It Was Found In 1820, And Thereafter Sold - Some Fragments Of
It, At Least - To The British Museum, Where Under The Name Of "Bronze Of
Siris" It May Still Be Admired:
A marvellous piece of repoussee work, in
the style of Lysippus, depicting the combat of Ajax and the Amazons.
. . .
The streamlet Trionto, my companion to Longobucco, glides along between
stretches of flowery meadow-land - fit emblem of placid rural
contentment. But soon this lyric mood is spent. It enters a winding
gorge that shuts out the sunlight and the landscape abruptly assumes an
epic note; the water tumbles wildly downward, hemmed in by mountains
whose slopes are shrouded in dusky pines wherever a particle of soil
affords them foothold. The scenery in this valley is as romantic as any
in the Sila. Affluents descend on either side, while the swollen rivulet
writhes and screeches in its narrow bed, churning the boulders with
hideous din. The track, meanwhile, continues to run beside the water
till the passage becomes too difficult; it must perforce attack the
hill-side. Up it climbs, therefore, in never-ending ascension, and then
meanders at a great height above the valley, in and out of its tributary
glens.
I was vastly enjoying this promenade - the shady pines, whose fragrance
mingled with that of a legion of tall aromatic plants in full
blossom - the views upon the river, shining far below me like the thread
of silver - when I observed with surprise that the whole mountain-side
which the track must manifestly cross had lately slipped down into the
abyss.
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