called l’Amfiteatro Farnese in honour of the former sovereigns of the Duchy.  It is a vast building and unites the conveniences both of the ancient and modern theatres.  It has a roof like a modern theatre, and the seats in the parterre are arranged like the seats in an ancient Greek theatre.  Above this are what we should call boxes, and above them again what we usually term a gallery.  A vast and deep arena lies between the parterre and the orchestra and fills up the space between the audience and the proscenium.  It is admirably adapted both for spectators and hearers; when a tragedy, comedy or opera is acted, a scaffolding is erected and seats placed in the arena.  At other times the arena is made use of for equestrian exercises and chariot races in the style of the ancients, combats with wild beasts, etc., or it may be filled with water for the representation of naval fights (naumachia); in this case you have a vast oval lake between the spectators and the stage.  It is a great pity that this superb and interesting building is not kept in good repair; the fact is it is seldom or ever made use of except on very particular occasions:  it is almost useless in a place like Parma, “so fallen from its high estate,” but were such an amphitheatre in Paris, London, or any great city, it might be used for all kinds of spectacles and amusements.  A small theatre from the design of Bernino stands close to this amphitheatre, and is built in a light tasteful manner.  If fresh painted and lighted up it would make a very brilliant appearance.  This may be considered as the Court theatre.  At a short distance from the theatres is the Museum of Parma, in which there is a well chosen gallery of pictures.  Among the most striking pictures of the old school is without doubt that of St Jerome by Correggio; but I was full as much, dare I be so heretical as to say more pleased, with the productions of the modern school of Parma.  A distribution of prizes had lately been made by the Empress Maria Louisa, and there were many paintings, models of sculpture and architectural designs, that did infinite credit to the young artists.  I remarked one painting in particular which is worthy of a Fuseli.  It represented the battle of the river God Scamander with Achilles.  The subjects of most of the paintings I saw here were taken from the mythology or from ancient and modern history; and this is perhaps the reason that they pleased me more than those of the ancient masters.  Why in the name of the [Greek:  to kalon] did these painters confine themselves so much to Madonnas, Crucifixions, and Martyrdoms, when their own poets, Ariosto and Tasso, present so many subjects infinitely more pleasing?  Then, again, in many of these crucifixions and martyrdoms, the gross anachronisms, such as introducing monks and soldiers with match-locks and women in Gothic costume at the crucifixion, totally destroy the seriousness and interest of the subject by annihilating all illusion and exciting risibility.