The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-12-15 00:00:00

ttteraturr.

.ETCLIES OF A TRIP TO TILE CONTINENT,
ITALY, AND EGYPT.
BY EDWIN KEEP, /CSC'.
No. IV.

(Wrilt en for the Liverpool Standard.)
persons that visit Rome are aware that the Coli-
ccupies the site of the piece of water once (alas
g since) attached to the golden house of Nero ;
name is taken from the colossal bronze figure of
rant that stood near it, forty yards high. The
masonry, overgrown with grass, upon which the
figure, seen for many miles di,tant, stood, is yet
able, distinctly marked, of fitting dimensions for
wonderful work of art. When the Coliseum was
lerfect state, it was replete with fine statues, re-
tin?, the provinces of Rome. In the midst of these
tr.::: of Rome itself, holding in the hand a golden
But these the barbarians have all destroyed, like
bat surrounded the tomb of Adrian. The huge
,ple of bronze, that surmounted its dome, you may
sding in the garden of the Papal Palace, and the
[self now turned into a prison for criminals, and
thristened the Castle of St. Angelo, and an ugly
thael replaces the bronze fruit. The enormous

: of many of the statues of ancient Rome may be
riez accurately be the fragments of the limbs and feet,
of the latter being from five to six feet in length.
.perfect bionze group remaining is the eques-
statue, standing in the Capitol, of Marcus Aurelius
nus, which once was richly gilded • and although
dern Capitol gives us but a very inadequate idea of
:lent one, yet there is much to delight the stranger
er. Here, on this the Capitoline Hill, where gor-
temples once abounded, the Tarpeian Rock, the
rium, built upon and obscured, but not destroyed—
re the only remains of its ancient grandeur. Here
is the Museum and the Palace of the Conserva-
'hich, with a church and the Palace of the Senators,
e degree sanctify the celebrated spot; but around
gged garments were hung up to dry, and
rid the Forum form a market-place for

ttle, and upon the ruins of the once famous temple of
anus I saw a petticoat drying in the sun! However,
e approach to the modern Capitol is fine, majestic, and
isle : two lionesses of basalt • brought from Egypt, a
xy fine ancient Roman milestone, some statues and tro-
2ies cut in marble, that spew some faint symptoms of
rimer power. But the temple of the Capitoban Jove !
'ayes, lictors, citizens, patricians, senators, gediles, tri-
tiles, consuls, and emperors, all alike are gone !
" Imperial Caesar dead and turned to clay,
May stop a flaw to keep the wind away."
One word on the bridges, and we quit the antiquities of
ome. That of St, Angelo, the ancient Puns ./Elius,
ected by Adrian, repaired by Clement IX., is the most
tposing—the balustrade is good, the statues inelegant.
e Ponte Sisto, originally erected by Antoninus Pius, re-
Litt by Sixtus I V., in 1e73. The• Pons Cestius and Fab, i-
oat lead from the island of the Tiber. This island, with
magnificent temple erected on it, was dedicated to Escu-
pins. The Pons Triumphalis, over which the victorious

aerais passed to receive their triumph ; the Pons Sena-
ins, over which the senators passed to consult the
bane Oracles, and the Pons Publicus, are in ruins.
test was the only bridge in Rome when Codes de-
tded it so bravely against the army of Porsenna, re-

It by Lepidns, repaired afterwards by Antoninus Pius.
)m this bridge, the bodies of Commodus and Helioga-
us were thrown into the Tiber; and on what treasures
.t yellow stream rolls over I If in our provincial
awes, so many bronze relics, statuettes, coins of gold,
rer, and brass; fine medals, busts with silver eyes,
scents, lips and nipples, a master-piece of art in the

(rize figure of an archer, swords, spears, instruments of
ions kinds, a colossal bronze head and hand of Adrian,
ea, and a vast variety of other instruments, and one
trument of bronze, with twelve bronze heads of deities,
m the use of which instrument there are seven diffe-
it opinions held by the learned ;—if all these relics
re been accidentally found in the Thames and its vici-
y, what might not be discovered by diverting the
arse and laying bare the bed of the Tiber, where it
sea through the imperial city. Towards the interest-
search, which would amply repay the labour and ex-
ist, the late Duchess of Devonshire offered ten thou-