produced that mild obscurity so peculiarly adapted to inspire the soul with sentiments of religious awe, and which is even more congenial with the practice of the Roman-catholic religion than any other, because wax tapers are burning from morning till night in the sanctuaries of their churches. The large bronze doors at the west end enriched with the history of the Virgin Mary and the Redeemer (part of the figures on the pannels in altorelievo), cannot be viewed by the most phlegmatic observer as any other than prodigies of art, both in regard to fancy and execution. The centre one is twelve feet wide, with a proportionate height: they were all designed by John di Bologna, and cast by the monk Portigione. The bronze doors at the east entrance are of the same description;' but, according to some accounts, these were brought from Egypt, and in all probability were taken as a model for the other three which I have more particularly mentioned.

On the outside of the eastern wall there appears a beautiful antique sarcophagus, which held the bones of Beatrice, mother of the famous Countess Matilda; and also a variety of curiosities on other external parts of the Basilick, too numerous for explanation, and the beauties of which are only to be felt upon the spot. I will therefore now commence a few observations on the Baptistery, which stands at a small distance to the westward of the church.

This solid and magnificent temple has a circle for its plan, whose diameter is 112 feet or thereabout; and its elevation is a rotunda standing on a

platform raised three steps from the ground. From the city records we are given to understand it was begun in the year 1152, by an architect named Diotisalvi. The whole is of white marble, and the outside has been variegated with streaks of cerulean. In the architecture we perceive a compound of barbarous Greek and Italian Gothic, loaded with ornaments of a bad description, and strongly evincing the vitiated taste of the age to which it belongs. Against the walls of the lower story are columns, with capitals of the Corinthian kind, placed at regular distances from each other, and which carry arches resembling the Saxon. Between the columns are circular-headed windows, to admit light to the lower part of the interior. On the top of the arches is a cornice continued. round the circumference, and which ends the lower story. Then come the insulated columns above, much smaller and closer to each other, bearing arches also, and exactly similar to those described in the peripteres of the leaning tower. Every two arches support a Gothic pediment, with figures of saints and angels in the tympanum; and between every pediment is a small ornamental pinnacle. The upper story is divided by a kind of plain pilasters, with circular-headed windows between, finishing above with sharp-pointed pediments that contain oval windows; and last of all a majestic dome covered with lead, and capped with a small cupola in the shape of a bell (with a statue of St. John the Baptist at top), stretches over the rotunda, and stamps a bold and decisive impression on the whole. The dome is supported within

by arches that spring from large marble piers and columns, three feet in diameter, of Sardinian granite, in one piece. The upper story is formed with piers and arches of white marble, varied with streaks of cerulean. They are on a circular plan, and add great beauty to the inside. The capitals of the columns are rich spècimens of the sculpture of the age, with heads of angels and other emblems, but of no regular order. The pavement is tessellated with a mixture of white and cerulean marble; and the choir displays a costly mosaic, with other marbles of the richest quality. In the centre of the rotunda, resting on a plinth, surrounded with three steps of white marble, appears the font, in the shape of an octagon, which measures ten feet across. The outside is of fine white marble, with exquisite sculpture of foliage and mosaic. The margin and the base are of broccatello.. At the sides are four small basins for baptising young children, and the centre is for adults. In the middle of the great basin rises a conductor of white marble, from which the water flows during the ceremony; and on the top is a small statue in bronze of John the Baptist by Bandinelli. Superior to the font in all respects is the hexagon pulpit: it has a staircase of marble leading into it, and is supported by seven columns of rich marbles, one in the centre and one at each angle; three of them are placed upon two lions and a lioness suckling her whelps. Under the paws of the lions are seen small animals, with which they quietly repose. A group of men and animals composes the base of the centre column,

The columns are united together by small intersecting arches under the pulpit, and their capitals are Corinthian. The sides of the hexagon are enriched with beautiful bass-reliefs, expressing the following subjects from the New Testament :--The birth of Christ; the adoration of the magi; the presentation to the temple; the crucifixion; the judgment-day: altogether of the most elaborate and ingenious workmanship, by Niccola Pisano, as recorded in the inscription.

Between the external and internal domes is a space for several chambers, with two staircases made between the walls to communicate to them. In this, as in most circular buildings with double domes, there is an echo which reverberates several times very distinctly.

Rare and expensive as the materials most undoubtedly are with which these buildings have been constructed, and much as they have been embellished by the painful operations of art, both within and without, I cannot nevertheless help observing, so far only as alludes to the style and composition of the architecture itself, that in no part whatever, in no single instance throughout the whole, can be discovered one genuine entire example of chaste and classical design. Nay, so much to the contrary, every-where appear antiquities without selection, parts without unity, magnificence without order, and richness without taste.

Thus, having examined pretty attentively the leaning tower, the Duomo, and the Baptistery, we need not go farther than a few yards to obtain a

view of the last of the four principal objects which stand together in the great square, and which are looked upon by travellers as the chief curiosities of Pisa. It is called the Campo Santo, or Holy Ground. The figure of this mausoleum is a parallelogram, 410 feet in length and 142 in width within, it has a large open court in the same form, encompassed by a cloister of sixty-two Gothic arches, which are somewhat like those contiguous to the south side of Westminster-abbey, and the whole is of white marble. It acquired the name of Campo Santo, because the earth with which it is filled is said to have been brought from Mount Calvary by the Pisans, who put it into their galleys for ballast, by order of Ubaldo Lanfranchi their archbishop, when they returned from the wars of Saladin in the Holy Land; and having laid it very near the great Duomo, this burial-place was afterwards erected in the year 1278 on the very same spot; and the earth is esteemed to possess supernatural power and efficacy, in administering peace and consolation to the souls of the departed.

In the elevation it has no windows; but in order to do away the disagreeable appearance of a bare wall, plain pilasters are placed, with arches springing from one to the other at regular distances, against the face of the inclosure.

Many of the ancient families of Pisa have been buried under the marble pavement of the cloisters, as appears from the inscriptions; and along the wall next the great open court is a tier of ancient sarcophagi. The principal part of them has been