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as antiquities in the Capitoline Museum. We spent several days in the two buildings, and a much longer time might have been employed both with pleasure and instruction.

In the second story, over the Protomotheca, is a long suite of chambers, filled with curiosities of various kinds-statues, busts, and paintings. The most interesting article is the bronze Wolf nursing the twin boys, supposed to be the one mentioned by Cicero, as having been struck by lightning, in token of the displeasure of the gods, and the approaching ruin of the empire. It is pretended, that the bolt fell on the day of Cæsar's assassination in the Senate.* The traces of the lightning are still visible upon the hind legs of the animal, which were cleft near the feet, and pieces of the bronze torn out. Neither of the children, sheltered under the body of their protectress, sustained injury. Absurd as this fable is, when construed literally, it makes a pretty picture. The head of the wolf, divested of its natural ferocity, is turned round to contemplate her regal charge with affection and maternal tenderness. Near this group stands a metallic bust of Junius Brutus. The complexion of the material is coalblack, and the white eyes give to a severe countenance an almost terrific appearance. It has lately been returned from Paris, and is reckoned one of the choicest articles in the collection. A bronze head of Michael Angelo, and his marble bust, sculptured by himself, arrested our attention, although he has not a great or interesting feature in his face, according to his own showing. His forehead is low, hist nose flat, and his chin long: so much for the indications of phrenology.

The gallery of paintings, comprising between two and three hundred articles, covering the walls of two large saloons, contains many works of merit, though it cannot be considered one of the most splendid collections in Italy. We did not observe a single picture by Raphael. The Bologna and Venetian schools are the most prominent-Guido, the three Caraccis, Domenichino, Titian,. Paul Veronese, and the rest. Several of Claude Lorraine's finest landscapes attract the eye of the visitant. Among the most interesting pictures are the Sibyl Persica, by Guercino, and

*The Senate-house in which Cæsar was stabbed, stood in the Forum of Pompey, between the Capitoline Hill and the Tiber. Mere curiosity induced us to visit the site, now occupied by the large modern church of St. Andrew.

the Cumaan Sibyl, by Domenichino. They are both executed with great spirit, but disappointed me as much, as to the character of these prophetesses, as did the one in the Tribune at Florence. Guido's Magdalen is also here; but in my estimation, she will not bear a comparison with the sweet penitent of Carlo Dolce. Old Michael Angelo seemed resolved, that the world should not forget his face, ugly as it is. He has here a portrait painted by himself. It does not improve much upon the bust. Guercino's resurrection and ascension of a Saint, (I forget her name,) is an admirable picture; and so is Guido's Europa. But I have not time to

dwell on this topic, nor to retrace our steps through the Chambers of Audience and of the Throne, (for this is a pontifical palace,) the walls of which exhibit rather a meagre show of tapestry, and the ceiling an endless succession of frescos. In the chapel some daring artist has attempted to portray an image of the Supreme Being, clothed in the costume of mortals. It need not be added, that the effort is mere mockery.

LETTER LX.

ROME CONTINUED-RIDE ROUND THE WALLS--TOMB OF THE SCIPIOS BATHS OF CARACALLA-TOMB OF CECILIA METELLACIRCUS OF CARACALLA--CATACOMBS-FOUNTAIN OF EGERIA-BATHS OF TITUS--GARDENS OF SALLUST-EXCURSION TO TIVOL-VILLA OF ADRIAN.

May, 1826. For the purpose of examining the walls and gates of Rome, we rode round the ramparts, from the Porta del Popolo, near the bank of the Tiber on the north, to the Porta di St. Paolo at the southern extremity of the city-an excursion occupying several hours, The road is bad, and often dangerous for coaches. In this vast semicircle, there are nine gates, leading to different parts of the Campagna, which with the three or four on the right bank of the Tiber make about a dozen in all. None of them are very remarkable for magnificence, except the one already described at our entrance, and the Porta Pia, erected by Pius VII. The Porta del Popolo and the Neapolitan Gate are the great thoroughfares, through which travellers arrive and depart.

The walls of Rome are from thirty to forty feet high on the outside, depending something on the formation of the ground. They are generally constructed of brick; but occasionally of large blocks of tufo, which is found in abundance on the Campagna. In truth, the ramparts are a piece of patch-work, alternately demolished and rebuilt, since the age of Aurelian; and there is nothing like uniformity either in the materials or construction. Sometimes the towers and bastions, by which they are flanked at short intervals, are round, and at others, square. The defences are at present entirely abandoned, and the port-holes blocked up. In many places, the walls are in a ruinous condition, often overgrown and overhung with ivy, cypress, myrtle, and other shrubbery, which give to the parapet a picturesque appearance. The path is the whole way perfectly solitary. We did not, to my recollection, meet a human being, in making the circuit. The view is entirely cut off on one hand, and much obstructed by a wall on the other. Occasionally the luxuriant branches of the fig-tree, or the red blossoms of the pomegranate,* springing from the garden of some deserted villa, overhang the road. Near the Neapolitan gate, the remains of the Circus Castrensis, appropriated to military games, were observed, incorporated with the walls, but still exhibiting a few of its Corinthian pillars. The Campagna in this ter is strewed with the ruins of the old Roman aqueducts.

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Another excursion to the Porta Capena, and thence along the Appian Way, presented a much greater variety of objects. We examined en passant the ruins of the theatre of Marcellus, which was built by Augustus and reckoned among the finest of Ancient Rome. It was four stories high, fragments of only two of which are now remaining-the basement, adorned with beautiful Doric pillars, and the second with Ionic. Our visit to the tomb of the Scipios was extremely interesting. It is situated on a little declivity, by the side of the Appian Way, not far from the gate, and in the midst of a vineyard. The words "Sepulchra Scipionum" at the entrance guide the traveller to the mausoleum, which is overgrown with wild shrubs, weeds, and grass. An old woman brought out her three or four wax tapers, and

*The pomegranate is a beautiful tree of the size of the peach, with a spear-shaped, delicate leaf, glossy like the myrtle. Its petals are of the colour of the Japan rose---bell-shaped, and polyandrous---the fruit while growing resembles the red pepper.

VOL. II.

17

each of us carrying his own light followed her through a narrow passage into the gloomy mansions of the dead. From the mouth of the sepulchre, there is a rapid descent to the farther extremity, a distance perhaps of a hundred feet or more; for it is impossible to say how far we went in the labyrinth of brick arches, lined with sarcophagi, standing in niches on either hand. All the family sleep here, except Scipio Africanus, who died an exile not far from Naples. Numerous tablets and inscriptions cover the walls of the mausoleum. The monuments are dropping away piecemeal, and the gloom of the place, united to its intricacy, is almost terrific.

Not far hence, and on the right side of the Appian Way, we visited the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, covering several acres, and rising in prodigious masses from the plain. Several of the stupendous arches, towers, and even saloons, are yet nearly entire, exhibiting a vivid image of their former extent and splendour. The walls were of brick, encrusted with marble. Excavations have been made to the Mosaic pavements, which were found strewed with statues and other ornaments. Among the more valuable articles, which have been disinterred, are the Farnesian Hercules and Flora, now at Naples. The ruins are luxuriantly shaded with ivy, shrubs and wild flowers, on which the bee feeds, and its hum alone breaks the solitude of this once fashionable, sumptuous, and gay retreat.

Two or three miles from the Porta Capena, on the left side of the Appian Way, stands the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, of whom little is known, except that she was the wife of Crassus, the most wealthy citizen of Rome. The monument is composed of large blocks of Travertine, compactly built, and rises like a strong circular fortress from the waste of the Campagna. It has in fact sometimes been occupied as a castle, and undergone slight alterations to fit it for military purposes. Its dimensions are about sixty feet in diameter and as many in height, girt at top with a frieze and sculptured garlands, as also with an image of Metella and the proud escutcheons of her family. The walls are thick and without windows, the rotunda in the interior for the reception of the sarcophagus being open at top. A rich circle of verdure springing from the summit of the ruin, and breaking the light of the aperture, presents a most picturesque view in looking up through the long dark shaft. The

sarcophagus has been removed, to decorate the courts of one of the palaces at Rome.

Within a hundred rods of this monument, and on the same side of the road, the ruins of Caracalla's Circus lie strewed upon the plain, covered with tall grass enamelled with flowers, through which we waded, to examine the spina, the bounds, the gaols, the seats for the judges, the orchestra for the military band, the triumphal arch for the victors, the immense amphitheatre for the audience, and in short, all the apparatus for the ancient chariot races, as they were celebrated in Greece and Rome. An obscure gate was pointed out to us on one side, through which the dead combatants were carried, who fell in the glorious career! The outlines are perfectly visible, and furnish valuable illustrations of the classics. It requires scarcely an effort of the imagination, to recal the images, the bustle, the hair-breadth 'scapes, the plaudits of the animated scene. Just under the walls of the Circus are the remains of two temples, one of which was dedicated to Honour, and the other to Virtue, so arranged that the former could not be reached without passing through the latter a good idea, which belonged to Marcellus, and not to Caracalla, a monster who never found either of the temples. The Circus is now the property of Torlonia, the celebrated Roman banker, who has made money enough to purchase two titles of nobility; and instead of giving him the above familiar appellation, he ought perhaps to have been styled the Duke of Bracciano. He deserves credit for the excavations he has made in the Circus, and the specimens of the arts he has brought to light.

Half a mile on the road towards Rome, we paused at the church of St. Sebastian, where sleeps the dust of that martyr-and descended into the catacombs, the dreary asylum of the early christians from the cruelties of their persecutors. A priest, with his lamps from the altar, led the way. Near the mouth is a subterranean chapel, where the tenants of these dreary abodes used to worship that God, whom they durst not proclaim in the light of day. We groped our way through passages so low, as to compel us to stoop, occasionally opening into little cells, which were at once the homes and the graves of the followers of the Cross. The walls are full of niches, in which the dead bodies of their families were placed and sealed up. Numerous inscriptions are found in these caverns, which are artificially dug from

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