of which
had been confirmed by the investigation, so far as it had advanced; and
it will not be denied that the shape of the face, the forehead, an eye,
and the beard, are the most important features by which resemblance is
determined. When the head had been entirely disengaged from the
attachments which confined it; it was found to be loose, and without any
difficulty was taken up and held to view. It was quite _wet_, and gave a
greenish-red tinge to paper and linen which touched it. The back part of
the scalp was entirely perfect, and had a remarkably fresh
appearance--the pores of the skin being more distinct, as they usually
are when soaked in moisture, and the tendons and ligaments of the neck
were of considerable substance and firmness. The hair was thick at the
back part of the head, and, in appearance, nearly black. A portion of
it, which has since been cleaned and dried, is of a beautiful dark-brown
color. That of the beard was of a redder brown. On the back part of the
head it was about an inch in length, and had probably been cut so short
for the convenience of the executioner, or, perhaps, in order to furnish
memorials of the unhappy king. On holding up the head to examine the
place of separation from the body, the muscles of the neck had evidently
retracted themselves considerably, and the fourth cervical vertebra was
found to be cut through its substance transversely, leaving the surfaces
of the divided portions perfectly smooth and even; an appearance which
could only have been produced by a heavy blow, inflicted with a very
sharp instrument, and which furnished the last proof wanting to identify
Charles I. After this examination, which served every purpose in view,
and without examining the body below the neck; it was immediately
restored to its situation, the coffin was soldered up again, and the
vault closed."
This state of things precisely tallied with the account which Herbert,
the faithful servant of Charles, had given as to the place of his
sepulture.
In this chapel, too, is the cenotaph of the late Princess Charlotte,
who was wife to Leopold, now King of Belgium. I do not much admire it.