1842.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



219 



it be the sepulclire of the "King of Men" (oi-aj arSpov), or the 

 Treasury of his father, the bones of the one and the treasures of the 

 other have alike disappeared, and the Grecian shepherds, with their 

 flocks and herds, are 'now the only inhabitants of this magnificent 

 abode of grandeur and of gloom. 



Passing over two barrows of unrivalled interest — that of the Athe- 

 nians on the Plain of Marathon, and that of Achilles on the Plain of 

 Troy, both of which have attracted so much attention from all 

 travellers that it would be impossible for me to add anytliing to their 

 descriptions — let us proceed to cast a short glance on the tomb of 

 Alyattes, which is situated in the Plain of Truy. 



Sardis is about two days' journey to the N.E. of Ephesus, from 

 which place I set out to visit it. On the second day we passed 

 Mount Tmolus, an extensive range which runs through Asia Minor, 

 parallel to the two seas. These hills are extremely wide at their 

 summit, and are covered with a rich soft grass, and ornamented by 

 trees not inferior to the finest to be met with in our English parks. As 

 we descended on the northern side, the Pactolus with its golden sands, 

 now an insignificant streamlet, murmured gently by our path, spark- 

 ling with the dazzling beams of an Asiatic sun, from which even the 

 rich foliage which hung over was unable entirely to protect it. A 

 sudden turn at length brought us full upon the narrow glen which 

 contains the Temple of Sardis, the only existing remnant, except the 

 Acropolis, of the ancient city of Croesus. The Temple is a most 

 beautiful specimen of the Ionic order ; and though two only of the 

 columns are now erect, yet the others are lying around so little injured, 

 that they pight without much difficulty be replaced in their original 

 position. It was curious to see our Turkish attendant sauntering 

 amid the ruined fragments, and endeavouring, with all the honest 

 politeness of his nation, to sympathize with us in our admiration of 

 their beauties ; tliough evidently extremely at a loss to conceive what 

 should have induced us to come so far, merely to gaze upon the fallen 

 columns and scattered friezes of an ancient temple. 



But the description of Sardis, however beautiful or striking it may 

 have been, is not our present object. About a mile beyond the 

 Temple the glen opens into a wide plain, in which the cavalry of 

 Lydia were defeated by the elephants of Cyrus. It is a truly oriental 

 scene — the plain is of vast extent, and is surrounded by hills on all 

 sides : at one extremity stand the Lake of Gyges and the renowned 

 Tumulus of Alyattes. The sun was setting as we caught the first 

 glimpse of this lovely landscape ; its lurid rays shone over the still 

 surface of the lake, the habit. aion of innumerable swans ; the black 

 canvas tents of the Turcomans (a wandering Asiatic horde) were 

 scattered in profusion over the plain ; camels and goats were feeding 

 tranquilly around them ; and the wild figures and uncouth dresses of 

 the shepherds miglit be seen hurrying to and fro, to call the cattle to 

 their nightly quarters. 



The Gygian Lake is a wide piece of water, by the banks of which 

 on the side nearest to the town, are great numbers of barrows or 

 mounds of earth, and among them the Sepulchre of Alyattes stands 

 pre-eminent. Herodotus, I. xciii, who probably lived about 450 B.C., 

 speaks of it as being, next to the works of the Egyptians and Baby- 

 lonians, the most stupendous monument existing. It was constructed 

 he says, upon a foundation of stone, and afterwards completed with 

 earth. It was erected by three classes of the inhabitants of Sardis, 

 viz., the merchants, the artizans, and the public women. At the sum- 

 mit of it were fixed five termini, or small pillars with inscriptions 

 declaring the proportion of work executed by each class of the 

 artificers. Of these there is now no vestige. In the time of Hero- 

 dotus this monument was somewhat more than three quarters of a 

 mile in circumference at the base, but at present it is considerably less. 

 Unfortunately he does nut mention its height, nor had I, when there, 

 the means of measuring it, but it could not fall far short of 200 ft. 

 Several attempts have been made to effect an entrance into the monu- 

 ment, under the idea that treasures would be found there ; but hitherto 

 little more has been done than to scratch the surface ; and the interior 

 construction of one of the most ancient sepulchres in the world, (B.C 

 S60,) is still a secret. 



Though there is less of mystery, there is scarcely less of interest, 

 connected with this enormous b.irrow, than with the one at Mycenae. 

 We know beyond all doubt, that it is the monument of Alyattes, the 

 father of Croesus, and the king of Lydia. We know that it was 

 erected by order of the wealthiest monarch of Asia, that it was de- 

 scribed by Herodotus, and that it must have been visited by Solon ; 

 and there is surely enough of magic in these associations to awaken 

 our warmest sympathies for this mighty relic of a people whose 

 fertile empire is now a desert, and whose once formidable name is 

 almost lost in the remoteness of past time. 



Consult Pausanias' Homer; Sophocles' Eleclra; Euripides' Elcctra; 

 Gell's Topography of the Morea ; Leake's ditto ; Leake's Journal in 

 Asia Minor; Dodwell's Tour in Greece; Herodotus' ttio; Dr. Clarke's 

 Travels; Dr. Chandler's Travels, p. 363; Cockerell. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE CYMAGRAPH FOR COPYING 

 MOULDINGS. 



By R. Willis, M.A.,F.RS., Jacksonian Professor in the University of 



Cambridge, &c. 



(With an Engraving, Plate IX.) 



The purpose for which this instrument is constructed is to obtain 

 exact drawings of the profiles of existing mouldings. The importance 

 of doing this is well known ; but the methods hitherto employed have 

 appeared to me susceptible of improvement. The oldest and most 

 usual is to measure a sufficient number of ordinates and their distances, 

 and thus to lay down the mouldings by points. When the exact form is 

 required, lead taps has been employed, or clay ; but the best method 

 of all is to lay the bed of the stone upon which the mouldings are 

 carved upon the paper, and trace the outline, or else to make a saw 

 cut transverse to the mouldings (or through a joint) and introduce 

 paper into this cut, upon which the section of the moulding may be 

 traced. But these latter plans, excellent as they are, can only be 

 employed in dealing with ruins, neglected buildings, or buildings under 

 repair. A few years ago I contrived an instrument which consisted 

 of little more than the stylus of the present one, and which I then pre- 

 sented to the Institute of British Architects under the name of a 

 Cymagraph. But I found it too troublesome to use with the necessary 

 precision, and yet so useful that I have been induced to fit up a more 

 complete and commodious machine, which is represented in the 

 annexed figures, and to which I shall venture to apply the same name, 

 Cymagraph. This was exhibited at a meeting of the Institute of 

 British Architects, on May 16 last, and the instrument itself deposited 

 in the hands of the secretary for the inspection of any person who 

 might wish to copy it. The following description wi'.l, I hope, prove 

 sufficient for the same purpose. 



The instrument, when folded up, is 5\ in. by Hi in. and \k in. thick, 

 and will travel in a carpet bag without injury. 



Fig. 1 is a plan of the instrument in its working state, applied 

 against a Gothic rib for the purpose of copying the mouldings. 



Fig. 2 is a side view of the instrument corresponding to Fig. 1. 



Fig. 3 a plan of the lower side, in which the cymagraph is repre- 

 sented as detached from the board, and folded into its place for con- 

 venience of carriage. 



The principal piece of the machine is the stylus ABC, of which 

 the portion A B is straight and B C curved. A B is mounted in a 

 frame or carriage, having a pointed screw at A, and a collar at B, so 

 that the stylus is capable of revolving, and the curved portion B C, 

 which is nearly in the form of a semicircle, is terminated by a point 

 at C, which must be exactly situated in the axis of rotation of the 

 stylus, so that during the rotation of the latter the position of this 

 point may remain invariable with respect to it and to its carriage. 



A button D, either of hard wood or of brass, with a milled edge, is 

 fixed to the stylus, and serves both to guide it in its motion along the 

 surface of the mouldings and to turn it round its axis as required. 

 The carriage in which the stylus is mounted has also a pencil holder 

 E fixed to it. 



