Diary of Mary Berry, 18 April 1784

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

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text excerpt

In the evening, an illumination of St. Peter’s. We went between seven and eight o'clock to the Piazza, where there was a crowd of people: it was then illuminated with lanthorns, which cast a dim steady light on every part of it; they even contrive to place them in capitals of Corinthian pillars; and when every part is thus surrounded by a line of fire, they say it looks almost like a traced drawing. About nine, upon the signal of a bell tolling, in two minutes’ time (by all our watches), the church, from the top of the cross to the end of the colonnade, was in a blaze of light. A more magnificent spectacle can hardly be imagined; it greatly exceeded my expectations: the whole Piazza, even beyond the colonnade, is as light as day, and the magnificent building is seen to the greatest advantage.

excerpt from 'Diary of Mary Berry, 18 April 1784' pp. 110 (147 words)

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