From the Thames to the Tiber

itish and Foreign Bible Society: Outside view of the Quirinal: Nero's House: Leav

in the streets, to watch with interest the customs and habits of the people. Hotels almost without number; beer-houses, only a few; cafes, many; confectioners, many; chemists and doctors, fairly numerous; dentists, several at any rate; restaurants, many, and some on a very large scale; telephone call offices; lavatories; specialities, as jewellers who sell Roman pearls, mosaics, religious ornaments, bronzes, marble, etc.; porters standing in various places to give you a hand with a parcel; omnibuses running to the station from all parts of the city; carriages for hire at about eightpence per mile, English money. So we passed an hour in watching the ever changing street scenes, until tired, then to our hotel and to rest once more. Returning to our further inspection of chur

rinal, the present residence of the King of Italy in Rome. It was at one time the residence of the Pope. It is an old building, 1574 is the date. It is said the Popes prepared this residence because the air was so fresh, and the neighbourhood so healthy. While the King is in Rome the Quirinal palace is not open to visitors. The gardens are on an extensive scale. Within the palace are sculpture, museums, library, paintings by Raphael, Michael Angelo and Luigi Serra. Some of the subjects are simply masterpieces. We went from the Quirinal to the Baths of Titus, erected by the Emperor of that name, it is said upon the same place where once stood the house of Nero. The excavators in 1811 laid bare many interesting facts concerning the times of Titus, about the year 80 A.D. Only a semicircle can be seen showing the foundations, yet it seems to be clear that these are the only remains of the baths referred to. We left here feeling we were satiated with sight seeing, and our

r some distance is not particularly attractive. The usual Italian villages, in some cases just a cottage or two, the tenants of which are out with their ox and plough, or a pair of donkeys and a rickety old cart, or the man is drainin

sband, wife and children, all seemed to be engaged in plucking and loading the fruit. We passed scores of miles of vineyards of this sort. We stopped at a station called Cartona. I saw a typical Italian girl with a grape stall on the platform. I alighted and selected two large bunches of beautiful ripe grapes, and as I could not ask the price, not speaking Italian, I held out my hand with a number of coins of various

nd extensive grounds. They were mostly of white marble. The river Arno runs through the city. Florence is essentially a city of flowers, as its name indicates. All around for miles castles, mansions, villas, gardens and shady nooks fill the soul with a consciousness that Nature here has bestowed her gifts of beauty in no stinted degree. Florence has been called, and I think very aptly, the

church. It is a grand example of the Gothic art. The length of the building is 185 yards, and its width, 114 yards. The dome is 300 feet high, and with the lantern 352 feet. On the 8th of September, 1298, a representative of Pope Boniface VIII. blessed the foundations of this new grand temple in the presence of the "Gonfaloniere Borgo," many bishops, "the chapter," all the Florentine clergy, the captains of the arts, and the magnificent and sublime "Signori of the Republic," as they were called. The words with which the community gave charge of this sumptuous building were, literally translated, "to make it so magnificent and so sublime that it would be impossible that it should be surpassed." And it seemed to us that for size and strength and adornments, few can compare with it. Many vicissitudes occurred during the building-wars, deaths of architects, etc.-till in the year 1492 it was something like a completed

glass case, and only let it be on exhibition during the great festivals." It is solid and strong, though it rises to the height of 292 feet. It has four stories, the lower ones are richly fixed w