INTERIOR OF st peter's.

291

feel an involuntary acknowledgment to God, who had gifted man with such sublime conceptions.

This sacred temple is open in common to the prince and to the beggar ;* and here the latter may find an asylum, and even feel, amidst his present abasement, the exaltation of his nature. Never shall I forget a poor wretched diseased boy, not more than four years of age, with scarcely a rag to cover him, kneeling in front of all the magnificence which I have attempted to describe, with his little hands and eyes raised to heaven. His appearance in such a place excited in our minds even higher feelings of the sublime, than all the surrounding pomp and splendour of papal decoration ;-for while. this gorgeous fabric shall be crumbling into unsightly ruins,—this little human speck, almost overlooked amidst the variety and vastness of surrounding objects,—this little heir of immortality. will enjoy undiminished youth throughout the ages of eternity.

I remember seeing two Princesses kneeling at the tomb of St Peter, when a common mendicant came up, and placed herself within a few inches of them. The servants of the Princesses, in splendid liveries, kneeled behind; but they were not very devout. They kept pulling each other's coats, and pointing to the pictures, and the beautiful effects of the sun's rays through the windows of the dome.

LETTER XXIV.

ROME.

Rome as it appears from elevated situations.—Gates.—Streets. -Palaces.-Varied population.-Shops.-Inferior streets. -Destruction of ancient marble.-Squares.-ObelisksChurches. External effect of St Peter's.-Pantheon.Remains of antiquity preserved in the walls.

You will naturally expect me to describe the appearance of the interior of the city, its streets, palaces, and churches; but please to recollect that this has been done so often, and so minutely, that it would be presumption in me to attempt to offer you more than the slightest sketch. First, then, let me inform you, that, although Rome, from all the elevated points, but especially from the Capitol, the Pincian hill, and Mount Janiculum, presents a most imposing appearance, it is very possible that the traveller may be disappointed on entering the city. The noble gates, so much talked of, (I mean the modern ones,) are not so simple and so grand as Rome is entitled to. Even those designed by Michael Angelo would not greatly excite your admiration. His broken pediments, and pediments within pediments, and unmeaning ornaments, would

STREETS.-PALACES,

293

not gratify your taste, or charm your fastidious

eye.

The streets are narrow, dirty, and rendered somewhat dismal by the height of the buildings, To the pedestrian, too, they are extremely uncomfortable, from the want of side pavements; or, when these do occur, they are high, narrow, and composed of small stones, extremely unpleasant to walk upon. The houses are large and often unseemly; the lower apartments of the palaces have grated windows, and are seldom inhabited except occasionally as stables.

These palaces are of enormous magnitude; the Piazza Collona, which is a considerable square, is formed by the sides of four of these colossal buildings. The Doria and Pamphili are joined, and the extent of them united is prodigious; yet the Pontifical palaces cover a still greater area. In general, they are greatly enriched with ornaments, balconies, belts, and cornices, but seldom in good taste: indeed, no city which I have seen, so decidedly teaches the discriminating architect what he should avoid. The symmetry and architecture of the ancient structures, which display so much purity of style, have not been imitated: and, indeed, it must appear surprising, that, in such a school of architecture, a school in which M. Angelo, Raphael, Bramanti, Bernini, and Fontana, had an opportunity of studying-so much of a

294 VARIED POPULATION IN THE STREETS.

gaudy and trifling character should prevail. The splendid fountains, too, have a similar expression, though the designs sculptured on them are often appropriate, and deserving a better fate than florid and vapouring mannerism. But though the excess of enrichment and bad taste are so discernible, it must be allowed, that, upon the whole, there is an imposing splendour in their appearance, which is apt to render us blind to their defects.*

These edifices, together with the churches and other buildings, generally line the streets, which are filled with innumerable variety of priests, among whom, the red stocking of the cardinal, and the purple one of the bishop, are far from being rare. Nobility, with their orders at their button-holes; convicts, in clanking chains; innumerable mendicants; pilgrims; open carriages filled with Italian ladies and their cavalieri serventi, the horses taught to tramp and prance, as if they were carrying high and mighty personages; funeral processions, the dead bodies carried on a bier, with their faces co

* Many palaces might be pointed out in Rome and Florence which, if placed in Edinburgh, would give it an imperial appearance, and convince us that something more is required than the tame and insipid uniformity of some of the principal streets. I do not mean to say that all the houses in these streets should be like palaces, but surely formality might be overcome by tasteful variety.

SHOPS -DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT MARBLES. 295

vered, preceded by priests and torches;* processions of chanting priests with the viaticum, or extreme unction, at the sight of which all take off their hats, and bend their knees; stalls with books and prints; fellows picking the feathers from wild fowl; and people frying fish and roasting chestnutsare all mixed together; while the eternal tolling of bells, the various cries, together with the lilts of the Calabrian pipers, produce a confusion, which, after curiosity has subsided, is by no means agreeable.

The shops are mean and inelegant in their appearance, resembling open arched coach-houses ; indeed, they are precisely of the same construction, and when the doors are shut, the resemblance is complete. They have few signs; a bush projecting from a window, is sufficient to indicate where wine or lodgings may be had. The inferior streets are for the most part privileged for the reception of filth, and in them we may perceive collections of marble columns, friezes, cornices, and other fragments of antiquity, heaped up in various places, to be broken down for lime, or used for inferior purposes. Thus are consigned to oblivion, as it were, by imperceptible degrees, the character and relics

* Lately the dead body of a nobleman fell from the bier on the pavement, in consequence of one of the supporters slipping his foot.