THE CARNIVAL AT ROME. 233 



the lower orders will club their purses to procure an occasional 

 hackney coach ; and you see the lady's maid, the small tradesman's 

 wife, and the well-doing washerwoman, lolling in a wretched car- 

 riage, bowing, with great airs, to each other, and looking down on 

 the pedestrians with an expression of such contempt that I have once 

 or twice seen it returned by a chorus of laughter. Nor are they 

 ever tired of this amusement. The Roman drives up and down the 

 Corso, down and up again, without appearing to suspect that this pas- 

 time may be dull or monotonous, and remains most firmly attached 

 to a custom which is produced by the indolence peculiar to a warm 

 climate, and perpetuated by the vanity common to the human species. 



The Corso of Rome is so narrow that in few parts it would allow 

 more than three carriages to run abreast, and generally not more 

 than two. The houses on each side are very lofty, and mostly built 

 in that gloomy though grand style of architecture which distinguishes 

 the Roman palaces of the time of Leo X. In many the windows of 

 the ground floor are protected and completely covered with solid 

 gratings of wrought iron ; and, though their design and workmanship 

 are often very elegant, still the whole effect is heavy and sombre. In 

 others the ground floor is appropriated to shops and warehouses, the 

 upper apartments being retained by their noble owners, or let to 

 such travelling milordi as can pay for them. So that thejCorso is at the 

 same time a busy lively thoroughfare, and a street of dark majestic 

 palaces, which give to the mind serious and even melancholy impres- 

 sions ; and it is terminated by one, the Palace of Venice, which is 

 doubly the representative of fallen greatness, for it was built with 

 stone torn from the Coliseum * of Rome to form a diplomatic resi- 

 dence for the representative of the Venetian republic. Austria, 

 into whose hands Venice has fallen, now holds possession of this rem- 

 nant of tvyo states, perhaps the two most interesting in the history of 

 the world. 



But, stately and grand as the Corso may be at other times, when 

 the carnival begins its character alters and the scene is changed. 

 Outside the houses temporary balconies are erected, and gaily hung 

 with tapestry and fringes ; and the pope issues a notice ((tvoiso) re- 

 commending that they be strong. From every window coloured 

 cloth, drapery, or carpets are suspended, so that the face of every 

 house is nearly overspread with a party-coloured covering. A flag 

 is seldom seen in Italy ; but on fete-days these carpets and damasks 

 answer nearly the same purpose. The ground is strewed with a light 

 brown volcanic gravel, both to improve its appearance and to give a 

 firmer footing to the horses. All this, united with the height of the 

 houses, the softness of the climate, and the gaiety of the costumes, 

 gives to the Corso the air of a vast ball-room or gallery, decked out 

 to receive an assembled nation in their hours of festivity, and one 

 forgets entirely that it is a mere street, or that it ever has been or 

 ever can be used for the common purposes of every-day life. 



* Bad as was the fate of the Coliseum, namely, to supply stones for many of the 

 modern churches and palaces of Rome, other buildings have been destroyed for a yet 

 lower purpose to furnish the mortar. Many are the temples and statues which were 

 broken up during the middle ages and burnt to make lime. 



S 2 



