fented in the window, and in feveral places of the church, and is in great reputation all over Italy. I fhould not indeed think it impoffible for a pigeon to fly in accidentally through the roof, where they still keep the hole open, and by its fluttering over fuch a particular place, to give fo fuperftitious an affembly an occafion of favouring a competitor, efpecially if he had many friends among the electors that would make a politic ufe of fuch an accident: But they pretend the miracle has happened more than once. Among the pictures of feveral famous men of their order, there is one with this infcription. P. D. Thomas Gouldvellus Ep. Afis Tridno confilio contra Hæreticos, & in Anglia contra Elifabeth. Fidei Confeffor confpicuus. The ftatue of Alexander the feventh ftands in the large fquare of the town; it is caft in brass, and has the posture that is always given the figure of a Pope; an arm extended, and bleffing the people. In another fquare on a high pillar is fet the ftatue of the bleffed Virgin, arrayed like a Queen, with a scepter in her hand, and a crown upon her head, for having delivered the town from a raging peftilence. The cuftom of crowning the Holy Virgin is fo much in vogue among the Italians, that one often fees in their churches a little tinfel crown, or perhaps a circle of ftars glued to the canvas over the head of the figure, which fometimes fpoils a good picture. In the convent of Benedictines, I faw three huge chefts of marble, with no infcription on them that Icould find, though they are faid to contain the afhes of Valentinian, Honorius, and his fifter Placidia. From Ravenna I came to Rimini, having paffed the Rubicon by the way. This river is not fo very contemptible as it

is.

is generally represented, and was much increased by the melting of the fnows when Cæfar paffed it, according to Lucan.

Fonte cadit modico parvifque impellitur undis
Puniceus Rubicon, cum fervida canduit æftas ;
Perque imas ferpit valles, & Gallica certus
Limes ab Aufoniis difterminat arva colonis :
Tunc vires præbebat byems, atque auxerat undas
Tertia jam gravido pluvialis Cynthia cornu,

Et madidis Euri refoluta flatibus Alpes. Lib. i. v. 21 3.

While fummer lafts, the ftreams of Rubicon
From their spent fource in a fmall current run;
Hid in the winding vales they gently glide,
And Italy from neighb'ring Gaul divide;
But now, with winter ftorms increas'd, they rofe,
By watry moons produc'd, and Alpine fnows,
That melting on the hoary mountains lay,
And in warm eaftern winds diffolv'd away.

This river is now called Pifatello.

Rimini has nothing modern to boast of. Its antiquities are as follow: A marble bridge of five arches, built by Auguftus and Tiberius, for the infcription is fill legible, though not rightly tranfcribed by Gruter. A triumphal arch raised by Auguftus, which makes a noble gate to the town, though part of it is ruined. The ruins of an amphitheatre. The Suggeftum,on which it is faid that Julius Cæfar harangued his arm yafter having paffed the Rubicon. I must confefs I can by no means look on this last as authentic: It is built of an hewn ftone, like the pedestal of a pillar, but fomething higher than ordinary, and is but juft broad enough

for

for one man to stand upon it. On the contrary, the ancient Suggeftums, as I have often obferved on medals, as well as on Conftantine's arch, were made of wood like a little kind of ftage; for the heads of the nails are fometimes reprefented, that are fup. posed to have faftened the boards together. We of ten fee on them the Emperor, and two or three general officers, fometimes fitting, and fometimes ftanding, as they made fpeeches, or diftributed a congiary to the foldiers or people. They were probably always in readiness, and carried among the baggage of the army, whereas this at Rimini muft have been built on the place, and required fome time before it could be finished.

IMPERATORVI

If

If the observation I have here made is juft, it may ferve as a confirmation of the learned Fabretti's conjecture on Trajan's pillar; who fuppofes, I think, with a great deal of reafon, that the camps, intrenchments, and other works of

the

the fame nature, which are cut out as if they had been made of brick or hewn ftone, were in reality only of earth, turf, or the like materials; for there are on the pillar fome of thefe Suggestums, which are figured like those on medals, with only this difference, that they seem built with brick or free-ftone. At twelve miles diftance from Rimini ftands the little republic of St. Marino, which I could not forbear vifiting, though it lies out of the common tour of travellers, and has exceffively bad ways to it. I fhall here give a particular account of it, becaufe I know of no body elfe that has done it. One may, at leaft, have the pleafure of feeing in it fomething more fingular than can be found in great governments, and from it an idea of Venice in its first beginnings, when it had only a few heaps of earth for its dominions, or of Rome it felf, when it had as yet covered but one of its feven hills.

'THE'