valuable; but having another engagement, we could spend only a little
time here. We had a hasty glance, however, of some poems of Tasso, in
his own autograph.

We then went to the Palazzo Galitzin, where dwell the Misses Weston, with
whom we lunched, and where we met a French abbe, an agreeable man, and an
antiquarian, under whose auspices two of the ladies and ourselves took
carriage for the Castle of St. Angelo. Being admitted within the
external gateway, we found ourselves in the court of guard, as I presume
it is called, where the French soldiers were playing with very dirty
cards, or lounging about, in military idleness. They were well behaved
and courteous, and when we had intimated our wish to see the interior of
the castle, a soldier soon appeared, with a large unlighted torch in his
hand, ready to guide us. There is an outer wall, surrounding the solid
structure of Hadrian's tomb; to which there is access by one or two
drawbridges; the entrance to the tomb, or castle, not being at the base,
but near its central height. The ancient entrance, by which Hadrian's
ashes, and those of other imperial personages, were probably brought into
this tomb, has been walled up,--perhaps ever since the last emperor was
buried here. We were now in a vaulted passage, both lofty and broad,
which circles round the whole interior of the tomb, from the base to the
summit. During many hundred years, the passage was filled with earth and
rubbish, and forgotten, and it is but partly excavated, even now;
although we found it a long, long and gloomy descent by torchlight to the
base of the vast mausoleum. The passage was once lined and vaulted with
precious marbles (which are now entirely gone), and paved with fine
mosaics, portions of which still remain; and our guide lowered his
flaming torch to show them to us, here and there, amid the earthy
dampness over which we trod. It is strange to think what splendor and
costly adornment were here wasted on the dead.