Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

European Magazine.

The East India House
Drawn & Engrava by S.Rawle.

Published by J. Asperne Success to M Sewell Cornhill April 1-13

Um

[graphic]

THE EAST INDIA-HOUSE, LEADENHALL-STREET.
[WITH AN ENGRAVING.]

THE original building was erected in
the year 1726; but it was much
enlarged, and the prefent magnificent
front conftructed, a few years fince,
under the direction of Meffrs. Jupp and
Holland.

The pediment is in length, from Eaft to Welt, 190 feet, and 60 in height. The centre has a portico with fix Ionic pillars fluted. The frieze is fculptured with various antique ornaments; and the tympanum of the pediment contains a number of emblematical figures.

Commerce, reprefented by Mercury, attended by Navigation, and followed by Tritons and Sea-Horfes, is introducing Afia to Britannia; at whofe feet the pours out her treafures. The King is holding the field of protection over the head of Britannia and of Liberty, who is embraced by her. By the fide of his Majefty fits Order, attended by Religion and Justice. In the background is the City Barge, &c. near to which ftand Industry and Integrity. The Thames fills the angle towards the right hand, and the Ganges the angle towards the Eaft. On the apex is Britannia fitting on a pedeftal, to the east of which is Afia on a camel, with Europe on the weft, feated on a horse, each with the proper emblems. The principal entrance under the portico has a hand fome pediment over it, and two windows on each fide.

From the hall a long paffage extends fouthward; on the left fide of which are feveral apartments, occupied by clerks and their defks. It is terminated by a court, whofe fides are offices of various defignations. In it lie two brafs guns, brought from the arfenal of the late Tippoo Sultan. They are remarkable for their length,and the tigers' heads on them. The muzzles are reprefentations of the extended jaws of that ferocious animal, and extremely well executed.

On the right hand of the entry is the court-room, a moft fuperb apartment. The chimney-piece on the eaft wall is of fine marble, and almost covers that fide. Two caryatides of ftatuary, on pedeftals of veined marble, richly ornamented, fupport the cornice, which, with the brackets and other fculptures, are white. Directly over the fire place there is a tablet of white marble, and on it the following defign in bas-relief: Britan

nia fitting on a globe under a rock on the fea-fhore, looking eastward. Her right arm leaning on a fhield, with the Union crofs, holding a trident in her left hand. Her head adorned with a roftral crown. Emblems of fovereignty and victory at fea. Behind Britannia, two boys; one leaning on a cornucopia, looking up to her, and the other playing with the riches flowing from it; emblems of the advantages that accrue from trade and navigation to pofterity. Before Britannia are three female figures, reprefenting India, Afia, and Africa. India, refpectfully bowing, prefents a caiket of jewels, which the opens with one hand, and discovers a string of diamonds hanging down. Afia holds in her right hand an incenfepot, denoting the rich spices and gums of the country; and in her left the bridle of a camel, a beat of burthen. Africa as a itander-by; her head covered with the poils of an elephant; her right hand inactive, and her left on the head of a lion. Near the fhore an old river-god, reprefenting the river Thames; his head covered with flags. In his right hand (wherewith he leans on an urn pouring out water) holding a rudder, to denote a navigable river; and in his left a cornucopia, to intimate the riches he conveys. At a distance, a man cording a bale of goods; ships going off to fea.

The Company's arms are placed over the whole, with Ituccoed ornaments on each fide, tafteful and elegant. On the right and left hands of the chimney are doors, with handfome frames, and circular pediments; over them feftoons in fucco; and above, pannels containing pictures of Fort St. George and Bombay.

A large folding-door of polished mahogany, Corinthian columns, and appropriate enrichments, occupies the centre of the north wall. On either fide are mirrors, whofe decorations are white and gold. Mathematical inftruments adorn the spaces above the glaffes. The pannels contain paintings of St. Helena and the Cape of Good Hope. On the wet wall is a grand portico, of the Corinthian order; and under it an elegant clock. Glaffes fimilar to thofe on the north wall are placed on each fide, with corresponding ornaments. The pictures are Fort

5

William

William and Tellicherry. The fouth fide has two ranges of windows; the upper fmaller than the lower.

The architrave, frieze, and cornice, are in very good proportion. The ornaments of the ceiling are thells combined with fcrolls. An uncommonly fine Turkey carpet covers the floor quite to the walls.

The fouth-caft door opens into a fmall Committee-room, where an excellent portrait of General Lawrence, in his military drefs, hangs over a beautiful marble chimney-piece.

The great north door opens to the old fale-room. The weft end is circular; and over the chair a sky-light. The wall contains three niches, and as many marble ftatues, in Roman habits, of Lord Clive, Sir George Pococke, and Major-General Stringer Lawrence. Thofe figures all bear the date of 1764. Further, on the fide wall, is an excellent ftatue of Sir Eyre Coote, 1788. He is reprefented in his regi

mentals.

A very confiderable number of steps afcend eastward, for the accommodation of the bidders. On the platform at the top is a Doric colonade; the intercolumniations are guarded by baluftrades. This room receives additional light from feveral windows on the north fide.

The room for the Committee of Correfpondence is large, with a handfome inlaid marble chimney-piece on the weit fide. On the east, three windows, with circular tops. Between them, magnificent mirrors. At the north end is a handfome dial, communicating with a vane on the roof, to fhew from what quarter the wind blows; together with a clock on very curious brackets. Two fine globes ftand on this fide of the room.

On the right hand of the chimney is a good portrait of Marquis Cornwallis,

in a General's uniform; " bequeathed to the East India Company by William Larkin, Efq. who ferved the office of Accomptant-General during the adminiftration of the most noble Marquis Cornwallis, Governor-General." A picture of the fame fize, reprefenting Warren Hattings, Efq. bequeathed by the fame Gentleman, hangs on the left fide of the chimney.

On the fouth wall a portrait of the Nabob of Arcot, which, with the picture of another Nabob at the north end, make a pleafing contraft in the rich coftume of the Eat to the plain dress of Mr. Haftings.

The following pictures were painted by Mr Ward; and form a series of interefting fpecimens of Indian archi tecture, which poffefies an air of grand fimplicity not unworthy the study of fome of our modern builders.

A View of Trichinopoly. Viri Malli, a curious Rock. The Bramins Bath in dura. Tippy Colum. Tanks, and

Chillimbrum. The Eaft Face of Ma

Mausoleum of the Emperor Seer Shaw. A Choultry at Seringham. The South Entrance to the Pagoda at the fame Place. Two Views of public Choultrys.

A new fale-room has been erected at the east end of the building, which is lighted from the cieling. It is rather a heavy room, with pilafters, and paintings emblematic of the Company's

commerce.

In the upper ftory of the building is a magnificent room fitted up as a library, and containing a very rich collection of books. This department is committed to the care of Charles Wilkins, Efq. a Gentleman well known for his ufetul refearches in Oriental Literature.

[In our next Number will be given an Engraving, on Wood, of the House which was originally occupied by the Eaft India Company.]

ANECDOTE.

ALDERMAN BARBER, who, in his

time, was one of the most eminent Printers of the City of London, was threatened with a profecution, by the Houfe of Lords, for an offenfive paffage in a pamphlet that he had printed. The Alderman was acquainted with Lord Bolingbroke. and his Lordship informed him of the danger which threatened him. He immediately

called in all the copies in the Bookfellers' fhops, cancelled the leaf which contained the obnoxious paffage, throughout the whole impreffion, and returned the books, with a new paragraph fupplied by Lord Bolingbroke; fo that when the book was produced, before the Houfe, and the paffage referred to, it was found perfectly unexceptionable.

VESTIGES,

COLLECTED AND RECOLLECTED,

BY JOSEPH MOSER, ESQ.

NUMBER IX.

LONG-LANE, WEST-SMITHFIELD.

THIS article may, in more points of view than one, be deemed retrofpective; becaufe, in the first inftance, it refers the reader back to a plate in the thirtieth volume of this Magazine, page 400, containing, as a parallel betwixt ancient and modern architecture, the elegant manfion of the Duke of Mancheiter, the refidence of the (then) Spanish Ambaflador, in Manchesterfquare, contrafted with, and fure there cannot be a stronger, fome old houfes in Long-lane, Weft Smithfield, which, though probably never occupied either by Dukes or Ambaffadors, were certainly, in former ages, tenanted by perfons of confiderable opulence.

As thefe houfes, mean as they now appear, and ruinous as fome of them evidently are, form the object of my prefent investigation, it may, in the fecond inftance, be neceffary to obferve, that although the print to which I have alluded contains the reprefentation of only three, the whole range of buildings, which, by a bold figure, may be faid to poffefs a kind of uniform diffimi larity, beginning at the Original Jack of Newbury, and tracing the line on the left, from Alderfgate street to within one door of Smithfield, com. prizes more than twenty. Some of thefe houfes, fince that which I have mentioned in the firft number of this

work, at the corner of Clement's-lane, has been taken down, appear to me to

be the molt rudely and inartificially erected of any, excepting three at the fouth corner of Holier lane, that, after able to difcover. a pretty diligent fearch, I have been

should no more term the construction Admitting then that building, for I of fuch honies as thefe architecture, than the repair of them, however fond I might be of quaint phrafes, "the purfuits of architectural innovation," has, like other arts, its infancy, meridian, and decline: conjectures upon their original foundation muft carry the mind back to an era of remote

antiquity, and, though I am almost aftonished at the temerity of the idea, throw it at least to the distance of the reign of Henry the Sixth, about which period encroachments were not only made upon the ground of Smithfield, by erecting booths for the reception of the goods of clothiers,, &c. during the time of Bartholomew Fair, but permanent houses were built, for their convenience and refidence, upon the watte ground, which, fay the hiftorians, was either a marth, or occupied by layftalls, &c.; which certainly gave rife to the name, as well as to many of the buildings in Cloath-fair, and probably to thole in Long-lane, which were without the north wall of the priory of St. Bartholomew; and

To this Priory the King (Henry II.) granted the privilege of a fair, to be helden yearly, for three days at Bartholomew tide; at which time the Clothiers of England ufed to meet the Drapers of London to tetrle their accounts, &c. Here each had their booths or landings as their dealings were wholetale or retail. It is curious to trace, from flight veftiges, the exidence of fingular characters. Hither the famous Clothier of England, Jack of Newbury, as he was called, whole memory ftili lives in the neighbourhood, ufed to relort, and had probably a houfe certainly a booth, on or near the fpot that is the subject of this fpeculation. The term of the existence of the fair, which became an object of Civic gaiety as well as commercial concern, was from three days, extended to three weeks, and, I think, till near the middle of the latt century, was contioned a fortnight; it has been well depicted by Ben Jonson; and its viands, “ tidy Bartholomew Pigs," alluded to by Shakespeare. It is odd enough that the anniverlary of this Sunt fhould have been commemorated by the deftruction of pigs. We learn, that in France, after a hg had cauted the death of King Philip, there animals were prohibited from running in the streets, though there was in this edict an exception in favour of those belonging to the Nuns of the Abbey St. Antoire.

VOL. XLIII. MARCH 1803.

Z

it

« ForrigeFortsett »