his people he is still deemed as next in sanctity to the Virgin Mary.

I very much regret that we did not diverge to visit this little state, deeming that I should have been much interested in observing the people, their manners, soil, and produce, &c. &c.; and a government presenting so singular a contrast with the present artificial state of the rest of Italy.

It may be remembered that when Napoleon during the early period of his brilliant career passed on through Italy, a triumphant conqueror, he par. ticularly respected, and honoured the republic of St. Marino, not solely in preserving it inviolate from aggression, but even by offering his special assistance if needful, together with a donation of four pieces of ordnance, and 1000 quintals of corn, (In 1796.) Yet did this sage, and happy commonwealth refuse the offers of Bonaparte, and, to use its own words, "reject any aggrandisement which might ultimately compromise its liberty."

From San Marino we crossed the supposed Rubicon, and Cesena was the next place reached, which has little to excite notice, save a bronze statue of the late Pius VI. whom Cesena claims as her native citizen. Hence by Forlimpopoli, anciently Forum Popilii, to Forli, anciently Forum Livii; and in the evening to Faenza, anciently Faventia, where we slept.

In thus advancing into Lombardy the towns ap

pear more and more pleasing by regularity, cleanliness, and comfort. Faenza is strikingly so. The principal piazza has long ranges of arcades around it, enclosing the principal offices of state; and here also is the Cathedral. When we arrived, the sun was shedding his last brilliant rays; when, soon after, we explored the town, the moon in her brightest effulgence was gilding with her paler beams every pinnacle and spire; she shone bright on the great piazza, where the long range of corridors partly lit up, and the multitudes in the square, each sitting before his own additional lamp, or light, gave to the whole a most pleasing, picturesque effect.

Faenza was once celebrated for its manufactory of earthenware and china, and hence the modern term faience.

Continuing to roll along the Via Emilia, and passing through Imola, the Forum Cornelii of the ancients, and of which the present Pope* held the Bishoprick before his elevation to the throne, we arrived at Bologna about one o'clock in the afternoon; a happy termination of a harassing and fatiguing journey of nine successive days.

* Pius VII., lately deceased.

Bologna.

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CHAPTER XXXVII.

BOLOGNA-BRONZE NEPTUNE-TWO TOWERS-MATCHLESS PICTURES-UNIVERSITY—CHURCHES-ARCADE OF THREE MILES-HISTORY OF, AND OF THE MIRACULOUS PICTURE→→ ERECTION OF ARCADE, AND NOBLE CHURCH-SACRED PICTURE-BOLOGNA GENERALLY, AND PHOSPHORESCENT STONE -FERRARA-HISTORY—AZO I, AND II.—GUELPH-DUCHY OF MAINE-THE FIVE DUKES OF FERRARA-LOSS OF SOVEREIGNTY-PARASINA, AND HUGO ARIOSTO, AND RELICS -TASSO, AND PRISON—LAGO SCURO, AND ACCIDENT—PADUA -ORIGIN, AND ANTENOR—CHURCH, AND MIRACLES of St. ANTHONY-CHURCH OF ST. GIUSTINA—TOWN HALL, AND LIVY- ·SINGULAR SCULPTURE-ST. ANTHONY'S MIRACLES,

AND SERMON TO THE FISH-FUSINA-POSTING REGULATIONS-VENICE.

In the days of the Romans, Bologna was known as Bononia, or Bononia Felsina. As may be supposed, it has undergone almost as many vicissitudes as its former Imperial Mistress, but at the present day it is subject to the papal power, and has been so since the period of Nicholas III, in 1278, though generally under a limited and peaceable sway.

The city is entirely surrounded with a wall, while the general appearance of Bologna is more clean, and regularly neat, than perhaps any town I have yet seen in Italy. One uniform beauty pervades almost all the streets; Arcades; and certainly no arrangement is more commodious, no object more pleasing, than these long vistas of corridors.

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The Bronze Neptune.

Of the remarkable public buildings and decorations, first we notice the famous fountain of Neptune in the great square, executed by John of Bologna. The bronze figure of the God is noble ; the expression majestic; all that is worthy of so great an artist, whose mighty chisel could so well fashion the raging Ocean-God, is here displayed; but the accompaniments seemed to us insignificant. At the angles of the pedestal of the statue are four children; beneath them four syrens with dolphins. The little boys spurt a pigmy stream; the syrens, if so they can be called, compress the water from their bosom. I cannot altogether admire this aquatic design in an inland town, little consistent also, owing to the want of a sufficient volume of water, with the terrors of this earth-shaking deity with trident in his mighty grasp, thus surmounting, or governing, only these petty figures; and I must add that this otherwise sublime statue is greatly indelicate.

Two other public objects are also stared at by all, though I should think, admired but by very few; the two towers, close to each other, Il Torre Garrisenda, and Il Torre Asinelli, both built between the years 1110 and 1120, the first being about 140 feet high, and nearly nine feet out of the perpendicular; the next about 330 feet high, and two feet and a half out of the upright. They are both of brick, and square of form, while around

Gallery of Bologna.

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their base are a circle of dirty shops. Any erections more clumsy, more frightful, or deformed, I do not know; the smaller one seems like the smoky chimney of a manufactory, blown aside by some ex plosion; for the other, the head aches as it bends backwards, and the eye is fatigued as it travels upwards to the top of a shapeless load of bricks, apparently piled one upon the other till of their own weight they warped from the upright, and now terrify all beneath least they should tumble down and crush them.

But enough, let us now speak of beauties; of the pictures of the Gallery of Bologna; a city ever so famed for its excellence in this art; second perhaps only to Rome; the birth place of Guido, and containing his immortal paintings and chefs d'œuvre, in company with those of the Caracci, Domenichino, Guercino, Albano.

The first corridors entered are hung with the earliest specimens of the art; among which are chiefly those of Giotto, who painted 500 years ago, and of the two brothers, Vivarini, a century afterwards. The productions of this æra are much the same; harsh lines, unbending forms; no expression; but plenty of gold laid on every where, instead of grace, Here is, however, as a greater curiosity, Guido's first effort at twenty years of age,

The other galleries contain, though compara