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-for- 
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 Cireus 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 
