by pillars of granite collected from the neighboring ruins; and the church of the Annonziata, supposed to be an ancient temple, though much disfigured by modern decorations, deserve a visit. The Vulturnus bathes the walls, a river now as formerly, rapid, muddy, and in some places shallow; thus it still retains both its name and its characterstic qualities.

Vulturnus.

multamque trahens sub gurgite arenam

Ovid. Met. xv.

We here entered the Falernian territory, and as we drove over its delicious plain we contemplated on the right Mount Callicula, and in front Mount Massicus, both remarkable, independ ently of other circumstances, as enclosing and indeed in part forming the scene of the manoeuvres of Fabius and Hannibal. The celebrated stratagem of the latter* took place in a defile on the right.

We then crossed the lazy Savone and proceeded to Francolisi, whence ascending the hills, we took a parting view of the delicious region of which we were then about to take a final leave. We had traversed it in every direction, and examined its features in all their combinations. Plains shaded with rows of poplars and mulberries; vines waving in garlands from tree to tree; rich harvests bending under this canopy; hills clad with groves and studded with houses; mountains covered with forests; and in the midst Vesuvius lifting his scorched front, and looking down upon cities, towns, and villages, rising promiscuously at his base. Add to these, a sea that never swells with storms, a sky never

Tit, Liv. 1. xxii.

darkened with clouds, and a sun that seldom withdraws his cheering beams. All these beauties, that pourtray Paradise to our fancy, and surpass at once the landscape of the painter and the descriptions of the poet, are all combined in the garden of Italy, the happy Campania*.

But the scenery was now fading away with the light, and a deep azure sky, bespangled with stars, all sparkling with a brilliancy unusual to our more troubled atmosphere, guided us on our way. Lighted by their beams we crossed the Liris,

Qui fonte quieto

Dissimulat cursum ac nullo mutabilis imbri,

Perstringit tacitas gemmanti gurgite ripas.

Sil. IV. 350.

We just distinguished the black masses of Minturne on its banks, with the arches of a ruined aqueduct, and at a late hour in the evening entered Mola.

The bay of Gaieta, though seen before, had not with its novelty forfeited its charms; inferior as it is to that of Naples, it had still influence sufficient to delight and to detain us. Ascending the hill, we revisited the grove where Cicero fell, and the tomb

*We had intended to return by the inland road, and visited' the great Parent abbey of the Benedictine Order, situated on the summit of Monte Cassino; Venafrum, so celebrated for its olives, Arpinum and the Fibrenus, Sora, Anagnia, and Preneste, But the state of the country, which had not yet recovered from. the convulsions of an invasion, rendered such a journey imprudent at the moment, and on the representations of some friends, we had reluctantly given up our projected route.

which popular tradition has erected to his memory, without permitting any hypercritical doubts to disturb our feelings. "Famâ rerum standum est," says Titus Livius, “ubi certam rebus derogat antiquitas fidem." At the foot of the tomb sat a little shepherd boy reading a book with great attention, while his flock spread along the sides of the road before him. He smiled when I looked at the book; it was La vita della SSma. Vergine-estratta della Scrittura santa, coi rifflessioni, &c. Lessons of purity, humility and piety! examples of filial love and parental tenderness. His pastoral predecessors in Virgil and Theocritus, were not so well employed, and must yield to the modern Alexis in innocence and simplicity. After having winded through the defiles of Mount Cacubus, we descended into the plain of Fondi. The beauty of this fertile spot was now enlivened by occasional groupes of country people collected with their dogs and flocks, under the shade of the thickest clumps of trees, and apparently enjoying great mirth and festivity.

We entered the Roman territory shortly after, and stopped to refresh ourselves at Terracina. We again passed Feronia, now a solitary scene, once remarkable for the splendor of its temple, which as Livy relates, was plundered by Hannibal in his return from Rome, in order to avenge on the goddess his late disappointment. We crossed the Pomptine Paludi, then delightfully shaded, with great rapidity. The season of malaria was now commenced, and to sleep while passing the marshes is supposed to be extremely dangerous. The death of the archbishop of Naples which had taken place some days before our departure from that capital, was attributed to his having merely passed this swampy tract, though with all possible precaution. It is to be recollected however, that the archbishop was in

his seventy-sixth year, and if at such an age a man be carried off very suddenly, his death may be accounted for without the aid of marshy exhalations. Still it must be admitted that the air of this territory both is and must probably continue in a certain degree unwholesome during the summer months, because it must ever remain a flat intersected by many streams, and of course always humid. We indeed found that several drivers were ill at the different posthouses, owing partly to fatigue during the heats, and partly to the bad qualities of the atmosphere. To take every precaution therefore is prudent, and of course to abstain from sleep however difficult it may be in such heat, especially when confined to a carriage.

While a traveller is conveyed smoothly and rapidly over the present Via Appia, he must naturally reflect on the slow and almost creeping pace of the ancients. Horace, while he acknowledges his own indolence, in dividing one day's journey into two, seems to consider Forum Appii as the regular stage from Rome, which was a distance of about thirty-five miles. He passed the second night on the canal. On the third, he seems to have slept at Anxur or Terracina, and the fourth, after a fatiguing journey at Formia or Mola.

In Mamurarum lassi deinde urbe manemus.

This fatiguing journey was not more than thirty miles. But Mecenas might well have considered it as such, as he is related to have taken two days to go from Rome to his villa at Tibur, only eighteen miles distant. Augustus is also said to have travelled very slowly, and loitered much on the road in his excursions from Rome to the different parts of Italy. The mode

of conveyance was not at that time either pleasant or conve nient, and whether managed by a lectica or a rheda, was in the first instance slow, in the other rough, and either way far inferior in ease, rapidity, and even dignity, to a postchaise. The inns seem to have been no better, if not worse, than the modern, and to have been as ill provided both with fare and furniture; of the fare we have some account in Horace, when describing the spare diet of Beneventum; and as for furniture, we have a short inventory of a bed room in Petronius, viz. a bedstead and bed without curtains, and a wooden candelabrum with a table. The inns in fact were bad for the same reason then as now; travellers of rank instead of frequenting inns went from villa to villa, and abandoned such general receptacles to the lower orders; a custom very general at present in Italy; so much so indeed, that an Italian nobleman, hearing an Englishman complain of the accommodation at some country inns he was speaking of, expressed his surprise that he frequented such places, and observed that with a few recommendatory letters he might traverse Italy from one extremity to the other, without being once under the necessity of entering an inn.

We intended to pass the night at Velletri, in order to visit some palaces in the town, and some interesting places in the neighborhood, and at the same time to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Alban Mount, in our last passage over it. But in this we were disappointed: we entered Velletri rather late, found the inn full, and were obliged most reluctantly to pursue our journey in the darkness of the night to Albano, and thence for a similar reason to Rome.

As we approached, the beams of the rising sun darted full