228 OLD ST. PAUL'S. 



lotus capitals twenty-two feet in circumference, conducts him to a court 

 one hundred and sixty feet long, and one hundred and forty wide, 

 terminated at each end by a row of colnmns, beyond which is another 

 portico of thirty-two columns, and then the adytum or interior part of 

 the building. It is conjectured, with much plausibility, that this is the 

 edifice to which the description of Diodorus applies, as the palace or 

 tomb of the great Osymandias ; allowance being made for his embellish- 

 ments, in which he has introduced some of the more striking features 

 that distinguish the largest buildings of Thebes. The whole length of 

 this temple is about eight hundred feet. 



OBELISK OF CONSTANTIUS AT ROME. 



This is the largest now at Rome, and perhaps in the world; it stands 

 in front of the Lateran Church. It was originally erected by the 

 Emperor Constantius, in the Circus Maximus, after being brought from 

 Egypt in a ship built expressly for the purpose. Pope Sextus the fifth 

 set it up in its present place, in 1588, after it had lain on the ground, 

 broken in three places, for several centuries. Though the shaft has 

 sustained some damage at the base, it is still one hundred and five feet 

 long, the width of the two larger sides at the base is nine feet eight 

 inches and three fifths, and of the smaller nine feet. It now stands on 

 a kind of pedestal, quite unsuited to the simple character of the genuine 

 Egyptian supports. The whole height at present, with its pedestal and 

 ornaments on the top, is about one hundred and fifty English feet, and 

 the weight of the obelisk itself may probably be about four hundred and 

 forty tons. It is made of the red granite of Syene. 



OLD ST. PAUL'S. 



Tradition has invested the site of the Cathedral with an antiquity 

 which does not belong it. According to such erroneous idea, it is said to 

 have been originally a temple, consecrated to the Goddess Diana by the 

 Romans, very shortly after their invasion of Britain. Mr. Wren, the 

 son of the great Architect, in his Parentalia, completely overturns this 

 notion, and proves that the first religious temple built on this spot was 

 in 610, by Ethelbert, king of Kent, the first of the Saxon princes who 

 was converted to Christianity by St. Augustine. It is true, indeed, that 

 when the excavations were made for the foundation of the present 

 Cathedral, there was found many Roman funeral vases, lacrymatories, 



