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composed of brick, and in latter days has been stuccoed on the surface. The rough arches discovered on the outside, in the upper part of the building, were to all appearance introduced for the purpose of discharging the weight from the internal recesses, and the semicircular vacuities which are left in the middle of the wall: perhaps the last were intended merely to save materials. The larger rough arches come exactly over the internal recesses, and the smaller ones over the semicircular vacuities just mentioned. Arches of this description Vitruvius advises to be always placed over apertures; and, as a proof that this method was practised among the Romans, brick discharging-arches are now to be seen in the tympanum over the intercolumniation of the portico of the temple of Concord, above the doorway of the Pantheon, and in many other instances. The interior of the Pantheon is covered with rich marble of various sorts, from the pavement to the springing of the dome. The lower part is ornamented with the Corinthian order, and magnificent altar-pieces containing statues and paintings. The upper part forms an attic story, enriched with pannels and pilasters, and on them an entablature; which is out of all proportion to the pilasters on which it rests. In the great substance of the wall are seven recesses fourteen feet deep, now converted into so many small chapels for religious purposes, but they were first intended by the Romans as convenient and appropriate places to receive the statues of their gods and heroes. The front of each recess is screened by two superb Corinthian columns of jaune-antique, with caps and bases of white mar

ble, and on each side is a correspondent pilaster, all of which have been put there since the time of Pliny; because he says, speaking of the Pantheon, that the capitals of the columns within were of copper, which is not now the case. The diameter of this temple I measured twice, and found it between the walls exactly 144 feet; and it is said to be the same from the marble pavement to the circular aperture in the crown of the dome, which affords light to the interior. The pannels of the dome were once plated with sheets of gilt bronze; but these, as well as other valuable ornaments, were removed by the emperor Constance, in the year 563, to decorate the more favoured city of Constantinople. In modern days the dome has been whitewashed, and on that account it has a mean appearance, not suitable with the dignity of the other parts of the interior. The Pantheon is now used as a church: and against the walls are many monuments and inscriptions; one to the memory of Raphael, Annibal Carracci, Winkelman, Nicolas Poussin, Mengs, the great Italian poet Metastasio, and other distinguished characters.

When speaking of the triumphal arches, I remarked some mistakes concerning the dimensions given of them in the works of Serlio; and I perceive that the same inaccuracy prevails in his account of the portico of the Pantheon. He says, the columns are six palms and twenty-nine minutes diameter, and the intercolumniation only eight palms and nine minutes. Now, in this respect, it does not matter what the instrument was with which he measured these antiquities, because here is an egregious error on the score of relative

proportion; for, eight palms and nine minutes are only one-third more than the diameter he has given of the columns. I carefully measured several of their shafts, and found them on an average (that is to say, they vary a little in size) four feet eight inches in diameter, and the intercolumniation ten feet. Desgodetz makes them from four feet five inches French to four feet eight inches and onehalf in diameter, and the intercolumniation nine feet five inches; but in the centre opposite the great bronze entrance doors he makes ten feet four inches and three-fourths, which come as near as possible, allowing for the difference of the French foot, to my dimensions. Thus, the real intercolumniation, instead of being only one-third more than the diameter of the column, as described by Serlio, is full twice the diameter, which is an astonishing difference in point of relative proportion, and proves how cautiously we ought to rely on the particulars we have of distant objects in printed books, which are often made up for sale after the death of the man whose name is prefixed as the author, and consequently when he is beyond the power of correcting the numerous miscomprehensions and errors of the publisher. The shafts of these columns are plain, and said to be thirty-nine feet in height. They are all in one piece of oriental granite. The bases, caps, entablature, and pe diment, are of white marble; but, owing to time and weather, there is not any perceivable difference in the colour. On the right-hand of the portico, in the thickness of the square projection, is a stair case, which leads up to a narrow passage in the

centre of the circular wall, and communicates by other steps to the very summit of the dome without.

Pliny further mentions, in his 36th book, that the Pantheon was enriched with marble images *: also that the virgins, named the caryatides †, placed over the columns in the temple, were commended; and that the images on the top of the lantern and frontispiece, made by Diogenes of Athens, were excellent, but too high to be well seen. As none of these things are now remaining, there is every reason to suppose that this fabric has undergone many great alterations from time to time, owing to accidents by lightening, the inroads that were occasionally made into Italy by the barbarians of different countries, and no less so by the despoiling barbarians of their own city. We are told that in ancient times there were seven steps before the entrance of the Pantheon; but the ground has so much increased by degrees around it, that there is now a sharp descent to the vestibule; and when inundations from the Tyber take place, the floor of this temple is said to be several feet under

* Perrault, in his Notes on Vitruvius, observes that Montiosius found in the year 1580, on the right side of the portico of the Pantheon, four images in half-relief, which he supposed to be some of those mentioned by Pliny. The general opinion that the principal part of the ornaments of the interior of the Pantheon has been added at a subsequent period, seems to be confirmed by Pliny's description of it.

This proves that the upper entablature was originally supported by caryatides, instead of the present pilasters, which, as I have before observed, are by far too small for the entablature they seem to carry.

water, for which the people have a religious veneration, and would not prevent it if they could.

In the centre of a handsome area on Mount Cavallo, and very near the pope's summer palace, stands one of the obelisks which were at the entrance of the tomb of Augustus. The two antique colossal horses are placed one on each side of it. They are supposed to be in the act of rearing up, with the figure of a robust young man holding the bridle. These statues were brought here by Sextus V. from the baths of Constantine, which were not far off, and are attributed to Phidias and Praxiteles; but Pliny, who has mentioned many of the works of these artists, as well as many of the works of others then known at Rome, saying nothing about these, which could not well have escaped his observation, affords sufficient reason for conjecturing that they must have been executed after his time. The figures of the two men are spirited performances; but the horses themselves, in point of form and proportion of parts, particularly the neck, which is nearly as large as the body, are liable to great objections. They are considered by the antiquarians at Rome as figurative representations of Castor and Pollux, and not of Alexander and Bucephalus.

The arch of Janus, now so called, stands very near Mount Palatine, and is supposed by some to have been built by the Romans as a convenient place of shelter during the market hours for those merchants who dealt in oxen; but it appeared to me much more like a triumphal arch than a building for such a purpose, because