The stranger in France : $b or, a tour from Devonshire to Paris illustrated by engravings in aqua tint of sketches taken on the spot.Carr, John, Sir
History
The stranger in France : $b or, a tour from Devonshire to Paris illustrated by engravings in aqua tint of sketches taken on the spot.
Carr, John, Sir
France -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- Description and travel
which almost touch their chins, and over their shoulders carry enormous
hatchets. Their strange costume seemed to unite the dissimilar
characters of high priest, and warrior. They looked like _military
magi_. The common men made a very martial appearance. Their officers
wore english riding boots, which had an unmilitary effect. Paris at
present exhibits all the appearances of a city in a state of siege. The
consular palace resembles a line of magnificent barracks, at the
balconies, and upon the terraces of which, soldiers are every where to
be seen lounging. This palace is partitioned between the first and
second consuls, the third principal magistrate resides in a palace near
the Louvre, opposite to the Thuilleries. The four colossal brazen
horses, called the venetian horses, which have been brought from Venice,
are mounted upon lofty pedestals, on each side of the gates of the grand
court yard of the palace. When the roman emperor Constantine founded
Constantinople, he attached these exquisite statues to the chariot of
the Sun in the hippodromus, or circus, and when that capital was taken
possession of by the venetian and french crusading armies, in 1206, the
venetians obtained possession of them, amongst many other inestimable
curiosities, and placed these horses in four niches over the great door
of the church of St. Marco. Respecting their previous history, authors
very much differ; some assert that they were cast by the great statuary
Lysippus, in Alexander's time, others that they were raised over the
triumphal arch of Augustus, others of Nero, and thence removed to the
triumphal arch of Constantine, from which he carried them to his own
capital.
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