KNOWLE THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. IX. KINGSTON ON THAMES. THE part of the river Thames to which we had conducted the reader in our last article, viz., the part contiguous to Hampton Court, presents a remarkably tortuous course, unfavourable to navigation, but greatly conducive to the picturesque appearance of its banks. A walk from Twickenham to Hampton, by the usual public road, would not exceed three miles, whereas by water the distance is seven or eight. The portion of the river included between Hampton and Kingston is known to the lovers of poetry as the scene of one of Pope's finest poems. A lady of distinguished beauty, Mrs. Arabella Fermor, while being rowed along the river with a party of friends, had a lock of her hair stealthily cut off by a gallant who formed one of the party: the incident was trifling, and gave cause for offence to the family of the lady, but on this trifle Pope founded a poem of exquisite beauty. Kingston, the next town to Hampton, but on the opposite side of the river, is one of the most ancient in this part of England. In the market-place of Kingston the Saxon monarchs of England used to be crowned, either on a raised platform in the open air, or in the church. Edward the elder, Athelstan, Edmund, Edred, Edwy, Edward the Martyr, and Ethelred, were thus crowned, between the years 900 and 978. Kingston was the scene of a romantic tale told by Hume the historian, relating to King Edwy and his Queen Elgiva, in which a knot of ambitious nobles effected the murder of the queen, after brutal violence, in revenge for a slight put upon them by the king and queen. Remote VOL. XIX. as was the period of these events, there seems to be proof that Kingston is the site of a town many centuries older, or at least of an encampment; for, on digging the foundation for a new bridge, a few years ago, several Roman military weapons, consisting of spear-heads and swords, of beautiful workmanship and in a good state of preservation, were discovered. About the same time also several human skeletons, with Roman ornaments lying near them, were discovered in a neighbouring field on the Surrey side of the river. In a former article we alluded to the conjectures which have been made respecting the probable passage of Cæsar over the river near Weybridge; but these discoveries have given rise to the opinion, that Cæsar, on quitting his encampment on Wimbledon Common, crossed the Thames at Kingston; and that the skeletons were those of some of his troops that fell in endeavouring to force the passage of the river against the opposing Britons, whose slain are supposed to be interred in a tumulus (not yet opened) in a field called the Barrow field, on the Middlesex side of the river, and about half a mile from the spot where the weapons were found. Over the Thames at Kingston was formerly one of the most ancient bridges on the river, it being mentioned in a record in the eighth year of Henry the Third. During the intestine commotions which from time to time disturbed the country, the bridge was frequently destroyed, to cut off the communication between Surrey and Middlesex. The bridge existing until about twelve or fourteen years ago was of wood, about five hundred 601 feet in length, and endowed with lands to keep it in repair. In the year 1828, however, it was replaced by an elegant structure of Portland stone, consisting of five spacious elliptical arches, and surmounted by a handsome cornice and balustrade, with galleries projecting over the piers: the expense being 40,000l. The town of Kingston carries on a considerable amount of trade; and since the opening of the London and South Western Railway, which passes close by Kingston, and which has a station at that place, the bustle of the town has considerably increased, and the route to many towns on the Middlesex side, which used to be followed on the northern side of the river, is now made through Kingston and over Kingston Bridge. With regard to the municipal affairs of the town, it is probable that the recent act has made some changes; but under the old system, the election of the members of the corporation was distinguished by a singular custom, said to be sanctioned by the ancient charter of the town. A match at foot. ball took place, in which the lower orders engaged with so much zeal and activity, that the inhabitants of the principal streets found it expedient to barricade all the windows in front of their houses. Between Kingston and Twickenham the Thames presents a large number of swans, the conservancy of which is a curious part of the privileges of the Corporation of London. The Lord Mayor, either in person or by deputy, goes up the river annually, accompanied by the officers of the Vintners' and Dyers' Companies, to mark the young swans. By an act of parliament passed in the reign of Edward the Fourth, it was declared a felony, punishable with imprisonment for a year and a day, and a fine at the king's pleasure, to steal the swans' eggs. Coke mentions a curious law which was once in operation, for the punishment of any one who stole a lawfully marked swan from any open or common river. The swan was taken and hung by the beak from the roof of a house, so that the feet just touched the ground. Wheat was then poured over the head of the swan, until there was a pyramid of it from the floor sufficient to cover and hide the bird completely: this quantity of wheat was the fine paid by the culprit to the owner of the swan. The swans on the Thames have been alluded to by more than one of our poets, among whom is Spenser, who says: See the fair Swans on Thamis' lovely side, The part of the Thames at which we have now arrived is particularly rich in associations connected with our great writers and wits. Thomson, Pope, Horace Walpole, and many others whose names are known to every one, either lived or died in this immediate vicinity. Teddington, Twickenham, and Richmond, with the intervening country, form the locality to which we allude. Teddington is a small, quiet place, distinguished in a commercial sense as the spot to which the tides of the river ascend, but no higher. The little church at l'eddington, with the surrounding villas and their ornamental gardens, presents a very pleasing scene as viewed from the river. Paul Whitehead, the poet laureate, and Dr. Hales, a man of scientific attainments, lie buried in the church. The Earl of Leicester, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, and William Penn, the quaker, were residents at Teddington. A little below Teddington we come to Strawberry Hill, a mansion celebrated as the residence of Horace Walpole, where he was visited by most of the poets and wits of the age. The site was originally occupied by a small house let out as a lodging-house. This passed into the hands of Colley Cibber, a dramatic writer, who penned some of his productions there. The third possessor was a Mr. Chenevix, from whom it passed into the hands of Horace Walpole, about a century ago. He amused himself for many years in enlarging and beauti fying the house and the grounds attached to it, and storing them with pictures, busts, and antiques of every description. In the architecture of the building, he borrowed specimens from the choir of the Cathedral Church at Rouen, from the tomb of Archbishop Wareham at Canterbury, and from St. George's Chapel Windsor. It has been well observed notwithstanding, that however elegant the internal decorations were, the place may be considered as a picture of the mind of him who formed it, in which there was nothing great. He was the son of a prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, whose power was of long duration; his rank as Earl of Orford was among the higher orders of nobility; and his property was large. He was thence early inured to flattery, with all the indulgences of his situation, and he continued naturally enough to expect the enjoyment of them to the close of a very long life. His pursuits, though not without taste and elegance, bad little of masculine energy or mental capaciousness. At Strawberry Hill, Walpole established a printing-press, where his own works, and occasionally a jeu d'esprit of a friend, were printed. The Strawberry-Hill editions, as they are called, which are now become scarce, command a very high price among the more curious collec tors of printed works. The most distinguished of the works is the Lives of the Painters and Engravers, which Walpole formed from the papers of Vertue, aided by his own collections. Strawberry Hill was possessed a few years ago by the Honourable Mrs. Damer, to whom it was bequeathed by Horace Walpole. The village of Twickenham, at which we next arrive, is more celebrated, perhaps, for having been the residence of Pope, than for all other circumstances put together. Who has not heard of "Pope's Villa at Twickenham"? The name of Pope's Villa is even now given to a build ing which is no more Pope's Villa than the Queen's Palace is the old Buckingham House. Pope built a villa which, after his death, passed into the hands of Sir William Stanhope; the third possessor was the Right Honourable Welbore Ellis, afterwards Lord Mendip and the fourth was Lady Howe, who has replaced the old villa by one of more modern construction; so that the real villa of Pope does not now exist. Much indignation has been expressed by many writers at an act which tended so much to break up the local associa tions of the great poet, but Mr. Mackay remarks, that however much this lady may have destroyed of the poet's dwelling, she has left the Grotto for the posterity, by far the most valuable part of it, containing the rooms in which he was accustomed to study, and in which he entertained the poets and wits of his day. the year 1715, as a subterraneous passage to a garden The grotto here alluded to was made by Pope, about reverence of on the other side of the road; and in a letter which wrote to his friend Edward Blount, he gives an animated description of the manner in which he had planned and laid out this favourite retreat. to be Pope's study, on almost every stone of which A little cell, on the left hand side of the grotto, used visitors have scratched their names. right hand side was formerly occupied as a kitchen. 66 A cell on the Pope's willow" is almost as well known to fame as his grounds, which was considered one of the finest spe "Pope's Villa." The poet planted a weeping willow in cimens of that tree ever seen, and was protected and ceeded in the possession of the estate. Some stanzas propped in its old age with great care by those who suc were addressed to this tree by an admirer of Pope, of which we will here give two: Weep, verdant willow, ever weep, But all the Muses' tender care Rude Time will strip thy branches bare, But "rude time" was not the only one who stripped the branches bare. The tree was almost picked to death, and then rooted up, a fate which has made many admirers of the poet very indignant against the proprietress of the grounds. But Mr. Mackay has, we think, stated the matter in a fair and just form, in the following remarks: ON THE METHODS USED BY THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS THE character of the old Egyptian architecture is massy The extent of the quarries at Selseleh, in Upper Egypt, which we have noticed in a former paper, is very great they are, in fact, of such an extent that masses of any dimensions might be hewn from them. In one of the quarries at El-Maasara the mode of transporting the stone is represented. It is placed on a sledge drawn by oxen, and is supposed to be on its way to the inclined plane that led to the river, vestiges of which may still be seen a little to the south of the modern village. There was formerly a willow-tree overhanging the river, which has also been removed; but with the destruction of this Lady Howe is not chargeable. So numerous were the visitors, and such pilferers were they, where a relic was concerned, that the tree was soon stripped both of leaves and branches. Slips of it were sent for from all parts of the world; and the owner was at last so pestered, that she was obliged, in self-defence, to uproot the tree, and make a relic of it, which would not entail so much trouble upon its possessor. Nothing but the root now remains, which is safely housed in the grotto; forming a substance too hard to be taken away in little bits by the pen-knife of the visitor, and Sometimes, and particularly when the blocks were too bulky to be carried off entire. Visitors used formerly large and ponderous, men were employed to drag them. to play the same tricks with the very stones and spars of and those who were condemned to hard labour in the the grotto; but, upon inquiry of our guide, we were informed quarries as a punishment appear to have been required that such was not the case now to any great extent, although to assist in moving a certain number of stones, accordoccasionally a person is detected trying to notch off a flinting to the extent of their offences, ere they were libeor a shell, and a lady holding an open reticule ready to receive it. The same gentleman, who visited the grotto at Twickenham a year or two ago, said that he apprehended the grotto would exist but a little time longer; as the villa was advertised for sale, and there were rumours of an intention to pull down the grotto. In allusion to the manner in which local memorials of our poets and philosophers are gradually destroyed, he said that it is in vain. to hope, unless Pope's Villa falls into the hands of an enlightened purchaser, that the grotto will be preserved, or that even a stone will be erected to mark the spot, and to say "HERE POPE SUNG." Of the Thames in the vicinity of Twickenham, it has been remarked by writers of all grades, poets, painters, and topographers, that it presents scenes of extraordinary beauty. The river rolls on through meadows of the richest verdure, while its banks are adorned with the contrasted beauty of the villa and the cottage, in a long succession of edifices, which mark the taste and the opulence of those who possess them. In the middle of the river is a little island called Twickenham Ait, or more commonly "The Eel-pie Island," upon which there was until very lately a tavern famous for the mode adopted there in dressing the eels caught in the river. HOPE! of all ills that men endure, Thou strong retreat! thou sure-entail'd estate, In the Church of St. Peter at Cologne, the altar-piece is a large and valuable picture by Rubens, representing the martyrdom of the Apostle, This picture having been carried away by the French in 1805, to the great regret of the inhabitants, a painter of that city undertook to make a copy of it from recollection; and succeeded in such a manner, that the most delicate tints of the original are preserved with the most minute accuracy. The original painting has now been restored, but the copy is preserved with it; and even when they are rigidly compared, it is scarcely possible to distinguish the one from the other. rated. This seems to be confirmed by the following inscription, found in one of the quarries of Gertassy, in Nubia: "I have dragged 110 stones for the building of Isis at Philæ." In order to keep an account of their progress, they frequently cut the initials of their names, or some private mark, with the number, on the rock whence the stone was taken, as soon as it was removed, many of which signs occur at the quarries of Fateereh. The blocks were taken from the quarry on sledges, and in a grotto behind E'Dayr, a Christian village between Antinoë and El Bersheh, was first discovered by Captains Irby and Mangles the representation of a colossus, which a number of men are employed in dragging with ropes. This colossus was probably not hewn in the hill of El Bersheh, but it is exceedingly interesting, from its being of a very early age, and one of the very few paintings which throw any light on the method employed by the Egyptians for moving weights, for it is singular that we find no illustration of the mechanical means of a people who have left so many unquestionable proofs of skill or capacity in these matters. An engraving of this picture, which represents the transportation of a colossus, accompanies the present article. In the original picture 172 men, in four rows of 43 each, pull the ropes attached to the front of the sledge. The number may be indefinite, and it is probable that more were really employed than are indicated in the painting. In order to obtain a more convenient size for engraving we have diminished the number of men in each row before and behind; otherwise we have given a fair representation of the Egyptian artist's work. A liquid, probably grease, is poured from a vase, by a person standing on the pedestal of the statue, in order to facilitate its progress as it slides over the ground, which was probably covered with a bed of planks, though they are not indicated in the painting. Some of the persons employed in this laborious duty appear to be Egyptians: the others are foreign slaves, who are clad in the costume of their country: behind are four rows of men, who, though only twelve in number in the original, and diminished by us to eight, may be intended to represent the sets which relieved the others when fatigued. Below are persons carrying vases of liquid, perhaps water, for the use of the workmen, and others with implements connected with the transport of the statue, followed by taskmasters, with their wands of office. On 9 SO TRANSPORTATION OF A COLOSSUS BY THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, the knee of the figure stands a man who claps his hands to the measured cadence of a song, to mark the time, and ensure simultaneous draught, for it is evident that in order that the whole power of the drawers might be applied at the same instant, a signal of this kind was necessary. The height of the statue appears to have been about twenty-four feet, including the pedestal. It was of limestone, and was bound to the sledge by double ropes, which were tightened by means of long pegs inserted between them, and twisted round until completely braced, and to prevent injury from the friction of the ropes upon the stone, a compress of leather or other substance was introduced at the part where they touched the statue. In the present instance the ropes attached for moving the mass are confined to one place at the front of the statue, but in blocks of very great length certain pieces of stone were left, projecting from the sides like the trunnions of a cannon, to which several | ropes were attached, each pulled by its own set of men. We are given to understand that small blocks of stone were sent from the quarries by water to their different places of destination, either in boats or on rafts; but that those of very large dimensions were dragged by men, overland, in the manner already represented; and the immense weight of some of them shows that the Egyptians were well acquainted with mechanical powers, and the mode of applying a locomotive force with the most wonderful success. Their skill, however, was not confined to the mere moving of immense weights: their wonderful knowledge of mechanism is shown in the erection of obelisks, and in the position of large stones, raised to a considerable height, and adjusted with the utmost precision; sometimes, too, in situations where the space will not admit the introduction of the inclined plane. Pliny, who lived about a century after the birth of Christ, describes a method of transporting obelisks from the quarries down the river, by lashing two flat-bottomed boats together side by side, which were admitted into a trench, cut from the Nile to the place where the stone lay, laden with a quantity of ballast exactly equal to the weight of the obelisk; which, so soon as they had been introduced beneath the transverse block, was all taken out; and the boats rising, as they were lightened, bore away the obelisk in lieu of their previous burthen. However imperfect may be our knowledge of the means which the ancient Egyptians used for transporting the material of their buildings, we know perhaps still less of their methods of erecting them. Tradition had preserved to the time of Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century B.C., an account of the simple contrivance used in building the Pyramids; which contrivance may have been also followed in the construction of other edifices. The pyraraid was built in receding stages, the area of each stage being less than that below it. When the first level was finished, the stones intended for the second course were lifted upon it by means of cranes, or levers, and then removed to the proper distance from the edge of the platform. In the same way, the stones intended for the third level were raised upon the first step, and from that transferred to the next above it; and so on to the top of the pyramid. The peculiar advantage of this method consists in the small height to which each stone was to be raised at once. It seems probable, in the case of other Egyptian buildings, that banks of earth in the form of inclined planes, or some such simple contrivances, were employed, rather than more complicated mechanical powers, for raising and adjusting great weights. It was probably easier for them to raise their stones by a frame-work and earth with receding stages, than to trust the prodigious masses of their architraves and cornices to any mechani cal power which they could command. It was often the practice in Egyptian buildings to fasten the stones toge ther by clamps of various kinds, as was once observed to have been done in the buildings of Memphis. No insight, as has been already observed, is afforded us into the secrets of the mechanical knowledge of the old inhabitants of the Nile, from the sculptures or the paintings of the tombs, though so many and such varied subjects are there introduced. Our information con nected with this point, is confined to the use of levers, and a sort of crane, as mentioned by Herodotus; but it is, however, certain that the ancients did raise enormous masses, apparently with a facility unknown to the moderns. This is proved by the ingenious experiments of Archimedes, who lived in the third century before the Christian era. Some suppose that it was this phi losopher who raised the site of the towns and villages of Egypt, and began those mounds of earth by means of which communication is kept up from town to to during the inundations of the Nile. 71 We have nothing further to add to the foregoing marks, than the presumption, that the main part of the secret of the mechanical means of the old Egyptians consisted in their almost unlimited command of human labour. By such means as this, most of the weighty works of building in former ages were probably effected; works which still continue, as they have done through out so many generations, to surprise and delight the tra veller in these latter times Fig. 4 (a) represents the front view, and fig. 4 (b) the plan of the instrument, the same letters of reference being used in both. A A' are two plane mirrors, about four inches square, inserted in frames, and so adjusted that their backs form an angle of 90° with each other. These mirrors are fixed by their common edge against an upright, B, or else against the middle line of a vertical board, cut away in such a manner as to allow the eyes to be placed before the two mirrors. C c' are two sliding boards, to which are attached the upright boards D D', which may thus be removed to different distances from the mirrors. As it is necessary in most of the experiments that each upright board shall be at the same distance from the mirror which is opposite to it, this adjustment is effected by a right and left-handed wooden screw. The two ends of this compound screw pass through the nuts e é, which are fixed to the lower parts of the upright boards D D', so that by turning the screw pin one way the two boards will approach, and by turning it the other they will recede from each other, one always preserving the same distance as the other from the middle line. E E' are panels to which the pictures are fixed, in such a manner that their corresponding horizontal lines shall be in the same level: these panels are capable of sliding backwards and forwards in grooves on the upright boards D D'. This being the nature of the apparatus, the mode in which Mr. Wheatstone directs it to be used is as follows: The observer must place his eyes as near as possible to the mirrors, the right eye before the right-hand mirror, and the left eye before the left-hand mirror, and he must move the sliding panels E E' to or from him, until the two reflected images coincide at the intersection of the optic axes, and form an image of the same apparent magnitude as each of the component pictures. The pictures will coincide when the sliding panels are in a variety of different positions, and consequently when viewed under different inclinations of the optic axes, but there is only one position where the phenomena can be properly observed, and this is said by Mr. Wheatstone to be that which takes place when the optic axes converge about six or eight inches before the eyes, that is, when both eyes are directed to a point six or eight inches distant. Now the mode in which this machine produces the required effect may be thus explained. In the sliding panel on the right is fixed a drawing representing the appearance which an object has to the right eye, and the reflecting surface of the mirror is placed at such an angle that the reflected figure appears to come from the focus or point to which both eyes are directed. By substituting the word "left" for "right," the same remark applies to the other half of the machine, and the effect is as if both drawings were placed at the point of convergence towards which both eyes are directed. The effect then is found to be, that the two drawings combined, one seen by one eye and the other by the other, give an image almost exactly resembling the solid object itself, with an appearance of relief, of solidity, of length, depth, and width, such as no single drawing, however, skilfully executed, could give. The two eyes, when looking at a near object, do not perceive it under exactly the same circumstances, or of the same form, and our notions of that object are derived from the combination of these two separate appearances: so in the stereoscope, (a term derived from two Greek words, which signify to " sce a solid,") the two pictures presented by reflection to the two eyes, are not exactly alike, but by the proper focalization the combined effect of both is that of a solid body. The difference between the appearance of an object to the two eyes, or between the two drawings made in conformity thereto, is just this, that they are two different projections of the same object seen from two points of sight, the distance between which is equal to the interval between the pup is of the eyes of the observer, which interval is generally about two inches and a half. The following are three of the arrangements which Mr. Wheatstone employed. In fig. 5 (a) are two cir Fig. 5 (a). cles, with lines drawn from the circumference to a point near, but not quite, at the centre: in one the point is nearest to the right-hand side, while in the other it is nearest to the left, and when both are placed in the stereoscope, one in the right-hand panel and one in the left, the combined image of both presents the appearance of a cone, with its axis perpendicular to the drawing, and its vertex towards the observer. The two drawings are, in fact, copies of the appearance which a small cone would present to the two eyes, with the apex towards the observer, and the effect of the instrument is to re-combine them, and produce the relief which the images of objects seen with two eyes are |