PLATE XXVI.
Reading edition
PLATE XXVI.
Elevation of a beautiful moresque temple (see the plan, plate xxv.) The coupled columns support an arcade of intersecting semi-ellipses, which goes quite round the temple. In the spandrells are Moors heads, with crescents, roses, and stars, over which is a parapet balustrade of net or lattice-work. The body of the temple is 20 feet diameter, crowned with an open lantern, from whence it is lighted; the outside of which is adorned with stars of glass of an azure ground. On the top is a pine, which should be double gilt; and if the outside was covered with a glossy substance, it would have a very pleasing and magnificent appearance. The style of architecture is a medium between the Chinese and Gothic, having neither the levity of the former nor the gravity of the latter. The particularities of both this and the following design are taken from those famous remains of barbarian antiquity, the palace of Alhambra, at Granada, the ancient moresque mosque at Cordova, the old cassavee or palace of the Moorish kings at Mæquanez; for the accounts of which the reader is referred to Willughbuy’s Travels into Spain, Ockley’s Account of South or West Barbary, and Shaw’s Travels to the Levant.