PREFACE. the writer's attention from the constant recollection of his loss, and to enjoy again, in imagination, the pleasure he had experienced whilst abroad, he undertook to note down, for his own amusement, the incidents of his short trip. The partiality of some friends, who were kind enough to wish to look over the manuscript, induced the writer to hazard the publication of his notes. If they should divert an idle or relieve a tedious hour, they will have filled the measure of his expectations. It should be added, that the impressions made by the distinguished men abroad, with whom the writer met in the course of his trip, have been omitted in almost every instance. The opportunities for observation were generally so slight, and the circumstances so little adapted to the exhibition of character, that a just appreciation of anything, except their mere personal appearance, could scarcely be formed. It must be admitted, that much has been written upon the same subject, and that the route described is far from being new. There can scarcely be found two persons, however, who look upon the same object from the same stand-point, or who are not differently impressed by the same combination of circumstances. These impressions are as various as the tastes, previous habits of thought, and extent and character of information of the observer. It is the hope of the writer, that the point he has selected for observation may be thought a favorable one, and the impressions he has attempted to convey not uninteresting. BALTIMORE, September, 1854. CONTENTS. A Legal Sign-The Cour d'Appel—The Criminal Court—St. Roch— Requiescat in pace-The Via Crucis-Père la Chaise-Foreign Fontainebleau-A good Hotel-The Price of Spring Chickens and Chambertin-Dijon-Lyons-An American Virtuoso buying Ex- perience-A Rhone Steamer at Low Water-Rhone Scenery- A Night's Rest at Valence-Marseilles-An active Traveller, 73 The Requisites for Italian Travelling,-Patience, Passports, and Po- Santa Maria Maggiore—Its Miraculous Origin; Ancient Relics-St. John of Lateran-The Scala Sancta-Cardinal Roberti-Aque- ducts and Baths-Fountains of Trevi and Navona-Rome and Ascension Day at St. John Lateran-Blessing of the People by the Pope-Palace of the Quirinal-Vulcan at Work-The Vatican- The Last Judgment-Michael Angelo-Messer Biagio-Raphael -The School of Athens-The Discourse of the Sacraments-The |