of the Builder-pope was first directed. The Leonine City of Borgo, as
it is more familiarly called, is that portion of Rome which lies on the
right side of the Tiber, and which extends from the castle of St. Angelo
to the boundary of the Vatican gardens--enclosing the Church of St.
Peter, the Vatican palace with all its wealth, and the great Hospital of
Santo Spirito, surrounded and intersected by many little streets, and
joining to the other portions of the city by the bridge of St. Angelo.

Behind the mass of picture-galleries, museums, and collections of all
kinds, which now fill up the endless halls and corridors of the papal
palace, comes a sweep of noble gardens full of shade and shelter from the
Roman sun, such a resort for the

"learnèd leisure
Which in trim gardens takes its pleasure"

as it would be difficult to surpass. In this fine extent of wood and
verdure the Pope's villa or casino, now the only summer palace which the
existing Pontiff chooses to permit himself, stands as in a domain, small
yet perfect. Almost everything within these walls has been built or
completely transformed since the days of Nicholas. But, then as now,
here was the heart and centre of Christendom, the supreme shrine of the
Catholic faith, the home of the spiritual ruler whose sway reaches over
the whole earth. When Nicholas began his reign, the old Church of St.
Peter was the church of the Western world, then, as now, classical
in form, a stately basilica without the picturesqueness and romantic
variety, and also, as we think, without the majesty and grandeur, of a
Gothic cathedral, yet more picturesque if less stupendous in size and
construction, than the present great edifice, so majestic in its own
grave and splendid way, with which, through all the agitations of the