There Is Likewise A Regiment Of
Militia, Which Is Exercised Once A Year.
But of all these
particulars, I shall speak more fully on another occasion.
When I stand upon the rampart, and look round me, I can scarce
help thinking myself inchanted. The small extent of country which
I see, is all cultivated like a garden. Indeed, the plain
presents nothing but gardens, full of green trees, loaded with
oranges, lemons, citrons, and bergamots, which make a delightful
appearance. If you examine them more nearly, you will find
plantations of green pease ready to gather; all sorts of
sallading, and pot-herbs, in perfection; and plats of roses,
carnations, ranunculas, anemonies, and daffodils, blowing in full
glory, with such beauty, vigour, and perfume, as no flower in
England ever exhibited.
I must tell you, that presents of carnations are sent from hence,
in the winter, to Turin and Paris; nay, sometimes as far as
London, by the post. They are packed up in a wooden box, without
any sort of preparation, one pressed upon another: the person who
receives them, cuts off a little bit of the stalk, and steeps
them for two hours in vinegar and water, when they recover their
full bloom and beauty. Then he places them in water-bottles, in
an apartment where they are screened from the severities of the
weather; and they will continue fresh and unfaded the best part
of a month.
Amidst the plantations in the neighbourhood of Nice, appear a
vast number of white bastides, or country-houses, which make a
dazzling shew. Some few of these are good villas, belonging to
the noblesse of this county; and even some of the bourgeois are
provided with pretty lodgeable cassines; but in general, they are
the habitations of the peasants, and contain nothing but misery
and vermin. They are all built square; and, being whitened with
lime or plaister, contribute greatly to the richness of the view.
The hills are shaded to the tops with olive-trees, which are
always green; and those hills are over-topped by more distant
mountains, covered with snow. When I turn myself towards the sea,
the view is bounded by the horizon; yet in a clear morning, one
can perceive the high lands of Corsica. On the right hand, it is
terminated by Antibes, and the mountain of Esterelles, which I
described in my last. As for the weather, you will conclude, from
what I have said of the oranges, flowers, etc. that it must be
wonderfully mild and serene: but of the climate, I shall speak
hereafter. Let me only observe, en passant, that the houses in
general have no chimnies, but in their kitchens; and that many
people, even of condition, at Nice, have no fire in their
chambers, during the whole winter. When the weather happens to be
a little more sharp than usual, they warm their apartments with a
brasiere or pan of charcoal.
Though Nice itself retains few marks of antient splendor, there
are considerable monuments of antiquity in its neighbourhood.
About two short miles from the town, upon the summit of a pretty
high hill, we find the ruins of the antient city Cemenelion, now
called Cimia, which was once the metropolis of the Maritime Alps,
and the scat of a Roman president. With respect to situation,
nothing could be more agreeable or salubrious. It stood upon the
gentle ascent and summit of a hill, fronting the Mediterranean;
from the shore of which, it is distant about half a league; and,
on the other side, it overlooked a bottom, or narrow vale,
through which the Paglion (antiently called Paulo) runs towards
the walls of Nice. It was inhabited by a people, whom Ptolomy and
Pliny call the Vedantij: but these were undoubtedly mixed with a
Roman colony, as appears by the monuments which still remain; I
mean the ruins of an amphitheatre, a temple of Apollo, baths,
aqueducts, sepulchral, and other stones, with inscriptions, and a
great number of medals which the peasants have found by accident,
in digging and labouring the vineyards and cornfields, which now
cover the ground where the city stood.
Touching this city, very little is to be learned from the antient
historians: but that it was the seat of a Roman praeses, is
proved by the two following inscriptions, which are still extant.
P. AELIO. SEVERINO.
V. E. P.
PRAESIDI. OPTIMO.
ORDO. CEMEN.
PATRONO.
By the Senate of Cemenelion, Dedicated to His Excellency P.
Aelius Severinus, the best of Governors and Patrons.
This is now in the possession of the count de Gubernatis, who has
a country-house upon the spot. The other, found near the same
place, is in praise of the praeses Marcus Aurelius Masculus.
M. AVRELIO. MASCVLO.
V. E.
OB. EXIMIAM. PRAESIDATVS
EIVS. INTEGRITATEM. ET
EGREGIAM. AD OMNES HOMINES
MANSVETVDINEM. ET. VRGENTIS
ANNONAE. SINCERAM. PRAEBITIONEM.
AC. MVNIFICENTIAM. ET. QVOD. AQVAE
VSVM. VETVSTATE. LAPSVM. REQVI-
SITVM. AC. REPERTVM. SAECVLI
FELICITATE. CVRSVI. PRISTINO
REDDIDERIT.
COLLEG. III.
QVIB. EX. SCC. P. EST
PATRONO. DIGNISS.
Inscribed by the three corporations under the authority of the
Senate, to their most worthy Patron, His Excellency M. Aurelius
Masculus, in testimony of their gratitude for the blessings of
his incorruptible administration, his wonderful affability to all
without Distinction, his generous Distribution of Corn in time of
Dearth, his munificence in repairing the ruinous aqueduct, in
searching for, discovering and restoring the water to its former
course for the Benefit of the Community.
This president well deserved such a mark of respect from a people
whom he had assisted in two such essential articles, as their
corn and their water. You know the praeses of a Roman province
had the jus sigendi clavi, the right to drive a nail in the
Kalendar, the privilege of wearing the latus clavus, or broad
studs on his garment, the gladius, infula, praetexta, purpura &
annulus aureus, the Sword, Diadem, purple Robe, and gold Ring, he
had his vasa, vehicula, apparitores, Scipio eburneus, & sella
curulis, Kettledrums, [I know the kettledrum is a modern
invention; but the vasa militari modo conclamata was something
analogous.] Chariots, Pursuivants, ivory staff, and chair of
state.
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