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The Last Supper.

will repose, and be venerated, while the matchless engraving of Raphael Morghen immortalises its merits, and displays its beauties fresh as when first from the hands of the artist.

The greatest disfigurement to my eye was the too apparent and miserable retouching by others, greater even than the irreparable loss of part of the picture being cut away. The fat, and easy, monks had a side door in this hall, or refectory, into the kitchen, which was the next room; but, in order to serve the dishes hotter, they cut a door direct into the kitchen through the picture! This door is now for ever blocked; the portion, however, cut out is not the most material; it is in the centre, and takes away the table-cloth, and part of the table from under the Saviour. In this picture, the head of Judas is memorable from its inimitable expression of craft, and treachery; and from the circumstance of Leonardo having long left this head unattempted, alleging that he could not pourtray any head sufficiently expressive of villainy, save the portrait of the Prior himself. (Vasari's Life of L. da V.) There was a splendid copy of this picture executed in Mosaic by Rafaelli, under the auspices of Bonaparte, but which now decks the cabinet of the Emperor of Austria at Vienna.

In this same hall at the opposite end is a picture of the same dimensions, and in infinitely better preservation, representing the Crucifixion. Painted by Jean Donat Montafarno in 1495.

Milan generally.

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After this we explored the church, which is exceedingly old and curious. In the choir is a Fresco by one of Leonardo's pupils; but in one of the chapels I smiled at a Madonna I there discovered, as large as life, dressed in a cream-coloured silk gown, embroidered with flowers; rings on her fingers, long waist, and stiff pointed stays, with starched ruff; and altogether much in the fashion of the days of our good Queen Bess.

Among the antiquities of Milan remain sixteen fluted columns of the Corinthian order, supposed to have formed part of the Colonnade of the Baths of Maximian.

This city possesses a comfort I have never till now seen since I left London, viz. a trottoir for pedestrians, and moreover a smooth paving for carriage wheels; the principal streets having broad strips of flag pavement in the high way, o'er which the carriages roll along equally lightly and swiftly.

The practice of having no other door or front to many sorts of shops, such as cafés, &c. than a curtain, hung in graceful folds, indicates the warmth of Italian skies; this, and another common practice of hanging tapestry and silks from churches, balconies, and verandas, pleases the eye, and excites the fancy.

There is a theatre here for the exhibition of puppets, or Marionettes. Well dressed wooden figures, about four feet high, are moved by wires

from above, and supplied by voices from behind. They perform whole plays; the declamation was very tedious, but their dancing in caricature of an Opera ballet was irresistibly laughable.

There is also in the Public Gardens a theatre, roofless, and open to the heavens, where, in the proper season, plays are performed to crowding auditors during the day, and in the light of the sun. Of the effect I cannot judge, not having seen an exhibition of this nature; but as I never yet saw a play which did not owe more than half its attractions to the illusions, the deceptions, and the concealments produced by stage lights, and studied shades, I should not augur very favourably of the present.

One peculiarity of Milan, and which I have no where else yet found abroad, is its public record of the infamy of its citizens. There is a certain empty space in one of the streets of the city where formerly stood the house of one John James Mora, a barber, who joined with another man, William Platea, and some others, in a conspiracy to poison their fellow citizens; and did cause many deaths. A column was here erected, termed Colonna Infame, with a long detail in Latin of the circumstances, and their results. Being apprehended, they were first put to tortures, then burnt, and their ashes thrown into the waves. The place was decreed unworthy to be ever again built on, and the inscrip

The Infamous Column.

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tion concludes with an admonition for all good subjects to flee from so accursed a spot. This circumstańce occurred in 1630; the only point left unexplained is the motive, or interest, of the barber in this transaction which took place during a raging plague.

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Como.

CHAPTER IX.

COMO CATHEDRAL-LAKE OF COMO-PEDLARS-QUEEN OF ENGLAND AND HER VILLA-PLINY'S VILLA AND INTERMITTING FOUNTAIN-THE SOMMARIVA, AND LODI, PALACES -LAKE BY MOONLIGHT-PLAINS OF MILAN-AMPHITHEATRE-CORONATION OF NAPOLEON-EXTRAORDINARY ECHO GRAND CORSO-EXPENCES TO GENOA.

AN excursion to the Lake of Como, or ancient Larian Lake, gratifying in many respects; gratifying from the particular richness, and beauty, of the scenery, and gratifying from the classic recollections it excites; sung by Catullus, and Claudian; the summer residence of Pliny the younger, whose descriptions, nearly 1800 years ago, remain to be compared with the same objects existing now; and also memorable in these modern days as the scene of certain intrigues of a Queen of England with her Courier. But to proceed regularly.

One day's journey of twenty-seven miles brought us from Milan to the town of Como, a very large, but now neglected, city, with little pretensions to its pristine splendours, though a bishop's see, and containing a population of 20,000 souls.

In the days of Rome, Julius Cæsar transplanted a colony to Como; so also did Pompey; it was a favourite resort and residence of the ancient Romans, as it now is of the modern Milanese; while