This Man Richly Deserved His Punishment.

[84] These lines are from Voltaire's Henriade, a poem which no Frenchman reads nowadays, but that Major Frye could quote from memory.

The correct reading of the first verse is: Des pretres fortunes, etc. (Henriade, canto iv. ed. Kehl, vol. x, p. 97.) - ED.

[85] Horace, Sat., 1, 9, 4. - ED.

[86] Lady Elizabeth Hervey, second wife of William, fifth Duke of Devonshire (1809); died March, 1824. - ED.

[87] A singular slip of the pen; Frye must have known that the equestrian statue is a Roman work - ED.

[88] Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, xxxiii, 2, 4. - ED.

[89] See Lucian, Imag., iv; Amores, xv, xvi. - ED.

[90] Major Frye's description is incorrect in many particulars, on which it seemed unnecessary to draw attention. - ED.

[91] Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, XI, 67, 6.

[92] That colossal marble statue was given to the Duke of Wellington by Louis XVIII, and is still to be seen in London, at Apsley House. - ED.

CHAPTER XI

From Rome to Naples - Albano - Velletri - The Marshes - Terracina - Mola di Gaeta - Capua - The streets of Naples - Monuments and Museums - Visit to Pompeii and ascent to Vesuvius - Dangerous ventures - Puzzuoli and Baiae - Theatres at Naples - Pulcinello - Return to Rome - Tivoli.

I started from Rome on the 26th September; in the same vettura I found an intelligent young Frenchman of the name of R - - D - - , a magistrate in Corsica, who was travelling in Italy for his amusement. There were besides a Roman lawyer and not a very bright one by the bye; and a fat woman who was going to Naples to visit her lover, a Captain in the Austrian service, a large body of Austrian troops being still at Naples. We issued from Rome by the Porta Latina and reached Albano (the ancient Alba) sixteen miles distant at twelve o'clock. We reposed there two hours which gave me an opportunity of visiting the Villa Doria where there are magnificent gardens. These gardens form the promenade of the families who come to Albano to pass the heat of the summer and to avoid the effect of the exhalations of the marshy country about Rome.

As Albano is situated on an eminence, you have a fine view of the whole plain of Latium and Rome in perspective. The country of Latium however is flat, dreary and monotonous; it affords pasture to an immense quantity of black cattle, such as buffaloes, etc.

Just outside of Albano, on the route to Naples, is a curious ancient monument called Il sepolcro degli Orazj e Curiazj. It is built of brick, is extremely solid, of singular appearance, from its being a square monument, flanked at each angle by a tower in the shape of a cone. It is of an uncouth rustic appearance and must certainly have been built before

Grecia capia ferum victorem cepit et artes Intulit agresti Latio.....[93]

and I see no reason against its being the sepulchre of the Horatii and Curiatii, particularly as it stands so near Alba where the battle was fought; but be this as it may there is nothing like faith in matters of antiquity; the sceptic can have little pleasure.

The country on leaving Albano becomes diversified, woody and picturesque. Near Gensano is the beautiful lake of Nemi, and it is the spot feigned by the poets as the scene of the amours of Mars and Rhea Silvia. Near Gensano also is the country residence of the Sovereign Pontiffs called Castel Gandolfo. La Riccia, the next place we passed thro', is the ancient Aricia, mentioned in Horace's journey to Brundusium. We arrived in the evening at Velletri.

Velletri is a large town or rather city situated on a mountain, to which you ascend by a winding road skirting a beautiful forest. From the terrace of one of the Palazzi here, you have a superb view of all the plain below as far as the rock of Circe, comprehending the Pontine marshes. There are several very fine buildings at Velletri, and it is remarkable as being the birthplace of Augustus Caesar. There is a spacious Piazza too on which stands a bronze statue of Pope Urban VIII. Velletri is twenty-eight miles from Rome.

The next morning, the 27th, we started early so as to arrive by six o'clock in the evening at Terracina. At Cisterna is a post-house and at Torre tre Ponti is a convent, a beautiful building, but now delapidated and neglected. Near it is a wretched inn, where however you are always sure to find plenty of game to eat. Here begin the Pontine marshes and the famous Appian road which runs in a right line for twenty-five miles across the marshes. It was repaired and perfectly reconstructed by Pius VI, and from him it bears its present appellation of Linea Pia. This convent and church were also constructed by Pius VI with a view to facilitate the draining and cultivating of the marshes by affording shelter to the workmen. The Linea Pia is a very fine chaussee considerably raised above the level of the marsh, well paved, lined with trees and a canal sunk on one side to carry off the waters. The Pontine marshes extend all the way from Torre tre Ponti to Terracina. On the left hand side, on travelling from Rome to Naples, you have two miles or thereabouts of plain bounded by lofty mountains; on the right a vast marshy plain bounded by the sea at a distance of seven or eight miles. Nothing can be more monotonous than this strait road twenty-five miles in length, and the same landscape the whole way. The air is extremely damp, aguish and unhealthy. Those who travel late in the evening or early in the morning are recommended not to let down the glasses of the carriage, in order to avoid inhaling the pestilential miasma from the marshes, which even the canal has not been able to drain sufficiently.

No one can find amusement in this desolate region but the sportsman; and he may live in continual enjoyment, and slay wild ducks and snipes in abundance; a number of buffaloes are to be seen grazing on the marshes. They are not to be met with to the North of Rome.

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