ducks); and the Fasti Consulares. It just
occurred to me in time, and I went there yesterday morning. After
dinner to the Villa Ludovisi with the Dalbergs and Aldobrandinis,
which must owe its celebrity principally to the difficulty of
getting access to it. I was extremely disappointed; Guercino's
'Aurora' is not to be compared to Guido's; his 'Day' and 'Night'
are very fine, and the 'Fame' magnificent, but the ladies bustled
through so rapidly that it was not possible to examine anything.
The gardens are large, but all straight walks and clipped hedges.
The gallery of statues contains three or four fine things, but
they are huddled together and their effect spoilt.

[Page Head: PROCESSION OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI]

June 11th, 1830 {p.399}

Whilst the carriage is getting ready I may as well scribble the
last day at Rome. And this morning went at eight to the Palazzo
Accoramboni, to see the procession of the Corpus Domini, and was
disappointed. This Palazzo Accoramboni, in which we were
accommodated, belonged to a very rich old man, who was married to
a young and pretty wife. He died and left her all his fortune,
but, suspecting that she was attached to a young man who used to
frequent the house, he made the bequest conditional upon her not
marrying again, and if she did the whole property was to go to
some religious order. She was fool enough (and the man too) to
marry, but clandestinely. She had two children, and this brought
the marriage to light. They therefore lost the property,
amounting to L10,000 or L12,000 a year; but the Pope, in his vast
generosity, allows her out of it 300 piastres (about L65) a year,
and gives a portion of 1,000 piastres (L200) to each of the
little girls. It is supposed that she consulted some priest, who
urged her to marry secretly, and then revealed the fact to the
order interested. Otherwise it is difficult to account for their
folly.

The magnificence of ceremonies and processions here depends upon
the locality, and the awnings and flowers round the piazza spoilt
it all. It was long and rather tiresome--all the monks and
religious orders in Rome, the cardinals and the Pope, plenty of
wax-lights, banners, and crosses, the crosses of Constantine and
Charlemagne. The former is not genuine; that of Charlemagne is
really the one he gave to the See. The Pope looks as if he was
huddled into a short bed, and his throne, or whatever it is
called, is ill managed. He is supposed to be in th