tended their influence through a long and prosperous life, and contributed to the happiness, not of his family only, but of an extensive circle of friends and acquaintance. But these hopes were vain, and the Author is destined to pay his unavailing tribute to the memory of his friend and companion. The two gentlemen who, with the Author and his fellow traveller, formed the party often alluded to in the following pages, were the Honourable Mr. CUST, now Lord BROWNLOW, and ROBERT RUSHBROKE, Esq. of Rushbroke Park. The information, the politeness, and the good humour of the former, with the liveliness, the mirth, and the accomplishments of the latter, heightened the pleasures of the journey, and, by supplying a continual fund of incident and conversation, rendered even Italy itself more delightful. To Lord BROWN LOW, the Author must acknowledge another obligation, as he is indebted to his Lordship for several useful observations during the course of this work, and particularly for the details of the excursion to the island of Ischia, and the account of the solitudes of Camaldoli and of Alvernia. The publication of these volumes has been delayed by frequent avocations, and particularly by a more extensive and scarcely less interesting excursion to parts of Dalmatia, the Western Coasts of Greece, the Ionian Islands, to Sicily, Malta, &c. &c. The details. of this latter Tour may, perhaps, be presented to the public if the following pages meet its approbation. Great Chesterford, Essex, Sept. 14, 1812. PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. Jam mens prætrepidans avet vagari : CATUL. xliv. THE degree of preparation necessary for travelling depends He who upon the motives which induce us to travel. home merely to change the scene and to seek for novelty; who makes amusement his sole object, and has no other view but to fill up a few months that must otherwise remain unemployed, has no need of mental preparation for his excursion. All that such a loiterer can possibly want, are a convenient postchaise, a letter of credit, and a well furnished trunk; for occupation he will have VOL. I. C recourse to inns, to coffee-houses, and to theatres, with their appurtenances, which cannot fail to supply him with incidents, anecdote, and pastime in abundance. But he who believes with Cicero, that it becomes a man of a liberal and active mind to visit countries ennobled by the birth and the residence of the Great ; who, with the same Roman, finds himself disposed by the contemplation of such scenes to virtuous and honourable pursuits; he who, like Titus Quintius devoting the first days of leisure after his glorious achievements to the celebrated monuments of Greece, embraces the earliest opportunity of visiting the classic regions of Italy; such a traveller will easily comprehend the necessity of providing beforehand the information requisite to enable him to traverse the country without constant difficulty, doubt, and inquiry. And indeed, if there be a Tour in which such preparation is more particularly wanting than in any other, it is that to which I allude; as Italy owes more to history than even to nature; and he who goes over it merely with his eyes open to its embellishments, and his mind intent on observation, though he may see much and learn much also, will yet, with all his curiosity and diligence, discover one half only of its beauties. Even those travellers who have made some efforts to qualify themselves by previous application, will on many occasions regret that they have not extended their researches still farther, and that they have not, by a longer course of preparation, added to their means both of amusement and of instruction*. It may, therefore, be considered as an appropriate introduction to an account of Italy, to point out to the reader such branches of information as are either indispensable or highly advantageous in an excursion to that country; after which I mean to add a few reflections and cautions, with a view either to remove prejudices, or to prevent inconveniences. CLASSICAL KNOWLEDGE. I. As these pages are addressed solely to persons of a liberal education, it is almost needless to recommend the Latin Poets and Historians. Virgil and Horace, Cicero and Livy, ought to be the inseparable companions of all travellers; they should occupy a corner in every carriage, and be called forth in every interval of leisure to relieve the fatigue and to heighten the pleasure of the journey. Familiar acquaintance or rather "Vous ne sauriez croire," says the Abbé Barthelemi to the Comte De Caylus, "combien mon voyage (en Italie) m'a humilié; j'ai vu tant de choses que j'ignorois, et que j'ignore encore, qu'il m'a paru fou de se savoir gré de quelques connoissances superficielles." Lettre xxi. Yet the author of Anacharsis was one of the most learned and judicious antiquaries in France. c 2 bosom intimacy with the ancients is evidently the first and most essential accomplishment of a classical traveller. But there is a class of Poets who, though nearly allied in language, sentiments, and country, to the ancients, are yet in general little known; I mean the modern Latin poets, Vida, Sannazarius, Fracastorius, Flaminius, Politian, &c. * who laboured so successfully to restore the pure taste of antiquity. Boileau and the French critics affected to despise these authors†, and, for * Pope printed, or rather, I believe, reprinted with additions, a collection of poems from these authors in two volumes duodecimo. The Clarendon press gave the public a superb specimen of typographical elegance, in an edition of Vida, in three volumes octavo, in the years 22, 23, 24, of the last century. †The contempt which the French critics generally shew for modern Latin poetry may, perhaps, arise from a consciousness of their own deficiency in this respect. Cardinal Polignac, Vaniere, Rapin, and Santeuil*, are the only Latin poets, if I recollect well, of any consideration that France has produced, and though they are not without merit, yet they betray in the effort with which they advance and in the very art which they display, somewhat of the latent barbarian. Even in Latin prose the French do not seem to have succeeded better. There is always an appearance of study and constraint in their style, very different from the easy, unaffected flow of Italian authors. The latter only have either preserved or recovered the " certa vox Romani generis, urbisque propria, *This last author is inferior to the others, because more affected. His Hymns, though inserted in the Parisian Breviary, and much admired by French critics, are quite disfigured by conceit and antithesis. |