After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819 Part 18

We returned, Mr R---- D---- and I, from our visit to Vesuvius, half dead with fatigue from having had little or no rest the whole night, about three o'clock to Naples.

We left Naples in a _caleche_ yesterday after breakfast and drove to Portici. Portici, Resina, and Torre del Greco are beautiful little towns on the sea-sh.o.r.e of the bay of Naples or rather they may be termed a continuation of the city, as they are close together in succession, and the interval filled up with villas. The distance from the gates of Naples to Portici is three miles. The road runs through the court yard of the Royal Palace at Portici which has a large archway at its entrance and sortie. We proceeded to Resina and alighted in order to descend under ground to Herculaneum, Resina being built on the spot where Herculaneum stood. There are always guides on this road on the look out for travellers; one addressed us, and conducted us to a house where we alighted and entered.

Our guide then prepared a flambeau, and having unlocked and lifted up a trap door invited us to descend. A winding _rampe_ under ground leads to Herculaneum. We discovered a large theatre with its proscenium, seats, corridors, vomitories, etc., and we were enabled, having two lighted torches with us, to read the inscriptions. Some statues that were found here have been removed to the Museum at Portici. This is the only part of Herculaneum that has been excavated; for if any further excavations were attempted, the whole town of Resina, which is built over it, would fall in.

Herculaneum no doubt contains many things of value, but it would be rather too desperate a stake to expose the town of Resina to certain ruin, for the sake of what _might_ be found. At Pompeii the case is very different, there being nothing built over its site.

After having satisfied our curiosity here, we regained the light of heaven in Resina, and proceeded to Pompeii, which is seven miles further, the total distance from Naples to Pompeii being ten miles. The part of Pompeii already discovered looks like a town with the houses unroofed situated in a deep gravel or sand pit, the depth of which is considerably greater than the height of the buildings standing in it. You descend into it from the brink, which is on a level with the rest of the country; Pompeii is consequently exposed to the open air, and you have neither to go under ground, nor to use _flambeaux_ as at Herculaneum, but simply to descend as into a pit. There is always a guard stationed at Pompeii to protect the place from delapidation and thefts of antiquarians. From its resembling, as I have already said, a town in the centre of a deep gravel pit, you come upon it abruptly and on looking down you are surprized to see a city newly brought to day. The streets and houses here remain entire, the roofs of the houses excepted, which fell in by the effect of the excavation; so that you here behold a Roman city nearly in the exact state it was hi when it was buried under the ashes of Vesuvius, during its first eruption in the year 79 of the Christian era. It does not appear to me that the catastrophe of Pompeii could have been occasioned by an earthquake, for if so the streets and houses would not be found upright and entire: it appears rather to have been caused by the showers of ashes and _ecroulement_ of the mountain, which covered it up and buried it for ever from the sight of day. The first place our guide took us to see was a superb Amphitheatre about half as large as the Coliseum: the arena and seats are perfect, and all the interior is perfectly cleared out: so are the dens where the wild beasts were kept; so that you look down into this amphitheatre as into a vast basin standing on its brink, which is on a level with the rest of the ground around it, and by means of the seats and pa.s.sages you may descend into the _arena_. This Amphitheatre is at a short distance from the rest of the town. What is at present discovered of this city consists of a long street with several off-sets of streets issuing from it: a temple, two theatres, a praetorium, a large barrack, and a peculiarly large house or villa belonging probably to some eminent person, but no doubt when the excavation shall be recommenced many more streets will be discovered, as from the circ.u.mstance of there being an amphitheatre, two other theatres and a number of sepulchral monuments outside the gates, it must have been a city of great consequence. Most of the houses seem to have had two stories; the roofs fell in of course by the act of excavation, but the columns remain entire. I observe that the general style of building in Pompeii in most of the houses is as follows: that in each building there is a court yard in the centre, something like the court yard of a convent, which is sometimes paved in mosaic, and generally surrounded by columns; in the middle of this court is a fountain or basin: the court has no roof and the wings of the house form a quadrangle environing it. The windows and doors of the rooms are made in the interior sides of the quadrangle looking into the court yard; on the exterior there appears to be only a small latticed window near the top of the room to admit light. I have seen in Egypt and in India similarly built houses, and it is the general style of building in Andalusia and Barbary. In the rooms are niches in the walls for lamps, precisely in the style of the Moorish buildings in India.

In many of the chambers of the houses at Pompeii are paintings _al fresco_ and arabesques on the walls which on being washed with water appear perfectly fresh. The subjects of these paintings are generally from the mythology. In some of the rooms are paintings _al fresco_ of fish, flesh, fowl and fruit; in others Venus and the Graces at their toilette, from which we may infer that the former were dining rooms and the latter boudoirs. A large villa (so I deem it as it stands without the gates) has a number of rooms, two stories entire and three court yards with fountains, many beautiful fresco paintings on the walls of the chambers. Annexed to this villa is a garden arranged in terraces and a fish pond. A covered gallery supported by pillars on one of the sides of the garden served probably as a promenade in wet weather. In the cellars of this villa are a number of _amphorae_ with narrow necks. Had the ancients used corks instead of oil to stop their _amphorae_, wine eighteen hundred years old might have been found here. It is not the custom even of the modern Italians to use corks for the wine they keep for their own use: a spoonful of oil is poured on the top of the wine in the flask and when they mean to drink it they extract the oil by means of a lump of cotton fastened to a stick or long pin which enters the neck of the flask and absorbs and extracts the oil.

Among the buildings discovered in Pompeii is a large Temple of Isis; here you behold the altar and the pillar to which the beasts of sacrifice were fastened. In this temple at the time of the first excavation were found all the instruments of sacrifice and other things appertaining to the wors.h.i.+p of that G.o.ddess. These and other valuables such as statues, coins, utensils of all sorts were removed to Portici, where they are now to be seen in the Museum of that place. The _Praetorium_ at Pompeii is the next remarkable thing; it is a vast enclosure: a great number of columns are standing upright here and the most of them entire; the steps forming the ascent to the elevated seat where the Praetor usually sat, remain entire. There is a large building and court yard near one of the gates of the city supposed to have been a barrack for soldiers; three skeletons were found here with their legs in a machine similar to our stocks. The scribbling and caricatures on the walls of this barrack are perfectly visible and legible.

When one wanders thro' the streets of this singularly interesting city, one is tempted to think that the inhabitants have just walked out. What a dreadful lingering death must have befallen these inhabitants who could not escape from Pompeii at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius which covered it with ashes. The air could only be exhausted by degrees, so that a prolonged suffocation or a death by hunger must have been their lot.

Four skeletons were found upright in the streets, having in their hands boxes containing jewellery and things of value, as if in the act of endeavouring to make their escape: these must soon have perished, but the skeleton of a woman found in one of the rooms of the houses close to a bath shews that her death must have been one of prolonged suffering.

What a fine subject Pompeii would furnish for the pen of a Byron! As I have before remarked, all the valuables and utensils of all sorts found here have been removed to Portici; it is a great pity that everything could not be left in Pompeii in the exact situation in which it was found on its first discovery at the excavation. What a light it would have thrown (which no description can give) on the melancholy catastrophe as well as on the private life and manners of the ancients! But if they had been left here, they would, even tho' a guard of soldiers were stationed here to protect them, have been by degrees all stolen.

There were some magnificent tombs just outside the gates which must have been no small ornament to the city.

We returned to Resina to dinner at six o'clock.

We had made an arrangement with one of the guides of Vesuvius called Salvatore that he should be ready for us at Resina at seven o'clock with a mule and driver for each of us to ascend the mountain, and we found him very punctual at the door of the inn at that hour. The terms of the journey were as follows. One _scudo_ for Salvatore and one _scudo_ for each mule and driver for which they were to forward us to the mountain, remain the whole night and reconduct us to Resina the following morning. The object in ascending at night and remaining until morning is to combine the night view of the eruption with the visit (if possible) to the crater, which cannot with safety be undertaken by night, and to enjoy likewise the n.o.ble view at sunrise of the whole bay and city of Naples and the adjacent islands. We started therefore at a quarter past seven and arrived at half past nine at a small house and chapel, called the hermitage of Vesuvius, which is generally considered as half-way up the mountain. In this house dwells an old ecclesiastic who receives travellers and furnishes them with a couch and frugal repast. We dismounted here and our worthy host provided us with some mortadella and an omelette; and we did not fail to do justice to his excellent _lacrima Christi_, of which he has always a large provision. We then betook ourselves to rest, leaving orders to be awakened at two o'clock in order to proceed further up the mountain. There was a pretty decent eruption of the mountain, which vomited fire, stones and ashes at an interval of twenty-five minutes, so that we enjoyed this spectacle during our ascent. A violent noise, like thunder, accompanies each eruption, which increases the awefulness and grandeur of the sight. At two o'clock our guide and muleteers being very punctual, we bade adieu to the hermit, promising him to come to breakfast with him the next morning; we then mounted our mules and after an hour's march arrived at the spot where the ashes and cinders, combined with the steepness of the mountain, prevent the possibility of going any further except on foot. We dismounted therefore at this place, and sent back our mules to the hermitage to wait for us there.

We now began to climb among the ashes, and tho' the ascent to the position of the ancient crater is not more than probably eighty yards in height, we were at least one hour before we reached it, from its excessive steepness and from gliding back two feet out of three at every step we made. We at length reached the old crater and sat ourselves down to repose till day-break. Tho' it was exceeding cold, the exhalation from the veins of fire and hot ashes kept us as warm as we could wish: for here every step is literally

_per ignes Suppositos cineri doloso_.[97]

We remained on this spot till broad daylight and witnessed several eruptions at an interval of twenty or twenty-five minutes. I remarked that the mountain toward the summit forms two cones, one of which vomited fire and smoke, and the other calcined stones and ashes, accompanied by a rumbling noise like thunder. The stones came clattering down the flanks of the mountain and some of them rolled very near us; had we been within the radius formed by the erupted stones we probably should have been killed.

At daylight Mr R---- D---- proposed to ascend the two cones in spite of the remonstrances of our guide Salvatore, who told us that no person had yet been there and that we must expect to be crushed to death by the stones, should an eruption take place, and that it was almost as much madness to attempt it, as it would be to walk before a battery of cannon in the act of being fired. Tho' I did not admit all the force of this comparison, yet I began to think there was a little too much risk in the attempt; my French friend however was deaf to all remonstrance and said to me, "_As-tu peur_?"

I replied: "No! that I was at all times very indifferent as to life or death, but that I did not like pain, and was not at all desirous to have an arm or leg broken, the former accident having happened to a German a few days before; nevertheless, I added, if you persist in going, I will accompany you." We accordingly started to ascend the cone, which vomited fire and smoke, taking care to place ourselves on the windward side in ascending, and after much fatigue we arrived in about fifteen minutes close to the apex of the cone, after groping amidst the ashes and stumbling on a vein of red hot cinders. My shoes were sadly burnt, my stockings singed and my feet scorched; my friend was less fortunate, for he tumbled down with his hands on a vein of red hot cinders and burned them terribly. My great and princ.i.p.al apprehension in making this ascent was of stumbling upon holes slightly encrusted with ashes and that the whole might give way and precipitate me into some _gouffre._ On arrival at the summit of the cone we had just time to look down and perceive that there was a hole or _gouffre,_ but whether it were very deep or not we could not ascertain, for a blast of fire and smoke issuing from it at this moment nearly suffocated us; we immediately lost no time in gliding down the ashes on the side of the cone on our breech, and reached its base in a few seconds, where we waited till an eruption took place from the other cone, in order to profit of the interval to ascend it also. It required four minutes' walk to reach the base of the other cone and about twelve to ascend to its apex; on arrival at the brink, where we remained about two minutes, we had just sufficient time to observe that there was no deep hole or bottomless _gouffre_ as we expected, but that it formed a crater with a sort of slant and not exceeding thirty feet in depth to the bottom, which looked exactly like a lime-kiln, being of a dirty white appearance, and in continual agitation, as it were of limestones boiling; so that a person descending to the bottom of this crater would probably be scorched to death or suffocated in a few minutes, but would infallibly be ejected and thrown into the air at the first eruption. I mean by this that he would not disappear or fall into a bottomless pit (as I should have supposed before I viewed the crater), but that his friends would be sure of finding his body either yet living or dead, outside the brink of the crater, within the radius made by the erupted stones and ashes.

Our guide now begged us for G.o.d's sake to descend, as an eruption might be expected every minute. We accordingly glided down the exterior surface of the cone among the ashes, on our breech, for it is impossible to descend in any other way and in a few seconds we reached its base. Finding ourselves on a little level ground we began to run or rather wade thro' the ashes in order to get out of reach of the eruption, but we had not gone thirty yards when one took place. The stones clattered down with a frightful noise and we received a shower of ashes on our heads, the dust of which got into our eyes and nearly blinded us. On reaching the brink of the old crater we stopped half an hour to enjoy the fine view of Parthenope in all her glory at sunrise. We then descended rapidly, sometimes plunging down the ashes on our feet and sometimes gliding on our breech till we arrived at the place where we had descended from our mules, and this distance, which required one hour to ascend, cost us in its descent not more than seven minutes.

We then walked to the hermitage in about an hour and a quarter, and arrived there with no other accident than having our shoes and stockings totally spoiled, our feet a little singed, the hands of Mr. R.D. severely burned and both begrimed with ashes like blacksmiths. The ecclesiastic gave us a breakfast of coffee and eggs and a gla.s.s of Maraschino, and we gave him two _scudi_ each. Before we departed he presented to us his Alb.u.m, which he usually does to all travellers, inviting them to write something. I took up the pen and feeling a little inspiration wrote the following lines:

Anch'io salito son sul gran Vesuvio, Mentre cadsa di cineri un diluvio; Questo cammin mi piace d'aver fatto, Ma plu mi piace il ritornare intatto.

which pleased the old man very much to see a foreigner write Italian verse.

I pleased him still more by letting him know that I was an enthusiastic admirer and humble cultivator of the Tuscan Muse, and that having read and studied most of their poets, particularly _il divino Ariosto_, I now and then caught a _scintilletta_ from his verse. We now took a cordial farewell of our worthy old host, mounted our mules and descended the mountain. On arrival at Portici we dismissed our guide Salvatore with a _scudo pour boire_, besides the stipulated price. Salvatore asked me to give him a written certificate of his services, which he generally sollicits from all those whom he conducts to the Volcano. I asked him for his certificate book, and begged to know whether he would have it in prose or verse. He laughed and said: _Vostra Excellenza e padrone_. I took out my pencil and wrote the following quatrain:

Dal monte ignivomo tornati siam stanchissimi, E del buon Salvator siam tutti contentissimi; Felice il pellogrin che a Salvator si fida, Che di lui non si pu trovare un miglior guida.

I never saw any body so delighted as Salvatore appeared when I read to him what I had written in his book.

I have another observation to make before I take leave of this celebrated mountain, which is, that the liquid lava which it ejects is far more dangerous and destructive than the eruption of stones and ashes; the lava flows from the flanks of the mountain in a liquid stream. Sometimes there will be an eruption and no lava flowing: at other tunes the lava flows from the flanks of the mountain, without any eruption from the crater; at other times, and then it is most alarming, the eruption takes place accompanied by the flowing of the lava. All this demonstrates that the volcano is the effect of the efforts of the subterraneous fire to get some vent and escape from its confinement. This time I did not observe any lava flowing, except a slight vein of it on the spot where Mr R.D. fell down and burned his hands; but it is easy to observe on the side of the mountain the course and route taken at different times by the lava, which has become hardened and is very plainly to be distinguished, as it resembles a _river_ (if I may use the word) of slate meandering between the green sward of the mountain and descending toward the sea. You can plainly distinguish the course and direction of the lava which destroyed part of Torre del Greco and swept it into the sea.

At Portici, having washed ourselves at the inn from head to foot in order to get rid of our blacksmith's appearance, and having purchased a new pair of shoes and stockings each, we visited the Royal Palace and Museum with a view princ.i.p.ally of examining the objects of art and valuables discovered in Pompeii. The Royal Palace is called _la Favorita_, its architecture is beautiful; the garden or rather lawn which is ornamented by statues and enriched by orange groves extends to the sea. The first thing that presents itself to the view of the visitor at the Museum of Portici are the two equestrian statues of Marcus Balbus proconsul and procurator and of his son, which statues were found in Herculaneum. I forgot to mention that there is an inscription with that name on the side of the proscenium of the theatre easily legible by the light of _flambeaux_.

To return to the Museum at Portici, we were then shewn into a room containing curious _morceaux_ of antiquity discovered at Pompeii: a tripod in bronze and various other articles of the same metal; tables, various lamps in bronze, resembling exactly those used in Hindostan, wooden pens, dice, grains of corn quite black and scorched, a skeleton of a woman with the ashes incrusted round it (the form of her breast is seen on the crust of ashes; golden armlets were found on her which were shewn to us), steel mirrors, combs, utensils for culinary purposes, such as _ca.s.seroles_, frying pans, spoons, forks, pestles and mortars, instruments of sacrifice, weights and measures, coins, a _carcan_ or _stock_, &c.

In the upper rooms are to be seen the paintings and _fresques_ found in the same place. The paintings are poor things, and in their landscapes the Romans seem to have had little more idea of perspective than the Chinese; but the _fresques_ are beautiful: the female figures belonging thereto are delineated with the utmost grace and delicacy. They consist of subjects chiefly from the mythology. I noticed the following in particular, viz., Chiron teaching the young Achilles to draw the bow; the discovery of Orestes; Theseus and the Minotaur (he has just slain the Minotaur and a boy is in the act of kissing his hand as if to thank him for his deliverance; the Minotaur is here represented as a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull); a Centaur carrying off a nymph; a car drawn by a parrot and driven by a cricket: a woman offering to another little Loves for sale (she is pulling out the little Cupids from a basket and holding them by their wings as if they were fowls); a beautiful female figure seated on a monster something like the Chimaera of the ancients and holding a cup before the monster's mouth (emblematical of Hope nouris.h.i.+ng a Chimaera). The arabesques taken from Pompeii and preserved here are very beautiful. Here also are two statues found in Pompeii: the one representing a drunken Faun, the other a sitting Mercury. We met two Polish ladies here, who were amusing themselves in copying the _fresques_. We returned to Naples at five o'clock, and dined at the _Villa di Napoli_. In the evening we went to the _Teatro de' Fiorentini_. The piece performed was Pamela or _La virtu premiata,_ which I understand is quite a stock piece in Italy. It is written by Goldoni. It was very badly performed; the actors were not perfect in their parts, and the prompter's voice was as loud as usual. The costume was appropriate enough, which is far from being always the case at this theatre.

NAPLES, 13 Octr.

We started on the 12th at six o'clock in the morning (Mr R----- D. and myself) in a _caleche_ in order to visit Puzzuoli, Baii and all the cla.s.sical ground in that direction. We of course pa.s.sed through the grotto of Pausilippo. This grotto is thirty feet high and about five hundred feet long. In fact, it is a vast rock undermined and a high road running thro'

it, the breadth of which is sufficient for three carriages to go abreast.

From its great length it is of course exceeding dark; in order therefore to obviate this inconvenience lamps constantly lighted are suspended from the roof and on the sides of the grotto, and holes pierced towards the top to admit a little daylight. The road pierced thro' this rock and called the grotto of Pausilippo abridges the journey to Puzzuoli very considerably, as otherwise you would be obliged to go round by Cape Margelina, which would increase the distance ten miles. On issuing from the grotto on the other side, you arrive in a few minutes on the seash.o.r.e, on the bay formed between Cape Margelina and Puzzuoli. We stopped at the lake Agnano which is strongly impregnated with sulfur. On the banks of this lake are the _Thermae_ or vapour baths, and here is also the famous _Grotto del Cane_, the pestilential vapour arising from which rises about three inches from the ground and has the appearance of a spider's web. An unfortunate dog performs the miracle of the resurrection to all those who visit this natural curiosity; and we also were curious to see its effect. The guardian of the Thermes seized the poor animal and held his nose close to the place from whence the vapour exhales. The dog was seized with strong convulsions and in two minutes he was perfectly senseless and to all appearance dead; but on being placed in the open air, he soon recovers. The poor beast shews evident repugnance to the experiment, and I wonder he does not endeavor to make his escape, for he has sometimes to perform this feat four or five times a day. I should suppose that he will not be very long lived, for the repeated doses of this mephitic vapour must surely accelerate his dissolution. The heat of the _Thermae_ and steam of the sulphur is almost insupportable; but it has a most beneficial effect on maladies of the nerves and cutaneous complaints.

We then proceeded on our journey to Puzzuoli, the ancient Puteoli, where are the remains of the famous mole (or bridge as others call it) of Caligula, intended to embrace or unite the two extremes of the bay of Baiae formed on one side by Puzzuoli and on the other by cape Misenus. We alighted to take a _dejeuner a la fourchette_ at Puzzuoli, and then went to visit the temple of Jupiter Serapis, which is a vast edifice and tho' in ruins very imposing. On wandering thro' the enceinte of this famous temple, I thought of Apollonius of Tyana and his sudden appearance to his friend Damis at the porch of this very temple, when he escaped from the fangs of Domitian and when it was believed that, by means of magic art, he had been able at once to transport himself from the Praetorium at Rome to Puteoli.

As I said before, the bay included by cape Misenus and Puzzuoli is what is called Baiae. The land is low and marshy from Puzzuoli to a little beyond the lake Avernus; but from Monte Nuovo it begins to rise and form high cliffs nearly all way to Cape Misenus. It was on these high cliffs that the opulent Romans built their villas and they must have been as much crowded together as the villas at Ramsgate and Broadstairs. We embarked in a boat at Puzzuoli to cross over to Baiae (i.e., the place where the villas begin), but we stopped on our way thither at a landing place nearly in the centre of the bay in order to visit the lake Avernus and the Cave of the c.u.maean Sybil, described by Virgil, as the entrance into the realm of Pluto. The lake Avernus, in spite of its being invested by the poets with all that is terrible in the mythology as a river of h.e.l.l, looks very like any other lake, and tho' it is impregnated with sulphur, and emits a most unpleasant smell, birds do not drop down dead on flying over it as formerly. The ground about it is marshy and unwholesome. The silence and melancholy appearance of this lake and its environing groves of wood are not calculated to inspire exhilarating ideas. Full of cla.s.sic souvenirs we went to descend into the Cave of the Sybil, and as we descended I could not refrain from repeating aloud Virgil's lines:

_Di quibus imperium est animarum umbrasque silentes_,[98] etc.

This descent really is fitted to give one an idea of the descent to the shades below, and what added to the illusion was that when we arrived at the bottom of the descent and just at the entrance of the cave where the Sybil held her oracles, we discovered four fierce looking fellows with lighted torches in their hands standing at the entrance. My friend cried out _Voila les Furies_, and these proved to be our boatmen who, while we were contemplating the _bolge d'Averno_, had run on before to provide torches to shew us the interior of the grotto of the Sybil. As this grotto is nearly knee-deep filled with water we got on the backs of the boatmen to enter it. It is about twenty-five feet long, fifteen broad and the height about thirteen feet. As we were neither devoured by Cerberus nor hustled by old Charon into his boat, we returned from the _Shades below_ to the light of heaven, triumphant like Ulysses or Aeneas, considering ourselves now among the _Pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter_.[99]

Acheron, the dreadful Acheron, is not far from Avernus and is likewise a lake, tho' call'd a river in the mythology. It is also sulfuric and the ground about it is woody, low, marshy and consequently aguish.

We next ascended the cliffs of Baiae and we were shown the remains of the villas of Cicero, Caesar, Sylla and other great names. We then went to the baths of Nero (so called). Here it is the fas.h.i.+on to descend under ground in order to feel the effect of the sulfuric heat, which is intense, and my friend who descended soon returned dripping with perspiration and calling out: _Qui n'a pas vu cela n'a rien vu!_ but I did not chuse to descend, as I could feel no pleasure in being half stifled and the _grotto del Cane_ had already given me a full idea of the force of the vapour of the _Thermes_.

We then descended from the cliffs of Baiae on the other side, and visited the remains of three celebrated temples of antiquity situated on the beach nearly and very close to each other, viz., the temples of Diana, of Venus and of Mercury; all striking objects and majestic, tho' in a state of dilapidation. Each of these temples has cupolas. We then ascended the slope of ground leading towards cape Misensus, to visit the _Cento Camarelle_ and _Piscina mirabile_, both vast edifices under ground, serving as cellars or appendages to a Palace that stood on this spot. We then visited the lake called the _Mare Morto_ or Styx; and then went round to the other side of it, to visit those beautiful _coteaux_ planted in vines and their summits crowned with groves which have obtained the name of the Elysian fields.

This Styx and these Elysian fields look like any other lake and _coteaux_ and are entirely indebted to the lyre of Maro for their celebrity.

From thence we went to the extremity of cape Misenus and embarked in our boat (which we had sent on there to wait for us) to return to Puzzuoli by crossing the bay at once. In this bay and near cape Misenus a Roman fleet was usually stationed and Pliny's uncle, I believe, commanded one there at the time of the first eruption of Vesuvius which cost him his life.

There is a singular phenomenon in this bay of a mountain that in one of the later eruptions and earthquakes was formed in twenty-four hours near the seash.o.r.e and was named _Monte Nuovo._

The small salt water lake called _Lacus Lucrinus_ is also on this bay. It appears to me to be an artificial lake, made probably by the opulent Romans who resided at Baiae to hold their mullets and other sea fish which they wished to fatten.

Near Puzzuoli likewise is the famous _Solfaterra,_ the bed of an ancient volcano. It is well worth examining. It has been long since extinguished, but you meet with vast beds of sulphur and calcined stones, and the smell is at times almost insupportable. We returned to Naples by half-past seven o'clock, not a little tired but highly gratified by our excursion.

NAPLES, 14th Oct.

At the _Teatro Nuovo_ I have seen another Italian tragedy performed. The piece was _t.i.to Manlio Torquato_, taken from the well known anecdote in the Roman history. The scenery, decorations and _costume_ were good and appropriate, not so the acting; for the actors as usual were imperfect in their parts. I fully agree with Alfieri that Italy must be united and enjoy a free popular government before one can expect to see tragedies well performed. It is very diverting to see the puppet shows at Naples and to hear the witticisms and various artifices of the showman of Pulcinello to secure payment in advance from his audience, who would otherwise go away without paying as soon as the performance was over.

This performance is much attended by the _lazzaroni_ and _faineans_ of the lower orders of Naples and the puppet showman is obliged to have recourse to various stratagems and ingenious sallies to induce a handsome contribution to be made. Sometimes he will say with a very grave face (the curtain being drawn up and no Pulcinello appearing) that he is very sorry there can be no performance this day; for that poor Signor Pulcinello is sick and has no money to pay the Doctor: but that if a _quete_ be made for him, he will get himself cured and make his appearance as usual. All the while that one of the showmen goes about collecting the _grani_, the other holds a dialogue with Pulcinello (still invisible). Pulcinello groans and is very miserable. At length the collection is made. Pulcinello takes medicine, says he is well again, makes his appearance and begins. At another time the audience is informed that there can be no performance as Pulcinello is arrested for debt and put in prison, where he must remain unless a subscription of money be made for him to pay his debts and take him out of gaol. Then follows an absurd dialogue between Pulcinello (supposed to answer from the prison) and the showman. The showman scolds him for being a spendthrift and leading a profligate life, calls him a _briccone_, a _birbante_, and Pulcinello only groans out in reply, _Povero me, Povero Pulcinello, che disgrazia! sventurato di me! di non aver denari!_ These strokes of wit never fail to bring in many a _grano_.

At another time the curtain is drawn up and discovers a gibbet and Pulcinello standing on a ladder affixed to it with a rope round his neck.

The showman with the utmost gravity and a.s.sumed melancholy informs the audience that a most serious calamity is about to happen to Naples: that Signor Pulcinello is condemned to be hanged for a robbery, and that unless he can procure _molti denari_ to bribe the officers of justice to let him escape, he will inevitably be hanged and the people will never more behold their unhappy friend Pulcinello. The showman now implores the commiseration of the audience, and now reproaches Pulcinello with his profligacy and nefarious pranks which have brought him to an untimely end. Pulcinello sobs, cries, promises to reform and to attend ma.s.s regularly in future.

What Neapolitan heart can resist such an appeal? The _grani_ are collected.

Pulcinello gives money to the puppet representing the executioner; down goes the gibbet, and Pulcinello is himself again.

I shall return in a day or two to Rome, having seen nearly all that Naples affords. I have now full liberty to die when I chuse according to the proverb: _Veder Napoli e poi morire_.

Naples certainly is, taking it all in all, the most interesting city in Europe, for it unites every thing that is conducive to the _agremens_ of life. A beautiful city, a n.o.ble bay, a vast commerce, provisions of the best sort, abundant and cheap, a pleasant society, a delicious climate, music, Operas, _Balli,_ Libraries, Museums of Painting and Sculpture; in its neighbourhood two subterraneous cities, a volcano in full play, and every spot of ground conveying the most interesting _souvenirs_ and immortalized in prose and verse. Add thereto the vapour baths of sulphur for stringing anew the nerves of those debilitated by a too ardent pursuit of pleasure, and the Fountain of St Lucia for those suffering from a redundancy of bile. Now tell me of any other residence which can equal this? Adieu.

ROME, 22nd Octr.