Curiosities Respecting Temples: Florence Statues and Floating Gardens
Photo: Annie Spratt
BY
John Platts
An excerpt from
THE BOOK OF CURIOSITIES
1854
Introduction
"The Book of Curiosities" is a fascinating and comprehensive collection of curiosities, mysteries, and wonders from around the world, compiled by the British linguist and author John Platts. First published in 1851, the book quickly became a popular reference work for anyone interested in exploring the unknown and unexplained corners of the world. Platts drew from a wide range of sources, including ancient legends and myths, historical accounts of explorers and travelers, and contemporary scientific research.
The book covers a wide variety of topics, from strange animals and plants to unusual geological formations, from ancient ruins and lost cities to bizarre customs and beliefs of different cultures. Platts' writing style is engaging and entertaining, blending facts with stories and anecdotes that bring the material to life.
In addition to its entertaining content, "The Book of Curiosities" is also a valuable historical document that sheds light on the Victorian era's fascination with the exotic and the unknown. It provides a glimpse into a time when the world was still largely unexplored, and the mysteries of nature and human culture were waiting to be discovered
Curiosities Respecting Temples
Inverlochy Castle
Inverlochy Castle is an ancient castle near Fort William, in Inverness-shire. It is adorned with large towers, which, by the mode of building, seem to have been the work of the English, in the time of Edward I. who laid large fines on the Scotch Barons, for the purpose of erecting castles. The largest of these is called Cummin’s Tower. “The castle, (says the Rev. Thomas Ross, in his Statistical Account of Kilmanivaig) has survived the burgh, and now stands alone in ancient magnificence, after having seen the river Lochy, that formerly filled its ditches, run in another course, and has outlived all history and tradition of its own builder and age. It is a quadrangular building, with round towers at the angles, measuring thirty yards every way within the walls. The towers and ramparts are solidly built of stone and lime, nine feet thick at the bottom, and eight feet above. The towers are not entire, nor are they all equally high. The western is the highest and largest, and does not seem to have been less than fifty feet when entire; the rampart between them, from twenty-five to thirty. Ten or twelve yards without the walls the ditch begins, which surrounded the castle, from thirty to forty feet broad. The whole building covers about one thousand six hundred yards; and within the outside of the ditch are seven thousand square yards, nearly an acre and a half English. The whole building would require from five hundred to six hundred men to defend it. From the name of the western tower, it is probable this castle was occupied by the Cummins in the time of Edward I. and previous to that period by the Thanes of Lochaber; among others by the noted Bancho, predecessor of the race of Stuart. There is a tradition that this castle was once a royal residence, and that the famous league betwixt Charles the Great of France, and Achaius king of Scots, had been signed there on the part of the Scotch monarch, A. D. 790.”
Magdalen’s Hermitage.—This place is situated about a league from Friburg, in Switzerland, and is described by Mr. Blainville, and also by Mr. Addison. They both say it is situated among woods and rocks, in the prettiest solitude imaginable. The hermit, (they say,) who was then alive, had worked out of the rock a pretty chapel, with an altar, sacristy, and steeple; also five chambers, a parlour, refectory, kitchen, cellar, and other conveniences. The funnel of his chimney, which pierces from his kitchen to the top of the rock, slanting all the way, is ninety feet high, and cost him so much toil, that he was a whole year about it, and often despaired of finishing his design. All this must appear the more surprising, when we consider the dimensions of the different parts of this hermitage, the chapel being sixty-three feet in length, thirty-six in breadth, and twenty-two in height. The sacristy, or vestry, is twenty-two feet square, and the height of the steeple seventy feet. The chamber between the chapel and the refectory, is above forty feet long; the refectory itself is twenty-one long; and the cellar is twenty-five feet long, and ten feet deep. But the hall or parlour is particularly admired, being twenty-eight paces in length, twelve in breadth, and twenty feet in height, with four openings for windows, much higher and wider than those of our best houses. At one end of this hall was the hermit’s cabinet, with a small collection of books and other curiosities. To add to the pleasantness and convenience of this habitation, he had cut the side of the rock into a flat, and having covered it with good mould, had formed a pretty garden, planted with divers sorts of fruit-trees, herbs, and flowers; and by following the veins of water that dropped from several parts of the rock, he had made himself two or three fountains, which supplied his table, and watered his little garden.
This hermit, whose name was Jean du Pre, began this laborious undertaking at the age of thirty, and said he was twenty-five years in completing it, having had no sort of assistance from any person whatsoever, except one servant. He intended to have carried on his work still farther, but was drowned in 1708, as he was crossing a neighbouring river in a boat, with some company that came to visit him on St. Anthony’s day, the patron of his chapel. His place is supplied by a priest, who subsists by the generosity of strangers that come to see the hermitage, whom he generally entertains with bread and wine, and a nosegay.
Curiosities of Friburg.—Friburg is a large town of Switzerland, seated on the Sanen, in a most singular and picturesque situation. Mr. Cox, in his Travels in Switzerland, thus describes it: “It stands partly in a small plain, partly on bold acclivities on a ridge of rugged rocks, half encircled by the river Sanen, and is so entirely concealed by the circumjacent hills, that the traveller scarcely catches the smallest glimpse, until he bursts upon a view of the whole town from the overhanging eminence. The fortifications, which consist of high stone walls and towers, inclose a circumference of about four miles; within which space the eye comprehends a singular mixture of houses, rocks, thickets, and meadows, varying instantly from wild to agreeable, from the bustle of a town to the solitude of the deepest retirement. The Sanen winds in such a serpentine manner, as to form in its course, within the space of two miles, five obtuse angles, between which the intervening parts of the current are parallel to each other. On all sides the descent to the town is extremely steep; in one place the streets often pass over the roofs of the houses. Many of the edifices are raised in regular gradation, like the seats of an amphitheatre; and many overhang the edge of a precipice in such a manner, that, on looking down, a weak head would be apt to turn giddy. But the most extraordinary point of view is from the Pont-neuf. On the north-west a part of the town stands boldly on the sides and the piked back of an abrupt ridge; and from east to west, a semicircle of high perpendicular rocks is seen, whose base is washed and undermined by the winding Sanen, and whose tops and sides are thinly scattered with shrubs and underwood. On the highest points of the rocks, and on the very edge of the precipice, appears, half hanging in the air, the gate called Bourguillon: a stranger standing on the bridge would compare it to Laputa, or the Flying Island, in Gulliver’s Travels; and would not conceive it to be accessible, but by means of a cord and pulleys. The houses, constructed with a gray sandstone, are neat and well built; and the public edifices, particularly the cathedral, are extremely elegant.”
Curiosities of Augsburg
In the square, near the town-house, is the Fountain of Augustus, which is a marble bason, surrounded with iron balustrades finely wrought: at the four corners are four brass statues as large as life, two of women, and two of men; in the middle of the bason is a pedestal, at the foot which are four sphinxes, squirting water; a little above these, are four infants holding four dolphins in their arms, which pour water out of their mouths; and over these are festoons and pine-apples of brass; upon the pedestal is the statue of Augustus, as large as life. The fountain most remarkable next to this, is that of Hercules, which is an hexagon bason with several brass figures, particularly Hercules engaging the hydra.—Another curiosity is the Secret Gate, which was contrived to let in persons safely in time of war: it has so many engines and divisions with gates and keys, and apartments for guards, at some distance from each other, where passengers are examined, that it is impossible for the town to be surprised this way; the gates are bolted and unbolted, opened and shut, by unseen operators, so that it looks like enchantment.—The Water Towers are also very curious, of which there are three, seated on a branch of the Lech, which runs through the city in such a torrent, as to drive many mills, which work a number of pumps, that raise the water in large leaden pipes to the top of the towers. One of these sends water to the public fountains; and the rest, to near one thousand houses in the city.
The Escurial
The Escurial is a royal residence of Spain, fifteen miles north-west of Madrid. It is the largest and most superb structure in the kingdom, and one of the finest in Europe. The word is Arabic, meaning “a place full of rocks.” It is built in a dry barren spot, surrounded with rugged mountains, insomuch that every thing which grows there is owing to art. This place was chosen, it is said, for the sake of the stone wherewith the fabric is built, which is got from a mountain just by, and is very durable; and the design of erecting it was to commemorate a victory which Philip II. obtained over the French (by the assistance of the English forces) at St. Quintin, on St. Lawrence’s day, in the year 1557.
The Spanish description of this structure forms a sizeable quarto volume. Its founder expended upon it six millions of ducats. The apartments are decorated with an astonishing variety of paintings, sculpture, tapestry, ornaments of gold and silver, marble, jasper, gems, and other curious stones, surpassing all imagination. This building, besides its palace, contains a church, large and richly ornamented; a mausoleum; cloisters; a convent; a college; and a library, containing about thirty thousand volumes; besides large apartments for all kinds of artists and mechanics, noble walks, with extensive parks and gardens, beautified with fountains and costly ornaments. The fathers that live in the convent are two hundred, and they have an annual revenue of £12,000.
It was begun by Philip in 1562, five years after the battle, and completed in twenty-two years. It consists of several courts and quadrangles, which all together are disposed in the shape of a gridiron, the instrument of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence; the apartment where the king resides, forming the handle. The building is a long square, of six hundred and forty by five hundred and eighty feet, and the height up to the roof is sixty feet all round, except on the garden side, where the ground is more taken away. At each angle is a square tower, two hundred feet high. The number of windows in the west front is exactly 200; in the east front, 366. The orders are Doric and Ionic. There are three doors in the principal front. Over the grand entrance are the arms of Spain, carved in stone; and a little higher, in a niche, a statue of St. Lawrence in a deacon’s habit, with a gilt gridiron in his right hand, and a book in his left. Directly over the door is a basso-relievo of two enormous gridirons, in stone.
This vast structure, however, with its narrow high towers, small windows, and steep sloping roof, exhibits a very uncouth style of architecture; at the same time that the domes, and the immense extent of its fronts, render it a wonderfully grand object from every point of view.
The church is in the centre, is large, awful, and richly ornamented. The cupola is bold and light. The high altar is composed of rich marbles, agates, and jaspers of great rarity, the produce of this kingdom. Two magnificent catafalcos fill up the side arcades of this sanctuary: on one, the emperor Charles V. his wife, daughter, and two sisters, are represented in bronze, larger than life, kneeling; opposite are the effigies of Philip II. and of his three wives, of the same materials, and in the same devout attitude. Underneath, is the burial-place of the royal family, called the Pantheon: twenty-five steps lead down to this vault, over the door of which is a Latin inscription, denoting, that “this place, sacred to the remains of the Catholic kings, was intended by Charles the emperor, resolved upon by Philip II. begun by Philip III. and completed by Philip IV.” The mausoleum is circular, thirty-six feet in diameter, and incrusted with fine marbles in an elegant taste. The bodies of the kings and queens lie in tombs of marble, in niches, one above the other. The plan of these sepulchres is grand, and executed with a princely magnificence; but, as a modern traveller observes, in a style rather too gay, too light, and too delicately fitted up, for the idea we are apt to form of a chapel destined for the reception of the dead. The collection of pictures dispersed about various parts of the church, sacristy, and convent, has been considered as equal, if not superior, to any gallery in Europe, except that of Dresden. Formed out of the spoils of Italy, and the wasted cabinet of that unfortunate monarch, Charles I. of England, it contains some of the most capital works of the greatest painters that have flourished since the revival of the art. In the sacristy is an altar called La Santa Forma: this is a kind of tabernacle of gems, marbles, woods, and other precious materials, inlaid in gilt bronze; in which, rather than in the excellence of the workmanship, or taste of the design, consists the merit of this rock of riches. Before it hangs a curtain, on which Coello has represented Charles II. and all his court, in procession, coming to place this Forma. This is esteemed one of the most curious collections of portraits in the world; for all the persons are drawn with the greatest strength of colour and truth of expression, and are said to be perfect resemblances, not only of the monarch and grandees, but even of the monks, servants, and guards. The statues, busts, and the medallions of the Escurial, are neither very numerous, nor remarkable for their excellence; but the library contains a most precious collection of manuscripts, many fine drawings, and other curiosities.
Notwithstanding the coldness of the exposure, the late king, for the sake of hunting, used to pass several months of the year at this palace.
Florence Statues
In the Duke of Florence’s garden at Pratoline, is the statue of Pan; sitting on a stool, with a wreathed pipe in his hand, and that of Syrinx, beckoning him to play on his pipe. Pan, putting away his stool, and standing up, plays on his pipe; this done, he looks on his mistress, as if he expected thanks from her, takes the stool again, and sits down with a sad countenance.—There is also the statue of a Laundress at her work, turning the clothes up and down with her hand and battledore, wherewith she beats them in the water.—There is the statue of Fame, loudly sounding her trumpet; an artificial toad creeping to and fro; a dragon bowing down his head to drink water, and then vomiting it up again; with divers other pieces of art, that administer wonder and light to the beholders.
The Great Wall of China
The principal defence of the empire against a foreign enemy is the Great Wall, which separates China from Tartary, extending more than fifteen hundred miles in length, and of such thickness, that six horsemen may easily ride abreast upon it. It is flanked with towers, two bow-shots distant from one another: Walker says, there are forty-five thousand of these towers, (a number rather incredible,) and that the wall extends two thousand miles. It is said, that a third of the able-bodied men in the empire were employed in constructing this wall. The workmen were ordered, under pain of death, to place the materials so closely, that not the least entrance might be afforded for any instrument of iron; and thus the work was constructed with such solidity, that it is still almost entire, though two thousand years have elapsed since it was constructed.
