bridges in Venice to connect the other canals.

The _Rialto_, the resort of the money changers and Jews, is a very singular
and picturesque construction, being of one arch, a very bold one. On each
side of this bridge is a range of jewellers' shops. A narrow Quai runs
along the banks of the _Canale grande_.

I have visited several of the _Palazzi_, particularly those of the families
Morosini, Cornaro, Pisani, Grimani, which are very rich in marbles of
_vert_ and _jaune antique_; but they are now nearly stripped of all their
furniture, uninhabited by their owners, or let to individuals, mostly
shopkeepers; for since the extinction of the Venetian Republic almost all
the nobility have retired to their estates on the _terra firma_, or to
their villas on the banks of the Brenta; so that Venice is now inhabited
chiefly by merchants, shopkeepers, chiefly jewellers and silk mercers,
seafaring people, the constituted authorities, and the garrison of the
place.

Tho' Venice has fallen very much into decay, since the subversion of the
Republic, as might naturally be expected, and still more so since it has
been under the Austrian domination, yet it is still a place of great
wealth, particularly in jewellery, silks and all articles of dress and
luxury. In the _Merceria_ you may see as much wealth displayed as in
Cheapside or in the Rue St Honore.

I have had the pleasure of witnessing a superb regatta or water _fete_,
given in honour of the visit of the Archduke Rainier to this city, in his
quality of Viceroy of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. There were about one
hundred and fifty barges, each fitted up by some department of trade and
commerce, with allegorical devices and statues richly ornamented,
emblematical of the trade or professions to which the barge belonged. Each
barge bore an appropriate ensign, and the dresses of the crew were all
tasteful, and thoroughly analogous to the profession they represented.
These barges are richly gilded, and from the variety of the costumes and
streamers, I thought it one of the most beautiful sights I ever beheld.
Here were the bankers' barge, the jewellers', the mercers', the tailors',
the shoe-makers', and, to crown all, the printers' barge, which showered
down from the masthead sonnets in honor of the _fete_, printed on board of
the barge itself. Every trade or profession, in short, had a barge and
appropriate flag and costumes. A quantity of private barges and gondolas
followed this