presents a book requesting them to write their names therein. . Another excursion from Naples is to Caserta, about sixteen miles, where the country palace of the king is situated. It is reckoned one of the most extensive in Europe, and was erected from the designs of Vanvitelli. The walls are of brick, and on the plan it forms nearly a square. The length of the front is said to be 800 feet, and in depth 600 feet, but here, as well as at many places in France and Italy, strangers are not permitted to use a measure. The interior is divided into four courts, by cross buildings that intersect in the centre; and although it was begun long before the present king's reign, not a third part is yet. finished, at the same time there is now more than room enough for the accommodation of his majesty's household. The exterior contains five stories of windows in height including the mezzanine, and is without much beauty of architecture. In the centre of the front is a large archway as usual, which communicates to the courts within, and in a direct line to the gardens behind. In the centre, where the cross buildings intersect, is a superb staircase, with double flights of steps, entirely of marble it is wide enough for a dozen persons to walk up a-breast. On the pedestals of the balustrade are marble figures of different sorts. At the top of the staircase is a large circular saloon, with a range of marble columns so far insulated from the wall as to leave a commodious corridore all round, which communicates to the chapel, the theatre, and the state apartments. The rooms are generally square or oblong, and connected to each other without any private passage. They are extremely large, and many of their ceilings are painted from fabulous history, by modern artists of merit. The chapel is adorned with elegant marble columns, of the Corinthian order, placed round the gallery, resting on a handsome arcade below, very much resembling that at Versailles both in shape and embellishments. The theatre is small, and round the pit are antique columns of alabaster, which appear as if they were introduced to support the roof. The boxes and the whole house are richly decorated with paintings, marbles, gildings, &c. The king's box occupies the entire end of the house opposite the stage, which is richly furnished, and magnificent in other respects. At a considerable distance behind the palace appears a high hill with a cascade rolling down it, which is so contrived as to be seen the moment people enter the great archway in the front: the water falls into an immense basin below, and the whole I was informed is the work of art. The gardens are extensive, but very formal, with straight wide gravel walks, and in different parts are pavilions, various places of retirement, and other fanciful erections. Close by is the grand aqueduct, with three stories of arcades, which supplies the palace and village with water from a distant source. After the traveller has seen those things most worthy of his attention at Naples, he will do well to return to Rome and Florence, in order to have S a second view of the antiquities and other celebrated objects they contain, by which means he will fix them much deeper in his memory than if he had staid there considerably longer at first, because in the interval he has had an opportunity of reflecting on what he saw most meritorious in point of art. From Florence to Bologna is a journey of seventy miles. At the boundary of the city stands a triumphal arch, which, when going this way, you always pass through. Its general character resembles the arches at Rome, but the smaller parts and ornaments are in a bad taste. The beginning of the road is very pleasant, varied with hills planted with vines and olive-trees; and at the distance of three miles from the city is the public buryingground; it not being customary for the Italians to inter their dead, as we do, within the walls. Three miles farther on is the villa of Pratolino, which was formerly the chief country residence of the grand-dukes. In the gardens is a famous statue, sixty feet high, in a sitting attitude, by John di Bologna, intended to personify the Appennines; and in the body of it is a curious cave. In other parts of the grounds there is an abundance of fountains, grottos, water-works, groves, &c. but the house itself is nothing more than a plain white plastered building, without any aim at architectural beauty or excellence. At Caffaggiolo you begin to ascend the stupendous Appennines; the highest mountain among them is named Giogo. They were covered with snow when I crossed them; and we were under the ne cessity of sending a man on horseback before, with a long pole, to feel out the way, lest we should mistake the road, which in many places is extremely narrow, with deep precipices on the right. Within half a mile of the village PietraMala, on the top of a mountain, there is a kind of volcano: flames are said sometimes to issue from the ground, and in the night are visible; but, as I passed it in the day, I did not distinguish any thing of the kind. Leaving this place, you descend very rapidly into the vale of Lombardy, and in a few hours arrive at the walls of Bologna, which is situated on the banks of a narrow river, called the Reno. The most remarkable feature in this city are the arcades on which the houses are built; but there is no regularity observed in them. In rainy weather the inhabitants may walk from one end of it to the other without the least annoyance from wet; and in the summer season they are defended from the heat of the sun. Agreeable as these advantages appear, and however handsome an arcade may be under some circumstances---as in market-places, and others of commercial resort---still the continuation of it in a city is very far from being desirable, because it makes the shops and rooms underneath exceedingly dark, and occasions a vast quantity of stagnant and unwholesome air as well as dirt. The general style of architecture at Bologna is no better than at other places I have previously mentioned; nevertheless, there are some palaces and public buildings striking on the first view, chiefly owing to their novelty and magnitude. The plan of them is in the usual manner of Italy, and their superstructures of stone have all that ponderosity so common at Florence. In some of the palaces are excellent paintings, from the pencil of the Carracci and other artists, particularly those in the gallery of Sampieri, representing the labours of Hercules, &c. And in the great square or piazza stands a superb fountain, by John di Bologna; it is crowned with a colossal figure of Neptune, in bronze, with a trident in his hand: and figures of women as syrens are placed round the rock, whose breasts form so many jets-d'eau, by which the water is thrown into a capacious basin below. Bologna being the birth-place of this artist, he presented this fine production to the citizens, as a public monument of his esteem, as petuate his memory among them. well as to per- St. Petronius, ment of the old Gothic church which is in a heavy bad style, appears the famous meridian line, with the signs of the zodiac, made by Cassini, consisting of pieces of red and white marble inlaid, about six inches broad, and which line is said to be a six-hundred-thousandth part of the circumference of the globe. The circular aperture which admits the rays of the sun is in the roof over the south aisle, and the luminous spot it produces on the line shews the meridional point every day. The cathedral of St. Peter's, and other churches, have rich interiors, and some fine pictures. In the centre of the city, and at the side of the principal street, stand the two celebrated brick |