F-ivr 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



395 



I now beg leave to request of you, Mr. Editor, that you will write 

 immediately to Mr. Mitchell, and inquire of him what letters of mine 

 he is able to produce in confirmation of Mr. Inglis's statements ; 

 whether lie acknowledges any friendship or acquaintance with that 

 gentleman ; and whether he will favour you with his precise address : 

 and when you have received Mr. Mitchell's reply, that you will be 

 pleased to communicate it to the public. 



I am. Sir, your obedient servant. 

 Small Street Court, Thos. G. Bunt. 



Bristol, October 15, 1S40. 



[In addition to Mr. Bunt's letter, we may ourselves mention that we 

 have written to Mr. Mitchell, and received from him a complete denial 

 that he was ei'er in correspondence with Mr. Bunt, or that he autho- 

 rized Mr. Inglis to circulate such statements. In closing this corres- 

 pondence, therefore, which must be most satisfactory to the claims of 

 Mr. Bunt, we have to express our regret that we should, by the inser- 

 tion of Mr. Inglis's unfounded charges, have been the means for a 

 moment of raising a doubt as to the originality of Mr. Bunt's invention. 

 We must say that we have never seen a case of grosser or more 

 wicked representation than this by Mr. Inglis, to call it by no other 

 name, and we cannot forbear expressing our severe reprobation of 

 such unwarrantable conduct. We hope that, if he has any feeling of 

 shame about him, he will see the propriety of apologizing as publicly 

 to Mr. Bunt as he has been the means of annoying him. — Editor.] 



STATE CAPITOL AT RALEIGH, U.S. 



Sir — Under the head of America, at page 52 of the volume of 

 183r-'8 of your learned work, entitled " The Civil Engineer and jQ.r- 

 chitecl's Journal," the Stale Capitol in this city is introduced to the 

 attention of your readers, in an extract of a letter from Ithal Town, 

 Esq., Architect, dated New York, Nov. 3, 1837. 



As a Senator, myself, of the State Legislature which ordered its 

 erection, and residing on the spot, I have watched its progress with 

 pride and pleasure, and beg leave to tender to you my thanks and 

 those of my State for even that brief notice of this noble edifice, con- 

 fessedly unrivalled by any State Capitol in this country. But as I am 

 very sure your readers, and especially artists, would be pleased to see 

 in your Journal a more full and satisfactory description of the building 

 than Mr. Town's letter furnishes, I here copy such a description from 

 the " Star," a weekly newsjiaper published in this city, and dated 

 25th March last. It was furnished for publication, at the request of 

 the editor of that periodical, and is known to be from the pen of 

 David Paton, Esq., some years since of Edinburgh, Scotland, the ripe 

 scholar and scientific architect, under whose daily and untiring super- 

 vision and direction, for 5i years past, this great public work has been 

 executed, and is now nearly completed — a work which entitles him to 

 rank among the first architects, theoretical and practical, of this or 

 any other country, and his private virtues and retiring worth, claim for 

 him universal esteem. 



I would not, if I could, detract aught from Mr. Town; his profes- 

 sional fame is the property of my country; but then, "let justice be 

 done, though the hearers should fall." I can not, I will not, conceal 

 the fact, that Mr. Town is mistaken when he supposes that the archi- 

 tectural honour of this fine building belongs to him. It is an honour, 

 indeed, of which any artist might be proud, because it is so perfect 

 and durable a monument of his fine taste and great ability. But this 

 honour belongs to David Paton, Esq., and to none else — and it will 

 wear well, because he has earned it well, and left to others and the 

 work itself, to inscribe his name upon the scroll of fame. Mr. Town 

 did, indeed, furnish a draft for the building, and, likewise, most fortu- 

 natelv for the people of this State, engaged the services of Mr. Paton, 

 loth Sept., 1834, to execute it ; but he is probably unaware that his 

 draught was laid aside, and the whole of the details, alterations, and 

 working drawings, made and executed by Mr. Paton himself. But to 

 the description: — 



"The length of the State Capitol in this city, (Raleigh) from north 

 to south, is IGO feet, and from east to west HO feet ; the whole 

 height is '.)7^ feet. The columns of the east and west porticoes are 

 eight ill number, and are 5 ft. 2^ in. in diameter, and 30 feet high, and 

 standing on a stylobate 18 feet high, which, as well as tlie entablature, 

 which is 12 feet high, are continued romid the building; and the 

 details are of the Temple of Minerva, commonly called the Parthenon, 

 which was erected in the Acropolis of Athens, under the government 

 of Pericles, about 500 years before the Christian era. The Rotunda, 

 in the centre of the Capitol, is formed into an octagon at top, which 

 is built of polished granite and surmoiuits the building, ornamented 



with Grecian cornice, and its dome is crowned at top with a decoration 

 similar to that of the Lanthem of Demosthenes at Athens. 



"The interior of the Capitol is divided into three stories. The 

 basement consists of ten rooms, eight of which will be soon occupied 

 by the Governor, the Secretary of State, the Comptroller, and the 

 Public Treasurer; each liaving two rooms of the'same size and finish, 

 which, as well as the corridors, are of the Roman Doric, and are com- 

 pletely tire-proof, by arches springing from pillars and pilasters of 

 polished granite. The east and west vestibules are richly decorated 

 with granite columns, ants and staircases ; all of polished granite, 

 copied from the Ionic Temple of Ilissus, uear Athens ; also two com- 

 mittee-rooms. 



" The second or principal story consists also of ten rooms, two of 

 which are appropriated, one for the Senate Chamber, and the other 

 for the Hall of the House of Representatives, which are 38 ft. C in. in 

 height, having galleries, and their walls are contained in areas of the 

 same size, 59 ft. by 553 ft., having retiring rooms taken off the cor- 

 ners, four in the former, and two in the latter. They, as well as the 

 rotunda and vestibules, are respectively of the octagon Tower of An- 

 dronicus Cyrrhestes, of the Temples of Erechtheus, Minerva, Polias 

 and Paiidrosus, in the Acropolis of Athens, near the Parthenon. The 

 other rooms on this iloor are appropriated for committee rooms. 



" The third, or attic story, contains a room for the Supreme Court 

 of the State, and one for the State Library, which are situated in the 

 east and west wings ; which, as vs-ell as the galleries and other apart- 

 ments, will be approached by granite steps, and the lobbies and Ro- 

 tunda are lit with cupolas ; the whole of which is now in progress, so 

 as to be ready for the next meeting of the Legislature. 



"Before concluding, it may be well to remark that the stone with 

 which this edifice is constructed is of the toughest and hardest de- 

 scription, containing less iron than any stone I have ever seen; hence 

 it presents a beautiful cream colour, of a much warmer tint than 

 marble. It is also variegated with beautiful veins of quartz, the con- 

 formation of which deserves notice, having every appearance of having 

 been separated and again knit, by some trembling or concussion in its 

 fonnation ; and from the circumstance of no petrifaction being as yet 

 discovered, whether of the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdoms, 

 geologists would term it a primitive, if not a transition, formation. 



With regard to the cost of the Capitol; the Legislature have ap- 

 propriated 500,300 dollars ; it may cost a little more by the time it is 

 finished. The President's house at Washington cost, without furni- 

 ture, 6t)5,527 dollars ; and the Federal Capitol cost 2,596,500 dollars, 

 both of which have to be repeatedly painted, at a cost of upwards of 

 12,000 ; and this has to be done to prevent the disintegration of the 

 stone, they being built of soft, loose, friable and porous sandstone. 



Architectus." 



Citi/ of Raleigh, North Carolina, 

 United States of America. 

 22nd November 1839. 



J. B. Hinton. 



RECOVERY OF THE CHAIN CABLE OF HER MAJESTY'S SHIP 

 HOWE, AT SPITHEAD. 



The chain cable of the Howe having by an unfortunate accident run en- 

 tirely out of the hause-hole on Friday morning last, after the anclior was 

 cast, and fallen to the bottom, a creeper was euiployed to discover it, which 

 grappled it near the buoy over the anchor. On Saturday afternoon, in com- 

 pliance with a request communicated by one of the lieutenants of the Howe, 

 Colonel Pasley sent a boat to the spot with Mr. George Hall, one of his most 

 expert divers, and a party of men employed about the wreck of the Royal 

 George, to attend liini, who threw out a small anchor near the Howe, and 

 then moored their boat in the supposed diraction of the chain cable, by mak- 

 ing fast a hne from the stern of the boat to that cable's buoy. Mr. Hall then 

 descended by the rope attached to the creeper, l)y which he found the chain, 

 and from that point walked along the whole extent of the chain until he 

 reached the extreme end of it, to the last link of which he made fast one of 

 the bull ropes that had been used for weighing the fragments of tlie Royal 

 George, by means of whicli Mr. Purdo, master-attendant of Portsmouth dock- 

 yard, and Mr. Taylor, master of the Howe, with a strong party of seamen and 

 marines, got up the end of the chain cable first into a mooring lighter, and in 

 the course of about two hours afterwards it was passed thsough one of the 

 hause-holes of the Howe and properly secured. Mr. Hall went down to tlie 

 bottom about half-past 2, and finished his task about 1 o'clock, arid only 

 came up twice in ihe mean time, to communicate with the men in the boat. 

 It is supposed that he walked at least 200 yards along the bottom, and during 

 thi's period the boat with the pump, which was constantly at work to supply 

 him with air, being warped along in the same direction, according to signals 

 made by him from below. This i» the second time tiiat this excellent diver 

 has been of use to the navy at Portsmouth, having on a former occasion ex- 



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