and good. The pictures have vanished; the frescoes are obliterated; and the tapestries commemorative of the heroic deeds of the Dorias are no

more.

Nevertheless, in these former splendid halls, monarchs had been guests of the intrepid Admiral ; and it was, I believe, the Emperor, Charles V, who feasted here when Doria flung the golden plate, honoured by regal use, into the ocean, in order that no meaner hands might ever pollute it! However, I must add, he had been cunning enough to station skilful divers beneath the windows to catch, or to fish the dishes up again.

The gardens are, perhaps, more interesting; they command the prospect of that ocean which wafted Doria in triumph to the most distant shores; and whose undulating waves bend their proud necks, and ever press on as if still gently to lave, and kiss, the spot where his feet had trodden.

The Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Lawrence is said to have been founded in the eleventh century, and with it was instituted the third archbishopric in Italy; Rome, and Milan, being the two first.

It contains on its walls some Gothic inscriptions of the highest antiquity, and a marble effigy of Fourbisseur, reputed to have been chiseled by himself in the year 1100. It is built of black and white marble, curiously inlaid in certain parts; and its façade exhibits that medley style commonly termed

Gotico Tedesco. The principal front has three entrances, formed by lofty arches, each adorned with twenty twisted columns of black and white marble elaborately wrought. Over the grand portal is a very rude sculpture of St. Lawrence at the moment of martyrdom (he was broiled to death) surmounted by God, and the symbols of the four Evangelists. The interior of the dome of the choir has also a showy painting of the same Saint's sufferings, and is most gaudily gilt.

The rarities of this cathedral are its possession of the ashes of St. John the Baptist, received, and deposited here with the most solemn pomp, about the year 1088, and which are now preserved in an urn in a sumptuous chapel in the left aisle, enriched with bassi-rilievi; encrusted with marbles even to the dome; and having eight marble statues in niches, four columns of porphyry on the altar, and a general profusion of gilding.

In the vestry, and under the lock and key of the three principal authorities of the city, is preserved that reputed invaluable Emerald Dish known in the Christian world as Il Sacro Catino.

At the siege of Palestine in 1101, the Genoese selected this as the choicest prize; till 1809 they kept it most sacredly; the French then took it away, but were compelled to restore it in 1815. But, sad to say, it was returned, broken into several pieces.

From its size as an Emerald, it was invaluable when entire; and, by tradition, the Saviour is said to have eaten the Pascal Lamb off of it with his disciples; and that it was one of the presents of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, who had preserved it in the Temple.

This prize however, without a price, and seized as such by the French, was returned with as much indifference as it had been taken with rapture. The French were not distinguished in those days for their veneration, and belief, of all the sanctimonious relics and articles of faith, of the church; and though this Sacro Catino as a precious stone would have been invaluable, in no other view would it be esteemed :-they ventured to question the hallowed treasure, and the result of their profane chemical process proved it a spurious composition, a bit of green glass! But as the dish is again restored to its former honours in the church, and pristine sanctity, it is as well not to remember these late disclosures.

Another relic is a present by Pope Innocent VIII, who was cotemporary with our Edward V, in 1483, of an Agate Dish sculptured with a portrait of St. John the Baptist.

Il Palazzo Rosso del Marchese Brignole, is so called from its being entirely red outside. The great distinction of this palace is its collection of pictures, than which a finer, or more valuable, I have rarely

seen.

They are arranged in eighteen galleries and chambers, on the same floor, whose domes are painted by modern artists with mythological, and allegorical, subjects. I particularise a few.

Portraits, large as life, of the Marquis Antonio Julio Brignole, on horseback; another of the Marchioness; by Vandyck. The picture of the Marchese much in the style of his portrait of our Charles I, and equally grand. Guido's St. Sebastian shot with arrows (engraved). Guercino's Virgin seated with the infant Jesus in her arms. St. John the Baptist, a child, on his knees; St. Bartholomew, and the other St. John.

By Paul Veronese.-Judith with the head of Holofernes, and a black female slave. Pellegro Piola.-Holy Family.

Cappucino. St. Francis embracing the Cross. Rubens.-Portrait of himself, and his Lady, with Satyr and Cupid (engraved).

Guercino.-Cleopatra, whole length, stretched on a bed, and applying the asp.

Carlo Dolci.-Christ's agony in the garden.

These are a few among the many choice paintings; and their excellence made such impression upon me that this simple memento suffices to recall them at will to the mind's eye. I must pass over others of the highest value by Titian, Paris Bordone, Giordano, Domenichino, Tintoretto, &c. &c.

23d inst. The Arsenal of Genoa contains a very

ample supply of the weapons of war, including 40,000 muskets of English manufacture; and many complete suits of ancient armour. Of the latter, some which had been worn by Genoese ladies, who accompanied the Crusaders to the Holy Land in the year 1301, and during the Pontificate of Boniface VIII, three letters of whom concerning these female warriors are said to be preserved in the archives. The greatest curiosity is the Prow, or Rostrum, of a Roman galley found in the port of Genoa in 1597, and supposed to have been sunk there since the invasion of the Carthaginian General Mago in the year of Rome 524. This Roman relic is about a foot and a half long, very thin and much fractured, hollow, and fashioned at its termination like a boar's head.

The church of the Albergo dei Poveri has an invaluable relic of art in an alto-rilievo of Michael Angelo-the Virgin pressing to her bosom a dead Christ-both demi-figures. The Madonna is bending over the sinking bust; her left hand impressed upon his bosom, her right upholds the head amidst her tresses. Mortal agonies seem here to have been struggling with heavenly resignation; the opened mouth indicates the pangs of death; the celestial forehead the serenity of a God! It may be gazed upon with increasing admiration, and of itself beget adoration. The head of the Virgin is, I think, comparatively very inferior.