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is employed, the dung being carefully collected for fuel, (except what little is used by the devout to rub their faces and bodies with,) nor, with an occasional fallow, and this is, I understand, but seldom, is any other manure required than what the bountiful river affords. I have not yet seen them at plough, but am told that their instruments are the rudest that can be conceived; and, indeed, their cattle are generally too small and weak to drag any tackle which is not extremely light and simple; yet their crops are magnificent, and the soil, though much of it has been in constant cultivation beyond the reach of history, continues of matchless fertility. Nowhere, perhaps, in the world is food attained in so much abundance, and with apparently so little labour. Few peasants work more than five or six hours in the day, and half their days are Hindoo festivals, when they will not work at all.

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fetched up and fed with gram. No manure | ton, mustard, oil, charcoal, and in general the different articles brought to market, except rice and fruit. They are not high, at least they would not be thought so in Europe and of the whole thus collected, one half is laid out in making and repairing roads, bridges, tanks, canals, and other public works. The company have a monopoly of salt and opium, the former being only made at the public works, the latter grown on the public domains. The former is, however, sold at a rate which in England we should think low, about 4s. the bushel, and the latter is chiefly for exportation. Justice is administered in Calcutta by the supreme court, according to English law, but elsewhere by local judges appointed by the Company, from whom an appeal lies to a separate court at Calcutta, called the Suder Dewannee, which is guided by the Hindoo and Mussulman code, drawn up by Sir W. Jones. Of the English criminal law, those Hindoos with whom I have conversed speak highly, and think it a great security to live in Calcutta where it prevails. The local judges (who are all English) are often very popular; and in general the people seem to allow that justice is honestly administered; and my informants have spoken of the advantages possessed in these respects by the Company's subjects over those of Oude, or their own former condition under the Mussulmans. In these points I have drawn my information partly from a few of the wealthy natives who occasionally visit me, partly from my own servants, whom I have encouraged to speak on the subject, in some small degree from what I have picked up in my rides and walks round this place, and still more from the different missionaries, who mix with the lower classes, and speak their language more fluently than most Europeans besides. Perhaps, as I myself improve in the language, 1 may find that I have been in some points misinformed or mistaken; but I think the accounts which I have had seem not unlikely to be correct, and their result is decidedly favourable, both as to the general condition of the country and the spirit in which it is governed."

"Rent is higher than I expected to find it in this neighbourhood, (Calcutta.) Six rupees, about twelve shillings the English acre, seems a usual rate, which is a great sum among the Hindoos, and also when compared with the cheapness of provisions and labour; about 6d. being the pay of a labourer in husbandry, while ordinary rice is at an average of less than a d. for the weight of 2lb. English: In consequence, I do not apprehend that the peasantry are ill off, though, of course, they cannot live luxuriously. Fish swarm in every part of the river, and in every tank and ditch. During the wet months they may be scooped up with a hand-net in every field, and procured at all times at the expense of a crooked nail and a little plantain thread. They, therefore, next to rice and plantain, constitute the main food of the country. Animal food, all the lower castes of Hindoos eat whenever they can get it, beef and veal only excepted; but, save fish, this is not often in their power. Except food, in such a climate their wants are, of course, but few. Little clothing serves, and even this is more worn from decency than necessity. They have no furniture except a cane bedstead or two, and some earthen or copper pots; but they have a full allowance of silver ornaments, coral beads, &c, which even the lowest ranks wear to a considerable value and which seems to imply, that they are not ill off for the necessaries of life, when such superfluities are within their reache

"I have not yet been able to learn the exact amount of the land tax paid to government. The other taxes are on cot

127.-VOL. XI.

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venerable Cathedral Church in York, which the incendiary Martin so wantonly consigned to the flames; and on reflecting that the last of my three essays, on "The Architecture of the Dark Ages," would appear in your number for June, I felt myself, on beholding these interesting ruins, called on to offer such remarks as may serve to illustrate certain positions contained in these essays, together with such reflections as the survey of this venerable fabric, now wofully shorn of its ancient grandeur, might suggest; because this Cathedral Church is one of the finest, if not the finest, specimen of the Architecture of the Dark Ages now extant. If you think them worthy of a place in your valuable miscellany, please to insert them, as an addenda to my former papers.

WM. COLDWell.

King Square, London.

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naked area open to the ethereal azure, and not a vestige of its former glory above, below, around, remaining: the roof, with all the ornamental beauties beneath its shadow, having, by the action of the devouring element, been converted into charcoal and ashes.

On examining those lofty and massive piers supporting the arches on which the north and south walls of the choir rest, I was struck with astonishment at the intensity of heat which must have been generated during the conflagration. These piers are composed of magnesian limestone, and it is supposed they were quarried from an extended stratum of this material, which, in the form of a segment, occupies a vast tract of country, east of the mountains, from the neighbourhood of Derby, north, into Northumberland; and in that portion of this stratum which crosses BramahMoor, near Aberford, between Tadcaster ON beholding for the first time the and Leeds, the quarries are shewn, from remnants of a splendid fabric, upon which, whence it is asserted the stone was raised when in all its pristine grandeur, during a for the erection of this vast monument of long period, the eye has periodically dwelt the industry and skill of our ancestors. On with exquisite pleasure, sensations are examining the state of these piers, I found called into existence which no similar large portions of the clustered columns object can inspire. On beholding for the which surround them, and which for the first time a commanding ruin, we survey it most part are of the same material, ready with peculiar interest and feeling; but this to crumble into dust: fragments which I feeling differs in its cast essentially from detached with ease, without the aid of any the former. In the latter instance, the eye, instrument, being resolvable into a fine never having beheld the original grandeur powder by the action of my finger and of the edifice, whose desolation it surveys; thumb. Thus it appears that the intensity that grandeur, if it appears at all, must be of the heat during the conflagration, notcalled forth into to by the imagination, for in withstanding the vast space of the choir, the memory it can have no abode; but the its two side aisles, and the open transept magnificence of a fabric on which the eye immediately adjoining, was so great, that has dwelt with delight from year to year, it sublimed the carbon, which is the adalthough it has suddenly passed away, hesive matter or cement of the limestone, rushes into existence in all the vigour of its and reduced the lime to its native statė, former bloom, being called forth by me- viz. an impalpable oxide, or earth. mory the instant we behold its ashes. Successively viewing its place, each member arises in its order, until the lineaments of all group themselves before us, arrayed, by the potency of imagination and memory, in all the splendour of real existence; and it is like awaking from a delightful dream into the aching void of midnight darkness, when the reality of their destruction is whelmed upon the soul by the ruins which yawn around.

Such feelings passed in succession over my mind as I entered the choir of this venerable Cathedral Church, and took my stand upon the accustomed spot from which I had periodically viewed its hoary grandeur during half a century. It is gone, and will return no more,' I exclaimed, when, awaking from a reverie, I beheld the

The piers themselves, however, do not appear to be materially injured; surrounded by clusters of columns, which broke and kept at a respectful distance the fury of the flames, the heat was not sufficiently intense to penetrate these masses of limestone throughout, and sublime the carbon therein: they are all, without a single exception, reparable; and the repairs of these piers, which, as a matter of the first importance, ought to be attended to in the first instance, is in a state of advancement. This reflects the highest credit on the judgment and activity of the architect, under whose direction the re-edification of this interesting monument of antiquity is in progress.

The arches, supported by these piers, are so lofty, that the heat of the confla

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gration did not materially damage them; and the falling beams from the roof, in passing, have not inflicted any sensible injury: except repointing and slight repairs, nothing will therefore be called for on their account. The walls, founded upon these arches, which supported the roof, escaped also in a similar manner; and little more than ordinary repairs will be needful to restore them.

Looking at the foregoing circumstances in all their bearings, I conceive I have not in the preceding essays overrated the merits of this species of architecture, in preferring it to the Grecian orders for certain purposes. If an edifice, constructed upon the models of Greece, of similar dimensions, and composed of the same materials as York Cathedral, had been subjected to a calamity of this description, I conceive it would have become a total ruin. The Grecian columns would have been calcined throughout near their bases, by the intense heat of such a conflagration, and the weight of the incumbent arches and walls, as well as the crowning roof, would have brought down the columns, the arches, and the walls; involving the whole choir in one common ruin, if not the whole fabric east from the centre tower or lantern.

The division of the roof into three compartments, viz. the centre or roof over the choir, and the roofs over the two sideaisles, has been the means of saving two out of the three from destruction. Had the roof extended from the north to the south wall of this Cathedral Church, without any division, the whole roof must have been involved in ruin; and the falling of such massive principal beams, as would have been necessary for the construction of such a roof, with all their rafters and framings, must have dashed every object below them into atoms, and thrown out the walls of the fabric.

The vast quantity of timber which constituted the organ loft, with all its pews, fronts, and ornaments, created, during the conflagration, such an intense heat in the immediate vicinity of the transept, that the columns of the piers which sustain the lanterm, and even their capitals, notwithstanding their great elevation, were considerably damaged thereby. Yet, here the fury of the destructive element was completely arrested, by the peculiar construction of the order in which this church is built; and the roofs of the transepts escaped uninjured: thus the division of these Gothic edifices into compartments, and the roofing of each of these compartments being quite

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distinct, so that no direct communication exists between any two portions thereof, have in this instance, and no doubt in many others, preserved three-fourths of the whole fabric from destruction. When the conflagration was at its utmost height in the organ-loft, at such an elevation that it even calcined the capitals of the piers which sustain the arches of the centre tower, and the flames in all their fury rushed into the transept beneath the central arch, without control, even here were the bounds of its destructions: for the floor and roof of the lantern, and the roofs of the transepts, notwithstanding the height it had attained, were yet at such an elevation above its aspirings, that the flame could not approach them.

What a contrast do the absence and presence of a roof present to the observer on perambulating a large edifice! The absence of a roof in a climate like that of England, is most sensibly felt, even in the finest season of the year. At one moment to behold the solar rays descend over the elevated cornice, and enrich the arches, columns, and ornamented capitals within, with their grandest hues; to feel them diffusing genial warmth, and to view them dealing out the grateful vicissitudes of light and shade through all the space penetrable by the heavenly luminary, is most exhilarating and delightful; but the next moment, driven by the pitiless storm of wind and rain, which, descending in torrents, drenches every elevated object, and inundates the floor of a costly fabric, beneath a sheltering roof at hand, while it reminds you of the want, enhances the value of that crowning finish to an English edifice. I felt all the force of this contrast on flying from the choir, over which there is now no roof, to the north side aisle, where the roof is entire, during my visit to this dilapidated Cathedral.

The floor and roof of the central tower or lantern, the roofs of the transepts or cross aisles, the roof of the nave and its two side aisles, as well as the two magnificent towers which compose the west front, of which you gave to the public a beautiful and correct print in your number for March last, are all untouched; not the slightest injury having been sustained from the conflagration in any portion of this Cathedral Church west of the choir.

On surveying that interesting object, the great east window, I was pleased to find it uninjured, save a small aperture, which may be easily repaired: it is now boarded up, for greater security, until the repairs of the choir are completed; and others of the

Description of Two Tumili in Thicksendale, Yorkshire.

painted windows are similarly protected. and interesting scene that presented itself The beautiful pavement of the choir, and when he rand: Dr. Tritton, the then presi the steps to the altar, are in a state of dents of the Geological Society, with their ruin; indeed, on every hand, ruin, visibly | geological companions, were all int the reigns throughout the choir, while every basin together, expressing their surprise in other portion of this vast fabric is as entire extacies that strongly marked their feelings, as it was prior to that conflagration which at the novel sight. I much regret they completely desolated this grand compatt- | did not see the whole surface / after the excavation was completed.

ནི་ Essay on the Advantages of a Classical Education.