decked the rude cross which marks the place of interment, with garlands of amaranth (immortelle,) and such other memorials as humble affection can bestow. During the mournful ceremony above described, a barge, deeply laden, signalized by a black flag, might be seen slowly making its way along the river. This vessel was in strict unison with the melancholy grouping of the sceneit was freighted with the bodies of the dead, from other parts of the city, which were thus conveyed to their last earthly resting-place, at some distance from the capital. These martyrs of liberty proceeded to their destination unattended by the outward forms of general pomp or nodding plume. The time was too busy for the indulgence of grief, and their death was too glorious for regret; they will live for ever in the grateful remembrance of those whom they have freed. Nearly all the soldiery who fell were also carried in boats, and consigned to the grave a few miles from Paris. "Some anecdotes have been related of the extraordinary courage evinced by females during the conflict, who actually took a part in its bloody scenes; but surely, not less praise is due to the hun dreds of those who devoted themselves unremittingly to the generous and more feminine task of providing means of succour and relief for the wounded. Several of the Galleries of Paris, particularly those of Vivienne and Colbert, exhibited a touching spectacle, all the women in their little boutiques, or stalls, being incessantly occupied in preparing lint and bandages, and whatever else might contribute to the service, or miti gate the sufferings of their fellow-citi. zens. Never were the admirable and frequently quoted lines of Walter Scott so truly applicable : "Oh! Woman, in our hours of ease, Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, By the light quivering aspen made:- A MINISTERING ANGEL THOU!'" Fine Arts. BUCKINGHAM PALACE. (Concluded from page 255.) Music Room. This apartment is sixty feet in length. It opens from the great drawing-room and into the picture gallery. It likewise communicates with the armory, from which the egress is by the flight of steps that joins the great staircase, as already described. Before concluding our remarks on the general style of the state rooms, we should notice some of the details. The floors-for it is not intended that any carpet shall be used-are of inlaid woods of different colours, repeating the designs of the ceilings. The door-cases surpass in elegance every thing of the kind which we have seen in this country, and are even superior to the finest we have met with abroad. They are formed of statuary marble richly sculptured, and with different figures on seve ral of them as large as life-some as caryatides. The cornices of these doorcases are ornamented with infant genii, cornucopias, and baskets of flowers. In their design and execution, these sculptures are not only exquisite specimens of art, but a classic feeling pervades them of a very refined character. Hitherto, in this country, sculptural ornament has been principally, if not entirely, confined to chimney-pieces; in this palace, however, not only are the door-cases and chimney-pieces noble examples of sculpture, but historical or allegorical bas reliefs, executed by the first talent in the country, are to adorn compartments in all the state rooms. The general effect of these rooms is in accordance with the style and charac ter of the building itself. Greatness is not attempted, but ornamented elegance is carried to its utmost extent. Grandeur is not wanting; but magnitude in the parts certainly is, owing to the circums stance of the building having been originally designed, not for a palace of state, but only as a residence for the King; and yet it is a vast pile. Had the front been expanded in a straight line, instead of being a hollow square, it would, without containing more ac commodation, have presented a façade more than four times the extent of that of the Register Office in Edinburgh. The great beauty of Buckingham Pas lace is the impress of nationality which it exhibits all the ornaments, as will be seen by the descriptive catalogue of the sculptures, have been formed to gratify the national predilections, and executed with the highest skill and taste which the age affords, as the names of the artists employed on them will verify. One thing we had almost forgottenthe Chapel. It is formed of the octagon apartment of the library of George III. We have no doubt, when finished, that it will be one of the finest things for its extent in the whole world, inasmuch as the compartments of the walls are to be adorned with the cartoons of Raphael from Hampton Court. But we take leave to protest against this removal, and forbid his Majesty to attempt it. Being, however, of his council in matters of taste, we advise his Majesty to give orders to the painters of his own time to prepare pictures that shall, if possible, equal, if not excel, the cartoons. The age does not require that the old Penates of the palaces of other kings should be removed to ornament an edifice of this time, which ought to exhibit the actual state of the arts. Let the cartoons remain where they are, in their own special gallery. Nothing that has not been formed in his Majesty's own time, or by his orders, should be allowed to come within the walls of Buckingham Palace. We can easily appreciate the feelings which dictated the order for the removal of the cartoons, but we think it would be as well were it re-considered. Buckingham Palace, besides being a residence for the King, contains several private houses of an elegant description, viz. a residence for an heir apparent, houses for the lord chamberlain and the lord steward, and two other houses which have not yet been appropriated. It is not, however, our object to describe the details, but only those parts in which the splendour of the building may be said to be concentrated; and therefore we shall merely add, that the principal front, in an architectural sense, is that which looks into the garden. It is three hundred and forty-five feet in length, consisting of five highly-ornamented Corinthian towers, the centre one being circular, and surmounted by the dome. A terrace, extending the whole length of this front, between two conservatories in the form of Ionic pavilions, adds greatly to the general effect, by seemingly increasing the elevation, while it spreads a broad base, that augments the apparent strength and grandeur. It had almost escaped us to observe, that the meanness of the entrance for the public on gala days to the sovereign, although it be but temporary, is yet such that it ought not to remain. The exterior towards Pimlico is neat enough, and would do passably for a private gentleman's house; but the moment the door opens, it presents a lobby not more respectable than that of an ordinary inn, and is, besides, very awkward. Two or three steps are to be ascended to reach a platform; from this platform, of some twenty or twenty-five feet in extent, the descent to the corridor is by an equal number of steps: thus literally fulfilling, in going to see the King, what the old song says "Up stairs and down stairs, into my lady's chamber." CATALOGUE OF SCULPTURES. Having described the triumphal arch, we shall not revert to it here, but confine ourselves to those details which are distributed over the Palace. North Wing.-The three statues on the portico represent Painting, Sculp ture, and Architecture; designed by Flaxman, and executed by Bailey.The tympanum exhibits the Arts and Sciences; designed by Flaxman, and executed by Rossi. The frieze under the portico exhibits the emblems of the four Seasons; designed and executed by Rossi. South Wing.-The three statues on the portico represent Astronomy, Geography, and History; designed by Flaxman, and executed by Bailey. The tympanum exhibits the Muses; designed and executed by Bailey. The frieze under the portico exhibits Britannia distributing rewards to the Arts and Sciences, as they are presented by Minerva and Apollo; designed and executed by Bailey. Main Front to the Court.-The statues on the portico are Neptune, Commerce, and Navigation; designed and executed by Bailey. The tympanum exhibits the triumph of Britannia on the waves; designed by Flaxman, and executed by Bailey. The frieze under the portico exhibits the progress of navigation in compartments. 1st. The birth of navigation, as an infant within the lotus. 2nd. The Genius contemplating the nautilus. 3rd. The Genius in a boat, holding a sail in his hands, and proceeding before the wind. 4th. The Genius in a boat, with a mast and yard, to which the sail is fixed. 5th. The forging of the anchor by two genii. 6th. The Genius in a boat on the open sea, sailing by the compass, which he holds in his hand. This allegory is very prettily told; but there should have been a seventh compartment, representing the Genius in a steam-boat. The design is by Westmacott, and executed by Carew. Garden Front. - The dome is surrounded by statues of Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, Faith, Hope, and Charity; designed by Flaxman, and executed by Rossi. On the one side is Alfred expelling the Danes, in basrelief, consisting of thirty figures; designed by Flaxman, and executed by Westmacott; and, on the other, Alfred delivering the laws, consisting of twenty figures, also designed by Flaxman, and executed by Westmacott. These two fine compositions are intended to repre Staircase. It contains four large basreliefs, descriptive of the Seasons; designed by Stoddart, and modelled by his son. It is also to contain four groups, one in each angle. Throne Room.-Bas-reliefs, all relating to the battle of Bosworth Field; designed by Stoddart, and executed by Bailey. It was by that event that the royal family, as descendants of the Tudors, came to the throne. North Drawing Room.-Twelve compartments, representing the progress of Pleasure; designed and executed by Pitts. Bow Room.-Bas-reliefs of Harmony, Pleasure, and Elocution; designed and executed by Pitts. South Room.-To be ornamented with designs by Stoddart. The sculptures of the chimney-pieces and door-cases would form too long a catalogue for our limits; we therefore conclude by remarking, that the names of the artists are an assurance that the best talent in the country is employed: viz.-Bailey, Westmacott, Westmacott junior, Carew, Pitts, Wyatt, Sievier, Rossi, Thealestor, Chantrey, Behnes, and Stoddart, junior.-Frazer's Mag. The Gatherer. A snapper up of unconsidered trifles. ORIGIN OF GENIUS. COLUMBUS was the son of a weaver, and a weaver himself. Rabelais, son of an apothecary. Claude Lorraine was bred a pastrycook. Moliere, son of a tapestry maker. England, was apprentice to a shoemaker, and afterwards a cabin-boy. Bishop Prideaux worked in the kitchen at Exeter College, Oxford. Cardinal Wolsey, son of a butcher. Ferguson was a shepherd. Neibuhr was a peasant. Thomas Paine, son of a staymaker at Thetford. Dean Tucker was the son of a small farmer in Cardiganshire, and performed his journeys to Oxford on foot. Edmund Halley was the son of a soapboiler at Shoreditch. Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich, son of a farmer at Ashby de la Zouch. William Hogarth was put apprentice to an engraver of pewter pots. Dr. Mountain, Bishop of Durham, was the son of a beggar. Lucian was the son of a statuary. Virgil, of a potter. Horace of a shopkeeper: Plautus, a baker. Shakspeare, the son of a woolstapler. Milton of a money-scrivener. Cowley, son of a hatter. Mallett rose from poverty. Pope, the son of a merchant. Gay was apprentice to a silk mercer. Dr. Samuel Johnson was son of a bookseller at Litchfield. Akenside, son of a butcher at Newcastle. Collins, son of a hatter. Samuel Butler, son of a farmer. Ben Jonson worked for some time as a bricklayer. Robert Burns was a ploughman in Ayrshire. Thomas Chatterton, son of the sexton of Redcliffe Church, Bristol. 1 ་ Thomas Gray was the son of a money scrivener. Matthew Prior, son of à joiner in London. Henry Kirke White, son of a butcher at Nottingham. Bloomfield and Gifford were shoemakers. Hesiod was the son of a small farmer. ning, were sons of clergymen. Addison, Goldsmith, Otway, and Can Demosthenes, of a cutler. Terence was a slave. Richardson was a printer. Oliver Cromwell the son of a brewer. Howard, an apprentice to a grocer. Benjamin Franklin, a journeyman printer. Dr. Thomas, Bishop of Worcester, son of a linen-draper. Daniel Defoe was a hosier, and the son of a butcher. Whitfield, son of an innkeeper at Gloucester. Sir Cloudesley Shovel, rear-admiral of Porson, son of a parish-clerk. CONUNDRums. M. W. WHY is a dandy like a joint of venison? Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; and by all Newsmen and Bookseliers. Ir is pleasant to turn from the "hubble, bubble, toil, and trouble" of a distracted world, and enjoy the delightful repose of such a scene as the above. Its harmony and sublimity enchant and astound us; and its simple romance throws into the shade all the machinery of "life's dull round." Sion is the chief place of the Haut Valais, in the Great Valley of the Rhone, in the Route of the Simplon, from Geneva to Milan. It is situated on the right bank of the Rhone, in a beautiful plain. At the commencement of the Valley, the road is bordered by sterile rocks and mountains; but the face of the country soon changes, displaying pasturages, vineyards, villages, rivers, picturesque ruins of ancient castles, and distant Alps blanched with eternal snow. The town was anciently Sedunum, and in German Sitten, from its being partly on the river Sitten, as well as on the VOL. XVI. 2 A Rhone. When the Romans penetrated for the first time into Helvetia, it would appear that Sion was already a considerable place, since they assigned its name to the inhabitants of the whole valley. These people gave battle to the Romans near Octodurum; but, being defeated by Galba, they were obliged to submit to the Roman yoke. The conquerors erected strong castles at Sion, from which they were driven by the Burgundinians, in the fifth century. Sion is one of the most ancient episcopal sees in Switzerland; for that founded at Martigny, or Octodurum, in the fourth century, was transferred in the sixth to Sion. During the second half of the fourteenth century, this place was several times besieged, taken, and reduced to ashes. It had to sustain two more sieges in the course of the following century. In 1788 it was almost entirely consumed by a tremendous con 459 flagration, and in 1799 taken by assault by the French. The town stands on the declivity of three hills, each crowned by a castle. In the lowest of these castles, called Majorie, the bishop resides; there too the diet of the deputies of all the parishes of the Valais assembles. The second castle, named Valerie, is, said to have been fortified in the time of the Romans. The most elevated, known by the appellation of Tourbillon, contained a collection of portraits of all the bishops of Sion from the institution of the see; but down to the end of the thirteenth century they appeared to be only imagi nary. These portraits were destroyed some years since by a fire that consumed the building, which is now in ruins. Between the town and the Sanetsch, upon rocks of very difficult access, are seen the ruins of the castles of Seon and Montorges. It was at the former that Baron Anthony de la Tour Chatillon threw, in 1375, from the top of the rocks, his uncle Guichard de Tavelli, a prelate universally respected, who had for twenty-two years filled the episcopal see, because the venerable old man opposed certain pretensions set up by his nephew. To punish this atrocious outrage, the Valaisans destroyed the baron's castles at Ayant, Gradetz, and Chatillon, near Ranogne; and they at length expelled him from the country, after defeating him and several other nobles of the Valais in a sanguinary engagement, between St. Leonhard and Sion. His friend, the powerful Thüring de Brandis, of the Simmenthal, declared war against them, and penetrated into their country in 1377; but his troops were routed with dreadful slaughter, and he was himself numbered among the slain. The captain-general, Guichard de Raron, had so far incensed the minds of his fellow-citizens, that they banished him by the species of ostracism called matze: after which he obtained assistance from the dukes of Savoy and the city of Berne against them. His ne phew, Bishop William de Raron, was nevertheless besieged by the Valaisans, in the castle of Seon, with Guichard's wife and children, whom he had left behind there, together with his most valuable effects. After granting free egress to the besieged, the Valaisans burned the castle, and likewise those of Montorges, Majorie, and Tourbillon. In 1475, they gained a signal victory over the Savoyards near Sion, and in consequence made themselves masters of the whole of the Lower Valais. Among other edifices and public establishments at Sion are some convents, such as that of the Capuchins, founded in 1601; a gymnasium, which has succeeded the former Jesuits' college, established in 1734; the episcopal chap, ter, consisting of twenty-seven canons, effective and titular; the town-house, the hospital, and six churches. The eye commands magnificent views from the three castles of the town; there are pleasant walks between its walls and the Rhone, as well as on the other side of the river, upon the beautiful hills in front of Sion, on which are seen a great number of summer residences and picturesque spots. Opposite to the town appears a curious hermitage, situated in the parish of Bremis, and consisting of a church, a cloister, and several cells, cut out of the solid rock. This hermitage, erected in the sixteenth century, was originally a convent of Cordeliers: it is now inhabited by a single hermit. French and German are very generally spoken at Sion. The heat there in summer is almost intolerable, Reaumur's thermometer often rising to 24° in the shade. When exposed to the sun upon the rocks, it rises to 38°, or even so high as 48°.* On the southern slope of the hill of Tourbillon the inhabitants cultivate saffron, but the whole crop belongs to the bishop. In Sion the traveller will see a race of afflicted creatures, called cretins, deaf, dumb, stupid, and almost insensible to blows: they have goîtres (large swellings from the throat), hanging down to their waists; and they display no appearance of reason, but great activity with regard to their corporeal wants. The cause of goitre has not yet been satisfactorily explained. It has been attributed to drinking dissolved ice and snow; but this is not well supported. Mrs. Starke says " Women who carry heavy burdens on their heads are generally afflicted with this malady; not only in the neighbourhood of the Alps, but elsewhere, the height of the mountains being comparatively moderate, and probably, therefore, goitrous swellings may sometimes originate from a strain, given to the throat by an overburden carried on the head." Mr. Murray tells us that he has seen a goitre so monstrous, that it required to be put up in a sack, and cast over the shoulders, not to impede a person in walking. * Reaumur 200 equal to 85 Fahrenheit, 38° R.: -116 F.-48° R.-139 F. |