82 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



started for Rome, which we reached after a very uncomfortable walk. 

 The injured foot had two months' confinement to the sofa before 

 the damage was repaired. It was this unfortunate adventure which 

 gave rise to the story of my walking barefooted into Rome, and 

 which gained me a reputation by no means merited on my part. 



" When we left the shores of England, we determined to spend 

 two years in Rome, reserving to ourselves the privilege of retiring 

 from it when the unwholesome season would make a longer stay 

 there, neither safe nor any ways agreeable. We set apart this 

 period for a visit to Naples, as it would be a good opportunity to 

 see the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius, a prodigy which 

 has given rise, almost time out of mind, to every possible conjecture 

 throughout the whole of civilised Europe. Everything else in the 

 shape of adventures appears to me to be trivial and of no account. 

 I here state, in the most unqualified manner, my firm conviction 

 that the liquefaction of the blood of St Januarius is miraculous be- 

 yond the shadow of a doubt. Were I to conceal this my conviction 

 from the public eye I should question the soundness of both my 

 head and heart, and charge my pen with arrant cowardice. Nothing 

 in the whole course of my life has struck me so forcibly as this 

 occurrence. 



" Rome, immortal Rome, replete with everything that can instruct 

 and please, is the resort of travellers from all parts of the known 

 world. They have so deluged the press with accounts of its economy, 

 its treasures, and antiquities, that there seems nothing left for future 

 tourists whereon ,to exercise their pens. For my own part, having 

 seen most of the curiosities full twenty years ago, I did not feel 

 much inclined on this occasion to renew my acquaintance with 

 many of them, especially as I found the temperature of the galleries 

 and palaces anything but genial. Still I got a sight of some things 

 which have made a lasting impression on me ; one of these was the 

 titulus which was fixed over the head of our dying Saviour ; a most 

 learned rabbi of our days has proved its authenticity, if any new 

 proof were wanting; for the historical records at the time of its 

 being brought to Rome are so clear and positive that no one who 

 has any faith at all in history can doubt that this identical piece of 

 wood is the same that was used on the cross, when our blessed 



