200 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. II. 



theatre. It has been in turn a church, a dwelHng, a stable, and a museum. 

 Now the houses and sheds which were built against it have been 

 demolished, a goodly space around it cleared, and it can be admired as 

 one of the most exquisitely proportioned buildings in existence. Ex- 

 cavations in the neighborhood have discovered the fact that at one time 

 this architectural jewel was set in a grand surrounding colonnade, but 

 all traces of this noble work have disappeared ; we must rejoice that the 

 adytum itself has been left. In the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, are 

 models of the Parthenon, of St. Peter's at Rome, and of this Temple to 

 Caius and Julius — principibus juventiitis. When you compare them 

 thus, the beauty of the Maison Carree is the better brought out. 

 It is now used as a public museum of antiquities. They have 

 at Nimes the remains of a couple of Roman gateways ; they have 

 in a lovely park, the remains of a Bathing establishment — probably a 

 ladies' bath house, supplied by a beautiful and bounteous spring. 

 This was " restored " but too much altered by Louis XIV.; one can, 

 however, yet trace the plan of the structure, with its retiring and 

 dressing rooms, marble floored and marble covered colonnaded galleries 

 around the baths and runlets. Close to this is a temple to Diana, 

 another exquisite fane, behind which may still be traced the outline 

 of the dwelling of the priestesses of the temple; On the highest 

 neighbouring hill overlooking the city and the broad valley of the 

 Rhone is a huge tower, known as the Tour Magne, the origin, date 

 and purport of which are unknown. Some say it was a Gaulish work, 

 for it seems to have been a round tower, slightly tapering upwards, the 

 masonry built around a core of earth ; the earth may have been filled in 

 as the wall rose, thus dispensing with scaffolding. This earth has now been 

 removed and a central pillar built, round which winds a stair. When I 

 afterwards saw the Tower at Trebia high up on the Cornice road, over- 

 looking Villafranca, and observed the similarity of the two structures, I 

 thought it was not unlikely that this, like that Tower, might have been 

 built to the honor and glory of Augustus, not without an eye to a prac- 

 tical purpose, as an important lookout. A dozen miles or so from Nimes 

 is the famous Pont du Gard, a bridge and aqueduct, built to bring the waters 

 of the Airan across the Gard to the great city. Two tiers of arches of 

 great span are surmounted by a third tier, of less size, over which the stone 

 waterway is carried. The two tiers are 500 and 800 feet long respectively, 

 and 60 feet each in height. The water-trough is 4 by nearly 6, and is a 

 most striking monument. 



Every week or so Roman antiquities — coins, lamps, glass bottles and 

 the like — are dug or ploughed up in the country, and I was fortunate in 



