Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

Ck. VIII.

THROUGH ITALY.

309

and noble church has been erected, in such a
manner as to cover the original oratory, which
stands in its centre and under its dome.
We passed on the second day after this festival,
and were informed by one of the fathers, that
more than ten thousand persons had attended
service on that day, and that owing to the heat
of the weather and the blind enthusiasm of the
crowd pressing forward to touch the altar, no
less than ten persons were suffocated, pressed or
trampled to death. A practice which not only
draws so many laboring persons from their homes
and occupations, but occasions such tragical ac-
cidents, becomes a mischievous superstition, and
ought to be suppressed by public authority. This
church, or rather the chapel enclosed within its
precincts, is also called the Portiunc.ula, because
it was the first portion or property annexed to the
order. I regretted much that our arrangements
did not permit us to visit Asisium, not only on
account of the convents which are said to contain
several valuable paintings, but particularly on
account of the portico of Santa Maria di Mi-
nerva, composed of six Corinthian pillars of the
finest proportion, which supported the front of the
ancient temple of Minerva.

Here the reader may perhaps expect some ac-