Speaking Of The Weather, The Landlady Further Told Me That The Wind Blew
So Hard Three Months Ago - "During That Big Storm In The Winter, Don't
You Remember?" - That It Broke All The Iron Lamp-Posts Between The Town
And The Station.
Now here was a statement sounding even more improbable
than her other one about Castel del Monte, but admitting of
verification.
Wheezing and sneezing, I crawled forth, and found it
correct. It must have been a respectable gale, since the cast-iron
supports are snapped in half, every one of them.
Those Turks, by the way, burnt the town on that memorable occasion. That
was a common occurrence in those days. Read any account of their
incursions into Italy during this and the preceding centuries, and you
will find that the corsairs burnt the towns whenever they had time to
set them alight. They could not burn them nowadays, and this points to a
total change in economic conditions. Wood was cut down so heedlessly
that it became too scarce for building purposes, and stone took its
place. This has altered domestic architecture; it has changed the
landscape, denuding the hill-sides that were once covered with timber;
it has impoverished the country by converting fruitful plains into
marshes or arid tracts of stone swept by irregular and intermittent
floods; it has modified, if I mistake not, the very character of the
people. The desiccation of the climate has entailed a desiccation of
national humour.
Muratori has a passage somewhere in his "Antiquities" regarding the old
method of construction and the wooden shingles, scandulae, in use for
roofing - I must look it up, if ever I reach civilized regions again.
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