BAIE. BEING again favoured with a remarkably fine day for the season, I retraced my course to Pozzuoli, and continued along the sea until I reached the Lucrine lake, which is so near the water's edge that a small connecting canal has been formed across the road. Dismounting, I walked around this calm and apparently shallow sheet of water, then threaded a pleasant winding path, which finally brought me to the lake of Avernus, upon the banks of which is the Sybil's cave. I inspected, with an attention which the scenery itself never would have elicited, the scene so minutely described by Virgil, and said to have suggested his idea of the infernal regions. I next stopped at the ruins of Nero's villa, and especially observed the vapour-baths below, formed by the sea-water heated by the volcanic elements beneath the bank, and thence sending up volumes of saline and sulphurous steam. Through several crevices this vapour escapes exteriorly, but its chief outlet is into what originally constituted the subterraneous apartments of the villa. Continuing rapidly on our way to Baiæ, I de scended into the old dungeons of a Roman prison, and visited the antique, arched and laboured reservoir in its vicinity. I was thus soon in view of a large expanse of water, separated from the Mediterranean by a narrow and marshy fen, and bounded on the right by a slightly declining hill, partially cultivated-the Stygian lake and Elysian fields of the great Mantuan! A promontory stretching into the sea, and forming, in conjunction with the land on which I stood, a small bay, is the port Misenum. The paths leading to these sites, together forming the whole landscape so minutely described in the Enead, were worn by the pilgrimages of travellers. The very children of the village knew my purpose, and verbosely designated the localities. What an indirect but indisputable testimony this to truths, which many are fain theoretically to deny! Many a hill and vale, many an extent of water and tract of cultivated land of surpassing beauty, lie unadmired amid the vastness of our continent; and yet these localities, even when bereft of the flowery accompaniments of spring, and undecked with the golden splendours of autumn, are lingered over by devotees of every country with an interest and sentiment that nature's highest glories fail to inspire. And all this because an ancient and beautiful poet was wont to wander there, and is thought thence to have derived many of his descriptive ideas. In truth, where the master spirits of the earth have been, or whatever spots their recorded thoughts have hallow K ed, there is ever after an unfailing attraction to beings of a like nature. Returning, I examined the octangular brickwork remain of the temple of Venus, and the more perfect remnant of that of Neptune. Baia and its vicinity were evidently favourite resorts of the old Romans. Everywhere the foundations of a wall, the archway of a subterranean apartment, or a broken and crude mass of plastered brick-work, denote the former existence of extensive buildings. The Cumæen amphitheatre and lava-paved road were passed on my way to Naples. The lovely and expansive view from the garden above Virgil's tomb, an excursion in the beautiful bay, and a few walks amid the gaudiness, bustle and beggary of the city, completed my experiences here. It is only in the environs that we find that tranquil classic scenery for which Italy is renowned. There, when balmy weather prevails, every object breathes the quiet and picturesque influence of antiquated art and hallowed nature. "Queen of cities! Goddess of ocean! with the beauty crowned Of Aphrodite from her parent deep! If thine Ausonian heaven denies the strength That nerves a mountain race of sterner mould, It gives thee charms whose very softness wins All hearts to worship." "I loved her from my boyhood-she to me |