ANECDOTE OF AN ITALIAN COUNT. 155

an

by his daughter the Contessa, were announced to Mr. as visitors. He received them with pleasure, recollecting the name as belonging to an ancient Roman family. After some conversation, the Count told Mr. that the mere ceremony of a visit was not what he had in view, but to ask some relief for his distressed family. Mr. swered, that he had had so many demands upon him lately of the same nature, that he could contribute little, but that if he would accept of a crown, it was at his service. The Count received it, and to testify his gratitude, ordered the young Contessa, who was a very pretty girl, to kiss the hand of the Signore Inglese. In a few days they repeated their visit, with the same story of distress. They received another crown, for which the same acknowledgment was given. Pleased with their success, very short time the young lady returned without her father, to whom Mr. -, again giving a crown,

in

a

said, that any farther application would be unne

cessary, as he could give no more.

LETTER XXI.

Rome, June 2, 1820,

MR. M. having obtained permission from Canova, was our conductor to see the sketches in the Vati

156 THE VATICAN EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES.

can, which are kept locked up, until their final arrangement is completed; the workmen having received orders to continue their labours even on the Sundays, that the whole may be finished on a stated day, when the Pope is to see them. The greater number are Egyptian idols, hideous, and unlike any thing which was ever seen in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath; and how any being, in whom the Almighty Creator had breathed an intellectual soul, could bow down to worship before them, is beyond the comprehension of any rational creature. They must have formed a strange idea of their gods, having represented them neither as man nor beast, but a deformed mixture of both; gigantic in size, with heads like birds and beasts, the rest of the figure upright, like the human figure. Several cases were filled with mummies of animals, which had been worshipped, and after death were thus preserved. Two large glass cases are filled with penates, also brought from Egypt, diminutive forms, as ugly and mis-shapen as the larger ones. We saw the much admired statue of the Nile in another room, covered with little children, to represent its fertility: and in another, a statue of Euripides, greatly prized on account of the rarity of statues of this poet.

Mr.

I have had a very pleasant excursion in company with Mrs. &c. &c. Our first visit was to the Grotto Ferrata, where we saw Domenichino's Possessed Boy, and, by the same masterly

RUINS OF TUSCULUM.

157

hand, the other beautiful frescos, which adorn the church. In our way from the Grotto Ferrata to Frescati, we passed over a rough road, but were well repaid for the jolting by the beautiful country through which it led. We had brought a cold dinner, and stopped to eat it at the Villa Aldobrandini; but had not much time to spare at our repast, as we had three miles to walk, through the heat of the sun, to Tusculum, a great part of the way up hill. The ruins of this once spacious city can hardly now, in some places, be discerned; but in others they are very interesting, and give some idea of its ancient magnificence. The amphitheatre is filled up, except a small part which was excavated by Lucien Buonaparte. Part of the walls of Cicero's Villa are still standing. Had we been less fatigued, and the weather cooler, we should have wandered over the extensive ruins with great interest; but now, our anxiety was to obtain a place of rest. We returned by a different route, which led through what appeared to have been once the pleasure-grounds of a villa. At the top of a hillock, covered with box-wood, Mrs. S. told us, that we were going to descend Mount Parnassus, so called because the names of all the ancient poets are cut in it; in the same manner as Pliny describes in the garden of his Tuscan Villa, which was decorated with figures of various animals, cut in box; evergreens shaped into a thousand different forms; sometimes into letters

158

ROME ST. PETER'S.

expressing names. Here was a favourite retreat of Lucien Buonaparte, until driven from it by the banditti, who carried off two of his people to the mountains, one of whom they had mistaken for himself.

We have been to the top of St. Peter's, and never was my wonder so much excited. I had till now formed no idea of the vastness of this pile of building; it appears like a town in the air. The workmen employed to keep the huge fabric in order, have their houses built on the roof. There are sixteen cupolas, including the great dome. The twelve apostles are represented, of colossal size, above the pediment of the great front; the height of them is thirty-seven palms, or nine yards, and yet from below they do not appear to exceed the common size of a man. One of them holds a pen in his hand, ten palms and a half long. The steps. up to the ball are 427. The stairs which lead to the roof are well lighted, and so gradual, that beasts of burden go up without difficulty. The inside of the ball can, it is said, contain eighteen persons.

The church, Vatican gardens, &c. are described as occupying the same extent of ground as the city of Turin.

The museum is enriched by collections which the different Popes have made of the rarest and most admired treasures of antiquity, all of which are arranged, and kept in the most beautiful order.

CASTLE OF st. angelo.

159

On our way home, we visited the Church of St. Onofrio, where Tasso is buried. Near the church is his garden, from whence the view of Rome, &c. is very delightful. We sat under the spreading branches of the same oak which had shaded him.

My sister had a visitor to-day, of whom I must give you a description, before I forget his appearance. Seeing him accidentally in the hall, she requested that he would sit down until she was at leisure to go to him. The servant Guiseppe followed her into the room, to inform her who the person was, to whom she paid so little respect. "O Signora, don't you know that is the Marquis C., one of the most ancient of the Roman nobility?" My sister, quite shocked at her inadvertent rudeness, desired that the marquis might be shewn in. Immediately after, a very shabby-looking little man was ushered in with all due ceremony. was dressed in a dirty thread-bare coat, old boots, and a little brown wig, which looked as if it had lain from generation to generation among the family antiquities. He sat about a quarter of an hour; his business was, to request that my sister would recommend his palace as a lodging for her English acquaintances, and then, with the usual Italian expression, "Signora, bisogna levare il mio incommodo," took leave.

He

We next went to the castle of St. Angelo, once the tomb of Adrian.

From the top of the castle we had a fine view