CHARLES WATERT0N, ESQ. lxix 



Colonna palace, who kept it alive in the 

 pleasure-grounds ; and there I paid it a visit 

 generally once a week. Another pair of these 

 noble wanderers of night is said to inhabit the 

 enormous outworks at the top of St. Peter's. 

 These birds are very scarce in this part of 

 Italy. 



As you enter Rome at the Porta del Popolo . 

 a little on your right, is the great slaughter- 

 house, with a fine stream of water running 

 through it. It is probably inferior to none in 

 Italy for an extensive plan, and for judicious 

 arrangements. Here some seven or eight hun- 

 dred pigs are killed on every Friday during the 

 winter season* Nothing can exceed the dex- 

 terity with which they are despatched. About 

 thirty of these large and fat black pigs are 

 driven into a commodious pen, followed by 

 three or four men, each with a sharp skewer in 

 his hand, bent at one end, in order that it may 

 be used with advantage. On entering the pen 

 these performers, who put you vastly in mind 

 of assassins, make a rush at the hogs, each 

 seizing one by the leg, amid a general yell of 

 horror on the part of the victims. Whilst the 

 hog and the man are struggling on the ground, 

 d3 



