We Took A Drive Into What May Be Called The Country; Where The
Fields Are Rocks, And The Hedges Are Stones - Passing By The Stone
Gardens Of The Florian, And Wondering At The Number And
Handsomeness Of The Stone Villages And Churches Rising Everywhere
Among The Stony Hills.
Handsome villas were passed everywhere, and
we drove for a long distance along the sides of an aqueduct, quite
a Royal work of the Caravaggio in gold armour, the Grand Master De
Vignacourt.
A most agreeable contrast to the arid rocks of the
general scenery was the garden at the Governor's country-house;
with the orange-trees and water, its beautiful golden grapes,
luxuriant flowers, and thick cool shrubberies. The eye longs for
this sort of refreshment, after being seared with the hot glare of
the general country; and St. Antonio was as pleasant after Malta as
Malta was after the sea.
We paid the island a subsequent visit in November, passing
seventeen days at an establishment called Fort Manuel there, and by
punsters the Manuel des Voyageurs; where Government accommodates
you with quarters; where the authorities are so attentive as to
scent your letters with aromatic vinegar before you receive them,
and so careful of your health as to lock you up in your room every
night lest you should walk in your sleep, and so over the
battlements into the sea - if you escaped drowning in the sea, the
sentries on the opposite shore would fire at you, hence the nature
of the precaution.
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