DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53553#0123
103
bawled up to the forum of the galleries. No more of it in
this place ; let us begin with a sober narrative of facts, or
things.
The quadrangular court which we first entered into, may
be as large as the railed part of Leicester-square : it is sur-
rounded on all sides by a colonnade, supporting the roof of a
gallery ; and from the gallery you enter a number of small
apartments, not unlike the cells of a prison ; or, to use an
affirmative comparison, greatly resembling the galleries
round some of our old inns, with the rooms adjoining; only,
in the present instance, the corridor is on the ground floor,
there being no upper story. The columns before mentioned,
are of brick, stuccoed over, and painted a deep red ; from ten
to twelve feet high, at about the like distance from each other,
of the Doric order, fluted two-thirds from the top, and other-
wise of good proportion. This building was first taken for a
gymnasium, afterwards for a prison, and, by some, for a school
of gladiators; at present it is declared to have been a bar-
rack for soldiers, because various pieces of armour were
found in some of the cells. These little apartments are
highly interesting : many have their walls covered with in-
scriptions, and curious drawings. When I speak of inscrip-
tions or drawings, do not let your classic imagination fancy
to itself public records or chefs d’oeuvre of art. I have it in
my power at once to put you au fait in this business, only
the comparison will be deemed vulgar. Yon, no doubt, have
in your peregrinations, visited certain apartments at country
inns, where former visitors have thought proper to perpetu-
ate the memory of their temporary abode, by some neat or
clumsy couplets, epigrams, anacreontic or aphrodisiac effu-
sions, traced either with pencil, chalk, or any pigment nearest
at hand, or even with some sharp-pointed instrument, on the
buff walls; and, not unfrequently, may you have found those
sentences illustrated by sundry hasty and whimsical sketches
in
bawled up to the forum of the galleries. No more of it in
this place ; let us begin with a sober narrative of facts, or
things.
The quadrangular court which we first entered into, may
be as large as the railed part of Leicester-square : it is sur-
rounded on all sides by a colonnade, supporting the roof of a
gallery ; and from the gallery you enter a number of small
apartments, not unlike the cells of a prison ; or, to use an
affirmative comparison, greatly resembling the galleries
round some of our old inns, with the rooms adjoining; only,
in the present instance, the corridor is on the ground floor,
there being no upper story. The columns before mentioned,
are of brick, stuccoed over, and painted a deep red ; from ten
to twelve feet high, at about the like distance from each other,
of the Doric order, fluted two-thirds from the top, and other-
wise of good proportion. This building was first taken for a
gymnasium, afterwards for a prison, and, by some, for a school
of gladiators; at present it is declared to have been a bar-
rack for soldiers, because various pieces of armour were
found in some of the cells. These little apartments are
highly interesting : many have their walls covered with in-
scriptions, and curious drawings. When I speak of inscrip-
tions or drawings, do not let your classic imagination fancy
to itself public records or chefs d’oeuvre of art. I have it in
my power at once to put you au fait in this business, only
the comparison will be deemed vulgar. Yon, no doubt, have
in your peregrinations, visited certain apartments at country
inns, where former visitors have thought proper to perpetu-
ate the memory of their temporary abode, by some neat or
clumsy couplets, epigrams, anacreontic or aphrodisiac effu-
sions, traced either with pencil, chalk, or any pigment nearest
at hand, or even with some sharp-pointed instrument, on the
buff walls; and, not unfrequently, may you have found those
sentences illustrated by sundry hasty and whimsical sketches
in