ON INSCRIPTIONS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2075, 28 August 1875, Page 4

ON INSCRIPTIONS.

The matter and manner of inscriptions on monuments and public edifices afford scope for the-display of taste of every description, from the most exquisite to the most atrocious* On some monuments and mural tablets the legend is too bald and commonplace, but these are the minority; on the majority it is too fulsome and redundant. Take, for instance, that on the pedestal in 5 Sydney which supports Theed's figure of the late Prince Consort (with his back turned to Hyde-park and the site of the long contemplated monument to Captain James Cook). A rivulet ■—we cannot honour it by the title of a river—of capital letters proclaims in fulsome and sycophantic language the virtues of" Albert the Good." Logically, as well as aesthetically, this long inscription is bad, as it seems to infer that without minute description people .would be apt to forget who he was, and without the details of his merits it would be difficult for the public to remember he Lad any. It will be possible to deal with Captain Cook's monument—when it is finished— in a much more simple manner in the matter of the inscription. One line will iuffice to recall him and his story. Parenthetically, while on the. subject of taste, would it not have been more appropriate on the part of our Sydney friends to have finished Captain Cook's monument first, and let the lamented and very much | monumented Albert wait P What he ever did for New South Wales it is difficult to see; but the claims of Captain James Cook, the discoverer of Port Jackson and Botany Bay ought never to underestimated or forgotten by Australians, and least of all by the inhabitants of Sydney. As an instance of bad taste in the matter of inscriptions ©a public buildings we would refer to the lettering on the frieze of the'-front elevation of'our Public Library. A fe^ryqars ago there appeared, under the pediment in the centre the words " Melbourne Public Library." If it were necessary to indicate the purpose of the building at all, the name, worked in the design of tho iron gate, or neat plates on either sides of the entrance, would be equally efficacious. No one is likely to mistake the Hospital on the one hand for the Library, or the County Court on the other. Nor is it probable that the Gaol and Supreme Court, in the rear, will ever be confounded -with this deservedly popular institution. But apart from this, the word "Melbourne." we contend, is surplusage, and all surplusage is bad.- No one for, instance, walking up S.wanston - street would be" likely to suppose it was the " Footscray" Public Library. On either side now appears further information respect"ing the purposes of the edifico— " National Gallery" and ' "Industrial Museum." We don't mean to say that inscriptions are improper in such positions. There ate abundant precedents in the buildings of ancient .Greece and Italy but "they are not of this matter-of-fact or sign-board description.- When the two flanks of the building and the side front to La Trobe-street' are completed,' it appears to us it would be quite in keeping to continue the information''in this wise —"Admission free. Open,from 10 a.m to 10 p.m." In modern buildings—take for instance the Boyal Enchange, London—the frieze tears the record of its foundation in the . 13th year of the reign of Queen Eliza- . beth, and its restoration in the Bth year ' of the reign of our present Sovereign, . and above in the pediment under the ■ gigantic figure representing Commerce is the motto, suggested it is said by Prince Albert, " The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;" but nowhere is there any indication by way of inscription that the building is the Boyal Exchange. In the drawing of the elevation of the Public Library, which used to be exhibited in the building, there is no" such deformity, nor does'it appear in the engraving which forms the frontispiece to the Supplemental* Catalogue for '1865; The idea was- evidently an afterthought, and we can't help thinking an. .unfortunate one. The lettering is furthermore cut into the. stone, and not in relief, which is an error, and one that can never be rectified. We have always'given"the trustees, especially Sir Bedmopd Barry, credit for better taste. ' -To revert to the subject of monumental inscriptions .and epitaphs, we cannot call to purer mind' taste than the brief fecord placed over the grave'of Sir John . Moore, at Corunna—Sir John Moore, 1 Stein in battle, v " . Lids buried here. The inscription on the monument erected to his memorj in St. Paul's is alao unusually short (comparatively), and consists of but nine lines, but for taste we give the preference to the inscription on. his grave. 1 But the briefest we ever saw is on'th'e pedestal of "the column, and statue erected to the memory of Sir Walter Scott* in Glasgow. It is simply. . „ Walter Scott.

Ho prefix or affix denoting his worldly , rank,- and'not a line setting forth his genius.- The two words suffice. It -is . even terser than the epitaph of the great Carthagenian Hannibal, the son" of Hamilcar; and just equal, to that on- the tomb of Charlemagne in the cathedral of Aix la Chapelle" Carolo Magno. Alexander the Great's. Sufflcit hiiic tumulus cvi non sufficerotorbis, always appeared to us far better SBsthetically, than the oft-quoted Si nionumentum," &c. under the dome of St. Paul's. The monument erected by command of j Bernadotte to the memory of Charles XII., killed at the battle of Fredericshall, in Sweden, does not bear his name at all, but simply the words, In the fight against Fre3ericshall. It consists of an obelisk erected on the - spot where he fell, close" to the steep and all but impregnable rock on which stands the castle. There is exquisite taste in these few words, and in the omission of his name. As Ddrwent Conway sings, That little pillar bears no name, ■ It needeth none", "where he did fall; It only points the spot where fame Linked with his "memory Frederickshall." His name ! oh it is written there, Eternal on.that rockywall, No name this obelisk need bear Th»n "in the fight of Frederickshall." But our .observations on the subject of mortuary inscriptions have a practical application, to our own case here in Melbourne. We have but one monument in the c ity—that to Burke and Wills—but it can show neither letter nor explanatory to a stranger of the why or wherefore the figeurs were placed there. We have found precedents for. the briefest of records on similar erections, and. even for the omission altogether of the name of the party honoured, but we can find none for the total abienee of any record at all. <

It cannot be said there is anything exceptional in their case, or that the rule which obtains in the case of the epitaphs of Charles XII., Alexander the Great, or Charlemagne does not apply to them. In a oity where there are so many new arrivals and strangers, •ii is more than usually necessary that this erection should; be made to say something . for itself. We respectfully submit for the consideration of His Excellency the Acting-Gover i nor, who was chairman of the Exploration | Committee, that he should not consider his duties completed until some inscription is placed on this pedestal.' We can trust to him it will be. in good taste, and we hope brief. Life is too short nowadays for the perusal of long-winded panegyrics on tombs or temples. Those who rim cannot read them. We would make the, committee the present of a suggestion. In front, three words, and thus— Biirkc trod Wills. : On one side, "Crossed the continent to: Carpentaria and arrived there on the 12th of February, 1861." On the other " Perished from hunger at Cooper's Creek on their return, July, 1861." l i For 10 years now they have stood there! nameless, and looked down Collins street and seen many a funeral procession pass the intersection with Swanston street towards the General Cemetery. Before another 10 years will have parsed, they will have seen the bulk of the generation: most familiar with their story pass the same way, and they will be left, in the; middle of a,population who liave but a hazy notion of the magnitude of their ex*ploit and their melancholy but withal glorious end. Our duty to Boberfc O'Hara Burke and William John Wills was not completed when. we stuck them up on high there, in the neighbourhood of some elegant steeples. There ought to Wat the very least a record of their names and what they did.—Australasian. ">