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    ing of notice , unless any one has the curiosity to see the precise spot where the body of the chief Apostle is said to be interred , though the priest who conducted me allowed that no one had ever seen it / This being one of the two days of the week ( Mondays and Thursdays ) on

    which the Vatican is opened to the public , I repaired thither at two o ' clock , and went through the whole suite of rooms which are appropriated to the reception of antiquities . Of this magnificent collection I shall not attempt to give any detailed account , for it would require many pages , I might say many volumes , to describe what it took me two hours to see . The pain

    depicted in the countenance of Laocoon and his children is every thing that the chisel could make it , and the Apollo seems actually to see the arrow which he has shot from his bow . The floors of many of the apartments are laid with ancient tesselated pavements , of which the colours are scarcely dimmed by the lapse of ages : in some are placed immense baths , vases , and sarcophagi , and in others , cinerary urns and candelabixi of the most elegant forms imaginable . Nor let me omit to mention , that there are a few modern works

    which are not disgraced by the company in which they appear . There is a Perseus and two Boxers , by Canova , which are first rate ; and a frieze in basso-relievo , by Massimiliani , in the Hall of Nilus , which pleased me more than almost any thing else in the whole collection . I am very fond of bassorelievo . It admits of a combination of figures which , in statuary , is seldom

    attempted ; and the very smallness of the proportions in which this work is generally executed , adds to the beauty of the forms . I know nothing more elegant than the Bacchantes , which are represented in the Hall of Nilus ; and if their merit be somewhat diminished , their beauty is not , by their being mere copies of antiques which were too much injured to be put up .

    After I hap gone through the antiques and the statuary I visited the collection of paintings , which , though not extensive , is very choice—the principal being the Transfiguration , by Raphael—a noble picture certainly . This artist seems , more than any other , to have adhered to nature—graceful and beautiful nature , but still nature . 25 th . Set out at six in the morning , with two friends , in a carriage which

    we had hired for the day to go to Tivoli , which is about eighteen miles distant from Rome . The country , for the first fifteen miles , is totally bare of trees , and appears to be ill cultivated . At the Ponte Lucano we passed the tomb of Marcus Plautus Lucanus , which was , no doubt , originally , a very handsome structure ; a round tower , very much resembling that erected to Cecilia Metella . Within tivo miles of Tivoli we turned a short distance out

    of our way to see Adrian ' s Villa . When complete it was of amazing extent , and contained entertaining-rooms , baths , a library , a theatre , a temple , a lake to sail upon , barracks for the Praetorian guards—every tiling , in short , which could ensure the safety or contribute to the pleasure of its imperial master . The remains are very considerable ; but after having seen Pompeii , I could not take much interest in them . Tivoli , anciently Tibur , is situated on the side of one of the first ranges of hills which occur after the

    charrtpaigne country in which Rome is placed , and on this account , as well as that of its natural and artificial beauties , it has always been a favourite resort of the Romans . Mecaenas , Marcus Brutus , Cassius , Sallust , Horace , and Propertius , had all country-houses there , and it still continues to be the Richmond of the metropolis . Its chief beauties are the falls of the Prceceps Ar iiOy now the Teverone . The principal of these we did not see to advantage , as it was undergoing repair ; for it is , in a great measure , artificial , the stream being pent up in order to supply some water-works . The smaller

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    Journal of a Tour on the Continent . 85

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 85., in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/13/