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    were * in full bloom . We this fa y accomplished about forty ^ seven English miles , and did not reach Sarzana till nearly eight o ' clock at night . ****** * * * * * # 26 th . At Pisa . This is a well-built town ; and some of its streets ,

    particularly the Quai along the north side of the Arno , are very fine ; but they have a sad , deserted appearance ; for this city , which is said to have had at one time 150 , 000 inhabitants , has now only 18 , 000 , —a melancholy instance of fallen grandeur . It possesses several public buildings , which are well worth seeing . The cathedral is celebrated for its pillars of granite and marble , and for its doors of brass . At the time when 1 entered it , there was

    a friar in the pulpit , declaiming in a style which very much resembled that of the young priest whom I had heard at Genoa , but still more vehemently . Though I do not profess to be much of an Italian scholar , I understood a considerable part of what he said , and had no difficulty in discovering that he was preaching on the wickedness of those who are a stumbling-block to their neighbours— " Woe unto him by whom the offence cometh . " In the peroration , in recapitulating the modes of offence , he exclaimed in a very

    loud voice , " Alfuoco tutti i libri infami /"—( To the fire with all infamous books !) But it is a great question , about which Christians are by no means agreed , what are libri infami ; and I have no doubt that this reverend father would consign to the flames many which I should regard as most orthodox and instructive . At the conclusion of the service , having first

    seen the archbishop handed with much pomp into his old-fashioned state carriage , and then bestowing his benediction on the people as he drove off , I repaired to the Campo Santo , the most splendid and the most classical of cemeteries . It is a vast rectangle , surrounded by light and elegant Gothic arcades of white marble , and the space within them paved with the same .

    Here rest the ashes of all the princes and poets , of all the warriors , statesmen , and philosophers , by whom Pisa was distinguished in the brilliant period of her history ; and the spot is rendered still dearer to the man of taste and literature by being made the receptacle of an immense collection of relics of the antique . Of these there are several in excellent preservation . I observed a bust of Junius Brutus , and another of Adrian , as perfect

    as if they were just come from the hands of the artist . Among the modern monuments is an exquisite piece of sculpture to the memory of Bartolomeo Chesi , and another , erected to himself during his life-time , by Filippo Decio . After reciting his own merits , he concludes by saying , that he had bad this tomb constructed for himself , because he feared that posterity would not do it for him— " de morte cogitans , hoc sepulchrum sibi fabricari curavit , ne posteris suis crederct" This is modesty with a witness ! The CnMnn Santo forms the northern side of the cathedral close : the Baptistery

    stands opposite the western end , and the Campanile Torlo opposite the northeast corner . This last is a circular tower of eight stories , and nearly 190 feet in height ; and its great peculiarity is , that it declines 15 feet out of the perpendicular , from which circumstance it derives its name , which signifies « the crooked or leaning tower . ' How it has come into this position has been a subject of much discussion , some affirming that it was originall y built as it now appears ; others , with more probability , that it was built upright , but that , either from an earthquake , or the natural looseness of the soil , it has acquired its present inclination . The cicerone who shewed me the Campo Santo , gave it as his decided opinion that the architect originally built it straight , but that out of spite he so constructed the foundation , that it was sure to give way . However this be , in that precise position the tower

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    Journal of a Tour on the Continent . 681

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1828, page 681, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2565/page/25/