Litchfield enquirer., 1873-07-10
G0Snen--M0. 90.

We have no news and no rain. shall soon be through sending extracts from the letters of Mir Edward Norton. Those this week are from Rome and Florence, June 5, and 8. H. N.
 ssWhen arrived in Rome, was sur
 prised to meet four of my fellow passen-
 gers on the steamer, and also the English party of twenty, whom I had met in Ven ice and Florence, and joined their compa- ny fora day, under their conductor. Mir. Ripley, and the celebrated Mr. Wood, the Archeologist. We rode all day and visit ed many places of interest, and drove out on the Appian Way. the very place trod by St. Paul. We went to the church where the faithful believe St. Peter, es- caping from prison, was met by the Say for, and Peter said, ''Where goest thou ?" ''I go to Rome to be cruciied the second time," which so affected Peter that he re- turned to his captoIs and was crucifed. But we were bound for the Catacombs, and, taking each of us torch, we de- scended into those long, winding laba- rynths, where, without a guide, we would soon be lost. How wonderful to gather Ca company of Protestants) these same lit tie rooms, under ground, where the early Christians held their secret meetings, and see the niches where they buried their dead whose remains have long since been takenaway. Re-entering our carriages, we drove three or four miles out Southeast on the Appian Way, the breeze delightful and the air balmy. Passing many ruins and tombs of the great, we alighted, and Mir. Wood pointed out to us the long arches of the Canadian Aqueduct, thirty six miles in length, four or five miles of which were visible to us. Some of us as- cended small hill or mound, and called the others up; then Mr. Wood told us we were all reclining over the grave of the last of the fallen Curatii, whose history is so interesting.
 You know Miss Ellis, one of the teachers at Mt. Holyoke is now in Mrs. Gould's Protestant School Twas the bearer of a letter to her from Miss Howe, the teacher of the Goshen Academy, and we walked together to the American meeting on the Sabbath, talking of the death of my niece at South Hadley. The subject of the ser mon was, ''Paul at Rome, and was very interesting; and here, right in Rome, we sang, Safely through Another Week, !" and ''Come, thou Almighty King" and somehow, they never sounded so good be- fore. In the afternoon went to St. Pc. ter's; had not been there before. and found this, as-aIl grant it is, the most i'm posing building ever erected to tine wor- ship of God. All the English and Ameri- cans I have met dislike to leave Rome, not on account of the beauty of the city, but on account of the associations connected with the place. Crossing the Fiber, I could but say, Help me, Cassius, or I Sink" Viewing an old statue of Julius OeOosAA, eAC "OAuS (TfodE CSe- sar fell, o, what fall was there my coun- trymen." It is two hundred and thirty two miles from Rome to Florence at which last place visited the Chapel of the Me dicis, which is most wonderful. It cost in Italy four and half million of dollars, and twice that sum would not produce it in America. It is circular like the Pantheon in Rome, or rather it is an octagon, and the whole interior up to the dome is cov- cred with beautiful marbles and precious stones. The first ten feet is covered with jasper, lapis-lazuli, agates and others do not know. Then the sarcophagi Contain ing the remains of the Medici family) are overlaid with costly marbles and precious stones, any one of which would cost as much as a church in one of our cities. Between the sarcophage are the eseutch- cons of the sixteen cities which formed the Etruscan league, and the dome is covered with eight fine paintings"