r. Allston thinks will far surpass even this
last. The subject is Christ before Pilate.

"I went last week to Burlington House in Piccadilly, about forty-five
minutes' walk, the residence of Lord Elgin, to see some of the ruins of
Athens. Lord Elgin has been at an immense expense in transporting the
great collection of splendid ruins, among them some of the original
statues of Phidias, the celebrated ancient sculptor. They are very much
mutilated, however, and impaired by time; still there was enough
remaining to show the inferiority of all subsequent sculpture. Even those
celebrated works, the Apollo Belvedere, Venus di Medicis, and the rest of
those noble statues, must yield to them....

"The cries of London, of which you have doubtless heard, are very
annoying to me, as indeed they are to all strangers. The noise of them is
constantly in one's ears from morning till midnight, and, with the
exception of one or two, they all appear to be the cries of distress. I
don't know how many times I have run to the window expecting to see some
poor creature in the agonies of death, but found, to my surprise, that it
was only an old woman crying 'Fardin' apples,' or something of the kind.
Hogarth's picture of the enraged musician will give you an excellent idea
of the noise I hear every day under my windows....

"There is a singular custom with respect to knocking at the doors of
houses here which is strictly adhered to. A servant belonging to the
house rings the bell only; a strange servant knocks once; a market man or
woman knocks once and rings; the penny post knocks twice; and a gentleman
or lady half a dozen quick knocks, or any number over two. A nobleman
generally knocks eight or ten tunes very loud.

"The accounts lately received from America look rather gloomy. They are
thought here to wear a more threatening aspect than they have heretofore
done. From my own observation and opportunity of hearing the opinion of
the people generally, they are extremely desirous of an amicable
adjustment of differences, and seem as much opposed to the idea of war as
the better part of the American people....

"In this letter you will perceive all the variety of feeling which
I have had for a fortnight past; sometimes in very low, sometimes in
very high spirits, and sometimes a balance of each; which latter, though
very desirable, I seldom have, but generally am at one extreme or the
other. I wrote this in the evenings of the last two