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ing them with provisions is intrusted to one man , and if any of them has occasion to call in a physician , he remains immured along with the holy brethren till their deliberations are concluded . The present Pope was chosen after the assembly had sat only nine-and-twenty days ! which is considered a very short period . On the other side of the street is the Holy Staircase ? twenty-seven steps of white marble , which are reputed to have
belonged to the palace of Pilate , and which our Lord is said to have ascended . The original stairs are so much worn with use , that it has been thought advisable to overlay them with a coating of wood , so that the faithful , as they climb up on their knees , do not touch them at all , but have only a peep at them through an interstice , which is left in the front of each step . But as I did not imagine that they would bring me any nearer to paradise , I did not give myself the trouble to ascend .
Rome was so much quieter now than it had been during the hol y week , that I could scarcely believe myself to be in the same town . 24 th . Visited the Sciarra Palace ; the collection of paintings net large , but several pieces very good , particularly the Modesty and Inanity of Leonardo da Vinci , and the Madalena delle Radice of Guido . Thence I went to the Pafitheon , or Temple of all the Gods . This noble structure is better preserved than any other of ancient Rome . The entrance is by an immense
portico , supported by sixteen magnificent columns , 42 feet in height , and each one entire piece of oriental granite . The interior is a rotunda of 150 feet in diameter , surmounted by a dome , which has a large aperture at the top for the admission of light , and the sides are ornamented with fourteen beautiful Corinthian columns , and incTusted with precious marbles , which have received so little injury from the lapse of time , that it is difficult to
believe them ancient . The bronze which formerly covered the beams of the ceiling , and many of the busts and statues which filled the niches , are now lost or removed to other places ; but the interior is still splendid , more so than any other of the antiquities of Rome ; and even if all its ornaments were taken away , its form would remain a very model of beauty . Thence to the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican , the walls of which are entirely covered
with frescoes by the first masters . The most celebrated of these is the Last Judgment , by Michael Angelo ; but I cannot say that I much admired it . The principal figure , that of Jesus Christ , and the attitude in which " he is pronouncing sentence on the damned , are certainly any thing else than pleasing , perhaps they are not even fine . Thence to St . Peter ' s , the wonders of which are inexhaustible . Here I was not a little amused to see a
monument to the memory of James III ., King of England ! and his two sons , the last of the unfortunate family of the Stuarts . I never knew before that my country reckoned among her sovereigns a third James ; two of them were enough in all conscience ! but the Roman court did not scruple to acknowledge that title which England refused . The monument is beautifully executed by Canova . There is in the cathedral another monument by this immortal artist which delighted me extremely . It is that of Pope Clement XIII .
The figure of the Pontiff himself , who is in the attitude of prayer , seems done to the life ; the two female figures below of Faith and the Angel of Death are exquisitely fine , and the Lions at the bottom , one couchant and the other sleeping , are justly considered the most perfect works of the kind which the chisel of modern times has produced . During this visit to St . Peter ' s I also descended into the Crypt , or subterranean part of the church , immediately under the centre ; but there is here nothing particularly deserv-
Untitled Article
84 Journal of a Tour on the Continent .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 84, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/12/
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