If the statue could but be
smuggled out of Italy, it might command almost any price. There is not,
I think, any name of a sculptor on the pedestal, as on that of the Venus
de' Medici. A dolphin is sculptured on the pillar against which she
leans. The statue is of Greek marble. It was first found about eight
days ago, but has been offered for inspection only a day or two, and
already the visitors come in throngs, and the beggars gather about the
entrance of the vineyard. A wine shop, too, seems to have been opened on
the premises for the accommodation of this great concourse, and we saw a
row of German artists sitting at a long table in the open air, each with
a glass of thin wine and something to eat before him; for the Germans
refresh nature ten times to other persons once.
How the whole world might be peopled with antique beauty if the Romans
would only dig!
April 19th.--General Pierce leaves Rome this morning for Venice, by way
of Ancona, and taking the steamer thence to Trieste.
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