THE MODEL OF CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5167, 13 October 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE MODEL OF CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE.

The model obelisk on St. Stepheu's-grp n, Westminster, representing Cleopatra's Needle, is now completed. It was hurriedly built with boards, which have wide spaces between them, but at a little distance • give the effect of a needle of Syenitio granite. The color is not very good. It should be reddish grey. The dimensions of the model are those of the original. The precise height of the obelisk is 68ft., but the pedestal is 10ft. high, and is approached by steps which raise the total height to 81ft. The obelisk ia Bft. wide at the base measured one way, and 7ft. 3in. wide measured the other. The ideal proportions of an obelisk are such that the height should be ton times the breadth ; and thus the obelisk is not quite so tall as it should be. It is ISO tons in weight, and the site selected for the model is just above the Metropolitan District Kailway. But according to Mr. Dixon, the engineer who has undertaken to placo the monolith in position, this situatiou offers no obstacle in securing a good foundation upon an iron bed, which might be laid across the railway. We understand it was by the express wish of Lord Beacousfield, who has taken the greatest interest in the matter, that this model was erected. The Khedive in handing over the obelisk made it a condition that the Government should provide for its being kept with proper care ; aud the Imperial Government are thus responsible for this remarkable and precious inscribed stone, although it is to be brought over and set up at the expense of an individual, Mr. Erasmus Wilson, the eminent surgeon. The sito originally proposed for it was a green corner of the Thames Embankment, offered for the purpose, near the statue of Outram, but there it would bo comparatively obscure. The back of the Horse Guards and the front of the British Museum were also proposed, but the FieldMarshall Commauding-in-Chief objected to an ornament calculated to embarrass the military uses of the parade in the park ; and the ascent of the obelisk to Bloomsbury would probably leave yawning sewers and damaged cellars behiud. The present site was chosen for the model becavise so tall and heavy a single mass of sculptured Syenitio granite is a precious stone on the largest scale, and it seemed fitting to place it in a setting which is also of value.

It is further necessary not to move too far from the river. The model is close to Westminster Palaco and Westminster Abbey and the statues o£ Palmerston, Derby, and Peel. But perhaps it is best seen from some way np Victoria-street, where the Louses exclude all other prominent objects. The pedestal is built low enough to enable Egyptologists to read the hieroglyphs as they were read by the priests of On, the City of the Sun, 3000 years ago, before the groat stone was floated clown tho Nile to Alexandria, and there erected iu tho eighth year of Augustus beside its fellow,

which"'Sail stands iu Egypt. Both that anil this are -called Oieopatra's Needle. It was the wo t of the Egyptians to erect these mysterious pillars in pairs, and thus there aiv two " Cleopatra's Needles," just as there arj two " Pharoah's Needles," the one now at St. -Toliti Laterau, and the other in the Atmeidau iu Constantinople. This English Cleopatra's Needle is morj valuable than its Kgypri-ui fellow, as it is 200 years older, and shows in its hieroglyphs two periods of Kgyptian sculpture—the age of Thothmes 111. aud that of Ramses.— Home News.