To this truly dismal reposing place is however kindly added a little
chapel; and few persons can imagine what a comfortable feel it gave me
on entering it in the morning after hearing the winds howl all night in
the black mountain. Here too we first made acquaintance with Signor
Giovanni Ricci, a mighty agreeable gentleman, who was kindly assistant
to us in a hundred little difficulties, afterwards occasioned by horses,
postillions, &c. which at last brought us through a bad country enough
to Viterbo, where we slept.
The melancholy appearance of the Campagna has been remarked and
described by every traveller with displeasure, by all with truth. The
ill look of the very few and very unhealthy inhabitants confirms their
descriptions; and beside the pale and swelled faces which shock one's
sight, here is a brassy scent in the air as of verdigris, which offends
one's smell; the running water is of an odd colour too, like that in
which copper has been steeped. These are sad desolated scenes indeed,
though this is not the season for _mal' aria_ neither, which, it is
said, begins in May, and ends with September. The present sovereign is
mending matters as fast as he can, we hear; and the road now cutting,
will greatly facilitate access to his capital, but cannot be done
without a prodigious expence. The first view of Rome is wonderfully
striking.
Ye awful wrecks of ancient times!
Proud monuments of ages past
Now mould'ring in decay.