difpleafing. Every painter fhould fo far provide for the diftant effect of his picture, that no improper or difagreeable idea may be excited. in the general view of it. As you approach this picture, without knowing what the subject is, a figure at the foot of Lazarus gives the whole too much the appearance of une femme accouchée.

The fkreen which feparates the choir from the nave and the aifles, is beautiful in itself; but we are aftonished that fuch an artist as Inigo Jones fhould not fee the abfurdity of adorning a Gothic church with a Grecian skreen. The statues of James I. and Charles I. however they come there, would have been in themselves more pleasing, if their unclaffical infignia of crowns and fceptres had been removed.

The King's Houfe was built by Sir Chriftopher Wren for Charles II. It stands on the fite of the old caftle of Winchefter, loftily overlooking the city, and is, I think, a beautiful piece of architecture. Magnificent it certainly is, extending in front above three hundred feet; and if it had been completed in the grand ftyle in which it was conceived, with its lofty cupola, and other appendages; its gar

dens

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dens and parks laid out in ample space behind; a noble bridge in front over the ditch; and the ftreet opened, as was intended, to the weft end of the cathedral, with which its front is parallel; it would have been perhaps one of the grandeft palaces in Europe. The death of Charles put an end to the scheme. It had afterwards another chance of being completed; having been fettled on Prince George of Denmark, if he had furvived Queen Anne. Its laft tenants were fix thousand French prifoners, from whofe dilapidations it will not speedily *.

recover

Winchester was not only a regal feat in Saxon times, but one of the first towns in Britain. Its history is full of curiofity; and the antiquities with which it abounds confirm its hiftory: but among its antiquities I recollect no object of beauty, except an old cross in the high street, which is an exquisite piece of Gothic architecture; and fhews that the artists of those days could adapt their ideas of proportion as well to works of miniature as of grandeur. This little ftructure rises from a basement of

*It has fince been much more refpectably occupied by a body of emigrant French priests; but is now, I believe, converted into a barrack.

half a dozen steps, with curious open work, in a pyramidal form. It is ornamented in the richest manner; but its ornaments are becoming, because they are introduced with proportion, uniformity, and fymmetry. If the edges had been gilt and adorned with Chinese bells, it would have been ornamented in a taste fomething like that employed in the choir of the cathedral.

SECT. V.

FROM Winchester to Salisbury the road

ftill continues along downs, the parts of which often fold beautifully over each other. This fort of country, though in itself unpicturesque, affords a good study for a landscapepainter. It gives him a few large masterly ftrokes, and forms an outline which the imagination fills up. About a mile fhort of Stockbridge, we had a good distance on the left.

As we gain the higher grounds about two or three miles before we reach Salisbury, the lofty spire of the cathedral makes its first appearance, and fixes the fpot to which the road, though devious, will certainly carry us at laft. It is amusing to see a destined point before us, as we come up to it by degrees. It is amufing alfo to transfer our own motion to that of the object we approach. It seems, as the road winds, to play with us, fhewing itself here and there, fometimes totally disappearing, and then rifing where we did not expect to find it. But the most pleasing circumftance in approaching

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a grand object, confifts in its depofiting by deits various tints of obfcurity. Tinged at first with the hazy hue of distance, the spire before us was but little diftinguished from the objects of the vale. But as it was much nearer than those objects, it soon began to affume a deeper tint, to break away from them, and leave them behind. As we get ftill nearer, especially if a ray of funshine happen to gild it, the sharp touches on the pinnacles fhew the richness of its workmanship, and it begins gradually to affume its real form.

Salisbury is a pleasant town, with the sweet accommodation of a stream of limpid water running through every ftreet. But the only thing in it worth the attention of a picturesque eye, is the great church and its appendages.

Salisbury cathedral is efteemed the only pure fpecimen we have of the early style of Gothic architecture. It marks the period when Saxon heavinefs began firft to give way. It wants thofe light and airy members which we find in the cathedrals of York, Canterbury, Lincoln, and others of a later period: but it poffeffes one beauty which few of them poffefs, that of symmetry in all its parts. The fpire is efteemed the loftieft ftructure of the kind in

England.