variety of things to be seen in each that I
shall only make mention of a few; indeed there are many that I have not
seen and probably shall not have time to see. As sacred things should
precede profane, let us begin with the churches.

The first that claims the attention of the traveller after St Peter's, is
the church of St John Lateran which is the oldest church in Christendom,
and was the metropolitan of Rome and of the Christian world before the
building of St Peter's. It lies very nearly in a right line with the
_Piazza di Spagna_, and on a prolonged line, forming an obtuse angle with
the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which, as I first visited, I shall
first describe and afterwards resume what I have to remark on the subject
of St John Lateran.

Santa Maria Maggiore is the third church in importance, but the second in
magnificence in Rome. Before its facade stands a single column of granite
of the Corinthian order. The facade of this church is beautiful but it
would be far better without the _campanile_, which I think always
disfigures a church of Grecian architecture; besides it is not in the
centre of the building. The church is richly adorned with mosaics and its
several chapels are admirable from the execution of their architecture and
sculpture and the value of the different rich marbles and precious stones
with which the monuments therein are made and incrusted. Among these
Chapels are those of Sixtus V, Paul V. The grand altar is of porphyry. But
the most striking beauty of this church and which eclipses all its other
ornaments, are the forty columns of beautiful Grecian marble on each side
of the nave. The ceiling, too, is superb and richly gilt; the gilding must
have cost an immense sum and was done, it is said, with the first gold that
was brought from America. Nothing can be more rich than this plafond. The
above forty columns belonged formerly to the temple of Juno Lucina. It is
singular that the ceremony of the _accouchement_ of the Virgin and the
birth of Christ should be performed here. On the 24th December this
pantomime is regularly acted, and crowds of all sorts of people attend,
particularly women. At the moment that the Virgin is supposed to be
delivered a salve of artillery announces the good tidings. This is
singular, I say, when one recollects the peculiar attributes of Juno Lucina
and the assistance she was supposed to give to persons in the same
situation.

You cannot expect me to deta