The Road From Hence To Foligno, Where We Lay, Is Kept
In Good Order, And Lies Through A Delightful Plain,
Laid out into
beautiful inclosures, abounding with wine, oil, corn, and cattle,
and watered by the pastoral streams of the
Famous river
Clitumnus, which takes its rise in three or four separate
rivulets issuing from a rock near the highway. On the right-hand,
we saw several towns situated on rising grounds, and among the
rest, that of Assissio, famous for the birth of St. Francis,
whose body, being here deposited, occasions a concourse of
pilgrims. We met a Roman princess going thither with a grand
retinue, in consequence of a vow she had made for the re-establishment
of her health. Foligno, the Fulginium of the
antients, is a small town, not unpleasant, lying in the midst of
mulberry plantations, vineyards, and corn-fields, and built on
both sides of the little river Topino. In choosing our beds at
the inn, I perceived one chamber locked, and desired it might be
opened; upon which the cameriere declared with some reluctance,
"Besogna dire a su' eccellenza; poco fa, che una bestia e morta
in questa camera, e non e ancora lustrata," "Your Excellency must
know that a filthy Beast died lately in that Chamber, and it is
not yet purified and put in order." When I enquired what beast it
was, he replied, "Un'eretico Inglese," "An English heretic." I
suppose he would not have made so free with our country and
religion, if he had not taken us for German catholics, as we
afterwards learned from Mr. R - i. Next day, we crossed the Tyber,
over a handsome bridge, and in mounting the steep hill upon which
the city of Perugia stands, our horses being exhausted, were
dragged backwards by the weight of the carriage to the very edge
of a precipice, where, happily for us, a man passing that way,
placed a large stone behind one of the wheels, which stopped
their motion, otherwise we should have been all dashed in pieces.
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