A lofty Dome springs lightly from the arches of a circular Peristyle, or double Colonnade (I think of Doric Columns) coupled, not longitudinally, but diametrically, and by that means uniting strength with lightness-a beauty rarely aimed at in Grecian Architecture; and an exterior row of single Columns originally formed a circular Aisle around the graceful Cell.

But the outer Colonnade is now walled up, and the exterior elegance of the aerial Structure-once open, on all sides, to the approaching Votary, has been totally obliterated, by concealing the swell of the Dome, with an angular roof; so that from without you might suppose it a circular barn-if it stood in fields

where

where the fruits of the earth are gather-. ed in by industrious Husbandmen.

Again entering within the walls of Rome, by the Porta Pia, after walking a long way between the parallel walls of vine-yards and gardens, we may admire the Frontispiece of the Fontana Sistina, erected by Sixtus V. to ornament the Reservoir of an ancient Aqueduct repaired by that magnificent Prelate, among the many stupendous works that will ever illustrate the five years of his pontificate.

Within its lofty Arcades is represented, in alto relievo, the appropriate Story of Moses striking the Rock, in the Wilderness of Kadesh, and before them are placed, in gardant attitudes, four Lions of Egyptian

U u

Egyptian workmanship-the hardness of whose materials had preserved them from being crushed to pieces, beneath the falling Columns of the Pantheon.

This elegant and useful Structure is surrounded by the wide-spread departments of the Baths of Diocletian, some of the Recesses of which have been turned into Public Storehouses for wine and oil, and others of them have been converted into Churches-one of which is of a size to vie with the extended Nave of St. Peter's. But the greatest part of them now exhibit to the curious Spectator, little more than frowning Arches, and mouldering Walls.

LETTER XIV.

Modern Churches.

AFTER having seen St. Peter's, it is

Α

natural to suppose that no other

Church can engage curiosity, or arrest attention: Yet among the two or three hundred that have given to Rome the surname of La Santa, numbers astonishingly rich and beautiful.

are

Some of these that are comparatively small, present Fronts adorned with Columns and Pilasters, one or two Stories high, in every imaginable combination of architectural symmetry. Others are gracefully moulded within into Rounds,

or

or Ovals; or distributed into Aisles and Domes-their walls encrusted with painting and marble, and their Ceilings pannelled with stucco-often richly gilded, and sometimes hung with Festoons of fruit and flowers, in gilt bronze, according to the purest style of Grecian ordonnance. Several of them defy the effect of comparison, even in point of size, as soon as you are within their folding Doors, and perceive that thousands of such Beings as you see traversing the Aisles, or kneeling before the Al. tars, might range the ample Pavement, without incommoding each other in the least; and some of these contain single Altar pieces, in the name of favourite Saints, far superior in size and richness to any at St. Peter's, where particular decoration