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Pictures and Sculpture.

the chapels, a Dead Christ, and Weeping Madonna, by Spagnoletto, Lord Bristol is said to have offered in vain 40,000 piastres. The same artist has painted in this church the twelve Prophets, and has given to each a more than mortal prophetic dignity. Guido too is here in all his wonted grace. A Nativity; very large, but unfinished. The Virgin is the highest wrought, and smiles with celestial beauty on her babe before her.

It is no little toil to trudge to the height of this lofty, commanding, edifice; but amply repaid will the lover of art, or nature be: with the sight of many pictures I have not named; many rare marbles and precious stones; and with prospects too enchanting for me to spoil them by attempted description.

I have also seen some other works of art in the church of San Severo, the Mausoleum of the house of Sangro, which, at this time, is undergoing a thorough repair from the effects of the late earthquake that cracked it almost to total destruction, and was equally fatal to the nobler church of the Jesuits, whose walls were in some places rent asùnder, and its lofty dome thrown down.

In San Severo are two pieces of sculpture, a Dead Christ, and a figure of Modesty, in which the artist has well expressed the agony, the resignation, of the heavenly Jesus; and the retiring grace of modest, mortal, beauty, in both cases, through the

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medium of an apparent veil, so nicely wrought, and sculptured in the stone, that the hand is almost tempted to try to remove it.

There is a third figure of a man endeavouring to free himself from a net in which he is entangled. The labour of this production of art must have been incalculable; all the filaments of a corded net are imitated; in some parts it touches him, and in some it is detached; yet the whole is affirmed to have been cut out of one solid block.

Their extraordinary merit has produced some competition as to the makers of these works of genius and patience; while opinions fluctuate between the names of Corradini, and of Giuseppe San Martino.

Saint Januarius is the tutelar saint of Naples, and woe to the heretic who should dare to gainsay, or to doubt the Neapolitan belief of his omnipotent protection; or that they possess his very blood gathered in a phial 1500 years ago; which, to this very hour, has neither lost one particle of weight, or colour, and which by the benign miracle of the Saint, upon certain solemn occasions, and when he yields to the prayers, and entreaties of the faithful, liquefies before the eyes of his devout and astonished converts!

The Cathedral is, naturally, as the most valued, the most proper receptacle for his silver effigy, and here the sacred congealed blood is kept under

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lock with four keys of which the king reserves the guardianship of two.

This Cathedral is most remarkable as being built on the site of a Temple of Apollo; and containing 100 columns, originally in an edifice appropriated to so different a purpose. The Baptismal Font is equally striking: Egyptian Basalt sculptured with masks, and thyrsi-the handles are lost; while the whole was an altar that once smoked to Bacchus. What contrast can be greater! *

16th inst. The honour of a call from Sir William A'Court, the British ambassador, having previously paid my respects to his Excellency; accompanied with a general invitation to Her Ladyship's Wednesday Parties.

On this evening a suite of rooms was thrown open for cards, billiards, &c. while the largest was appropriated as the Ball-room, attended by a Master of the Ceremonies, and a band of 12 performers; the whole entertainment being in a style worthy of

*With regard to that notable miracle, the liquefaction of the blood of the Saint, it is Addison who observes most justly that the idea is copied from a similar mummery in the Neapolitan town of Gnatia (now Gnazzi) where in the days of Horace the priests asserted that the sacred frankincense would melt in the temple without flame.

Dum flammâ sine thura liquescere limine sacro
Persuadere cupit. Sat. v. b. i. v. 99.

Ball at the Ambassador's.

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the representative of the King of England. Stars, Decorations, and Orders, in abundance; the chief Nobility, native and foreign; and of beauty too no small display. Among the fairest of my own countrywomen I noticed Lady Ellenborough's daughters, but in the gay throng I chanced, towards the end of the evening, to light upon a foreign beauty who, however ungallant, and unchivalrous, it may be to declare it, I, nevertheless, thought the loveliest object in the circle.

Thus it is with continental beauty. The English women, collectively, eclipse all nations, but, occasionally, you meet with a foreigner of surpassing loveliness.

Such was this fair Sicilian, the Princess Trecase, whose grandfather was Viceroy of Naples. This bellissima Principessa had been married to the present Prince about four years since, at the early age of fourteen, while he is but little older than herself.

The best simile I could make, and which most struck me, was to compare her to one of Guido's divine Madonnas. Attire her as the Virgin is usually painted, deprive her of her silks, flounces, flowers, tresses, and jewels, veil some of those charms which a Ball-dress exhibits, or heightens :the likeness is complete.

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Ischia,

CHAPTER XXIX.

ISCHIA AND FABLE OF TYPHŒUS-POZZUOLI, AND CICEROTHE MOLE, AND EMPEROR ANTONINUS-TEMPLE OF JU PITER SERAPIS-TIBERIUS-PISCINA MIRABILIS-MISENUS AND MONTE NUOVO-LAKE LUCRINUS, AND PORTUS JULIUS-THE AVERNUS-THE INFERNAL REGIONS-ULYSSES AND ENEAS-THE ACHERON, AND STYX THE ELYSIAN FIELDS-CUMÆAN SYBIL, AND ÆNEAS-EXPLORING HER CAVE-BAIE AND TEMPLES-NERO AND AGRIPPINACENTO CAMERELLE-LE STUFE DI TRITOLI, AND BOILING WELL SOLFATERRA- ANCIENT CUMÆ-CIMMERIANSLINTERNUM, AND SCIPIO AFRICANUS-DÆDALUS.

THURSDAY.-A day of particular interest, from the exploration of the most striking natural wonders, and equally inviting classic fictions.

Our drive was first to Puzzuoli, and a more inviting one I never had. The wide expansive ocean; the island of Nisida, anciently Nesis, alluded to by Lucan, and Statius, once famed for its asparagus; the Castle of Baiæ; Ischia, anciently Inarime, whose stupendous mountain was fabled to press heavily upon the Giant Typhoeus, and whose vain efforts to free himself, when he would shake off the bulky load, produce its volcanic furies; * the Promontory of Misenus; the Bay of

* Typhoeus, or Typhon, was a Giant, son of the Earth, and of Tartarus, having an hundred dragons' heads. His shrieks were like the discordant yells of various animals, and

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