crystals of this substance are found enveloped in agatized wood. From the siliceous vegetable fossils the author passes to the calcareous, aluminous, and metallic: these are briefly noticed, and the volume concludes with some account of the leaves and other parts of plants that occur in coal strata and argillaceous nodules. Many of these are very perfectly preserved, so that not the least doubt can remain of their having been living vegetables, yet hardly any of them are referable to any known species. The coloured plates which are annexed to this volume are very interesting and well executed; in some of them are represented the most striking varieties of fossil wood, and the others contain a judicious selection of leaves, capsules, fruits, and other vegetable substances that have been found in a fossil state. On the whole, we have derived both pleasure and information from the peru sal of this volume, though not so much as we had expected. CHAPTER XXI, ARCHITECTURE AND THE FINE ARTS. MR. DUPPA's engravings from the fresco paintings of Michael Angelo and Raphael are among the most striking productions of the fine arts during the last year: they not only reflect credit on the judgment and skill of Mr. Duppa, but are intrinsically valuable, as shewing that these great masters actually practised in their larger pictures that style of painting which some critics, from an acquaintance only with their cabinet pictures, had denied their knowledge of. Mr. Alexander's Costume of China, as well as Mr. Barrow's account of the same country, will be considered as one of the few valuable consequences resulting from the late embassy of Lord Macartney to the court of Pekin. Mr. Bartel has produced an elegant little work on the construction of Cottages; and Mr. Loudon has evinced his good taste and practical acquaintance with the principles of landscape gardening. ART. I. The Costume of China, illustrated in Forty-eight coloured Engravings. By WILLIAM ALEXANDER. IN this splendid volume Mr. Alexander has represented the dresses, the ships, the houses, temples, and public monuments of the Chinese, many groups of occupations, ceremonies, and diversions, in short every thing that an observing eye and ready hand could enable a traveller to carry away under the circumstances of restraint to which Europeans are subjected in China by Chinese jealousy. Costume in this enlarged sense is interesting to every one; hence the poet and painter receive those characteristic traits, those picturesque and visual ideas, which give an interest to description, a locality to representation. China, too proud and self-sufficient for imitation, is peculiar in every thing, and excellent in nothing. The dresses of the people have neither the disembarrassed lightness of European, nor the grandeur of Turkish modes; they consist of wide jackets, with several loose vests and clumsy boots; the barbarous absurdity of the female chaussure is well known. Chinese architecture is remarkable : the houses, which seldom exceed one story in height, are covered with roofs high pitched, single spanned, bending in the middle, and far projecting, exactly of the shape which canvas takes in a tent; thus Pekin has the appearance of a vast encampment. On the roof, as the principal object, are bestowed the ornaments of bells, dragons, and monsters indescribable: the tiles, of various colours, are often varnished; and it is mentioned as the height of magnificence, that a chapel in the Poo-ta-la, a temple devoted to the worship of the deity Eo, is roofed with tiles of solid gold. "The house of a prince or great officer of state," says Mr. Barrow in his account of the embassy, "is not much distinguished from that of a tradesman, except by the greater space of ground on which it stands, and by being surrounded by a high wall. Our lodgings in Pekin were in a house of this description. The ground plot was 400 feet by 300 feet, and it was laid out into ten or twelve courts, some having two, somę three, and some four tent shaped houses standing on stone terraces raised about three feet above the court, which was paved with tiles. Galleries of communication, forming colonnades of red wooden pillars, were carried from each building, and from one court to another, so that every part of the house might be visited without exposure to the sun or the rain. The number of wooden pillars of which the colonnades were formed was about 900. Most of the rooms were open to the rafters of the roof, but some had a slight ceiling of bamboo laths covered with plaster. The floors were laid with bricks or clay. The windows had no glass; oiled paper, or silk gauze, or pearl shell, or horn, were used as substitutes for this article." The pagodas, which resemble a pile of seven or eight houses placed successively upon the roofs of each other, are well described by Mr. Alexander in the following words: "These buildings are a striking feature on the face of the country. The Chinese name for them is ta, but Europeans have improperly denominated them pagodas, a term used in some oriental countries for a temple of religious worship. It seems the ta of China is not intended for sacred purpeses, but erected occasionally by viceroys or rich mandarins, either for the gratification of personal vanity, or with the idea of transmitting a name to posterity, or perhaps built by the magistracy, merely as objects to enrich the landscape. "They are generally built of brick, and sometimes cased with porcelain, and chiefly consist of nine, though some have only seven or five stories each, having a gallery which may be entered from the windows, and a projecting roof covered with tiles of a rich yellow colour, highly glazed, which receive from the sun a splendour equal to burnished gold. At each angle of the roof a light bell is suspended, which is rung by the force of the wind, and produces a jingling not altogether unpleasant. These buildings are for the most part octagonal, though some few are hexagonal and round. They diminish gradually in circumference from the foundation to the summit, and have a staircase within, by which they ascend to the upper story. In height they are generally from 100 to 150 feet, and are situated indiscriminately on eminences or plains, or oftener in cities." gold. The imitation of wooden forms and proportions in these edifices is extraordinary, for they are usually of stone and marble; their appearance is a mere frame of posts and rails, a form neither handsome nor solid in stone. The pai-lous, honorary monuments to distinguished individuals, are remarkable objects: they are generally composed of four upright square jambs, each of a single block, which is often thirty feet in length; across these are placed lintels, which are covered with roofs, highly ornamented in the usual style; beneath the lintels are framed between the jambs several long thin cross pieces, on which the inscription is engraved in letters of, The Chinese, however, understand the use of arches: is it to this source that we are to look for the origin of the most useful invention of architecture? The Chinese arches appear to be semicircu lar, elliptical, horse-shoe shaped, and slightly pointed; their construction is singular, and rather resembles a framing of wooden ribs, than a vault of arch stones: we refer the reader to the "view of a bridge," where the vault is composed of long stones placed lengthways to the curve of the arch, with long bonding stones at equal distances ras ning through the whole depth of the vault. There are also arches in which smaller stones are used, pointed to the center in the common method. The naval architecture of the Chinese has received no alteration for several centuries, and it is accordingly clumsy and unskilful; their vessels are square headed, without cut-water and without keel; the hull rises from the water le a crescent, with two gigantic fish eyes painted in the bows; the lower part the sterf falls in with a hollow, in which the rudder is sheltered from the violence of the sea. Each mast, though some times equal to that of a British sixtyfour, is a single stem of wood, and carries a large square sail of bamboo ma ting. The seamen venerate the compass as a deity; they burn perfumed matche before it, and make offerings of flest and fruit. The ports are either false or used for windows, as few of the Chinese ships of war carry artillery. On the whole, it is not easy to speak too highly of the merits of this works the figures, though not always perfectly correct in drawing, are grouped with taste, and coloured with great brilliancy and effect. The Chinese character, or rather the want of character in Chines faces, is admirably marked; all the details are well understood, and rendered with spirit; and the whole has that a of truth and accuracy which will alose render valuable works of this nature, and without which the most elaborate designs are insipid and contemptible. In the description which accompanies the plates, Mr. Alexander has preserved some characteristic traits which we do not recollect to have seen elsewhere, a Chinese may certainly defy the heavi and which we will extract for the enter- est showers." tainment of our readers. "The women of China take great care in ornamenting the head. The hair, which is smoothed with oil till it resembles japan, is coiled on the crown of the head, and confined with gold and silver bodkins; a fillet binds the forehead, from which descends a peak decorated with a diamond, pearl, or bead, and artificial flowers ornament each temple. Boys, till about seven years of age, frequently have two queues encouraged to grow from the sides of the head. The long queue or pien-za of the men is inconvenient to labourers, who often wind it round their heads. Watermen, and others much exposed to the weather, are generally provided with a coat made of straw, from which the rain runs off as from the feathers of an aquatic bird; in addition to this they sometimes wear a cloak formed of the stalks of millet, and a broad hat of straw and split bamboo. Thus thatched, In one of the plates is seen a tower with soldiers presenting their shields in front of the embrasures, in compliment to the ambassador. This singular mode of salute, when continued along an extensive line of wall, had a striking effect. The leader of a funeral procession is a priest, who carries a lighted match with tin-foil and crackers, to which he sets fire when passing a temple or other building for sacred purposes. The nearest relative, clad in a loose gown and cap of coarse canvas, is prevented from tearing his dishevelled hair by two supporters, who affect to have much ado to keep the frantic mourner from laying violent hands on himself. In the view of a fisherman's boat, the female of the group, surrounded by her children, is smoking her pipe: one of these has a gourd fastened to its shoulders, intended to preserve it from drowning in the event of its falling overboard. ART. II. Observations on the Formation and Management of useful and ornamental Plantations; on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening; and on gaining and erabanking Land from Ricers or the Sea. Illustrated with Plates. By J. LOUDON, Landscape Gardener, Sc. 8vo. are not the best for producing timber." Wood also is the principal material of the landscape gardener; earth and rocks are generally too ponderous to contend with buildings, too expensive; and water can only be commanded in particular situations and circumstances. Ornamental plantations may be di vided into two classes; those where grandeur is the effect to be produced, and those in which variety is the prin cipal object. The first character de pends more upon the whole than the parts, and may be produced with only one kind of tree; but to variety, depending altogether upon the parts, a number of different kinds is necessary. The writer, however, following the steps of Price, very properly censures the gepractice of landscape gardeners and planters, who THE author, a native of the northern portion of the empire, regards wood with a natural partiality. Trees are the greatest ornaments of the surface of the earth; without this accompaniment hills and vallies, rivers and lakes, rocks and cataracts, all of themselves the most perfect that could be imagined, would present an aspect bleak, savage, and uninteresting." "If we examine even a tree by itself, the intricate formation and disposition of the boughs, spray, and leaves, its varied form, beautiful tints, and diversity of light and shade, make it far surpass every other object; and, notwithstanding this multiplicity of separate parts, its general effect is simple and grand." The pleasure experienced by the planter in rearing these "plants of his hand, and chil-neral dren of his care," is commented on; and that no motive may be wanting, he observes that planting is equally profitable with agriculture, and, "what is of great importance too, it is commonly most so in lands not adapted for the general purposes of husbandry, such as dells, steep banks, rocky precipices, and even heaths and moors; for deep rich soils, however favourable for other vegetables, imagine that variety is produced by mixture; and their rule is, to mix as many kinds together as they possibly can, be seen at once.' This is their receipt for and never to let two trees of the same species variety in plantations; and they never fail to follow it in every arrangement of vegetables, from the parterre to the forest. Bat does it produce variety? No. On the contrary. "The mode of arrangement which I follow is universally prevalent in the scenery of nature. To be convinced of this, we have only to observe the constituent parts of a natural forest. In one place, we find the oak as the principal tree, the hazel the principal undergrowth, the cowslip the principal plant, the poa nemoralis the principal grass, and the hypnum the principal moss; farther on, a few beeches mingle themselves with the oaks; a little farther still, beech becomes the principal tree. The undergrowths changing in the same way, we there find the thorn, the violet, the poa trivialis, and the bryum. The ground becomes moist, and gradually the birch appears; it becomes • Price. more so-and, as the birch retires, the alder succeeds, each with appropriate undergrowth, or ever-varying glades of pasture; which, with the grouping, &c. is foreign to my purpose here; but they are most valuable instructions for the landscape gardener.t The arrangement goes on thus throughout the whole forest; and, if the soil were examined, it would be found to vary corre spondently with the trees. Where the oak abounds, it will be found deep and good, dry where the beech prospers, and moist where the birch prevails. "Few have an adequate idea of the effects that might be produced by adopting this mode of arranging vegetables in artificial scenery, and particularly in woods, shrubberies, and all ornamental plantations. None but those who unite a knowledge of botany and painting, can conceive the variety and perpetual interest that would thus be created about a place even of the smallest extent. At present, all places, and all the plantations about a place, have the same general appearance, because composed of the same kind of mixture. A shrubbery in one estate is precisely the same with one at a hundred miles distance; and a few square yards of either is a pattern of all the shrubberies in Britainnay, I might say on earth. But, were nature followed in this respect, the variety would be endless. Nothing could then be more interesting than to walk or ride through a place thus laid out; to look at the trees, shrubs, plants, and even the grasses and ferns; the infinite diversity of the shapes, colouring, and composition of the trees and shrubs; and the ever-varying openings and intricate recesses between them-again varied with groups and tufts of flowering plants and ferns, spreading themselves among the grass, in every direction, like natives; and all this independently of every other object, such as buildings, rocks, water, animals, distant prospect, and even variety in the grounds. So that, by this mode of planting, a place, naturally the most dull and insipid, may be made infinitely varied and interesting. And I repeat, that this mode of arrangement is not more beautiful in shrubberies, flowergardens, and green-houses, than it is profitable in extensive plantations." On the formation and management of useful plantations, Mr. Loudon delivers many valuable remarks under the heads of the preparation and culture of the soil, the size of the plants, and mode of planting and sowing, pruning, thinning, and enclosing, well worthy the attention of those interested in this branch of rural economy. Landscape gardening comes next under consideration; our author is a follower of Price and the picturesque school, and ↑ See Gilpin's Forest Scenery Walks in a Forest, &c." |