At Foligno there is a cathedral whose outside is Gothic, but the interior is modernized as usual. I could not however enter, for an epidemic fever was very prevalent, and owing to the practice of burying the dead very slightly in the churches, the cathedral and some others had become so offensive, that it was thought proper to shut them up.[16] At Narni they had _found_ a saint (San Rocco) who had power over the disease; (you might doubt whether they were talking of a magician, or a quack medicine) and by making a few processions in his honour, they had speedily got rid of it. At Terni, the first rains had washed it away, but at Foligno it was still raging with considerable violence. Perugia is at the top of a very high hill, where the vetturini usually employ the additional strength of a pair of bullocks, but my light caratella did not require that assistance, especially since I as usual, walked up myself. It commands noble views over two rich and extensive valleys, watered by the Clitumnus and the Tiber. I stayed there all Sunday, and had the opportunity of seeing some very fine paintings, especially of Pietro Perugino, who has left many admirable works in his native city; and some very curious architecture. There is a Roman arch said to have been built by Augustus, but we can hardly acknowledge this, since the frieze of its entablature is ornamented with pilasters, instead of triglyphs; a licence which cannot be supposed to have taken place so early, though the Roman architects indulged themselves in a good deal of whim and caprice, especially in these provincial cities. A circular building, covered by a wooden roof, like that of the church of San Stefano rotondo at Rome, and not by a dome, is said to have been an ancient temple, and is doubtless a Roman building, but of late times. The columns have been taken from buildings still more ancient; they are sixteen in number, of granite, cipollino, bigio antico, and marmo greco; differing in their sizes, and in their capitals. The cathedral is Gothic; the vault of the side aisles springing at the same height as that of the nave. The piers are round, and very slender, and all the arches are tied with iron; yet it would be beautiful, if it were not so party-coloured. The Palazzo pubblico may also deserve notice, as an example of Italian Gothic; but it is not handsome. At the church of San Domenico I had the pleasure of seeing a continued vault, uninterrupted even by a window. These experiments in design are invaluable to an architect; and here, in spite of the disadvantages arising from the building never having been terminated, and from the whitewash which covers what is finished, the effect is very fine. Behind the altar were crimson hangings which shut out the choir, and the scene was certainly improved by them; in such a case the interruption of the transept between the nave and the altar is not objectionable, and at times, when