when there was ice on the puddles and at the edges of the brooks, but
elsewhere everything was dry and dusty. The corn on the hills began to
look yellow for want of rain, but that in the valleys was strong and
healthy, and the hawthorn was just coming into flower in spite of the
frost, which has come this year so much after its usual time. The road
follows the valley of the Tiber, which is bounded by low hills,
descending pretty steeply towards the stream; sometimes close to the
river, sometimes receding from it, and leaving a wide and fertile plain.
In the first part of the way it is well cultivated, but thinly
inhabited; farther on, cultivation diminishes, and ceases when we ascend
an advancing and conspicuous point of these hills, and descend into the
remains of the sacred wood. It is here mere brushwood, but at a distance
to the left we may perceive plenty of large trees. The cutting down of
this sacred wood is said to have occasioned the mal aria to extend much
more about Rome; but this mal aria is a very mysterious affair, and many
inconsistent stories are told about it. The letting in the sea breezes
has ruined the country; yet the sea-shore is more healthy than the land
immediately behind it. Within the walls of Rome some houses are said to
be totally uninhabitable in the summer, while others, a hundred yards
distant, because they are a little higher, a little farther from the
Tiber, or from the country, or more surrounded by other houses, are
pronounced entirely free. Out of Rome, and in the less inhabited parts
within its walls, the hills are reckoned better than the valleys; but in
modern Rome, the lower part of the city is more healthy than the upper.
The Romans fancy that turning up the ground, in order to make a public
garden on Monte Pincio, has made the street below it unhealthy. This mal
aria occurs in the heats of summer, and in autumn, but this spring has
been very unhealthy in Rome, and I believe, all over Italy. Among the
numerous causes to which the mal aria is attributed, the alternation of
hot days and cold nights, or rather perhaps, of hot sun and cold wind,
is one; and we had a great deal of this during the months of March and
April, but perhaps we shall find the root of the present disorder,
rather in the scarcity of food, and the consequent bad nourishment of
the people. The quantity of asphodel (_Asphodelus ramosus_) in this wood
gives it a very un-English appearance. After passing the wood, the road
lies for two or three miles across a marsh, comprising a large pool, or
lake. These pieces of water in flat countries frequently have
considerable beauty; but I do not think that a Norfolk Broad, though
somewhat similar, would give you any adequate idea of this mere. It is
of considerable size, and the dark shade of the woods of Castel Fusano,
with trees of the stone pine rising over some gently swelling hills at
the further end, formed a beautiful feature; while as we approached
Ostia, the high hills of Albano united with this wood and water to
compose a charming landscape.
The present town of Ostia is a miserable place, with a castle of the
middle ages, which is certainly picturesque. The remains of the old city
are at some distance; a large space of ground, all covered over with
foundations and substructions. The principal building remaining is a
rectangular brick edifice, probably a temple, in front of which was a
portico; but the columns, and all the ornamental architecture, have been
destroyed or taken away; some fragments still lying about, and others
which have been removed to the Vatican, announce it to have been of a
very beautiful Corinthian order; and both the style and execution
correspond so precisely with the remains of the forum of Trajan at Rome,
that I have no doubt in assigning it to the same period, and the same
architect. A great deal of digging has been performed here at different
times, but as usual, with the mere object of finding marbles or bronzes,
without any regular system of operations, and without the precaution of
making any exact plan of the foundations of buildings thus exposed and
covered up again. On the other side of the principal branch of the Tiber
are the remains of the port and basin of Trajan, now a shallow lake. It
appears to have been a heptagonal basin of perhaps half a mile in
diameter. The regularity of the form has been disturbed by time, but we
may still trace the walls which surrounded it, and which indeed form a
great part of its present boundary. Some of the marble posts to which
the ships were moored, still remain; and there are fragments of what
were probably warehouses, and buildings of that nature attached to this
port. There is also a circular building which perhaps was a temple. The
whole together was truly a magnificent undertaking, but whether it was a
judicious one may perhaps be doubted. As a port, nature has declared
against it, and it is destroyed, nor does there seem to have been any
provision for keeping it clear.
From Ostia I walked down to the shore, among brushwood of a hundred
flowering shrubs. The sand hills nearest the sea are chiefly covered
with junipers. The sand itself is dark, and has a dirty look, arising
from its colour; its material is chiefly volcanic. Herds of buffaloes
graze in these woods, the ugliest of the ox tribe. They are said to be
sometimes mischievous, and are therefore not very pleasant companions in
a solitary walk; but though they frequently approached to stare at me,
they always dispersed before I came very near them.
----------------------------
1826.
There are two or three other very interesting excursions which may be
made in the neighbourhood of Rome. One of these is to Veii, where I have
just been in company with my friends Scott and Pardini. The situation of
this city has been, as you know, long a subject of dispute, but it is
now determined with so much certainty, that one wonders how it could
ever have been doubted. It is only very lately that the Roman
antiquaries have suspected that a careful examination of the localities
might help to determine questions of this sort. We leave the road to
Florence just beyond the tenth mile-stone, and a practicable
carriage-way conducts us to Isola Farnese, a small village with a
baronial palace, and various excavations in the precipitous and almost
insulated rock of tufo on which it stands. At the foot of this rock runs
a little stream, and an extensive platform at the top of the opposite
steep ascent is the site of the ancient Veii. The bank is steep all
round, and the boundary of the city followed the sinuosities of the
hill. Parts of the ancient walls remain. They are of squared masonry,
about eight or nine feet thick, and the blocks not very large. There are
a few fragments of Roman times scattered about; and in a rock above the
Cremera, (another little brook which afterwards unites with that below
Isola Farnese) there are remains of sepulchres, which perhaps belonged
to the ancient city. Yet we find here the usual sepulchral niche, with
the cinerary urn at bottom, and some remains of the stucco, and of the
red paint which adorned it. One of them has a recess within the niche to
receive a tablet with the inscription, and part of the iron nails by
which this tablet was attached to the rock may still be distinguished.
At a little distance are other rocks cut in a similar manner. All of
them are on the steep irregular bank between the city and the stream.
Ascending by the banks of this little brook, we come to the Ponte Sodo,
where the rivulet has been turned from its natural bed, and passes
through a subterranean channel under a spur of the hill of Veii. I
suspect this to be a Roman, not an Etruscan work, but I cannot explain
why it was done. Just where the water enters, this perforation divides
another channel obliquely, the two parts of which are seen at an
elevation of about ten feet above the bottom of the present opening. At
the other end is a small niche for a tablet.
Another of our excursions was to Gabii. We passed round the north end of
its little lake, and found a few fragments of what was probably the wall
of the ancient city, but the Roman town stood at some distance near the
southern end of the lake. Here, some years ago, excavations were made,
which it is said exhibited the plan of the forum; but after the marbles,
which were the object of search, had been obtained, the place was filled
up again, and no memorial preserved of any particulars. In this part are
the remains of what has been supposed to be the temple of Juno of the
ancient Gabii, but it has no evidence of such high antiquity. It appears
to have had columns round three sides, but no posticum. The walls are
thin, composed of squared blocks of Gabian stone, which is of the nature
of peperino, but harder, and of a coarser grain, and abounds with large
fragments of a compact lava. Within the temple, at three or four feet
from the end, appears to have been an inclosure of metal with three
openings, two of which had gates, but the central one was entirely free.
The pavement is partly of a plain white mosaic, partly of stucco, and in
one place both, the stucco lying over the mosaic. The external columns
had deep flutes with a fillet between, and I think with an Attic base.
They were therefore not Doric, but I could not find the least portion of
a capital to determine what was the order employed. They have been
covered at one time with a thick stucco. The court had small chambers on
each side, and a semicircular flight of steps opposite to the front of
the temple: just without the inclosure are the remains of a small
edifice of large squared blocks of masonry. The whole hill is cut up by
extensive quarries.
I will add to these an account of an excursion to Nettuno, and the
ancient Antium, made with two Italian friends. One of the party had to
stop at Albano, which took us a little out of our way and occasioned us
to miss Boville. The road from Albano runs along the edge of the ancient
crater below Aricia, and the descent thence into the regular road was
hardly passable. We procured bread, wine, and eggs, at Carrocelli; in a
miserable hovel inhabited only half the year. Here we entered the Sylva
Sacra, where numberless tracks are marked in the deep sandy soil, and
make a guide necessary. We found few traces of antiquity on the shore at
Nettuno, but there are numerous foundations in the sea, and particularly
a large, and symmetrical building, which we contemplated at leisure from
the window of our bed-room. The shore between this and Porto d’ Anzo is
edged with a low cliff, chiefly composed of agglutinated shells.
Fragments of Roman buildings abound both on the shore and in the water.
The cliffs are much broken, and being fringed with shrubs, have a very
picturesque appearance. The great mass of antiquities is beyond the
present village of Porto d’ Anzo. Here we trace the piers of the ancient
harbour of Antium, and the quantity of substructions is immense: all is
imperial, and full of reticulated work. The more ancient city was
perhaps on the hill behind, which seems to be artificially separated
from the rest of the range. We lost our way in the sacred wood, which
between Nettuno and Ardea abounds with noble trees of cork, ilex, oak
and cerro. Sometimes filled up with underwood, at others almost clear,
and now and then exhibiting open spaces of pasture. Before reaching
Ardea, the volcanic points of the hills form perpendicular crests, which
frequently appear to have been cut, and caves are numerous. The present
Ardea occupies a small detached rock; and where nature has denied the
perpendicular crest, it is supplied by walls. About two thirds of a mile
from the present circuit are two long artificial mounds; and in the
hollow between them, the remains of a gateway. About a mile further are
two more _aggeres_. In both these places the hollow from which the earth
has been taken to form the mounds, is on the side farthest from the
city. Everywhere else the long, tongue-shaped hill furnishes a natural
defence. Great part of our way back to Rome lay along the ancient Via
Ardeatina.
LETTER XXXVIII.
JOURNEY TO FLORENCE.
_Florence, 10th July, 1817._
I HEARD so much at Rome of various objects in the north of Italy which I
had omitted, that I determined to appropriate a couple of months to
supply the deficiency, and to form a judgment at least, whether these
things were worth seeing or no. I therefore set off with a Vetturino on
the 25th of June. My companions were an Italian country gentleman and
his son, and a priest who was tutor in a gentleman’s family at Narni;
all very pleasant people. A man of small landed property in this
country, generally I believe, attends to the cultivation of his own
estate. The rich employ something between bailiffs and tenants, the
proprietor finding capital and stock, and receiving a certain portion of
the gross produce, varying according to the nature of the crop, and of
the soil; but a class of tenants working on their own capitals, for
their own advantage, on ground belonging to another man, but of which
the use is for a time secured to them, and paying only a fixed annual
rent, is a character very scarce, or entirely wanting in Italy. The
young gentleman had been drawn for the conscription during the authority
of the French; and he gave me an account of the various methods put in
practice by himself and his companions, to escape the journey. He also
amused me with an account of part of the contest between the Romans,
under the French government, and the Neapolitans, who at one time
occupied a very strong position at Cavi, near Cività Castellana. A
detachment of about 200 French were posted in the latter town, and they
had raised about 800 inhabitants of the Roman states; the Neapolitans
were about 5,000. When the Romans were drawn up in the square at Cività
Castellana, a report was spread that the enemy was coming, and they all
fell flat upon their faces. By reproaches, threats, and encouragements,
and by reminding them of the ancient celebrity of the Roman name, the
French at last persuaded them to rise, and to march out of the town.
When the Neapolitans saw the Roman troops advancing, they thought it
best to run away in time, lest they should lose the opportunity. A small
body of Calabrians declared that it was a shame to decline the contest,
and that let the Neapolitan commander do what he would, they should
maintain their post; but they were not in sufficient number to effect
anything.
As far as Monte Rosi we followed the same road as that by which I had
entered Rome, over the desolate Campagna. A church there, at the
entrance of the village, is of a pleasing form; it is a little
whitewashed thing, so that it wants the process of an artist’s mind in
separating the good from the bad, to discover that the form is
beautiful. The world in general is exceedingly unwilling to acknowledge
beauty of form when the material is bad, and on the other hand, where
the materials are good, it is very ready to praise the form also, if
that be anything tolerable; the one is a much more obvious and
indisputable merit than the other. In what the beauty of form in the
present case consists, I have not been able to determine. It is an
octagonal dome, with four projections below, forming a Greek cross, with
a little tower on each side of the entrance, inferior in height to the
dome. I call them towers and not turrets because they are continued down
to the ground, and turrets might be understood as only elevations raised
upon the front. Some lower buildings fill up the square, and at each
angle is a paltry little obelisk, not at all well shaped, yet certainly
contributing to the general beauty of the composition.
[Illustration: Illustration of church]
Just after leaving Monte Rosi we quitted the Siena road, and keeping to
the right, passed through fine groves of oak to Nepi, a town situated on
the edge of a deep ravine, and slept at Cività Castellana, which stands
on a point of land between two such ravines, deeper than that at Nepi,
and very wild and picturesque. The country here is intersected by
several of these inaccessible valleys, and the strength of the situation
gave birth to a conjecture that this must be the position of the ancient
Veii, which cost the Romans a ten years siege. There is a cathedral,
with a portico of small columns of granite and marble, and a mosaic
frieze something in the style of San Lorenzo _fuori delle mura_, at
Rome. The middle doorway is of the Lombard architecture, with two
columns on each side, the outermost of which are supported on two lions:
the inside has been modernized. At Cività Castellana I left two of my
companions: the next morning was very foggy, but I set out on foot
before the carriage, and crossed a bridge which must be at least 120
feet high, over one of the ravines. It consists of two ranges of arches,
and there was to have been a third, which would have kept the road up to
a level with the banks, but this has never been executed. A little
beyond I entered into conversation with a labourer going to reap for
some friends of his, as he told me, on land belonging to a convent just
by; he had first been a monk, then a soldier, and was now going to
labour for the love he bore to religion. He assured me that he possessed
a very fine picture by Giotto, but it was then at Viterbo; repeated some
verses of his own composition in praise of the English, and concluded
with asking me for charity. After leaving Cività Castellana I saw no
more of these ravines. The road follows the valley of the Tiber, first
on one side of the stream, and afterwards on the other. The scenery
seems very pleasant, but it was obscured by the fogs. We passed by some
Roman fragments, and afterwards by the ruins of Otriculum, but I could
not stop to examine them. From the modern town of Otricoli, which stands
considerably higher than the old one, the road lies among mountains and
forests famous for game. Narni is near the extremity of this elevated
road, on the edge of a deep limestone valley, which put me in mind of
Dovedale, but it is more woody. It presents quite a different character
from the deep ravines we crossed the preceding day, which are more like
Shanklin Chine very much magnified. At Narni, or rather below it, are
the remains of a Roman bridge, in which, besides the destruction of the
arches, one of the piers has sunk perpendicularly, which breaks the
ideal connexion between the different parts.
The road from here to Terni lies in a cultivated valley, but I believe
not in general of a very good soil. At Terni I had a young guide who
assured me that he was well acquainted with all the “_meraviglie_” in
the neighbourhood; and we walked round the town to see the few
antiquities it contains. There is an amphitheatre, or at least a few
vaults of what has once been one, some walls of reticulated work, and a
temple of the Sun, or if you wish to give it any other name, I will not
dispute the point with you. It is a small circular building, the under
part of which is probably of the lower empire, and the upper still
later. Tacitus is said to have been a citizen of Terni, but there are no
memorials of him existing. The modern buildings are hardly worth much
attention. There is an unfinished elliptical church; every example of
this form serves to show the superiority of the circle. I was also
conducted to see a splendid altar in this church, which cost 18,000
crowns; it is rich in marbles, not handsome, yet not without something
agreeable. The next morning we went to see the famous cascade. My
attendant called the Nero (the “sulfureâ Nar albus aquâ” of Virgil) “_un
Tevere_,” as if he understood that to be the general name of a river.
The proper name of that at Terni he conceived to be Negro, but as he saw
the waters were white, he invented a _Bianco_ to communicate its colour.
This boy gave me a good specimen of the facility with which in these
parts the _l_, following a vowel and preceding a consonant, is turned
into _r_, _arbero_ for _albero_ seems natural enough, but I was rather
puzzled at first by his using _morto_ for _molto_. He told me moreover,
that Napoleon was a great man, it was a pity he turned out the friars,
but the boy could not be persuaded that he had done anything else wrong.
Under his government they used to have plenty of olives, but since that
time their crops have been small, and he heartily wished him back, that
they might again have abundance. You may conceive from this that he was
as ignorant as possible; but he was not stupid, and probably reflected
the opinions of those about him. After all, he seems to have had a most
philosophical idea of causation. His sentiments may serve as proof that
the common people here are not averse to the French. We do not readily
associate the idea of benefits with the persons we dislike.