308 ACCOUNT OP THE ERECTION OF A GRANITE 



the shaft of the obelisk, induced me to apply to Colonel 

 Wilks, who was upon the spot at the time of its erection, for 

 information as to these particulars. He has, most politely, in 

 the letter which I shall now have the honour of reading, taken 

 the trouble of deducing the materials, even from the quarry ; 

 and has also added, very particular and satisfactory details, of 

 the means by which the erection of the obelisk was accom- 

 plished. Though the exact length of the shaft is still a desi- 

 deratum, and Colonel Wilks, from recollection, is inclined to 

 think it only sixty feet, instead of seventy-five, at which, from 

 information, I had stated it j yet it appears from his narrative, 

 that accident only, prevented the shaft being formed of a single 

 stone, of the prodigious length of eighty-four feet, which had 

 been actually quarried for the purpose, and the difficulties of 

 erecting which, we can scarcely doubt, would have been sur- 

 mounted, by the patient perseverance and address of Hindoo 

 workmen. 



This stone would have formed a shaft, considerably longer, 

 than that of the obelisk now standing in front of St Peter's, at 

 Rome. Evelyn * states the height of this obelisk, compre- 

 hending the base, at 1 08 feet, and that of the entire stone, 

 which forms the shaft, at 72 feet. He says that it was re- 

 erected, " with vast cost, and a most stupendous invention," 

 by Dominico Fontana, architect to Sixtus the V., and he af- 

 terwards mentions (p. 129.) having seen representations of 

 the machines, invented by the architect for this purpose, paint- 

 ed upon the walls and roof of one of the rooms of the Vati- 

 can. Evelyn was at Rome in 1645. 



Colonel 



* Memoirs, vol. i. p. 108. 



