Recollections of Rome and Other Places

HIS LORDSHIP THE RIGHT RKVEREND E. J. HORAN, Bishop of Kingston, having been summoned by the Sovereign Pontiff Pius IX.-of blessed memory-to the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, most graciously invited me to accompany him to Rome-an invitation, it is unnecessary to say, as cheerfully accepted as it was graciously given. We reached the Eternal City toward the end of November, 1869. I left for home about the last days of April. During my stay of five months at the centre of Catholicity, I had ample opportunity-and under the most favorable auspices-to visit, time and again, the great monuments of ancient and modern Rome.: My excursions were almost daily; and I enjoyed the rare privilege of such a companion as His Lordship, perfectly conversant with the City of the Popes. In my rambles, I noted down the - more interesting objects, that they might be more vividly remembered On my return to Canada, they were found instructive: I was urged to put them into print. I hesitated, knowing how often, how graphically-and how much better than I could hope to do-these things had been described already. My "Notes" were thrown aside, and almost forgotten amidst the daily busy round of missionary work in the large and laborious parish of Brockville, Returned to Williamstown, I came across them, revised them, and, at the pressing solicitation of friends, consented to give them a lasting form, and in this shape present -them to 'my many friends and well-wishers-hoping they will kindly overlook their many deficiencies, and accept them as a very simple and very unpretending record of what I saw in "Rome and Other Places."