The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and
Instruction, by Various

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Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction
Volume 13, No. 354, Saturday, January 31, 1829.

Author: Various

Release Date: February 29, 2004 [EBook #11382]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.

No. 354.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1829. [PRICE 2_d_.

[Illustration: THE COLOSSEUM, IN THE REGENT'S PARK.]

THE COLOSSEUM, IN THE REGENT'S PARK.

In a recent Number of the MIRROR we offered ourselves as the reader's
_cicerone_ throughout the interior of this stupendous building, the
exterior of which is represented in the annexed engraving; and the
architectural pretensions of which will, we trust, be found of equal
interest to the interior.

The Colosseum is what is termed a polygon of sixteen sides, 130 feet in
diameter. Each angle is strengthened by a double square pilaster of the
Doric order, which supports an entablature, continued round the whole
edifice. Above the cornice is a blocking course, surmounted by an attic,
with an appropriate cornice and sub-blocking, to add to the height of the
building. The whole is crowned with a majestic cupola, supported by three
receding _scamilli_, or steps, and finished with an immense open circle.
The upper part of the cupola is glazed, and protected with fine wire-work,
and the lower part is covered with sheet copper; which distinctions are
shown in the engraving.

When the spectator's surprise and admiration at the vastness of the
building have somewhat subsided, his attention will be drawn to the fine
and harmonious proportions of the portico, considered by architects as
one of the best specimens of Graeco-Doric in the metropolis. This portion
of the building is copied from the portico of the Pantheon at Rome,
"which, in the harmony of its proportions, and the exquisite beauty of its
columns, surpasses every temple on the earth." Altogether, the g