WOODINGTON'S NELSON AT THE NILE.
A second tablet of high relief is now affixed to the Nelson monument, —on the back, facing Northwards. It represents a scene in Nelson's life at the battle of the Nile ; when he refused to receive the aid of the sur- geon, for a hurt in his forehead, until the more serious wound of a com- mon sailor should have been attended to. The place is the cockpit of the ship. Nelson is seated, leaning against two mariners ; Captain Berry standing by to assist. The surgeon is rising from a kneeling posture be- side the wounded sailor, but is motioned back by Nelson's outstretched arm. Above, on either side, sailors are bringing down the sufferers from the battle. The character of the figures is a compromise between the classic and the modern : the wounded sailor has some traits in common with the son of Niobe ; the sailor above displays a shoulder not small but lax in its anatomy and poor in its contour, like that of common life. The countenances are set, the action lacks vitality. Still there is some broad sculpturesque propriety of expression, some symmetry of composition; and the story is not ill-told. Mr. WoOdington is the artist.
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