Mosaic has been practised in Italy two thousand years; the manner of working it in that country is by copying in very small pieces of marble of different colours, every thing which a picture can be expected to imitate. Instead of common stones, too difficult to collect for so great a work, or which would require too much time to prepare and polish, the Italian artists sometimes have recourse to paste, that is to a composition of glass and enamel, which after passing through a crucible takes a brilliant colour. All these pieces are inlaid, and very thin, and their length is proportioned to their slenderness. They sometimes inlay a piece not thicker than a hair, and the artist afterwards arranges these pieces according to the colours and design of the picture before him. They are easily fixed in the stucco or plaster of Paris placed to receive them which soon hardens and dries. Such works are so solid that they are capable of resisting the assaults of time through ages. The Mosaic of St. Mark at Venice has existed above 900 years in perfect splendour and beauty. Several fine pieces of Roman Mosaic work have been discovered in England in the last and preceding centuries, particularly at Woodchester in Gloucestershire, and at Horkstow, in Lincolnshire, both of which have been elaborately described and engraved by the late Samuel Lysons, Esq. Others have been found at Winterton, Roxby, Scampton, and Denton, in the county of Lincoln; in Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, &c. &c. Sir Christopher Wren intended to have beautified the inside of the Cupola of St. Paul’s Cathedral, instead of painting it in the manner in which it now appears, with the more durable ornament of Mosaic work, as is nobly executed in the Cupola of St. Peter’s at Rome. For this purpose he intended to have procured from Italy four of the most eminent artists in that profession; but as this art was a great novelty in England, and not generally understood, the plan did not receive the encouragement it deserved. It was thought also that the expense would prove too great, and the time very long in the execution; but though these and all other objections were fully answered, yet this excellent design was no further pursued. KING EGBERT.