Travelling Sketches : in the North of Italy, the Tyrol, and on the Rhine.- (Heath's picturesque annual ; 1832)
170 TRAVELLING SKETCHES. satisfied if we can convey to the indulgent reader a general idea of places and peculiarities, and pro duce, for his delectation, some refraction, however faint, of the pleasure we ourselves experienced in our journeyings. To do this, as regards Venice, and to blend in the picture we shall present some of its moral as well as physical attributes, we must be allowed to transport him to the Piazza di San Marco, what time the shades of evening begin to steal over the bosom
of the lagoon. If the said reader belongs to the communion of the Kirk of Scotland, let him not enquire for which evening of the week the invitation is given. Let him come forth with a smooth brow and an unsuspecting eye, saying to himself—or singing (to shew the absence of all manner of guilty knowledge)— ' If ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.' The Piazza di San Marco is an oblong, rectan gular area, elongated from east to west, of about eight hundred feet in length, by three hundred and
fifty in breadth. As you enter, by the west end, the first coup d'ceil is astounding. You imagine that the whole mass of marble before you is a single building. This effect is produced by the deep and lofty arcade which runs round three sides of the Piazza, and the uniform character of the archi tecture. Presently, however, you discover that each side, although uniform in itself, differs widely from the others. On the south is the Procuratorie Nuove, a range of buildings which formerly served
