within a single yard cannot hear, such is the reverberation, that any one on the opposite side, one hundred and forty feet off, will on laying his ear to the wall, hear every word distinctly, as if some one were speaking in a loud and audible whisper, and it is not easy to be persuaded that some one is not concealed behind the walls, for the purpose of imposition. I could hardly banish this impression till Dr. R— and I placed ourselves in opposite points of the gallery, and actually carried on a conversation of some minutes, although in very low whispers.— When the door of this gallery is forcibly shut, it sounds, to a person on the opposite side, like thunder.

Prayers are said publicly in St. Paul's, three times every day, and then any body may go in without paying a fee, which is demanded on all other occasions. The whole church is parcelled out into departments, for the sight of each one of which the visitor pays separately.

There is a library in the church, but it is not very extensive.

The great bell weighs more than eleven thousand pounds. It is tolled only on occasion of the death of one of the royal family, or of the dean of St. Paul's, or the bishop of London.

There is preserved in the church a beautiful model of the building which Sir Christopher Wren intended to have erected, for he was not permitted to follow his own plan entirely.

No. XX.--LONDON.

A painting room-Phæton and the solar chariot-Our Saviour at the last supper, &c.-An incident-Leverian museum- -BirdsMonkeys--Whimsical arrangement of them-Minerals, &cA pastry-cook's shop--India-House.

A PAINTING ROOM.

June 19.—I have this morning called on Mr. West. I found this indefatigable man in his painting-room, with his pallet on his thumb, and his pencil in his fingers. I was conducted to this apartment through a long gallery of statues and paintings, the very appropriate decorations of the hall of a great master. In the room where Mr. West was, were many fine paintings. I was particularly struck with one which represented Phæton as soliciting the reins of the solar chariot; the hours, in the form of beautiful women, are leading out the impetuous coursers, to harness them to the chariot of the glorious luminary, while he is pouring out a flood of light on the opening heavens, and on the gods, who are assembled to witness this enterprise of youthful temerity.

supper.

66

There was another, representing our Saviour at the last In the mild resignation of his countenance you may read, not my will, but thine be done." A third exhibited Cicero, with the magistrates of Syracuse, ordering the tomb of Archimedes to be cleared of the shrubs and trees with which it was overgrown. But I may be tedious while I give only a faint impression of beauties, which must have their access to the heart through the

At Mr. Wests', it was certainly pardonable in me to indulge a patriotic feeling while contemplating a native American, who, by the mere force of talent and industry, aided by the the most estimable social and moral qualities, had elevated himself to the highest eminence in his art-to distinguished royal favour, and to the most enviable honour which rival artists could bestow ;* an honour which was enjoyed by Sir Joshua Reynolds, whom Johnson pronounced "the most invulnerable man of his age," and to whom Mr. West affords the fairest parallel in private worth, professional eminence, and public favour.

Mr. West received me with much kindness, and conversed with the most engaging freedom. He seems to be engrossed by his profession, and it is easy to see that the state of the fine arts makes a very conspicuous figure in all his estimates of national improvement.

"His sor

He spoke in the highest terms of Trumbull. tie of Gibraltar (said he) was done in this room; it is a great production-it is one of the great things of modern times. Trumbull has fine talents for painting, and he adorns them by the most finished manners."

As I retired from this interview, I lingered a while as I was passing through the gallery, to glance at its numerous paintings, prints, and statues.

What think you brother? Do not these painters and sculptors take rather too great liberties?

A God, or goddess, or deified hero or heroine, without mortal veil, now, even in private houses, often meets one

*Mr. West is president of the Royal Academy of painting, sculpture, &c. a station probably inferior in honour only to the presidency of the Royal Society.

in the hall, salutes him as he ascends the stair-case, or sits with him in the parlour.

There was a time when the heaven-born dignity of the human mind, as yet unconscious of sin in any thing which God had made, saw only images of purity and elevated contemplation, wherever it turned; but those days are no more, and while we have retained all our sin, the painters and sculptors have not always left us even our fig leaf.

I am aware that painters, sculptors, surgeons and anatomists, have all a similar claim to familiarity with topics which, as being strictly professional, must be contemplated without reserve.

As to the painters and sculptors, in their academies and painting rooms, we cannot object to their availing themselves of every aid, afforded them either by nature or art, and it is proper that the subjects which they study should be fully before them, without the intervention of "these light incumberances which we wear."

I would not pass for a barbarian, but, really, the exhibition of Venus de Medicis, of Apollo of Belvidere, and of other unveiled statues, as well as paintings, has ever struck me as a little incorrect, where mixed parties are to be the spectators; of such parties I have often been one in this country, but fashion affords the veil which the painter and sculptor have withheld, and the all conquering taste for the fine arts sanctions some petty deviations from that correctness, which public opinion would sooner give up, than abandon the claim to the possession of taste.

These things are now to be found in all collections of pictures and statues, and a real enthusiasm for the fine arts, or the affectation of it, has brought down the whole rabble of heathen gods and goddesses, with all the trumpe

ry of Roman and Grecian fable, into the halls of the nobility and gentry of England.

I dined at my lodgings to-day, and just as I was finishing my repast, a coach stopped at the door, and I discovered through the window Mr. T, a neighbour and old acquaintance of mine, at home in America. One who has

never resided in a foreign country can hardly estimate the value of such an incident.

I had hardly given him a seat before I overwhelmed him with questions concerning my country and friends.

He gave me the most pleasing of all answers, a packet of letters, the first which I have received in England. I soon recognized the hands of several of my friends; but— what shall I say to you! yours was not there; nor that of any of our family; the rich present from my other friends has however put me into so good humour, that I forgive you for this time, but you must not presume too far on my clemency, for, while I am every day writing to you, I feel as if I had some claims to a return.

Mr. T being an entire stranger in London, I spent the remainder of the afternoon in conducting him to different parts of the town, for a month's residence has made it somewhat familiar to me.

THE LEVERIAN MUSEUM.

June 20.-I have been with two companions over Blackfriar's Bridge, to see the Leverian Museum. This justly celebrated collection, which is one of the first in the world, was originally formed by Mr.-afterwards Sir Ashton Lever of Alkerington-Hall, near Manchester, at an expense of £50,000 sterling. Consequent pecuniary embarrassments obliged him to dispose of it by a lottery of thirty-six thou