nd again made a round of the harbour; were met by
Mrs. Bathurst's[495] carriage, and carried to my very excellent
apartment at Beverley's Hotel. In passing I saw something of the city,
and very comical it was; but more of that hereafter. At or about four
o'clock we went to our old habitation the _Barham_, having promised
again to dine in the Ward room, where we had a most handsome dinner, and
were dismissed at half-past six, after having the pleasure to receive
and give a couple hours of satisfaction. I took the boat from the chair,
and was a little afraid of the activity of my assistants, but it all
went off capitally; went to Beverley's and bed in quiet.

At two o'clock Mrs. Col. Bathurst transported me to see the Metropolitan
Church of St. John, by far the most magnificent place I ever saw in my
life; its huge and ample vaults are of the Gothic order. The floor is of
marble, each stone containing the inscription of some ancient knight
adorned with a patent of mortality and an inscription recording his name
and family. For instance, one knight I believe had died in the infidels'
prison; to mark his fate, one stone amid the many-coloured pavement
represents a door composed of grates (iron grates I mean), displaying
behind them an interior which a skeleton is in vain attempting to escape
from by bursting the bars. If you conceive he has pined in his fetters
there for centuries till dried in the ghastly image of death himself, it
is a fearful imagination. The roof which bends over this scene of death
is splendidly adorned with carving and gilding, while the varied colours
and tinctures both above and beneath, free from the tinselly effect
which might have been apprehended, [acquire a] solemnity in the dim
religious light, which they probably owe to the lapse of time. Besides
the main aisle, which occupies the centre, there is added a
chapter-house in which the knights were wont to hold their meetings. At
the upper end of this chapter-house is the fine Martyrdom of St. John
the Baptist, by Caravaggio, though this has been disputed. On the left
hand of the body of the church lie a series of subordinate aisles or
chapels, built by the devotion of the different languages,[496] and
where some of the worthies inhabit the vaults beneath. The other side of
the church is occupied in the same manner; one chapel in which the
Communion was imparted is splendidly adorned by a row of silver pillars,
which divided the worshippers from t