162 SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



removing. The churches and cathedrals may, 

 amongst the great numbers with which they 

 are encumbered, have some good^ and I am 

 inclined to think they have ; but the quantity 

 of light admitted into these superb temples 

 is too limited, even in the brightest day, to 

 render it practicable to discover their merits : 

 they are lost to the world in the sacred gloom 

 that pervades the place. The public are 

 likewise prevented from a near approach by 

 clumsy railings ; but, from what little insight 

 I was enabled to obtain by peeping through 

 these barriers, it appeared to me that some of 

 the finest productions of the Italian and 

 Spanish schools might possibly be here buried 

 in oblivion. 



I visited the houses of many of the no- 

 bility, but found little worthy of notice. The 

 Count of Valenciana's drawing-room has a 

 set of prints from Claude, which, with the 

 exception of a few fine things in the palace of 



