Santa Maria Maggiore is the third church in importance, but the second in magnificence in Rome. Before its façade stands a single column of granite of the Corinthian order. The façade of this church is beautiful but it would be far better without the _campanile_, which I think always disfigures a church of Grecian architecture; besides it is not in the centre of the building. The church is richly adorned with mosaics and its several chapels are admirable from the execution of their architecture and sculpture and the value of the different rich marbles and precious stones with which the monuments therein are made and incrusted. Among these Chapels are those of Sixtus V, Paul V. The grand altar is of porphyry. But the most striking beauty of this church and which eclipses all its other ornaments, are the forty columns of beautiful Grecian marble on each side of the nave. The ceiling, too, is superb and richly gilt; the gilding must have cost an immense sum and was done, it is said, with the first gold that was brought from America. Nothing can be more rich than this plafond. The above forty columns belonged formerly to the temple of Juno Lucina. It is singular that the ceremony of the _accouchement_ of the Virgin and the birth of Christ should be performed here. On the 24th December this pantomime is regularly acted, and crowds of all sorts of people attend, particularly women. At the moment that the Virgin is supposed to be delivered a salve of artillery announces the good tidings. This is singular, I say, when one recollects the peculiar attributes of Juno Lucina and the assistance she was supposed to give to persons in the same situation. You cannot expect me to detail to you all the riches in precious stones and gifts of pious princes that adorn the several chapels of this and other churches; but they appear to contain every stone and jewel mentioned in the Arabian Nights as being to be found in the cave where Aladdin was left by the magician; and it must be allowed that the Popes have been remarkably adroit inchanters in conjuring to Rome all the riches of the Earth. The church of St John Lateran is larger and more striking as to its exterior and as to its architecture than that of Santa Maria Maggiore, but it is not so charged with ornament and there is scarce any gilding. There is a simple elegance about it that I think far more pleasing than the magnificence of Santa Maria.