improvements, matters not: they have been submitted to the reader, in Mr. Ashby's own words :-and the defects. in our public walks, leading, by an association of ideas, to other defects, I should have been in danger of pursuing the subject still further, could improvements have been suggested as readily. But of evils, which scarcely admit of a remedy, it is fruitless to complain. Narrow, strait streets, and the paucity of genteel houses, for occasional residents, in a town with an excellent market, near which are such fine roads and walks, for daily exercise, and in which is an university, where a gentleman might sometimes like to superintend the education of his son, these are evils; but how will you remedy them?

Reverse, then, the picture, and consider the many real improvements made within a few years: little more than fifty years ago, the roads about Cambridge were very bad, some scarcely passable: they are now some of the best in England. Milestones, that great convenience, were first used on these roads: within a very few years back the town has been well paved and lighted. Contrast it as now seen with what it was in the time of Erasmus, who talks of taking a ride round the market place for exercise. In all directions from the town, east, west, north, and south, you have now neat and agreeable walks; and on the west of the public walks you are beginning to have other walks agreeably planted :—so let us leave our university walks and public improvements. And let poor Cam still awaken some agreeable recollections, and plaintive feelings to those who have mused on his banks.

Qualis eram cum me tranquilla mente sedentem
Vidisti in Ripa, Came serene, tua.

Cowley.

CHAP. III.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

THOSE who take the range of the walks will, from different points of sight, have had a glance of several of our public buildings; and an occasion will present itself hereafter of speaking concerning particular colleges: we shall then only survey the square, adjoining the public walks and we can but drop hints without minuteness of detail, or much formality of ichnographical description.

Leaving the public walks, to the west, you enter the grand square near King's College. The best point of sight will be two or three yards on the north side of St. Mary's, where, with that of other buildings, you have the completest home view that can be taken of the different parts of KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL. From the very nature of the building, it no where appears to advantage in a distant prospect: Cambridge itself, too, by its situation, is little qualified for an imposing view; and from this point of sight you have an opportunity of remarking the objection that has been made to the construction of the buttresses, which leave at the bottom of King's Cha

pel the idea of an internal, enclosed cloister a. It, however, no doubt, arises from that necessity to which every thing must yield: but a more proper place is left for a description of this inimitable building.

From this point, taking in view the whole square, it will be agreeable to an eye, that can look properly at objects, to observe no mixture of brick and stone. The different ranges of these buildings all displaying one hue of white, without any glare of red. The Senate House is built of Portland stone, and constructed according to the Corinthian order. Four fluted pillars support a rich pediment, and are accompanied with eight pilasters, the north and south fronts having nine windows above and eight below the pediment is much ornamented; and above is a fine balustrade. The eastern front has three windows at top, and two at bottom: the elevation and fine proportions of this building are universally admired.

It has been thought by some, on a survey of the whole façade, that this building is more decorated than was requisite or is agreeable. The Corinthian order requires ornament, but it certainly may be overcharged. The superabundance of windows, too, in the north and south fronts has been frequently observed; and the correctness of the observations will appear, by comparing with them the eastern front, which has not, I apprehend, the same appearance, from being so much shorter, though its proportions, in windows, columns, and intercolumniations, are the same. Here the effect is more pleasing, at least; and the beauty and perfection of this front have received unmingled praise. In Gothic buildings, the

* Mr. Dallaway's Observations on English Architecture.

great variety of windows has a happy effect on the inside perspective, for they have within arches and pillars, by which the rays of light are reflected, and intermingled, so as to produce something like picturesqueness to the sight: in Grecian buildings, without those accompaniments, the light is apt to be too glaring. It may be observed, too, that the interior of this fine building is not so well calculated to shew to advantage a grand assemblage of company on public occasions, like the Installation, as the Amphitheatre at Oxford. But waving these matters, the architectural skill displayed in the building is greatly admired, and the effect wonderfully fine. Here the degrees are taken, and the public business of the University is transacted.

The statues on the inside have been so often described, that I think it unnecessary to go over the same ground. They have been generally considered as very fine pieces of sculpture: the least to be admired, the STATUE OF GLORY, has been lately removed: this, as being that of the presiding genius, in a temple, where literary honours are conferred on the votaries of science, ought to have been of the best design, and the most perfect execution. To supply its place, a very beautiful statue, of white marble, has been erected, to the memory of Mr. Pitt, the late prime minister, representative of the University, and formerly of Pembroke Hall. Mr. Pitt is in an erect posture, and in his Master of Arts gown, as in the. act of addressing a great assembly. I cannot help noticing two lines, written by a lady, on the occasion:

Sons of Sapience, you here a fair emblem display,

For wherever Pitt went he drove Glory away,

But audi alteram partem. The following lines were written by a member of the University.

Why thus exclaim, and thus exert your wit,
At making Glory here give place to Pitt?
We'll raise his Statue of the finest stone,
For never here a brighter Glory shone.

Upon the eastern side of the square stands St. Mary's church, to which the University resort on Sundays and other sacred days. The Supreme Being dwelleth not in temples made with hands: religion only concerns the conscience and the heart: so no religious affections are concerned in the name, the order, and style of the building.

Which of the Grecian orders is the best, or whether the Saxon or the Gothic is more appropriate; of the several Gothic styles, which is to be preferred; whether English architecture should be simply considered, chronologically, without referring to any Gothic original; or whether, finally, our Saxon ancestors worshipped God in houses of wood or of stoneb; (a question that has

a It was brought from Carrara, and cost Mr. Nollekins, the statuary, more than 300 guineas.

b That our British ancestors built their churches, as their houses, of wood, appears from the model in Spelman's Brit. Concil. vol. i. p. 11. But the Saxons in this island very early raised their churches of stone, formed out of heathen temples; and the first Saxon churches that were built by them were also after the Roman style, more Romano, of stone with round arches, and the addition of some fantastic ornaments of their own. This clearly appears from Ducarel's Norman Antiquities, p. 100, 101, and of many we have still remains. What our learned antiquary, Mr. Somner, says, is certainly a mistake: "Before the Norman's Advent, most of our monasteries and church buildings were of wood." The Antiquities of Canterbury, p. 156. But this subject is treated of at large in Mr. Bentham's History of ELY CATHEDRAL. That curious re