door.

The original destination of this beautiful edifice still furnishes a
subject for discussion among the antiquaries; some asserting it to have
been erected by the Emperor Adrian in honour of Plotina, while others
maintain it to have been a forum.

At present, it is used as a museum for the antiquities discovered at
Nismes, and contains some admirable specimens. Among these are a torso
in marble of a Roman knight, in a cuirass, and another colossal torso,
with a charming little draped statue seated in a curule chair, and
holding a cornucopia in the left hand; a cinerary monument, enriched
with bassi-relievi, representing a human sacrifice; a bronze head of
Apollo, much injured; and a Janus.

A funereal monument found in the neighbourhood of Nismes in 1824,
offers a very interesting object, being in a good state of
preservation. It is richly decorated, and by the inscription is proved
to have been that of Marcus Attius, aged twenty-five years, erected to
him by his mother Coelia, daughter of Sextus Paternus.

So fine is the proportion, so exquisite is the finish, and so wonderful
is the preservation of the _Maison Carrée_, that I confess I had much
more pleasure in contemplating its exterior, than in examining all that
it contains, though many of these objects are well worth inspection.

I should like to have a small model of it executed in silver, as an
ornament for the centre of a table; but it would require the hand of a
master to do justice to the olive leaves of the capitals of the
columns; that is, if they were faithfully copied from the original.