the consulate, the inquisitor mayor, the commissary of the crusade, the rector of the university, a senior collegian from each college, and a master friar from each community. These levees were called dias de besa manos, which ceremony was performed de facto in Madrid, the whole court kissing the King's hand, and this was almost the only ceremony which the royal representative in Lima dispensed with.
To the right of this hall there is a narrow corridor, looking into a small garden on the right, having a suite of rooms on the left, which on days of ceremony were used as assembly rooms; there are also some closets, which may serve as sleeping rooms or studies, each having a small glazed balcony next the street. Two young British officers, belonging to the Briton, were one night detected by the sentry attempting to pay a visit, at one of those commodious ventanas, to Miss Ramona Abascal, the Viceroy's daughter, and her female companion. The young ladies made fast the end of the sash belonging to Mr. B., but an unfortunate laugh alarmed the intruding sentry. From the north-west corner another range of rooms extends along the north side, which leads to those of the pages and other domestics; on the east side of the garden there is a terrace forming a passage to a range of apartments, where the chaplain, surgeon and secretary usually resided. A private passage under the terrace leads to one of those rooms constructed by the Viceroy Amat, for the purpose of receiving the midnight visits of the famous Perricholi. This name was given to the lady by her husband, an Italian, who wishing to call her a perra chola, indian b——h, gave an Italian termination to the words, and a name to his wife, by which she was ever afterwards known in Lima. In 1810 she was living at the new mills, at the corner of the alameda vieja. This circumstance I take the liberty to mention, because persons going to Lima will often hear on their arrival the name of this once handsome and generous woman, whose beauty had so far influenced her admirer, the Viceroy, that she at one time persuaded him to feed her mules at midnight, en camisa; and at another obtained from him the reprieve of a criminal on the morning he was to have suffered. In her youth she was on the stage; but she spent her last days in seclusion, and her last dollars in works of charity. The dining room is on the east side of the garden, and has a staircase leading from the kitchen; it is low and dark, and has a dirty appearance. The rooms used on public occasions have each a crimson velvet canopy, under which were hung portraits of the reigning King and Queen; beside some antique furniture which belonged to the palace, glass chandeliers, &c.; but the whole was a very mean display for a Viceroy of Peru.
The palace also contained the royal treasury, the courts of the royal audience, the Viceroy's chapel, the county gaol, the secretary's offices, and some others belonging to the attendants. Each front of the palace was disgraced with mean pedlars' and shoemakers' shops, and close to the principal entrance was a pulperia, common grog shop, for the accommodation, I suppose, of the coachmen, footmen and soldiers on duty. The north and south sides of this building are four hundred and eighty feet long; the others four hundred and ten.
The interior of the archbishop's palace is but small; a flight of steps opposite the entrance leads to a corridor that runs round the court-yard; on the north side are the dining and drawing rooms; on the west, fronting the plasa, are the principal levee rooms; on the south the secretary's offices; and on the east the apartments belonging to the domestics. The principal rooms are neatly fitted up; in some of them the walls are covered with crimson damask, having gilt cornices and mouldings.
The interior of the Sagrario, which may be called the principal parish church, or matrix, is more splendid than rich; the roof is beautifully pannelled, having a cupola in the centre, resting on the four corners formed by the intersection of the cross aisle; it is lofty, and the several altars are splendidly carved, varnished and gilt. Great part of the high altar is cased with silver; the sacrarium is highly finished, and the custodium of gold, richly ornamented with diamonds and other precious stones. The whole service is costly, both in plate and robes. The baptismal font is in a small chapel on one side; it is large, and covered with a thick casing of pure silver.
The cathedral, like all others, is spoiled by having the choir in the centre, blocking up the view of the high altar, which otherwise would present a most majestic appearance from the centre porch. The walls and floor are of good freestone, and the roof, which is divided into compartments, is most beautifully pannelled and carved; it is upheld by a double row of neat square pillars of stone work, supporting the arches, and corresponding with the buttresses in the walls; all these, on festivals, are covered with Italian crimson velvet hangings, except in Passion Week, when they are clothed with purple ones of the same quality. Both sets are edged with broad gold lace, with a deep gold fringe at the bottom, and festoons with lace and fringe at the top.
The lateral altars are placed in niches between the buttresses, having ornamented gates before them, which, when opened inwards, form the presbytery. Some of these altars are rich, but none of them handsome. At the back of the high altar is a chapel dedicated to Saint Francisco Xavier, in which there are effigies of two archbishops, in white marble, kneeling before reclinatories. In this chapel was the archbishops' burying vault, which is now closed, and they, in common with all other people, are carried to the pantheon, where the first corpse interred was that of Archbishop La Reguera, being exhumed for the purpose.
The throne, or high altar, has a most magnificent appearance; it is of the Corinthian order, the columns, cornices, mouldings, pedestals, &c. being cased with pure silver; it is also surmounted with a celestial crown of gilt silver; in the centre is the sacrarium, richly ornamented with chased silver work. The custodium is of gold, delicately wrought, and enriched with a profusion of diamonds and other precious stones: from the pedestal to the points of the rays it measures seven feet, and is more than any moderate sized person can lift. The front of the altar table is of embossed silver, very beautiful. On each side of the altar is an ornamented reading desk, where the gospel and epistle are chaunted. From the foot of the presbytery runs on either side to the choir a railing, and the front of the choir is closed by tastefully wrought gilt iron palisades, having two large gates in the centre. The stalls are of carved cedar, and the state chair of curious workmanship; it is considered as a relic, because it was used by Saint Toribio de Mogroviejo, archbishop of Lima, from 1578 to 1606. The choral music is very select, and the two organs finely toned. The pulpit is in the modern taste, highly varnished and gilt.
On grand festivals this church presents an imposing coup d'œil; the high altar is illuminated with more than a thousand wax tapers; the large silver candelabra, each weighing upwards of a hundred pounds; the superb silver branches and lamps, and the splendid service of plate on the left of the altar, are indescribably striking. The archbishop in his costly pontifical robes is seen kneeling under a canopy of crimson velvet, with a reclinatory and cushions of the same material; a number of assisting priests in their robes of ceremony fill the presbytery; from which, leading towards the choir, are seats covered with velvet, on the left for the officers of state and the corporation, on the right for the judges, who attend in full costume. In the centre, in front of the altar, is a state chair covered with crimson velvet, with cushions, and a reclinatory to match, for the Viceroy, when he attended in state, having on each side three halberdiers of his body guard; behind him stood his chaplain, chamberlain, groom, captain of the body guard, and four pages in waiting. If any ceremony can flatter the vanity of man, it must be that of offering incense to him in such a situation:—three times during mass one of the acolites came down from the presbytery with an incensary, and bowed to the Viceroy, who stood up amid a cloud of smoke; the acolite bowed and retired, and the Viceroy again knelt down.
The gold and silver brocades, tissues and other stuffs, the laces and embroidery for robes, vestments and decorations, are of the most costly kind that can be procured. The sacred vessels, chalices, patenas, hostiarias, &c. are often of gold, enriched with a profusion of the rarest gems, so that nothing can display more grandeur than is beheld here on great festivals, when divine service is performed with a pomp scarcely to be imagined.
At the east end are two doors, corresponding with the two lateral doors in the front, and producing a fine effect. The area is spacious, and paved with freestone on the west, south, and east sides of this building, and the surrounding wall
