"The spirit of the spot shall lead
Thy footsteps to a slope of green access."
The cemetery is an open space among the ruins, covered in winter with
violets and daisies. "It might make one in love with death, to think
that one should be buried in so sweet a place." So wrote Shelley,
whose heart is contained in a tomb at the top left-hand corner of the
new ground, his body having been burned upon the shore at Lerici,
where it was thrown up by the sea. _Passing into the old ground_, "in
the romantic and lovely cemetery under the pyramid which is the tomb
of Cestius, and the mossy walls and towers, now mouldering and
desolate, which formed the circuit of ancient Rome" (Shelley), here,
on the right of the entrance, "lies one whose name was writ in water,"
Keats desiring this to be engraved upon his tomb. A fellow-poet says,
"You feel an interest here, a sympathy you were not prepared for; you
are yourself in a foreign land, and they are for the most part your
countrymen, Englishmen."
_In returning from the Cemetery, nearly opposite the exit, a lane, Via
S. Maria, leads up to the_ AVENTINE HILL. The square at the top is
decorated with military trophies of the Knights of Malta. _A door on
the left leads to_ their Priory; it contains a key-hole;--look through
it, 'tis worth your while.