New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-12-08
Foreign Correspondence
LETTERS tom ftalp.. No. XIV.
EY J. TYLER HEADLEY.
ROME, April 1913.

to sec the top Of mosaic centre.table. What a
transcendentally beautiful thing 1t was finer
work than / ever saw i'll breastpin at home. 1t
needed the closest inspection to detect it not
a painting. The man had been four years in
finishing it, and had just received order for it
from Russian Princess, who was to give him
$4,000. 1t represented Rome in four different
aspects, the scenes going round the outer edge of
the table First, the Piazza del Popolo,' by sun
rise, with its gate and obelisk second, ST. Pc
ter's, with its glorious colonnade, obelisk and
fountains, under the blaze of a bright MONDAY ;
next came the Forum, the Capitol, the ruined
Palace of the Caesars, and the lonely columns
standing around this focus Of old Roman glory,
bathcd in the soft light of the setting sun; last Of
all came the Coliseum by moonlight, and more
perfect moon never saw painted. 1t had beside
deliberately wrought centre piece. | never
brskc the commandment Thou shalt not covet'
so much in half an hour in my life as during
the time ] was inspecting this table. The artist
was an intelligent and pleasant man, and gave
INC some of the composition by which mosaic
work is made, and explained the whole process,
but ! have forgotten it already. At sunset |
strolled around the Pincian Hill, that ovcrlooks
Rome and the Tiber. 1t is beautiful prone
nadc filled with trees, statues, &c; but, alas!
US was passing near where some repairs were
making, saw thirty prisoners chained two and
two, guarded by soldcry and sullcnly performing
their allotted toll.
In the evening, after tea, our good professor
who never fails in his daily lessons, started up
and said g This is the night of the Feast of the
SepuIchrcs, would you like to see the ceremony 70
In moment we were off. We entered church
after church, in each Of which the ceremony was
different, but each representing Christ IN the Sep
ulchre. The churches were dark with the excep-
ton of few lights around the place Of supposed
burial. AT length We entered church, in the side
chapel of which lay wax figure representing our
Saviour in the rigidness of death The hair lay
matted on his lorehead-the blood was flowing over
his agony-wrung brow, and his limbs composed in
the decency of death. Close by this figure, kneeled
two monks-ther faces buried in their hands, and
back in the darkness, were the silent figures Of
men and women kneeling amid the marble col
umns of the church that grew DINNER and dim
mer as they retired, till lost in the gloom. That
bloody, murdered forn-those cowled and silent
monks kneeling over 1.-THE deep hush and dark
ness amid so many forms, was too much for my
nerves. pushed open the door and rushed into
the open air, drew long breath while fearful
pressure seemed to lift from my heart. WE'LL It's
a strange world, and the "lights and shadows of
human SOUL" who can write
Wednesday, l3tA-Rode all over the grounds
Of the Borghcsan villa. This is to Rome what
Hyde Park is to London, and towards even
there is an incessant whrl of carriages around It's
groves of lex and laurel, and long avenues of cy-
presses, and past its flashing fountains and deli
cate temples, and rows of statuary. These
grounds are three miles round, threaded in every
possible direction with roads. At the farther side
is the palace filled with beautiful statuary. In
one room is Canoyas famous reclining Venus, for
which Pauline, the beautiful sister Of Bonapartc
sat- There is a story in Rome that a lady once
asked Pauline if she did not feel little uncom-
Portable in sitting before Canova for herstatuc GAL
luding 10 the indelicacy of being disrobed before
the artist and she pretending to understand her
as referring TO her feeling somewhot cold in such
4 predicament, answered, "oh no, the room was
very ,carm'' This Borg hose married one OF
the daughters of the famous English Catholic
Earl of Shrewsbury The statue is beautiful
so was Pauline, who is said to have had but one
defective feature, and that her ears. They were
90 al he almost a
SATURDAY, lGlh-I skip over two days This
morning l received a note from an American
gentleman inviting me to accompany HIM and
his two sisters to the Pope's palace OH the Qurnal
| was at the reading room when they startd,
and as the carriage drove up the wheels came
somewhat near to a peppery, hall-crazy Eng
lish cavalry officer. He began TO swear and
curse the driver, when |, somewhat piqued at his
impudencc in the presence pi the LADIES, slept Ill
aud told the driver to move on. The officer I'M
mcdatcly tipped his hat to me ana apologlsed'
and said in the bandest manner, MI IL Gazing
ME by Nance l believe your book is not IN tins
library, reerring to the attached to the read
ing.room.) How the fellow knew my name puz-
zed INC, and the question and all taking me quite
aback, replied, what did you say, sir ARE you
not from New Orleans, and hure you not written
work l am sorry to say, sir, | replied, am
not from New Orleans, nor h. ave | been guilty OF
writing book.
We stroled alloyer the great palace-lnto the
very sanctum sanctorum OF his Holiness.
The garden is mile in circumference, ana
filled with flowers and birds, aud plants of every
description. There is one fountain that plays an
oronn when it piaus at aEil and little statues