ws how magnificent they must have
been, for it is all of giallo, verd antique, porphyry, &c. To the
garden of the Maronite Convent to see the Coliseum, whence there
is the finest view of it in Rome. Then to the Coliseum, and
walked all over the ruins while a parcel of friars with covered
faces were chanting and praying at each of the altars in
succession round the circle below (called the Via Crucis).

I called yesterday morning on M. de la Ferronays, the French
Ambassador, who was very civil and obliging. Dined in the evening
with Lord Haddington, Lovaine, Morier, Prince Gagarin the Russian
Minister, Cheney, and M. Dedel. After dinner George Hamilton came
in and said that Lady Northampton had died suddenly at five
o'clock. I never saw her, but they say she was a very good sort
of woman, and remarkably clever, which good sort of women seldom
are. She had written a poem full of genius and imagination. Lord
Northampton was absent at a _scavo_ he has forty miles off.

There has been no rain here for two months, and the clouds of
dust are insupportable; as it is the town in Europe best supplied
with water (there are three aqueducts; the ancients had sixteen)
so it is the worst watered. The excavations which are going on
(though languidly) are always producing something. Two busts,
said to be fine, were found the day before yesterday at the
Borghese Villa at Frascati.

I saw yesterday at San Pietro in Vincoli Michael Angelo's famous
Moses. It may be very fine, but to my eye is merely a colossal
statue; the two horns are meant to represent rays of light; but
how can rays of light be represented in marble, any more than the
breath? It is impossible to make marble imitate that which is
impalpable. The beard is ropy and unnatural; it is, however, an
imposing sort of figure. But I am more sensible to painting than
to sculpture. I delight in almost everything of Domenichino's,
who is only inferior (if inferior) to Raphael. As to Michael
Angelo, he speaks a language the unlearned do not understand; his
merit, acknowledged to be transcendent as it is by all artists,
cannot be questioned; but he must serve as a model to form future
excellence, and not be expected to produce present delight,
except to those who, by long study, have learnt to comprehend and
appreciate him.

_Evening._--This morning to the tomb of the Scipios, Catacombs,
Cecilia Metella (from which I wonder they don't take the
battlements), the Circus of Maxentiu