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 is surmounted by an ornamental palisade.
The corporation hall, sala consistorial, on the north-west side of the plasa, or square, offers nothing worthy of notice; it is a large room, containing benches for the members of the cavildo, a state chair and canopy for the president, some plans of the city hanging on the walls, and a closet for the archives.
[5] It is a curious circumstance, that the hall was exactly filled with portraits when the liberating forces entered Lima, there not being one spare pannel, nor room to place another painting, without removing some of the old ones.
Particular Description of Parish Churches....Of Santo Domingo....Altar of the Rosary, St. Rosa and other Altars....Cloisters....Sanctuary of Saint Rosa....Church of San Francisco....Chapels _Del Milagro_, _De Dolores_, De los Terceros....Pantheon....Cloisters....San Diego....San Agustin ...._La Merced_....Profession of a Nun, or taking the Veil....Hospitals of San Andres, of San Bartolome and others....Colleges of Santo Toribio, San Carlos, _Del Principe_....University....Inquisition....Taken to it in 1806....Visit to it in 1812, after the Abolition....Inquisitorial Punishments....Foundling Hospital....Lottery....Mint....Pantheon.
The parish churches of Lima have nothing to recommend them particularly to the notice of a stranger. St. Lazaro has an elegant façade, and presents a good appearance from the bridge; the interior is tastefully ornamented; the ceiling is of pannel work, and the several altars highly varnished and gilt. The living is said to produce about thirty thousand dollars annually, and is often called the little bishopric.