This grotto and valley were formerly frequented in mer, and particularly the first Sunday in May, by the modern Romans, who attached a salubrious quality to the fountain which trickles from an orifice at the bottom of the vault, and, overflowing the little pools, ps down the matted grass into the brook below. The book is the Ovidian Almo, whose name and quase lost in the modern Aquataccio. The valley e is called Valle di Caffarelli, from the dukes of same who made over their fountain to the PallaJum, with sixty rubbia of adjoining land. There can be little doubt that this long dell is the Epan valley of Juvenal, and the pausing place of ombritus, notwithstanding the generality of his commentators have supposed the descent of the satirist and friend to have been into the Arician Grove, where the symph met Hippolitus, and where she was more paliarly worshipped. the valley of Egeria, where were several artificial caves. It is clear that the statues of the Muses made no part of the decoration which the satirist thought misplaced in these caves; for he expressly assigns other fanes │(delubra) to these divinities above the valley, and more. over tells us, that they had been ejected to make room for the Jews. In fact, the little temple, now called that of Bacchus, was formerly thought to belong to the Muses, and Nardini' places them in a poplar grove, which was in his time above the valley. It is probable, from the inscription and position, that the cave now shown may be one of the artificial caverns,» of which, indeed, there is another a little way higher up the valley, under a tuft of alder bushes: but a single grotto of Egeria is a mere modern invention, grafted upon the application of the epithet Egerian to these nymphea in general, and which might send us to look for the haunts of Numa upon the banks of the Thames. Our English Juvenal was not seduced into mistranslation by his acquaintance with Pope: he carefully preserves the correct plural— The step from the Porta Capena to the Alban hill, Thence slowly winding down the vale we view free miles distant, would be too considerable, unless The Egerian grots, oh, how unlike the true! we were to believe in the wild conjecture of Vossius, The valley abounds with springs, and over these To makes that gate travel from its present station, springs, which the Muses might haunt from their neighwhere he pretends it was during the reign of the Kings, bouring groves, Egeria presided: hence she was said to » fir as the Arician grove, and then makes it recede supply them with water; and she was the nymph of the to its old site with the shrinking city. The tufo, or pumice, which the poet prefers to marble, is the sub-otos through which the fountains were taught to ce composing the bank in which the grotto is such. The modern topographers3 find in the grotto the Statue of the nymph and nine niches for the Muses, and a late traveller 4 has discovered that the cave is restored to that simplicity which the poet regretted had been exchanged for injudicious ornament. But the headless statue is palpably rather a male than a nymph, and has Bane of the attributes ascribed to it at present visible. The nine Muses could hardly have stood in six niches; and Juvenal certainly does not allude to any individual cave. Nothing can be collected from the satirist but that somewhere near the Porta Capena was a spot in wasch it was supposed Numa held nightly consultations with his nymph, and where there was a grove and a sacred fountain, and fanes once consecrated to the Vases; and that from this spot there was a descent into . In villa Justiniana exstat ingens lapis quadratus solidus in quo muisa bre dae Ovidii carmina suut: Egeria est que præbet aquas dea grata Camoenis Illa Nume conjux consiliumque fuit. Qu laps videtur ex eodem Egeriæ fonte, aut ejus vicinia isthue complates Diar um Italic, p. 153. * De Magnit Vet. Rom. ap. Græv, Ant. Rom. tom. iv, p. 1507. * Fch sard Descrizione di Roma e dell' agro Romano corretto dall' 2. Sahatitit ad veteres arcus, madidamque Capenam, flow. The whole of the monuments in the vicinity of the Egerian valley have received names at will, which have been changed at will. Venuti 3 owns he can see no traces of the temples of Jove, Saturn, Juno, Venus, and Diana, which Nardini found, or hoped to find. The mutatorium of Caracalla's circus, the temple of Honour and Virtue, the temple of Bacchus, and above all, the temple of the god Rediculus, are the antiquaries' despair. The circus of Caracalla depends on a medal of that emperor cited by Fulvius Ursinas, of which the reverse shows a circus, supposed, however, by some to represent the Circus Maximus. It gives a very good idea of that place of exercise. The soil has been but little raised, if we may judge from the small cellular structure at the end of the Spina, which was probably the chapel of the god Consus. This cell is half beneath the soil, as it must have been in the circus itself, for Dionysius 4 could not be persuaded to believe that this divinity was the Roman Neptune, because his altar was under ground. Note 57. Stanza cxxvii. Yet let us ponder boldly. <«< At all events,» says the author of the Academical Questions, «I trust, whatever may be the fate of my own speculations, that philosophy will regain that estimation which it ought to possess. The free and philosophic spirit of our nation has been the theme of admiration to the world. This was the proud distinction of Englishmen, and the luminous source of all their glory. Shall we then forget the manly and dignified Lib. iii, cap. iii, * Indique e solo aque scaturiunt, Nardini, lib. iii, cap, iii, 3 Echinard, ete. Cic. cit. pp. 297-298. scutiments of our ancestors, to prate in the language of the mother or the nurse about our good old prejudices? This is not the way to defend the cause of truth. It was not thus that our fathers maintained it in the brilliant periods of our history. Prejudice may be trusted to guard the outworks for a short space of time while reason slumbers in the citadel: but if the latter sink into a lethargy, the former will quickly erect a standard for herself. Philosophy, wisdom, and liberty, support each other; he who will not reason, is a bigot; he who cannot, is a fool; and he who dares not, is a slave.» Preface, p. xiv. xv. vol. i. 1805. Note 58. Stanza cxxxii. --Great Nemesis! Here, where the ancient paid thee homage long. We read in Suetonius that Augustus, from a warning received in a dream,' counterfeited once a-year, the beggar, sitting before the gate of his palace, with his hand hollowed and stretched out for charity. A statue formerly in the Villa Borghese, and which should be now at Paris, represents the emperor in that posture of supplication. The object of this self-degradation was the appeasement of Nemesis, the perpetual attendant on good fortune, of whose power the Roman conquerors were also reminded by certain symbols attached to their cars of triumph. The symbols were the whip and the crotalo, which were discovered in the Nemesis of the Vatican. The attitude of beggary made the above statue pass for that of Belisarius: and until the criticism of Winkelmann 2 had rectified the mistake, one fiction was called in to support another. It was the same fear of the sudden termination of prosperity that made Amasis king of Egypt warn his friend Polycrates of Samos, that the gods loved those whose lives were chequered with good and evil fortunes. Nemesis was supposed to lie in wait particularly for the prudent: that is, for those whose caution rendered them accessible only to mere accidents: and her first altar was raised on the banks of the Phrygian Esepus by Adrastus, probably the prince of that name who killed the son of Croesus by mistake. Hence the goddess was called Adrastea. 3 The Roman Nemesis was sacred and august; there was a temple to her in the Palatine under the name of Rhamnusia: 4 so great indeed was the propensity of the ancients to trust to the revolution of events, and to believe in the divinity of fortune, that in the same Palatine there was a temple to the fortune of the day.5 This is the last superstition which retains its hold over the human heart; and from concentrating in one object the credulity so natural to man, has always appeared strongest in those unembarrassed by other articles of belief. The antiquaries have supposed this Sueton. in vit. Augusti, cap. 91. Casaubon, in the note, refers to Plutarch's Lives of Camillus and Æmilius Paulus, and also to his apophthegms, for the character of this deity. The hollowed hand was reckoned the last degree of degradation: and when the dead body of the præfect Rufinus was borne about in triumph by the people, the indignity was increased by putting his band in that position. 2 Storia delle arti, etc. lib. xii, cap. iii, tom, ii, p. 422. Visconti calls the statue, however, a Cybele. It is given in the Museo Pio-Clement, tom, i, par. 4o. The Abate Fea (Spiegaziode dei Rami. Storia, ete tom, ii, p. 513,) calls it a Chrisippus, Dict. de Bayle, article Adrastea. 4. It is enumerated by the regionary Victor. Fortune hujusce diei. Cicero mentions her, de legib lib. ii. goddess to be synonymous with fortune and with fate :' but it was in her vindictive quality that she was worshipped under the name of Nemesis. Note 59. Stanza cxl. I see before me the Gladiator lie. Whether the wonderful statue which suggested this image be a laquearian gladiator, which in spite of Winkelmann's criticism has been stoutly maintained,2 or whether it be a Greek herald, as that great antiquary positively asserted, or whether it is to be thought a Spartan or barbarian shield-bearer, according to the opinion of his Italian editor, it must assuredly seem a copy of that masterpiece of Ctesilaus which represented «< a wounded man dying, who perfectly expressed what there remained of life in him.» Montfaucon and Maffei 7 thought it the identical statue; but that statue was of bronze. The gladiator was once in the villa Ludovizi, and was bought by Clement XII. The right arm is an entire restoration of Michael Angelo.8 Note 60. Stanza cxli. --He, their sire, Gladiators were of two kinds, compelled and voluntary; and were supplied from several conditions; from slaves sold for that purpose; from culprits; from barbarian captives either taken in war, and, after being led in triumph, set apart for the games, or those seized and condemned as rebels; also from free citizens, some fighting for hire (auctorati), others from a depraved ambition: at last even knights and senators were exhibited, a disgrace of which the first tyrant was naturally the first inventor.9 In the end, dwarfs, and even women, fought; an enormity prohibited by Severus. Of these the most to be pitied undoubtedly were the barbarian captives; and to this species a Christian writer 40 justly applies the epithet «innocent,'» to distinguish them DEAE NEMESI SIVE FORTVNAE PISTORIVS RVGIANVS V. C. LEGAT. See Questiones Romanæ, etc. Ap. Græv. Antiq. Roman, tom. v. p. 342 See also Muratori Nov. Thesaur. Inscript. Vet. tom, i, pp. 88, 89, where there are three Latin and one Greek inscription to Nemesis, and others to Fate. 2 By the Abate Bracci, dissertazione supra un clipeo-votivo, etc. Preface, pag. 7, who accounts for the cord round the neck, but not for the horn, which it does not appear the gladiators themselves ever used. Note A, Storia delle arti, tom, ii, p. 205. Either Polifontes, herald of Laius, killed by OEdipus; or Cepreas. herald of Euritbeus, killed by the Athenians when he endeavoured to drag the Heraclide from the altar of mercy, and in whose honour they instituted aunnal games, continued to the time of Hadrian; or Authe mocritus, the Atherian herald, killed by the Megarenses, who never recovered the impiety. See Storia delle arti, etc. tom. ii, pp. 203, 204. 205, 206, 207, lib. ix, cap. ii. 4 Storia, etc. tom ii, p. 207. Not. (A). 5. Vulneratum deficientem fecit in quo possit intelligi quantum restat animæ. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xxxiv, cap. 8. Antiq. tom. iii, par. 2, tab. 155. 7 Race, stat. tab. 64. Mus. Capitol. tom. iii, p. 154, edit. 1755. Julius Cæsar, who rose by the fall of the aristocracy, brought Forius Leptinus and A. Calenus upon the arena. 10 Tertullian, certe quidem et innocentes gladiatores in ludum reniunt, ut voluptatis publicæ hostix fiant. Just. Lips. Saturn, Sermon. lib. ii, cap. iii. from the professional gladiators. Aurelian and Claudius supplied great numbers of these unfortunate victims; the one after his triumph, and the other on the pretext of a rebellion. No war, says Lipsius, was ever so destructive to the human race as these sports. In spite of the laws of Constantine and Constans, gladiatorial shows survived the old established religion more than seventy years; but they owed their final extinction to the courage of a Christian. In the year 404, ou the kalends of January, they were exhibiting the shows in the Flavian amphitheatre before the usual immense concourse of people. Almachius or Telemachus, an eastern monk, who had travelled to Rome intent on his holy purpose, rushed into the midst of the area, and endeavoured to separate the combatants. The prætor Alypius, a person incredibly attached to these games,3 gave instant orders to the gladiators to slay him; and Telemachus gained the crown of martyrdom, and the title of saint, which surely has never either before or since been awarded for a more noble exploit. Honorius immediately abolished the shows, which were never afterwards revived. The story Is told by Theodoret 4 and Cassiodorus, 5 and seems worthy of credit notwithstanding its place in the Roman martyrology. Besides the torrents of blood which flowed at the funerals, in the amphitheatres, the circus, the forums, and other public places, gladiators were introduced at feasts, and tore each other to pieces amidst the supper tables, to the great delight and applause of the guests. Yet Lipsius permits himself to suppose the loss of courage, and the evident degeneracy of mankind, to be nearly connected with the abolition of these bloody spectacles.7 Note 61. Stanza exlii. Here, where the Roman million's blame or praise Was death or life, the playthings of a crowd. When one gladiator wounded another, he shouted - he has it,» «hoc habet,» or «habet.» The wounded combatant dropped his weapon, and advancing to the edge of the arena, supplicated the spectators. If he had fought well, the people saved him; if otherwise, or as they happened to be inclined, they turned down their thumbs, and he was slain. They were occasionally so savage, that they were impatient if a combat lasted longer than ordinary without wounds or death. The emperor's presence generally saved the vanquished: and it is fecorded as an instance of Caracalla's ferocity, that he sent those who supplicated him for life, in a spectace at Nicomedia, to ask the people; in other words, handed them over to be slain. A similar ceremony is abserved at the Spanish bull-fights. The magistrate • Fopencan, in vit. Aurel, and in vit. Claud. ibid. 2.Credo ma scio nullum bellum tantam cladem vastitiemque generi bzmanu intulisse, quam hos ad voluptatem ludos.. Just. Lips. ibid. kb. 1. cap. ni 1 Augusunus (lib, vi, confess, cap, viii,) Alypium suum gladiatorii «pectar ali kakuata incredibiliter abreptum, scribit. Ibid. lib. i, exp HAR. * Hist. Eccles, cap- xxvi, lib. v. * Caniod. Tripartita, I. x, e. xi, Saturn, ib, ib. • Barnsins, að san et in notis ad Martyrol, Rom. 1, Jan. See Maranguns delse memorie sacre e profane dell' Amfiteatro Flavio, p. 25, 1-$5. • Quad ? nan tu Lipsi momentum aliquod habuisse censes ad vir'mes ↑ Maguam Tempora nostra, nosque ipsos videamus. Oppidum *** usum alterumve captum, direptum est; tumultus circa nos, non in et tamen concidimus et turbamur. Ubi robur, ubi tot per ansom meditata sapientia studia? ubi ille animus qui possit dicere, si fra tus labatur orbis etc, ibid. lib, i, cap. xxv. The prototype of [% W+a+hum's panegyric on bull-baiting. presides; and, after the horsemen and piccadores have fought the bull, the matadore steps forward and bows to him for permission to kill the animal. If the bull has done his duty by killing two or three horses, or a man, which last is rare, the people interfere with shouts, the ladies wave their handkerchiefs, and the animal is saved. The wounds and death of the horses are accompanied with the loudest acclamations, and many gestures of delight, especially from the female portion of the audience, including those of the gentlest blood. Every thing depends on habit. The author of Childe Harold, the writer of this note, and one or two other Englishmen, who have certainly in other days borne the sight of a pitched battle, were, during the summer of 1809, in the governor's box at the great amphitheatre of Santa Maria, opposite to Cadiz. The death of one or two horses completely satisfied their curiosity. A gentleman present, observing them shudder and look pale, noticed that unusual reception of so delightful a sport to some young ladies, who stared and smiled, and continued their applauses as another horse fell bleeding to the ground. One bull killed three horses off his own horns. He was saved by acclamations, which were redoubled when it was known he belonged to a priest. An Englishman who can be much pleased with seeing two men beat themselves to pieces, cannot bear to look at a horse galloping round an arena with his bowels trailing on the ground, and turns from the spectacle and the spectators with horror and disgust. Note 62. Stanza exliv. Like laurels on the bald first Cesar's head. Suetonius informs us that Julius Caesar was particularly gratified by that decree of the senate, which enabled him to wear a wreath of laurel on all occasions. He was anxious, not to show that he was the conqueror of the world, but to hide that he was bald. Rome would hardly have guessed at the motive, nor A stranger at should we without the help of the historian. Note 63, Stanza cxlv. While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand. This is quoted in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; and a notice on the Coliseum may be seen in the Historical Illustrations to the IVth Canto of Childe Harold. " Note 64. Stanza cxlvi. Spared and blest by time. Though plundered of all its brass, except the ring which was necessary to preserve the aperture above, though exposed to repeated fires, though sometimes flooded by the river, and always open to the rain, no monument of equal antiquity is so well preserved as this rotundo. It passed with little alteration from the Pagan into the present worship; and so convenient were its niches for the Christian altar, that Michael Angelo, ever studious of ancient beauty, introduced their design as a model in the Catholic church.>> Forsyth's Remarks, etc. on Italy, p. 137, sec. edit. And they who feel for genius may repose Their eyes on honour'd forms, whose busts around them close. The Pantheon has been made a receptacle for the busts of modern great, or, at least, distinguished The flood of light which once fell through the large orb above on the whole circle of divinities, now men. The whole declivity of the Alban hill is of unrivalled beauty, and from the convent on the highest point, which has succeeded to the temple of the Latian Jupiter, the prospect embraces all the objects alluded to in the cited stanza: the Mediterranean; the whole scene of the latter half of the Æneid, and the coast from beyond the mouth of the Tiber to the headland of Circæum and the Cape of Terracina. The site of Cicero's villa may be supposed either at the Grotta Ferrata, or at the Tusculum of Prince Lucien Buonaparte. The former was thought some years ago the actual site, as may be seen from Middleton's Life of Cicero. At present it has lost something of its credit, except for the Domenichinos. Nine monks, of the Greek order, live there, and the adjoining villa is a cardinal's summerhouse. The other villa, called Rufinella, is on the summit of the hill above Frascati, and many rich remains of Tusculum have been found there, besides seventy-two statues of different merit and preservation, and seven busts. From the same eminence are seen the Sabine hills, embosomed in which lies the long valley of Rustica. There are several circumstances which tend to establish the identity of this valley with the «Ustica» of Horace : and it seems possible that the mosaic pavement which the peasants uncover by throwing up the earth of a vineyard, may belong to his villa. Rustica is pronounced short, not according to our stress upon-«Usticæ cubantis.»-It is more rational to think that we are wrong than that the inhabitants of this secluded valley have changed their tone in this word. The addition of the consonant prefixed is nothing: yet it is necessary to be aware that Rustica may be a modern name which the peasants may have caught from the antiquaries. The villa, or the mosaic, is in a vineyard on a knoll covered with chesnut trees. A stream runs down the valley, and although it is not true, as said in the guide books, that this stream is called Licenza, yet there is a village on a rock at the head of the valley which is so denominated, and which may have taken its name from the Digentia. Licenza contains 700 inhabitants. On a peak a little way beyond is Civitella, containing 300. On the banks of the Anio, a little before you turn up into Valle Rustica, to the left, about an hour from the villa, is a town called Vico-varo, another favourable coincidence with the Varia of the poet. At the end of the valley, towards the Anio, there is a bare hill, crowned with a little town called Bardela. At the foot of this hill the rivulet of Licenza flows, and is almost absorbed in a wide sandy bed before it reaches the Anio. Nothing can be more fortunate for the lines of the poet, whether in a metaphorical or direct sense: Me quotiens reficit gelidus Digentia rivus, Quem Mandela bibit rugosus frigore pagus.. The stream is clear high up the valley, but before it reaches the hill of Bardela looks green and yellow like a sulphur rivulet. Rocca Giovane, a ruined village in the hills, half an hour's walk from the vineyard where the pavement is shown, does seem to be the site of the fane of Vacuna, and an inscription found there tells that this temple of the Sabine victory was repaired by Vespasian. With these helps, and a position corresponding exactly to every thing which the poet has told us of his retreat, we may feel tolerably secure of our site. The hill which should be Lucretilis is called Cam panile, and by following up the rivulet to the pretended Bandusia, you come to the roots of the higher mountain Gennaro. Singularly enough, the only spot of ploughed land in the whole valley is on the knoll where this Bandusia rises, Tu frigus amabile Fessis vomere tauris Præbes, et pecori rago.• exhortations of the moralist, may have made this work something more and better than a book of travels, but they have not made it a book of travels; and this observation applies more especially to that enticing method of instruction conveyed by the perpetual introduction of the same Gallic Helot to reel and bluster before the rising generation, and terrify it into decency by the display of all the excesses of the revolution. An animosity against atheists and regicides in general, and Frenchmen specifically, may be honourable, and may be useful, as a record; but that antidote should either be administered in any work rather than a tour, or, at least, should be served up apart, and not so mixed with the whole mass of information and reflection, as to give a bitterness to every page: for who would choose to have the antipathies of any man, however just, for his travelling companions? A tourist, unless he aspires to the credit of prophecy, is not answerable for the changes which may take place in the country which he describes: but his reader may very fairly esteem all his political portraits and deductions as so much waste paper, the moment they cease to assist, and more particularly if they obstruct, his actual survey. any one should have thought Bandusia a fountain of the Digentia-Horace has not let drop a word of it; and this immortal spring has in fact been discovered in possession of the holders of many good things in Italy, the monks. It was attached to the church of St Gervais and Protais near Venusia, where it was most likely to be found. We shall not be so lucky as a late traveller in finding the occasional pine still pendant on the poetic villa. There is not a pine in the whole valley, but there are two cypresses, which he evidently took, or mistook, for the tree in the ode. The truth is, that the pine is now, as it was in the days of Virgil, a garden tree, and it was not at all likely to be found in the craggy acclivities of the valley of Rústica. Horace probably had one of them in the orchard close above his farm, immediately overshadowing his villa, not on the rocky heights at some distance from his abode. The tourist may have easily supposed himself to have seen this pine figured in the above cypresses, for the orange and lemon trees which throw such a bloom over his description of the royal gardens at Naples, unless they have been since displaced, were assuredly only acacias and other common garden shrubs. The extreme disappointment experienced by choosing the Classical Tourist as a guide in Italy must be allowed to find vent in a few observations, which, it is asserted without fear of contradiction, will be confirmed by every one who has selected the same conductor through the same country. This author is in fact one of the most inaccurate, unsatisfactory writers that have in our times attained a temporary reputation, and is very seldom to be trusted even when he speaks of objects winch he must be presumed to have seen. His errors, from the simple exaggeration to the downright mistatement, are so frequent as to induce a suspicion that he had either never visited the spots described, or had trusted to the fidelity of former writers. Indeed the Cassical Tour has every characteristic of a mere compulation of former notices, strung together upon a very 0 slender thread of personal observation, and swelled out by those decorations which are so easily supplied by a systematic adoption of all the common-places of praise, apped to every thing, and therefore signifying nothing.monstrations in favour of the unfortunate Murat. This The style which one person thinks cloggy and cumtrous, and unsuitable, may be to the taste of others, and such may experience some salutary excitement in ploughing through the periods of the Classical Tour. It must be said, however, that polish. and weight are pt to beget an expectation of value. It is amongst the pans of the damned to toil up a climax with a huge round stone. The tourist had the choice of his words, but there was no such latitude allowed to that of his sentiments. The love of virtue and of liberty, which must have disi tinguished the character, certainly adorns the pages of Mr Eustace, and the gentlemanly spirit, so recommendatory either in an author or his productions, is very conspicuous throughout the Classical Tour. But these nerous qualities are the foliage of such a performance, and may be spread about it so prominently and pro¦faelv, as to embarrass those who wish to see and find tæ fruit at hand. The unction of the divine, and the Neither encomium nor accusation of any government, or governors, is meant to be here offered; but it is stated as an incontrovertible fact, that the change operated, either by the address of the late imperial system, or by the disappointment of every expectation by those who have succeeded to the Italian thrones, has been so considerable, and is so apparent, as not only. to put Mr Eustace's Antigallican philippics entirely out of date, but even to throw some suspicion upon the competency and candour of the author himself. A remarkable example may be found in the instance of Bologna, over whose papal attachments, and consequent desolation, the tourist pours forth such strains of condolence and revenge, made louder by the borrowed trumpet of Mr Burke. Now Bologna is at this moment, and has been for some years, notorious amongst the states of Italy for its attachment to revolutionary principles, and was almost the only city which made any de change may, however, have been made since Mr Eustace visited this country; but the traveller whom he has thrilled with horror at the projected stripping of the copper from the cupola of St Peter's, must be much relieved to find that sacrilege out of the power of the French, or any other plunderers, the cupola being covered with lead. If the conspiring voice of otherwise rival critics had not given considerable currency to the Classical Tour, it would have been unnecessary to warn the reader, that, however it may adorn his library, it will be of little or no service to him in his carriage; and if the judgment of those critics had hitherto been suspended, no attempt would have been made to anticipate their decision. As it is, those who stand in the relation of posterity to Mr Eustace, may be permitted to appeal from cotemporary praises, and are perhaps more likely to be just 1. What then will be the astonishment, or rather the horros of my reader, when I inform him..... the French Colamittee turned its attention to Saint Peter's, and employed a company of Jews to estimate and purchase the gold, silver, and bronze that adorn the inside of the edifice, as well as the copper that covers the vaults and dome on the outside. Chap. iv, p. 130, vol 1. The story about the Jews is positively denied at Rome. |