MOR 



727 



MOS 



its having three golden balls on its top, weighing toge- 

 ther, it is said, 18 quintals, or 1205 Ibs. avoirdupois, 

 which several kings, when in want of money, have in 

 vain attempted to take down. The imperial palace, 

 which faces mount Atlas, is built of hewn stone, orna- 

 mented with marble. The architecture of the princi- 

 pml gate* i* Gothic, embellished with various ornaments 

 in the Arabesque style. The walls of some of the rooms 

 are of fillagree work, and others of glazed tiles, which 

 are fixed in the walls with much art, and vhich have a 

 cooling effect. There are three gardens attached to the 

 palace, abounding in the richest fruits and most fra- 

 grant flower*. In these gardens are irregular square 

 building* called pavillions, with pyramidal roofs, cover- 

 ed with glazed tile* of various colours, lighted by four 

 lofty door*, and painted and gilt in the Arabesque style. 

 In these pavillions the emperor takes coffee or tea, and 

 transact* bu*ines* with the officers of his court. They 

 seldom contain any other furniture than a couple of so- 

 fa*, some china and tea equipage, a clock, a water-pot, 

 few arms hung round the walls, and carpets to kneel 

 upon in prayers. Near the palace is the place of au- 

 dience, an extensive quadrangle, walled round, but open 

 above, in which the emperor gives audience to his sub- 

 jects, and administers justice. The Kasseria, a place of 

 trade, i* an oblong building, surrounded with small 

 hops, filled with silks, cloths, and other valuable ar- 

 ticle*. These shops, like those of other towns in Mo- 

 rocco, are nothing more than openings in the walls 

 about a yard from the ground, and just of sufficient 

 height to admit a man to sit within them cross-legged, 

 with the good* and drawers so arranged round him, 

 that he can serve hi* customers, who stand in the street, 

 without needing to move from his seat At the ex- 

 tremity of the city, toward* the Atlas mountains, and 

 new to the imperial palace, i* the district occupied by 

 the Jews, which form* a separate town of itself, with 

 an alcaid appointed by the emperor, to give them pro- 

 tection, and the gates of which are shut and opened at 

 certain hours ; bat not much above 2000 Jews now re- 

 aide in the place, as most of them prefer a dwelling in 

 the adjacent mountain*, where they are tree from op- 

 pression and insult. In this quarter stands the Spanish 

 convent, which used to be occupied by a few friars, but 

 i* now duelled. There is an ancient subterraneous 

 aoueduct built of brick, twenty feet below the surface, 

 which goes round the town, and from which pipe* of 

 brick work branch off at every hundred yards, to con- 

 vey the water into the houses. But this aqueduct is 

 much neglected, and the city is supplied with water 



5 wooden pipe* from numerous wells in the adjoining 

 re plantations. The wealthier inhabitants procure 

 from the! river Tensift, which flows at a short 

 i the city, and the water of which is ac- 



counted very salubrious, and particularly medicinal in 

 caws of indigestion. Many of the streets are filled with 

 the ruins of old houses, and in the Jew's quarter, the 

 heap* of dung are as high as the houses. The houses 

 are also greatly infested with vermin, particularly with 

 bug*, which in the summer season, literally cover the 

 wall*. The air around the city is generally calm, and 

 the climate healthy, as the neighbouring mountains of 

 Atlas, which are always covered with snow, serve at 

 once to cool the surrounding atmosphere, and to furnish 

 a shelter from the scorching winds of the desert. 

 W. Long. T. North. Lat. SO 57'. (q.) 



MORPETH, i* the name of a market and borough 

 town of England, in the county of Northumberland. 

 The town is situated among woody undulating hills, 



Inhabited houses 

 Number of families 

 Ditto employed in trade 

 Total population 



464 



832 



529 



324* 



See the Beauties of England and Wales, vol. xii. p. 



MORTALITY, BILLS or. See ANNUITIES, vol. ii. 

 p. 177. 



MORTAR. See ORDNAKCE. 



MOSAIC, commonly designed Painting in Mosaic, is 

 a mode of representing objects by the union of portions 

 of stone or glass, reduced to an even surface. But it 

 is always a copy, for artists in Mosaic never compose. 



The materials are few and simple, consisting merely 

 of the substance with which the picture is to be repre- 

 sented, formed into cubes, parallelepipeds, orother poly- 

 gonal figures, as required, and retained by one end iu a 

 strong cement, to preserve the union of the whole. Their 

 colour, size, and substance, are arbitrary with the ar- 

 tist, according to the subjects and future position : all 

 however are of the most durable kind. The ancient 

 Mosaics consisted chiefly of marble and coloured glass 

 or pastes ; the modern are composed of marble, glass, 

 enamel, and sometimes of the harder stones, as agate, 

 cornelian, lapis lazuli, and even jewels. From the va- 

 riety of design, and diversity of shades, the works of 

 the latter evince great superiority over the former, for 

 the ancients used few colours, and the same design 

 was frequently repeated. 



In general, Mosaics are composed of cubes, or short 

 parallelepipeds, that is, oblong pieces of from two inches 

 of a side, down to fragments of the smallest surface, as is 

 seen in a portrait of Pope Paul V. where the face alone 

 consists of 1 ,700,000 portions, each no larger than a grain 

 of millet. The Mosaic of the cupola of St. Peter'* at 

 Rome.on the other hand, is formed of unpolished colour- 

 ed stones of from half an inch to two inches square ; 

 and pavements appear in pieces still larger. Of this 

 last description, or of what may be called large Mosaic, 

 the pieces are reduced to_the necessary size^by sawing and 

 grinding, after the ordinary operations of the lapidary ; 

 those of glass, which is in universal use, are broke down 

 from rods, drawn out of a suitable shape ; but glass be- 

 ing a refractory substance, enamel is substituted for it, 

 as it is more easily managed in reduction. The enamel 

 which is used for smaller pictures, is drawn out into long 



Mosaic. 



on the great north road from Edinburgh to London, Morpeth 

 on the banks of the river Wensbeck, which is crossed 

 by a stone-bridge. It consists principally of one long 

 street, which is spacious, and contains many well-built 

 and neat houses. The principal buildings are, the pa- 

 rish church, which is built on Kirk Hill, a quarter of a 

 mile from the town ; a handsome town-house, built by 

 the Earl of Carlisle in 171 4, from a design of Van- 

 burgh ; the county gaol, which stands near the bridge, 

 and is well built and well managed. The charitable 

 establishments are, a free school, founded by Edward 

 VI. and an hospital for old persons. The principal 

 piece of antiquity here is the castle, which stands on 

 an eminence above the town. A part of the gateway, 

 tower, and fragments of the outward wall, only re- 

 main. On the north side of the castle is a round 

 mound of earth, which was probably a malvoisin in 

 some blockade. A fragment of the door-way of New 

 Minster Abbey of White Monks still remains. Mor- 

 peth sends two members to parliament, and the right 

 of election is vested in about 200 burgesses. The po- 

 pulation of Morpeth, in 1811, was 



