and examining the many curious things which are to be seen in this
church, including those of its famous treasury. It is truly surprising
that, after so many revolutions, so many of these valuables have been
preserved. The fidelity of the priesthood to their charge is surely
deserving of some admiration, considering how many opportunities there
must have been of making away with precious articles, after which no
inquiry would probably have ever been made.

A campanile, or bell-tower, has been erected in the square near the
church, and is one of the most conspicuous objects in Venice; rising,
as it does, above every other building. It seems slender; but I was
surprised to find, on a rough measurement, that the sides are not less
than fifty feet wide. A paved way, instead of a staircase, conducts to
an open _loggia_ near the top, whence you can have a complete view of
the city. I remarked that the tops of many of the houses are of use in
the same way as gardens and summer-houses are in other countries.
People go there to smoke, or to take their coffee--the chimneys being
a very slight obstruction to such enjoyments in a country where little
fire is used. We here also had a good view of the celebrated
_orologio_ of Venice; a tower containing an ancient clock of peculiar
elaborateness of construction. On the top stand two metal giants,
armed with ponderous hammers, with which to strike the hours and
quarters on a huge bell, placed between them. There is something
terrible in these automata; and the feeling is not allayed when you
hear that one of them once committed a _murder_, having with his
hammer knocked an incautious workman over the battlements! The
campanile was begun in 902; and I felt interested in tracing its
resemblance, both in architecture and relative situation, to the
square tower of St Andrews, which is supposed to be of nearly the same
age.