i EXCURSION AMONG THE SWISS LANDSCAPES, 
‘cosa, when the title of the holy cross was 
found under the tribune of the holy altar, in 
‘a cavity in the wall. Constantine the Great 
Hestowed on it great riches and costly. orna- 
«ments, chalices, censers, &c. of pure gold, 
fully enumerated by Onuphrius: our mar- 
ple pie support the tribune, and under the 
Ig 
% altar lie the bodies of SS. Casarius and 
Anastasius, martyrs ; and behind it, on the 
vault over the choir, is painted, in various 
“pieces, the whole history of the invention of 
» holy cross, by Perugini: The paintings 
“Pare very good and fresh, though old: It is 
- forbidden to any woman to enter the subter- 
taneous chapel, except on the dav of the 
dedication ot the church, the 20th of March. 
We are informed by an inscription, that 
nder the pavement of this chapel 1s depo- 
sited earth ,brought by St. Helena from Je- 
m and Mount Calvary, and which lay 
i 3 a 
had discovered our Saviour’s cross, and_re- 
a by Gregory LI. and Cardinal Men- 
Hahn 
' ‘THE first paragraph of this volume 
| provoked from us an indignant excla- 
| mation at the affectation of the author’s 
style, and the impertinence of publish- 
ing unconnected and unimportant me- 
-- morandums. 
«Left Lausanne on Tuesday morning the 
1 entieth of May, before five o'clock, on a 
four that I had often wished to take, merely 
"to see the face of the country—The morning 
; and fine; all the opposite side of the 
ashed or thick-plated with sun-beams 
‘pea-green pastures of Savoy, its woods 
Ur like the tufted moss, and its rocks above with 
| »their dishevelied snows all swelled out to 
“¥iew, seeming to have advanced nearer this 
| shore than daring wiiter—Pleasing state of 
nind from the recollection of the walks I 
aken here, the tea-parties at the Champ- 
ir, the dances, &c. at Lausanne the last 
” 
iA 2 r ! ’ - 
| This same impertinent indolence cha- 
erises the whole journal, which has 
m printed, as it appears, without al- 
ation or correction: but the author 
idently a man of quick observation 
c lively fancy. Such a work can 
be judged from samples of its cha- 
eter; letus take his general description 
of the Valois: : 
» ** It does not interest so much by its har- 
hony, proportion, or divine expression. as 
y the opposites of these; a contusion of all 
brder: “inonstrum horrendum, informe, in- 
s, cui /vmen ademptum est!’ It rouses 
teution by shocks ; by being curious, 
sque, odd, seemingly contradictory to 
wiure: and by these more palpable qualities 
excites the wonder and surprise of children 
wep; which we all arc indeed at least Lalf 
79 
undef the cross, and was moistened with 
our Saviour’s blood ;—whence this church 
is called, in Jerusalem, as standing on earth 
brought from that city. At the altar of this 
chapel nobody can say mass but the pope, 
nor does he himself use that privilege oftener 
than once a year. In a tribune on the right 
hand, are shewn on Good Friday, the prin- 
cipal relics kept here ; which are,—a vial of 
our Saviour’s blood ; the sponge by which 
vinegar was given him to drink; one of the 
brass nails with which he was crucified ; three 
ieces of our Saviour's cross, with the title 
in three languages, which was put over his 
head, adorned with gold and jewels &c. ; 
also some of the cress of ihe good thief,” 
We are inclined to suspect, that part 
of the account of Italy at least is trans- 
lated from some French work, from the 
repeated mention of the emperor Gallien, 
and the ecclesiastical historian Ru/n. 
XVI. Journal of a short Excursion among the Scviss Landscapes, made in tha 
Summer of the Year 1794. 
8vo. pp. 152. 
of our lives. Thus we are constantly re- 
marking or expecting some uncommon 
height, length, or breadth; some rare ap- 
pearance ; something that terrifies, as of im- 
minent destruction to itself, as wel! as to the 
beings on it; or traces of this in past times. 
And if upon occasion it presents the image 
of Paradise here and there, it is only to 
heighten by contrast the surrounding chaos. 
«To form an exact idea of it, you must 
suppose any country whatever, disjointed 
and broken to pieces by an earthquake; then 
suddenly thrown together again in a heap— 
you must then faney this heap to. have be- 
come in process of time coated ever with 
trees, mosses, aud verdure of all sorts; while 
cabins, single or in clusters, have been crum-~ 
bled over it—that the rivers after several falls 
have gained a more level channel, and pas- 
sing in their course through several wide 
and deep chasms, have filled them up, com- 
posing thus so many extensive lakes; such 
is the country we have been going over these 
seven o1 eight days past, and are to expect 
_for as many days to come; those rivers just 
mentioned serving as a clew to guide us, in 
a most wonderful manner, through this la- 
byrinth of nature. 
‘In these regions the traveller sees (or 
thinks he sees) the utmost violence dove to 
the component parts of landscape that can 
be imagined—Clouds sinking or groveling 
on the ground ; while whole plains are slung 
up several hundred fathoms into the air—On 
_the topmost pinnacle of these again, a Jake 
weayes its ample web. Precipices cut ab-- 
uptly down under market towns, with their 
“massive churches upon them, which how- 
ever stand unshaken, and fearing no hari. 
Pastures, with their herds and decks upon 
them, hung up like a map; and rivers siag- 
»gering along at a height, that we must. call 
philosophy to explain how they could ascend 
