Volume I Part 28 (2/2)

ThisI awoke very early, and could not rest till I had seen St Peter's; so set off in a hackney coach, drove by the Piazza della Colonna and the Castle of St Angelo (which burst upon ot out as soon as St Peter's was in sight My first feeling was disappointment, but as I advanced towards the obelisk, with the fountains on each side, and found rand objects around, delight and ad the piazza and then entered the church, I felt that sort of breathless bewilderht of the Alps Much as I expected I was not disappointed St Peter's sets criticis but adlories shall have subjected the iment I then came home and ith Morier to take a cursory view of the city and blunt the edge of curiosity In about five hours I galloped over the Foruiore, the Vatican, and several arches and obelisks I cannot tell which produced the greatest iht only have seen one it should be the Coliseu of the same kind besides[14]

[14] Of the same kind there is, at Pompeii, but not near so fine; more perfect as a specimen, far less beautiful as an object And the ae Head: SIGHTS OF ROME]

They only who have seen Rorandeur of it and of the wonders it contains, the treasures of art and the records of antiquity Of course I had the saprepared for the reality, which exceeds uine expectations The Vatican alone would require years to be examined as it deserves It is re from antiquities depends upon their accidents The busts, statues, coluether in such profusion at the Vatican that the eyes ache at theard them (with some exceptions) almost exclusively as objects of art, and do not feel the interest which, separately, they es, whereas there is scarcely one of those, if it were now to be discovered, that would not excite the greatest curiosity, and be, in the reater interest than a finer production which had taken its splendid but frigid position in this collection We went to the Sistine Chapel, and saw Michael Angelo's frescoes, which Sir Joshua Reynolds says are the finest paintings in the world, and which the unlearned call great rude daubs I do not pretend to the capacity of appreciating their race, and ures; it was, however, too dark to see the 'Last Judgain, where there wereround the illu into it to stare and ask questions, the answers to which they did not understand I have but one fault to find, and that is with the Glory, a reatopposite the entrance, throwing a yellow light upon the Dove, which has the randeur of such a place

April 1st, 1830 {p305}

Yesterday e Haot a villa there As soon as we arrived Cheney and I walked over to Grotta Ferrata to see Domenichino's frescoes The convent is about a e, formerly rich, full of monks, and a fortress; also the scene of various miracles performed by St Nilo, the founder and patron saint; now tenanted by a few beggarly friars, and part of it let to Prince Gagarin, the Russian Minister, as a villa Doht and found an asylum there in consequence of some crime he had committed or debt he had incurred; he stayed there two years, and in return for the hospitality of the monks adorned their chapel with (some think) the finest frescoes in the world They are splendid pictures, and all painted by his own hand

At dinner we had Hortense, the ex-Queen of Holland, her son, Prince Louis Napoleon, her lady in waiting, Lady Sandwich and her daughter, Cheney, Haarden, but there was too ly as I expected, very unaffected and gay, and gives herself no royal airs The only difference between her and anybody else was that, after dinner, when she rose frolass and water, which nobody else had She is called Madao into the Coliseuh, it looked fine, and the light shi+ning through the lower arches had a beautiful effect This hts--Caesar's Palace, of which there are no rerovel on earth in indistinct decay' Caracalla's Baths, which are stupendous; the _custode_ showed us a room in which were heaped up bits of ments of columns and friezes; and he told us that they never excavated without finding sonificent but equally curious, because they contain the remains of the Golden House of Nero, on which titus built his Thermae

The ruins are, in fact, part of the Golden House, for the Therether destroyed Then to the Capitol, Forum, Temple of Vesta, Fortuna Virilis, and other places with Morier

The Capitol contains an interesting collection of busts and statues of all the Eether, with varioustheir effigies, one becomes acquainted with the faces of these worthies These tastes grow upon one strangely at Ro froreat of old'

Proud names, who once the reins of empire held, In arraced with scars, and prodigal of blood, Stern patriots who for sacred freedoiven, And saints who taught, and led the way to heaven

TICKELL

There has been a wrangle about the Borghese Gardens which the Prince ordered to be shut up; the Government remonstrated, and a correspondence ensued which ended in their being reopened to the public, whohese Gardens to his nephew (Aldobrandini) with a condition that they should always be open to the public, which they have been from then till now They were a part of the Cenci property, which was immense, and confiscated by an enore Head: SIGHTS OF ROME]

April 3rd, 1830 {p307}

Went on Thursday to Lady Mary Deerhurst's and the duchess Torlonia's, where all the English in Roar) were asse to the Colonna Palace, Museum of the Capitol, Baths of Diocletian, now Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which are very remarkable because built on the baths, of which it has preserved the form; San Pietro in Vincoli, San Bernardo, all built on the site and amidst the ruins of titus's and Vespasian's Baths; in various parts the old pavenificent they iallo, verd antique, porphyry, &c To the garden of the Maronite Convent to see the Coliseum, whence there is the finest view of it in Rome Then to the Coliseum, and walked all over the ruins while a parcel of friars with covered faces were chanting and praying at each of the altars in succession round the circle below (called the Via Crucis)

I called yesterdayon M de la Ferronays, the French A Dined in the evening with Lord Haddington, Lovaine, Morier, Prince Gagarin the Russian Minister, Cheney, and M Dedel After dinner George Hamilton came in and said that Lady Northampton had died suddenly at five o'clock I never saw her, but they say she was a very good sort of woood sort of woination Lord Northampton was absent at a _scavo_ he has forty miles off

There has been no rain here for two months, and the clouds of dust are insupportable; as it is the town in Europe best supplied ater (there are three aqueducts; the ancients had sixteen) so it is the worst watered The excavations which are going on (though languidly) are always producing so Two busts, said to be fine, were found the day before yesterday at the Borghese Villa at Frascati

I saw yesterday at San Pietro in Vincoli Michael Angelo's famous Moses It may be very fine, but to my eye is merely a colossal statue; the two horns are ht be represented in marble, any more than the breath? It is impossible to make marble imitate that which is impalpable The beard is ropy and unnatural; it is, however, an i than to sculpture I delight in al of Domenichino's, who is only inferior (if inferior) to Raphael As to Michael Angelo, he speaks a language the unlearned do not understand; his ed to be transcendent as it is by all artists, cannot be questioned; but he must serve as a model to form future excellence, and not be expected to produce present delight, except to those who, by long study, have learnt to co to the tomb of the Scipios, Catacombs, Cecilia Metella (from which I wonder they don't take the battlements), the Circus of Maxentius, Teeria, San Stefano Rotondo, Tehese Villa and Gardens The ruins of the Gaetani Castle are rather picturesque, but they spoil the tomb, which would be far finer without its turrets The Circus is as curious as anything I have seen, for it looks like a fresh ruin Old Torlonia furbished it up at his own expense, and brought to light the inscription which proved it to be Maxentius's instead of Caracalla's Circus The reeaeria is a h; but everybody praises the water, which is delicious, and it falls with a murmur which invites to idleness and conte, but it is aof such strains

In vallueriae descendimus et speluncas Dissimiles veris--quanto praestantius esset Nuenuum violarent marmora tophum

JUVENAL

A little wood of firs, and pines, and ilexes about thirty or forty years old is pointed out as the grove in which Numa used to meet the ny object, as it

Fro-save about to break And on the curl hangs pausing

I like this side of Rona, and the ruins of the enius of ancient over that of hese is the _beau ideal_ of a villa; lofty, spacious apart and gilding, and ardens; but deserted by its owner, who has only been there once in the last thirty years, and untenable in the summer from malaria, which is very unaccountable, for it is close to Ro about the e, but after June nobody can walk there Though the Prince never coround between the Porta del Popolo and the Gardens, and is ates and so a waterfall I dined with Lady Willia, but found so few carriages in the court that ould not go in

[Page Head: THE SISTINE CHAPEL]