JAY GOULD'S TOMB.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4582, 2 March 1893, Page 1

JAY GOULD'S TOMB.

HOW 80,000 : DbLLIBS ' WEBE '

WASTED.

- Jay Qonld's tomb (says the Scientific American) .is ■ copied after ; the ' famous Maißon . Carre, at Nimea, France, built some two thousand years ago,' and is perhaps the beet preserved and most beautiful specimen of Grecian architecture in existence. Beared as it is upon . a grasacovered knoll, where it commands a striking view of the surrounding country, the full beauty^ of the ', handsome J marble structure, with its graceful lonic columns, is appreciated by a beholder approaching it from any direction. The design of the mausoleum was made by Mr P. T. PitzMahony, and it cost 80,000dols. It is built throughout of westerly granite. It is 33ft 10ng, .. 22ft wide, and 20ft high to the apex of the roof. The technical name of the building would be a Greek hexastyle, peripteral temple. It has bis columns in front and eleven columns on each side in single rows (this is counting the corner columns twice). Three rows of steps run up to the temple on all sides and form its base. Between the columns and the walls of the temple ia a considerable space.- Columns and walls are bare, without the faintest attempt at ornamentation. . In the centre of the row of columns facing the south it looks as if a column had been removed to make a broad passage-way.' Facing thib opening is the double door oil the tomb. Each section of . this door is Bft high and 2ft wide, and weighs a ton. The doora are of heavy bronze, and the lower part is panelled, and ornamented on the outside with tw6 dragons' heads, a big iron ring swinging in the mouth of each dragon. 'The upper part of the doors is a fretwork of cherubs and vines, through the opening of which the interior of the crypt can be seen. .The' interior is 20ft long, 7ft wide, and; 13ft high. Tts roof is a solid slab of granite which weighs six tons. The border' of the ceiling' ia panelled with egg and dart moulding:' The floor is one plain marble slab. Along the sides of the interior, are the catacombs. Of these there are twenty, ten on each side, in double rows. The rows are separated from each other by granite slabs. Each catacomb is 7£ftlong and 2sf t wide. Between the lower end of the catacombß and the outside of the wall of the tomb is a thickness' of 18in. The outer part of this thickness is, of course, granite, out facing the interior the walla are of light pink and ' cream-coloured Tennessee marble, highly polished. The light enters the crypt through a stained glass window in the back. This window, which is 6ft high and 3ft wide, pictures a choir of angels. The roof of the mausoleum consists of granite slabs 32ft long, each weigh* ing fifteen tons, and so placed together that they overlap, making the roof waterproof. The whole temple weighs about 300 tons, and rests on a solid concrete foundation Bffc thick. „ , •'•■:. • ' '