204 CONDUCT OF A SENTINEL. modes of turning land to profit, that Tuscany, Lucca, and Lombardy rose upon the memory like so many samples of the sort of Paradise, into which the earth might be converted, where sunshine and human industry unite to make it fruitful. It is hardly possible, I think, to see a greater difference between the external symptoms of character, and the general manière d'être, than may be observed between the peasants of Tuscany, and those of Naples, and the Roman States. The Tuscan peasant has evidently a feeling of honest pride in himself, in his decent garments, in the produce of his labour, and in the roof that his thrift renders comfortable. But of this, there is not a trace left on your journey southward. There is a look of self abandonment even in the very children, that is terrible. I am certainly not one of those who are inclined to quarrel with the exercise of human authority, being quite aware that without it, all societies of men must fall into a state of anarchy, which would speedily bring about the sort of catastrophy which befel the celebrated Kilkenny cats. . . . Nevertheless I was disgusted as much as the strongest theoretical democrat could be, when I saw the style in which a sentinel at the gate of Capua treated a peasant who was bringing a cart-load of vegetables into the town. The entrance into the town is through fortifications which often cause the road to turn, so as to render it impossible for any one advancing with a cart to see to any great dis PROMISED PLEASURES AT NAPLES. 205 tance before him, unless he leaves the side of his horse, in order to run forward to reconnoitre.... It chanced that our carriage in passing one of the gates, had to wait for a moment, while the above-mentioned cart of vegetables passed on; and on perceiving this, the sentinel caught the driver by the collar, and beat him across the shoulders with the flat of his sword, till he was evidently too tired to proceed, .. the perfectly unoffending peasant submitting to the discipline without daring to withdraw himself from it, for an inch, and with an expression of countenance, at once so abject and so mournful, that it will require many fine sights to put it out of my head, and some little sophistry perhaps into the bargain, to convince me that any happy being, born on British ground, does right in coming where he is to be so protected in return for the gold which he scatters as he goes along. * * I have been receiving sundry pleasant visits, and seeing sundry pleasant people, and it is already very evident that we should like to prolong our stay beyond the time we have allotted for our visit here. But at any rate we have time enough before us to do all the great things, save one. . . We cannot go to Pæstum. This is a terrible disappointment, . but it must be borne, for it has been made very clearly evident to us that it would be impossible to make the excursion at this season, 206 PÆTSUM OF NECESSITY ABANDONED. without leaving Naples for two nights, at the very least; which is too much time to give out of a fortnight; especially as so much rain has fallen as to render it doubtful whether we could enjoy the scene, when we got to it, so we are turning our eyes to what is nearer home, and we are to pass to-morrow at Baiæ. LETTER XII. Interest of the Road to Baiæ. - Grotto of Posilipo.-Virgil's Tomb. Nisida.. Pozzuoli.- Classic Names.-The Lake of Avernus. -Its Temple.-The Sibyl's Cave.-Mesmerism.-Nero's Baths. Naples, November, 1841. "THEY do not err who say," that unless you would leave the world without seeing all that is most interesting in it, you must visit Italy.. I had certainly raised my expectations concerning what I should see during this day at Baiæ pretty high; but the reality has so greatly exceeded these expectations, that I feel ashamed of the poverty of fancy and of information which could do no more towards preparing me for it. . . There is positively hardly a step of the way that is not pregnant with wonder.. At a short distance beyond the beautiful Chiaja, we entered the marvellous grotto of Posilipo, so perfectly familiar to us all by name, yet so strangely new to the mind upon approaching it. Had I never seen our very useful and respectable rail-road tunnels, I think I should have been less electrified on entering the Grotto of Po ... 208 GROTTO OF POSILIPO. — VIRGIL'S TOMB. silipo. It bears about the same proportion to ... our subterranean routes that the Coliseum does to our theatres. Will our dear little descendants travel contentedly through a rabbit burrow? And will they amuse themselves in theatres which, in our day, might serve for Punch? The immensity of these ancient works give me a sensation that I cannot describe to you. Surely it cannot be mortification. that would be too silly, ... .. and too ungrateful. But, certes "there were giants in those days," giants in will, giants in enterprize, and, stranger still, giants in power, to carry their bold projects into effect. As we entered this wonderous arch, I remembered that Virgil slept above our heads, and thereupon a comforting thought passed across me, that great as he was, there had been greater since, as witness Danté, so that the deteriorating process is not quite uniform, and it may be, not quite certain; and I took comfort, and went on in better spirits. The isle of Pisida, where Brutus lived, and Portia mourned for him, is a beautiful object from the road, after quitting the grotto..... I could have wished that the building which now crowns its height, had been something more dignified and poetical than a Lazeretto. At Pozzuoli the time we spent in waiting for a guide seemed all too long, for nothing can be much more miserable looking than the place not, however, including its antiquities! . . . . but |