196 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 



being subjected to those numberless petty exactions 

 by which the purse of the pope is replenished from 

 the pockets of us poor Protestants, after tedious de- 

 lays on the road, and a most uncomfortable ride for 

 the whole night, which altogether is enough to put one 

 in a bad humor with everything, after all this you 

 may be sure I found myself in such a prosaic care-f or- 

 nothing mood that it was a long time before I could 

 feel the interest which the Eternal City is calculated to 

 inspire. A fog in the morning prevented us from a 

 good view on our approach ; the streets of the modern 

 town through which we passed were mostly devoid of 

 interest, and we saw nothing but the dome of St. 

 Peter's and the Castle of St. Angelo. However, we 

 got established at the Hotel d'Allemagne, and took 

 breakfast. Mr. Hartley, being worn out by the jour- 

 ney, took to his room for the day, and I was left to 

 myself. Though perfectly ignorant of localities here, 

 I was determined not to be deprived of the satisfac- 

 tion of discovering the most interesting places for my- 

 self. My guide-book (Madame Starke) describes ob- 

 jects somewhat particularly, but gives no information 

 as to where they are to be found. I hate the chatter 

 of a cicerone, and felt confident that I should stumble 

 upon something worth seeing. So I climbed the hill 

 just before me by a magnificent flight of marble steps, 

 where the Egyptian obelisk stands which the inscrip- 

 tion says was found in the Circus of Sallust. I saw 

 an imposing building at the end of a long avenue, on 

 the summit of a rise which I afterwards learned was 

 the Esquiline Hill. On reaching it and examining 

 the interior I found by the guide-book that it was the 

 Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. These basilicas, 

 retaining the name of ancient structures, are a larger 



