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276 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
• • Impressions Of Rome, Herbert Florenc...
designs , for which Florence is pre-eminent . Baths , Universities , Courts of JusticeMilitary Colleges , Public Libraries , take the
, place of renovated ruins and classic restorations . Any work _Tby the author of "Amy Herbert" cannot fail to be
acceptable to a large class of readers , and it is with much pleasure that we recommend the book now under review . It does not , however , appear
that Miss _Sewell's visit to Italy included very definite objects ; her reminiscences are rather the familiar descriptions of ordinary
sightseeings than any minute investigations into the social conditions of the inhabitants . Indeedshe herself states that "the following
reminiscences of a few months , in Italy are published at the request of private friends ! and for the possible amusement of such persons as may have
somewhat , of a _| _Dersonal interest in the writer . To the public generally _,, they can offer no information which has not already been given by
other travellers . " Nevertheless , with a writer at once so acute and full of so much tender sympathy , it were impossible but that
allusions must drop from her pen bearing upon the topics of the day Our . authoress entered Italy in the spring of last year , by the
way of Civita Vecchia , across the Campagna—the dreary solitude of which she well describes : without villages , without cultivation ,
without life , yet in its way most beautiful—most poetic . Many leasinextracts miht be selected from the sojourn at Home , but
pg g we must confine ourselves to a few only—the first relating to one of the most interesting relics of Christian antiquity .
S . " Clement Another e g which limpse tradition of very old Rome was built may be had site in the the Church house o of f says
St . Clement , the fellow , -laborer of St , . Paul ; and which is , unquestionably , a very early , church , for it is mentioned by St . Jerome sis existing in his
day " . From the vaulted chambers underneath the churchwhich have been latel of the y op ancient ened , you city look down perh a dark s this passa almost ge which more formed than , anything of the street else s
impresses upon the mind , the fact ap that old , Rome is , for the most part , buried , beneath the modern cityHow it became so is a question which has never
dilap yet been idation clear and ly settled decay of ; . but the I city suspect , during we the have Middle not the -A sli ges ghtest , caused idea b of y the the
fierce internal quarrels of the Roman nobles , and the invasions of foreign enemies . Buildings once allowed to become ruinous soon form debris an
accumulation down of from soil the and hills rubbish . A , and gentleman this would living be in increased Rome said by the to me , when broug we ht were speaking upon this subject , that after watching the effects of a torrent
of rain in Rome at the present day , he had no difficulty in comprehending how " San the level Clemen of te the is city —like had the been Church raised . of St . Ambrose at Milan—most
instructive of the first Christians for persons from who the are architecture at all interested of their in working buildings out . Dating the custom , as it s of the
does , from such an early period , it must be a very fair exponent _I first 'eligious used practices for the catechumens of those days and . It the has enclosed the atrium choir , or in the _coui centre _' t , which of was the ;
the building rest " , of which the , church however ;— , at was the by side no , means by a low concealed marble , but , wall onl , and y shut at the off back from
276 Notices Of Books.
276 NOTICES OF BOOKS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1862, page 276, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061862/page/60/
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