Surprized, And Much Disgusted At This Filthy Phaenomenon, I Asked
By What Means, And By Whose Permission, Those Dirty Hags
Had got
down into the basin, in order to contaminate the water at its
fountain-head; and understood they belonged
To the commandant of
the place, who had keys of the subterranean passage.
Fronting the Roman baths are the ruins of an antient temple,
which, according to tradition, was dedicated to Diana: but it has
been observed by connoisseurs, that all the antient temples of
this goddess were of the Ionic order; whereas, this is partly
Corinthian, and partly composite. It is about seventy foot long,
and six and thirty in breadth, arched above, and built of large
blocks of stone,
exactly joined together without any cement. The walls are still
standing, with three great tabernacles at the further end,
fronting the entrance. On each side, there are niches in the
intercolumniation of the walls, together with pedestals and
shafts of pillars, cornices, and an entablature, which indicate
the former magnificence of the building. It was destroyed during
the civil war that raged in the reign of Henry III. of France.
It is amazing, that the successive irruptions of barbarous
nations, of Goths, Vandals, and Moors; of fanatic croisards,
still more sanguinary and illiberal than those Barbarians, should
have spared this temple, as well as two other still more noble
monuments of architecture, that to this day adorn the city of
Nismes: I mean the amphitheatre and the edifice, called Maison
Carree - The former of these is counted the finest monument of the
kind, now extant; and was built in the reign of Antoninus Pius,
who contributed a large sum of money towards its erection.
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