ong since been removed by builders and sculptors, to
fashion some Papal palace, or to adorn some pretentious church; and at
the present day, in almost every stone-mason's shed, blocks of marble
belonging to ancient edifices may be seen in process of conversion
into articles of modern furniture. Many bits of the rarest kinds,
however, still remain, which not unfrequently bear traces of the
richest carving. For ages such spots have been quarries to visitors
from all parts of the world, who wished to bring home some memorial of
their sojourn in the Eternal City, and the supply is still far from
being exhausted. That so much material should have survived the
wholesale conversion, during the middle ages, of columns and statues
into lime, in kilns erected where the temples and palaces were most
crowded, and the vast exportation of objects of antiquity to other
countries, is a striking proof of the prodigious quantity of marble
that must have existed in ancient Rome. Now, however, such relics are
more carefully preserved; and as the places where they are found in
greatest quantity have been taken under the charge of the Government,
and soldiers are constantly on the watch, it is not so easy as it
used to be to abstract a fragment that has taken one's fancy.

Marble fragments are so eagerly sought after because they make most
suitable and convenient souvenirs. Their own beauty and rarity, apart
from all historical associations, are a great attraction. Many of them
will form, when cut and polished by the lapidary, pretty tazzas and
paper-weights, and even the smallest bits can be put together in a
mosaic pattern, so as to make extremely beautiful table-tops. Whole
rows of lapidary shops in the English quarter of the city, especially
in the Via Babuino and the Via Sistina, are maintained by this curious
traffic. In the Forum and Colosseum great quantities of marble and
alabaster used to be found; but these localities have been so much
ransacked that they now afford very scanty gleanings. The Baths of
Caracalla and Titus, the recent excavations on the Esquiline, the
ruins of the palaces of the Caesars on the Palatine, and the open space
marked out for new squares and streets between Sta. Maria Maggiore and
St. John Lateran, are the best situations within the walls of the
city. Outside the supply is almost as large as ever. All over the vast
Campagna the foot of the wayfarer strikes against some precious or
beautiful relic; and alo