[CLAYTON (SIR ROBERT, 1629-1707) Merchant and Politician.
Lord Mayor of London 1679-80.]

FOUR AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED from Robert Clayton to his uncle Sir Robert Clayton. 8 pages, folio. Naples and Rome. May, July 1698. (One slightly defective.)

£21

In the first of these letters, written from Naples, Robert Clayton describes to his uncle a fruitless endeavour to get to Messina in a felucca in a storm. The remaining letters are written from Rome, the last one giving a long account of the city.

".. Rome was formerly called Septicollis from the 7 Hills y^t it was built on but it has been since enlarged & at present incloses 12. the walls of Rome are abt 15 miles in Circuit but above one half of this Compass is Gardens or Vineyards & what is built is but thinly peopled, since according to their own Computation y^e inhabitants do not exceed 100000. Those maxims of Government w^ch made this City so populous in the old Roman Times being now altered the scarcity of People has followed as a necessary consequence. & I think the present unhealthiness of the Campagna of Rome can be ascribed to nothing else but the want of people to cultivate it: for all low grounds w^ch lie long untilled turn naturally to marshes w^ch in the great heats fill the air with very unwholsome vapours. The Tyber devides the City into 2 unequal parts 'tis no large River, but very deep & always muddy & did it not pass thro so famous a town would be celebrated for nothing else but its frequent inundations, w^ch are the more terrible because they are generally sufficient sometimes the wind blows so strongly from the Mediterranean y^t it stops the Current of the Tyber & if the melting of the snows on the Appanins or some great Rains happen at that time to swell the Torrents y^t fall into the Tyber it causes great disorders.. "

".. I shall say nothing of the modern Churches except y^t of St Peters w^ch is esteemed the largest & most noble in the world the greatest Architects of y^e 2 last ages have showed here & there greatest skill & the true proportions of Architecture are so well observed y^t at first nothing appears extraordinary the oftner one goes to see it the more one is obliged to admire it...."

- 2 -

[CLAYTON] cont.

"... The Dome is mosaïque within & the roof of ye Nave
gilt fretwork the Pillars are or will be crushed with marble
there are great quantities of Bass Reliefs, statues, & magnificent
monuments of Popes all which are so judiciously placed that great
quantity breeds no Confusion. In a word, everything is great &
Majestick & this is one of the very few things which have more than
answered my Expectation & I am sorry that I must say that our St
Pauls is no more to be compared to St Peters than little, crooked
or Christopher Wren to a man of the exactest proportions...."