Architectural Description of the New EPISCOPAL CHAPEL, Princes Street.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR, IT is pleasant to see antiquity revived, and the taste for Gothic architecture renewed. It recalls to our minds the times of old, when all those venerable Cathedrals and Abbeys, which are such splendid monuments of the taste and wealth of our refathers, and which still form the richest and noblest displays of archiecture, of which this or any other country can boast, were standing complete in all their magnificence, hart by the band of time or of vioence, and frequented by generations, which, with all their pomp and splener, have passed away. We, who e now acting our parts on the stage of time, mast soon follow, and geneIctions yet unborn shall view with ailar feelings those sacred edifices which our hands have reared.

This city deserves great praise for at zeal which it has, of late, so remarkably displayed, in erecting new paces of public worship, and in the od taste with which they are planThe two Episcopal Chapels in Gothic style, which are at pre

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sent building in Edinburgh, are, this respect, highly worthy of notice. But Bishop Sandford's Chapel, in particular, will have a splendid appearance, and from its delightful situation, will produce an imposing effect on the mind of the beholder. Standing at the end of one of the finest terraces in Britain, (with Lord Nelson's monument, and the governor's house full in view) like a venerable Cathedral with its Gothic spire, it will meet, in majesty, the eye of the spectator, at a considerable distance, whether he approach it by Princes Street, or the Lothian Road. will besides form a happy combination with the beautiful spire of St Cuthbert's Church, to which it is conti guous, and also with the dome of St George's, which, situated to the one side, raises its majestic head above the neighbouring edifices. It will thus form a grand termination to that romantic vale, which the stupendous rock of the Castle overhangs in awful majes. ty, and which separates the wild, irregular, and elevated masonry of the Old Town, from the beautiful, regular, and moderate buildings of the New. This singular and contrasted group of objects, together with the unrival led and picturesque scenery which,

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on every side, crowds upon the view, will be fully displayed to the eye of the spectator, and cannot fail to raise in his mind the most delightful emotions.

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Bishop Sandford's Chapel will be an elegant Gothic building, from design of William Burn, Esq. Architect. Its general form is that of a parallelogram, running east and west, with a projection in front. The length will, I believe, be about 109 feet; the breadth 66 feet; the height of the body of the church more than 50 feet; the height of the altar window will be nearly 30 feet; the spire is, I understand, to be 150 feet high. It stands upon a basement of rubble work, which is raised considerably above the ground, particularly on the south side; and around which a terrace is to be built, which will add greatly to its appearance. Like buildings of the same description, it is externally divided on both sides, from east to west, into compartments by buttresses of equal dimension, betwixt which, except the two last, are placed Gothic windows, which are divided by stone mullions, and spread in the top into beautiful variations. Immediately above these windows, the wall terminates with a cornice, and sort of battlement, from which springs the lowest roof, till it meets the second or inner wall, which rises from thence for a number of feet; and, in like manner, with the fore or lower wall, is divided by small square projections, or buttresses, between which, except the two last, as before, are placed small Gothic windows intersected with one stone mullion below, and two in the top. The wall then terminates with a cornice, and numerous small sharp angular ornaments, or turrets, corresponding to the battlements of the lower wall, from which springs the highest roof. The space betwixt the two last buttresses on a level with the windows, both in the lower and inner walls on the north

side, and in the fore-wall, immediately over the two doors in the south side, is relieved by tastefully executed niches, whose canopies and pedestals, particularly those that are prominent in the fore-wall in the north side, are richly carved and embellished with leaves, &c. in relievo. The niches in the outer-wall in the south side, are exactly similar to those in the inner wall in the north side, and equally richly decorated. The corresponding ornaments in the second wall, south side, appear to be two small niches, resembling those contiguous to the larger ones; but not so finely executed. The tops of all the buttresses of the inner wall, and of those at the corners of the fore-wall, are decorated with crockated pinnacles, that end in finials, which have a fine effect. The intermediate buttresses of the lower wall are crowned with ornaments, which have a striking resemblance to cocked hats. At the west end of the chapel there is a considerable square projection, each corner of which is adorned by a beautiful buttress, which at present is car ried to an equal height with the inner wall. The lower part of this projec tion is graced with a magnificen Gothic door, which forms the princi pal entrance into the Chapel. Thi gate, like that of the Roman Catholi Chapel, is beautifully arched, and tastefully ornamented with crockets which run up the back of the mould ings, that meet in an acute angle, a a considerable distance above the to of the door, and which terminate in rich knot of flowers, resembling th blossoms of the Euphorbium. the door is placed another Goth window, similar in its mullions to t rest. The space betwixt the proje tion and the corner abutments, on bo side, is divided by buttresses of equ dimensions with the lateral ones, b which are continued to the height the inner wall, though diminishi their compass, after being adorned

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