had one word to trouble them with con- only an imperfect idea, and insignificant cerning myself. That I was lately unhappy portion; for we have strung together only in the death of a brother, who had left me those which are the most nearly connected his sole executor, with only fifteen shillings. with the Collector. There is not, howIf it be taken from me, it concerns this ever, a man of any parliamentary imporgentleman near me, (viz. Sir Ralph Ver- tance during that ever memorable period, ney, who stood next me on my left hand, whose character they do not strikingly whose father, Sir Edmund Verney, being illustrate. Cromwell, Hampden, Pym, knight-marshal and bearing the King's Strode, Martin-all the leaders without exstandard, was slain at Edgehill,) and some ception-and many other persons who exermembers also of your Lordships' house, cised an influence in that House for which (for Earls Holland and Manchester were the world has not yet given them credit, are then present at the Committee;) whereupon here brought before us times out of numEarl Holland asked me who it was had, so ber-in their very habits as they lived-and little wit to move such a thing.' D'Ewes with a reality which we seek in vain in any merely remarked that it had been moved, of the other memorials of that period. A and so got off scot-free. man of D'Ewes's character would of course One cannot wonder that a man whose chronicle many things which it would have heart had long been cold to the Parliament been well to let die; but, in spite of his cause, and who was thus badgered in the trifling, and his verbose semi-legal phraseHouse, should lose all interest in its pro-ology, and his prejudices, which were vioceedings. He removed from Goat's Alley lent, he has written down on these blotted to Great Russell Street, cultivated the ac- sheets, facts and circumstances which, if quaintance of Archbishop Usher, who was published, would do more towards making then Lecturer at Covent-Garden Church, known the real history of the times, and the fell back upon his Antiquarian studies, characters and motives of the men who amassed MSS., planned great historical overturned the Monarchy, than any publicaworks, and attained the consummation of tion yet given to the world.* his wishes, in the birth of a thriving boy. His Parliamentary Notes descend only to It is not a little surprising that so valuable a November 1645, but he continued in the Repertory should not yet, in one way or another, House until December 1648. He was then have seen the light. The funds of our private Publishing Societies would have been far better excluded by Colonel Pride and the army. employed in printing this Diary than upon hunHis death took place on the 18th April,dreds of such Pieces as some of them have pub1650. lished. It forms five volumes of the Harleian

It is principally-though not entirely, Manuscripts, No. 162 to No. 166, preserved in the witness his before mentioned Journals of Autobiography of D'Ewes, (in the same collecBritish Museum; and it is quite distinct from the Queen Elizabeth's Parliaments-as a mem-tion, No. 646,) lately published, and whose title ber of the Long Parliament, and as a taker is given at the head of this Article. The Autobi of Notes of its memorable Sayings and ography, which comes down only to 1636, cerDoings, that Sir Simonds D'Ewes is worthy whole, it is exceedingly unint resti g. It would, tainly contains some curious passages, but, as a of being had in remembrance; and our chief however, have been of greater historical value, object in presenting our readers with a had it been more intelligently and carefully sketch of his character, is to direct public Edited. attention to those Notes. We are not acquainted with any Historical Memorials of that momentous period, that can be at all compared with them in point of importance; and yet they remain unpublishedinaccessible to all but the frequenters of the reading-room of the British Museum; illegible to those not acquainted with the manuscript characters of the period; and subject to all the chances to which the information contained in one single copy of a work is ever liable. The extracts which we have given, exhibit the nature of the historical materials and anecdotes to be found in them; but of these they present

If every thing here below happened as thou couldst wish, in every particular, even the most minute, and fulfilled the least as well as the greatest of thy desires, thou wouldst gain nothing but the awakening of a greater desire not to be gratified by any thing earthly.

TRAVELLING LETTERS WRITTEN ON don't worrit me! I don't understand a

THE ROAD.

BY CHARLES DICKENS.

ROME (continued).

Mr.

word you say, and shouldn't if you was to talk till you was black in the face!" Davis always had a snuff-colored great-coat on, and carried a great green umbrella in his hand, and had a slow curiosity conAvailing ourselves of a part of the quiet stantly devouring him, which prompted him interval between the termination of the to do extraordinary things, such as taking Carnival and the beginning of the Holy the covers off urns in tombs, and looking Week: when every body had run away in at the ashes as if they were pickles-and from the one, and few people had yet be- tracing out inscriptions with the ferrule of gun to run back again for the other: we his umbrella, and saying, with intense went conscientiously to work, to see Rome, thoughtfulness, "Here's a B you see, and And, by dint of going out early every morn- there's a R, and this is the way we goes ing, and coming back late every evening, on in; is it!" His antiquarian habits ocand laboring hard all day, I believe we made casioned his being frequently in the rear of acquaintance with every post and pillar in the rest; and one of the agonies of Mrs. the city, and the country round; and, in Davis, and the party in general, was an particular, explored so many churches that ever-present fear that Davis would be lost. I abandoned that part of the enterprise at This caused them to scream for him, in the last, before it was half finished, lest I should strangest places, and at the most improper never, of my own accord, go to church again, seasons. And when he came, slowly as long as I lived. But, I managed, almost emerging out of some Sepulchre or other, every day, at one time or other, to get back like a peaceful Ghoule, saying, "Here to the Coliseum, and out upon the open I am!" Mrs. Davis invariably replied, Campagna, beyond the tomb of Cecilia "You'll be buried alive in a foreign counMetella. try, Davis, and it's no use trying to prevent you!"

We often encountered, in these expeditions, a company of English Tourists, with Mr. and Mrs. Davis, and their party, whom I had an ardent, but ungratified had, probably, been brought from London longing, to establish a speaking acquaint- in about nine or ten days. Eighteen hunance. They were one Mr. Davis, and a dred years ago, the Roman legions under small circle of friends. It was impossible Claudius, protested against being led into not to know Mrs. Davis's name, from her Mr. and Mrs. Davis's country, urging that being always in great request among her it lay beyond the limits of the world. party, and her party being every where. Among what may be called the Cubs or During the Holy Week, they were in every minor Lions of Rome, there was one that part of every scene of every ceremony. For amused me mightily. It is always to be a fortnight or three weeks before it, they found there and its den is on the great were in every tomb, and every church, and flight of steps that lead from the Piazza di every ruin, and every Picture Gallery; and Spagna, to the church of Trinita del Monte. I hardly ever observed Mrs. Davis to be In plainer words, these steps are the great silent for a moment. Deep under-ground, place of resort for the artists' "Models," high up in St. Peter's, out on the Campag- and there they are constantly waiting to be na, and stifling in the Jews' quarter, Mrs. hired. The first time I went up there, I Davis turned up, all the same. I don't could not conceive why the faces seemed think she ever saw any thing, or ever look- familiar to me; why they appeared to have ed at any thing; and she had always lost beset me, for years in every possible variety something out of a straw hand-basket, and of action and costume; and how it came to was trying to find it, with all her might and pass that they started up before me in Rome, main, among an immense quantity of Eng- in the broad day, like so many saddled and lish half-pence, which lay, like sands upon bridled nightmares. I soon found that we the seashore, at the bottom of it. There had made acquaintance, and improved it, for was a professional Cicerone, always attach- several years, on the walls of various Exed to the party (which had been brought hibition Galleries. There is one old gentleover from London, fifteen or twenty strong, man, with long white hair and an immense by contract), and if he so much as looked beard, who, to my knowledge, has gone at Mrs. Davis, she invariably cut him short half through the catalogue of the Royal by saying, "There, God bless the man, Academy. This is the venerable, or

patriarchal model. He carries a long staff: cession, on its return: straggling away at a and every knot and twist in that staff I have good round pace. "When will it be put in seen, faithfully delineated, innumerable the pit?" I asked him. "When the cart times. There is another man in a blue comes, and it is opened to-night," he said. cloak, who always pretends to be asleep in "How much does it cost to be brought the sun (when there is any) and who, I here in this way, instead of coming in the need not say, is always very wide awake, cart?" I asked him. "Ten scudi," he and very attentive to the disposition of his said (about two pounds, two-and-sixpence, legs. This is the dolce far' niente model. English). "The other bodies, for whom There is another man in a brown cloak, nothing is paid, are taken to the church of who leans against a wall, with his arms the Santa Maria della Consolázione," he folded in his mantle, and looks out of the continued," and brought here, altogether, corners of his eyes which are just visible in the cart at night." I stood, a moment, beneath his broad, slouched hat. This is looking at the coffin, which had two initial the assassin model. There is another man, letters scrawled upon the top; and turned who constantly looks over his own shoulder, away, with an expression in my face, I and is always going away, but never goes. suppose, of not much liking its exposure This is the haughty, or scornful model. in that manner: for he said, shrugging his As to Domestic Happiness, and Holy Fa- shoulders with great vivacity, and giving a milies, they should come very cheap, for pleasant smile, "But he's dead, Signore, he's there are lumps of them all up the steps; dead. Why not?" and the cream of the thing, is, that they are all the falsest vagabonds in the world, especially made up for the purpose, and having no counterparts in Rome or any other part of the habitable globe.

My recent mention of the Carnival reminds me of its being said to be a mock mourning (in the ceremony with which it closes), for the gaieties and merry-makings before Lent; and this again reminds me of the real funerals and mourning processions of Rome which, like those in most other parts of Italy, are rendered chiefly remarkable to a Foreigner, by the indifference with which the mere clay is universally regarded, after life has left it. And this is not from the survivors having had time to dissociate the memory of the dead from their well-remembered appearance and form on earth; for the interment follows too speedily after death, for that almost always taking place within four-and-twenty hours, and, sometimes, within twelve.

At Rome, there is the same arrangement of pits in a great, bleak, open, dreary space, that I have already described as existing in Genoa. When I visited it, at noonday, I saw a solitary coffin of plain deal: uncovered by any shroud or pall, and so slightly made, that the hoof of any wandering mule would have crushed it in: carelessly tumbled down, all on one side, on the door of one of the pits-aud there left, by itself, in the wind and sunshine. "How does it come to be left here?" I asked the man who showed me the place. "It was brought here half an hour ago, Signor," said. I remembered to have met the pro

Among the innumerable churches, there is one I must select for separate mention. It is the church of the Ara Cali, supposed to be built on the site of the old Temple of Jupiter Feretrius: and approached, on one side, by a long steep flight of steps, which seem incomplete without some group of bearded soothsayers on the top. It is remarkable for the possession of a miraculous Bambino, or wooden doll, representing the Infant Saviour and I first saw this miraculous Bambíno, in legal phrase, in manner following, that is to say:

We had strolled into the church one afternoon, and were looking down its long vista of gloomy pillars (for all these ancient churches built upon the ruins of old temples, are dark and sad), when the Brave came running in, with a grin upon his face that stretched it from ear to ear, and implored us to follow him, without a moment's delay, as they were going to show the Bambino to a select party. We accordingly hurried off to a sort of chapel, or sacristy, hard by the chief altar, but not in the church itself, where the select party, consisting of two or three Catholic gentlemen and ladies (not Italians), were already assembled: and where one hollow-cheeked young monk was lighting up divers candles, while another was putting on some clerical robes over his coarse brown habit. The candles were on a kind of altar, and above it were two delectable figures, such as you would see at an English fair, representing the Holy Virgin and St. Joseph, as I suppose, bending in devotion over a wooden box or coffer, which was shut

I am happy to know that it is not considered immaculate, by some who are good Catholics, and who are behind the scenes, from what was told me by the near relation of a Priest, himself a Catholic, and a gentleman of learning and intelligence. This Priest made my informant promise that he

The hollow-cheeked monk, number One, | property, and much confided in-especially having finished lighting the candles, went by the religious body to whom it belongs. down on his knees, in a corner, before this set-piece; and the monk number Two, having put on a pair of highly-ornamented and gold-bespattered gloves, lifted down the coffer, with great reverence, and set it on the altar. Then, with many genuflexions, and muttering certain prayers, he opened it, and let down the front, and took off would, on no account, allow the Bambino sundry coverings of satin and lace from the to be borne into the bed-room of a sick inside. The ladies had been on their knees lady, in whom they were both interested. from the commencement; and the gentle-"For," said he, "if they (the monks) men now dropped down devoutly, as he ex- trouble her with it, and intrude themselves posed to view a little wooden doll, in the into her room, it will certainly kill her." face very like General Tom Thumb, the My informant accordingly looked out of the American Dwarf gorgeously dressed in window when it came, and with many satin and gold lace, and actually blazing thanks, declined to open the door. He enwith rich jewels. There was scarcely a deavored, in another case of which he had spot upon its little breast, or neck, or no other knowledge than such as he gained stomach, but was sparkling with the costly as a passer-by at the moment, to prevent its offerings of the Faithful. Presently, he being carried into a small unwholesome lifted it out of the box, and carrying it chamber, where a poor girl was dying. round among the kneelers, set its face But, he strove against it unsuccessfully, against the forehead of every one, and and she expired while the crowd were tendered its clumsy foot to them to kiss a pressing round her bed. ceremony which they all performed, down Among the people who drop into St. to a dirty little ragamuffin of a boy who had Peter's at their leisure, to kneel on the pavewalked in from the street. When this was ment, and say a quiet prayer, there are done, he laid it in the box again and the certain schools and seminaries, priestly and company, rising, drew near, and commended otherwise, that come in, twenty or thirty the jewels in whispers. In good time, he strong. These boys always kneel down in replaced the coverings, shut up the box, put single file, one behind the other, with a tall it back in its place, locked up the whole grim master, in a black gown, bringing up concern (Holy Family and all) behind a the rear: like a pack of cards arranged to be pair of folding-doors, took off his priestly tumbled down at a touch, with a disprovestments, and received the customary portionately large Knave of clubs at the "small charge;" while his companion, by means of an extinguisher fastened to the end of a long stick, put out the lights, one after another. The candles being all extinguished, and the money all collected, they retired, and so did the spectators.

I met this same Bambino, in the street, a short time afterwards, going, in great state, to the house of some sick person. It is taken to all parts of Rome for this purpose, constantly; but I understand that it is not always as successful as could be wished, for, making its appearance at the bedside of weak and nervous people in extremity, accompanied by a numerous escort, it not unfrequently frightens them to death. It is most popular in cases of child-birth, where it has done such wonders, that if a lady be longer than usual in getting through her difficulties, a messenger is dispatched, with all speed, to solicit the immediate attendance of the Bambino. It is a very valuable

end. When they have had a minute or so at the chief altar, they scramble up, and filing off to the chapel of the Madonna, or the sacrament, flop down again in the same order; so that if any body did stumble. against the master, a general and sudden overthrow of the whole line must inevitably ensue.

The scene in all the churches is the strangest possible. The same monotonous, heartless, drowsy chaunting, always going on; the same dark building, darker from the brightness of the street without; the same lamps dimly burning; the self-same people kneeling here and there; turned towards you, from one altar or other, the same priest's back, with the same large cross embroidered on it; however different in size, in shape, in wealth, in architecture, this church is from that, it is the same thing still. There are the same dirty beggars stopping in their muttered prayers to beg;

the same miserable cripples exhibiting their scription, "Every mass performed at this deformity at the doors; the same blind altar, frees a soul from Purgatory." I have men, rattling little pots like kitchen pepper-never been able to find out the charge for castors, their depositories for alms; the one of these services, but they should needs same preposterous crowns of silver stuck be expensive. There are several Crosses upon the painted heads of single saints and in Rome too, the kissing of which, confers Virgins in crowded pictures, so that a little indulgences for varying terms. That in figure on a mountain has a head-dress the centre of the Coliseum, is worth a bigger than the temple in the foreground, hundred days; and people may be seen kissor adjacent miles of landscape; the same ing it, from morning to night. It is curious favorite shrine or figure, smothered with that some of these crosses seem to acquire little silver hearts and crosses, and the like, an arbitrary popularity; this very one among the staple trade and show of all the jewels; them. In another part of the Coliseum the same odd mixture of respect and in- there is a cross upon a marble slab, with decorum, faith and phlegm; kneeling on the inscription, "Who kisses this cross shall the stones, and spitting on them, loudly; be entitled to Two hundred and forty days' getting up from prayers to beg a little, or indulgence." But I saw no one person kiss to pursue some other worldly matter; and it,though, day after day, I sat in the arena then kneeling down again, to resume the and saw scores upon scores of peasants contrite supplication at the point where it pass it, on their way to kiss the other. was interrupted. In one church, a kneeling lady got up from her prayers, for a moment, to offer us her card, as a teacher of music; and, in another, a sedate gentleman, with a very thick walking-staff, arose from his devotions to belabor his dog, who was growling at another dog, and by reason of the hideous paintings with whose yelps and howls resounded through the church, as his master quietly relapsed into his former train of meditation-keeping his eye upon the dog, at the same time, nevertheless

Above all, there is always a receptacle for the contributions of the Faithful, in some form or other. Sometimes, it is a money-box, set up between the worshipper and the wooden life-size figure of the Redeemer; sometimes, it is a little chest for the maintenance of the Virgin; sometimes, an appeal on behalf of a popular Bambíno; sometimes, a bag at the end of a long stick, thrust among the people here and there, and vigilantly jingled by an active Sacristan; but there it always is, and, very often, in many shapes in the same church, and doing pretty well in all. Nor is it wanting in the open air-the streets and roads-for, often as you are walking along, thinking about any thing rather than a tin canister, that object pounces out upon you from a little house by the wayside, and on its top is painted, "For the Souls in Purgatory;" an appeal which the bearer repeats a great many times, as he rattles it before you, much as Punch rattles the cracked bell which his sanguine disposition makes an organ of

To single out details from the great dream of Roman Churches, would be the wildest occupation in the world. But St. Stefano Rotondo, a damp mildewed vault of an old church in the outskirts of Rome, will always struggle uppermost in my mind,

which its walls are covered. These represent the martyrdoms of saints and early Christians; and such a panorama of horror and butchery no man could imagine in his sleep, though he were to eat a whole pig, raw, for supper. Grey-bearded men being boiled, fried, grilled, crimped, singed, eaten by wild beasts, worried by dogs, buried alive, torn asunder by horses, chopped up small with hatchets: women having their breasts torn with iron pincers, their tongues cut out, their ears screwed off, their jaws broken, their bodies stretched upon the rack, or skinned upon the stake, or crackled up and melted in the fire: these are among the mildest subjects. So insisted on, and labored at, besides, that every sufferer gives you the same occasion for wonder as poor old Duncan awoke in Lady Macbeth, when she marvelled at his having so much blood in him.

There is an upper chamber in the Mamertine prisons, over what is said to have been-and very possibly may have beenthe dungeon of St. Peter. This chamber is now fitted up as an oratory, dedicated to that saint; and it lives, as a distinct and separate place, in my recollection, too. It is very small and low-roofed; and the dread and gloom of the ponderous, obdurate old And this reminds me that some Roman prison are on it, as if they had come up in altars of peculiar sanctity, bear the in-a dark mist through the floor. Hanging on