I could discover no remarkable merit in this place. It is set on the top of a mountain of moderate height, but the town straggles all over the acclivities of the site so that there is scarcely a level foot, and it is up hill or down hill wherever you go. It was Saturday and a market day. We saw the palace,[15] which is renowned for its beauty, a huge mass, the foundations of which rest upon the very foot of the hill. The view extends over a thousand other of the adjacent mountains, but is not especially beautiful. To make up for the want of amenity in the palace without and within--there is only one little garden about twenty-five paces wide--they declare that it contains as many chambers as there are days in the year. This may well be true, for the number of rooms is very great, as at Tivoli and other Italian palaces. Looking through one doorway you may often see twenty other doors in succession on one side, and twenty or more on the other. Some portions of the palace are ancient, but the greater part of it was built in 1476 by Federigo Maria della Rovere, who has set forth therein the style and dignity of his various offices and his exploits in war.[16] The palace walls are covered in many places with inscriptions of this sort, and one of them declares that this is the fairest dwelling in the world. It is built of brick and vaulted throughout, with none of the wooden ceilings so common in Italy. The present duke is grand-nephew of the builder of the palace:[17] the princes of this family having all been good rulers, and beloved by their subjects. The love of letters has come down from father to son, and the library of the palace is a fine one, but the key of it was not to be found. The duke is all in the Spanish interests, and the arms of Spain appear everywhere in favoured positions: the order of England[18] and the Golden Fleece are also displayed, but none of ours. They showed to us a portrait of the first Duke of Urbino, a young man who was slain by his subjects for his unjust dealing,[19] but he was not of this family. The present duke has to wife the sister of the Duke of Ferrara,[20] who is ten years his senior, but they are on bad terms and live apart, for no other reason, according to rumour, than the jealousy of the duchess. Thus, besides the disparity of age--she being forty-five years of age--there is little hope of children, and if heirs fail the duchy will revert to the Church, an event which would be very distasteful to the people.