open space, with the usual double colonnade, a railed off altar-space
at the upper end, and little chapels in the aisles on both sides.
Generally, over the principal altar is some large scriptural
picture--a Crucifixion, or a Taking Down from the Cross, or an
Ascension; the production of Titian, or Tintoretto, or Paul Veronese,
or some other artist of the Venetian school. Over the lateral altars
are similar works of art. Sometimes one of these side-chapels is at
the same time the tomb of a noble family, which assumes the duty of
keeping it in order. In many of the churches, nothing can exceed the
beauty of the sculpture which is lavished over the interior; and,
while many features are common, each usually contrives to have some
special beauty or some exclusive possession on which a peculiar fame
rests. For example, the church of _San Georgia Maggiore_ has some
wooden carved-work by a Belgian artist, of surprising beauty. _Gli
Scalzi_ is a paragon of elaborate decoration. The church of the
_Frari_, old and Gothic, is full of grand tombs, including those of
several doges, that of Titian, and a monument to Canova. The _Santa
Maria della Salute_ has a fine collection of pictures over and above
those in the church. This church was built in 1632, by a decree of the
Senate, as an act of thanksgiving to the Virgin for putting an end to
a pestilence by which 60,000 people had been carried off. It is a most
beautiful structure, full of fine things; and altogether a curious
monument of that delusion of ignorance and misdirected piety which
made men assign to a chapter of priests the duty now committed to a
Board of Health, and persuaded them that a church was of much greater
efficacy for the cure of the pestilence than an hospital.

I have as yet said scarcely anything of the ducal palace and church of
San Marco, which are the principal and central objects of Venice. The
first is a quadrangular building, with a court in the centre; very