the nave are most beautifully colored, and the lower part is adorned with twelve pieces of tapestry. In the choir there are ten columns, six of which are circular, and all with beautifully-wrought capitals. The pavement of the choir is much admired, being composed of lozenges of different kinds of marble; it was transferred from the ancient church of St. Nicaise, which is no longer existing. From the same church was also transferred the curious tomb of F. V. Jovinus, who was a citizen of Rheims, and became Roman consul in the year 366. This monument, which is of white marble, presents upon one of its faces an exceedingly well-preserved sculptured representation of a hunting scene. In the north end of the transept there is one of the finest organs in France, over which there is a grand circular window of painted glass, and on the opposite side there is another. Among the other remarkable objects in the cathedral, we may mention that the chapel of the virgin contains a bas-relief by Nicolas Jacques, and Poussin's fine picture of "The Washing of the Feet." There is also a marble font, in which it is believed that Clovis, the first Christian king of France, was baptized. This building was commenced in the year 1211. to replace one that had been burnt down the preceding year; but it was not completed until toward the end of the fifteenth century.

Next to the cathedral, the church of St. Remi is the most interesting building in the town, and forms a very conspicuous object on the approach to it, particularly on the road from Chalons. We shall not undertake to describe it particularly, but may mention that it was remarkable in popular opinion for nothing more than for being the building in which was deposited the famous vial of oil with which the kings were anointed, and which, according to a tradition not yet quite exploded, was brought from Heaven by a dove at the baptism of Clovis. The town has five churches in all.

Rheims possesses a very superb townhall, which was begun in the year 1627, but only completed in 1825. The façade is decorated with Corinthian, Ionic, and Doric columns, and terminates in two large pavilions, between which another, more light and elegant, surmounts a fine tower. This vast building contains the public library, which consists of twenty-five thousand printed volumes and one thousand manuscripts.

Rheims was a place of importance under the Romans, and of this fact there still remain some indications. Of these, the ancient names by which several of the streets and gates are still called do not seem the least interesting. The old gate of Mars, which was closed up in 1542, is situated near the new gate of the same name, and although much decayed is an interesting object. It consists of a triple portico, decorated with eight fluted Corinthian columns; the middle arch is nineteen feet in width, and the other two twelve feet six inches. Writers are not agreed by whom or in whose honor this triumphal arch was erected. At a little distance from the town there is an isolated mound, which is believed to be composed of the rubbish of an amphitheatre.

The city is the seat of an archbishopric, of which the arrondissement of Rheims and the department of the Ardennes form the diocese, and which has for its suffragans the bishops of Amiens, Beauvais, Chalons-sur-Marne, and Soissons. It is, in fact, the ecclesiastical capital of France, of which the archbishop is the metropol itan prelate. This dignitary was formerly premier duke and peer of France, and enjoyed the exclusive privilege of consecrating the kings of that country. In the year 1179, Philip Augustus was crowned in the cathedral at Rheims, in the presence of all the peers of France; and from that time until 1829, when Charles X. was crowned here with great magnificence, all the sovereigns of the country have been crowned in the same place, with only three exceptions: that of Henry IV., who was crowned at Chartres; of Napoleon, whose coronation took place at Paris; and of Louis XVIII., who was not crowned at all. When Louis Philippe was called to the throne, in 1830, the costly ceremony was abolished altogether.

Among the public establishments of Rheims there are the usual offices of local government, judicial administration, and commercial association. A university was founded in 1587 by the cardinal of Lorraine, and attained some celebrity; but it perished at the Revolution, and is now replaced by a royal college, or high-school. There is also a medical school, several schools of mutual instruction, and a botanic garden.

The manufactures of the town consist chiefly of cotton and woollen goods, with hats, stockings, candles, oil, leather, and spiced biscuits and bread. Its traffic with

these and other articles, and, above all, with the wines of Champaigne, is considerable, and is much facilitated by the excellent roads which connect it with the me tropolis and other important towns. The present population of thirty-eight thousand is a considerable increase on that exhibited in former years.

AMIENS, in Picardy, a fortified city in the French department of the Somme, is situated on the river Somme; long. 2° 18' E.; lat. 49° 53' N. It contains 5,980 houses, 41,000 inhabitants, is the residence of a bishop, and has possessed, since the year 1750, a Société d'Emulation, an academy of arts and sciences, of literature, commerce, and agriculture, a lyceum, a school at St. Acheul, under the direction of the Jesuits, a convent of the order of La Trappe, in the Abbey du Gard, many considerable manufactories of woollen cloth, tapestry, damask, and kerseymere (of which 130,000 pieces are sold annually), leather, soap, as well as eighty cotton factories. The pastry of Amiens, also, often goes across the channel, and is very celebrated.

The cathedral of Amiens has always been accounted one of the chief glories of Gothic architecture. It was erected at the time when, in France at least, whatever might be the case in England, that style had reached its highest perfection, namely, the early part of the thirteenth century. To this period are to be referred all the other greatest works of the same kind in that kingdom: among others, the cathedrals of Paris, of Rouen, of Rheims, and of Lyons, the Sainte Chapelle of Paris, the church of St. Nicaise at Rheims, and that of Notre Dame at Nantes. All these famous structures were completed, we believe, a considerable time before the close of the thirteenth century, and they were most of them begun a few years before or after its

commencement.

From the extraordinary richness and beauty displayed in these buildings, nothing of a character similar to which, it is contended, was seen in England till nearly a hundred years later-a very powerful argument has been deduced in refutation of the notion of some writers, that what is called Gothic architecture is of English origin. So far, it is said, is this from being the case that, if the comparative state of the art in the two countries at the same date is to be taken as evidence of which borrowed it from the other, it is impossible not to admit that France must have been the forerunner and teacher of England. It would appear that the only way in which this argument can be met, is by questioning the fact upon which it is founded; and accordingly it has been asserted, that Salisbury and other English cathedrals, built in the thirteenth century, exhibit as advanced a style as those of the same age in France. After all, neither of the theories which make the one of these two countries to have borrowed its Gothic architecture from the other is altogether free from difficulties; and probably the truer supposition is, that both derived the art from some third quarter, or, it is even possible, from two perfectly distinct quarters, and that it was then carried forward independently in each.

One of the most able expositions and defences of the opinion, that the English Gothic is of French origin, is contained in a work entitled, "An historial survey of the ecclesiastical antiquities of France, by the Rev. G. D. Whittington," published in 1809, after the death of the author, under the care of the earl of Aberdeen. The views maintained in this work are supported by a reference, among other edifices,. to the cathedral of Amiens, and by an elaborate comparison of it with that of Salisbury, which was begun in the same year, and also completed nearly with the same space.

The present is the third cathedral which is recorded to have been erected at Amiens, the two former having been successively destroyed by fire (the common catastrophe of large buildings in those days) in 1019 and 1218. The zeal of Bishop Evrard, however, who presided over the see when the latter of these two calamities occurred, did not permit him to lose much time in making preparation for the erection of a new and more splendid church; and, after money had been collected by every available method for the pious work, the building was begun in 1220. It was zealously carried on by Evrard and his successors, till, having been finished in all. its material parts, it was consecrated in 1269, in the time of Bishop Bertrand d'Abbe-ville, the fifth from its founder. The ornamental part of the work, however, it would appear, continued to be carried on for nearly twenty years after this date;: and the two great towers over the west front are stated not to have been erected till the following century. There are some verses, in old French, inscribed on the pave-ment of the nave, which state that the main part of the building was the work of

three successive architects: "Maistre Robert de Lusarche, Maistre Thomas de Cormont, and Maistre Regnault."

The structure is in the customary form of a cross, composed of a nave and choir in the one direction and a transept in the other. Both the nave and the transept are furnished with aisles, and there are double aisles on each side of the choir. The following are the principal dimensions, as given by Mr. Whittington in French feet (each of which contains about 13 English inches)-length from east to west, 415 feet; length of the transept from north to south, 182 feet; breadth of the nave with its aisles, 78 feet 9 inches; breadth of the transept, 42 feet 9 inches.

The external appearance of this magnificent building presents a striking combination and harmony of boldness and lightness. The windows are ranged in two tiers, and are of so great height and breadth, being divided from each other only by narrow buttresses, that to adopt Mr. Whittington's expression, no wall, properly speaking, is visible anywhere; the pile is all window. The buttresses stand out distinctly from the line of the building, and shoot up into pinnacles above the commencement of the roof. When Mr. Whittington visited Amiens, in 1802 or 1803, the original stained glass was still in the windows, and he describes its effect as exceedingly beautiful; but later authorities speak of this ornamental accessory as having been now removed.

The only considerable extent of solid masonry is presented by the west front; and this is magnificent in the extreme. Our engraving is taken from an original drawing by Mr. W. Frome Small wood, who has delineated most of the other representations of continental buildings that have embellished our publication. There are, it will be observed, three great entrances, the central one of which in particular is of colossal dimensions. The entire breadth of the façade exceeds 160 English feet. "This front exhibits," says Mr. Whittington, "the most gorgeous display of statuary; armies of saints, prophets, martyrs, and angels, line the door-ways, crowd the walls, and swarm round all the pinnacles; nothing can be more rich." The wall is so deep as, in each of the doors, to admit of eight parallel rows of statues running up and ribbing the arch. The execution of many of these figures evinces great talent in the artist, and a correctness of taste which we do not often find in Gothic statuary. In the south porch there are also several fine statues. We adjoin a copy of one representing the Virgin and her child, which, both in outline, expression, attitude, and drapery, possesses a simplicity and beauty that would do honor to a better school.

Above the central door is a noble circular or madrigal window; others, similar to which, ornament the north and south terminations of the transept. The towers over the extremities of the west front are each of the height of 210 French, that is, about 230 English feet. There is besides a wooden spire over the intersection of the nave and transept; but it does not claim much admiration.

The view on entering the church is in the highest degree striking and splendid. Owing to the organ being placed over the west end of the nave, the whole extent of the interior opens at once on the eye. The unusual loftiness of the roof, which is about 145 English feet from the pavement, adds powerfully to the effect. The arches, which unite the rows of columns on each side of the nave, are also very high, and have a most majestic air. Rows of chapels, Virgin and Child, from South rich with sculpture and other decorations, display themselves on each side, amidst the blaze of light that falls from the spacious windows. But the crowning ornament is a semi-circular colonnade, penetrated with lancet-shaped arches, which terminates the choir, and is of course full in view. "The choir," says Mr. Whittington, "is superb; it is paved with fine marble, and angels, leaning forward from every pillar, support the lights; at the

Porch.