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ROLLO IN NAPLES,
BY
JACOB ABBOTT.
BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY TAGGARD AND THOMPSON.
M DCCC LXIV.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by
JACOB ABBOTT,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.
ELECTROTYPED AT THE
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON.
[Illustration: THE ORANGE GARDEN.--See page 218.]
[Illustration: ROLLO'S TOUR IN EUROPE.
TAGGARD & THOMPSON. Publishers--Boston.]
ROLLO'S TOUR IN EUROPE.
ORDER OF THE VOLUMES
ROLLO ON THE ATLANTIC.
ROLLO IN PARIS.
ROLLO IN SWITZERLAND.
ROLLO IN LONDON.
ROLLO ON THE RHINE.
ROLLO IN SCOTLAND.
ROLLO IN GENEVA.
ROLLO IN HOLLAND.
ROLLO IN NAPLES.
ROLLO IN ROME.
PRINCIPAL PERSONS OF THE STORY.
ROLLO; twelve years of age.
MR. and MRS. HOLIDAY; Rollo's father and mother, travelling in Europe.
THANNY; Rollo's younger brother.
JANE; Rollo's cousin, adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Holiday.
MR. GEORGE; a young gentleman, Rollo's uncle.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I.--THE VETTURINO, 13
II.--CONTRACTS AND AGREEMENTS, 37
III.--THE JOURNEY, 57
IV.--SITUATION OF NAPLES, 76
V.--PLANNING THE ASCENSION, 91
VI.--GOING UP, 106
VII.--THE SUMMIT, 131
VIII.--POMPEII, 157
IX.--THE MUSEUM, 174
X.--THE STREETS, 188
XI.--AN EXCURSION, 194
XII.--THE ORANGE GARDENS, 213
ENGRAVINGS.
PAGE
THE ORANGE GARDEN, (Frontispiece.)
TRAVELLING IN ITALY, 11
A CHURCH AT FLORENCE, 23
READING THE ARTICLES, 55
EMBLEMS ON THE CROSS, 63
ASCENDING THE MOUNTAINS, 67
SITUATION OF NAPLES, 77
VIEW THROUGH THE GLASS, 87
CALASH COMING INTO NAPLES, 111
THE ASCENT, 127
VIEW OF THE CRATER, 137
COMING DOWN, 153
THE MOSAIC, 183
THE PUBLIC GARDENS, 197
[Illustration: TRAVELLING IN ITALY.]
ROLLO IN NAPLES.
CHAPTER I.
THE VETTURINO.
If ever you make a journey into Italy, there is one thing that you will
like very much indeed; and that is the mode of travelling that prevails
in that country. There are very few railroads there; and though there
are stage coaches on all the principal routes, comparatively few people,
except the inhabitants of the country, travel in them. Almost all who
come from foreign lands to make journeys in Italy for pleasure, take
what is called a _vetturino_.
There is no English word for _vetturino_, because where the English
language is spoken, there is no such thing. The word comes from the
Italian word _vettura_, which means a travelling carriage, and it
denotes the man that owns the carriage, and drives it wherever the party
that employs him wishes to go. Thus there is somewhat the same relation
between the Italian words _vettura_ and _vetturino_ that there is
between the English words _chariot_ and _charioteer_.
The Italian _vetturino_, then, in the simplest English phrase that will
express it, is a _travelling carriage man_; that is, he is a man who
keeps a carriage and a team of horses, in order to take parties of
travellers with them on long journeys, wherever they wish to go. Our
word _coachman_ does not express the idea at all. A coachman is a man
employed by the owner of a carriage simply to drive it; whereas the
vetturino is the proprietor of his establishment; and though he
generally drives it himself, still the driving is only a small part of
his business. He might employ another man to go with him and drive, but
he would on that account be none the less the vetturino.
The vetturino usually takes the entire charge of the party, and provides
for them in every respect,--that is, if they make the arrangement with
him in that way, which they generally do, inasmuch as, since they do
not, ordinarily, know the language of the country, it is much more
convenient for them to arrange with him to take care of them than to
attempt to take care of themselves. Accordingly, in making a journey of
several days, as, for example, from Genoa to Florence, from Florence to
Rome, or from Rome to Venice, or to Naples, the vetturino determines the
length of each day's journey; he chooses the hotels where to stop, both
at noon and for the night; he attends to the passports in passing the
frontiers, and also to the examination of the baggage at the custom
houses; and on arriving at the hotels he orders what the travellers
require, and settles the bill the next morning. For all this the
travellers pay him one round sum, which includes every thing. This sum
consists of a certain amount for the carriage and horses, and an
additional amount of about a dollar and a half or a dollar and three
quarters a day, as agreed upon beforehand, for hotel expenses on the
way. Thus, by this mode of travelling, the whole care is taken off from
the traveller's mind, and he has nothing to do during the daytime but to
sit in his carriage and enjoy himself, and at night to eat, drink,
sleep, and take his comfort at the hotel.
It was at Florence that Mr. George and Rollo first commenced to travel
with a vetturino. They came to Florence by steamer and railway; that is,
by steamer to Leghorn, and thence across the country by railway.
Florence is a very pretty place, with the blue and beautiful River Arno
running through the middle of it, and ancient stone bridges leading
across the river from side to side. The town is filled with magnificent
churches and palaces, built, some of them, a thousand years ago, and all
so richly adorned with sculptures, paintings, bronzes, and mosaics, that
the whole world flock there to see them. People go there chiefly in the
winter. At that season the town is crowded with strangers. A great many
people, too, go there in the winter to avoid the cold weather which
prevails at that time of the year, in all the more northerly countries
of Europe.
There is so little winter in Florence that few of the houses have any
fireplaces in them except in the kitchen. When there comes a cold day,
the people warm themselves by means of a jug or jar of earthen ware,
with a handle passing over across the top, by which they carry it about.
They fill these jars half full of hot embers, and so carry them with
them wherever they want to go. The women, when they sit down, put the
jar under their dresses on the floor or pavement beneath them, and the
men place it right before them between their feet.
You will see market women and flower girls sitting in the corners of the
streets in the winter, attending to their business, and keeping
themselves warm all the time with these little fire jars; and artists
in the palaces and picture galleries, each with one of them by his side,
or close before him, while he is at work copying the works of the great
masters, or making drawings from the antique statues.
There is another very curious use that the people of Florence make of
these jars; and that is they warm the beds with them when any body is
sick, so as to require this indulgence. You would think it very
difficult to warm a bed with an open jar filled with burning embers. The
way they do it is this: they hang the jar in the inside of a sort of
wooden cage, shaped like a bushel basket, and about as large. They turn
this cage upside down, and hang the jar up in it by means of a hook
depending inside. They turn down the bed clothes and put the cage in it,
jar of coals and all. They then put back the bed clothes, and cover the
cage all up. They leave it so for a quarter of an hour, and then,
carefully turning the clothes down again, they take the jar out, and the
bed is warmed.
But to return to Mr. George and Rollo. They engaged a vetturino for the
first time at Florence. Mr. George had gone to Florence chiefly for the
purpose of examining the immense collections of paintings and statuary
which exist there. Rollo went, not on account of the paintings or
statues,--for he did not care much about such things,--but because he
liked to go any where where he could see new places, and be entertained
by new scenes. Accordingly, while Mr. George was at work in the
galleries of Florence, studying, by the help of catalogues, the famous
specimens of ancient art, Rollo was usually rambling about the streets,
observing the manners and customs of the people, and watching the
singular and curious scenes that every where met his eye.
The reason why there are so many paintings and sculptures in Italy is
this: in the middle ages, it was the fashion, in all the central parts
of Europe, for the people to spend almost all their surplus money in
building and decorating churches. Indeed, there was then very little
else that they could do. At the present time, people invest their funds,
as fast as they accumulate them, in building ships and railroads, docks
for the storage of merchandise, houses and stores in cities, to let for
the sake of the rent, and country seats, or pretty private residences of
various kinds, for themselves. But in the middle ages very little could
be done in the way of investments like these. There were no railroads,
and there was very little use for ships. There was no profit to be
gained by building houses and stores, for there were so many wars and
commotions among the people of the different towns and kingdoms, that
nothing was stable or safe. For the same reason it was useless for men
to spend their money in building and ornamenting their own houses, for
at the first approach of an enemy, the town in which they lived was
likely to be sacked, and their houses, and all the fine furniture which
they might contain, would be burned or destroyed.
But the churches were safe. The people of the different countries had so
much veneration for sacred places, and for every thing connected with
religion, that they were afraid to touch or injure any thing that had
been consecrated to a religious use. To plunder a church, or a convent,
or an abbey, or to do any thing to injure or destroy the property that
they contained, was regarded as _sacrilege_; and sacrilege they deemed a
dreadful crime, abhorred by God and man. Thus, while they would burn and
destroy hundreds of dwellings without any remorse, and turn the wretched
inmates out at midnight into the streets to die of exposure, terror, and
despair, they would stop at once when they came to the church, afraid to
harm it in any way, or to touch the least thing that it contained.
Accordingly, while every thing else in a conquered town was doomed to
the most reckless destruction, all that was in the church,--the most
delicate paintings, and the most costly gold and silver images and
utensils--were as safe as if they were surrounded by impregnable castle
walls.
Of course these notions were very mistaken ones. According to the
teachings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, it must be a greater sin
to burn down the cottage of a poor widow, and turn her out at midnight
into the streets to die, than to plunder for gain the richest altar in
the world.
From these and various other similar causes, it happened that, in the
middle ages,--that is, from five hundred to a thousand years
ago,--almost all the great expenditures of money, in all the great
cities and towns of Europe, were made for churches. Sometimes these
churches were so large that they were several hundred years in building.
One generation would begin, another would continue, and a third would
finish the work; that is, provided the finishing work was ever done.
Great numbers of them remain unfinished to the present day, and always
will remain so.
It is generally, however, the exterior which remains incomplete. Within
they are magnificent beyond description. They are so profusely adorned
with altars, chapels, crucifixes, paintings, vessels of gold and
silver, and with sculptures and monuments of every kind, that on
entering them one is quite bewildered with the magnificence of the
scene.
There are a great many different altars where divine service may be
performed, some arranged along the sides of the church, in the recesses
between the pillars, and others in the transepts, and in various little
chapels opening here and there from the transepts and the aisles; and so
extensive and vast is the interior that sometimes four or five different
congregations are engaged in worship in different parts of the church at
the same time, without at all disturbing one another.
One of the most celebrated of these great churches is the cathedral at
Florence, where Mr. George and Rollo were now staying. There is a
representation of it on the next page, which will give you some idea of
its form, though it can convey no conception of its immense magnitude.
The dome that surmounts the centre of the building is the largest in the
world. It was a hundred years after the church was commenced before the
dome was put on. The dome is about a hundred and forty feet wide from
side to side, and almost as high as it is wide. It is more than a
hundred and thirty feet high, which is enough for twelve or fifteen
stories of a good-sized house. And this is the dome alone. The whole
height of the church, from the ground to the top of the cross, is nearly
four hundred feet. You will get a better idea of how high this is, if
you ask of your father, or of some one that knows, what the height is of
some tall steeple near where you live.
When the architect who conceived the idea of finishing the church by
putting this dome upon it first proposed it, the other architects of the
town declared that it could not be done. It was impossible, they said,
to build so large a dome on the top of so lofty a building. But he
insisted that it was not impossible. He could not only build the dome at
that height, but he could first build an octagonal lantern, he said, on
the top of the church, and then build the dome upon that, which would
carry the dome up a great deal higher. At last they consented to let him
make the attempt; and he succeeded. You see the dome in the engraving,
and the octagonal lantern beneath it, on which it rests. The lantern is
the part which has the round windows.
You see to the left of the church, at the farther end, a tall, square
tower. This is the bell tower. There are six bells in it. It was
designed to have a spire upon it, but the spire has not yet been built,
and perhaps it never will be.
[Illustration: A CHURCH AT FLORENCE.]
This bell tower alone cost an enormous sum of money. It is faced on
every side, as indeed the church itself is, with different colored
marbles, and the four walls of it, on the outside, are so profusely
adorned with sculptures, statues, and other costly and elaborate
architectural decorations, that it would take a week to examine them
fully in detail.
The part of the church which is presented to view in the engraving is
the end. The front proper is on a line with the farther side of the bell
tower. The engraving does not show us the length of the edifice at all,
except so far as we gain an idea of it by the long procession which we
see at the side. As I have already said, the length is more than five
hundred feet, which is nearly half a quarter of a mile.
The putting on of the dome was considered the greatest achievement in
the building of the church; and the architect who planned and
superintended the work gained for himself immortal honor. After his
death a statue of him was made, and placed in a niche in the wall of the
houses on one side of the square, opposite the dome. He is represented
as sitting in a chair, holding a plan of the work in his hand, and
looking up to see it as it appeared completed. We can just see this
statue in the foreground of the picture, on the left.
And now I must return to the story.
While Mr. George and Rollo were in Florence, Rollo was occupied mainly,
as I have already said, in rambling about the town, and observing the
scenes of real and active life, which every where met his view in the
streets and squares, while Mr. George spent his time chiefly in the
churches, and in the galleries of painting and sculpture, studying the
works of art. One morning after breakfast, Mr. George was going to the
great gallery in the palace of the grand duke, to spend the day there.
Rollo said that he would walk with him a little way. So they walked
together along the street which led by the bank of the river.
"Uncle George," said Rollo, "how much longer is it going to take for you
to study these paintings and statues till you are satisfied?"
"Five or ten years," said Mr. George.
"O uncle George!" exclaimed Rollo; "I have seen as much of them as _I_
want to see already."
"You have not seen one of them yet," said Mr. George.
"Not seen one of them!" repeated Rollo.
"No, not one of them," replied Mr. George.
"I don't know what you mean by that," said Rollo.
"I'll show you what I mean some time or other," said Mr. George, "when
you are in one of the galleries with me."
"I should like to have you," said Rollo; "but now I really want to know
when you are going to be ready to go on towards Naples. I'd rather see
Mount Vesuvius than all the paintings in the world, especially if there
is a good blazing eruption coming out of it, and plenty of red-hot
stones."
"The first question to be settled," said Mr. George, "is, how we shall
go."
"Are there more ways than one?" asked Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George; "there are three or four ways. We are here at
Florence, in the interior of the country, and Rome is also in the
interior; but there is a seaport on the coast for each city. So we can
go from here to Leghorn, which is the seaport for Florence, by the
railroad, and there we can take a steamboat and go to Civita Vecchia,
which is the seaport for Rome. There we can land and go up to Rome in
some sort of a carriage."
"I like that way," said Rollo. "I like that best of all. There are a
railroad and a steamboat both in it."
"Another way," continued Mr. George, "is, we can go by the malle
post."[A]
[Footnote A: The malle post is a sort of despatch carriage, that takes
the mails. It can take also two or three passengers. They change horses
very often with the malle post, and drive very fast.]
"I should like to go by the malle post," said Rollo; "they keep the
horses on the gallop almost all the way."
"Then again," continued Mr. George, "if we choose we can engage a
vetturino."
"Yes," said Rollo; "there are plenty of them always standing out here by
the bridge. They ask me almost, every day, when I go by, whether I want
a carriage. 'Want a carriage, sir,' they say, 'to go to Rome, to Naples,
to Venice, to Genoa?'"
Here Rollo repeated the words of the vetturini, imitating the peculiar
intonations with which they spoke, in quite a skilful manner: "To Rome!
Naples! Venice! Nice! Genoa!"
"Yes," said Mr. George, "those are the men."
"And, come to think of it," said Rollo, "I believe, after all, I would
rather go with a vetturino. We ride along so pleasantly day after day,
and go through all the towns, cracking our whip, and seeing so many
curious things all along the road side!"
"Yes," said Mr. George; "but there is one difficulty. We are only two,
and the carriages of the vetturini are usually large enough for four or
six."
"And would not they go for two?" asked Rollo.
"O, yes," said Mr. George; "they will go for two; but then the men must
have full price for their carriage and horses, and that makes it very
expensive for two."
"What do people do, then," asked Rollo, "when there are only two to go?"
"They generally find some other people that want to go," replied Mr.
George, "and make up a party, and so divide the expense."
"And can't we do that?" asked Rollo.
"We do not know any body here," said Mr. George.
Rollo did not know what to say to this, and so he was silent, and walked
along, thinking what it was best to do. Presently, after a moment's
pause, he added,--
"I mean to ask some of the vetturinos if they have not got a carriage
for two."
"_Vetturini_ is the plural of vetturino, in Italian," said Mr. George,
"and not vetturinos."
"But I am not speaking Italian," said Rollo; "I am speaking English."
"True," said Mr. George.
At this stage of the conversation Mr. George and Rollo arrived at the
end of the bridge across the Arno, which Mr. George had to pass over in
going to his gallery. This bridge is a very ancient one, and is quite a
curiosity, as it is built massively of stone, and is lined with a row of
shops on each side, so that in passing over it you would think it was a
street instead of a bridge, were it not that the shops are so small that
you can look directly through them, and see the river through the
windows on the back side.
These shops are occupied by jewellers, who keep for sale the mosaic
pins, bracelets, and earrings, for which Florence is so famous, and
great numbers of these mosaics, as well as various other kinds of
jewelry, are exposed to view in little show cases that are arranged in a
curious manner, on small counters before the windows, so that any one
can see them all in passing along.
On reaching this bridge, Rollo concluded to stop, and look at the
mosaics, and so his uncle left him and went on alone.
As Rollo was standing at one of the little shop windows a few minutes
after his uncle had left him, a man dressed in a blue frock, and with a
sort of woollen comforter of bright colors about his neck, came up to
him, and asked him in French whether the party that he belonged to did
not want a carriage to go to Rome. Rollo perceived at once that the man
was a vetturino.
"I don't know but that we do," said he. "Have you got a carriage?"
"Yes," replied the vetturino; "I have got a large and very nice
carriage, and four excellent horses."
"Then it won't do," said Rollo, "for there are only two in our party,
and a large carriage and four horses will be more than we need."
"O, but that will make no difference," said the vetturino. "You see I'm
a return, and I will take you about as cheap as you can go in a small
carriage."
"For how much?" asked Rollo.
"Why, my price is three napoleons a day," said the vetturino, "for a
full party; but as you are only two, I will take you for less. Have you
got a great deal of baggage?"
"No; very little," said Rollo.
After some further conversation with the vetturino, Rollo concluded to
make an appointment with him to come to the hotel that evening and see
his uncle George.
"Come immediately after dinner," said Rollo.
"At what time?" asked the vetturino.
"Why, we dine at half past six," said Rollo, "and uncle George will be
through at eight."
"Then I will come at eight," said the vetturino.
One reason why Rollo concluded to make this appointment was, that he
particularly liked the vetturino's appearance. He had an open and
intelligent countenance, and his air and bearing were such as to give
Rollo the idea that he was a very good-natured and sociable, as well as
capable man. In answer to a question from Rollo, he said that his name
was Vittorio.
When Mr. George came home that evening, a short time before dinner,
Rollo told him what he had done.
"Good!" said Mr. George. "We are in luck. I should not be surprised if
we should be able to fill his carriage for him. I have found a party."
Mr. George further stated to Rollo that, in rambling through the rooms
of the gallery where he had been spending the day, he had met with a
lady of his acquaintance who was travelling with two children and a
maid, and that he had been talking with her about forming a party to
travel together to Naples.
"Are the children girls or boys?" asked Rollo.
"One of them is a girl and the other is a boy," said Mr. George; "but
the girl is sick."
"Is she?" asked Rollo.
"At least she has been sick," said Mr. George. "She has had a fever, but
now she is slowly getting well. Her name is Rosalie."
"I think that is rather a sentimental name," said Rollo.
"They call her Rosie, sometimes," said Mr. George.
"That's a little better," said Rollo, "but not much. And what is her
other name?"
"Gray," said Mr. George.
* * * * *
Vittorio came at eight o'clock that evening, according to appointment.
The first thing that Mr. George did was to propose to go and see his
carriage. So they all went together to see it. It was in a stable near
by. Mr. George and Rollo were both well pleased with the carriage. It
had four seats inside, like an ordinary coach. Besides these there were
two good seats outside, under a sort of canopy which came forward over
them like a chaise top. In front of these, and a little lower down, was
the driver's seat.
The inside of such a coach is called the interior.[B] The place outside,
under the chaise top, is called the _coupé_.[C] Rollo generally called
it the _coop_.
[Footnote B: In French, _l'interieur_.]
[Footnote C: Pronounced _coopay_, only the last syllable is spoken
rather short.]
The chaise top in front could be turned back, so as to throw the two
seats there entirely open. In the same manner the top of the interior
could be opened, so as to make the carriage a barouche.
"It is just exactly such a carriage as we want," said Rollo, "if Mrs.
Gray will only let you and me have the coop."
"We'll see about that," said Mr. George.
Mr. George then proceeded to discuss with Vittorio the terms and
conditions of the agreement which should be made between them, in case
the party should conclude to hire the carriage; and after ascertaining
precisely what they were, he told Vittorio that he would decide the next
morning, and he appointed ten o'clock as the time when Vittorio was to
call to get the decision. Mr. George and Rollo then went back to the
hotel.
"Why did not you engage him at once?" asked Rollo, as they walked along.
"It was such a good carriage!"
"Because I want first to see what terms and conditions I can make with
Mrs. Gray," replied Mr. George.
"Why?" asked Rollo; "don't you think she will be willing to pay her
share?"
"O, yes," said Mr. George. "She says she is willing to pay the whole, if
I will only let her go with us."
"And shall you let her pay the whole?" asked Rollo.
"No, indeed," replied Mr. George. "I shall let her pay her share, which
will be just two thirds, for she has four in her party, and we are two."
"And so her portion will be four sixths," said Rollo, "and that is the
same as two thirds."
"Exactly," said Mr. George.
"So then it is all settled," said Rollo.
"About the money it is," replied Mr. George; "but that was not what I
referred to. When two parties form a plan for travelling together in the
same carriage for many days, it is necessary to have a very precise
understanding beforehand about every thing, or else in the end they are
very sure to quarrel."
"To quarrel!" repeated Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George; "and generally the more intimate their
friendship for each other is before they set out, the more sure they are
to quarrel in the end."
"That's curious," said Rollo.
"They begin by being very polite to each other," continued Mr. George;
"but by and by, a thousand questions begin to come up, and there is
nobody to decide them. For a time each one professes a great readiness
to yield to the other; but before long each begins to think that the
other assumes too much of the direction. Mrs. A. thinks that Mrs. B.
keeps the carriage too much shut up, or that she always manages to have
the best seat; and Mrs. B. thinks that Mrs. A. takes the best room too
often at the hotels; or that she is never ready at the proper time; or
that she always manages to have what she likes at the hotels, without
paying enough regard to the wishes of the rest of the party."
"Is that the way they act?" asked Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George; "that is the way exactly. I have heard the
secret history of a great many travelling parties that began very
brightly, but ended in heart-burnings, miffs, and all sorts of troubles.
The only way to prevent this is to have a very definite and precise
understanding on all these points before we set out. And that is what I
am going to have with Mrs. Gray."
"And suppose she won't come to any agreement," said Rollo. "She'll say,
'La, it's no matter. We shall not quarrel.'"
"Then I won't go with her," said Mr. George.