the Caesars, and which is
allowed, without contradiction, to be the most perfect and precious
remain of antiquity in existence. Its superiority over any thing at
Rome, in Greece, at Balbec, or Palmyra, is allowed on all hands; and
this single object has placed Nismes in the general tour of travellers.
Having not yet had leisure to visit it, I could only judge of it from
drawings, and from the relation of numbers who had been to see it.
I determined, therefore, to adopt this model, and to have all its
proportions justly observed. As it was impossible for a foreign artist
to know what number and sizes of apartments would suit the different
corps of our government, nor how they should be connected with one
another, I undertook to form that arrangement, and this being done, I
committed them to an architect (Monsieur Clerissauk), who had studied
this art twenty years in Rome, who had particularly studied and measured
the _Maison Quarree_ of Nismes, and had published a book containing most
excellent plans, descriptions, and observations on it. He was too well
acquainted with the merit of that building, to find himself restrained
by my injunctions not to depart from his model. In one instance, only,
he persuaded me to admit of this. That was, to make the portico two
columns deep only, instead of three, as the original is. His reason was,
that this latter depth would too much darken the apartments. Economy
might be added, as a second reason. I consented to it, to satisfy
him, and the plans are so drawn. I knew that it would still be easy to
execute the building with a depth of three columns, and it is what I
would certainly recommend. We know that the Maison Quarree has pleased,
universally, for near two thousand years. By leaving out a column, the
proportions will be changed, and perhaps the effect may be injured more
than is expected. What is good, is often spoiled by trying to make it
better.

The present is the first opportunity which has occurred of sending the
plans. You will, accordingly, receive herewith the ground plan, the
elevation of the front, and the elevation of the side. The architect
having been much busied, and knowing that this was all which would be
necessary in the beginning, has not yet finished the sections of the
building. They must go by some future occasion, as well as the models
of the front and side, which are making in plaster of Paris. These were
absolutely necessary for the guide of workmen, not v