CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE IN LONDON.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 11, 15 December 1877, Page 2

CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE IN LONDON.

The arrival in London of Cleopatra's Needle is an event of a sufficiently near future to involve the necessity of settling where it is to be put up. Liberty of choice is limited by the physical impassibility of manoeuvring the huge monolith about the streets. If some suitable spot cannot be found upon the Thames bank, the obelisk might as well have stopped in Egypt. In mere bulk, if we view it as a structure and not as a stone, it is not so vast, and in particular it can really stand of itself upon a very small square patch of ground. But it is just the material ease with which it may be reared upon almost any London site not involving a long land transit that makes the decision more delicate and difficult. Artistically, the process is one of turning an adjective into a substantive. Obelisks, in their natural homes at Memphis, Thebes er Heliopolis were only one, and not the biggest, out of many elements which combined in the most gigantic architectural conception which the world has ever seen. No one thought of their size, for they were co-ordinated with the whole artificial world round them. But an obelisk torn away from old Egypt, and set up to bo looked at for its own sake, like a Colorado beetle in a liottle, is a very different affair, particularly as, apart from associations, the obelisk form is not one of extreme beauty. The Romans, indeed, were exceptionally lucky in the use to which they could put such acquisitions, as the spina of a circus, while we can only Use them as central ornaments in public places. Of course, any appropriateness in the surroundings is out of the question, nor will it be easy to evolve a piquant contrast. Still, contrast is what must be airued «t, with the general intention of so suiting the monolith to the adjacent buildings that it shall neither seem very big nor very little—neither an overgrown stone nor a puny spire. The question of pedestal is hardly less important than that of position. Some people take for granted that because the obelisk is Egyptian and sternly plain in design, the pedestal must correspond. We are unable to bow to the dictum, which is refuted by the still erect companion of Cleopatra's needle at Alexandria, of which the pedestal has just been cleared, with the discovery that the Roman architect raised the monolith upon four metal rests. The most complete treatment would be a graceful proportioned pedestal of bronze, with historical groups —Egypt, England, Nile, Thames, and so on—at the corners, out of which the naked shaft would shoot up. But these groups must be truly artistic, or they had better not intrude upon the scene. A good artistic pedestal will be best of all; a square mass big enough to tilt the obelisk up to its right height will be second best; a bad artistic pedestal worst of all.—"The Saturday Review."