LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 83 



Lord suffered for the sins of the world. The wood itself is syca- 

 more, and the words appear as though they had been cut hastily 

 into it by some sharp-pointed instrument. 



" I fear the world will rebuke me when I tell it, that instead or 

 ferreting out antiquities and visiting modern schools of sculpture 

 and of painting, I passed a considerable portion of my time in the 

 extensive bird-market of Rome. I must however remark, that the 

 studio of Vallati, the renowned painter of wild boars, had great 

 attractions for me ; and I have now at home, a wild boar done by 

 him in so masterly a style, and finished so exquisitely, that it obtains 

 unqualified approbation from all who inspect it. 



" The bird-market of Rome is held in the environs of the Rotunda, 

 formerly the Pantheon. Nothing astonished me more than the 

 quantities of birds which were daily exposed for sale during the 

 season ; I could often count above four hundred thrushes and black- 

 birds, and often a hundred robin red-breasts in one quarter of it; 

 with twice as many larks, and other small birds in vast profusion. In 

 the course of one day, seventeen thousand quails have passed the 

 Roman Custom-house ; these pretty vernal and autumnal travellers 

 are taken in nets of prodigious extent on the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean. In the spring of the year and at the close of summer, cart- 

 loads of ringdoves arrive at the stalls near the Rotunda. At first 

 the venders were shy with me ; but as we got better acquainted, 

 nothing could surpass their civility, and their wishes to impart every 

 information to me; and when they had procured a fine and rare 

 specimen, they always put it in a drawer apart for me. These bird- 

 men outwardly had the appearance of Italian banditti, but it was all 

 outside and nothing more ; they were good men notwithstanding 

 their uncouth looks, and good Christians too, for I could see them 

 waiting at the door of the church of the Jesuits, by half-past four 

 o'clock on a winter's morning, to be ready for the first mass. 



" I preserved eighty birds, a porcupine, a badger, some shell-fish, 

 and a dozen land tortoises whilst I was in Rome ; and these escaped 

 the shipwreck by having been forwarded to Leghorn, some time 

 previous to our embarking at Civita Vecchia for that port. 



"Whilst we were viewing the lofty fragment of a wall which 

 towers amid the surrounding ruins of Caracalla's baths, I saw a hole 



