Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/229

 12 s. i. MAR. is, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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with his menagerie, in which the beasts were housed together in a deep walled court ; and on Dec. 27 the travellers reached Rome. Three months were spent here in seeing the chief buildings and churches. The travellers indeed appear to have been ardent church- goers ; but at the Temple of Saturn, then a church, where it was said that the bodies of the three children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were buried, Mortoft's scepticism gets the better of his devotion and he dis- misses the legend as " a very grievous lye."

On St. Anthony's Day (Jan. 16) they witnessed a somewhat curious celebration. St. Anthony was the patron of horses :

" for which cause all the horses, as is beleeved, y* was in Rome were lead to the church which is called by his name, and standing close by the Church of St. Mary Maggiora, where at one of y e cloores stood a young Priest with a kind of Brush in his hand and some holy water by him, and as the horses came by he gave them St. Anthony's Bene- diction in sprinkling some water upon them, and every horse went about three tymes and so had it in the name of the father, sonne and Holy Ghost ; and this was his worke from morning to night, there being an infinite number of Coaches and horses heere all this day and abundance of gentrye in them, Being very desirous, it seems, to be pertakers with their Horses of St. Anthonyes Benediction."

A visit was also paid to the Jews Street, all the Jews in Rome having to wear red caps under penalty of death ; and on Candlemas Day, at a service in the Pope's chapel, Mortoft, obtaining admission by some means or another, kissed the Pope's foot, and received a candle from his own hands, as did his fellow-travellers, and thereupon they all went away very well contented.

On Feb. 16 the carnival commenced, and the travellers joined whole-heartedly in the festivities. At the Roman College they saw such a " rare comody " that Mortoft declares he never looked to see the like again. There were twenty-four comedians richly dressed, six or seven scenes, a large stage, and an excellent subject. For nine days there was a continual round of entertainments, and on Feb. 25, the last day of the carnival, after a firework display,

"every great Person or any y* were able enough committed all y e Debauchery which they could invent and stuffed their paunches full of flesh, in regard they could eat noe more flesh after this night for 45 dayes together unlesse they had license from y e Doctors of Physicke and those Licenses signed by a General of the Order."

The travellers were in no humour for self- denial, and having procured a licence to eat flesh, they continued their sightseeing without interruption. They visited the Vatican, the English College, and the Villa

Borghese about a mile from the city, the gardens of which were beautifully contrived and planted, and abounding with fruit and fountains and grottoes. The waterworks &nd the various appliances, so popular at this time, for soaking unwary visitors, caused much amusement, Mr. Mortoft being forced to creep up close to a wall to hinder the pleasure that Mr. Hare took in wetting him.

Mortoft seems to have had a great weak- ness for artificial waterworks, and those at the Belvedere gardens, the palace of Prince Ludovisi, and at Frascati, " which cannot be equalled againe in the whole world," especially delighted him. He describes the marvellous fountains of water as " some- times cracking as if it were thunder " ; and in one case snow and hail were seen issuing out of the water. Of one grotto Mortoft writes that it contained

" a paire of organs which are made with such art y fc noe man can play and keep better tyme on a paire of organs than the water doth upon these. Also Apollo and the Nine Muses having all sorts of Instruments at their mouths, they make different Musieke according to y e Instruments they repre- sent."

In the centre of one of the rooms at Frascati was a copper ball spinning in the air by virtue of a wind conveyed secretly to a hole beneath it ; and in the grottoes were singing birds moving and chirping by the force of the water, with divers other pageants and surprising inventions. While at Frascati a visit was paid to Prince Borghese's Palace at Mondragone, where were further marvellous waterworks. The beautiful palace and grounds described by other travellers also impressed Mortoft. Indeed, says he, "if" anything in y e world may be counted a Heaven on Earth, this place may be it."

On March 25 the Pope attended with a great cavalcade at the Church of the Minerva,. where

"60 young wenches received a purse each with a promise of 50 crowns upon their marriage day. Also about 80 young girls received purses with a promise of 100 crowns when they enter into Monasteries. This is an annual ceremony on the 25th March, the means being provided by certain Princes and great men in Rome."*

The Pope, according to Mortoft, received for his pains in going thither 300 crowns, "which is good wages," he writes, "for soe little worke."

1581, and describes it in detail. Travels ' ( English, translation, 1903), ii. 161-3. The function seems to have been in charge of the Confraternity of the Annunziata, founded in 1460, and was attached to the Church of S. Maria sopra Minerva by Pius II.
 * Montaigne witnessed the same ceremony in,