The grand staircase is adorned with the richest marble; the upper vestibule to which you ascend by the grand staircase, is an octagon also, and surrounded by twenty-four pillars of yellow marble, each of which is one piece of eighteen feet high, without including the pedestals or capital.” After quitting the palace, we were detained some time by dinner at the village of Caserta, and which our exertions had made indispensable; after this we visited the governor, a friend of one of our companions, who received us with politeness, and paid a high compliment to the discipline and bravery of the British army, which he had witnessed in Calabria and Sicily. We did not arrive at the Aqueduct before the evening began to close in, and our driver, in consequence of the risk of banditti, became solicitous for our returning to Naples, now seventeen miles distant. We descended however from our carriage, and walked under one of the arches, followed by a number of beggars and Ciceroni. This wonderful structure consists of three rows of arches, elevated over each other, and filling up an extensive chasm between two approximating mountains, over which it conveys a whole river of the purest water, the channel for which is about four feet wide, and covered over by an excellent road of sufficient breadth to allow carriages of every description to pass. The lower tier consists of nineteen, the second of twenty-seven, and the upper one of forty-three arches, and the whole built of brick from the designs of Vanvitelli, in magnitude and effect surpassing all similar works of ancient or modern construction. Of the former we may in some measure gain an estimate by drawing a comparison between the present and the famous Roman aqueduct, the Pont de Guard near Nismes, of which I may give the following description. “It was raised in the Augustan age, by the Roman colony, at Nismes, to convey a stream of water between two mountains, for the use of that city. It stands over the river Gardon, which is a beautiful pastoral stream, roaring among rocks, which form a number of pretty natural cascades, and over-shadowed on each side with trees and shrubs, which greatly add to the rural beauties of the scene. This work consists of three bridges, or tier of arches, one over another; the first of six, the second of eleven, and the third of thirty-six. The height, comprehending the aqueduct at the top, amounts to one hundred and forty-seven feet three inches; and the length between the two mountains which it unites, extends to 723 feet. The order of the architecture is the Tuscan, but the symmetry of it is inconceivable.” Thus it will be seen that the Ponte di Madeloni loses nothing in comparison, as respects its height, and length, and number of arches, in all of which points it exceeds the Pont de Guard; as to architectural qualities, I must leave it to better judges to determine, which of the two has the advantage.