his additions to Angeloni, has fufficiently refuted all he fays on that fubject. At Loretto I inquired for the English jefuits lodgings, and on the ftair-cafe that leads to them I saw several pictures of fuch as had been executed in England, as the two Garnets, Old-Corn, and others to the number of thirty. Whatever were their crimes, the infcription fays they fuffered for their religion, and fome of them are represented lying under fuch tortures as are not in ufe among us: The martyrs of 1679 are fet by themselves, with a knife ftuck in the bofom of each figure, to fignify that they were quartered. The riches in the holy house and treasury are surprisingly great, and as much furpaffed my expectation as other fights have generally fallen fhort of it. Silver can fcarce find an admiffion, and gold itself looks but poorly among fuch an incredible number of precious ftones. There will be, in a few ages more, the jewels of the greateft value in Europe, if the devotion of its Princes continues in its prefent fervour. The laft offering was made by the Queen dowager of Poland, and coft her eighteen thousand crowns. Some have wondered that the Turk never attacks this treafury, fince it lies fo near the fea-fhore, and is fo weakly guarded. But befides that he has attempted it formerly with no fuccefs, it is certain the Vene Venetians keep too watchful an eye over his motions at present, and would never suffer him to enter the Adriatic. It would indeed be an eafy thing for a chriftian Prince to furprise it, who has fhips ftill paffing to and fro without fufpicion, especially if he had a party in the town, difguised like pilgrims to secure a gate for him; for there have been fometimes to the number of one hundred thousand in a day's time, as it is generally reported. But it is probable the veneration for the holy house, and the horror of an action that would be resented by all the catholic Princes of Europe, will be as great a fecurity to the place as the strongest fortification. It is indeed an amazing thing to fee fuch a prodigious quantity of riches lie dead, and untouched in the midft of fo much poverty and mifery as reign on all fides of them. There is no queftion, however, but the Pope would make use of these treasures in cafe of any great calamity that should endanger the holy fee; as an unfortunate war with the Turk, or a powerful league among the proteftants. For I cannot but look on thofe vaft heaps of wealth, that are amaffed together in fo many religious places of Italy, as the hidden referves and magazines of the church, that the would open on any preffing occafion for her laft defence and prefervation. If thefe riches were all turned into current coin, VOL. IV. H and and employed in commerce, they would make Italy the most flourishing country in Europe. The cafe of the holy houfe is nobly defigned, and executed by the great mafters of Italy, that flourished about a hundred years ago. The ftatues of the Sibyls are very finely wrought, each of them in a different air and posture, as are likewife those of the Prophets underneath them. The roof of the treasury is painted with the fame kind of device. There ftands at the upper end of it a large crucifix very much efteemed, the figure of our Saviour reprefents him in his last agonies of death, and amidst all the ghaftliness of the vifage has fomething in it very amiable. The gates of the church are faid to be of Corinthian brafs, with many fcripture ftories rifing on them in Baflo Relievo. The Pope's ftatue, and the fountain by it, would make a noble fhow in a place lefs beautified with fo many other productions of art. The spicery, the cellar and its furniture, the great revenues of the convent, with the ftory of the holy house, are too well known to be here infifted upon. Whoever were the firft inventors of this impofture, they feem to have taken the hint of it from the veneration that the old Romans paid to the cottage of Romulus, which flood on mount Capitol, and was repaired from time to time as it fell to decay. decay. Virgil has given a pretty image of this little thatch'd palace, that represents it standing in Manlius's time, three hundred and twenty-seven years after the death of Romulus. In fummo cuftos Tarpeie Manlius arcis Stabat pro templo, & capitolia celfa tenebat: Æn. Lib. viii. ver. 652. ++High on a rock heroic Manlius ftood To guard the temple, and the temple's God: Then Rome was poor, and there you might behold The palace thatch'd with straw. Dryden. From Loretto, in my way to Rome, I paffed through Recanati, Macerata, Tolentino, and Poligni. In the last there is a convent of nuns called la Conteffa, that has in the church an incomparable Madonna of Raphael. At Spoletto, the next town on the road, are fome antiquities. The most remarkable is an aqueduct of a Gothick structure, that conveys the water from mount St. Francis to Spoletto, which is not to be equalled for its height by any other in Europe. They reckon from the foundation of the lowest arch to the top of it two hundred and thirty yards. In my way hence to Terni I faw the river Clitumnus, celebrated by fo many of the poets for a particular quality in its waters of making cattle white that H 2 drink 1 drink of it. The inhabitants of that country have still the fame opinion of it, as I found upon inquiry, and have a great many oxen of a whitish colour to confirm them in it. It is probable this breed was first settled in the country, and continuing ftill the fame fpecies, has made the inhabitants impute it to a wrong caufe; though they may as well fancy their hogs turn black for some reason of the fame nature, because there are none in Italy of any other breed. The river Clitumnus, and Mevania that ftood on the banks of it, are famous for the herds of victims with which they furnished all Italy. Quà formofa fuo Clitumnus flumina luco Prop. Lib. ii. Eleg. 19. ver. 25. Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, & maxima taurus Romanos ad templa deûm duxere triumphos. Virg. Georg. ii. ver. 146. There flows Clitumnus thro' the flow'ry plain; Whose waves, for triumphs after profp'rous war, The victim ox, and fnowy fheep prepare. -Patulis Clitumnus in arvis Candentes gelido perfundit flumine tauros. Sil. Ital. Lib. ii.. Its |