20f> THE MONUMENT-LONDON. 



occupied. The principal front is to the westward, and consists of three 

 portals with a pillared gallery, over which are a central and two side windows, 

 from which the light to the church is given; and over these is another 

 gallery; from these last rise two towers, each 204 feet in height, and are, 

 undoubtedly, more ponderous than beautiful. The front is richly 

 adorned with florid ornaments and grotesque figures. 



The walls of the church are immensely solid ; the interior is 414 feet 

 in length, 144 wide, and 102 feet high. The columns which support the 

 arches are nearly 300 in number, and each is formed of one block of 

 stone. At the Revolution it suffered considerably, and there are only 30 

 chapels which remain entire out of 48. Since the return of the Bourbons 

 it has been repaired, and the choir, altar, and sanctuary, are all decorated 

 in a style of extraordinary richness ; there are several paintings of merit, 

 but still the character of the building is that of heaviness and gloom. 

 The regalia of Charlemagne is deposited here. 



THE MONUMENT LONDON (10) 



Stands at the bottom of Fish Street Hill, near the New London Bridge, 

 since the building of which the space around it has been thrown open, 

 and is now a very beautiful object to the sight. It is a fluted Doric 

 column, two hundred and two feet in height (or, as others reckon, two 

 hundred and fifteen feet), the diameter of the shaft is fifteen feet ; in the 

 interior is a spiral staircase, having a gallery surrounded with an iron 

 ballustrade, above which is a cippus or meta thirty-two feet high, sup- 

 porting a blazing urn of brass gilt. It was begun by Sir Christopher 

 Wren in 1671, and finished by him in 1677, to commemorate the 

 rebuilding of the city after the great fire in 1666. That portion of the 

 inscription which reflected on the Catholics has been, with very good 

 taste, expunged by the City authorities. 



LEANING TOWER AT PISA. (11) 



This celebrated Campanile, or leaning tower, is of a circular form, 

 built entirely of white marble, and one hundred and eighty feet in height; 

 there are two hundred and thirty steps by which you ascend to the 

 summit ; on the outside of each floor is a gallery, of which there are 

 eight, and is open in the interior; it was finished in 1174. The tower was 

 evidently intended as a belfry for the Duomo or Cathedral, close to 



