J842.J 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



127 



■united, and the library, casts, and prints will be immediately removed to the 

 rooms of the Institute in Grosvenor-strect. Mr. Tite concluded this part of 

 his address by a -n-ell-deserved compliment to his Rojal Highness the Duke 

 of Sussex for his kind and effective patronage of the society. 



The official part of the president's address having been concluded, he pro- 

 ceeded, in completion of a series of four papers upon the antiquities of 

 Egypt, three of -nhich he had read at previous conversaziones, to give an ac- 

 count of the labours of Colonel Vyse and Mr. Perring in opening and examin- 

 ing all the pyramids of Middle Egypt, thirty-nine in number, from Abon 

 Roach, just north of Cairo, to Illalion, about fifty miles south of that 

 city. All the pyramids of Gizeh Sakkara, and the other interesting sites 

 were explained and elucidated in a most able manner, witli the assistance of 

 an exhibition of a large series of the prints and drawings themselves ; and 

 every point of interest to the engineer, the architect, and the arcbffiologist 

 was traced out in its turn. The original dimensions of the great pyramid 

 near Gizeh are so vast as to be almost incredible. This pyramid was stated to 

 have been originally 764 square feet at the base, and 480 feet of perpendicular 

 height, covering 13 acres, 1 rood, 22 perches of ground ; it consumed 

 89,028,000 cubic feet of stone, and Mr. Tite stated that it could not now be 

 built for less than 30 millions sterling. The joints of the large casing blocks 

 of granite were so fine as to be scarcely perceptible, not thicker than paper, 

 and the mortar was so adhesive that the stones in some cases broke tlirougli 

 their substance rather than give way at the jointing. AH the pyramids, with 

 one'exception, are due north and soutl], and are all entered on the north. 

 They are intended as mere mausolia, and generally contained only one sarco- 

 phagus each, and rarely more than two. The hieroglyphical discoveries 

 brought to light by these labours, as explained l)y Mr. Birch, of the British 

 Museum, distinctly showed that the construction of the three great pi.Tamid3 

 must be ascribed to a period 2,000 years before Christ, and that they were 

 built by the three kings, Cheops, Cepbrones, and Mycerenus, to whom their 

 erection was attributed by Herodotus and the Greeks. The sarcophagus 

 which contained the body of the latter king in the third pyramid, which was 

 richly ornamented, and composed of one block of beautiful basalt, weighing 

 three tons, was removed from the pyramid, and safely placed on board a ship 

 at Alexiindria for the British Museum, but she was unfortunately lost near 

 Carthagena, on her way to England, and scarcely a fragment of the ship was 

 seen afterwards, and not a soul was saved to tell the calamity. We have 

 before had occasion to notice the learned and skilful papers of Mr. Tite, and 

 this, like all the preceding ones, was a model of taste and judgment in its 

 arrangement, and skill in its delivery. 



After the lecture Mr. GroUier, the late secretary, addressed the meeting. 

 He stated that this evening being the last time of his appearing before them 

 in his official capacity of secretary to the late Architectural Society, he trusted 

 that he might be favoured with their kind attention, while he discharged the 

 pleasing task he had been deputed to perform from tlie body of gentlemen 

 forming the late Architectural Society — to acknowledge and express to their 

 President, Mr. Tite, the high sense of gratitude entertained towards him, for 

 the kind, able, and eflicient manner in which he had discharged, for a period 

 of four years, the duties required of him as President of the late .\rchitectural 

 Society, and as chairman of its several meetings. And as many of the gen- 

 tlemen present had witnessed his valuable services, and the urbanity he had 

 evinced when presiding at the visitors' meetings, the gentlemen constituting 

 the late Architectural Society had selected the present occasion as being the 

 most appropriate and fitting opportunity of testifying their warmest thanks to 

 Mr. Tite. for his constant and unwearied attention to the duties of his oflice, 

 which, whether on pubUc or private occasions, he has so zealously and faith- 

 fully discharged. 



Mr. Grellier then read the following vote of thanks, that has been drawn 



up: — 



Architectural Society. London, 



Instituted /I. D. 1831. 

 His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, E.G., &c., Patron. 



The Architertitral So'^/ety of London, having been recently mcorporated with 

 the Royal Institute of British Architects, a meeting of the members of the Society 

 was held at the apartments, No.Zo, Lincoln's Inn Fields, on the 2\st. February, 

 1842, for the purpose of expressing the high sense entertained by them of the 

 services of William Tite, Esq., F.R.S., ^c- tbeir late President, when the fallow- 

 ing resolution was passed : — 



•' That the members of the late Architerlitral Sacicti/, on behalf of that Society, 

 for themselves individually, and particularly on behalf of the students' class — do 

 express to IVilliam Tite. Esq. their acknou'ledgments and thanks for his valuable 

 and client services as President of the Society, and as chairman at their several 

 meetings, during a period of four years, 



" Aho their opinion of the benefits rendered to the profession generally, by his 

 constant e.Tirtions to promote the knowledge of Architecture as a fine art, and of 

 those branches of science, which are essential to its practical application." 

 Signed, by order of the Meeting, 



35, Lincoln's Inn Fields, William Grellier. 



21s( February, 1842. tlon. Sec. to the late Architectural Society. 



The secretarv-, turning to Mr. Tite, then said, " In the name of the Archi- 

 tectural Society, I have great pleasure in presenting you with this scroll, 

 stating, as you have licard read, the reason why it was presented, and I can 

 assure you that this form has not been selected mthout due consideration, 

 believing it to be the most agreeable and acceptable to you. In conclusion, 

 I have only to express a hope that in after years, when you may look upon 

 the inscription herein recorded, that while you call to mind the time that you 



have spent and the labours you have bestowed on behalf of the late Architec- 

 tural Society, you may also remember that the gentlemen on whom you 

 conferred those favours were neither unmindful of or ungrateful for them." 



Mr. Tite .acknowledged the compliment in a very feeling manner, and the 

 business of the evening closed. 



There were exhibited in the rooms some beautiful drawings and paintings 

 by Messrs. Nixon. B. Moore, and other artists; also a very large drawing of the 

 stained glass now being executed for the north transept of Westminster Abbey, 

 by Messrs. Ward and Nixon. On tlie table of the second room was a model 

 of the great building now being erected at Liverpool by the corporation, 

 combinine under one roof the great St. George's Hall, the assize courts, a 

 large music hall, and various rooms and apartments for corporate purposes. 

 This building is in a rich style of Corinthian architecture ; it will be 500 feet 

 long by about 90 feet in width. The architect is Mr. Elmes, jun. 



"Thus terminated the Architectural Societv. 



"THE SLIP" ON THE CROYDON RAILWAY. 



Sib — I observe that your Journal contains reports of ,Mr. Vignoles' lec- 

 tures at the London Uuiversity College; and as the learned gentleman in some 

 of these lectures indulges rather freely in observations upon the works of 

 his brother engineers, I presume that he will neither be offended nor sur- 

 prised to find that opinions different from his own are entertained by some, 

 at least, of the numerous class of readers, who, by means of their publication 

 in your Journal, are made acquainted with these lectures of his. To cavil 

 upon minute points of professional practice, would be unworthy any man 

 who considers tlie circumstances under which a lecturer on engineering 

 comes before the public. I will, therefore, pass over many expressions and 

 many accounts of expedients, some prospective and others retrospective, being 

 already executed, which appear uo doubt puerile enough to men who have 

 themselves dealt with the elements, and studied engineering in the capacious 

 school of nature, and come at once to the insinuations of the professor of and 

 concerning " the slip " at New Cross on the Croydon Railway. 



I find that tlie learned gentleman and his class, assuming the peripatetic 

 style, have made expeditions in a body to the site of several works of engi- 

 neering in the environs of London ; and that one of these visits was paid to 

 the scene of this celebrated slip, and on that occasion certain remarks were 

 indulged in which I think in uo way added to the dignity nor to the accu- 

 racy of the lecture. I now quote from your report of the lecture. " The 

 professor then pointed out what he considered to have been the occasion of all 

 the mischief. Nearly all along tlie slip, the eartli had given way at the side 

 of a top drain, parallel with the railway, and in some places it was so appa- 

 rent, that the declivity looked as if made purposely ; this had invariably 

 occurred where there were cross drains from the neighbouring ground (which 

 is considerably elevated), leading into the main drain along the top of the 

 cutting, and which, not being puddled or made water-tight, had allowed the 

 water gradually, and during many months, to insinuate itself into the veins 

 in the clay, and had at length forced the mass out as it appeared." 



Now, what is here meant ? I am at a loss to understand, from the con- 

 fused way in which the opinion is expressed, whether Mr. Vignoles asserted 

 that the longitudinal drain along the verge of the slope was not puddled, or 

 that this precaution was omitted in the transverse drains leading into it. If 

 the former of these suppositions expresses what the learned lecturer meant, 

 I beg to assure him, from the evidence of my own eyes, that he is decidedly 

 in error, because every inch of this drain was well and completely puddled ; 

 but if he meant that the transverse drains also ought to have been puddled, 

 I would merely ohserve that he is imposing an unnecessary and entirely use- 

 less expense upon the company. Let it be noticed, however, that I would 

 not for a moment think of combatting this or any other opinion of the 

 learned gentleman, did it not involve, in some sort, the professional reputa- 

 tion of the engineer who executed this work, because if it be apparent that 

 puddling ought here to have been resorted to, the engineer is of course to 

 blame for omitting it. 



Now to test this opinion, let us observe what difference of effect would 

 the puddling of these drains have occasioned — simply that of preventing the 

 water from penetrating through the bottoms of the drains. But would it 

 have prevented water from penetrating the mass of the hill .> Would it have 

 cut oflf the supply of water from the porous strata where they crop out on 

 the higher lands above ? Clearly not. It is obvious that the surface of 

 vegetable mould which covers the hill must be at least as permeable to water 

 as the mass of clay on which the mould rests ; yet the whole surface of the 



