Martinsburg gazette and public advertiser. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1826-1833, 1833-10-10
From the New York Mirror.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EUROPE.

I
portrait of Beatrice Cenci; her melancholy his.
tory; picture of the Fornarina; likeness Of Gil
orgione's mistress; Joseph and Potiphar's wife:
the palaces Duria and Sierra; portrait of Olivia
| Waidachini; of ga celebrated widow; Of Sc
miramis; Ciaude's landscapes; BrilPs; Bu,.
CHEFS; Motifs, "woman catching heas;' Da
Vinci's Queen Giovanni; portrait Of a female
Doria; Prince Doria; Palace Sciarra; Brill and
Both's landscapes; Claude's picture Of Noah in
toxicated; Romana's Fornarina; Da vinei's two
pictures.
Drawn in twenty different directions
on starting from my lodgings this
morning, found myself undecided
where to pass my day, in front of St.
Peters. Some gorgeous ceremony
was just over, and the sumptuous equi-
pages of the cardinals, blazing in the
sun with their mountings of gold and
silver, were driving up and dashing
away from the end of the long colan-
nades, producing any effect upon the
mind rather than devout one. |
stood admiring their fiery horses and
gay liveries till the last ratified from the
square; and then mounted to the de-
serted church. Its vast vestibule was
filled with beggars, diseased in every
conceivable manner, hating, cropping,
and crawling about in search of stran-
gers of whom to implore charity-a
contrast to the splendid pavement be-
meath, and the gold and marble above
and around, which would reconcile one
to see the 'smighty dome" melted into
aims, and his holiness reduced to a
plain chapel and rustic cassock.
Lifting the curtain, | stood in the
body ofthe church. There were per-
haps twenty persons, at different dis
tances, on its immense floor, the far
thest off (sir hundred and fourteen feet
from met) looking like pigmy in the
far perspective. st. Peters is less
like church than collection oflarge
churches enclosed under a gigantic
roof. The chapels at the side are
larger than most houses of public wor-
ship in our country, and of these there
may be eight or ten, not included in the
effect of the vast interior. One is lost
in it. 1t is city of columns and sculp-
ture and mosaic. Its walls are en-
crusted with precious stones and mas
terly Workmanship to the very top,
and its wealth may be conceived, when
you remember that, standing in the
centre and raising your eyes aloft,
there are four hundred and forty feet
between you and the roof of the dome
the height, almost, of a mountain.
walked up towards the tomb ofSt.
Peter, passing in my way solitary
worshipper here and there, upon his
knees, and arrested constantly by the
exquisite beauty of the statuary with
which the columns are carved. Ac-
customed, as we are in America, TO
churches filled with pews, it is hardly
possible to imagine the noble effect of a
vast mosaic floor, unincumbered even
with a choir, and only broken by a
few PROSTATE figures, just speaking It's
wide area. All catholic churches are
without fixed seats, and st. Peters
seems scarce measurable to the eye, II
| is so far and clear, from one extremity
to the other.
| passed the hundred lamps burning
over the tomb of St. Peter, the lovely
female statue, covered with bronze
drapery, because its exquisite beauty
was thought dangerous to the morality
of the young prlests,) reclining upon
the tomb of Paul ILL.,, the ethereal fig
ures of Canova's geniuses, weeping al
the door of the tomb of the Stuarts
(where sleeps the pretender Charles
| Edward the thousand rich and beau
tifll monuments of art and taste crowd
ing every corner of this wonderful
church, passed them, | say, with thu
same lost and unexamining, unpartcu
; larizing feeling, which ! cannot over
come in this place-a mind borne OF
its feet and confused and overwhelme'
, with the tide of astonishment-the on
grand impression ofthe whole. ! dar
say, little more familiarity with ST
r Peters will do away the feeling, but
left the church, after two hours loiter
ing in its aisles, despairing, and scare
wishing to examine or make note.
Those beautiful fountains, moisten
i inc the air over the whole area OF tn
column encircled frontl-and that ia
}, Egyptian pyramid. sending up its sler
der and perfect spire between! On
l. fingers about, and turns again and
= gain to gaze around him, as he leave
ST. Peters in wonder and admiration
crossed the Tiber, at the fortre'
y tomb ofAdrian, and threading the Ion
1e streets at the western side OF Rom
IN passed through the Jews quarter, al
be entered the Forum. The sun lay war
nd among the ruins of the great tempt
and columns of ancient Rome, al
seating myself on fragment of an a