lled
up with altars, _ex votos_, statues, &c. but such as we may reasonably
conclude, have not, exclusive of a religious consideration, all those
beauties which were once placed within a Temple, the outward structure
of which was so highly finished.

Truth and concern compel me to conclude this account of the _Maison
Carree_, in lamenting, that the inhabitants of Nismes (who are in
general a very respectable body of people) suffer this noble edifice to
be defiled by every species of filth that poverty and neglect can
occasion. The approach to it is through an old ragged kind of barn door:
it is surrounded with mean houses, and disgraced on every side with
filth, and the _offerings_ of the nearest inhabitants. I know not any
part of London but what would be a better situation for it, than where
it now stands: I will not except even Rag-fair, nor Hockly in the Hole.

LETTER XI.

NISMES.

The state in which that once-superb edifice, the Temple of Diana, now
appears; with concern, I perceived that there remains only enough to
give the spectator an idea of its former beauty; for though the roof has
been broken down, and every part of it so wantonly abused yet enough
remains, within, and without, to bear testimony that it was built, not
only by the greatest architect, but enriched also by the hands of other
great artists: indeed, the mason's work alone is, at this day,
wonderful; for the stones with which it is built, and which are very
large, are so truly worked, and artfully laid, without either cement or
mortar, that many of the joints are scarce visible; nor is it possible
to put the point of a penknife between those which are most open. This
Temple too is, like the _Maison Carree_, shut up by an old barn-door: a
man, however, attends to open it; where, upon entering, you will find a
striking picture of the folly of all human grandeur; for the area is
covered with broken statues, busts, urns, vases, cornices, frizes,
inscriptions, and various fragments of exquisite workmanship, lying in
the utmost disorder, one upon another, like the stript dead in a field
of battle. Here, the ghost of Shakespeare appeared before my eyes,
holding in his hand a label, on which was engraven those words you have
so often read in his works, and now see upon his monument.

I have often wondered, that some man of taste and fortune in England,
where so much attention is paid to gardening, never converted one spot
to an _Il Penseros