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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Naples Riviera by Herbert M. Vaughan
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: The Naples Riviera
+
+Author: Herbert M. Vaughan
+
+Release Date: December 9, 2009 [Ebook #30634]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NAPLES RIVIERA***
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: CHARCOAL CARRIERS, AMALFI]
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  *THE*
+                             *NAPLES RIVIERA*
+
+
+                                   BY
+                    HERBERT M. VAUGHAN, B.A. (OXON.)
+                AUTHOR OF "THE LAST OF THE ROYAL STUARTS"
+
+
+
+WITH TWENTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY
+MAURICE GREIFFENHAGEN
+
+
+METHUEN & CO
+36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
+LONDON
+
+
+
+
+
+                        _First Published in 1907_
+
+                                   TO
+                                G. L. L.
+                              IN MEMORY OF
+                  MANY PLEASANT DAYS IN THE SUNNY SOUTH
+                              THIS BOOK IS
+                        AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
+                              BY THE AUTHOR
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+     CHAPTER I                                     PAGE
+     INTRODUCTORY                                     1
+     CHAPTER II
+     THE VESUVIAN SHORE AND MONTE SANT' ANGELO        8
+     CHAPTER III
+     LA CITTA MORTA                                  38
+     CHAPTER IV
+     VESUVIUS                                        66
+     CHAPTER V
+     THE CORNICHE ROAD                              100
+     CHAPTER VI
+     AMALFI AND THE FESTIVAL OF ST ANDREW           126
+     CHAPTER VII
+     RAVELLO AND THE RUFOLI                         152
+     CHAPTER VIII
+     SALERNO                                        172
+     CHAPTER IX
+     PAESTUM AND THE GLORY THAT WAS GREECE          198
+     CHAPTER X
+     SORRENTO AND ITS POET                          221
+     CHAPTER XI
+     CAPRI AND TIBERIUS THE TYRANT                  249
+     CHAPTER XII
+     ISCHIA AND THE LADY OF THE ROCK                275
+     CHAPTER XIII
+     PUTEOLI AND THE GRANDEUR THAT WAS ROME         295
+     --------
+     INDEX                                          321
+
+
+
+
+
+                          LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                     PAGE
+     CHARCOAL CARRIERS, AMALFI             _Frontispiece_
+     A CAPRIOTE FISHERMAN'S WIFE                       16
+     ROAD NEAR CASTELLAMARE                            30
+     MONTE FAITO, CASTELLAMARE                         37
+     THE FORUM, POMPEII                                46
+     LA CASA DEI VETTII, POMPEII                       58
+     VESUVIUS AND THE BAY OF NAPLES                    80
+     POZZANO                                          101
+     EVENING AT AMALFI                                124
+     AMALFI                                           132
+     IN THE VALLEY OF THE MILLS, AMALFI               140
+     AMALFI: PIAZZA AND DUOMO                         148
+     RAVELLO: IL DUOMO                                156
+     A STREET IN RAVELLO                              163
+     MINORI AT SUNSET                                 170
+     ON THE ROAD TO RAVELLO                           186
+     THE TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE, PAESTUM                   204
+     AFTERNOON, SORRENTO                              230
+     FARAGLIONI ROCKS, CAPRI                          249
+     CAPRI FROM THE VILLA JOVIS                       254
+     IN THE BLUE GROTTO, CAPRI                        262
+     A GATEWAY, CAPRI                                 274
+     ON THE PICCOLA MARINA, CAPRI                     288
+     ISCHIA FROM CASTELLAMARE (SUNSET)                294
+     ON THE BEACH                                     306
+
+
+
+
+
+                               BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+A small selection out of the books I have consulted during the preparation
+                      of this work is given below:--
+
+E. GIBBON: _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_.
+
+DEAN MERIVALE: _The Romans under the Empire_.
+
+_Pliny's Letters_: (Church's and Brodribb's Translation, London, 1897).
+
+J. PHILLIPS: _Vesuvius_ (Oxford, 1869).
+
+C. RAMAGE: _Nooks and Byways of Italy_.
+
+C. LENORMANT: _A Travers la Lucanie et l'Apulie_.
+
+W. J. A. STAMER: _Dolce Napoli_ (London, 1878).
+
+E. NEVILLE ROLFE: _Naples in 1888_.
+
+CONSTANCE GIGLIOLI: _Naples in 1799_.
+
+C. L. SISMONDI: _Histoire des __Republiques__ Italiennes_.
+
+L. ALBERTI: _Descrizione di tutta l' Italia_ (Venetia, 1596).
+
+C. MILLS: _The Travels of Theodore Ducas_ (London, 1822).
+
+_Les Delices d'Italie_ (Paris, 1707).
+
+_Nuova Guida de' Forastieri in Napoli, etc._ (1751).
+
+COUNT STOLBERG: _Travels through Italy and Sicily in 1756_.
+
+A. H. NORWAY: _Naples, Past and Present_ (London, 1904).
+
+E. BUSK: _Folk-Songs of Italy_.
+
+J. A. SYMONDS: _Sketches and Studies in Italy_.
+
+CATHERINE PHILLIMORE: _Studies in Italian Literature_ (London, 1891).
+
+T. A. TROLLOPE: _A Decade of Italian Women_ (London, 1859).
+
+G. BOCCACCIO: _Il Decamerone_.
+
+A. MAU: _Pompeii: its Life and Art_ (New York, 1899).
+
+J. FERGUSSON: _Handbook of Architecture_ (London, 1859).
+
+FRANZ VON REBER: _History of Ancient and Mediaeval Art_ (New York, 1882).
+
+E. JAMESON: _Sacred and Legendary Art_ (London, 1879).
+
+J. ELWORTHY: _History of the Evil Eye_ (London, 1888).
+
+N. VALLETTA: _Cicalata sul Fascino detto Jettatura_ (Napoli, 1819).
+
+A. CANALE: _Storia dell' Isola di Capri_.
+
+G. AMALFI: _Tradizioni ed Vsi nella Penisola Sorrentina_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE NAPLES RIVIERA
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER I
+
+
+                               INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+                   "In otia natam
+            Parthenopen."
+
+
+That the city of Naples can prove very delightful, very amusing, and very
+instructive for a week or ten days no one will attempt to dispute. There
+are long mornings to be spent in inspecting the churches scattered
+throughout the narrow streets of the old town,--harlequins in coloured
+marble and painted stucco though they be, they are yet treasure-houses
+containing some of the most precious monuments of Gothic and Renaissance
+art that all Italy can display. There are afternoon hours that can be
+passed pleasantly amidst the endless halls and galleries of the great
+Museo Nazionale, where the antiquities of Pompeii and Herculaneum may be
+studied in advance, for the wise traveller will not rush headlong into the
+sacred precincts of the buried cities on the Vesuvian shore, before he has
+first made himself thoroughly acquainted with the wonderful collections
+preserved in the Museum. Then comes the evening drive along the gentle
+winding ascent towards Posilipo with its glorious views over bay and
+mountains, all tinged with the deep rose and violet of a Neapolitan
+sunset; or the stroll along the fashionable sea front, named after the
+luckless Caracciolo the modern hero of Naples, where in endless succession
+the carriages pass backwards and forwards within the limited space between
+the sea and the greenery of the Villa Reale. Or it may be that our more
+active feet may entice us to mount the winding flights of stone steps
+leading to the heights of Sant' Elmo, where from the windows of the
+monastery of San Martino there is spread out before us an entrancing view
+that has but two possible rivals for extent and interest in all Italy:--the
+panorama of the Eternal City from the hill of San Pietro in Montorio, and
+that of Florence with the valley of the Arno from the lofty terrace of San
+Miniato. We can while away many hours leisurely in wandering on the
+bustling Chiaja or Toledo with their shops and their amusing scenes of
+city life, or in the poorer quarters around the Mercato, where the
+inhabitants ply their daily avocations in the open air, and eat, play,
+quarrel, flirt, fight or gossip--do everything in short save go to
+bed--quite unconcernedly before the critical and non-admiring eyes of
+casual strangers. Pleasant it is to hunt for old prints, books and other
+treasures amongst the dark unwholesome dens that lie in the shadow of the
+gorgeous church of Santa Chiara or in the musty-smelling shops of the
+curiosity dealers in the Strada Costantinopoli, picking up here a volume
+of some _cinque-cento_ classic and there a piece of old china that may or
+may not have had its birth in the famous factory of Capodimonte. All this
+studying of historic sculpture in the churches and of antiquities in the
+Museum, this observing the daily life of the populace, and bargain-hunting
+in the Strada de' Tribunali, are agreeable enough for a while, but of
+necessity there comes a time when the mind grows weary of yelling people
+and of jostling crowds, of stuffy churches and of the chilly halls of the
+Museum, of steep dirty streets and of glaring boulevards, so that we begin
+to sigh for fresh air and a change of scene. Nor is there any means of
+escape within the precincts of the city itself from the eternal cracking
+of whips, from the insulting compliments (or complimentary insults) of the
+incorrigible cabmen, from the continuous babel of unmusical voices, and
+from the reiterated strains of "Santa Lucia" or "Margari" howled from
+raucous throats or strummed from rickety street-organs. Oh for peace, and
+rest, and a whiff of pure country air! For there are no walks in or around
+the City of the Siren, where there is nowhere to stroll save the narrow
+strip of the much-vaunted Villa (which is either damp or dusty according
+to weather) or the fatiguing ascent amidst walled gardens and newly built
+houses to the heights of the Vomero, which are covered with a raw suburb.
+Moreover our pristine delight in the place is beginning to flag, as we
+gradually realise that the city, like the majority of great modern towns,
+is being practically rebuilt to the annihilation of its old-world
+features, which used to give to Naples its peculiar charm and its marked
+individuality amongst large sea-ports. Long ago has disappeared Santa
+Brigida, that picturesque high-coloured slum, on whose site stands the
+garish domed gallery of which the Neapolitans are so proud; gone in these
+latter days is classic Santa Lucia with its water-gate and its fountain,
+its vendors of medicated water and _frutti di mare_, those toothsome shell
+fish of the unsavoury beach; vanished for ever is many a landmark of old
+Naples, and new buildings, streets and squares, blank, dreary, pretentious
+and staring, have arisen in their places. This thorough _sventramento di
+Napoli_, as the citizens graphically term this drastic reconstruction of
+the old capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, is no doubt
+beneficial, not to say necessary, and we make no protest against these
+wholesale changes, which have certainly tended to destroy utterly its
+ancient character and appearance. But all seems commonplace, new, smart,
+and unpoetic, and we quickly grow weary of Naples now that it has been
+turned into a Liverpool of the South without the local colour and the
+peculiar attributes of which author and artist have so often raved. The
+life of the people, picturesque enough in its old setting, now appears
+mean and squalid; the toilers in the streets look jaded, oppressed and
+discontented; we search in vain for the spontaneous gaiety of which we
+have heard so much. We feel disappointed, cheated even, in our
+expectations of Naples, and we begin to understand that its chief
+attraction consists in its proximity to the scenes of beauty that mark the
+course of its Riviera.
+
+
+
+The Riviera of Naples may be said to extend from the heights of Cumae, at
+the end of the Bay of Gaeta to the north, as far as Salerno in a southerly
+direction, whilst, lying close to this stretch of shore, are included the
+three populous islands of Capri, Procida and Ischia, which in prehistoric
+times doubtless formed part and parcel of the Parthenopean coast itself.
+Our pleasant task it is to write of these classic shores and islands,
+where the beauties of nature contend for pre-eminence with the glorious
+traditions of the past that centre round them. What spot on earth can
+surpass, or even be compared with, Amalfi in the perfect lustre of its
+setting? What loftier or bolder cliffs than those of Capri can the wild
+bleak headlands of the North Sea exhibit? The fertile lands of France
+cannot vie with the richness of the Sorrentine Plain, nor can any mountain
+on the face of the globe rival in human interest the peak of Vesuvius;
+Pompeii is unique, the most precious storehouse of ancient knowledge the
+world possesses; whilst the Bay of Baia recalls the days of Roman power
+and luxury more vividly to our minds than any place save the Eternal City
+itself. And again: what illustrious names in history and in
+literature--classical, medieval, modern--are for ever associated with these
+smiling shores! Robert Guiscard and Hildebrand in quiet Salerno, Tasso at
+health-giving Sorrento, Vittoria Colonna in her palace-fortress on the
+crags of Ischia, the great Apostle of the west at Puteoli:--these are but a
+few of the more eminent and gracious figures that arise before us at the
+casual bidding of memory. Then there are the infamous, as well as the
+virtuous and the gallant, whose misdeeds are still freshly remembered upon
+these coasts or in their fertile valleys. The sinister Tiberius, the
+half-crazy and wholly vicious Caligula, many a king and queen of evil
+repute that ruled Naples, the vile Pier-Luigi Farnese, the adventurer
+Joachim Murat, all have left the marks of their personality upon the
+coveted shores of the Neapolitan Riviera. From the days of the Sibyl and
+of the Trojan hero to the stirring times of Garibaldi and of King Bomba,
+which were but of yesterday, Naples and its environs have played a
+prominent part in the annals and development of the civilised western
+world; Roman emperors, Pagan statesmen and poets, Norman, French and
+Spanish princes, popes, saints and theologians, merchants and scientists
+of the Middle Ages, writers of the Renaissance and heroes of the
+_Risorgimento_, all have combined to shed a halo of historical romance
+upon Naples and its Riviera, where there is scarcely a sea-girt town or a
+crumbling fortress that is not redolent of the memory of some personage
+whose name is inscribed on the roll of European history. It seems but
+right, therefore, that many works should have been written concerning this
+favoured corner of Italy, so replete with natural charm and with
+historical interest; and in truth multitudes of books, large and small,
+witty and dull, erudite and empty, light and heavy, prosaic and
+rhapsodical, have poured forth from the prolific pens of generations of
+authors. We feel sincerely the need of an apology for making a fresh
+addition to the ever-increasing pile of Neapolitan literature, and we can
+only urge in extenuation of our crime of authorship that the same scene
+appeals in varied ways to different persons, and that every fresh
+description is apt to shed additional light upon old familiar subjects. In
+the following pages we make no profession to act the part of a guide to
+the neighbourhood of Naples, for are there not the carefully prepared
+pages of Murray and Baedeker, to say nothing of the works of such writers
+as Augustus Hare, to lead the wanderer into every church and castle, to
+show him every nook in valley and mountain, and to supply him thoroughly
+with accurate dates and facts? No, our treatment of this theme may be
+deemed a poor one, but it has at least the merit and the courage of
+following its own peculiar lines. For we pursue our own course, and we
+touch lightly here and omit there; we run to dissertation in this place,
+we glide by silently in another. We take our own views of people and
+places, and give them for what they are worth to our readers to approve or
+to condemn, as they think fit. We offer a medley of history and of
+imagination, of biography and of private comment; and we crave indulgence
+for our short-comings by observing that any deficiencies in these pages
+can easily be remedied by application to the abundant literature upon
+Naples and its surrounding districts which every good library is presumed
+to contain.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER II
+
+
+                THE VESUVIAN SHORE AND MONTE SANT' ANGELO
+
+
+That little stream the Sebeto, which is indeed, as the courtly Metastasio
+observes, "scanty in depth of water though overflowing with honour," may
+be considered as the boundary line that divides the city of Naples from
+its eastern environs, although it is evident that the whole stretch of
+coast from Posilipo to Torre del Greco is covered with an unbroken line of
+houses. Past the highly cultivated _Paduli_, the chief market-gardens on
+this side of the city, with the town of La Barra on the fertile slopes to
+our left, we pass by way of San Giovanni a Teduccio to Portici, once a
+favourite resort of royalty. Here the dilettante Charles III., first
+Bourbon King of Naples, built a palace and laid out gardens in the days of
+patches and powder, constructing a royal pleasaunce that was destined to
+become the chief residence of the temporary supplanter of his own family,
+Joachim Murat, the citizen king of Naples and brother-in-law of the great
+Napoleon. Villa and gardens still remain, but monarchs have ceased to
+visit Portici since the days of Bomba, and the old royal demesne has been
+turned into an agricultural college. Adjoining and practically forming
+part of Portici is the town of Resina, which preserves almost intact the
+old classical name of Retina that it bore in the distant days when it
+served as the port of Herculaneum. Here then in the mean streets of Resina
+we find ourselves standing above, though certainly not upon, historic
+ground, for the temples and villas, the theatres and private houses of the
+famous buried city lie far below the surface trodden by our feet. To visit
+Herculaneum it is necessary for us to descend some seventy to a hundred
+feet into the depths of the earth, passing more than one layer of ancient
+lava, for Resina and Portici themselves are but modern editions of former
+towns that have been engulfed in the course of ages. If the stranger can
+derive any solid satisfaction from the descent by a gloomy underground
+passage and from fleeting glimpses of ancient walls and dwellings seen
+through a forest of wooden baulks, which serve to support the spaces
+excavated, he must indeed be an enthusiast. But most people, perhaps all
+sensible people, will be content to take the undoubted interest of
+Herculaneum on trust, probably agreeing (at any rate after their visit)
+that the inspection of this subterranean city is not worth the candle, by
+whose flickering beams alone can objects be distinguished in the
+oppressive darkness. Personally we strongly hold to the expressed opinion
+of Alexandre Dumas, who declared that even the most hardened antiquary
+could not desire more than one hour's contemplation of this hidden mass of
+shapeless wreckage. "Herculaneum," writes that genial Frenchman, "but
+wearies our curiosity instead of exciting it. We descend into the
+excavated city as into a mine by a species of shaft; then come corridors
+beneath the earth which can only be entered by the light of tapers; and
+these smoke-grimed passages allow us from time to time to obtain a
+momentary glimpse of the angle of a house, the colonnade of some temple,
+the steps of a theatre. Everything is fragmentary, mutilated, dingy,
+uncertain, confused, and therefore unsatisfactory. Well, at the end of an
+hour spent in wandering amongst these abysmal recesses, the most hardened
+archaeologist, the most dry-as-dust antiquary, the most inquisitive of
+tourists begins to experience only one feeling--an intense desire to ascend
+to the light of day and to breathe once more the fresh air of the upper
+world."
+
+Nevertheless, it was from these dismal caverns, black as Erebus, that some
+of the choicest marbles and bronzes that now adorn the Museum at Naples
+were originally extracted. From a villa at Herculaneum also was taken the
+famous collection of 3000 rolls of papyrus, chiefly filled with the
+writings of the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, perhaps the greatest
+"find" of ancient literature that has yet been made, although the contents
+of this damaged library, deciphered with equal toil and ingenuity, have
+not proved to be of the value originally set upon them by expectant
+scholars. But much of the city itself has yet hardly been touched since
+the days when it was destroyed in the reign of Titus, so that far below
+the squalid lanes of Portici and Resina there must still exist acres upon
+acres of undisturbed buildings, public and private, many of them perhaps
+filled with priceless works of Greek and Roman art, for Herculaneum,
+unlike Pompeii, was never tampered with by the ancients themselves, for
+the coating of volcanic mud, which filled the whole area of the city, made
+impracticable a systematic searching of its ruins by the despoiled
+citizens. Then, as if nature had not already buried the city sufficiently
+deep, subsequent eruptions of Vesuvius have superimposed additional layers
+of lava, whilst confiding human beings have in their turn built
+habitations upon the volcanic crust.
+
+
+
+We all know the story, perhaps mythical, of the discovery of Herculaneum
+at the beginning of the eighteenth century by the accidental sinking of a
+well upon its long-forgotten site and of the subsequent excavations made
+by the Prince d'Elboeuf. These so-called explorations were, however, made
+in the most greedy and destructive spirit, for the prince's sole object
+was to obtain antique works of art for his private collection, not to make
+intelligent enquiries about the dead and buried city lying beneath his
+estate. Ignorant workmen were despatched to hew and hack wholesale in the
+mirky depths in order to discover statuary and paintings, and since there
+was no receptacle at hand to contain the _debris_, they took the simple
+course of filling in each hollow made with the masses of rubbish already
+excavated. Later in the same century the Bourbon king was induced by
+Neapolitan savants to take some interest in the work, but, strange to
+relate, the superintendent appointed, a certain Spanish officer named
+Alcubier, was so ignorant and careless that half the objects found under
+his supervision were broken or lost before they reached Naples; this
+ignoramus, it was said, even went so far as to order whole architraves to
+be smashed up and their bronze lettering to be picked out before making a
+copy of the original inscription! Under these circumstances the marvel is
+that anything of beauty or value should have survived at all, for this
+selfish plundering of Herculaneum, in strong contrast with the reverent
+treatment meted out to Pompeii, may be considered one of the greatest
+pieces of vandalism ever perpetrated. In spite of this wholesale
+destruction, however, there must remain untouched, as we have said, a vast
+quantity of objects, beautiful, useful or curious, yet it is extremely
+doubtful if we shall live to see any serious and intelligent effort made
+to bring these hidden treasures forth to the light of day. The expense of
+working this buried hoard would be enormous in any case, whilst the
+existence of the houses of Resina and Portici overhead necessitates
+special measures of precaution on the part of the excavators. The only
+method of examining Herculaneum properly would be in fact to treat the
+buried site like an immense mine by the construction of regular galleries
+and shafts for the entrance of skilled workmen, and to remove the rubbish
+displaced to the outer air. Perhaps some multi-millionaire might be found
+ready to undertake so arduous, yet so fascinating a task, though we fear
+that the Italian Government, which has always shown itself as tenacious of
+its subterranean wealth of antiquity as it appears languid in the work of
+quarrying it, would indignantly refuse to accede to any such offer. As
+regards the ancient city of Hercules, therefore, we must perforce remain
+content to inspect the magnificent bronzes and the other objects of
+interest that are to be found in the Museum of Naples, for we are not
+likely to see any further researches just at present, more's the pity,
+since there is every reason to suppose that a thorough investigation
+conducted regardless of cost would yield up to the world the most
+marvellous and valuable results.
+
+Some two miles of dusty suburb lie between Resina and Torre del Greco,
+which has been destroyed time after time by the lava streams descending
+from "that peak of Hell rising out of Paradise," as Goethe once named the
+burning mountain overhead. Nevertheless, the Torrese continue to sit
+patiently at the feet of the fire-spouting monster, trembling when he is
+angry, pleased when he is quiescent, and ready to abandon meekly their
+homes when he renders them insupportable by his furious outbursts. Yet
+these people never fail to return and risk the ever-present chances of
+death and destruction. And little can we blame them for their fatalism,
+when we gaze upon the glorious views that reveal themselves at this spot,
+whence Naples rising proudly from the sea, the rocky islands of Ischia and
+Capri, the aerial heights of Monte Sant' Angelo and all the features of
+the placid bay are seen spread around us in a panorama of unsurpassed
+loveliness. Beneath lava rocks, black and sinister, that contrast
+strangely in their sombre hues with the brilliant tints of sea and sky,
+lie little beaches of glittering gravel that would afford delightful
+retreats for meditation, were it not for the dozens of half-naked
+brown-skinned imps, children of the fisher-folk of Torre del Greco, who
+wallow in the warm sand or rush with joyful screams into the tepid surf.
+The population must have increased not a little since those days, nearly a
+century ago, when the unhappy Shelley could find peace and solitude in his
+darkest hours of unrest upon these shores, where it would be well-nigh
+impossible for a twentieth-century poet to espy a retreat for soothing his
+soul in verse. Yet somehow, during the drowsy noontide rest when the
+active life of the South ceases, if only for an hour or so, it is still
+possible to catch the spirit in which that melancholy wanderer indited one
+of his most exquisite lyrics:--sunshine, clear sky, murmuring seas, the
+fragrance of the Italian spring, all are present to our reverie; and how
+true and perfect a picture has the poet-artist drawn for us of this
+beautiful Vesuvian shore!
+
+  "The sun is warm, the sky is clear,
+     The waves are dancing fast and bright,
+  Blue isles and snowy mountains wear
+     The purple noon's transparent light:
+  The breath of the moist earth is light
+     Around its unexpanded buds;
+  Like many a voice of one delight,
+     The winds, the birds, the ocean floods,
+  The City's voice itself is soft, like Solitude's.
+
+  I see the Deep's untrampled floor
+     With green and purple seaweeds strown;
+  I see the waves upon the shore,
+     Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown:
+  I sit upon the sands alone;
+     The lightning of the noontide ocean
+  Is flashing round me, and a tone
+     Arises from its measured motion,
+  How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion?"
+
+But it must be admitted that the seashore by Torre del Greco does not
+often lend itself as a suitable spot for romantic or solitary communings
+with nature; it is a busy place where the struggle for life is keen and
+practical enough, and its inhabitants have little time or inclination to
+bestow on the pursuit of poetry. As in all the towns of the _Terra di
+Lavoro_, as this collection of human ant-hills on the eastern side of
+Naples is sometimes designated, the old command given to the first parents
+of mankind--"by the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread"--is scrupulously
+observed in Torre del Greco. It is little enough, however, that these
+frugal people demand, for a hunk of coarse bread, tempered with a handful
+of beans or an orange in winter or with a slice of luscious pink
+water-melon or a few figs in summer, is thought to constitute a full meal
+in this climate; nor are these simple viands washed down by anything more
+potent than a draught of _mezzo-vino_, the weak sour wine of the country.
+A dish of maccaroni or a plateful of kid or veal garnished with vegetables
+is a treat to be reserved for a marriage or some great Church festival,
+whilst a chicken is regarded as a luxury in which only _gran' signori_ of
+boundless wealth can afford to indulge. Amongst the many classes of
+toilers with which populous Torre del Greco abounds, that of the
+coral-fishers is perhaps the most interesting. There is pure romance in
+the very notion of hunting for the beautiful coloured substance lying
+hidden in the crystalline depths of the Mediterranean, and its quest is
+not a little suggestive of azure caverns beneath the waves, peopled by
+soft-eyed mermaids and strange iridescent fishes. As a matter of fact, it
+would be difficult to name a harder occupation or a more dismal monotonous
+existence than that of the coral-fishers, many hundreds of whom leave this
+little port every spring in order to spend the summer months on the coasts
+of Tripoli, Sardinia, or Sicily. The men employed, who work under contract
+during some six months of unending drudgery, are by no means all natives
+of Torre del Greco, but are collected from various places of the
+neighbourhood, not a few of them being thrifty youths from Capri, who are
+eager to amass as quickly as possible the lump sum of money requisite to
+permit of marriage. It is true that the amount actually paid by the owners
+of the coral fleet sounds proportionately large, yet it is in reality poor
+enough recompense when measured by the ceaseless toil, the burning heat
+and the wretched food, which the venture entails. The lot of the
+coral-fisher has however much improved of late years, partly by measures
+of government which now compel the contractors to treat their servants
+more humanely, and partly by the fact that the practice of emigration in
+Southern Italy has reduced the numbers of applicants for the coral-fishing
+business and has thereby, indirectly at least, raised wages and bettered
+the old conditions of service. A truly pitiable account is given of these
+poor creatures some thirty years ago by an English writer, whose knowledge
+of the Neapolitan people and character remains probably unsurpassed; and
+it is some satisfaction to reflect that even in Mr Stamer's day the bad
+old oppressive system had already been somewhat tempered for the benefit
+of these white slaves, who for nearly half the round of the year were
+worse treated than King Bomba's unhappy victims in the pestilent prisons
+of Naples and Gaeta.
+
+  [Illustration: A CAPRIOTE FISHERMAN'S WIFE]
+
+"Badly paid, badly fed, and hard worked is the poor coral-fisher. Compared
+with his, the life of a galley-slave is one of sybaritical indolence. His
+treatment was, until very recently, not one whit better than that of the
+poor oppressed negro as he existed in the vivid imagination of Mrs Harriet
+Beecher Stowe; immeasurably worse than that of the real Simon Pure. The
+thirty ducats for which he sold his seven months' services once paid, he
+was just as much a slave as Uncle Tom of pious memory, harder worked, more
+brutally handled. His _padrone_ was a sea-monster, alongside of whom Mr
+Legree would have seemed a paragon of Quaker-like gentleness and
+amiability. His word was law and a rope's end well laid on his sole reply
+to any remonstrance on the part of his bondsmen. For six days out of the
+seven he kept them working incessantly, not unfrequently on the seventh
+into the bargain, if the weather was favourable; and that they might be
+strong, hearty and able to haul away, their food consisted of dry
+biscuits; a dish of maccaroni with just sufficient oil to make the sign of
+the cross being served out for the Sunday's dinner."(1)
+
+In those "good old days," not so very far distant, the dredging nets were
+coarse and weighty, and the capstan of the clumsiest and most primitive
+description, so that the coral-seeking serfs under contract were worked
+like bullocks until they were often wont to fall asleep out of sheer
+exhaustion as they hauled away mechanically. We can imagine then with what
+raptures of joy these ill-treated mortals must have hailed the advent of
+October, the month that terminated their long spell of suffering and
+semi-starvation, and with what eagerness they must have returned
+homewards, the more industrious to perform odd jobs during the winter
+season on farms or in factories; the lazier to enjoy a well-earned holiday
+of loafing on the quay or in the piazza. And although times have changed
+for the better in the eyes of the coral-fisher, his lot still remains hard
+enough, even in the present days of grace; whilst any employment that saps
+the workman's strength during the hot summer months and leaves him idle or
+unemployed in winter time cannot well be described as a desirable trade.
+Yet the temptation to obtain a considerable sum of money in advance, as is
+the case in this particular industry, often proves overwhelming to the
+young man of the Torres or of Castellamare, imprudently married before he
+is out of his teens and with an ever-increasing family. It is so easy to
+accept the proffered gold, which will keep wife and babies in comparative
+comfort throughout the long hot summer; unskilled labour is paid so
+lightly on these teeming shores of the Terra di Lavoro; saddled already
+with children he cannot make up his feeble mind to emigrate; in short, to
+go a-coralling is his sole chance, if he wishes to keep his home together
+and to stave off charity or starvation from his young wife and family.
+
+Beyond Torre del Greco we seem to escape to a certain extent from the
+enveloping network of human dwellings, so that we are at last enabled to
+gain some idea of the natural features of the country. The oriental
+character of the landscape, which marks more or less distinctly the whole
+of the Neapolitan coast-line, will at once be noticed in the domed farm
+buildings, not unlike Mahommedan _koubbas_, washed a glistening white,
+that stand out sharply against the lugubrious tints of the lava beds.
+Above us, crowning a bosky hillock that juts forth from the mountain
+flank, stands one of the many convents of the monks of Camaldoli, whose
+houses are scattered throughout the breadth of Southern Italy. The
+position of their Vesuvian settlement is certainly unique, for the rising
+ground on which it is perched appears like some verdant oasis amid the
+arid fields of sable lava. Secure in its commanding site, the monastery
+has many a time been completely surrounded by burning streams, which have
+invariably left the building and its woody demesne unscathed. More than
+once have the good brethren, who wear the white robe of St Romualdo of
+Ravenna, looked down from their convent walls upon the work of destruction
+below, and have watched the waves of liquid fire surging angrily but
+uselessly round the rocky base of their retreat. Hard manual labour,
+prayer, solitude and contemplation: these are the chief duties enjoined by
+the famous Tuscan order, and surely no more suitable place for carrying
+out such precepts could have been chosen by the pious founder of this
+Vesuvian convent. For what scenes on earth could be deemed more beautiful
+to contemplate, we wonder, than the wide stretches of heaven and ocean, of
+fertile plain and of rugged mountain, that are ever before the eyes of the
+brethren; or more instructive than the constant spectacle of disappointed
+human ambition and energy, which is afforded by the barren lava beds and
+the ruined cities close at hand!
+
+Descending from the slopes of Camaldoli, we cross a tract of country
+wherein black lava alternates with patches of rich cultivation and of
+thriving vineyards, and gaining the high road we soon reach Torre
+Annunziata. Here it is evident that the manufacture of maccaroni forms the
+chief industry of its population, for on all sides are to be seen the
+frames filled with the golden coloured strings of _pasta_ that have been
+hung up to dry in the sunshine. Every flat roof in the place, moreover, is
+covered with smooth concrete and protected by a low parapet for the
+spreading of the grain, and on the beach are laid huge cloths of coarse
+brown material that are heaped with masses of the crude corn, whilst men
+with their naked feet from time to time turn the grain so as to dry the
+whole bulk. Torre Annunziata and its inland neighbour, Gragnano, are in
+fact the two chief local scenes of this industry with which the Bay of
+Naples has always been so closely associated, and it is here that we can
+best make ourselves acquainted with the process of manufacturing
+maccaroni. By following any one of the tall brown-skinned fellows,
+stripped to the waist and bare-legged, who have been breathing the fresh
+air of the street for a few moments, we quickly arrive at the entrance of
+one of the many small factories with which the town abounds. In spite of
+open doors and windows its atmosphere feels hot and stifling, for it is
+impregnated with tiny particles of flour dust, which too often, alas! are
+apt to affect permanently the lungs of the workmen. The dough of maccaroni
+is obtained by mixing pure wheaten flour with semolina in certain
+proportions, only water being used for the purpose, whilst the task of
+kneading is carried out in primitive fashion by means of a lever worked
+continuously by two or more men. When the dough has at length arrived at
+the required consistency after some hours of steady kneading, it is placed
+in a large perforated copper cylinder, each hole having a central pin at
+the bottom and a valve on top. A powerful screw is then employed to press
+down upon the dough, which is thus squeezed out of the imprisoning
+cylinder through the holes in the serpentine shape that is so familiar to
+us. On reaching a certain length these pipes, issuing from the holes, are
+twisted off and are then removed for drying to the frames in the open air.
+Maccaroni has, of course, many varieties of form and quality, from the
+thin fluffy vermicelli, known under the poetical name of _Capilli degli
+Angeli_, to the great thick pipe-stem-like article of ordinary commerce.
+There are endless means of cooking and dressing this, the national dish of
+Italy, but perhaps the most popular of all is _alla Napolitana_, wherein
+it is served with tomato sauce, to which a sprinkling of grated Parmesan
+cheese is frequently added. A compound of eggs and maccaroni, sometimes
+known as a Neapolitan omelette, likewise makes an appetising dish, though
+it is one that is little known to foreigners. One circumstance is patent;
+the dismal so-called "maccaroni pudding" one meets with in England seems
+to have nothing in common with the delicately flavoured, sustaining dish
+that can be obtained for a few pence in any Southern restaurant.
+
+Torre Annunziata has the reputation of being a dirty malodorous town,
+composed of shabby stone houses and full of quarrelsome people. Well,
+perhaps there is a scintilla of truth in the sweeping observation, yet if
+we can contrive to endure the smells and racket of the place for a brief
+space of time, there is much of human interest to be observed in the daily
+scenes of its crowded beach and its noisy streets. After all, no odours of
+the South can compare in all-pervading intensity with the blended aroma of
+fried fish and London fog that old Drury Lane can often produce; nor are
+the Torrese more dangerous to strangers or more objectionable in their
+habits than the crowds of Lambeth or Seven Dials. In strength of lungs, it
+must be granted, the Italian easily surpasses the Londoner, for the
+Southern voice is positively alarming in its vigour and its far-reaching
+power. No one--man, woman or child--can apparently speak below a scream;
+even the most amiable or trivial of conversations seems to our
+unaccustomed ears to portend an imminent quarrel, to so high a pitch are
+the naturally harsh voices strained. Morning, noon and night the same
+hubbub of men shouting, of women screeching, and of children yelling
+continues for nobody minds noise in Italy, where people are troubled with
+no nerves of their own and consequently have no consideration for those of
+strangers. And why, therefore, should they suspend their native habits to
+please a handful of cavilling _forestieri_?
+
+A stroll through Torre Annunziata, although it possesses not a few
+drawbacks, can be made both amusing and instructive; we can even find
+something attractive in the quality of the local atmosphere, which
+suggests at one and the same time sunshine, garlic, incense, stale fish
+and wood smoke; it is the pungent but characteristic aroma of the South,
+filled "with spicy odours Time can never mar." And what truly charming
+pictures do the family groups present in the wide archways giving on the
+untidy courts within, full of sun and shadow and gay with bright-coloured
+garments swaying in the wind! The ebon-haired young mother with teeth like
+pearls and with warm-tinted cheeks sits fondling the last helpless little
+addition to her growing family, whilst toddlers of any age from two to
+seven, unkempt but bright-eyed and engaging, play around the door-step,
+watched over by their grandmother, or may be their great-grandam, who with
+her wizened face enfolded in her yellow kerchief, her skinny neck, and her
+distaff in the bony fingers, looks as if she had stepped out of some
+Renaissance painting of the Three Fates in a Florentine gallery. Crimson
+carnations in earthenware pots stand on the steps of the outside
+staircase, giving a touch of refinement to the squalid home, and from the
+balcony overhead the glossy-black, yellow-billed _passer solitario_, the
+favourite cage-bird of the Neapolitan poor, chirrups with apparent
+cheerfulness in his wicker-work prison. Behind, in the dim shadows of the
+large room, which serves as sole habitation, we can espy the inevitable
+household altar with the oil lamp glimmering before the little
+crude-coloured print of the Virgin and Child, and its usual accessory, the
+piece of palm or olive that was blessed by the priest last Palm Sunday;
+poor and mean though the chamber be, its bed linen and simple appointments
+are more cleanly than might perhaps be inferred from the appearance of the
+family itself. In a shady corner close by, three or four young labourers
+at their mid-day rest have finished their frugal repast of bread and
+beans, and are now playing eagerly the popular game of _zecchinetto_ with
+a frayed and grimy pack of cards. Wives or sweethearts watch with anxious
+faces from a respectful distance, for it is not meet to disturb the lords
+of creation when they happen to be engaged in a game of chance. What
+possibilities of farce and tragedy can be drawn from so simple, so common
+a scene upon these shores, where human life is less artificially conducted
+than elsewhere in Europe, and where human passions are kept under less
+restraint? Terrible are the tales of jealousy and revenge, of deliberate
+treachery and of uncontrolled violence, which are related of these
+quick-tempered grown-up children of the South, who seem to love and hate
+with the blind intensity of untutored savages.
+
+  "Lo 'nnamorato' mmio sse chiammo Peppo,
+  Lo capo jocatore de le carte;
+  Ss' ha jocato 'sto core a zecchinetto,
+  Dice ca mo' lo venne, e mo' lo parte.
+  Che n'agg' io a fare lo caro de carte?
+  Vogho lo core che tinite 'm pietto!"
+
+  ("That lover of mine is called Handsome Beppo,
+  The best player of cards all around this way;
+  He's been playing on Hearts at _zecchinetto_,
+  And says now they turn up, now are sorted away.
+  What matters the heart in the card-pack to me?
+  The heart in his bosom's the heart for me!")
+
+Here lies the sleeping fisherman, worn out probably with hours of hauling
+at the heavy nets, who is snatching a chance hour of repose, prone upon
+his chest with face buried in his crossed arms. Little he seems to reck of
+the damp of the soil or the heat of the sun, nor can a noisy game of
+_mora_ played by a couple of his companions beside him disturb his deep
+slumber. _Mora_ has ever been the classic game of the South, and indeed,
+there is abundant evidence to show that it was played by the ancestors of
+these dwellers in Magna Graecia hundreds of years before Pompeii was
+overthrown. The game, which requires nothing but the human fingers, bears
+no little resemblance to our own humble pastime of "Up Jenkin!" which may
+almost be described as a species of drawing-room _mora_; perhaps some
+Italian traveller in a past age may actually have introduced this form of
+the southern diversion into prosaic England. The two players, face to face
+and craning forward with outstretched necks, simultaneously extend their
+right hands with one or more fingers pointing upward, the aim of each man
+being to guess the exact number, from two to ten, jointly displayed by
+both right hands. If one of them hit upon the correct figure, then he
+gains one point towards the stakes, which are usually made in _centesimi_
+rather than in _soldi_. How rapidly do the lean supple brown fingers flash
+backwards and forwards, and with what gusto do the two frenzied combatants
+yell out their numbers! _Mora_ has been a favourite recreation with these
+people almost from their cradles, and he would be a bold man indeed who
+would venture to challenge a Torrese at this game, for the native's skill
+and experience are almost bound to tell eventually in his favour, and the
+odds are "Lombard Street to a China orange" against the outside player.
+There are certain maxims too with regard to the game which are closely
+observed by those who play it, as well as peculiar expressions, such as
+_tutte_ to denote that all ten fingers are being shown, or _chiarella_ for
+all but one. Five points usually make the game, and these are commonly
+marked by holding up one or more fingers of the disengaged left
+hand.--These are a few of the many sights to be witnessed by those who can
+afford to endure the pestering attentions of small boys, and the
+uncomplimentary staring of the adult population in such places as the
+Torres or Castellamare; and such as wish to make themselves acquainted
+with the details of southern life and manners cannot do better than pass
+an idle hour in the fishmarket or the piazza of these little industrial
+towns of the Vesuvian shore. For to regard Southern Italy from the
+majestic isolation of a railway compartment or a hired carriage cannot
+possibly give the traveller the smallest insight into the ordinary phases
+of local life; for he is ever looking, as it were, into a picture from
+which all trace of colour has vanished.
+
+It is but a short quarter of an hour by train from Torre Annunziata to
+Castellamare di Stabia, the ill-fated Stabiae of the Romans, which shared
+the evil lot of Pompeii and Herculaneum. On our right we have the sea,
+with the castle-topped islet of Revigliano, whilst on looking to the left
+we can survey the fertile valley of the Sarno, and the shapeless mounds
+which hide that precious goal of every traveller to these shores, the
+buried city of Pompeii. Everywhere thrives sub-tropical vegetation:--cactus
+and aloe draped in wreaths of smilax; tall straggling masses of scarlet
+geranium that cling for protection to the Indian fig, and blossom in
+security amid their spiky but safe retreats; shrubs of fragrant yellow
+genista; clumps of purple-leaved _ricini_, as the Italians name the
+castor-oil plant. If it were summer time, the daturas would be covered
+with their great white floral trumpets, and every oleander bush would be
+one blaze of the coarse carmine blossoms that are here called _Mazza di
+San Giuseppe_, or St Joseph's nosegay, and a very gaudy rank bouquet they
+make. But in spring-time the oleander can but display long greyish leaves
+and pods of snowy fluff, which is blown hither and thither like
+thistle-down on the air; and it is only in flaming summer that these
+regions are brightened by St Joseph's flower, or by the still more
+gorgeous masses of the mesembryanthemum, which clambers on all sides over
+the lava rock and hangs in crimson festoons from tufa cliffs, making
+impossibly splendid splashes of colour in the landscape.
+
+
+                              * * * * * * *
+
+
+So many writers have expatiated upon the sordid ugliness of Castellamare
+and upon the beauty of the wooded slopes above the town, that a further
+description of the place may well be dispensed with. Uninteresting,
+however, as this industrial town appears, it boasts a long historical
+record, to which its crumbling medieval castle bears witness. The great
+Emperor Frederick the Second, the scholar-pope Pius the Second, and all
+the monarchs of the Angevin, Aragonese and Bourbon dynasties have been
+associated with this "castle by the sea." The whole district was once the
+property of that human monster Pier-Luigi Farnese, duke of Parma, heir of
+Pope Paul the Third, of whose demoniacal cruelty and treachery the racy
+pages of Cellini's Memoirs give so vivid an account, and whose repulsive
+face has grown familiar to us from Titian's famous portraits in the
+gallery of Naples. It was the evil Pier-Luigi's descendant and
+heiress-general of the family, Elizabeth Farnese, Queen of Spain, who
+conveyed the beautiful villa and woods of Quisisana to the Bourbon kings,
+and here the Neapolitan royal family for several generations sought health
+(as the name of the place implies) and repose upon the breezy heights that
+lie so conveniently near to the great city in full view to the west.
+Nowadays the old royal villa, deserted by crowned heads since Ferdinand's
+days and fallen from its high estate to its present use of a hotel and
+pension, forms with its park the chief attraction of Castellamare, where
+English travellers are wont to congregate in winter, and Neapolitan and
+Greek seekers of pleasure or drinkers of medicinal waters resort in the
+hot summer months. The Southerners who come here for their _villeggiatura_
+certainly enjoy a better time than the winter visitors, for the bulky form
+of Monte Sant' Angelo intercepts much of the sunshine, thereby rendering
+the place damp and chilly in the cold season of the year. Nominally it is
+the mineral springs that attract the Neapolitan folk, wherein they have a
+fine choice of health-giving beverages, varying from the _acqua ferrata_,
+a mild chalybeate that is found useful as a tonic, to the powerful _acqua
+del Muraglione_, that is warranted to reduce the stoutest mortal to a mere
+shadow of his former self in a trice. But though the waters may be
+occasionally sipped of a morning and wry faces made, it is in reality the
+warm sea-bathing on the shore, where people spend hours pickling in tepid
+salt water, and also the cool rides or walks amongst the shady alleys of
+sweet chestnut and ilex woods of Quisisana and Monte Coppola, which draw
+hither in summer the elegant world of Naples, and even of Athens, to visit
+Castellamare. The leafy groves on the zephyr-swept hill sides, once sacred
+to the pleasures of Bourbon tyrants, now ring with peals of noisy
+laughter, with gallant compliments, and with the harsh shouting of the
+_ciucciari_, the leaders of the poor over-driven donkeys. Unhappy patient
+beasts! usually covered with raws and galls, that are urged forward at a
+gallop by the remorseless stick, or even by the goad, for the Neapolitan
+donkey-boy is absolutely callous to the feelings of his animal. Not that
+he is cruel out of sheer cussedness, for cruelty's sake, for he can be
+really kind to his dog or his cat; but the beast of burden, the helpless
+uncomplaining servant of man, suffers terribly at his hands. It is useless
+to remonstrate or argue with the young ruffian, who at our sharp reprimand
+will merely open wide his big black eyes and stare in genuine amazement.
+_Non sono Cristiani_--they have no souls, and the beasts are their property
+and not yours; what does it matter then to you how they are treated,
+provided they carry you properly? That is the sum total of the
+donkey-boy's argument, and he has high ecclesiastical authority to back up
+his private theory, if he had the wit to enter into a discussion with us
+on the subject. Almost equally hopeless is it to point to the simple fact
+that a well-groomed, well-treated animal lasts longer than a half-starved,
+mutilated scare-crow. "How old is your horse?" we once asked a driver in
+the south. "He is very old indeed, _eccelenza_," was the reply; "he must
+be nearly twelve!" On being informed that horses often worked well up to
+twenty years old and over in England, he let us infer, quite politely,
+that he thought we were romancing. Tenderness towards the dumb creation is
+a common, not to say a prevailing characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon race,
+and it must be confessed that the thoughtless and horrible cruelty towards
+animals witnessed on all sides in the Neapolitan Riviera amounts to a
+serious drawback to the full enjoyment of its many beauties and amenities.
+Matters are improving a little of late, it is only fair to add. There is
+an Italian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and its
+officials have done some good in the streets of Naples itself, but
+naturally its new ideas have not yet penetrated far into the country
+districts.
+
+  [Illustration: ROAD NEAR CASTELLAMARE]
+
+To the healthy and energetic the most delightful excursion that
+Castellamare can offer is the ascent to the summit of Monte Sant' Angelo,
+that monarch of the Bay of Naples, whose lofty crest gleams with snowy
+streaks until the spring be well advanced. The lazy or the feeble can make
+use of one of the poor oppressed donkeys, but it is better to engage its
+ragged master, who without his four-footed drudge to whack and kick is a
+harmless enough being, to act as guide over the steep ill-defined pathway
+that leads ever upwards. As we slowly ascend through the sub-tropical
+region of fig and vine, of olive and carouba, we question our guide, who
+in spite of his bright eyes and well-knit frame seems about as intelligent
+a companion as the poor ass left behind in the stall, where he is
+enjoying, let us hope, an unexpected holiday. It is not easy to extract
+information from our native attendant, yet with a little judicious
+pressing we learn from him that the top of the mountain, which is our
+bourne, was once inhabited by evil spirits, until a holy hermit took up
+his abode on the peak, since when his sanctity has kept the place
+tolerably clear of witches and foul incubi. Wicked sprites, however, still
+haunt the spreading woods of beech and chestnut which we must presently
+traverse, and our guide (whose name is Vincenzo) admits to us that he
+would not care to venture there alone, even in broad daylight. There is,
+he tells us, warming up at last to the subject, much gold hidden there,
+which the spirits guard so jealously that they are ready to tear in pieces
+any mortal who is clever enough to find and bold enough to rifle their
+secret hoards. Only a priest, on account of his sacred office, is reckoned
+safe from their iniquitous spells. "But has not any one dared," we ask,
+"to go in company with a holy man, to search for this hidden treasure?"
+Well, yes, he had been told that men from Vico had once ventured up into
+the woods to search for the gold. With a little encouragement Vincenzo is
+finally prevailed upon to give us the whole story, which is evidently of
+somewhat recent date.
+
+Once upon a time there were four men, one of them being a priest, who
+lived in Vico, and one of these men had often been told by his father that
+in the forests near the top of Monte Sant' Angelo there lay buried a chest
+full of gold--_molto! molto!_ The father of the man had been himself in his
+youth to search for the treasure, but find it he never could, for he would
+never take a priest with him to avert the spells of the evil spirits of
+the mountain sides, who kept the place hidden. So this time the man chose
+two out of his friends, the boldest and the trustiest he could fix upon,
+to accompany him, and at the same time he obtained the promise of a
+cousin, who was a priest, to assist in the undertaking. All four made
+their way up to the woods, and whilst the three men were digging and
+searching, the priest continued to read aloud the incantations out of a
+certain book he had brought with him for the purpose. In course of time
+the chest was discovered to the joy of all, and sure enough it was bulging
+with the desired gold pieces. They opened it without difficulty, and the
+four friends divided its contents in equal shares. Scarcely had the work
+of division been carried out, than there came a loud voice issuing from
+the unknown, calling out the question:--"_Che ferete con questo tesoro?_"
+"_Mangeremo, beveremo!_" boldly replied one of the group, to whom this
+sudden accession of wealth offered dreams of unlimited platters of
+maccaroni and countless flasks of ruby-red Gragnano in the future. "We
+shall eat, we shall drink, but we shall also make abundant alms!" called
+out another--let us hope it was the priest!--but no sooner had the word
+_elemosina_ (alms) been uttered than there was heard a most terrific
+rattling of chains, the gold pieces turned to dead leaves in the
+affrighted mortals' hands, and the four men took to their heels and fled
+in alarm down the mountain flank.
+
+Vincenzo believes this tale implicitly, just as it was related to him, and
+he adds to combat our own incredulity that the priest and one of the men
+who took part in this strange adventure were still living and ready to
+confirm the story, but that of the remaining two, one was now dead, and
+the other had been deaf and dumb ever since the event. It seem a pity to
+criticise Vincenzo's simple little narrative, which makes a pretty
+fairy-story and points a sound moral, as it stands.
+
+We enter the fresh scented woods that have now replaced in our climb the
+rich cultivated crops and terraced gardens, and here amidst the clumps of
+ancient chestnuts our guide points out to us the great snow-pits, the
+contents of which are used to cool the water sold by the _acquaioli_
+during hot summer nights in the sultry streets of Naples. These pits are
+dug about fifty feet deep, and half as much across, being conical in shape
+with a grating placed a short distance above the tapering base to allow
+the melted snow to drain off into the soil. The sides of each pit are
+first well-lined with straw and leafy branches, and the new-fallen snow
+shovelled in and forced into a solid mass by pressure from above, whilst
+on top is placed a sound thatched roof. As we wander through the silent
+woods we see patches of anemones, white and blue, lying upon the
+leaf-strewn ground, and beside them in many places are tufts of the pale
+starry primroses; coarse spurge, and lush masses of the hellebore with its
+large pale green flowers and dark leaves are common enough on all sides.
+From amongst the naked trees we emerge into the bare bleak stony stretches
+that lead to the summit, covered with the coarse but aromatic vegetation
+that clothes the dry limestone wastes of the south. How truly marvellous
+is the description of these wind-swept, weed-grown solitudes that Robert
+Browning presents to us in what is perhaps the most truly Italian in
+feeling of all his poems, "The Englishman in Italy!" For here with the
+rich imagination, worthy of some of Shelley's finest flights, is mingled
+an accurate appreciation of Nature, of which Wordsworth might well be
+proud; for the Lake poet himself could not have improved upon this
+exquisite description of the various shrubs and plants of a limestone
+hill-top in Italy.
+
+  "The wild path grew wilder each instant,
+    And place was e'en grudged
+  'Mid the rock-chasms and piles of loose stones,
+    Like the loose broken teeth
+  Of some monster which climbed there to die
+    From the ocean beneath--
+  Place was grudged to the silver-grey fume-weed
+    That clung to the path,
+  And dark rosemary ever a-dying,
+    That, spite the wind's wrath,
+  So loves the salt rock's face to seaward,
+    And lentisks as staunch
+  To the stone where they root and bear berries,
+    And ... what shows a branch
+  Coral-coloured, transparent, with circlets
+    Of pale sea-green leaves."
+
+Above our heads hovers a kite, performing graceful circles in the keen
+clear air and breaking the oppressive silence of the place with his shrill
+screams, for his mate must have her nest hidden in some cleft of yon grey
+towering cliff. A pair of crested hoopoes with brown plumage and ruddy
+breasts keep fluttering a little way before us, uttering from time to time
+their curious notes of alarm. Mercifully these handsome birds have escaped
+the fowler, who lays his snares even amongst the spirit-haunted crags of
+this desolate region. The hoopoe, though a very rare visitor to our
+northern shores, is fairly common on the Mediterranean coast, and he would
+be still more frequently encountered, were it not for his hereditary
+enemy, Man. There is a venerable legend concerning this interesting
+bird--_bubbola_, the Italians call him--which relates how ages ago on the
+scorching plains of Palestine a number of hoopoes once followed King
+Solomon as he was riding, and in order to protect the great king from the
+fierce rays of the sun, they formed themselves into a living screen to
+shelter the royal head. Grateful for this welcome attention, Solomon Ben
+David at eventide sent for the king of the Hoopoes to ask him what reward
+he would like to receive for this service, and the answer was promptly
+made that a crown of pure gold on the head would be acceptable. The Jewish
+monarch smiled grimly as he granted the request, whereupon immediately
+each bird found his poll decorated with a tuft of pure golden feathers,
+and mightily pleased with their new magnificence were the conceited
+hoopoes. But alas! the news was quickly spread abroad that there were to
+be seen strange birds with plumes of real gold, and the eternal lust of
+gain at once set men in quest of the hoopoes, whom they began to slay
+wholesale with stones, arrows, and traps in order to obtain the coveted
+precious metal they bore on their heads. In despair, the king of the
+hoopoes then flew to the monarch sitting on his ivory throne at Jerusalem,
+and begged him to change their golden crowns for crests of feathers.
+Solomon the Wise smilingly gave the order; at once lovely red and black
+feathers took the place of the golden plumes, and the slaughter of the
+hoopoes in Palestine forthwith ceased. And the story, argues the recorder
+of this lesson upon the folly of personal adornment, must of necessity be
+true, for it is certain that the hoopoes bear a crown of feathers upon
+their heads unto this day.
+
+Slowly we toil up the last portion of the peak, until we reach the ruined
+chapel of St Michael upon its summit, which is still a resort of local
+pilgrims, although in these days of doubt and avarice, when "sins are so
+many and saints so few," the statue of the Archangel since its removal
+from this spot no longer perspires with the sacred dew, which the priests
+used to collect with cotton wool on the first day of August and distribute
+to the peasants of the district. Like the oil that was once wont to exude
+from the blessed relics of St Andrew in the Cathedral of Amalfi, _non c'e
+piu_; we may possess motor cars and radium, but we must contrive to exist
+without these precious exhibitions of the miraculous.
+
+It would be sheer folly to attempt a full description of that glorious
+view, comprising the bays of Gaeta, Naples, and Salerno; of Vesuvius with
+his ascending smoky clouds; of the endless chain of the snow-tipped
+Abruzzi Mountains that bound the vision to the east; of the vast expanse
+of the Mediterranean, stretching in one unbroken sheet of turquoise to the
+west, varied by violet patches of reflected cloud, and studded by
+innumerable ships, from the vast liners to the tiny fishing craft with
+their glistening sails, like snow-white sea-swallows resting on the calm
+waters. Again we turn to Robert Browning, most human of poets and most
+kindly of philosophers, to find adequate expression for the thoughts we
+dare not, cannot utter.
+
+  "Oh, heaven and the terrible crystal!
+    No rampart excludes
+  Your eye from the life to be lived
+    In the blue solitudes.
+  Oh, those mountains, their infinite movement!
+    Still moving with you;
+  For ever some new head and breast of them
+    Thrusts into view
+  To observe the intruder; you see it
+    If quickly you turn,
+  And before they escape you surprise them.
+    They grudge you should learn
+  How the soft plains they look on, lean over
+    And love (they pretend)
+  --Cower beneath them, the flat sea-pine crouches,
+    The wild fruit-trees bend;
+  E'en the myrtle leaves curl, shrink and shut,
+    All is silent and grave:
+  'Tis a sensual and timorous beauty.
+    How fair! but a slave."
+
+  [Illustration: MONTE FAITO, CASTELLAMARE]
+
+We descend by the slopes of Monte Faito in the quiet of the evening,
+facing the distant headland of Posilipo and the sunset, where above the
+horizon we see collecting thick masses of dark purple cloud, which augur a
+stormy morrow. Above us the peak of the Archangel is already wreathed in
+garlands of white mist, a sure sign of coming tempest, and it is amid a
+lurid light from the sinking sun that we hasten downwards, bending our
+steps in the direction of Pozzano, where the form of its convent stands
+out sharply defined against the background of the Bay. Night is rapidly
+approaching, and in the gathering darkness as we strike the road below the
+convent, we can already hear the ominous roaring and seething of the
+waters under the cliff, lashed to fury by the first deep breaths of the
+coming squall. Hurrying along the broad smooth roadway it is not long
+before we reach our hotel door, where we bid good night to Vincenzo, just
+as the first heavy drops of rain have begun to fall; pleasantly exhausted
+after our long excursion, we are ready to appreciate to the full the
+warmth and good cheer of the hospitable Hotel Quisisana.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER III
+
+
+                              LA CITTA MORTA
+
+
+Pompeii can never be visited without the same haunting conviction, the
+same oppressive thought: how terribly difficult it is to understand the
+City of the Dead which holds in so small a space the whole secret of the
+antique world! There are far more grandiose and impressive ruins to be
+seen in Rome; the city of Timgad in Northern Africa is more complete as a
+specimen of a Roman settlement than the half-excavated town near Vesuvius;
+yet here, and here only, can the men of the past stretch hands, as it
+were, across the barrier of eighteen intervening centuries to the dweller
+of to-day, and the dead-and-gone spirits of a highly organized
+civilization can whisper into the living ears of the twentieth century.
+For Pompeii will speak to us, if we will take the trouble to learn the
+tongue in which alone she can convey the secret of her story. It is
+needless to say that this language is not obtainable by one or two cursory
+visits to the Naples Museum, and a few hurried half-hours given to the
+contents of the guide-book; no, the language of Pompeii, which constitutes
+the key of access to the hidden chambers of the Roman world, can only be
+acquired with much expenditure of precious time and with infinite trouble.
+But "life is short and time is fleeting," and our bustling age expects to
+seize its required knowledge in the twinkling of an eye; well, in that
+case the story of Pompeii must remain a sealed volume to the traveller,
+who is conveyed to the City of the Dead in a train crammed with
+fellow-tourists; who eats a heavy unwholesome luncheon to the sound of
+mandoline-players twanging sprightly Neapolitan airs; and who is finally
+piloted round the sacred area by a chattering guide in the oppressive heat
+and glare of a sunny afternoon. Fatigued in mind and body, such an one
+will sink with ill-concealed relief upon the dusty velvet cushions of the
+returning train, thoroughly disappointed in the vaunted marvels of
+Pompeii, which his imagination had led him to expect. A vague impression
+of low broken walls, of narrow--to his eyes absurdly narrow--streets, of
+broken columns and of peeling frescoes fills his tired brain, as he is
+borne back to his hotel in Naples. But this disenchantment is his own
+fault, for no one who sets foot within the Sea Gate of the buried city in
+the proper spirit of knowledge and appreciation can possibly fail to enjoy
+the privilege which has thus been afforded him--
+
+        "to stand within the City Disinterred;
+  And hear the autumnal leaves like light footfalls
+  Of spirits passing through the streets; and hear
+  The Mountain's slumberous voice at intervals
+      Thrill through those roofless halls."
+
+Before passing through the Porta Marina into the purlieus of the city, let
+us first of all instil into our minds the essential difference that exists
+between the ruins of Pompeii and the historic fragments of Rome or Athens.
+When we gaze upon the well-known sites of the vanished glories of the
+Palatine or the Acropolis, we experience no effort in looking backward
+through the vista of the past and in conjuring up some vague
+representation of the scenes that were once enacted in these places; the
+more imaginative feel the very air vibrating with the unseen spirits of
+men and women famous in the world's history. He must be indeed a
+Philistine or a dullard who cannot contrive to arouse a passing exaltation
+at the thought of treading in the footsteps of Cicero and the Caesars in
+Rome, of Pericles and Socrates in Athens, for the very soil of the Forum
+and the stones of the citadel of Pallas seem impregnated with the very
+essence of history. But this is far from being the case at Pompeii, where
+long careful study of details and a grasp of hard facts are really of more
+avail than a poetic imagination in reclothing with flesh the dry bones of
+the past, for the importance of the Campanian city is almost purely
+social. The _names_ of many of its prominent citizens are certainly
+familiar to us from inscriptions found, yet who were these persons that we
+should take so deep an interest in their lives and fates? Who were Pansa
+the aedile, Eumachia the priestess, Caecilius Jucundus, Aulus Vettius and
+Epidius Rufus, and a score of other Pompeian worthies? The answer is, they
+were officials or simple dwellers in a flourishing provincial town; they
+had no especial literary or public reputation; their names were probably
+little known beyond the walls of their own city. Imagine an English
+country town, such as Exeter or Shrewsbury, suddenly overwhelmed by some
+unforeseen freak of Nature and afterwards embalmed in the manner of
+Pompeii as a curiosity for the edification of future ages. To what extent,
+we ask, would the discovery of a place of this size and population supply
+the existing dweller with a complete impression of our national life and
+civilization in the opening years of the twentieth century? The reply will
+be that it would give a very good idea of the average provincial town, but
+that it would hardly serve as a fair criterion to judge of the life
+pursued in the capital, or in the really large cities. Such a comparison
+will afford us a certain clue to the unveiling of the mysteries of
+Pompeii.
+
+For the city at the mouth of the Sarno was an ancient Campanian
+settlement, founded long before the days wherein Greek adventurers beached
+their triremes on the shores of the Siren. It was a native community of
+Oscans, deriving its name from the Oscan word _pompe_ (five), and, unlike
+Paestum, it appears to have retained its original appellation under all
+its successive masters. Its primitive inhabitants seem to have
+intermingled with their Hellenic victors, and to have grown civilized by
+intercourse with them. Temples of heavy Doric architecture were raised;
+walls and watch-towers were built; and by the time the city fell into the
+hands of the encroaching Romans, it had become a flourishing place with
+some twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants, owing its prosperity to its
+excellent situation at the mouth of the river, which made Pompeii a
+convenient port to serve the rich district of Campania that lies eastward
+of Vesuvius. Nuceria (the modern Nocera) and the larger city of Nola were
+both dependent on it, for the Sarno was in those days navigable, so that
+ships bringing Egyptian corn and Eastern merchandise frequently left the
+Pompeian harbour and sailed up stream to unload their cargoes at these
+cities. Let us picture then to ourselves a compact town, an irregular oval
+in form, surrounded by walls pierced by eight gates and embellished with
+twelve towers; its eastern extremity towards Nocera containing the
+Amphitheatre, and its most westerly point marked by the Herculaneum gate
+leading to the Street of Tombs. Southward, we must imagine the sea much
+closer to its walls than at the present day, for the alluvial deposits
+have in the course of nearly two thousand years added many acres of solid
+ground to the shores of the Bay. Behind the city to the north rose the
+mountain side, not seared with the traces of lava as in these days, nor
+surmounted by a smoking cone, but radiant with vineyards and gardens which
+extended unbroken up to the very rim of the ancient crater. Amidst the
+greenery of the luxuriant slopes peeped forth innumerable farms and villas
+of wealthy Romans, for this exquisite spot had long become an abode of
+cultured leisure. Within the closely packed streets of the town itself
+there were to be found few open spaces except the Forum, and perhaps a
+small park in front of the amphitheatre, for the place was prosperous,
+though not wealthy, and its chief citizens were forced to remain content
+with the tiny gardens enclosed within the walls of their own dwellings.
+
+Internally Pompeii presented, like many another Roman town, marks of its
+six hundred years of existence. There was at least one perfect Doric
+temple; there were Oscan-Grecian buildings, notably the so-called "House
+of the Surgeon," with its air of old-fashioned simplicity; there were
+houses of the Republican period; there were numberless dwellings of the
+Imperial era; there were unfinished structures that were being completed
+at the time of the city's overthrow. For, sixteen years before Vesuvius
+suddenly awoke from its long sleep, the neighbourhood had been visited by
+the severe earthquake shock of 63, and the effects produced by this
+disaster had not nearly been effaced, when the great event of 79
+transformed the town into a huge museum for the delight and instruction of
+future generations. Pompeii therefore preserves the marks of more than
+half a thousand years of civilization, so that those who will take the
+necessary trouble can trace within its area the gradual progress of its
+social and political life from the far-off days of Greeks and Oscans to
+the reign of the Emperor Titus. The case of a ruined Exeter or Shrewsbury
+could not be widely different. The students of ensuing ages would be able
+to find in the dead town one or two churches of Norman or Plantagenet
+times; portions of medieval city walls and gateways, perhaps even some
+undoubted traces of Roman baths or fortifications; some few public
+buildings erected under Tudor or Stuart sovereigns; a large number of the
+plain roomy mansions of the Georgian period; and, last of all, a
+preponderating quantity of nineteenth century structures of every
+description--churches, warehouses, factories, inns, barracks, shops,
+dwelling-houses. Many would be the inscriptions and monuments we should
+find in such a town, alluding to private and public persons utterly
+unknown to English history, but more or less noteworthy in local annals:
+grandees of civic life, soldiers, philanthropists, clergymen, _et hoc
+genus omne_. Future generations of scholars would doubtless strive eagerly
+to obtain details of the careers of these provincial worthies, who filled
+municipal offices in the reigns of Queen Victoria and King Edward, in
+order to throw more light upon the period wherein they flourished. Let us
+apply then the same principles to the study of Pompeii _mutatis mutandis_,
+for in our quest of better knowledge of the old Roman life we fix
+anxiously upon every detail concerning the leading personages of the dead
+city. Nevertheless, it is its existence in the aggregate that proves of
+surpassing interest to us; we desire to learn of the daily tasks and
+occupations of the mass of its population, rather than to become
+acquainted with the private histories of its leading individuals; we study
+the former, in fact, only as a means to a definite end. We cry for
+information, which to a certain extent we can secure, as to how an average
+Roman city was administered, provisioned, drained; how its inhabitants
+passed their time both in leisure and in business; how they amused
+themselves in their homes and in the theatre; what they ate and what they
+drank--the endless trifles of human life, in short, which like the
+_tesserae_, the tiny cubes of their own mosaic pavements, go to make up a
+complete picture out of a thousand fragments. Not a few of the cubes in
+this case are missing, it is true, nor are they ever likely to be found;
+nevertheless, we own an abundant supply wherewith we can piece together a
+tolerably accurate picture of the life of a Roman provincial city during
+the first century of the Christian era.
+
+It is of course quite outside our province to attempt any detailed account
+of the wonders of Pompeii. The reader who desires full information must
+turn to the elaborate works of Mau and Helbig, of Gell and Overbeck, to
+say nothing of the descriptive pages, full of condensed knowledge,
+contained in Murray's and Baedeker's guide-books in order to obtain a
+clear impression of all he wishes to inspect. We can but dwell on a point
+here and there, and even then but lightly and superficially, for any
+endeavour on our part to add to the statements and theories of the great
+archaeologists already cited would be indeed a matter of supererogation
+and presumption.
+
+Entering then by the Marine Gate, and pursuing our course eastwards along
+the lines of naked broken house-fronts, we reach the great rectangular
+space of the Forum. Here at its southern extremity let us select a shady
+corner, for the sun beats down fiercely upon the bare ruins at every
+season of the year, and even on a winter's afternoon the air often
+shimmers with the heat haze, so that in no place on earth is the use of an
+umbrella so necessary or desirable as at Pompeii.
+
+What an ideal spot for the founding of a city! That is our first
+impression, as we glance across the broad sunlit enclosure on to the
+empurpled slopes of Vesuvius rising grandly above the broken columns of
+the great temple of the Capitoline Jove; behind us, we know, is the azure
+Bay with Capri and the Sorrentine cape lying on its unruffled bosom, so
+that we stand between sea and mountain to north and south, whilst we have
+the luxuriant slopes of Vesuvius to westward, and to the east the rich
+valley of the Sarno, thickly dotted with groves and hamlets. One element
+alone is wanting in the glorious scene before us--Life; it will be our duty
+and pleasure to re-invest as far as possible this empty space before us
+with the semblance of the busy crowds that once flitted in and out of its
+colonnades and porticoes; to rebuild in imagination its shapeless ruins,
+so that we may obtain a fleeting picture of the Pompeian Forum in early
+Imperial days.
+
+  [Illustration: THE FORUM, POMPEII]
+
+Conceive, then, in front of us, instead of this long bare stretch flanked
+by broken walls and strewn with shapeless fragments of brick and stone, an
+immense double arcade, two stories in height, affording ample protection
+against sun or rain and enclosing an oblong pavement whereon are set
+numerous statues of emperors or private citizens, occupying lofty
+positions of honour above the heads of the surging throng below. Imagine
+that group of shattered pillars, which obstructs our full view of the
+distant cone of Vesuvius, transformed into an imposing temple, covered
+with polychrome decoration, not in the best of taste according to our
+modern ideas of art, but gorgeous and cheerful in the clear atmosphere of
+the south. Rebuild, in the mind's eye, the Basilica and the temple of
+Apollo on the left, and straight before us, as we look forward from our
+coign of vantage at the narrow southern end of the colonnade, let us plant
+the three dominant statues of Augustus, Claudius and Agrippina to form our
+foreground. If we can construct by stress of fancy some such setting of
+classical architecture, gay with primary colours and gilding and graceful
+in design, it is easier to people the Pompeian Forum with the masses of
+humanity that once mingled here. For we have the knowledge of modern
+Italian life to guide us to a certain extent; we have seen the swarms of
+citizens who to-day fill the main piazzas of the towns, especially those
+of the provincial type, where the morning market is held and the chief
+cafes and shops are situated. But if the general use of the piazza is
+characteristic of the modern second-class Italian city, this concentration
+of life was far more marked in the ancient Roman town, wherein the Forum
+must have appeared as the very heart of the whole body social and politic.
+Roman city life indeed displayed two strongly antagonistic phases:--the
+utmost privacy in the home, the most public exhibition in the Forum, where
+every trade and form of business were carried on in the open air, and
+whither pursuit of gain, or pleasure, or religious duty led all the
+citizens to direct their steps. For, as we have already shown, almost all
+the public life of the place was concentrated within this space and its
+surroundings; temples, markets, shops, law courts, municipal offices, all
+abutted on the Forum; it was not merely the chief, but the only place that
+drew together the daily crowd, bent alike on business or amusement. No
+chariots were permitted to cross the area sacred to the claims of
+money-making, of gossip, and of worship; so that we must picture to
+ourselves a great mass of people undisturbed by the passing of vehicles,
+or by the shouts and whip-crackings of the noisy charioteers--was ever such
+a thing as a quiet Italian coachman, ancient or modern, we digress to
+wonder! All was orderly and decorous when compared with the quarrelling,
+screaming groups of citizens that block the congested streets of modern
+Naples. Happily for us various paintings of the Forum of Pompeii have been
+discovered, and these are naturally of immense value in helping us to a
+proper understanding of the habits and methods of the people, and of the
+general appearance of the Forum itself during its busiest hours. The
+costumes of men, women and children; the articles of clothing and of food
+ready for sale; the little knots of loiterers or gossips; the citizens
+intent on reading the municipal notices that are herein portrayed, all
+combine to present us with an authentic picture of Pompeian and therefore
+of Roman civic life. "There is nothing new under the sun," grumbled the
+Preacher many centuries before the city under Vesuvius had reached its
+zenith of civilization, and it must be confessed that the general
+impression conveyed after studying the contemporary pictures of antique
+life does not differ very widely from that which we obtain by observing
+present Italian conditions. For the frescoes in the Naples Museum and in
+certain of the Pompeian houses seem to recall strongly the scenes of the
+piazza, where all the elements of society, irrespective of rank or
+station, are still wont to congregate. Differences of dress, of manner, of
+custom are doubtless evident enough, yet somehow we perceive an essential
+sameness in these two representations of classical and modern Italy.
+Nevertheless, these simple and often rude wall-paintings furnish us with
+many pieces of information that we search for in vain amidst the ancient
+authors, who naturally considered the commonplace everyday scenes of life
+beneath the notice of contemporary record. We are enabled to learn, for
+instance, how the citizens were usually dressed in the Forum, and how, in
+an age when hats and umbrellas were practically non-existent, the pointed
+hood, like that of the Arab burnous, was often used to cover the head in
+cold or wet weather. Again, it is easy to perceive from the same source
+that the diet of the Pompeians must have resembled closely that of their
+present descendants; even the shape of the loaves has in most cases
+continued unchanged to the present day. And one curious coincidence is
+certainly worth mentioning, in that a peculiar method of preparing figs
+with caraway seeds, which was long supposed to be a local speciality of a
+remote town in Central Italy, has now been recognized as a common method
+of dressing this fruit for the table at Pompeii, for large quantities of
+figs so treated have been unearthed in shops and kitchens. Such grains of
+information as the wearing of hoods and the preserving of figs may appear
+trifling enough at first sight, yet it is from a number of petty details
+such as these that we are assisted to an intimate understanding of a state
+of society extinct nearly two thousand years ago.
+
+Close beside us on the eastern side of the Forum is set the Chalcidicum,
+the large building of the priestess Eumachia, one of the most gracious
+personalities of Pompeii with which the modern world has become
+acquainted. It was this lady who generously presented this structure, one
+of the handsomest and most solid of the public buildings of the city, to
+the fullers to serve as their exchange, wherein goods might be exposed
+upon benches and tables for the convenience alike of sellers and
+purchasers. "Priestess Eumachia," remarks a modern critic, "has done the
+thing well; no expense has been spared in the building and its
+decorations. The columns of the portico are of white marble; the statues
+of Piety and Concord, works of art; and the flower-borders along the
+panelled walls, prettily conceived and carefully executed. After so much
+plaster and stucco, it is a relief to see something so solid and genuine.
+When a third-rate city apes the capital, there must needs be a certain
+amount of sham. But at Pompeii it is all sham, or next door to it. In the
+entire city are not more than half a dozen edifices whose columns are of
+real marble, the bas-reliefs and cornices of anything more solid than
+stucco; and of these half-dozen, the Exchange heads the list."
+
+We feel tolerably secure in assigning this fine building to the early
+years of the Emperor Tiberius, and in naming the Emperor's mother, Livia,
+as the divinity to whom it was dedicated. The statue of Concord with the
+golden horn of plenty doubtless once adorned the large pedestal which
+still stands in the eastern apse of the Exchange, but though the figure
+and emblem were those of Concordia, the face bore certainly the features
+of Imperial Livia. Yet more interesting than the various speculations as
+to the actual uses of this edifice and the different names of the statues
+which once embellished its alcoves, is the circumstance that the marble
+portrait of the foundress herself has been discovered. It is true that
+only a copy in plaster now occupies the pedestal at the back of the apse
+where Eumachia's statue once stood, for the original has been removed for
+safety to Naples, but it is not difficult to call to mind the calm gentle
+face of this Pompeian Lady Bountiful, and her graceful figure in its
+flowing robes. The existence of this statue adds undoubtedly a touch of
+special human interest to the whole building, and we find our minds
+excited by the brief inscription which still informs the curious that the
+fullers of Pompeii erected this portrait in marble in grateful
+appreciation "to Eumachia, a city-priestess, daughter of Lucius
+Eumachius."
+
+Outside the Chalcidicum, at the corner of the lane usually termed Via
+dell' Abbondanza, is to be seen a pathetic little memorial of the working
+life of the city: the fountain of Concordia Augusta, the divinity of
+Eumachia's noble building hard by. Dusty and heating is the business of
+fulling cloth, and it generates thirst, so that it is but natural to find
+a fountain close at hand, whereat the labourers could refresh their
+parched throats. With what eagerness must the exhausted toilers during
+those long summers of centuries past have leaned forward to press their
+human lips to the cool mouth of the sculptured goddess that ejected with
+pleasing gurgles a volume of water into the basin below! That this
+fountain proved a boon to weary citizens is evident enough, for the
+features of water-spouting Concordia are half worn away by thirsty human
+kisses, and her suppliants' hands have left deep smooth furrows in the
+stone-work of the basin, whereon they were wont to support their bodies,
+so as to direct the cooling draught into the dry and dusty gullet. In
+Italian cities to-day we can frequently observe some exhausted labourer
+bend deftly downwards to snatch a drink of water from the mouth of some
+fantastic figure in a public fountain. Who has not paused, for instance,
+beside Tacca's famous bronze boar in the Florentine market-place without
+noting an incident of this kind? If we ourselves are too dainty to place
+our own aristocratic lips where our fellow-mortals have pressed theirs,
+not so are the abstemious descendants of the ancient Romans, the Italians,
+whose minds remain untroubled by any nasty-nice qualms of possible
+infection.
+
+Here then is the setting of the picture, and we must ourselves endeavour
+to repeople the empty space with the crowds of high and low that once
+collected here.
+
+"It is high change, and the Forum is crowded. All Pompeii is here, and his
+wife. _Patres conscripti_, inclined to corpulence, taking their
+constitutional, exquisites lazily sauntering up and down the pavements;
+decurions discussing the affairs of the nation, and the last news from
+Rome; city magnates fussing, merchants chaffering, clients petitioning,
+parasites fawning, soldiers swaggering, and Belisarius begging at the
+gate.... It is a bright and animated scene. Beneath, the crowded Forum,
+with its colonnades and statues, at one end a broad flight of steps
+leading to the Temple of Jupiter, at the other a triumphal arch; on one
+side the Temple of Venus and the Basilica; on the other the Macellum, the
+Temple of Mercury, the Chalcidicum; overhead the deep blue sky. Mingled
+with the hum of many voices and the patter of feet on the travertine
+pavement are the ringing sounds of the stonemasons' chisels and hammers,
+for the Forum is undergoing a complete restoration. Although fifteen years
+have elapsed since the city was last visited by earthquake, the damage
+then done to the public buildings has not been entirely repaired. First
+the Gods, then the people. The temples of Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury are
+completed, but the Forum and Chalcidicum are still in the workmen's
+hands."(2)
+
+With this fleeting glimpse at the public life of the city, let us now turn
+our attention to its domestic arrangements. Of the many houses which have
+been excavated of recent years under the truly admirable superintendence
+of Signor Fiorelli, none is better calculated to give us a striking
+impression of the working details of an upper-class Roman household than
+the private dwelling which is known equally under the two names of the
+Casa Nuova and the House of the Vettii;--perhaps the former name has now
+ceased to own any significance, since the buildings were laid bare as far
+back as the winter of 1894-5. An hour or two spent in a careful inspection
+of this house and its contents is to most persons worth four times the
+same amount of time occupied in aimless wandering amongst the hot glaring
+streets of the city, peeping into this courtyard and that, and listening
+to the interminable tales of guide or custodian. If we study the Casa
+Nuova intelligently, lovingly and minutely, it will not be long before we
+obtain a tolerable grasp of Roman life and manners, which will prove of
+immense service and of genuine delight. What then is it, the question will
+be asked, that makes the House of the Vettii so valuable as an example of
+antique architecture and decoration, in preference to other mansions which
+can boast an equal and often a greater distinction? The answer is simple
+enough: it is because this particular group of buildings has been allowed
+to remain as far as practicable in the exact condition wherein it was
+originally unearthed, when its various rooms and courts were once more
+exposed to the light of day. For until the clearing of this "new house" a
+decade or so ago, no proper opportunity had so far been afforded to the
+amateur of our own times of judging for himself the interior of a Roman
+dwelling in full working order, and with all its furniture, paintings, and
+utensils complete. Up to this, almost every object of value had been
+removed at once for safety, every fresco even of importance had been cut
+bodily out of its setting and placed in one of those immense halls on the
+ground floor of the Museum in Naples. How well do we remember those gaunt
+chilly chambers, filled from pavement to ceiling with painted fragments of
+all sizes, a medley of domestic subjects and of classical myths! Torn from
+the walls they were specially executed to adorn, divorced from their
+proper scheme of surrounding ornament, these wan dejected ghosts stare at
+us like faces out of a mist. The uninitiated cannot find pleasure in them,
+for they have no pretention to be called works of art; on the contrary
+they form an inherent part of a conventional system of house decoration.
+The classical student can of course find many points of interest in the
+incidents portrayed, but all charm of local environment is absent;--it is,
+in short, impossible to judge of Roman decoration from this collection of
+crumbling, fading pieces of painted stucco. It would be as easy to imagine
+the effect of a rose-bush in full bloom from the sight of a few withered
+rose-buds, pressed until every vestige of colour had left their petals, as
+to understand the significance of antique domestic art from the contents
+of the Museo Nazionale.
+
+But here, in the House of the Vettii, the public was for the first time
+initiated into the mysteries of true Roman life; here it was admitted to
+gaze upon the fruits of classical taste and refinement, and to contrast
+them, favourably or unfavourably, with prevailing modern standards. The
+Casa Nuova has been left as an object lesson, a complete museum in itself,
+wherein every daily incident of Pompeian life, every domestic secret,
+reveal themselves to our inquisitive eyes. Here in the roofless halls we
+can be taken from entrance to dining-hall, from _atrium_ to sleeping
+rooms, spying into the minutest detail of shape, size and colour, as
+though we were seriously intending to rent the house for our own
+habitation. The last tenant has even left his money-chest in his hall, his
+pots and pans in the kitchen, and as we inspect his utensils, we wonder if
+they would suit our own requirements to-day. Of portable objects of
+value--plate, jewels, statuettes of precious metals and the like--belonging
+to the late owner, there is certainly no trace, for Signor Fiorelli's
+labourers were not the first to break the deep silence of this buried
+mansion. For it was the survivors of the stricken town, the citizens of
+Pompeii themselves, who were the foremost pioneers to excavate, and they
+carried off every work of art they could conveniently remove. Cutting from
+above into the deposit of ashes that filled the streets, they managed to
+reach in course of time the level of the ground, after which they
+tunnelled from room to room, from house to house, collecting every object
+they thought worth the trouble of transporting. Perhaps the owners of the
+house, the Vettii themselves, presuming they escaped in the general
+catastrophe, may have returned with skilled workmen to recover some of
+their treasures; perhaps some "man of three letters"--the colloquial Roman
+term for thief (_fur_)--may have forestalled the masters' efforts--who
+knows? And at this distance of time, who cares?
+
+The house once occupied by Aulus Vettius Restitutus and Aulus Vettius
+Corvina stands in a quiet district not far from the Capuan Gate, and
+consequently at some distance from the Forum. Like all Roman habitations
+it was essentially Oriental in its outward aspect, and must have resembled
+closely any one of those mysterious dwellings of wealthy Arab citizens
+which we constantly encounter in the native quarters of Algiers or Tunis.
+The gateway giving on the street was wide, certainly, but it was well
+defended both by human and canine porters; its windows were few and small,
+and were probably closely latticed like those of the nunneries which we
+sometimes perceive overhead in the crowded streets of Naples. There must
+have been something austere, even suspicious, in the external appearance
+of the Casa de' Vettii, but snarling dog and grim janitor have long since
+disappeared, and we pass unmolested through the _atrium_ and thence into
+the Great Peristyle, which is perhaps the most remarkable feature of this
+house. The peristyle, as its name implies, is a Greek importation in a
+Roman city, and its use would have been scorned by the old-fashioned
+citizens, such as the master of the "House of the Surgeon"; yet it was in
+truth admirably suited to the character of Southern Italy, where it
+afforded shelter from sun and wind, and its arcades protected from the
+rainfall. The peristyle of the Vettii, with its gaudily tinted pillars of
+stucco, is highly ornate; perhaps it passes the limits of good taste in
+certain points of colour and aesthetic decoration, yet the general effect
+is undoubtedly pleasing to the eye. This courtyard is at once a lounge
+open to the sky; it is a garden; it is an art-gallery; for the cheerful
+court of Greek domestic architecture had nothing in common with its
+successor of the Middle Ages, the monastic cloister of religious
+meditation. Cannot we imagine to ourselves the goodman of the house
+proudly leading his guests after a sumptuous meal in the adjacent
+dining-room into the cool corridors of his peristyle, in order to point
+out to them his statues and vases of bronze or porphyry, and to expatiate
+upon their value or elegance of form? On such a festive occasion these
+great shallow basins of pure white marble before us would be heaped high
+with fragrant pyramids of red and white roses, roses that were perhaps
+plucked all dewy in the famous gardens of Paestum on the other side of
+Mons Gaurus. For the flowering shrubs in the tiny pleasaunce itself are
+far too precious to be stripped of their blossoms in so lavish a manner,
+and perhaps if Vettius be anything of an amateur gardener, he may comment
+to his visitors upon the rare plants that fill his diminutive flower-beds.
+Careful and reverent hands have restored the little garden as near as
+possible to its pristine plan and appearance. There are still standing the
+two bronze statues of urchins holding in their chubby arms ducks from
+whose bills once gushed the limpid water, making a soothing sound amidst
+the alleys of the peristyle; corroded and injured they certainly appear,
+yet here they hold their original positions in Vettius' domain long after
+temple and tower have fallen to the ground. The marble chairs and tripod
+tables likewise remain, and around them still thrive the very plants that
+the servants of the house were wont to tend in the days of Titus. For, by
+a rare chance, we find depicted on the walls of the excavated house the
+actual flowers and herbs that were popular during Vettius' lifetime, and
+these have been replanted by modern hands in the garden of the peristyle.
+There are clumps of papyrus, the strange mop-headed rush from the banks of
+the Nile, introduced into Italy as a botanical novelty after the conquest
+of Egypt; there are rose-bushes, of course; and also masses of shining ivy
+trained in the ancient Roman manner upon a cage of wicker-work fixed into
+the soil. As we watch the verdure-clad sunlit space there descends,
+delicately fluttering, one of those splendid pale yellow brimstone
+butterflies of the South with flame-coloured blushes on its wings, and
+after some moments of graceful hesitation, this new visitor settles upon
+the purple head of an iris bloom. With its vivid colouring and its quick
+movements the butterfly brings an atmosphere of life into the courtyard
+that was hitherto lacking. Its appearance too suggests the famous
+allegory, the unsolved riddle of human existence which so puzzled the
+divine Plato and the ancient philosophers of Athens and Syracuse. Here are
+we, the living men of to-day, watching the corpse of a departed world upon
+which the mystic symbol of Psyche has just alighted. _Tempus breve est_ is
+the simple little truism that rises to our reflecting minds. Eighteen
+centuries between the Vettii and ourselves! They are gone like a flash,
+and we are amazed to note how little has our nature altered either for the
+better or the worse within that space of time, long enough if we measure
+its limit by the standard of history, trivial if we reckon it by the
+progress made in human ethics and human understanding. Surely there are
+lessons to be learned in the silent city; Pompeii, we realize, is not
+merely a heap of antique dross whence we can pick up precious grains of
+knowledge, but it is an oracle in itself, which, if properly consulted,
+will give us plain answers to our modern speculations, and will possibly
+reprove us for our conceited assumption of omniscience.
+
+  [Illustration: LA CASA DEI VETTII, POMPEII]
+
+Still brilliant in their strong prevailing tints of black, yellow and
+vermilion are the decorative schemes which make a visit to the house of
+the Vettii of such supreme importance for those who wish to understand
+fully the artistic tastes of the Romans, and also their artistic
+limitations. If the contents of the Museum seem colourless and cold, and
+prove unsatisfying and disappointing, here the eye of the artist can feast
+upon the classical ornamentation which remains fairly fresh in spite of a
+dozen years of exposure to daylight. For this province of art is
+peculiarly associated with the opening years of the Empire, and Pompeii is
+naturally the chief place for its study, and in Pompeii the untouched Casa
+Nuova is all important for the student. According to Pliny, the inventor
+of this pleasing style of decoration was a certain Ludius, who flourished
+in the reign of Augustus, and first persuaded the Romans to embellish
+their flat wall-surfaces with designs of "villas and halls, artificial
+gardens, hedges, woods, hills, water basins, tombs, rivers, shores, in as
+great a variety as could be desired; figures sitting at ease, mariners,
+and those who, riding upon donkeys or in waggons, look after their farms;
+fishermen, snarers of birds, hunters and vine-dressers; also swampy
+passages before beautiful villas, and women borne by men who stagger under
+their burdens, and other witty things of this nature; finally, views of
+sea-ports, everything charming and suitable":--a fairly long and
+comprehensive list of subjects, truly, from which a patron might pick and
+choose, or an artist might execute!
+
+Although the great architect Vitruvius strongly denounced this new
+striving after scenic effect and characterized it as petty and false, yet
+none can deny that these cheerful scenes with their bright colours and
+their agreeable if trivial subjects were singularly well adapted to
+improve the appearance of the bare narrow rooms, the meagre proportions of
+which seem to us absolutely incompatible with plain comfort, to say
+nothing of luxury. Space may be increased, so far as the eye is concerned,
+by an architectural or landscape painting ingeniously conceived, and thus
+the restricted rooms seem to obtain by means of this new system of
+decoration a wider expansion, and with it an increased sense of ease and
+lightness. The invention of Ludius became at once the fashion, the rage;
+and all Rome began to cover the walls of its narrow chambers with these
+novel designs, which had already found favour in Imperial circles.
+Campania, where the old Greek love for polychrome still lingered, was not
+slow in imitating the new taste of the Capital, so that Pompeii bears
+undoubted testimony to the popularity of this revolution in artistic
+ideas, which substituted a lighter freer method for the old conventional
+severity of treatment. Experts profess to trace--and none will endeavour to
+gainsay them--a marked difference between the frescoes executed before the
+earthquake of 63 and those undertaken subsequent to that date. The wall
+paintings of the first group, carried out when the art was comparatively
+novel, are superior in harmony of colour, in choice of themes and in
+technical finish to those which belong to the latter period, the sixteen
+years that intervened between the earthquake and the eruption of Vesuvius.
+From this circumstance it has been inferred, not without reason, that this
+particular house must have passed some time before the year 63 out of the
+possession of people of good taste into the hands of vulgarians, ignorant
+of the fundamental principles of art and anxious only to obtain what was
+startling and garish. As freedmen, the two Vettii would naturally belong
+to a class which was not remarkable for culture; nevertheless, they seem
+to have had the good sense to leave intact some of their predecessor's
+most cherished works of decoration, and for this exhibition of restraint
+we must feel duly grateful towards our dead-and-gone hosts, the maligned
+Vettii.
+
+But it is not only for purposes of examining Roman internal decoration _in
+situ_ that this art gallery of the Casa Nuova is available. Below the
+painted panels of the dining-room runs a long string of ornament, whereon
+are represented Cupids and Psyches engaged in the various occupations of
+Pompeian daily life. Full of dainty grace and of lively expression, these
+little winged figures initiate us into a number of the trades and customs
+of the ancients. For they are made to appear before us as goldsmiths,
+vine-dressers, makers and sellers of olive oil, dealers in wine, fullers
+of cloth, and as partakers in a dozen other scenes of town or country
+life. Where learned antiquaries had hitherto doubted and disputed, the
+discovery of the paintings of these celestial little mechanics and
+merchants helped to solve many a difficulty, for the secret of half the
+arts and crafts of Pompeii is revealed to us in this playful guise. Nor
+are the designs themselves contemptible from an artistic point of view;
+look how intent, for example, is the pose of the tiny jeweller working
+with a graver's tool upon the gold vessel before him; how steadily he
+bears himself at a task which requires at once strength of hand and
+delicacy of workmanship. Look again at the nervous pose of the pretty elf
+who is gingerly pouring wine out of a huge amphora, which he holds in his
+arms, into a shallow tasting cup offered by a brother Cupid. How
+thoroughly must the unknown artist have enjoyed the task of painting this
+frieze! How unfettered his fancy, as his brush glided smoothly and deftly
+over the carefully prepared wall-surface! Excellent, no doubt, he thought
+his work at the time of execution, but even the most conceited of
+Campanian artists could hardly have dreamed that these creations of his
+brush would still at the end of two thousand years be admired, commented
+upon and even reproduced in thousands, by a process he never dreamed of,
+for the benefit of citizens of nations as yet unborn or unforeseen.
+
+As the spring evening softly steals over the city and the shadows of the
+colonnades lengthen, let us leave the silent halls and chambers of the
+Casa dei Vettii and turn our footsteps westward; and issuing out of the
+Gate of Herculaneum, let us traverse the famous Street of Tombs, that
+extends along the road leading to the sister buried city. In ancient times
+this was the Via Domitiana, a branch road of the Appian Way, and it formed
+the most frequented entrance into Pompeii. To Roman ideas, therefore, it
+was but natural that tombs should be erected alongside its borders, whilst
+the spirits of the passing and repassing crowds were in no wise affected
+by the memorials of death attending their exits and entrances. And with
+the surging human tide that was ever flowing in this thoroughfare the
+funeral processions must constantly have mingled, the wailing of the hired
+mourners rising sharply above the din of harsh voices, the creaking of
+clumsy wooden wheels and the braying of the heavily laden asses. Now over
+all reigns a decorous silence, such as we moderns deem fitting for a
+cemetery; only the hum of insects breaks the deep quiet of the atmosphere,
+nor are there any living creatures visible at this late hour save the bats
+which flit restlessly in and out of the weed-grown piles of brick or stone
+that once were stately monuments of wealth or piety. Above our heads the
+tall sombre cypresses shoot upward like gigantic spear-heads into the
+crystal-clear air, pointing heavenward like our own church spires in a
+rural English landscape. This Street of the Dead in the City of the Dead
+is in truth a solemn and a soothing spot; nor can we find its precincts
+melancholy, when we stand in the midst of such glorious scenery. For Monte
+Sant' Angelo towers to our left against the mellow evening sky, flecked
+with lines of peach-blossom cloud, whilst in front of us the dark form of
+Capri seems to float in a golden haze between firmament and ocean. Behind
+us the dark mass of the Mountain with its breath of ascending smoke seems
+like an eternal funeral pyre in honour of the Dead, who were spared the
+horrors of that fearful disaster which overwhelmed the living. Upon the
+broken tombs and altars the light from the setting sun falls with warm
+cheerful radiance, flushing stone and brick-work with a ruddy glow like
+jasper; whilst, high in the heavens above the cypress tops, the crescent
+moon prepares to turn to gold from silver.
+
+_Beati sunt mortui_: here rest, we know, the priestess Mammia, the
+decemvir Aricius, Libella the aedile, and a host of other citizens with
+whose names the student or the lover of Pompeii is familiar. How many a
+time has this line of roadway rung with the sound of the last sad appeal,
+the thrice repeated valediction: "_Vale, vale, vale!_ farewell until the
+day when Nature will allow us to follow thee!" How often have the wooden
+pyres flung up in these precincts their clouds of perfumed smoke into the
+clear air, now redolent with the aroma of yellow broom, of dewy thyme and
+of sweet marigolds! Perhaps it was amidst these lines of cypress-set tombs
+by the Herculaneum Gate that the poetic genius, whose verses were spurned
+by his own generation, composed his famous Ode to Naples, for in its
+opening lines Shelley tells us it was the aspect of the "city disinterred"
+that gave him inspiration:--
+
+  "Around me gleamed many a bright sepulchre
+  Of whose pure beauty, Time, as if his pleasure
+  Were to spare Death, had never made erasure;
+    But every living lineament was clear
+    As in the sculptor's thought; and there
+  The wreaths of stony myrtle, ivy and pine,
+   Like winter-leaves o'ergrown by moulded snow,
+   Seemed only not to move and grow,
+   Because the crystal silence of the air
+   Weighed on their life...."
+
+Tranquilly and slowly descends night upon the untenanted city, as one by
+one the stars begin to peep forth like chrysolites in the heavens, which
+have changed from azure to a deep indigo during the sunset hour. Amid
+chilly dews, to the sound of the evening bell from the distant church of
+Santa Maria di Pompeii, we hasten in the growing darkness from the Street
+of the Tombs towards our modest inn outside the Marine Gate, anticipating
+with delight a ramble in the city in the freshness of the coming morning.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER IV
+
+
+                   VESUVIUS: THE STORY OF THE MOUNTAIN
+
+
+The first appearance of Vesuvius, whether viewed from the deck of a
+steamer entering the Bay of Naples or espied from the window of a railway
+carriage on the main line running southward from Rome, makes an impression
+that will linger for ever in the memory. It is open to argument which is
+the more striking of the two experiences: the Mountain rising proudly from
+the deep blue waters into the paler shade of the upper air, or its
+graceful broken contour seen from the landward side to the north across
+the green fertile plains of the Campagna Felice. From a long acquaintance
+with both ways of approaching Naples, we are inclined to prefer the latter
+view. Travelling in an express train from Rome we find ourselves whirled
+suddenly, by magic as it were, into the atmosphere of the South, when with
+the sight of the domes and towers of Capua, the ancient capital of
+Campania the Prosperous, we first note the presence of orange trees and
+hedges of aloe, of white lupin crops and clumps of prickly pear, and we
+feel we are nearing Naples with "its burning mountain and its tideless
+sea," so that we eagerly strain our eyes in a southerly direction to catch
+our first glimpse of Vesuvius, with whose shape and history we have been
+so familiar since our childhood's days. At length we perceive its double
+summit, with smoke tranquilly issuing from the cone and obscuring the
+clarity of the air, and as we hurry forward towards our destination,
+through the plains studded with elm-trees festooned with vines, we have
+the satisfaction of observing its form grow larger and more distinct in
+outline.
+
+On our arrival at Naples, in course of time we grow more intimately
+acquainted with the peculiar attractions of "the Mountain," as the
+Neapolitans always designate their treacherous but fascinating neighbour,
+of whose near existence they have every reason to be proud, for certainly
+Vesuvius, though barely as lofty as Ben Nevis, _is_ to us westerns the
+most famous mountain upon earth. Regarding Vesuvius both from the land and
+the sea, we note that it rises in solitary majesty from an extended base
+some thirty miles in circumference, and that it sweeps upwards in graceful
+curving lines until at a distance of about 3000 feet from sea level its
+summit is cleft into two peaks; that to the north being a rocky ridge
+which catches our eye as we gaze eastward from the heights of Sant' Elmo
+or the Corso at Naples, the other point being the actual cone of the
+volcano itself. The upper part of the Mountain has in fact two aspects; in
+other words, Vesuvius is double, being composed of the ridge of Monte
+Somma to the north, 3760 feet in height, which is pre-historic; and the
+ever-shifting modern dome of Vesuvius to the south, which is _about_ 4000
+feet high. We say "about" purposely, for Vesuvius proper sometimes
+over-tops, sometimes equals, and sometimes even crouches under its
+immovable sister-peak, according to the effect produced by volcanic
+action. Monte Somma, which is one of the everlasting hills, is the parent,
+and Vesuvius is the child, born but yesterday from a geological point of
+view, for it is not so old as the Christian era;--"it is a variable heap
+thrown up from time to time, and again, not seldom, by a greater effort of
+the same force, tossed away into the air, and scattered in clouds of dust
+over far-away countries. Thus it has happened often, in the course of
+these variations of energy, that Vesuvius has risen to a conical height
+exceeding that of Somma by 500 or 600 feet, and again, the top has been
+truncated to a level as low as Somma, or even as much below that mountain
+as we now behold it above."(3)
+
+To understand the story of the Mountain, therefore, it is necessary for us
+to travel back in retrospect to ancient Roman days. In the first place,
+however, one word as to its present name that we use to-day, for all are
+familiar with Vesuvius, but comparatively few, until they visit Naples,
+have heard mention made of Monte Somma. The name of Vesuvius, then, though
+strictly applicable only to the volcanic and modern portion of the
+Mountain, is not a recent appellation; on the contrary, it is probably of
+far more ancient origin than _Mons Summanus_ by which the whole was known
+to the Romans. The point is by no means unimportant, for etymologists
+derive Vesuvius from the Syriac "Vo Seevev, the abode of flame," thereby
+proving to us that whatever opinions may have been held as to the nature
+of the Mountain in the century preceding the Christian era, its volcanic
+nature must have been perfectly well understood by those who gave it this
+suggestive title in a more remote age. But the secret locked up in Mons
+Summanus was not altogether unsuspected by the Roman scientists. Strabo,
+the geographer, writing about thirty years before the birth of Christ,
+made a careful examination of the crest of Mons Summanus, then a
+saucer-shaped hollow surrounded by a steep rocky edge and occupied by a
+flat plain covered with cinders and void of grass, although the flanks of
+the Mountain were extraordinarily fertile. From what he saw during his
+visit, Strabo conjectured the Mountain to be an extinct volcano, in which
+surmise he was destined to be proved partly in the right and partly in the
+wrong; whilst Vitruvius, the famous architect of the Emperor Augustus,
+"who found Rome of brick and left it of marble," as well as Tacitus the
+historian, shared the same opinion. About a century and a half before the
+first recorded eruption in 79, Mons Summanus figures prominently in Roman
+history as the scene of a curious incident during the Servile War, so that
+in the pages of the old chronicler Florus we obtain an interesting
+description--especially interesting because it was not given for scientific
+purposes--of the condition of the mountain top at that period. The brave
+gladiator Spartacus and his intrepid band of revolted slaves, seeking a
+place of safety from the pursuing Roman legions, not very wisely selected
+the top of this isolated peak, which, although affording a good position
+of defence and possessing a wide outlook over the Campanian plain, had
+only one narrow passage in its rocky rim to serve as entrance or outlet.
+Followed hither by the Roman forces and caught like rats in a trap,
+Spartacus and his men were doomed either to be reduced by starvation, or
+else to run the gauntlet of the sole narrow exit, which the Senate's
+commander, Clodius Glabrus, was already guarding. The story of Spartacus'
+escape from his terrible dilemma is told in the history of Florus, and
+repeated with further details by Plutarch in his Life of Crassus.
+
+"Clodius the Praetor, with three thousand men, besieged them in a mountain,
+having but one narrow and difficult passage, which Clodius kept guarded;
+all the rest was encompassed with broken and slippery precipices, but upon
+the top grew a great many wild vines: they cast down as many of these
+boughs as they had need of, and twisted them into ladders long enough to
+reach from thence to the bottom, by which, without any danger, all got
+down save one, who stayed behind to throw them their arms, after which he
+saved himself with the rest."
+
+A dozen learned statements of a scientific nature as to the ancient
+appearance and slumbering condition of the Mountain could not impress our
+imagination more vividly with its subsequent natural changes than the
+account of this episode of Spartacus and his handful of rebels,
+beleaguered by Clodius within the very crater of the volcano. We can see
+the Mountain in the last years of the Roman Republic before us, with its
+truncated cone encircled by a low rampart of rock half hidden by wild
+vine, ivy, eglantine, honeysuckle and all the creeping plants whose tough
+trailing stems enabled the besieged gladiators to effect their escape from
+the snare into which they had unwittingly fallen. We can understand from
+this event how utterly remote was the idea of any upheaval of nature to
+the dwellers on these shores, whose ancestors remembered the crest of the
+mountain as the scene of a military operation.
+
+The first warning of a coming eruption after unnumbered centuries of quiet
+was given by a series of earthquakes which did an immense amount of damage
+at Herculaneum and Pompeii; yet in a district which had from time
+immemorial been subject to similar convulsions of nature, the shocks,
+though unusually distressing and destructive to life and property, were
+evidently unconnected in the popular mind with their true cause: the
+reawakening to life of the mountain overhead. The mischief done by the
+earthquakes was accordingly repaired as quickly as possible, and the
+normal course of life was resumed until the terrific and wholly unexpected
+outbreak of August 24th 79, during the reign of the Emperor Titus. Of
+this, the first recorded eruption of Vesuvius, we are exceptionally
+fortunate in possessing the testimony of a credible eye-witness, who was
+no less a personage than Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, better known to
+the modern world as Pliny the Younger, who wrote two lengthy letters to
+Tacitus on the subject of this event, the first describing the fate of his
+uncle, the Elder Pliny, most eminent of Roman naturalists, who perished
+during this period of terror; and the second containing a more detailed
+account of the eruption itself. For it so happened--luckily for
+posterity--that at the time of this sudden outburst of Mons Summanus, the
+Elder Pliny was in command of the Roman fleet at Misenum on the Bay of
+Naples, where his young nephew (who was also his adopted son) was living
+with his mother in a villa. "On the 24th of August," writes Pliny the
+Younger some eleven years after the event he is about to describe, "about
+one in the afternoon, my mother desired my uncle to observe a cloud which
+appeared of a very unusual size and shape. He had just returned from
+taking the benefit of the sun, and after bathing himself in cold water,
+and taking a slight repast, was retired to his study. He immediately arose
+and went out upon an eminence, from whence he might more distinctly view
+this very uncommon appearance. It was not at that distance discernible
+from what mountain this cloud issued, but it was found afterwards to
+ascend from Mount Vesuvius. I cannot give a more exact description of its
+figure than by resembling it to that of a pine-tree, for it shot up to a
+great height in the form of a trunk, which extended itself on the top into
+a sort of branches, occasioned, I imagine, either by a sudden gust of air
+that impelled it, the force of which decreased as it advanced upwards, or
+the cloud itself being pressed back again by its own weight, expanded in
+this manner; it appeared sometimes bright, and sometimes dark and spotted,
+as it was more or less impregnated with earth and cinders. This
+extraordinary phenomenon excited my uncle's philosophical curiosity to
+take a nearer view of it." The nephew then proceeds to relate how his
+uncle sailed by way of Retina, the port of Herculaneum, to Stabiae, where
+he met with his second in command, one Pomponianus. Meanwhile the Younger
+Pliny, who had declined to accompany his uncle's expedition on the plea of
+having to pursue the studies with which as a hard-working youth of
+seventeen he was evidently engrossed, became alarmed during the night for
+the Elder Pliny's safety. His own and his mother's terrible experiences
+are vividly portrayed in the second letter, which, at the historian's
+special request, the Younger Pliny wrote to Tacitus in later years.
+
+"When my uncle had started, I spent such time as was left on my studies--it
+was on their account, indeed, that I had stopped behind. Then followed the
+bath, dinner and sleep, this last disturbed and brief. There had been
+noticed for many days before a trembling of the earth, which had caused,
+however, but little fear, because it is not unusual in Campania. But that
+night it was so violent, that one thought everything was being not merely
+moved, but absolutely overturned. My mother rushed into my chamber; I was
+in the act of rising, with the same intention of awaking her, should she
+have been asleep. We sat down in the open court of the house, which
+occupied a small space between the buildings and the sea. And now--I do not
+know whether to call it courage or folly, for I was but in my eighteenth
+year--I called for a volume of Livy, read it as if I were perfectly at
+leisure, and even continued to make some extracts which I had begun. Just
+then arrived a friend of my uncle, who had lately come to him from Spain;
+when he saw that we were sitting down--that I was even reading--he rebuked
+my mother for her patience, and me for my blindness to the danger. Still I
+bent myself as industriously as ever over my book. It was now seven
+o'clock in the morning, but the daylight was still faint and doubtful. The
+surrounding buildings were now so shattered, that in the place where we
+were, which though open was small, the danger that they might fall on us
+was imminent and unmistakable. So we at last determined to quit the town.
+A panic-stricken crowd followed us.... We saw the sea retire into itself,
+seeming, as it were, to be driven back by the trembling movement of the
+earth. The shore had distinctly advanced, and many marine animals were
+left high and dry upon the sands. Behind us was a dark and dreadful cloud,
+which, as it was broken with rapid zig-zag flashes, revealed behind it
+variously shaped masses of flame; these last were like sheet lightning,
+though on a larger scale.... It was not long before the cloud that we saw
+began to descend upon the earth and cover the sea. It had already
+surrounded and concealed the island of Capreae, and had made invisible the
+promontory of Misenum. My mother besought, urged, even commanded me to fly
+as best I could; 'I might do so,' she said, 'for I was young; she, from
+age and corpulence, could move but slowly, but would be content to die, if
+she did not bring death upon me.' I replied that I would not seek safety
+except in her company; I clasped her hand and compelled her to go with me.
+She reluctantly obeyed, but continually reproached herself for delaying
+me. Ashes now began to fall--still, however, in small quantities. I looked
+behind me; a dense dark mist seemed to be following us, spreading itself
+over the country like a cloud. 'Let us turn out of the way,' I said,
+'whilst we can still see, for fear that, should we fall in the road, we
+should be trodden under foot in the darkness by the throngs that accompany
+us.' We had scarcely sat down when night was upon us,--not such as we have
+seen when there is no moon, or when the sky is cloudy, but such as there
+is in some closed room where the lights are extinguished. You might hear
+the shrieks of women, the monotonous wailing of children, the shouts of
+men. Many were raising their voices, and seeking to recognise by the
+voices that replied, parents, children, husbands or wives. Some were
+loudly lamenting their own fate, others the fate of those dear to them.
+Some even prayed for death, in their fear of what they prayed for. Many
+lifted their hands in prayer to the gods; more were convinced that there
+were now no gods at all, and that the final endless night of which we have
+heard had come upon the world.... It now grew somewhat light again; we
+felt sure that this was not the light of day, but a proof that fire was
+approaching us. Fire there was, but it stopped at a considerable distance
+from us; then came darkness again, and a thick, heavy fall of ashes. Again
+and again we stood up and shook them off; otherwise, we should have been
+covered by them, and even crushed by the weight. At last the black mist I
+had spoken of seemed to shade off into smoke or cloud, and broke away.
+Then came genuine daylight, and the sun shone out with a lurid light, such
+as it is wont to have in an eclipse. Our eyes, which had not yet recovered
+from the effects of fear, saw everything changed, everything covered deep
+with ashes as if with snow. We returned to Misenum, and after refreshing
+ourselves as best we could, spent a night of anxiety in mingled hope and
+fear. Fear, however, was still the stronger feeling; for the trembling of
+the earth continued, while many frenzied persons, with their terrific
+predictions, gave an exaggeration that was even ludicrous to the
+calamities of themselves and of their friends. Even then, in spite of all
+the perils which we had experienced, and which we still expected, we had
+not a thought of going away till we could hear news of my uncle."(4)
+
+As to the fate of the Elder Pliny, it seems that the old man had been
+obliged together with his friends and servants to fly from the villa at
+Stabiae where he was resting. The sea being too agitated to allow of an
+embarkation, the fugitives turned their steps towards the slopes of Mons
+Gaurus, the present Monte Sant' Angelo, with pillows bound over their
+heads to serve as protection against the showers of hot cinders that were
+falling thickly on all sides. At length the famous old writer, who was
+somewhat plethoric and unwieldy, sank exhausted to the ground, never to
+rise again, and shortly expired in an attack of heart failure, induced by
+the unusual excitement and fatigue he had lately been called upon to
+endure. At any rate, it appears fairly certain that the Elder Pliny did
+not perish, as is still sometimes asserted, by the direct effects of the
+eruption, but rather through an ordinary collapse of nature--syncope,
+perhaps. Three days later his body was found lying not far from Stabiae by
+his grief-stricken nephew, who describes his uncle's corpse as looking
+"more like that of a sleeping than of a dead man."
+
+This then was the first, as it was also the most violent, of the many
+outbreaks of Vesuvius which our own age has witnessed, and with this
+eruption of 79 in the reign of Titus, the Mountain, as we have already
+said, greatly altered its shape. More than half the rim of the ancient
+crater that had enclosed Spartacus and his men less than two hundred years
+before had been torn away and destroyed, its remaining portion on the
+landward side retaining the old name of Mons Summanus. Between this
+remnant of the old wall of the crater and the scene of wreckage on the
+southern face of the Mountain, there now appeared the great cleft, the
+horse-shoe shaped valley called the Atrio del Cavallo, which separates the
+two peaks of the whole summit. A fragment only of the original crater,
+known as the Pedimentina, still remains on the seaward side above Torre
+del Greco. From that terrible day, so vividly described by the Younger
+Pliny, to our own times, a period stretching over 1800 years, a vast
+number of eruptions, great and small, have been enumerated, for owing to
+the nearness of Vesuvius to one of the largest cities in Europe, every
+incident connected with its activity has been carefully noted, at least
+since the time of the Renaissance. Out of the many upheavals we propose to
+select the eruptions of 1631 and 1779, as being amongst the most
+significant.
+
+Ever since an outburst in the year 1500, the Mountain appears to have
+lapsed into a remarkable condition of quietude, even of apparent
+extinction, for over a century and a quarter, during which period, it may
+be remarked, the Sicilian volcano of Etna was unusually active. Once more
+the summit of Vesuvius was beginning to assume the form it had borne in
+the days previous to the overthrow of Pompeii; the riven crater was
+becoming filled with dense undergrowth and even with forest trees, amidst
+which wild boar made their lairs and were occasionally hunted. The learned
+Abate Giulio Braccini, whose account of the eruption of 1631 is the most
+graphic and accurate we possess, explored the crater shortly before the
+outbreak of the volcano, but found little to suggest any idea of an
+approaching convulsion. He reckoned the deep depression occupying the
+crest of the mountain to be about five miles in circumference, and to take
+about a thousand paces of walking so as to reach the lowest point within
+its area. He remarked abundance of brushwood on its sides, and observed
+cattle grazing peacefully upon the open grassy patches in the midst of the
+over-grown space. A deep crack, however, ran from end to end of the whole
+crater, which allowed persons so minded to descend amidst rocks and
+boulders to a large plain below the surface, whereon Braccini found three
+pools of hot steamy water, of a saline and sulphureous taste. Such was the
+tranquil aspect of the Mountain as surveyed by the Abate Braccini in the
+first half of the seventeenth century; to men of science signs of latent
+energy were certainly not wanting, yet to the ignorant, careless peasants
+of the hill-side and the scarcely less ignorant dwellers of the towns on
+the seashore, the state of repose in which the Mountain had continued for
+four or five generations suggested no fears or suspicions. Tilling of
+vineyards, building of new houses, sinking of wells, went on apace as
+cheerfully as though an eruption were an impossibility, till certain
+unmistakable portents that occurred towards the close of the year 1631
+roughly dissipated this spell of fancied security. Earthquakes, more or
+less severe, began at this time to be felt along the whole of the volcanic
+line stretching from Ischia to the eastern slopes of Vesuvius; the plain
+within the crater of the Mountain began to heave and rise in an alarming
+fashion, and the water in all the local wells sank mysteriously below
+ground. The signs of some impending disaster coming from the heights above
+were too strongly marked to be lightly disregarded; the idea of a volcanic
+convulsion, though by this time a long-distant and vague memory, became so
+terrifying to the dwellers on the mountain's flanks and in Torre del
+Greco, Resina and the various towns that line the seaward base of the
+Mountain, that the majority of the people removed themselves and their
+property with all speed to places of safety. Nevertheless, despite the
+warnings given by Nature and also by men of science and the royal
+officials, many remained behind in their houses, and in consequence
+perished, to the immense number, it is surmised, of 18,000. On the morning
+of Wednesday, December 16th, the long threatened eruption burst forth in
+earnest upon an expectant world. Amidst crashes like prolonged volleys of
+artillery the people of Naples and the surrounding district beheld the
+terrible pine-tree of smoke and ashes, described centuries ago by Pliny,
+ascend from the south-western side of the summit of the Mountain, veiling
+the sky for miles around, and so charged with electricity, that many were
+even killed by the _ferilli_, or lightning flashes, that darted from the
+smoking mass. The spectacle of the ominous pine-tree was at once followed
+by a terrific rumbling and an ejection of lava, which after flowing down
+the southern flank in several streams finally reached the sea, making the
+waters hiss and boil at the moment of contact. Slowly but surely these
+relentless red-hot rivers of lava crept like serpents along the hill-side,
+destroying vineyard and garden, cottage and chapel, on their downward
+path. Resina shared the fate of its ancient forerunner Herculaneum, whilst
+Torre del Greco and Portici suffered severely, as we can see to-day by
+noting the great masses of lava flung on to the strand at various points.
+To add to the universal confusion of Nature, the sea, which had now become
+extraordinarily tempestuous, probably owing to some submarine
+earthquake-shock, suddenly retreated half a mile from the coast, and then
+as suddenly returned in a tidal wave more than a hundred feet beyond its
+normal limits. Such were the main features of the second great eruption of
+Vesuvius, wherein the ashes ejected by the Mountain were wafted by the
+wind beyond the Adriatic, to the Greek islands and even to Constantinople
+itself.
+
+  [Illustration: VESUVIUS AND THE BAY OF NAPLES]
+
+From this date onward the Mountain became very active in contrast with its
+previous condition of lethargy, and throughout the whole of the eighteenth
+century there were frequent eruptions, many of them on a vast scale. All
+these outbursts have been carefully recorded and commented upon, for
+naturally the scientists of a great city like Naples were intensely
+interested in the passing phases of their own volcano. During the latter
+half of this century all the phenomena have been described for us by Sir
+William Hamilton, British ambassador at the Court of the Two Sicilies, the
+versatile diplomatist who eventually married the beautiful but frail Emma
+Hart. During his long period of residence in Naples, Sir William made no
+fewer than fifty-eight explorations of the crater alone, besides carefully
+studying every peculiarity visible upon the sides of the Mountain. He was,
+of course, a close observer of the great eruptions of 1766-7, and also of
+the still greater convulsion of 1779, which, strangely enough, occurred on
+the seventeenth centenary of the awakening of the Mountain from its
+pre-historic slumbers. On this occasion, Hamilton, accompanied by a Mr
+Bowdler of Bath, had the temerity to track the streams of flowing lava to
+their hidden source by walking over the rough unyielding crust of stones
+and earth that had formed upon the surface of the molten stream, as it
+slowly trickled down hill at the rate of about a mile an hour. The
+adventurous pair of Englishmen were successful in their quest, and Sir
+William thus describes the fountain-head of the fiery streams that he
+found a quarter of a mile distant from the top of the cone.
+
+"The liquid and red-hot matter bubbled up violently, with a hissing and
+crackling noise, like that which attends the playing off of an artificial
+firework; and by the continued splashing up of the vitrified matter, a
+kind of arch, or dome, was formed over the crevice from whence the lava
+issued; it was cracked in many parts, and appeared red-hot within, like a
+heated oven. This hollowed hillock might be about fifteen feet high, and
+the lava that ran from under it was received into a regular channel,
+raised upon a sort of wall of scoriae and cinders, almost perpendicularly,
+of about a height of eight or ten feet, resembling much an ancient
+aqueduct."
+
+Some days later, at midnight on August 7th, a veritable fountain of red
+fire shot up from the crest of Vesuvius, illuminating all the surrounding
+country; and on the following night a still more marvellous sheet of flame
+appeared, hanging like a fiery veil between heaven and earth, and reaching
+to a height (so Sir William Hamilton guessed) of about 10,000 feet above
+the summit, affording a wonderfully grand but terrible spectacle. This
+great curtain of fiery particles, accompanied by inky black clouds from
+which were darting continual flashes of lightning, was reflected clearly
+on the smooth surface of the Bay, delighting the Court and the scientific
+world of Naples, but inspiring, as may well be imagined, the mass of
+superstitious inhabitants with the direst alarm. The theatres were closed
+and the churches were opened; above the rumblings and explosions of the
+agonised volcano could be heard the tolling of the bells. Maddened by
+terror, the Neapolitan mob rushed to the Archbishop's palace to demand the
+immediate production of the holy relics of St Januarius, the protector of
+the city, and on this request being refused, set fire to the entrance
+gates, a forcible argument that soon persuaded his Eminence of the
+propriety of the people's demand. Thereupon the head of the Saint,
+enclosed in its case of solid silver, was accordingly borne in solemn
+procession with wailing and repentant crowds behind it to an improvised
+shrine, hung with garlands, on the Ponte della Maddalena, at the extreme
+eastern boundary of the city. Nor was the confidence reposed by the
+Neapolitans in their patron Saint misplaced, for except from the stifling
+smells and the dense rain of ashes, the terror-stricken capital suffered
+not a whit, whilst the general alarm inspired its inhabitants with a
+revival of religious fervour which was by no means insalutary. As usual,
+the old cynical proverb was once more justified:--_Napoli fa gli peccati, e
+la __Torre gli paga_, for of course poor Torre del Greco was grievously
+affected by the lava streams. In this case, however, even Torre del Greco
+and Resina did not fare so badly as did the towns on the northern slopes
+of Monte Somma, a district which is of course perfectly immune from lava
+inundations owing to the protecting rocky ridge of the Atrio del Cavallo.
+But it seems that the great veil of clouds and fire, extending some
+thousands of feet from the crest of the mountain to the heavens above, was
+swayed by a chance current of air, so that its component red-hot dust,
+ashes and stones were emptied in one fatal shower upon the northern flank
+of the Mountain. Whole villages were ruined, hundreds of acres of vines
+and crops were scorched and burned; the smiling peaceful hillside was in a
+few minutes converted into a parched wilderness. Ottajano, a large town of
+some 12,000 inhabitants, was the place most seriously injured by this
+wholly unexpected rain of destruction, for a tempestuous fall of red-hot
+stones, some of immense size, and a shower of ashes killed hundreds of the
+terrified and suffocating citizens, and blocked up the streets with
+smoking debris to a depth of four feet.
+
+Of the recent eruptions of Vesuvius, which have been pretty frequent
+during the latter half of last century, that of April 1872, so carefully
+recorded by Professor Palmieri, who in spite of imminent danger never
+abandoned his post in the Observatory, is the most notable. It is
+remembered also owing to the catastrophe whereby some twenty persons out
+of a large crowd of strangers, who had imprudently ascended to the Atrio
+del Cavallo to get a closer view of the phenomenon, were suddenly caught
+by the lava stream and enfolded in its burning clutches. For if ignorance
+and superstition seem to make the poor fisherman or peasant unduly alarmed
+on such occasions, curiosity and self-confidence are sometimes apt to lead
+the educated or scientific into unnecessary peril. Naples itself was once
+more alarmed in 1872, so that the relics of St Januarius at the furious
+demand of the populace were again brought forth in solemn procession, and
+exposed towards the face of the Mountain on the Ponte della Maddalena.
+Thousands of quaking mortals gathered near this spot, joining in the
+chanting of the priests and watching with pallid anxious faces the fiery
+currents of lava slowly trickling down the south-western flank of Vesuvius
+towards the city itself. A certain number of attendants meanwhile were
+engaged in perpetually brushing away from the image of the Saint, from his
+improvised altar, and from its votive garlands the ever-accumulating
+mantle of grey dust, and it is scarcely to be wondered at that a certain
+cool-headed Neapolitan artist, Il Vaccaro, should all this time have been
+busily engaged in painting so characteristic and highly picturesque a
+scene. Within the churches, and particularly in St Januarius' own
+cathedral, enormous crowds of hysterical men and women had collected,
+loudly bewailing their past sins and imploring the Divine mercy, for
+
+      "E belle son le supplice
+  Pompe di penitenza, in alto lutto."
+
+Again the historic _palladium_ proved effectual, and the city, that was
+never for a moment in danger, was once more saved! Naples received no
+damage beyond a temporary panic and a heavy fall of ashes, which covered
+every street and flat surface within the town to a depth of some inches
+and which it took many days of enforced labour to remove. Again it was the
+poor confiding vine-dressers and tillers of the Vesuvian soil who suffered
+in this upheaval, for though the loss of life was very slight indeed, yet
+numerous houses, fields and vineyards were totally destroyed and many more
+were injured. Truly it is a maxim well proven by time:--_Napoli fa gli
+peccati, e Torre gli paga._
+
+
+
+Such, told baldly and briefly, is the history of the Mountain, which forms
+the most conspicuous feature of the Bay of Naples and dominates one of the
+fairest and most populous districts on the face of the globe. But it does
+not take long to make visitors to the Neapolitan shore understand the
+mysterious charm, not unmixed with awe, and the all-pervading influence of
+Vesuvius. Go where we will within the circuit of the Bay of Naples and
+even outside it, we are never out of sight of the obtruding Mountain and
+its smoky wreath. We begin to feel that the Mountain is an animated thing,
+that the destiny of the Parthenopean shore is locked up in the breast of
+the Demon who has his dwelling within its red-hot caverns. So sudden are
+the actions, and so capricious the moods of this Monster of the Burning
+Mountain, that no one can tell the day, or even the hour, wherein he will
+give us an exhibition of his fiery temper, though, it is true, in the case
+of violent eruptions he is kind enough to afford timely warning by means
+of a succession of earthquakes and other signals almost equally alarming.
+His Majesty's presence is felt everywhere; each morning as we open our
+window upon the dazzling waters of the Bay, we note with relief his
+tranquil aspect; each night, ere we retire to sleep, we find ourselves
+inevitably drawn to watch the glare thrown by the molten lava within the
+crater upon the thick vapour overhead. The nightly expectation of this
+aerial bonfire possesses an extraordinary fascination for the stranger.
+Some times the lurid glare is continuous; at other times there are long
+intervals of waiting, and even then the reflected light is very faint, a
+mere speck of reddish glow in the surrounding blackness, gone in the
+twinkling of an eye. But, strangely enough, one grows to understand the
+Mountain better from a distance and by watching its moods from afar, like
+the Neapolitans themselves, who never ascend to probe its mysteries,
+except a few vulgar guides and touts who batten on the curiosity of the
+foreigner.
+
+On clear windless days the intermittent clouds of vapour sent up from the
+crater assume the most fantastic shapes--trees, ships, men, birds,
+animals--ever changing like the forms of Proteus. It would seem as if the
+Spirit of the Mountain were idly amusing himself, like a child blowing
+bubbles, or a vendor at a fair-stall carving out little figures of
+gingerbread to tickle the fancy of country boys and girls. The clouds so
+formed sometimes cause amusement by their uncanny shapes, but not
+unfrequently they inspire alarm. The superstitious peasant of the
+_Paduli_, looking up suddenly from his work amidst the early peas or
+tomatoes, beholds against the blue sky a vague nebulous form that to his
+untutored mind suggests a gigantic crucifix upheld in mid-air above the
+Mountain, and he crosses himself devoutly ere he bends down to earth once
+more to his work in the rich dark soil. "Such stuff as dreams are made of"
+appear in truth the weird phantoms that the sly Demon of Vesuvius flings
+up into the pure aether, and if credulous mankind likes to draw inferences
+for good or bad from these unsubstantial creations of his fancy, he laughs
+to himself with a hollow reverberating sound. It must, however, have been
+in the true spirit of prophecy on the occasion of King Manfred's birth,
+that the genius of the Mountain despatched two cloud-forms into the sky
+(so the unabashed old chroniclers gravely relate), one having the
+appearance of a warrior armed cap-a-pie, and the other that of a fully
+vested priest. The affrighted gazers below, struck with the strange
+phenomenon, beheld the two figures sway towards each other and finally
+become locked together in deadly aerial combat, until all resemblance to
+human shape had vanished from the pair. Then, after an interval of time,
+men perceived the cloudy mass once more assume a mortal shape, and a huge
+towering priest with flowing robes and tiara on head was left in solitary
+and victorious possession of the sky. The Churchman had swallowed up the
+soldier; the Pontiff had vanquished the King; it was a true premonition of
+the fatal field of Benevento, which saw the ultimate triumph of the Papal
+over the Imperial cause.
+
+But if the near presence of the burning mountain has tended to make the
+inhabitants of its immediate zone the slaves of superstitious awe, the
+disasters of generations have likewise imbued them with a spirit of
+fatalism, that appears even stronger than their outward show of credulity.
+Life is not so sweet nor so dear apparently to these children of the
+South, but that they can afford to take their chance of disturbance or
+death with a true philosophic calm. The fisher-folk and maccaroni workers
+of Resina, Portici and the two Torres have, it is true, little to lose; a
+small boat can at the last moment easily convey their families and slender
+stock of household furniture to a place of temporary safety, and when the
+danger is over-past, the same shallop can bring back the refugees and
+their belongings. But with the husbandmen the case is different. Not only
+has he to fear the actual stream of lava, which may or may not overwhelm
+his house and farm in its slow inevitable course, but there are also the
+showers of hot ashes and of scalding water that will frizzle up in a few
+seconds every green blade and leaf upon his tiny domain, for which he pays
+an enormous rental, sometimes as much as L12 sterling an acre. Yet the
+_contadino_ takes his chances with a seraphic resignation that we do not
+usually attribute to the southern temperament. After the eruption of 1872,
+which covered the rich _Paduli_ with a deep coating of grey ashes, a young
+peasant girl was heard deploring the loss of her carefully tended gourds
+and melons; "_Oh come volimme fa? Addio, pummarole! addio, cucuzzielle!_"
+whereupon an older woman, witnessing these useless tears, upbraided her
+with the words: "Do not complain, child, lest worse befall you!" And
+indeed the whole population of the _Paduli_, instead of lamenting over
+their scorched and spoiled crops, were jubilant at the thought that the
+havoc done was only partial, not irrevocable;--a few months of incessant
+labour, said they, would bring back the holdings to their former state of
+perfection. Yet a general opinion prevails among foreigners that the
+Neapolitans are lazy, thriftless and helpless! They indeed rely to a
+certain extent upon St Januarius to protect their crops from the efforts
+of Nature, over which, they argue, the Saint is more likely to possess
+control than his human applicants, but when once the fatal shower of ashes
+has fallen, they do not expect "San Gennaro" to set their injured acres to
+rights again, but with a rare patience turn to the task themselves. A more
+industrious, and at the same time a more capable and practical race of
+agriculturists than the tillers of the slopes of Vesuvius, it would be
+hard to match. And thus in the sunshine of the south, yet ever under the
+shadow of death and destruction, dwell many thousands of human beings, as
+unconcerned as though Vesuvius were miles and miles away. Not unconscious,
+but fully conscious of their doom, the victims of the Mountain toil and
+moil upon the fertile farms (in many cases risen phoenix-like from their
+own ashes) that grow the early beans and tomatoes, the egg-plants and the
+white fennel roots (_finocchi_) that well-fed travellers devour in the
+hotels of Naples. Or else they tend the vines that yield the generous
+_Lagrima Christi_, of which imprudent and heated visitors drink long
+draughts unmixed with water, and then complain of ensuing languor and
+pains beneath their waistcoats. Luscious, yet seductive wine! Counsellor
+of moderation after a first experience of excess! Essence of Vesuvius,
+whose strange name so puzzled the poet Chiabrera!
+
+  "Chi fu de' contadini il si indiscreto,
+  Ch' a sbigottir la gente
+  Diede nome dolente
+  Al vin' che sovra gli altri il cuor fa lieto?
+  Lagrima dunque appellerassi un riso
+  Parte di nobilissima vendemmia?"
+
+  ("Who was the jesting countryman, I cry,
+  That gave so fearsome and so dour a name
+  To that choice vintage, which of all think I
+  Most warms the heart's blood with its genial flame?
+  Smiles, and not tears, the epithet should be
+  Of juice wrung from so fair a vinery.")
+
+
+                               * * * * * *
+
+
+Scarcely had the above pages been written, than the Mountain, which had
+been drowsing for more than thirty years, suddenly awakened to give
+appalling evidence of its latent activity and powers of mischief. The
+eruption of April 1906 has, in fact, surpassed all previous outbursts
+within living memory, and it may probably be reckoned amongst the most
+violent of all hitherto recorded. Many of the details of this event
+doubtless remain fresh in the memory, and in any case the sad condition of
+numerous towns and villages, and of the beautiful Vesuvian districts, the
+_paesi ridenti_ as the Neapolitans affectionately term these fertile
+lands, will serve for some years to come as a sinister and ever-present
+reminder of the horrors of the past and of the dread possibilities of the
+future. All vegetation for miles around the volcano has been injured or
+destroyed, for not only was the Mountain itself covered deep with grit and
+ashes, but the streets and gardens of Naples, the luxuriant plain of
+Sorrento, and even the heights of Capri, twenty miles distant across the
+Bay, were shrouded in a funereal mantle of the greyish-yellow dust that
+Vesuvius had flung into the air to let fall like a shower of parching and
+destructive rain upon the earth. How vast was the amount of matter ejected
+from the crater and scattered in this form over the surrounding country,
+we may judge from the scientific calculation that 315,000 tons fell in
+Naples alone! Everywhere appeared the same scenes of desolation, the same
+dreary tint, for so thickly had this aerial torrent of ashes descended,
+that buildings, trees and plants were completely hidden by it, the whole
+landscape suggesting the idea of a recent heavy fall of dirty-coloured
+snow. _Paesi ridenti_, indeed! It was a land of ugliness and mourning, a
+city of stifling air and of human terror.
+
+A few days previous to the eruption, which began on April 5th, the island
+of Ustica, which lies some forty miles north of Palermo, had been visited
+by earthquake shocks of such violence that the Italian Government at last
+decided to remove the greater part of its population to the mainland, as
+well as the convicts attached to the penal settlements on the island.
+Scarcely had these manifestations ceased at Ustica, than Vesuvius began to
+show signs of increased activity; the supplies in the wells on the
+mountain sides began to fail, and there was observed a strong taste of
+sulphur in the drinking water; whilst--most dreaded phenomenon of all--the
+ever-active crater of Stromboli, that lies midway between Naples and
+Messina, suddenly lapsed into quiescence. We all know the subsequent story
+of the outbreak; of the thousands of fugitives flying into Naples or other
+places of refuge; of the utter destruction of houses and cultivated
+lands;--the doleful scenes of a Vesuvian eruption have been enacted and
+described time after time in the history of the Mountain, and there is
+every reason to suppose they will be repeated at intervals for centuries
+to come. The marvel is how human beings can calmly settle down and pass
+their lives so close to the jaws of the fire-spouting monster, and why an
+intelligent Government permits its subjects to dwell in places which are
+ever exposed to catastrophes such as that which we have just witnessed.
+Well, it is the natural temperament of the Vesuviani to be fatalistic,
+despite their religious fervour; and acts of legislature cannot force them
+to abandon their old deep-rooted notions; all that the Italian Government
+can do therefore is to stand ready prepared to help, when the upheaval
+_does_ occur, as it inevitably must.
+
+It is always a matter of speculation on these occasions as to what course
+the ejected lava will pursue; whose turn, of the many settlements on the
+southern slopes of the Mountain, will it be to suffer? This time it was
+Bosco-Trecase, a village above Torre Annunziata, that was devastated by
+the sinuous masses of incandescent matter, high as a house and broad as a
+river. Torre Annunziata itself, as also ruined Pompeii were threatened,
+but the red-hot streams of destruction mercifully stopped short of their
+expected prey. The story of horrors and panic in the overthrow of
+Bosco-Trecase is happily relieved by many a recorded incident of valour
+and unselfishness. The royal _Carabinieri_, that splendid body of mounted
+police, who in their cocked hats and voluminous cloaks appear as
+ornamental in times of quiet as they prove themselves useful in the stormy
+hours of peril, acquitted themselves, as usual, like heroes. It was they
+who guided away the trembling peasants before the advance of the lava,
+searching the doomed houses for sick and crippled, whom they carried on
+their shoulders to places of security. Working, too, with almost equal
+zeal and practical good sense were the Italian soldiers, who richly
+deserved the praise that their royal commander, the Duke of Aosta,
+subsequently bestowed upon them for their invaluable services rendered
+during these fearful days of darkness and danger. "Soldiers!" declared the
+Duke, in his address to the troops on April 23rd, "I have seen you calm
+and happy in the work of alleviating the misfortunes of others, and I put
+on record the praise you have won. By promptly appearing at the places
+distressed by the eruption, you have encouraged the people by your
+presence and your example; you have maintained order and have safe-guarded
+property. Helping the local authorities, and even in some instances
+filling their offices, you have carried out the most urgent and dangerous
+duties in order to save the houses and to keep clear the roads. In the
+spots most heavily afflicted you have lent your assistance in removing and
+caring for the injured, and in searching for and burying the dead you have
+given proofs of great self-sacrifice and reverence (_pieta_). Not a few of
+the refugees have obtained food and shelter in your barracks, and whole
+communities without means of existence have been provided by you with the
+necessaries of life. Everywhere and from all your conduct has gained you
+loud applause. Nevertheless, your task is not yet ended; continue at it
+out of love for your country and devotion to your King!"(5)
+
+With such a reputation for kindness of heart and energy in time of need,
+no wonder that the Army is popular with all classes in Italy!
+
+Nor did the King and Queen hold aloof from the scene of disaster, for they
+hurried from Rome at midnight of that terrible Palm Sunday on purpose to
+comfort the terror-stricken population. Victor-Emmanuel even penetrated in
+his motor-car as far as Torre Annunziata, in spite of the fumes of sulphur
+and the many difficulties in proceeding along roads clogged deep with
+volcanic dust and ashes. On another occasion the King and Queen paid a
+visit to the afflicted district of the slopes of Monte Somma, where
+Ottajano and San Giuseppe had been almost buried by the continuous falling
+of burning material from the crater. In fact, these localities suffered
+even more severely than the towns on the seaward face of the Mountain
+(Bosco-Trecase excepted), and at Ottajano hardly a house in the place
+remained intact at the close of the eruption, whilst the loss of human
+life was probably higher here than elsewhere. The Duke and Duchess of
+Aosta--he the king's cousin, and she the popular Princess Helene, daughter
+of the late Comte de Paris--were likewise indefatigable in their efforts to
+assist and reassure the demoralized population, and to make every possible
+arrangement for the feeding and housing of the numberless refugees and the
+tending of the injured in the hospitals of Naples. Equally valorous was
+the conduct of the great scientist, Professor Matteucci, who remained
+together with a few Carabinieri throughout all phases of the eruption at
+the Vesuvian Observatory, although in imminent peril of death amidst a
+deadly atmosphere of heat and sulphureous fumes.
+
+It was on April 5th that the streams of burning lava first burst from the
+riven crater and made their way down the south-eastern slopes, destroying
+Bosco-Trecase and reaching to the very suburbs of Torre Annunziata.
+Pompeii itself was imperilled, and it is always well to remember that
+during an eruption this precious relic of antiquity may possibly be lost
+to the world. Meanwhile the rain of ashes and mud--formed by dust and hot
+water commingling--fell incessantly; 150,000 inhabitants of the Vesuvian
+districts fled in precipitate flight towards Naples, towards the shore,
+towards the hill country beyond the Sarno. It was truly a marvellous
+spectacle to observe the relentless stream of burning lava crushing
+irresistibly every opposing object in its fatal path. Onlookers at a
+distance could perceive the walls of houses bulging outward under pressure
+of the moving mass, until the roof collapsed in an avalanche of tiles upon
+the ground, whilst with a final crash the whole structure--cottage, farm,
+church or stately villa--succumbed to the overwhelming weight.
+
+Many are the tales of courage and intrepidity; not a few, alas! are the
+stories of folly and cowardice that are related in connection with the
+eruption. It cannot be said that the population of Naples, where everybody
+was perfectly safe even if the atmosphere was unpleasant and the distant
+thunders of the Mountain reverberated alarmingly, comported itself with
+dignity or calm; and this criticism applies in particular to the hundreds
+of visitors--English, German, American and other _forestieri_--who besieged
+the railway station in frantic and indecent anxiety to remove themselves
+with all speed from the city. Some excuse might perhaps be found for the
+hysterical terror of the poor inhabitants of the Mergellina or the
+Mercato, who spent their time in wailing within the churches or in
+screaming for the public exhibition of the venerated relics of their
+patron Saint, which again on this occasion the Archbishop, _nolens
+volens_, was compelled by the mob to produce. But for the great mass of
+educated foreigners then filling the hotels and pensions of the place, it
+cannot be said that their conduct was edifying, particularly in face of
+the example set by the King and Queen of Italy. To add to the general
+panic prevailing in the city, the Neapolitans themselves were not
+unnaturally greatly exasperated by the serious accident which took place
+at the Central Market Hall near Monte Oliveto in the heart of the old
+town. Here, early one morning during the course of the eruption, the great
+roof of corrugated iron collapsed, killing many and frightening the whole
+of the populace, already sufficiently unnerved by recent events. That this
+catastrophe was due to the casual methods, amounting in this case to
+criminal neglect of plain duty, of the municipal authorities, who had
+neglected to sweep the accumulation of heavy volcanic ash from off the
+thin metal roof, none can deny; and this glaring example of public
+stupidity had of course a bad effect on the demoralized multitude, which
+threatened to grow unruly, as well as terrified. No, the graceless
+stampede of educated foreigners to the railway-station, the incompetence
+of the Municipality, and the behaviour of the Neapolitan crowd do not
+appear very creditable to the supposed enlightenment of the twentieth
+century. It had been confidently predicted that nearly fifty years of
+State education and liberal government would work wonders in dispelling
+the crass ignorance and the deep-seated superstition of the dwellers on
+the Bay of Naples. Yet, so far as can be judged from recent events,
+matters seem to have changed but little on these shores, for the mass of
+the population evidently preferred to pin its hope of safety to the
+miracle-working relics of San Gennaro, rather than to the reassuring
+messages of Professor Matteucci, sent from his post of undoubted peril on
+the mountain-side.
+
+If the inhabitants of a great city, which was never seriously threatened
+with danger, should have acted thus, there is undoubtedly much excuse to
+be found for the Vesuviani themselves, whose houses and lives were
+certainly in danger from the devastating streams of lava. It was with a
+sigh and a smile that we learned how the good people of Portici attributed
+their escape from the fate of Bosco-Trecase to the direct interposition of
+a wonder-working Madonna enshrined in one of their own churches. For some
+days the town had been threatened, so that many were convinced of its
+impending doom, when happily at the last moment the expected fate was
+averted, as though by a miracle. And miracle it truly was in the eyes of
+the people of Portici, when it was observed that the snow-white hands of
+their popular Madonna had turned black in some mysterious manner during
+the night hours. What could be a simpler or easier deduction from this
+circumstance, than that Our Lady's Effigy, taking pity on its affrighted
+suppliants, had with its own hands pushed back the advancing mass of lava,
+and thus saved the town! Great was the joy, and equally great the
+gratitude, displayed by these poor souls at Portici, who at once organised
+a triumphal procession in honour of their prescient patroness "delle mani
+nere." Does not such an incident, we ask, lend a touch of picturesque
+medievalism to a modern scene of horror and darkness, exhibiting to us, as
+it does, the traits of a simple touching faith and of genuine human
+thankfulness?
+
+Well, the great eruption of 1906 is over, and the inhabitants of the
+Vesuvian communes are once more settling down in their ruined homes, or
+their damaged farms and gardens. No doubt a new Bosco-Trecase will arise
+on the shapeless ruins of the old site, for fear of danger seems powerless
+to deter the outcast population from reoccupying its old haunts. Ottajano
+will be rebuilt, not for the first time, and its citizens will again trust
+to luck--and to St Januarius--for protection from the evil fate which has
+repeatedly overtaken their town. The two Torres, Resina, Portici, and the
+villages along the shore, have this time contrived to escape the lava
+streams, and though their buildings have been severely shaken, and even
+wrecked in many instances, the people will doubtless mend the cracks in
+their walls and place fresh tiles on the injured roofs. They are wise in
+their own generation, for the Mountain is not likely to burst forth again
+for another quarter of a century at least after so violent a fit, _salvo
+complicazioni_, of course, as the more cautious Italians themselves say.
+But another outburst is inevitable; and whose turn to suffer will it be
+then? Will it be Portici, or either of the Torres? Who knows?--and what
+dweller under Vesuvius to-day cares at this moment? "Under Vesuvius," but
+it is a new Vesuvius, for the tall cone which was so conspicuous a feature
+of the Bay of Naples has disappeared completely, and the summit of the
+volcano has been once more reduced to the level of Monte Somma. How many
+years, we wonder, will be required for the Mountain to raise for itself
+once more the tall pyre of ashes that it has itself demolished and flung
+on all sides to the winds? At any rate let us now look for a period of
+rest, a period of prosperity to recoup the disturbed denizens of these
+_paesi gia ridenti_ for their heavy losses and terrible experiences.
+_Speriamo._
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER V
+
+
+              THE CORNICHE ROAD FROM CASTELLAMARE TO AMALFI
+
+
+It is without any feelings of regret that we learn of the non-existence of
+a railway line beyond Castellamare, so that our journey to Amalfi along
+the coast must be performed in the good old-fashioned manner of long-past
+_vetturino_ days. Three skinny horses harnessed abreast are standing ready
+at the hotel door to draw our travelling chariot, each member of the team
+gorgeously decked with plumes of pheasant feathers in his head-gear and
+with many-coloured trappings, whilst on the harness itself appears in more
+than one place the little brazen hand, which is supposed to ensure the
+steed's safety from the dangers of any chance _jettatore_, the unlucky
+wight endowed with the Evil Eye. Nor is the swarthy picturesque ruffian
+who acts as our driver unprovided with a talisman in case of emergency,
+for we observe hanging from his heavy silver watch-chain the long twisted
+horn of pink coral, which is popularly supposed to catch the first baleful
+glance, and to act on the principle of a lightning-conductor, in
+deflecting the approaching danger from the prudent wearer of the coral
+trinket. Merrily to the sound of jingling bells and the deep-chested
+exhortations of our coachman do we bowl along the excellent road in the
+freshness of the morning air and light "through varying scenes of beauty
+ever led," for the Corniche road towards Amalfi is admitted to be one of
+the finest in the world. Following the serpentine curves above the cliffs,
+we have on our right hand the dazzling Mediterranean with classic capes
+and islands all flushed in the early sunshine, whilst above us on the left
+rise the steep fertile slopes of the Lactarian Hills. Convent and villa,
+cottage and farmhouse, peep out of embowering verdure, whilst our road is
+shaded in many places by the overhanging boughs of blossoming almond and
+loquat trees. The whole region is in truth a veritable garden of the
+Hesperides, where in the mild equable climate fruit and flowers ripen and
+bloom without a break throughout the rolling year.
+
+  [Illustration: POZZANO]
+
+  "Tall thriving trees confess'd the fruitful mould;
+  The verdant apple ripens here to gold;
+  Here the blue fig with luscious juice o'erflows,
+  With deepest red the full pomegranate glows,
+  The branches bend beneath the weighty pear,
+  And silver olives flourish all the year;
+  The balmy spirit of the western gale
+  Eternal breathes on fruits untaught to fail.
+  Each dropping pear another pear supplies,
+  On apples apples, figs on figs arise;
+  The same mild season gives the blooms to blow,
+  The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow."
+
+A lovely and a fertile scene it is indeed, and thoroughly typical of the
+peculiar charm of Southern Italy, wherein the rich well-tilled lands
+appear in striking contrast with the near-lying stony fallows and
+scrub-covered wastes.
+
+Beneath the picturesque pile of Santa Maria a Pozzano, perched aloft above
+the roadway, we pass along the edge of the sea-girt precipice, rounding
+the Capo d'Orlando, until we reach the pretty little town of Vico Equense,
+with its churches and gay-coloured villas nestling amidst groves of olive
+and orange trees. Vico owes its prosperity in the first instance to the
+patronage of "Carlo il Zoppo," Charles the Dwarf, the lame son and heir of
+King Charles of Anjou, who founded a settlement and built a villa upon the
+site of the ancient Roman colony; and it was in the old royal demesne of
+the Angevins that the hand of the deformed king's daughter, the Princess
+Clementia, was demanded formally in marriage by the French monarch, Philip
+the Bold, who sought to marry her to his third son, Charles of Valois. The
+match between the young prince of France and his cousin, the Neapolitan
+princess, appeared suitable to all concerned in every respect save one;
+for it was well known that the King of Naples had been lame from his
+birth, and it could never be deemed fit for the expected heir of France to
+marry any but a perfectly sound and healthy bride. Now the Queen of Naples
+was too proud to accede to the hints of the French ladies, who evidently
+were most anxious to acquaint themselves with the satisfactory condition
+of her daughter's "walking members," though she went so far as to allow
+the maiden to appear before them clad only in a flowing robe of gossamer
+silk. The possible danger of losing her opportunity to become Queen of
+France proved, however, beyond the ambitious young lady's powers of
+endurance, and to the horror of her haughty mother and the delight of the
+foreign emissaries, the Princess Clementia then and there doffed her
+silken robes and appeared before all in the historic garb of Lady Godiva.
+A glance at the princess's form _in puris naturalibus_ sufficed to
+convince the inquisitive Frenchwomen that no hereditary taint from Il
+Zoppo descended to his daughter; and accordingly the betrothal of the two
+young people was celebrated that very evening amidst the usual revels and
+feastings.
+
+The clean cheerful town on the sheer limestone crags boasts a cathedral,
+wherein, so the guide-book informs us, we shall find the tomb of
+Filangieri, the great Italian jurist. But the building contains in reality
+far more stirring associations than those connected with a prominent
+lawyer. It is but a rococo structure of the usual Italian type, and its
+painted series of portraits of past bishops is by no means an uncommon
+complement of cathedral churches in the South. But here, amidst the long
+rows of indifferent portraits, we note an omission, a space that is
+occupied, not by a likeness but by a medallion, which represents a cherub
+with the forefinger of his right hand laid as a seal of silence upon the
+lips. Here-by indeed hangs a tale, obscure perhaps, but pathetic and human
+to the last degree. We all remember the broad frieze filled with Doges'
+faces which is carried round the great hall of the ducal palace in Venice,
+wherein the place assigned to the traitor, Marino Faliero, contains a
+black veil instead of the usual portrait. Here in little Vico Equense is
+to be found a somewhat similar incident, but with this important
+difference:--the bishop whose portrait is here omitted was the most worthy
+of remembrance of all his peers.
+
+The crime of Monsignore Michele Natale, Bishop of Vico Equense, to which
+the silent cherub bears everlasting witness, was that of being a patriot
+and a Liberal (in the truest sense of that term) during the anxious times
+of the ill-fated Parthenopean Republic, that short-lived period of
+aristocratic government which was set up in self-defence by certain
+Neapolitan nobles, prelates and men of science after the abrupt departure
+of their cowardly King and Queen to Palermo. We all remember the terrible
+ending of that government: how the vile rabble-army of Cardinal Ruffo
+assaulted Naples; how the city capitulated to the Cardinal on the express
+condition that all life and property should be spared; and how Lord
+Nelson, refusing to recognise the terms that Ruffo himself had agreed to,
+and overruling the Cardinal's protests, treated the unhappy prisoners. The
+Bishop of Vico Equense was one of this band of martyrs, for he suffered
+death under circumstances of exceptional brutality on the morning of
+August 20th 1799, in the piazza in front of the church of the Carmine,
+together with two Neapolitans of noble rank, Giuliano Colonna and Gennaro
+Serra, and with the poetess, Eleonora Pimentel, a Portuguese by birth but
+the widow of a Neapolitan officer. All went nobly to their doom amidst the
+execrations of the demoralised bloodthirsty mob of _lazzaroni_, yelling at
+and insulting the "Jacobins," and kept back with no little difficulty by
+the royal troops from mutilating the corpses of women, bishops and
+princes. Monsignore Natale himself was hanged, and in his case the public
+executioner--"Masto Donato" as he was nick-named by the populace--gave vent
+to many pleasantries concerning the episcopal rank of his victim.
+Blindfolded and with the cord of infamy depending from his neck, the
+Bishop was led up to the fatal ladder amid deafening shouts of
+
+  "Viva la forca e Masto Donato;
+  Sant' Antonio sia priato!"
+
+On reaching the top of the gallows, the hangman made fast the rope to the
+cross-tree, and then an assistant (_tirapiede_) from below adroitly pushed
+the unseeing prisoner into space, catching on to his legs meanwhile,
+whilst "Masto Donato" himself adroitly leaped from the gallows-top upon
+the prelate's shoulder. With the hangman on his back, shouting aloud how
+much he was enjoying his ride upon a real bishop, and with the other
+ruffian clinging to his heels, Monsignore Natale swayed backwards and
+forwards amidst yells of execration and gratified hate on that hot August
+morning in front of the Church of the Carmine little more than one hundred
+years ago. His body was left on the gallows to be insulted by the mob
+throughout the long sweltering day, and then, stripped of all its
+clothing, was finally flung with other corpses of noble men and women into
+a charnel-house at Sant' Alessio al Lavinaio. Who it was that placed this
+quaint little memorial to the murdered prelate in his cathedral church we
+know not; but here the speechless yet eloquent cherub tells Natale's sad
+story of brutality and injustice to all who care to listen. Happily the
+spell of silence is at length broken, and the true history of that hateful
+era of crime, cruelty, lying, and intrigue is gradually being revealed;
+and the enemies of the Church in Italy learn with an astonishment, which
+is perhaps feigned, that in that glorious army of martyrs of 1799 more
+than one ecclesiastic of high rank suffered in the ill-starred and
+premature cause of Neapolitan liberty.
+
+Crossing the little river Arco, we proceed uphill through the region of
+vines and olives, until we have passed the Punta di Scutolo, where begins
+our descent into that famous tract of country, the Piano di Sorrento, a
+plateau above the cliffs, some four miles in length by one in breadth.
+Poets of antiquity and bards of the Middle Ages alike have sung the
+delights of the Sorrentine Plain, and have painted in glowing colours of
+inspired verse its race of happy peasants, its fruitful fields and
+orchards, its luscious vines, its excellent flocks. Galen, the cunning old
+physician, recommended to his nervous patients what would now be termed a
+"rest cure" in these favoured regions; whilst the grateful Bernardo Tasso,
+father of the immortal Torquato, speaks of the capital of this district as
+"l'Albergo della Cortesia," and in an ecstasy of delighted appreciation,
+goes on to add: "l'aere e si sereno, si temperato, si salutifero, si
+vitale, che gli uomini che senza provar altero cielo ci vivono sono quasi
+immortali." And though praise from Torquato's courtly sire must not be
+taken too seriously, yet few will deny that the beautiful plain deserves
+many of the eulogies that have been showered upon it. At the small town of
+Meta, the next place of importance after Sorrento itself, the road divides
+at the Church of the Madonna of the Laurel: our way to Amalfi leading
+southward over the opposing ridge--the "Sorrentini Colles" of Ovid--whilst
+the other traverses the length of the plain by way of Pozzopiano and Sant'
+Agnello, until it reaches Sorrento.
+
+One prominent feature of this district has already attracted our
+attention; the number of deep ravines with which the whole plain is
+intersected. These natural clefts are marvellously lovely in their rich
+luxuriance of foliage, and with their precipitous sides and verdure-clad
+depths will recall the wonderful _latomie_, the ancient stone-quarries of
+Syracuse. Their depths are filled with orange and lemon trees, mingled
+with sable spires of cypress and the tall forms of bays, which here bear
+jet-black berries, such as are rarely seen in our northern clime; whilst
+the edges of the cliffs are clothed with a serried mass of wild flowers;
+red valerian, crimson snap-dragon, tall blue campanulas, the dark green
+wild fennel, white-blossoming cistus, and a hundred other plants, gay with
+colour and strong with aromatic perfume.
+
+  "The quarry's edge is lined with many a plant,
+  With many a flower distilling fragrant dew
+  From brightly coloured petals. Almond trees
+  Give snowy promise of sweet leaves and fruit;
+  Here all the scented tangle of the South
+  Covers the boulders, calcined by the sun
+  To pearly whiteness; thorn or asphodel
+  Sprout from each cranny of the topmost ledge
+  To nod against the deep blue sky, or peer
+  Into the verdure-clad abyss below."
+
+It is not surprising to learn that these romantic glens, filled with
+greenery, are reputed locally to be the haunts of fairies, _Monacelli_, as
+the Sorrentine inhabitants name them. Like the "good folk" of certain
+country districts in England, the pixies of Devonshire, and the "Tylwyth
+Teg" of rural Wales, these elfin people of the ravines are not malicious
+or unkindly in their nature, but they are particular and somewhat exacting
+in certain matters. They appreciate the attentions of mortal men, and
+offerings of fresh milk or choice fruit are not beneath the notice of the
+Monacelli. Borrowing the idea from the votive offerings they make in the
+churches to the Virgin and the Saints, the peasants sometimes place little
+lamps in the fern-draped grottoes of these gullies, and to such as
+punctually perform these acts of courtesy, the Monacelli frequently show
+signs of favour. The _padrone_ of a local inn has assured us that he and
+his wife stood very high in the good graces of the little people, who had
+on one occasion actually written them a letter, although as the characters
+employed were unknown to any person in the village, the object of their
+communication by this means seems somewhat of a mystery. Another and a
+more practical instance of their patronage was then related, for the
+favoured landlord assured us that on one occasion, when he and his wife
+descended downstairs in the morning, they found the house cleared, the
+hearth ready swept, and all the contents of last night's supper-table
+relaid on the brick floor, but _d'un modo squisito_, such as no human hand
+could ever have been deft enough to contrive. Just a simple innocent
+trifle of Sorrentine folk-lore, but how closely does it resemble the
+old-time gossip of rustic England, of which the great poet has left us so
+charming a picture!--
+
+  "Tells how the drudging Goblin sweat
+  To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
+  When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
+  His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
+  That ten day labourers could not end."
+
+For, as we have already said, the Monacelli show themselves grateful to
+those who anticipate their wants, and will serve their votaries with
+industry and fidelity. _Fuore avra il Monacello in casa_--perhaps he has
+had the Fairy in the house--has passed into a local phrase to designate a
+neighbour's unexplained prosperity. But, again, the lucky recipient of
+these favours must never blab or even hint at the origin of his good
+fortune, for all gossip is highly distasteful to the fairy folk; and that,
+we suppose, is the true reason why so little authentic information can be
+gleaned as to the methods of the Monacelli.
+
+In direct contrast with the Monacelli of the ravines, who are, on the
+whole, well inclined towards mortals, are the Maghe, first cousins
+evidently to the terrible _ginns_ of Arabian folk-lore; perhaps the
+Saracenic pirates themselves may have introduced their oriental sprites to
+the Neapolitan shores. In the popular mind the Maghe are supposed to
+possess vast treasures hidden in caves by the seashore, or on the bleak
+mountain side, and it was doubtless concerning these spirits that the
+guide's tale, given in a previous chapter, relates. The most celebrated
+Maga of all is the demon who haunts a certain underground corridor near
+Pozzuoli, containing an immense hoard of gold and jewels, which he is
+willing to present to anybody that is ready to give in exchange a new-born
+baby, presumably for purposes of devouring. Nor was the general belief in
+the cave-dwelling monster at Pozzuoli limited to the poor peasants and
+fisher-folk, for rumour persistently asserted that King Francis of Naples,
+father of Bomba of impious memory, more than once attempted to negotiate
+with the guardian of this buried treasure; but the Maga's terms, it seems,
+were too bloodthirsty and extravagant even for a Neapolitan Bourbon to
+comply with, and in that case they must indeed have been pretty startling.
+Malignant fairies are, in short, quite common upon the Sorrentine plain,
+where exasperated mothers are sometimes in the habit of frightening their
+squalling children into silence by threatening to introduce them to
+_Mammone_--perhaps a corruption of the old Greek word _mormo_--a terrible
+ghost, that must be a near relation to the "Big Black Man" of English
+nurseries, who is ever ready to carry off naughty boys and girls in his
+sack.
+
+But the whole of the Sorrentine Peninsula is full of local superstitions,
+the vast majority of which can easily be traced to the influence of
+Catholicism, whilst comparatively few seem to be the legacy of ancient
+Greek or Roman mythology. Belief in witchcraft is universal in these
+parts, but the witch herself (_strega_) is regarded somewhat in the light
+of a beneficent "wise woman," who can arrest the far more dreaded spell of
+the Evil Eye, rather than as the malevolent old hag of bucolic England in
+the past. Certainly there has never been recorded in Southern Italy any
+such popular persecution of poor harmless old crones as once disgraced
+English countrysides; nor has any Italian jurist, like the erudite Sir
+Matthew Hale, ever condescended to supply legal information concerning the
+peculiarities of witches, and the best methods of prosecuting and burning
+them. But the _strega_, though not as a rule dangerous to mankind,
+provided she be not disturbed or insulted, has the same supernatural power
+of transit on a broomstick that is possessed by her northern sister. On
+many a dark night have the peasants crossed themselves with fear on
+hearing the witches flying through the storm-vexed air to keep their
+unholy tryst beside the famous walnut tree of Benevento, which has been
+described for us by the learned Pietro Piperno in his mysterious treatise,
+entitled _De Nuce Beneventana_. Even snatches of the witches' song can
+sometimes be distinguished above the howling of the gale--
+
+  "Sott' aero e sopra vento,
+  Sotto la Nuce di Benevento!"
+
+Perhaps it may afford some consolation to those who have a dread of
+witches that the word "Sabato," solemnly pronounced on these awful
+occasions, is of real service to the utterer; whilst such as have had the
+good fortune to be born on a Friday in March are permanently placed
+outside the evil power of their spells, since our Saviour was crucified on
+a Friday in that month.
+
+But at length we have finished the ascent of the ridge, and our driver
+halts for a moment at the inn of the "Due Golfi." A smiling damsel,
+dressed in the picturesque native costume, advances to offer us the
+national drink of Italy, sweet vermouth that is frothed up with a little
+fizzing water in a narrow tumbler; and though carriage exercise is not
+liable to produce thirst, yet we cannot be so churlish as to refuse the
+draught, especially as the delay allows us to take our farewell look at
+the Bay of Naples. For here we have reached the peak of the rocky saddle
+that divides the two famous gulfs; and before us we now behold the wide
+crescent of the Bay of Salerno with its sunburnt vineyards and its
+precipitous cliffs. To our right we perceive the craggy headlands
+stretching southward till they culminate in the Cape of Minerva:--how much
+more attractive sounds the good old classical name than the new-fangled
+Punta della Campanella, so called from the alarm bell which used to be
+tolled in the ruined fortress at the approach of the Moslem pirate
+galleys! Vastly different is the aspect on this side of the peninsula to
+that which we have just left behind us. There is the plain below us,
+thickly dotted with farms and villas set amidst crops and orchards, a
+fertile scene of industry and population; here on the Salerno side are
+wild stony tracts affording only pasturage for a few sheep and goats, and
+covered for miles with broom, cytizus, coronella, myrtle, and numberless
+fragrant weeds, all struggling fiercely for existence on the dry barren
+soil, and filling the clear air with an incense-like perfume. Such is our
+first acquaintance with the Costiera d'Amalfi, that wonderful stretch of
+indented rocky coast-line once containing the Republic of Amalfi, which
+was the forerunner of the glorious Commonwealths of Florence and Venice.
+From the grey cliffs of Capri to the west, as far as the headland beside
+Salerno, stretched this diminutive state, composed of a confederacy of
+sister-cities, whereof Amalfi herself was the queen and metropolis. Its
+glories have long vanished, but the Costiera d'Amalfi remains an enchanted
+land, not only on account of its natural beauties, but also by reason of
+its historical associations which give an additional charm to every breezy
+headland and every little town upon this wonderful shore.
+
+Below us, as we rapidly descend the slopes by the curves of the Corniche
+road, lies the little beach known as Lo Scaricotojo, whence in the days
+previous to the construction of this splendid highway all visitors were
+wont to embark for Amalfi;--that is, unless they attempted the expedition
+by way of the mountain roads leading thither from Castellamare or La Cava.
+It raises a smile in these days of swift and luxurious travelling to learn
+from an early Victorian guide-book that "the most elegible mode of going
+from Sorrento to Amalfi is either to ride or to be carried in a _chaise a
+porteurs_ to that part of the Colli where begins a rapid descent, and
+thence descending on foot to the Marinella of the Scaricotojo on the Gulf
+of Salerno.... The ride occupies about an hour and a quarter, and the
+descent which, though steep, is not dangerous, occupies about an hour."
+_Nous avons change tout ca_; yet there are still living amongst us those
+who lament the passing away of the old-fashioned days of Italian travel,
+when inns were bad but picturesque, and expeditions to such remote places
+as Amalfi were not only difficult but even dangerous; since in
+compensation for slow progress and risk of brigands every town owned a
+primitive charm which is now rapidly disappearing before the modern
+irruption of locust-like swarms of tourists with their motor cars, their
+luncheon baskets, and their kodaks. Well, to the majority of travellers
+the value of natural scenery is not a little enhanced by the sense of
+comfort, and here on the Costiera d'Amalfi the most particular can have no
+cause to complain, since it is one of the few lovely spots of Southern
+Europe that has not yet been invaded by the dividend-paying railway. No,
+the old Republic retains to a great extent its ancient atmosphere of
+unspoiled beauty and remoteness from the bustling world. It is still a
+stretch of glorious and historic country wherein one can obtain a pleasant
+and valued respite for a time from the overpowering improvements of an
+industrial age.
+
+As we look southward across the breadth of the Bay, our eye is at once
+caught by the group of the Isles of the Sirens, which, though in reality
+fully a mile distant from the nearest point of the coast, seem in this
+clear atmosphere as though they were lying within a stone's throw of the
+beach. Around these bare bluffs of rock, seemingly flung by the hand of
+Nature in a sportive mood into the blue waves, lingers one of the most
+insidious of all the old Greek legends, for it was past these lonely
+cliffs that the cunning Ulysses sailed during his long career of mazy
+wanderings in search of his island home and his faithful Penelope. In
+those days, so the Greek bard tells us, there dwelt upon these islets
+strange sea-witches with the faces and forms of most beautiful maidens,
+although their lower limbs had the resemblance of eagles' feet and talons.
+Two sirens only, says Homer, dwelt upon these coasts, although later poets
+have increased the number of the fatal sisters to three or even four.
+Singing the most enchanting songs to the sound of tortoise-shell lyres,
+there used to bask in the sunlight beside the gentle ripple the Sirens,
+their nether limbs well hidden from the gaze of passing seamen, who,
+attracted by the tuneful notes, hastened hither to discover the
+whereabouts of the musicians. Innocent eyes, angelic faces, flowing golden
+locks and white beckoning hands had every power to draw the curious
+mariner nearer and nearer, until he came within reach of the fell
+enchantresses. For the Sirens loved the flesh of mortals, and bleached
+skulls and bones of digested victims lay in heaps upon the sandy floor of
+their azure-hued caverns. Gold and jewels, too, the spoils of many a brave
+galley that had been lured to destruction by these charmers, likewise
+littered their retreat, and perhaps it was as much the glittering of this
+gold as their own lovely features that in certain cases enticed the wary
+merchant into this fatal trap. Gold and a pretty face: what male heart
+could be proof against the double temptation the Isles of the Sirens
+offered to the navigator in the days of the Odyssey! Only one sailor over
+these seas proved himself a match for the wiles of the cruel goddesses of
+the Amalfitan coast; for Ulysses, as we know, stopped the ears of his
+companions with wax on their approach towards this dangerous spot, whilst
+he himself, always eager to hear and see everything yet perfectly well
+aware of the Sirens' magnetic power, had himself tightly bound by cords to
+the mast. So whilst the deaf rowers stolidly tugged at their oars,
+oblivious of the weird unearthly melody around them, the clever King of
+Ithaca gained the honour of becoming the only mortal who had listened to
+that subtle song without paying the penalty of a hideous and ignoble
+death.
+
+It is strangely disappointing to find that no recollection of Sirens or of
+Ulysses lingers in the lore of the present dwellers upon these coasts.
+They have no more notion of the aspect of a Siren than they have of a
+pleisosaurus, and, as a modern writer naively complains, they are not
+sharp-witted enough to invent fanciful tales to please the enquiring
+foreigner. Nor is this lack of intelligence to be wondered at, when we
+recall to mind the clean sweep of all classical learning and tradition
+which that period of time, truly known as the Dark Ages, made throughout
+Italy; if Petrarch found it necessary to explain to King Robert the Wise
+with the greatest tact and delicacy that Vergil was a poet and not a
+wizard, what must have been the appalling ignorance prevailing amongst the
+peasant and the fisherman? And yet these barren rocks were known as the
+Isles of the Sirens centuries before the verses of the Aeneid immortalized
+the mythic voyage of the Trojan adventurer, who passed along this
+iron-bound coast on his way towards the mouth of Tiber. Their modern, or
+rather medieval name of I Galli is somewhat of a puzzle. Erudite scholars
+affect to derive it from Guallo, a fortress captured during a war between
+King Roger and the Republic of Amalfi, but this explanation, we confess,
+does not sound very reasonable. Others prefer to imagine that the word
+Gallo (a cock) contains an allusion to the claws and feathers of the
+Sirens themselves, for certain of the ancient writers endowed these dire
+Virgins of the Rocks with the wings as well as the claws of birds;--in
+fact, they represented them as Harpies, those horrible fowls with women's
+faces that appeared upon the scene at Prospero's bidding to spoil the bad
+king's supper party. But why, if the Sirens were female,--and on this point
+all their critics agree with an unanimity that is wonderful--should their
+ancient haunts be called "The Cocks?" The untutored natives themselves,
+understanding nothing of Sirens or of Odysseys, hold their own theory with
+regard to the disputed name, which they connect with the construction of a
+harbour at distant Salerno, and though this legend sounds foolish enough,
+it is scarcely less flimsy than the notions already quoted. A certain
+enchanter, one Pietro Bajalardo, undertook--in modern parlance,
+contracted--to build in a single night the much needed breakwater at
+Salerno on the strange condition that all cocks in the neighbourhood
+should first be killed; for the wizard, so the story runs, had a special
+aversion to Chanticleer on account of his having caused the repentance of
+St Peter by his crowing. In any case, the reigning Prince of Salerno
+gladly complied with the eccentric request, and at his command every cock
+in or near the place was accordingly slaughtered, with the solitary
+exception of one old rooster, who, being very dear to the heart of his
+aged mistress, was kept concealed beneath a tub and thus escaped the
+general holocaust. Throughout the livelong night Bajalardo was busily
+engaged in superintending the work of building the harbour, whilst the
+fiends who carried out his behest were actively conveying huge blocks of
+broken cliff from the Cape of Minerva to place in the waters of Salerno.
+But at daybreak the cock imprisoned beneath the tub, the sole survivor of
+his race, according to natural custom announced the dawn, to the despair
+of Bajalardo and the terror of his attendant fiends, who in their
+precipitate flight dropped into the sea near the Punta Sant' Elia the huge
+masses of stone they were then carrying; and these rocks are called by men
+I Galli in consequence to this day.
+
+But, to be strictly impartial, it was not the Sirens alone who were
+responsible for all the victims who perished on these arid rocks. _Homo
+homini lupus_; man is always ready to prey upon man, and many of the dark
+tales concerning the Galli go to prove the truth of the terrible old
+adage. At what period the Sirens abandoned their ancient retreat and swam
+or flew away to more congenial haunts is unknown to history; but certain
+it is that the rulers of proud Amalfi committed many a cruel deed of
+murder or torture upon their deserted islets. For here, many a hapless
+political prisoner languished for years in abject misery, a prey to the
+heat and glare of summer and to the fierce gales of bitter winter nights.
+Rock-cut steps and ruined towers still remain as mementoes of those dark
+days, when callous human gaolers worthily filled the places of the absent
+Sirens. It was in a chamber of yonder turret, still standing, that the
+Doge Mansone II., blinded by a brother's vengeance, dragged out years of
+utter misery in pain and darkness, until the Emperor of the East, suzerain
+of Amalfi, at last took compassion upon the prisoner's wretched plight and
+allowed him to be removed into honourable confinement at Byzantium. For
+many hundreds of years the Isles of the Sirens have lain untenanted, nor
+are they visited nowadays save by a few inquisitive travellers or by the
+fishermen of the Scaricotojo, who find safe shelter under their lee during
+the sudden squalls of the Mediterranean. For, strange to relate, there are
+no dangerous currents, no treacherous whirlpools close to these rocky
+islets, such as we might expect to give some natural interpretation to the
+ancient myth, the origin of which remains unexplained and constitutes a
+very pretty mystery as it stands.
+
+We bid farewell to the group of ill-omened rocks, as we proceed rapidly
+under the rocky slopes of the Monte di Chiosse towards Positano, which
+extends in a long curving line of cheerful-tinted flat-roofed houses from
+the summit of its protecting cliff to the strand below, sprinkled with
+boats and nets and cloths with heaps of grain a-drying. The descent to the
+lower portion of the little town is singularly charming with its varied
+scenery of rocks and hanging woods above us, with the tiled domes of
+churches outlined against the deep blue waters, and with the whole scene
+dominated by the pierced crag of Montapertuso, beyond which thrusts up
+into the cloudless sky the triple peak of the giant Sant' Angelo. Positano
+is a thriving as well as an ancient place, and of its dense population we
+have abundant evidence in the swarms of children that pursue our carriage,
+brown-skinned picturesque little nuisances, shrilly and incessantly crying
+out for _soldi_. Most of these infants wear bright coloured rags, but not
+a few are dressed in garments that at once recall the ginger-coloured
+robes of the Capuchin friars, for the brothers of the Order of St Francis
+are popularly reputed to be especially competent in keeping aloof evil
+spells from young persons entrusted to their charge; and of course, argue
+the doting parents, it is only natural that the spirits of darkness should
+not dare to molest the little ones tricked out in robes similar to those
+worn by these holy men.
+
+From the point of view of history the chief interest of Positano centres
+in the time-honoured tradition that Flavio Gioja, the original inventor of
+the compass, was a native of this town, once a flourishing and important
+member of the group of cities which comprised the Amalfitan Republic in
+its palmy days. But Clio, the Muse of History, is an inexorable mistress,
+and she will not rest content with mere hearsay, however venerable, and as
+a result of careful investigation it would seem that Flavio Gioja, who for
+centuries has been generally credited with this marvellous discovery, must
+himself have been a personage almost as mythic as the Sirens of this
+shore, for his very name is spelled in a variety of ways that is
+hopelessly confusing. Nor has the question of his place of birth ever been
+satisfactorily settled, for both Positano and Amalfi claim this hero of
+science for a son, although only in Amalfitan annals can the disputed name
+be detected. Be this as it may, it was a citizen of this Costiera who has
+ever been acknowledged as the inventor of the compass, though concerning
+both himself and his alleged discovery there is a complete absence of any
+contemporary record. Later writers have, it is true, always admitted the
+honour on behalf of the Republic, and Pontano goes so far as to call
+Amalfi _magnetica_ in compliment thereof, whilst during the later crusades
+the Amalfitani, who were evidently convinced of the genuine nature of
+Gioja's claim, had an heraldic figure of the mariner's compass emblazoned
+on their banners. It seems a thousand pities to throw doubt upon so
+picturesque a tradition, for the date of the invention of the compass has
+been fixed as 1302, two years only after the holding of the famous Papal
+Jubilee in Rome which Dante's verse has described for us. Nor can the
+ingenious theory be upheld that the fleur-de-lys, the emblem of the French
+kings of Naples, which still decorates the dial of the compass in almost
+all lands, is in any wise connected with Carlo il Zoppo, the monarch to
+whom Gioja is said to have dedicated his ingenious discovery. No, we have
+little doubt that the compass, like so many of the scientific wonders that
+crept into Europe before and during the time of the Renaissance, was
+originally brought from the far East, a farther East than the argosies of
+Amalfi had ever penetrated. The little magic box with its moving needle
+was first used, it is now admitted, by the cunning merchants of Cathay
+during their trading expeditions across the stony monotonous plains of
+Central Asia that lay between the Flowery Land and the civilization of
+Persia. From Cathay the use of the magnetic needle was introduced to the
+Arab mathematicians of Baghdad and Cairo, and through them the secret of
+the lodestone of China was conveyed to the coast towns of the Levant. At
+Aleppo or Alexandria some astute trader of Amalfi--perhaps his name really
+was Flavio Gioja--contrived to learn the new method of steering from some
+Moslem or Jewish merchant, and he in his turn brought this novel and
+precious piece of information back to the Italian shores. If, then, a
+native of Amalfi did not evolve the idea of the compass out of his own
+brain, at least it was the old Republic which first impressed the Western
+world with its immense value, and this, too, at a far earlier period than
+the date usually assigned to Gioja's "discovery." For a Christian bishop
+of Jerusalem a hundred years before Gioja's day makes mention of the
+compass as being in common use amongst the Saracens of Palestine, whilst
+its existence was certainly known to Brunetto Latini, the tutor of Dante,
+whom for certain moral failings upon earth his brilliant pupil somewhat
+harshly places in the infernal regions. History has, in short, long
+deprived poor disconsolate Positano of its vaunted glory in the production
+of a medieval scientist whose very existence has now become a matter of
+speculation.
+
+As we thread our way along the road that curves round headland after
+headland, and is carried over sheer precipices whose base is lapped by the
+cool jade-green water, we begin to realize the essential difference
+between the Sorrentine shores we have left behind us, and the marvellous
+Costiera d'Amalfi we are now passing. Ever green and smiling are the
+favoured districts that stretch from Castellamare to Massa Lubrense, with
+the mountain tops acting as screens to protect the groves and crops from
+the sun's ardent rays and with the fresh reviving breezes from the Abruzzi
+ever breathing upon them. But here we seem to be under the very eyes of
+the Sun-God, who stares fixedly from rising to setting upon the Amalfitan
+coast. Welcome enough is this continuous basking in his smiles during the
+short winter days; but oh! the long, long summer hours wherein King Helios
+relentlessly pours down his burning glances upon the shallow soil that
+covers the rocky face of the Costiera! We who visit the territories of the
+old Republic in winter or early spring only perceive one aspect of the
+picture. We rejoice in the gladdening warmth afforded by unbroken sunshine
+and by the complete absence of cutting winds which Monte Sant' Angelo's
+towering form excludes from these shores; we note with delight the
+premature unfolding of buds and blossoms, and we marvel at the young fruit
+of the dark-leaved loquat trees--the _nespoli_ of the South--turning to pale
+yellow even in February. But we cannot realise the blinding glare and the
+torrid heat of a July or August, making a perfect furnace of this
+sheltered corner, where the thin layer of cultivated soil, that has been
+scraped together painfully by human hands, becomes baked through and
+through, when the water-tanks are exhausted, and when the clouds of thick
+dust hang like a pall of white smoke for miles above the sinuous course of
+the Corniche road. How close and sweltering must be the atmosphere of
+these populous coves, when the very waves are flung luke-warm upon the hot
+sand! How must the inhabitants sigh for a breath of cool air from the
+Abruzzi, for the zephyr that tempers the heat on the Sorrentine plain!
+_Carpe diem_; let us enjoy the Costiera d'Amalfi in the freshness of early
+spring-time, before the oranges and lemons have been stripped from the
+leafy groves and before the sun has had time to scorch up the vegetation
+that now gives colour to every cleft and crevice of the rocky coast-line.
+
+As we advance eastward from Positano we obtain glimpses from time to time
+of mountain valleys thickly clothed with brushwood, and far above our
+heads we perceive Agerola perched aloft under the shadow of the topmost
+crag of Monte Sant' Angelo--Agerola, where wolves still haunt the dim
+recesses of the chestnut woods, and where the charcoal burners can tell us
+of the great grey Were-Wolf that prowls round the village on stormy
+nights. Passing the torrent of the Arriengo and the Punta di San Pietro
+with its lonely chapel looking out to sea; glancing down upon the deep set
+strand and gloomy caverns of Furore, and rounding Cape Sottile, we find
+ourselves at Prajano, one of the prettiest spots to be found on all this
+wonderful coast. Here we stop to visit the church of San Luca, which
+stands on a little grassy platform overhanging the sea and commanding a
+superb view of the Bay of Salerno. It is a baroque structure of the type
+common everywhere in Italy, which travellers are apt to despise without
+acknowledging how picturesque this decadent style of architecture can
+appear. At Prajano the wooden doors of green faded to the hue of ancient
+bronze, the yellow-washed plaster facade and the lichen-covered tiles of
+the roof and tower make up a charming mass of varied colouring when viewed
+against the broad blue band of sea and sky beyond. Within, the church is
+mean and tawdry, just a
+
+  "Sad charnel-house of humble hopes and crimes,
+  Long dead and buried in obscurity;"
+
+but the afternoon sun struggling through the curtains that cover its
+fantastic windows allows a mellow light to fill the expanse of the
+building. A toothless old woman and a young girl, both of them thinly and
+poorly clad, are the sole occupants of the church, and they are evidently
+too much absorbed in prayer to notice our presence. They have placed
+beside the Madonna's altar lighted tapers which glimmer feebly in a shaft
+of strong sunlight that falls through a rent in the curtain overhead. For
+what purpose, we wonder, have these candles been bought out of a scanty
+store! Are they burning on behalf of some sailor-boy now being tossed upon
+the ocean? Or are they offered to obtain some boon more selfish and less
+pathetic? At any rate, this pair of intent worshippers, representing fresh
+Southern youth and crabbed age, make up a pretty picture as they kneel
+together on the pavement of tiles ornamented in bright rococo patterns to
+represent the coat-of-arms of some forgotten noble benefactor: it is too
+simple and everyday a sight in Italy to offer a theme for verse, too
+sacred a subject for an idle photograph. We leave the church on tip-toe,
+and return to the terrace with its low marble seats and its stunted acacia
+trees to sit a few moments before re-entering the carriage.
+
+  [Illustration: EVENING AT AMALFI]
+
+Skirting the Capo di Conca we obtain our first sight of proud Amalfi, and
+we realize that our drive, long in distance perhaps, but all too short
+with its varied beauties and interests, is drawing to a close. Nearer and
+nearer do we approach our goal, the shining turrets of the Cathedral tower
+acting as our beacon, until at length our chariot clatters beneath the
+echoing tunnel hewn in the cliff that leads into the town itself.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER VI
+
+
+                   AMALFI AND THE FESTIVAL OF ST ANDREW
+
+
+The traveller's first impressions of Amalfi, which is essentially the
+beauty-spot of the Riviera of Naples, are usually associated with the old
+Capuchin convent, long since turned into a hotel and now the bourne of
+most visitors to this coast. Its arcaded facade and its terraced garden
+stand on a plateau seemingly cut out of the sheer face of the cliff,
+whilst high above the town the lofty barren rocks enfold the Convent and
+its verdant demesne within a natural amphitheatre and protect this sunny
+paradise from the keen blasts of winter. A flight of steps zigzagging up
+the rocky hill-side connects the building with the high road below; whilst
+a narrow pathway, leading between stone walls and now passing beneath dark
+mysterious archways, wherein the lamps burning before the Madonna's
+shrines afford a welcome light even at midday, descends by steep gradients
+from the garden above into the main piazza of the little city. Built by
+the celebrated Cardinal Pietro Capuano nearly seven hundred years ago for
+Cistercian monks, the monastery in the sixteenth century came into the
+possession of the Capuchin Friars, those brown-robed figures that with
+their bare feet and girdles of knotted white cord are such familiar and
+picturesque objects in the daily crowds of every Italian town. But the
+friars have been forced to abandon their airy retreat ever since the
+suppression of the religious houses, which succeeded the union of the old
+Neapolitan kingdom with young Italy, and their convent has long been put
+to secular uses. Yet the old monastic church still exists, and
+superstitious people declare that the spectral forms of ejected Capuchins
+are sometimes to be seen advancing slowly up the rocky ascent in order to
+revisit the sacred building that is now closed for worship. Nevertheless
+the church is cared for by the members of the Vozzi family, its present
+owners, who every Christmas-tide still prepare the popular _presepio_,
+that curious representation of the scene in the stable at Bethlehem,
+wherein a score of gaily dressed figures of painted wood represent the
+Holy Family and the worshipping peasants. Little in fact has been changed
+within the building itself, and the exquisite cloistered court with its
+slender intertwining Saracenic columns still remains to delight alike the
+artist and the antiquary. We say "still remains" advisedly; for beyond the
+tiny quadrangle our eyes at once light upon a scene of hideous
+devastation.
+
+Doubtless many persons will recall the great land-slip of December 1899,
+when almost without warning the whole face of the rocky headland that
+shelters Amalfi on the west tore itself loose and slid with a crash like
+thunder into the sea below, overwhelming in its fall the little inn known
+as the "Santa Caterina" and burying in its ruins two English ladies and
+several fishermen. The sinister scar still continues as a blot upon the
+lovely landscape, speaking only too eloquently to all of sudden death and
+destruction amidst the surrounding scenes of life and beauty. The older
+portion of the Capuchin convent, by a miracle as it were, escaped the
+on-rush of the land-slide, but its famous "Calvary," the large group of
+the Crucifixion that appears prominently in so many pictures of Amalfi,
+was completely swept away, so that the boatmen from the sands below can no
+longer behold the immense vivid representation of the Last Agony which was
+wont to greet their upturned eyes. Already Time's kindly hand has begun to
+drape the scene of the catastrophe with a decent mourning veil of grey and
+green, for the hardy succulent plants that can withstand the sun's fierce
+rays and can thrive despite the boisterous salt sea-winds are already
+sprouting from every crack and cranny of the riven earth. Perhaps it is as
+well for us selfish and self-satisfied mortals to possess a _memento mori_
+close at hand in a spot so teeming with the joy of life; yet somehow the
+first sight of that mass of broken headland and the dark ominous fissure
+in the hill-side, flung across the sunlit scene, is apt to send a slight
+shiver through the frame of the beholder.
+
+There are three indisputable advantages to be gained by turning a
+suppressed religious house into a modern hotel, so a cunning old Italian
+inn-keeper once confided to us; that is, of course, provided one is not
+afraid of the proverbial curse that clings to the buying of any of the
+Church's sequestrated property. These three things are good air, good
+water, and lovely views; benefits that a layman is fully as competent to
+understand as any cloistered ecclesiastic. And certainly the worthy Vozzi
+are fully justified in offering these privileges to their guests at the
+Albergo Cappuccini. Signor Vozzi! How many travellers in the South recall
+with infinite pleasure their host's tall commanding figure, his snowy
+drooping whiskers, the sun-shade that was rarely out of his hand, his
+old-fashioned courteous manners, and his famous family of cats, whereof
+the coal-black Nerone was the prime favourite, a feline monster almost as
+tyrannical as his Imperial namesake of evil reputation. Signor Vozzi's
+striking personality, the sable fur of agate-eyed Nerone, the eternal
+sunshine, and the wide all-embracing views over sea and land, are somehow
+all jumbled together in our perplexed mind, as it recurs to the many days
+spent beneath the convent roof. Nay, not beneath the roof! For we were
+wont to pass the whole day, even the short December day, in basking on the
+warm sheltered terrace and peering over the busy beach and the dazzling
+waters below, whereon the tale of Amalfitan fisher-life could be read as
+it were from the pages of a book.
+
+Somehow the old monastic buildings appear marvellously well adapted to
+modern needs. The former inmates' cells, wherein the brown-robed brethren
+of the Order of St Francis until lately were wont to pass their placid
+uneventful lives, afford comfortable if somewhat limited accommodation;
+whilst the covered _loggia_ that runs the whole length of the cells has
+been turned into a series of delightful little sitting-rooms, their broad
+arc-shaped windows facing full south, a boon that only a winter resident
+in Italy can properly appreciate. _Dove non entra il sole, entra il
+medico_, is a hackneyed but well-proven adage; consequently here in the
+old Capuchin convent the services of the local medicine-man ought rarely
+to be required. Signor Vozzi's guests partake of their meals in the
+ancient refectory, a large bare echoing chamber with a vaulted ceiling,
+which still contains the old stone pulpit from which in more pious days a
+grave brother was wont to read aloud choice passages from the works of the
+early Fathers of the Church or of St Bonaventura, the Seraphic Doctor of
+the Franciscans, during the hours allotted to the frugal repasts of the
+friars. But the public rooms and the cool white-washed corridors do not
+present such attractions as the glorious garden with its famous _pergola_
+and its views of the Bay. Here even in Christmas week we found quantities
+of plants in full bloom: the delicate yellow blossoms of the Soffrana
+rose; trailing ivy-leaved geraniums with gay heads of carmine flowers; the
+honey-scented budleia with its little globes of dark yellow flowerets:
+clumps of gorgeous scarlet salvia; and straggling masses of the pretty
+cosmia, red, pink and white. Humming-bird hawk-moths darted hither and
+thither in the sunshine, restless little creatures whose wings are never
+for a moment still, as they poise gracefully over each separate blossom in
+turn. The _pergola_ itself, which every artist at Amalfi paints as a
+matter of course, generally with a Capuchin friar--at least a friar _pro
+hac vice_--or a pretty dark-eyed damsel in the native costume, sitting in
+the foreground, was certainly bare of foliage, we admit, for even in the
+soft warm air of the Bay of Salerno the grape-vine wisely refuses to burst
+into leaf at Yuletide, no matter how enticing the warmth. But the thick
+white pillars and their wooden cross-beams, around which are entwined the
+leafless coiling limbs of the sleeping vine, throw dark blue patterns of
+chequered shadow upon the sunlit ground. Above the terraced garden rises
+the orangery, well watered by many artificial rillets, and from the midst
+of the orange and lemon trees there emerges a path leading to the
+entrancing _bosco_, or grove, that fills the deep hollow space formed by
+the sheltering cliffs behind. It was mid-winter, as we have said, yet pink
+cyclamens and strong-scented double narcissi were blooming freely, whilst
+from the dark boughs of the ilex trees overhead there fell upon the ear
+the pleasant twittering of innumerable birds, for happily the cruel snare
+and the gun are strictly forbidden in this sacred spot, so that his
+"little sisters, the birds," that the gentle Saint of Assisi loved so
+tenderly, can still sing their songs of innocence and build their nests in
+peace amidst the trees that no longer remain the property of the great
+humanitarian Order. At nightfall this garden is almost equally beautiful
+beneath a star-lit sky and with the many lamps of the town below throwing
+long bars of yellow light upon the placid waters of the Bay. As we pace
+the long terrace, wrapped in the glory of a million stars and revelling in
+the exalted yet fairy-like loveliness of the scene around us, we perceive
+the mellow night air to be redolent of a strange but fascinating perfume.
+It is the _olea fragrans_, the humble inconspicuous oriental shrub that
+from its clusters of tiny white flowers is thus giving out its secret soul
+at the falling of the night dews, and permeating the whole garden with its
+marvellous floral incense. But if the star-lit, flower-scented nights of
+Amalfi are to be accounted as exquisite memories, how much more glorious
+and exhilarating is the rising of the sun, as he appears in full majesty
+of crimson and gold above the classic hills that overlook Paestum to the
+east! Leaning at early dawn from the windows of the Cappuccini, we have
+watched the sky flush at the first caress of "rosy-fingered Eos" and seen
+the fragment of the waning moon turn to silver at the approach of the
+burning God of Day, still tarrying behind the lofty barrier of the capes
+and mountains of the Lucanian shore.
+
+  "Slowly beyond the headlands comes the day,
+  Though moon and planet on a sky of gold,
+  Chequered with orange and vermilion-stoled,
+  Have floated long before the sun's first ray
+  Has shot across the waters to display
+  Amalfi in her dotage; as of old
+  His beams lit up her splendours manifold,
+  Her quays and palaces that fringed the bay.
+  His smile makes every barren hill-side blush
+  In rose and purple for the glories fled,
+  As early watchers note th' encroaching flush
+  From proud Ravello to Atrani spread,
+  And curse the cruel arm that once did crush
+  This sea-sprung Niobe, and leave her dead."
+
+  [Illustration: AMALFI]
+
+Dead, alas! For the old liberties of the great Republic of Amalfi have
+been extinct for more than half a thousand years, and it is in consequence
+difficult for us to realise that the quaint noisy squalid picturesque
+little city by the sea-shore, huddled into the narrow gorge of the
+Canneto, is that self-same Amalfi whose navies rode triumphant over the
+Mediterranean before the days of the Early Crusades. Yet Amalfi, which may
+be reckoned amongst the first-born of that fair family of medieval cities
+that their prolific parent the land of Italy brought forth in an age of
+darkness, was also the foremost to droop and die, her glories scattered
+and passed before Florence had ceased to be an obscure country town. In
+this case History presents to us a most forcible, not to say an unique
+example of the origin, rise and decline of a power, all occurring within a
+short space of time. Amalfi springs, as it were, out of the void as a city
+of importance, for no Roman colony occupied its site in antique times. Its
+very nomenclature is a puzzle to scholars, and the usual statement that it
+owed its name to Byzantine settlers coming hither from the ancient town of
+Melfi in the Basilicata does not sound very convincing, though for want of
+a better theory it must suffice. Why, when, and by whom the city was in
+reality founded remains an enigma, yet we learn from a passage in one of
+the letters of St Gregory the Great that the place was of sufficient size
+to be governed by a bishop in the sixth century. By the tenth we find the
+Republic of Amalfi already risen to a position of commanding importance,
+and holding its own against the rival states between which its territories
+were wedged; the dukedom of Naples to the west and the principality of
+Salerno to eastward. Dexterously playing on the greed and prejudices of
+the various tyrants who ruled Naples and Salerno, and occasionally allying
+itself with them in order to repel the fierce attacks of their common
+enemy, the Saracenic hordes who were then harrying the Lucanian coast,
+Amalfi continued to uphold its political freedom and dignity in the face
+of immense difficulties. And in gratitude for the vigour with which the
+Amalfitani had waged war against the infidel invaders, Pope Leo IV. in
+course of time conferred upon the Duke or Doge, the chief magistrate of
+the Republic, the title of "Defender of the Faith." Nominally under the
+suzerainty of the Greek Emperor at Constantinople, Amalfi was practically
+independent; its system of government was conducted on lines somewhat akin
+to those of aristocratic Venice; its population is said to have exceeded
+fifty thousand in the capital city alone; its boundaries extended from the
+Promontory of Minerva on the west to the town of Cetara upon the confines
+of Salerno; whilst many daughter-towns of wealth and importance, such as
+Scala and Ravello, sprang into being within the narrow limits of the
+sea-girt republic. Owning a small and by no means fertile extent of land,
+the inhabitants of Amalfi from its earliest days were forced to become
+merchants and sailors; to use a modern phrase, the Amalfitani came to
+possess a complete monopoly of trade with Eastern lands, both Christian
+and Mahommedan. It was the ships of the Republic that alone brought to the
+shores of Italy the rich stuffs, the gold and silver embroideries, the
+dried fruits and the strange birds and beasts of Asia Minor and Arabia,
+and in exchange for their oriental merchandise obtained an abundance of
+corn, wine, oil, meat and other commodities of life that their beautiful
+but somewhat sterile dominions were unable to supply to an ever increasing
+population. But it was not only the material products of the East that the
+sailors of Amalfi conveyed to Europe in their home-bound argosies; for
+they brought back with them the rudiments of arts and sciences that
+distracted Italy had well-nigh forgotten during the period of the
+barbarian invasions. Through the merchant princes of Amalfi, the secrets
+of astronomy, of mathematics and of scientific navigation were
+re-introduced into the land that had almost lost its old Roman
+civilization. A priceless manuscript of that great code of laws, the
+Pandects, which a Byzantine Emperor, the famous Justinian, had caused to
+be compiled with such skill and labour, putting into concise and accurate
+form the collected wisdom of generations of Roman jurists, was included
+amongst the treasures of the East that were borne back to Italy in the
+Republic's vessels. And in addition to restoring the old Roman
+jurisprudence to its original home, the city of Amalfi had the honour of
+promulgating the celebrated _Tabula Amalphitana_, the new maritime laws
+that were henceforth destined to regulate the whole commercial system of
+the western world. No marvel then that the poet William of Apulia should
+praise in unmeasured terms the glories of the new-sprung city, whose trade
+extended to the shores of India and whose merchants possessed independent
+settlements in every great city of the Levant.
+
+  "Nulla magis civitas argento, vestibus, auro
+  Partibus innumeris; hac plurimus urbe moratur
+  Nauta marit coelique vias aperiri peritus.
+  Huc et Alexandri diversa feruntur ab urbe
+  Regia et Antiochi. Zeus haec freta plurima transit
+  His Arabes, Indi, Siculi nascuntur et Afri.
+  Haec genus est totum prope nobilitata per orbem,
+  Et mercanda ferens, et amans mercata referre."
+
+  ("No city richer in its store of gold,
+  Of precious stones and silks doth Europe hold;
+  Her skilful mariners o'er treacherous seas
+  With aid of compass sail where'er they please.
+  From Egypt and from Antioch they land,
+  Their precious cargoes on th' Italian strand.
+  Scathless Amalfi's navies penetrate
+  The distant ports of every Paynim state.
+  Match me throughout the circuit of this earth
+  Another race so full of zeal and worth.")
+
+A small state on a barren shore, yet the holder of the balance between
+East and West by means of its wide-spread commerce, such was Amalfi during
+the tenth and eleventh centuries. In some respects this Republic of the
+Middle Ages appears as the prototype of the Venice of the Renaissance, for
+there is not a little in common between the city that was built upon the
+marshy islets of the Adriatic lagoons, and the city that was erected at
+the base of the treacherous cliffs of the Tyrrhene Sea. Solely by means of
+commerce both foundations rose from nothingness to splendour and power:
+both held the gorgeous East in fee; and both fell lamentably from their
+high estate. The chief point of difference in this comparison of their
+careers is obvious; Amalfi collapsed suddenly and utterly, whilst the
+Queen of the Adriatic has sunk gradually to decay until she has become the
+interesting monument of a vanished magnificence which we admire to-day.
+
+It was the rising naval power of Pisa that finally crushed the greatness
+of Amalfi, although the Republic had already entered into its days of
+decline when Robert Guiscard at the time of the First Crusade had
+temporarily annexed its dominions to his new principality. Some thirty
+years later King Roger of Naples forcibly seized the whole of the Costiera
+d'Amalfi, allowing the citizens to retain their own form of government.
+Four years after this, the Pisan fleet, coming to aid the people of Naples
+against King Roger, utterly destroyed the once vaunted navy of Amalfi, and
+sacked both the city itself and the two hill-set towns of Scala and
+Ravello. Its political liberty had already been crushed by the Normans,
+and now its ships and its wealth were dissipated by the Pisans; it was a
+double measure of ignominy and disaster from which Amalfi never recovered.
+Amidst its humiliations and sorrows, the stricken city had also to mourn
+the loss of its greatest treasure, its secular _palladium_, that most
+precious copy of the Pandects of Justinian, which the Pisan marauders
+seized and carried back with them to their city on the Arno. Here in Pisa
+the famous volume remained in safe keeping for some three hundred years,
+and then, as Time's round brought its inevitable vengeance on the
+plunderers of Amalfi, it was removed by the victorious Florentines to
+their own city. So intense a veneration for the book itself now manifested
+itself amongst the scholars and students of Florence, that at one period
+offerings of incense were often made to the inscribed wisdom of past ages
+as to a most holy relic of some Saint, and the clerk or jurist about to
+peruse its faded characters was wont, first of all, to breathe a prayer of
+genuine gratitude on his knees for the preservation of this ancient book.
+Amalfi, Pisa, Florence, each in its turn has owned the guardianship of
+this most famous literary jewel, which is to-day jealously guarded as the
+chief treasure of the world-renowned Laurentian Library.
+
+It is true that the prosperity of Amalfi did not disappear immediately
+after the inroad of the Pisans, for Boccaccio, writing in the fourteenth
+century, still speaks of the ancient territory of the destroyed Republic
+as "a rocky ridge beside a smiling sea, which its inhabitants call the
+Costa d'Amalfi; full of little cities, of gardens, of fountains, and of
+rich and enterprising merchants." It was in fact reserved for relentless
+Nature herself to complete the work of destruction that Norman armies and
+Pisan fleets had more than half accomplished. We have already spoken of
+the terrible land-slips to which this beautiful shore is eminently
+subject, even at the present day, as the mass of wreckage outside the old
+Capuchin convent only too clearly testifies. In the year 1343, during the
+progress of a storm of exceptional fury, of which the poet Petrarch has
+left us a vivid account in one of his letters, the greater part of the
+devoted city was swept away by a tidal wave. The whole line of quays
+stretching from the headland by the Cappuccini to the point of Atrani on
+the east, together with churches, palaces, and warehouses, was now
+swallowed up by the surging waters and engulfed for ever in the depths of
+the sea; and thus the very element that had brought wealth, power, and
+prosperity to Amalfi in the past now proved the direct cause of her final
+calamity. With this fearful cataclysm of Nature following upon the heels
+of its political extinction, we can hardly wonder at the rapid decline of
+this "Athens of the Middle Ages," whose population has now sunk to about
+one seventh part of the 50,000 citizens it once boasted in the far distant
+days of her maritime supremacy.
+
+Reflecting upon the famous past of this ancient city, let us descend the
+steep pathway from the terrace of the Cappuccini to visit the crowded
+beach below. Here we find ourselves in the midst of a cheerful animated
+throng, engaged in mending nets, in painting boats, and in other
+occupations connected with a sea-faring life. The tall fantastic houses
+with balconied windows that line the curve of the sea-shore, the
+glistening sands and the brown-legged, gay-capped fishermen, combine to
+present a charming picture of southern Italian life, so that we could
+gladly linger in observing the ever-changing scenes of life and industry.
+But we cannot tarry long, for the ubiquitous beggars who have begun to
+pester us ever since we passed the hotel gates have meantime dogged our
+descending footsteps, and their forces have been recruited on the way
+hither by many willing assistants. No doubt the vast majority of the
+Amalfitani are hard working and self-respecting, for the little town
+possesses maccaroni factories and old-established paper mills of no small
+importance, yet it is obvious that a considerable portion of the total
+population and at least one-half of all the children spend their whole
+time in demanding alms of strangers. Before, behind, and from a distance
+arises the ceaseless cry of "_Qual co' signor'! Fame! Fame!_" in hateful
+tones of make-belief misery, and these whining appeals are aided by all
+the expressive pantomimic gestures of the South. You are placed on the
+horns of a dilemma: give, and the report that a generous and fabulously
+wealthy Signore has arrived in Amalfi will run like wild-fire through the
+whole place, and your life in consequence will become an absolute burden
+for the remainder of your sojourn in this spot. Refuse, and the wretches
+who have hitherto been wheedling and cringing at your heels, will at once
+grow insolent and threatening, especially in the case of unprotected
+ladies. It is in fact a choice of two evils, and the only remedy that we
+ourselves can suggest is for the persecuted traveller to select a good
+stout larrikin and pay him freely to keep at arm's length his detestable
+brothers and sisters in professional beggary. But the uninitiated usually
+endure these odious importunities for a certain length of time, and then,
+exasperated by the unchecked mendicancy of the place, at last fly
+precipitately from this beautiful shore, to seek comparative peace and
+freedom elsewhere. For it is useless to argue; it is foolish, even
+dangerous to grow angry. "Why should we give to you?" we asked one day in
+desperation of a particularly persistent woman. "Because," was the
+unabashed and impudent but unanswerable reply, "you have much, and I have
+nothing!" Driven by these human pests from the sunlit strand, we make our
+way through the busy piazza, where peasant women with piles of fruit and
+vegetables make a glowing mass of colour around the central fountain below
+St Andrew's statue, and proceed towards the Valley of the Mills. A
+different phase of Amalfitan life now greets us, for here are to be found
+the hard-working bees of this human hive, and it must be confessed their
+ways make an agreeable change from the habits of the pestering drones that
+infest the beach and the neighbourhood of the hotels. The whole of the
+steep rocky gorge of that tiny torrent the Canneto is full of mills, each
+emitting a whirring sound which mingles with the continual plash of the
+water as it descends in miniature cascades the full length of the ravine,
+providing in its headlong course towards the sea the motive power required
+to turn all this quantity of machinery. Bridges span the Canneto at
+several points, whilst either bank is occupied by tiny factories of paper
+or soap, and by winding stone stair-ways that lead upward to terraces
+contrived to catch the sunshine for the purpose of drying the goods. The
+whole valley, with its strong contrasting effects of sun and shade and its
+varied atmosphere of intense heat and of chilly dampness, is full of
+seething picturesque humanity. The combined sounds of creaking wheels, of
+falling water and of human chattering are almost deafening within this
+narrow echo-filled gorge, above which in the far distance we catch a
+glimpse of rocky heights with the town of Scala perched eyrie-like against
+the deep blue of the sky overhead. Pretty laughing girls, bare-footed and
+with marvellously white teeth, emerge from the open door-ways to smile
+pleasantly at us, for the workers of the Valle de' Molini are thoroughly
+accustomed to the presence of strangers in their midst. Half-naked men,
+who have stepped for a moment out of the hot rooms of the maccaroni
+factories in order to breathe the fresh air, regard us with calm disdain
+and without any seeming interest. Our presence is tolerated, even if our
+reception excites no feelings of surprise or cordiality, so that we are
+allowed to pursue our walk up the ever-narrowing valley in peace and
+comfort and to admire at our leisure the wonderfully beautiful effects of
+colouring produced by the cascades of purple-stained water, the graceful
+forms and gay dresses of the girls, and the peeps of fruit-laden orange
+trees above fern-clad walls. And how dark the people are! For though black
+eyes and hair are commonly associated with the Italian race, yet in the
+North we find abundant evidence of the admixture of Teutonic blood, whilst
+in the South the fair-haired Norman settlers have left indelible marks of
+their conquest of Naples and Sicily in many blue-eyed and white-skinned
+descendants; but here in Amalfi a blonde complexion seems to be absolutely
+unknown. "_Com' e bianco! Com' e bianco!_" called out one of a party of
+girls with swarthy skin and ebon hair and tresses, who languidly came out
+to stare at us, as we wended our way slowly up the Valley of the Mills.
+
+  [Illustration: IN THE VALLEY OF THE MILLS, AMALFI]
+
+But the chief pride of Amalfi, and indeed its sole surviving fragment of
+departed magnificence, is the Cathedral, dedicated to St Andrew the
+Apostle, who is patron of the city. A broad flight of steps, flanked on
+either side by the Archbishop's Palace and the residence of the Canons,
+leads to a platform covered by a most beautiful Gothic _loggia_ set with
+richly traceried windows and upheld by antique marble columns. At its
+northernmost angle we see springing into the blue aether the tall graceful
+red-and-white striped campanile, surmounted by its barbaric-looking
+green-tiled cupola and pinnacles. Facing the top of the steps are the two
+magnificent doors, specially designed in distant Byzantium to embellish
+this church more than eight hundred years ago, and cast by the famous
+artist in bronze, Staurachios. Two Latin inscriptions, incised in letters
+of silver upon the baser metal, relate to the world that one Pantaleone,
+son of Maurice, caused this work to be undertaken in honour of the holy
+Apostle Andrew, in order that he might obtain pardon for the sins he had
+committed whilst upon earth. These glorious gates were the gifts to their
+native city of members of the family of Pantaleone of Amalfi, merchant
+princes who had amassed an immense fortune by trade in the Levant. They
+are splendid specimens of _niello_ work, which consisted in ornamenting a
+surface of bronze by engraving upon it lines that were subsequently filled
+in with coloured enamel or with some precious metal. These portals of
+Amalfi, perhaps the earliest example in Southern Italy of this rare form
+of art, are divided into panels adorned with Scriptural subjects simply
+and quaintly treated, wherein the stiff attitudes of the figures and the
+many long straight lines introduced testify plainly enough to their
+Byzantine origin and workmanship. As we enter the cool dark
+incense-scented building, we note that though cruelly maltreated by the
+baroque enthusiasts of the eighteenth century, the general effect of the
+interior is still impressive with its rows of ancient pillars and its
+richly decorated roof. On all sides marble fragments with exquisite
+reliefs meet the eye, spoils evidently filched from the abandoned city of
+Paestum across the Salernian Bay and presented to the church by the Norman
+conquerors of Amalfi. After inspecting the classical bas-reliefs, we
+descend into the ancient crypt, which well-meaning artists have completely
+encased with a covering of precious marbles and garish frescoes of the
+Neapolitan school. It is a place of more than local sanctity, this
+modernized crypt, for the possession of the relics of the Apostle which
+Cardinal Capuano proudly brought hither after the sack of Constantinople
+in the early years of the thirteenth century, was considered by many to
+constitute a sufficient recompense to Amalfi for her lost independence.
+Popes and sovereigns were in the habit of approaching the shrine, and the
+number of these illustrious visitors includes the names of St Francis of
+Assisi, Pope Urban IV., the holy St Bridget of Sweden, and the notorious
+Queen Joanna II. of Naples. Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, afterwards Pope
+Pius II., however, seems to have thought Amalfi, ever dwindling in size
+and importance, too mean a place to own so great a treasure, and he
+accordingly transported the head of the Saint to Rome, where it is now
+accounted amongst the four chief relics of St Peter's. Perhaps it was to
+counterbalance the loss of so important a member of the Saint's anatomy,
+that in the succeeding century there arose a report which spoke of the
+rescue of certain relics of the Apostle Andrew during the headlong course
+of the Reformation in Scotland. The most precious objects preserved in the
+Cathedral of St Andrew's, says this legend, were secretly saved from the
+expected fury of Knox's partisans and brought to Amalfi, where they were
+reverently added to the store of remains that had survived the plundering
+of Pius II. Whether or no there be any truth in this somewhat fantastic
+theory, it is enough to state that St Andrew continues to be patron Saint
+of this maritime city, for which office the character of the Galilean
+fisherman who was called to be a fisher of men seems specially
+appropriate. Nevertheless, despite the valuable additions made in
+Reformation days, the sanctity of the shrine is not held so high as it
+used to be. No longer do the venerated bones ooze with the sweet-scented
+moisture that in medieval days was piously collected to be used for
+purposes so varied as the curing of warts, or the scattering of Paynim
+fleets! Yet so late as the days of Tasso, the great Apostle himself was
+evidently connected in the popular mind with the performance of so bizarre
+a miracle:--
+
+  "Vide in sembianza placida e tranquilla
+  Il Divo, che di manna Amalfi instilla."
+
+But although the present times are too sinful to allow of the distillation
+of the fragrant dew of Amalfi, we observe the kneeling forms of not a few
+intent worshippers within the dimly-lighted crypt, in the midst of which
+the Spaniard Naccarino's bronze figure of the Apostle uprises with
+dignified mien and life-like attitude. Sant' Andrea is still "Il Divo,"
+the tutelary god of the Amalfitani; he remains in the estimation of these
+simple ignorant folk the special protector of the community. Times and
+ideas change, but not the old deep-rooted feeling of a personal tie
+between the Saint and his favoured people.
+
+We were lucky in happening upon the great popular festival of Sant' Andrea
+during our visit to Amalfi, and consequently were enabled not only to
+witness a picturesque scene of considerable splendour, but also to observe
+how strong a devotion the Amalfitani still manifest towards their own
+especial Saint. With the first flush of early dawn, discharges of mortars
+from the beach and the neighbouring hills began to arouse the echoes and
+to remind the still slumbering population that once more the great
+anniversary had arrived. The world was quickly astir to do honour to the
+great St Andrew, and from a very early hour an interminable stream of
+peasants and villagers, young and old, male and female, began to enter the
+town from all quarters, and to congregate in the piazza where stands the
+large fountain crowned by the Saint's own effigy. Here with exemplary
+patience the throng waited until the hour of the ceremony in the Cathedral
+drew nigh. Within the huge building priests and lay-helpers were actively
+employed in preparing for the event, and by their exertions the whole
+interior had been transformed into what may be best described as a
+magnificent ball-room, for every blank wall had been covered with
+draperies of rich crimson damask and the very pillars had been swathed
+from base to capital in the same gorgeous material. Innumerable old
+cut-glass chandeliers, that had reposed since the last _festa di Sant'
+Andrea_ in huge round boxes in some secluded vault, had been slung by
+means of cords from the ceiling and the arches of the nave, whilst a large
+number of mirrors set in carved gilt frames had been affixed to various
+points of the walls and columns. The fine marble pavement lay thickly
+strewn with bay and myrtle leaves, emitting a pleasant wholesome scent
+when crushed under foot by the picturesque but somewhat malodorous crowd
+of fisher-folk and peasants. On entering the church, at the first sound of
+the bells booming over head, we found ourselves heavily pressed by the
+surging throng of worshippers, and it was only with difficulty we could
+obtain a sight of the ceremonies at the high altar, prominent upon which
+stood the silver bust of the Apostle containing the precious relics. It
+was a typical Italian _festa_. The chanting was harsh and discordant; the
+antiquated inharmonious organ emitted unexpected squeals, as if in
+positive pain; there was, it is needless to add, a complete absence of
+that "churchy" demeanour which passes for reverence in the North; yet
+withal, despite the shrill discordant music, the tawdry embellishments of
+the grand old building and the absence of propriety of the crowd, there
+was perceptible some mysterious underlying force that compelled us to note
+the extraordinary hold the Church has upon the people of Southern Italy.
+For all this throng of persons had assembled that day with one definite
+purpose: to see their universal friend and patron, their Saint and their
+worker of domestic miracles; they had come to pay their homage to a
+celestial acquaintance, with whom, thanks to the Church's teaching, they
+had all been intimate from their cradles. They had not thus assembled at
+an early hour, deserting their mills and their shops, their boats and
+their nets, renouncing their chances of gain, to hear a preacher's
+eloquence or to listen to fine music, but merely to pay their annual visit
+of respect to their Spiritual Master. Why should we aliens intrude upon so
+private a gathering? In any case, we have grown weary of standing in the
+close sickly atmosphere, wherein the fragrance of the crushed bay-leaves,
+the fumes of incense and the strange smell of garlic-eating humanity blend
+in an oppressive manner. We push our way through the eager and intent
+congregation, and gaining the door-way step with a sigh of relief into the
+sunshine that is flooding the _loggia_. But it is too hot to remain here,
+and we descend the great stair-case in order to take up a post of vantage
+in the shade on the opposite side of the piazza; having gained our desired
+position we expect in patience the arrival of the procession. Nor have we
+very long to wait. The officials of the town suddenly dart forward to
+clear the steps of their crowd of ragged children, and almost
+simultaneously the great bronze doors of Pantaleone are flung open to the
+sweet air and the sunshine. It was a wonderful and deeply interesting
+experience to watch the glittering train slowly emerge from the darkness
+of the church into the glare of day, and then descend that stately flight
+of marble stairs to the sound of joy-bells and to the accompaniment of
+explosions of fireworks. First came the leading members of the various
+Confraternities of the little city, all bearing tapers whose tongues of
+flame shone feebly in the fierce contemptuous sunlight, and all wearing
+snow-white smocks and coloured scarves. Red, green, blue, white, purple,
+yellow, gleamed the huge banners of these different societies, each borne
+by a tall _vessillifero_, or standard bearer, assisted by quaint solemn
+little figures who acted as pages. Then followed the body of the clergy in
+copes of white and gold, with eyes downcast as they chaunted in loud nasal
+tones from books in their hands; next came the Canons of the Cathedral in
+fine old festal vestments reserved for such occasions and with mitres on
+their heads, for Amalfi clings to the ancient ecclesiastical privileges
+that were granted in distant days when Florence and Venice were little
+more than villages. Last of all walked the Archbishop, an aged tottering
+figure, weighed down by his cope of cloth of gold and seemingly crushed
+beneath his immense jewelled mitre. Two lackeys, almost as infirm as their
+venerable master, and clad in threadbare liveries edged with armorial
+braid, were in close attendance, whilst behind the Archbishop, beneath a
+gorgeous canopy of state upheld by six white-robed assistants, was borne
+the great silver bust of St Andrew. The appearance of the Image of "Il
+Divo," upon which the sunbeams were playing in dazzling coruscations of
+light, was greeted with a murmur of applause and satisfaction from the
+expectant crowd in the open. Hats were doffed; knees were bent; prayers
+were muttered, as with slow and cautious steps the bearers of the Image
+and its canopy began to descend. Having gained the lower ground in safety,
+a momentary halt was made, during which we were able to note the mass of
+votive offerings--jewels, chains, rings, watches, seals--suspended round the
+Saint's neck, amongst them being many silver fishes, doubtless the gifts
+of grateful mariners. And at this point we were spectators of a pretty
+incident. A little girl with black ringlets and eager eyes was dexterously
+lifted on to her father's shoulder, in order that she might present "Il
+Divo" with a golden chain, which the tiny fingers deftly clasped round the
+bejewelled neck of the silver bust. The crowd saw and applauded; it was a
+moment of triumph for the dark-eyed child, for the Church, and for the
+approving throng. With the new addition of the child's necklet to the
+treasury of the Saint, the procession pursued its way through the square
+towards the Valley of the Mills, with banners waving, with priests
+chaunting in harsh monotonous tones, and with clouds of incense rising
+into the sun-kissed air. It was truly a beautiful and curious sight, this
+festival of the Church amidst people so devout and surroundings so
+appropriate.
+
+  [Illustration: AMALFI: PIAZZA AND DUOMO]
+
+On his safe return to his now brilliantly lighted Cathedral, the Saint was
+welcomed with indescribable enthusiasm. The crazy old organ was made to
+produce the loudest and liveliest of music; the uniformed municipal band
+awoke the echoes of the venerable but bedizened fabric with its
+complimentary braying; and urchins were even permitted to scatter
+fire-crackers upon the floor in honour of the event. It was a real
+ecclesiastical Saturnalia of a most innocent and joyous description. All
+Amalfi spent the remaining hours of day-light in feasting, dancing and
+singing, and when at last darkness fell upon the merry scene, rockets and
+Roman candles were seen to spring into the night air from many points in
+the landscape, illumining the sea with quickly dying trails of coloured
+light. Watching the bonfires and the fireworks, and listening to the
+sounds of revelry and song arising from the town below, we pondered over
+our experiences of the day as we paced our airy terrace of the Cappuccini.
+Surely the South has remained immutable for centuries in its deeply rooted
+love of religious festivals. The forefathers of these devotees of Andrew
+the Fisherman were equally enthusiastic worshippers of Poseidon or of
+Apollo. The Church has not in reality altered the outer attributes; it has
+but added a special moral significance to the old pagan gatherings. The
+ancient gods of Greece and Rome are dethroned, and their very names
+forgotten by the populace; but their cult survives, for it has been
+adapted to the glorification of Christian Saints. True it is that the
+milk-white sacrificial oxen and the gay garlands of antiquity have been
+omitted; nevertheless, there remain the music, the incense and the
+unrestrained jollity of the people. Much that is beautiful and suggestive
+has perished, yet there survives enough of the old classical ritual for us
+to see that the true spirit of antiquity has never wholly died out amongst
+these sunburnt children of Magna Graecia.
+
+  "See the long stair with colour all ablaze,
+  With banners swaying in pellucid air,
+  As mitred priests with cautious footsteps bear
+  The silver Image, flashing back the rays
+  Of jealous Phoebus--Ah! the altered days
+  When these Lucanians with wind-lifted hair,
+  Blossom-bedecked, with limbs and bosoms bare,
+  Sang to Apollo psalms of love and praise!
+  With bells and salvoes all the hills resound,
+  And incense mingles with the atmosphere,
+  As still this Southern race, ill-clothed, uncrowned,
+  Retains the memory of the Pagan year,
+  When changed, yet all unchanged, Time's round
+  Makes the Jew Fisherman a god appear."
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VII
+
+
+                          RAVELLO AND THE RUFOLI
+
+
+No visit to Amalfi can be considered complete without ascending to the
+decayed town of Ravello, that crowns the rocky heights to the north-east
+of the parent city by the sea-shore. The road thither leads along the
+beach, passing between the picturesque old convent that is now the Hotel
+Luna, beloved of artists, and the solitary watch tower on the precipice
+which stands sentinel above the waters on our right hand. At this point we
+turn the corner, and find ourselves in Atrani, lying in the deep gorge of
+the Dragone and joining its buildings to those of Amalfi on the road above
+the beach. Prominent upon the steep ridge that separates the two cities
+stands the ruined keep of Pontone, the last relic of the town of Scaletta
+that was a flourishing place in days of the Republic. A tall belfry of
+peculiar and striking architecture which dominates Atrani is usually
+attributed to the art of the Saracens, whom King Manfred called in to
+garrison this place during his wars with Pope Innocent IV. Atrani, which
+is but a suburb of Amalfi, suffered equally with the Capital during the
+great upheaval of Nature that desolated this coast in the fourteenth
+century, so that little of interest remains except the quaint church of
+San Salvatore a Bireta, wherein the Doges of Amalfi were once elected and
+crowned. This ancient building lies hidden in a sandy cove beneath the
+roadway, and those who care to run the gauntlet of beggars and descend to
+the beach below, can examine its beautiful bronze doors, which the
+generous citizen Pantaleone gave _pro mercede animae suae et merito S.
+Sebastiani Martyris_. But there is very little else to inspect, for the
+interior has been hopelessly modernized.
+
+Soon after passing Atrani we turn sharply up hill to the left, and begin
+our ascent towards Ravello. The dusty white road winds upwards through a
+region of carefully cultivated terraces filled with olives and vines,
+intermingled here and there with orange, lemon, fig, and pomegranate
+trees. As we gain higher ground, our horizon tends ever to widen, and we
+behold the expanse of sea and sky melting in the far distance into "some
+shade of blue unnameable," whilst the mountain-fringed ring of the Bay of
+Salerno becomes vividly mapped out to our eyes from the Cape of Minerva to
+the Punta di Licosia. On our left we peer down into the depths of the dark
+ravine of the Dragone, whose black shadows are popularly supposed to give
+its name of Atrani to the cheerful little town we have left behind. Let us
+thank Heaven that we are at last out of reach of the beggars, and that the
+only human beings to be encountered upon the road are a few peasants with
+loads of fruit or vegetables, and an occasional charcoal-burner bearing
+his grimy burden to the town below. The _carbonaio_ with his blackened
+face and queer outlandish garments is a familiar figure throughout all
+parts of Southern Italy. He belongs to a race apart, that dwells in the
+belt of forest land clothing the higher hills, and he only descends to the
+cities of the shore and the plain in order to sell his goods. He is
+despised by the sharper-witted townsman, who beats down his prices for the
+combustibles he has borne with such fatigue from his distant mountain
+home. Sometimes the old people are despatched to do the money bargaining,
+the selling and buying. Look at the old couple at this moment passing us;
+an aged man and woman that Theocritus might have known in earlier days
+when the world was less civilized and less greedy of gain. With bare
+travel-stained feet, with feeble frames supported by long staves and with
+the heavy sacks of charcoal on their bent backs, the modern Baucis and
+Philemon crawl along the white road beneath a broiling sun, patient and
+uncomplaining, and apparently with no feelings of envy as they cast one
+careless glance at our carriage. Weary and foot-sore, they will only
+obtain a few _quattrini_ in the town for all their toil and trouble, and
+then they must retrace every step up the long hill-side, with their little
+stock of provisions to help eke out a miserable existence. Yet can any
+life in such a climate and amid such surroundings be truly accounted
+miserable, we ask, no matter how humble the dwelling or frugal the fare?
+
+As our carriage creeps slowly upward, we find the land less cultivated,
+and now and again we pass tracts of woodland whence little purling streams
+fall over rocky ledges on to the roadway. We catch sight of small clumps
+of cyclamen, and in the shady hollows we detect tufts of the maiden-hair
+fern--_Capilli di Venere_, "Venus' tresses," as the Italians sometimes call
+this graceful little plant. At a curve of the road we are confronted by a
+smiling old peasant with gold rings in his ears, who in the expectation of
+_forestieri_ coming this way has been patiently sitting for hours on a
+boulder. Doffing his battered hat and putting a sunburnt hand to his
+mouth, the old fellow in a deep musical bass wakens all the sleeping
+echoes that lie in the many folds of the valley, so that we hear the words
+of welcome repeated again and again, growing fainter and fainter as the
+sound of the voice travels from cliff to cliff. The performer is delighted
+with a few _soldi_, and the jaded scarecrow of a horse seems pleased with
+his momentary halt. _Iterum altiora petimus_; by degrees we reach the airy
+platform upon which Ravello stands, and finally alight at the comfortable
+old inn so long associated with the excellent family of Palumbo.
+
+Ravello undoubtedly owes its early foundation to certain patrician
+families of Amalfi, which after securing their fortunes decided to leave
+the hot close city beside the shore, and to seek new homes in the bracing
+air of the hill-top above. Placing itself under the protection of the
+powerful Robert Guiscard, Ravello became faithfully attached to the Norman
+interest, and in 1086, at the suggestion of the great Count Roger, who
+cherished a deep regard for the Rufolo family, the town was created a
+bishopric by Pope Victor III. As a subject city of the Norman princes,
+Ravello was during this period at the zenith of its fame and importance.
+Its actual population is unknown at this distant day, but we learn that
+under Count Roger the large area of the city was entirely girdled by
+strong walls set with towers; that it contained thirteen churches, four
+monasteries, many public buildings, and a large number of private palaces.
+Its cathedral was founded in honour of Saint Pantaleone by Niccolo Rufolo,
+Duke of Sora and Grand Admiral of Sicily, the head of the powerful family
+whose name is still gratefully remembered in this half-deserted town. In
+1156 Ravello was honoured by a state visit from Pope Adrian IV.--the
+English monk, Nicholas Breakspear, the only Briton who ever succeeded in
+gaining the papal tiara and who gave the lordship of Ireland to Henry
+Plantagenet--and during his stay the Pontiff was entertained as the guest
+of the all-powerful Rufoli. Born of humble parents in the village of
+Bensington, near Oxford, Nicholas Breakspear became a monk at St Alban's,
+and having once entered the religious life, he rose by sheer force of
+intellect and an iron strength of will to the attainment of the highest
+honour the Church could bestow. It was in the hey-day of his power that
+the English pope entered Ravello and sang Mass in the Cathedral in the
+presence of all the noble citizens of the place, for in the previous year
+he had crushed for ever the dangerous heresy of Arnold of Brescia, by
+boldly sentencing that ardent reformer to be burnt at the stake in Rome
+and his ashes cast into the Tiber. The Pontiff during his visit sojourned
+in the Palazzo Rufolo, the beautiful Saracenic building that is still
+standing intact after so many centuries, and by a curious coincidence is
+now the property of the well-known English family of Reid. Nor was Pope
+Adrian the only sovereign who honoured Ravello by his presence, for
+Charles of Anjou, brother of St Louis of France and the murderer of poor
+Conradin, and King Robert the Wise also received the hospitality of the
+Rufolo family within these walls. The whole existing town in fact is
+eloquent of the long extinct but by no means forgotten Rufoli, who may
+fairly be reckoned among the more enlightened of the petty tyrants of
+medieval Italy. That their name was still familiar in Italian society in
+the fourteenth century is evident from the circumstances that Boccaccio
+puts a story, no doubt founded on fact, into the mouth of the fair
+Lauretta, which deals with the adventures of one Landolfo Rufolo of
+Ravello, "who, not content with his great store, but anxious to make it
+double, was near losing all he had, and his life also." The novel proceeds
+to relate how this member of a wealthy and respected family turned
+corsair, after losing all his capital in a mercantile speculation in
+Cyprus; how he, in his turn, was robbed of his ill-gotten gains on the
+high seas by some thievish merchants of Genoa; and how Landolfo, after
+passing through a variety of more or less improbable adventures, was
+finally rescued from drowning off the coast of Corfu by a servant-maid
+who, whilst washing dishes by the sea-shore, chanced to espy the
+unconscious merchant drifting towards the beach with his arms clasped
+round a small wooden chest, which kept him afloat. "Moved by compassion,"
+says the relator of the tale, "she stepped a little way into the sea,
+which was now calm, and seizing the half-drowned wretch by the hair of his
+head, drew both him and the chest to land, where with much trouble she
+unfolded his arms from the chest, which she set upon the head of her
+daughter who was with her. She herself carried Landolfo like a little
+child to the town, put him on a stove, and chafed and washed him with warm
+water, by which means the vital heat began to return, and his strength
+partially revived. In due time she took him from the stove, comforted him
+with wine and good cordials, and kept him some days till he knew where he
+was; she then restored him his chest, and told him he might now provide
+for his departure."(6) Of course the little chest that Landolfo had
+clutched by chance in his agony of drowning eventually turned out to be
+filled with precious stones, which by a miracle--and miracles were common
+enough in the days of the _Decameron_--not only floated of itself but also
+supported the weight of Master Landolfo. In any case, the rescued
+merchant, with the greed and ingratitude which are often accounted for
+sharpness and wit, presented his kind hostess with the empty trunk, whilst
+he concealed the gems in a belt upon his own person. Equipped with these
+jewels, he made his way across the Adriatic to the Apulian coast, and
+thence reached Ravello with greater wealth than he had ever hoped to
+obtain with his original capital at the time he set sail for Cyprus.
+
+  [Illustration: RAVELLO: IL DUOMO]
+
+Fortunately Ravello, though shrunk to such modest proportions nowadays,
+still possesses many memorials of its glorious past. Travellers will of
+course turn their steps towards the Duomo, with its yellow baroque facade
+abutting on the little piazza that, with its daisy-starred turf and old
+acacia trees, forms so pleasant a play-ground for the merry dark-eyed
+children of the place. The cathedral of St Pantaleone is--or rather was--one
+of the most interesting and richly decorated churches erected in Southern
+Italy under the combined influence of Norman and Saracenic art at a time
+when cunning workmen were able to blend together the styles of East and
+West, and to produce that rich harmonious architecture of which the
+splendid churches of Monreale and Palermo present to us the happiest
+examples. There still exist intact the magnificent bronze doors with their
+fifty-four panels of sculpture in relief, the gift of Sergio Muscettola
+and his wife, Sigilgaita Rufolo, and the work of the Italian artist
+Barisanus of Trani, who likewise designed and cast the portals of the
+cathedrals of his native town and of Monreale. But alas! the interior of
+the building, that was once rich with mosaic and fresco and fanciful
+carving, has been converted into one of those dull soulless caverns of
+stucco that the wanderer in all parts of Italy meets with only too
+frequently. This deplorable act of vandalism at Ravello dates of course
+from the eighteenth century, and appears to have been the work of a bishop
+named Tafuri, who in his frenzied eagerness to possess a cathedral worthy
+of comparison with the fashionable atrocities in plaster then being
+erected at Naples, did not hesitate to destroy wholesale almost all the
+ancient and elaborate ornamentation of his Duomo. His architect--perhaps
+the miserable Fuga, who ruined the interior of the Cathedral at Palermo,
+who knows?--dug up the fine old pavement, tore out the mosaics and had them
+carted away, effaced the frescoes, and at last transformed the venerable
+building with its memories of popes and princes into a commonplace
+white-washed chamber. Why this wretched prelate stayed his hand at the
+pulpit, it is difficult to say: perhaps he was meanwhile translated for
+his private virtues, perhaps Death overtook him in the work of
+destruction; at any rate, the famous pulpit of Ravello mercifully escaped
+the general onslaught, though it must have been by fortunate accident and
+not by design that Monsignore Tafuri omitted to remove this unique
+specimen of a style of architecture, which doubtless he considered
+barbaric and un-Christian in its character. For this pulpit is one of the
+finest examples of the ornate, if somewhat bizarre art of the thirteenth
+century, and belongs to a type of work that is not unfrequently met with
+throughout Italy. Six spiral columns, springing from the backs of crouched
+lions, support the rostrum of marble inlaid with beautiful mosaics; whilst
+above the arch of the stair-way of ascent stands the famous portrait,
+usually called that of Sigilgaita Rufolo, wife of the founder of the
+Cathedral. The striking face, which is surmounted by an elaborate diadem
+with two pendent lappets, is evidently an excellent likeness of the
+original; yet there can be no doubt that this interesting bust has been
+wrongly named, since the pulpit itself, as a Latin inscription duly
+records, was erected in the year 1272 by Niccolo Rufolo, a descendant of
+the famous Grand Admiral, so that we may fairly conclude that the portrait
+represents the wife, or perhaps sister or daughter, of the donor. But
+popular tradition dies hard; and the name of Sigilgaita will probably
+cling for ever to the female face which has for over six centuries looked
+calmly down upon generation after generation of worshippers. Perhaps those
+severe proud features may have impressed the ignorant Vandal-Bishop as
+that of some unknown Saint, whom it might be dangerous to offend, and may
+thereby have saved the pulpit of Niccolo Rufolo from the destruction that
+must have seemed inevitable. Be that as it may, the bust has survived
+uninjured, which, apart from the feeling of sentiment, is particularly
+fortunate, for it belongs to a small class of artistic work, of which
+existing specimens are rare and highly prized. For there must have been a
+local and premature Renaissance in this part of Italy during the
+thirteenth century, otherwise a statue so imbued with true classical
+feeling and so correct in technical finish as that of Sigilgaita in
+Ravello Cathedral could never have been produced; yet the names of the
+artist or artists who thus anticipated the great plastic revival remain
+undiscovered. Portrait-busts, similar in treatment and idea to that of the
+so-called Sigilgaita, are to be found here and there in museums, but this
+effigy in remote Ravello remains unique amidst its original surroundings.
+
+Turning aside from Sigilgaita's steady gaze and making the round of the
+bleak white-washed building, our eyes are suddenly attracted by a fine
+picture, in the manner of Domenichino, representing the martyrdom of
+Pantaleone, the popular Amalfitan Saint to whom this church was dedicated
+by the Rufolo family.
+
+The cult of this Asiatic martyr in Amalfi is of course another legacy of
+the Republic's close connection with the Levant, whence some relic-hunting
+admiral or merchant of the state reverently brought Pantaleone's bones to
+the Italian coast. As the veneration of this Saint still exists so
+deep-seated that his Hellenic name is frequently bestowed on children at
+baptism, it may not be deemed amiss to give a very brief account of this
+eastern Martyr, who is so closely associated with Amalfitan, and later
+with Venetian life. Pantaleone was born at Nicomedia, in Bithynia, the son
+of a Pagan father and a Christian mother. Well educated by his parents, he
+became a physician, and on account of his skill, his learning, his
+graceful manners and his handsome face, was finally selected to attend the
+person of the Emperor Maximian. At the Imperial Court the young doctor,
+who had meantime neglected the faith of his mother, was recalled to a true
+sense of Christian duty by the precepts of an old priest named Hermolaus.
+Pantaleone now began to heal the sick and to preach the Gospel, and even
+at times to perform miracles. Information as to his conduct having reached
+the Emperor's ears, Maximian gave the young physician the choice of
+renouncing Christianity or of suffering death, whereat Pantaleone boldly
+declared he would rather die than apostatize. Thereupon the Saint,
+together with the Christian priest Hermolaus, was bound to an olive tree
+and beheaded with a sword. The story of his martyrdom has been frequently
+treated in Venetian art, for as an eastern Saint Pantaleone has a church
+dedicated to him in Venice, wherein the brush of Paul Veronese has painted
+in glowing colours the chief incidents of his life and death. As in the
+case of other physician-saints of the Roman Church--St Roch, St Cosmo and
+St Damiano--Pantaleone was especially besought in cases of the plague,
+which owing to the intercommunication between Amalfi and the Orient,
+frequently ravaged the towns of this coast.
+
+  [Illustration: A STREET IN RAVELLO]
+
+From the Cathedral we proceeded to visit the quaint little church of Santa
+Maria del Gradillo, that with its oriental-looking towers and cupolas
+affords a pleasing example of the mixed Lombard and Saracenic style which
+was in vogue in the years when the house of Hohenstaufen were masters of
+Southern Italy. We found little that was worth seeing inside the building,
+except the pretty black-eyed daughter of the toothless tottering old
+sacristan, who slunk off grumbling on his child's appearance, leaving her
+to do the honours of the place. Her merry face with its welcoming smile
+and her modest loquacity excited our interest, and in answer to our
+questions we gathered that she was twenty years old, and was still
+unmarried, not for lack of opportunity, she naively told us, but because
+she was unwilling to leave her old parents, who had no one in the world
+but herself to attend to them. Coming to the door of the church, Angela
+(for that was her name) pointed out her home, a little white-washed
+cottage with a heavily barred window over-hanging the grass-grown lane. We
+wished our pleasant companion a warm good-bye, or rather _a riverderla_,
+at the entrance of the dwelling, where through the open doorway we could
+espy a small sun-smitten courtyard tenanted by a wizened old woman sitting
+in the shade of an orange tree, by three cats, and by a large family of
+skinny hens. On a low wall we noted some shallow earthenware pans filled
+with carnation plants, whose red and yellow heads were clearly silhouetted
+against the blue sky over head. Perhaps Angela's life, we thought, is
+after all happier thus spent in the tending of her parents, her poultry
+and her garden, than if joined to that of some swarthy rascal of the beach
+below or dull peasant of the hillside. Long may the old people survive to
+keep their guardian Angel from the mingled sorrows and joys of matrimony!
+
+  "Tenete l'uocchie de miricula nere;
+  Che ffa la vostra matre che n'n de' marite?
+  La vostra matre n'a de' marito' apposte
+  Pe' ne' lleva' son fior, a la fenestre."
+
+  ("Your eyes are marvellously black and bright!
+  How is it that your mother does not wed you?
+  She will not wed you, not to lose her light--
+  Not to remove the flower that decks her window!")
+
+The well-known hotel kept by Madame Palumbo, who is thoroughly conversant
+with English ways and requirements, occupies a delightful position in the
+old aristocratic quarter of Ravello known as "Il Toro," the name of which
+is still retained in the interesting little church of San Giovanni del
+Toro close by. This comfortable hostelry has been constructed out of the
+_Vescovado_, the ancient episcopal residence, and it still retains many
+curious and attractive features of the original building, notably the
+quaint little stair-way that descends from the bishop's private chamber
+into the chapel, which is now the _salon_ of the hotel. With its
+magnificent views, its interesting buildings and its pure exhilarating
+air, Ravello would seem to be an ideal spot wherein to linger, and it
+affords a most agreeable change in the later Spring months from the close
+atmosphere and enervating heat of Amalfi or the coast towns. Perched on
+this breezy hill-top, from the terrace of the hotel can be observed the
+whole circuit of the Bay of Salerno, whilst behind to the north and east
+the ring of enclosing mountains rises sharp and distinct against the sky.
+From this point we are presented with a complete view of the territories
+of the ancient Republic, spread out like a map beneath our feet and
+stretching from the Punta della Campanella to the heights above Vietri,
+and backed by the arid grey mountain peaks. If the garden of the Hotel
+Palumbo seems a fitting place wherein to idle or to dream, might not it
+also appeal to some historian, not tied to time nor to the hard necessity
+of money-making, as a suitable spot for the conception of a history of the
+origin, rise, decline and fall of the great maritime Republic, whose
+dominions, still smiling and populous, surround Ravello on all sides?
+Gibbon found the first suggestion for his Roman History whilst musing upon
+the ruins of the Capitol, and he finished his great work in a Swiss garden
+amidst the scent of acacia bloom; might not the annals of the Amalfitan
+Republic likewise spring from reflections made upon this terrace, where
+the memories of a former greatness still beautiful in its decay must
+operate so powerfully? Well, perhaps some future Gibbon--or more probably
+some budding Mommsen--may in time present the world with a true impartial
+and erudite history of the Costiera d'Amalfi.
+
+We bask lazily in the afternoon sunshine, to the soft, rather soporific
+cooing of some caged doves, that live in the back-ground out of sight
+behind a screen of lemon trees in huge red jars, such as Morgiana must
+have been familiar with. Beyond the terrace wall we note the carefully
+tended vines, precious plants, for their grapes produce the delicate
+_Episcopio_ wine, perhaps the choicest vintage to be obtained around
+Naples, and boasting a flavour and bouquet that are rarely to be
+encountered except in the products of the most celebrated vineyards of
+France or Germany.
+
+  "O quam placens in colore,
+  O quam fragrans in odore,
+  O quam sapidum in ore,
+    Dolce linguae vinculum.
+
+  "Felix venter quem intrabis,
+  Felix guttur quod rigabis,
+  Felix os quod tu lavabis;
+    Et beata labia!"
+
+Below the vinery we catch glimpses of the dancing waters of the Bay and of
+the little towns of Minori and Majori, seen through a screen of olive and
+almond trees that are gently swayed by the south wind. Opposite to us
+towers the huge form of the mountain of the Avvocata, upon whose slopes
+centuries ago the Madonna herself appeared in a flood of glory to an
+ignorant but pious shepherd lad, promising the startled youth to become
+his mediator, the _avvocata_ of his simple prayers. The story must be
+true, say the peasants, for there on the hillside can still be seen the
+ruins of the shrine that the wondering and grateful villagers raised upon
+the very site of the apparition in honour of their celestial visitor. But
+the whole country-side teems with interesting and often beautiful legends
+and traditions, handed down by generations of the simple hardy folk who
+toil for their daily bread amidst the vineyards and olive groves that
+clothe the sun-baked slopes descending to the shore.
+
+The intervening distance is not great between Ravello and La Scala, which
+surmounts the opposite ridge of the valley of the Dragone, whence good
+walkers can easily descend by the ancient mule track that leads down
+direct to Amalfi by way of Scaletta. Like its neighbour and historic rival
+across the valley, the annals and fortunes of Scala are closely interwoven
+with those of Amalfi; and it was during the palmy days of the Republic
+that this daughter-town reached its height of prosperity. Although the
+tradition that once Scala possessed a hundred towers upon its walls and a
+hundred and thirty churches is obviously exaggerated, yet it must have
+been a place of importance even as early as 987, when Pope John XVI raised
+it to the rank of a bishopric, an honour which did not fall to Ravello
+until many years later. Early in the twelfth century Scala was pillaged by
+the Pisans, but some years afterwards, when the mother city tamely
+submitted to the demands of these Tuscan invaders without the smallest
+effort at self-defence, the higher-spirited mountaineers of La Scala
+manned their walls with skill and vigour, though without avail. The
+hill-set city was ultimately carried by storm, and so thoroughly did the
+enraged Pisans wreak their vengeance upon the place that Scala never again
+rose to fame or eminence, but henceforward dwindled in wealth and size
+until it finally sank to the condition of a large village, whilst Clement
+VIII offered an additional indignity to the city in its dotage by
+depriving it of episcopal rank. But though the citizens of modern Scala no
+longer possess a bishop in their midst, they are still the proud
+possessors and jealous guardians of the magnificent mitre presented by
+Charles of Anjou, who was greatly pleased by the men and money that this
+ancient town sent to aid his brother, St Louis of France, in his Crusade.
+Some sculptured tombs, one of them a monument in honour of Marinella
+Rufolo of Ravello, who was married to a Coppola of Scala, remain in the
+churches to interest the curious traveller, but most visitors will find
+the principal charm of this dilapidated little city in its lofty striking
+situation beneath the frowning mass of Monte Cerrato.
+
+But the sunset has come and gone, and the last tints of its rose-pink glow
+are rapidly disappearing from the serrated line of mountain tops against
+their background of daffodil sky. Stars are beginning to peep in the
+firmament, and yellow lights, the stars of earth, are springing up fast in
+the town below, and even appearing at rare intervals of space amongst the
+cottages of the woody hillside, or upon the fishing boats that lie on the
+bosom of the Bay, now turning to a deep purple under the advancing shadows
+of night. A cheerful concert of unseen insects greets our ears as we
+descend rapidly towards Atrani, whilst the goatbells amid the distant
+pastures tinkle pleasantly from time to time. We soon exchange the dewy
+freshness of evening in the country for the heavy air, thick with dust,
+that hangs over the coast road, and in a few moments more find ourselves
+at the foot of the rock-cut staircase that leads to our convent inn.
+
+
+                               * * * * * *
+
+
+But our days upon the beautiful Costiera d'Amalfi are at an end, and the
+moment has at last come for us to bid farewell to these enchanted scenes
+and to the ancient city slumbering peacefully in its rocky valley by the
+shore. Our rows upon the glassy waters of the Bay, our scrambles up the
+wild scrub-covered hillsides above the town, our evening walks along the
+broad high-road to catch the fleeting glories of the sun-set,--all are
+ended; the day, the hour of departure has actually arrived.
+
+Casting a longing look behind we quit Amalfi in the cool of the evening,
+in order to cover the eight intervening miles of coast road that lie
+between us and Salerno. We pass Atrani, with its tall parti-coloured
+tower, and proceed towards our destination with the smooth plain of waters
+below us and the fertile slopes above our heads, and thus we quickly gain
+Minori, another of the busy little settlements that once helped to make up
+the collected might of the old Republic. We meet with bare-footed
+sun-embrowned peasants, in their suits of blue linen and broad shady straw
+hats; lean sinewy figures, returning from a long day's work in the
+fragrant orange groves by which the town is surrounded. We meet also,
+alas! with the usual crowd of beggars, the halt, the maimed, and the
+pseudo-blind, who are quickly left behind; nevertheless the naughty
+picturesque half-naked children, loudly screaming for _soldi_, caper in
+the dust alongside our carriage, until these little pests are
+out-stripped, but only to give way to other imps, equally naughty and
+unclothed, from Majori. Majori, nestling by the seashore amidst the
+enfolding mountains, appears to us a second Amalfi, with its crowded beach
+and brightly coloured boats, with its paper and maccaroni mills, huddled
+into the narrow ravine of the Senna, which cuts the town in half ere it
+empties itself into the Bay. Overhead the huge ruined castle of San
+Niccolo looms distinct against the rose-flushed evening sky, crouching
+like some decrepit old giant above the little city which he so oppressed
+in the bad old days when Sanseverini and Colonna carried on a perpetual
+selfish strife that allowed their humble neighbours no repose. Beautiful
+as is Majori, it is no lovelier than many another spot upon this exquisite
+coast; it is but as one pearl in a well-matched necklace, for the country
+that lies between Amalfi and Salerno is fully as rich in historical
+interest and natural charm as is the western portion that we have just
+traversed. Behind Majori we behold Monte Falerio, with its rocky summit
+tipped with the glow of evening and its base in purple shadow, descending
+abruptly into the darkening waters of the Bay. Slanting down to the
+surf-fringed beach, the great mountain seem to bar our further progress,
+but with a guttural imprecation and a loud cracking of the whip, our
+coachman deftly guides his half-starved but cunning little horses round
+the sharp corner of the mountain spur known as the Capo del' Orso, and in
+a trice Amalfi, whither we have been straining our eyes, is snatched from
+our vision; a few minutes later, and we have rounded the Capo del Tumulo,
+with its memories of the great Genoese admiral, Filippino Doria, who in
+the treacherous currents that circle round this Cape, destroyed the
+Spanish fleet of the Emperor Charles V. Already the sun has dipped below
+the horizon, and the calm expanse of the Tyrrhene has lost the last
+reflected ray; forward our driver urges his horses in the fast-fading
+light. The Angelus rings out from half a score of belfries beside the
+seashore and on the hillside, breaking the stillness of the gloaming with
+musical reverberations. Sunset and evening star, twilight and evening
+bell; how exquisite is the fall of night upon the shores of the Bay of
+Salerno! We pass the fishing village of Cetara, and in so doing we pass by
+the willing strength of imagination out of the dominion of the ancient
+Republic of Amalfi into the Principality of Salerno. Onward we press, and
+it is not long before a shrill familiar sound bursts upon our ears, a
+sound that quickly tears the gossamer threads of a fancy revelling in the
+thoughts of long-extinct principalities and powers. It is the whistle of a
+railway-engine descending the slope from Vietri above us down to Salerno;
+it is the neighing of the iron horse that has not yet pranced along the
+unconquered Costiera d'Amalfi, nor befouled its crystal-clear air with his
+smoky breath. For at Vietri we re-enter the every-day world, and leave
+behind us the sea-girt fairy-land; Vietri, not Cetara, is the true
+frontier town to-day. But the lights of Salerno are drawing nearer and
+nearer, and in a few moments of time we are tearing along the broad
+lamp-lit Marina of the town, in the middle of which our driver pulls up
+suddenly at the entrance of that old-fashioned comfortable inn, the
+Albergo d'Inghilterra:
+
+  "Another day has told its feverish story,
+  Another night has brought its promised rest."
+
+  [Illustration: MINORI AT SUNSET]
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+                   SALERNO AND THE HOUSE OF HAUTEVILLE
+
+
+Backed by gentle slopes well wooded and well tilled, and screened from the
+northern blasts by its guarding amphitheatre of grey crags, Salerno
+occupies a delightful position upon the Bay to which it gives its own
+name. The long stretch of its Marina, tolerably clean to the eye if not at
+all points agreeable to the nostrils, follows the broad curve of the
+strand, and an idle hour or so may pleasantly be whiled away in watching
+the fishing craft moored beside the mole and the attendant sailors. At the
+northern end of this promenade, in what constitutes the most fashionable
+quarter of the place, is a tiny garden with palms and daturas, whilst hard
+by stands a large theatre, evidences of the gentility of modern Salerno.
+But the whole town appears sleepy and dead-alive to a stranger, though at
+the sunset hour a band occasionally plays in this open space, the music
+attracting hither a crowd composed of all the divers elements of society
+in the quiet old city. Yet though not possessing any great attractions for
+a sojourn in itself, Salerno makes an excellent centre whence to explore
+the neighbourhood, for it lies within easy reach of the great Benedictine
+Abbey of Santa Trinita; of beautiful La Cava, "that Alpine valley under an
+Italian sky"; of Nocera, with its ancient cathedral that was once a pagan
+temple; and last, but very far from least, of that glorious group of
+temples at Paestum. It has tolerable hotels, and if only their _padroni_
+could be brought to realise that a flavouring of rosemary and garlic in
+every dish is not appreciated by the palates of the _forestieri_, the fare
+provided would be excellent. As in all Italian cities, northern or
+southern, however, the nocturnal noise is prodigious. Shouting and
+shrieking, quarrelling and yelling rend the air at all hours, whilst the
+practice of serenading, more agreeable in romantic poetry than in everyday
+life, is here carried to excess, and the twanging of the mandoline and the
+throaty voices of ardent lovers are rarely silent o' nights in the dark
+narrow streets of Salerno.
+
+  "A lu scur' vagi cercann'
+  La bella mia addo e?
+  Mo m'annascunn' po' fann' dispera',
+      I mor', I mor' pe' te,
+      Ripos' cchiu ne ho!"
+
+  ("In favouring dusk I wandering go,
+      My fair, where shall I find her?
+  Now she attracts, now drives me wild;
+      I die, I die for her;
+      Repose no more have I.")
+
+Behind the long line of lofty well-built houses facing the Bay, the
+streets are gloomy, narrow and crooked, a labyrinth of dark mysterious
+lanes that contain no palaces or churches of note, and but few artistic
+"bits" to catch the eye and delight the soul of a painter. As in the case
+of Amalfi, the Cathedral of San Matteo at Salerno is almost the sole
+monument left standing of a past that is peculiarly rich in historical
+associations. Ever since the accession of the Angevin kings Salerno has
+remained a quiet provincial town, neither rich nor poor, but stagnant and
+without commerce. Into its harbour, which Norman and Suabian princes
+attempted to improve, the sand has long since silted, and Naples for many
+centuries past has been able to regard with serene contempt the city that
+it was once intended to make her commercial rival:
+
+  "Se Salerno avesse un porto,
+  Napoli sarebbe morto."
+
+Well, Naples owns an excellent harbour, and has in consequence grown into
+one of the largest sea-ports on the shores of the Mediterranean, whilst
+little Salerno can only afford anchorage for fishing boats.
+
+The chief interest of the place centres in its close connection with the
+great Norman house of Hauteville, and especially with Robert Guiscard,
+Duke of Apulia and Calabria, who after a fierce struggle managed to
+capture this city from the Lombard princes. Sprung from a hardy race of
+_valvassors_ or _bannerets_ in Normandy, Duke Robert was one of the twelve
+sons of Tancred of Hauteville in the bishopric of Coutances. Joining his
+elder half-brother William Bras-de-Fer in Italy, Robert at once began to
+make a remarkable display of soldierly and statesman-like qualities. An
+adventurer pure and simple in an alien land, this sharp-witted Norman in
+course of time obtained the nick-name of Guiscard, or the Wiseacre, and on
+the death of his elder brother he was nominated Count of Apulia by
+acclamation of the Norman followers, to the exclusion of his helpless
+young nephews. Robert Guiscard's appearance and character have been
+sketched for us with loving care by one of the most famous of the world's
+historians, who was fully able to appreciate the mingled force and
+cunning, the _suaviter in modo_ and the _fortiter in re_, of this leader
+of a handful of Normans in a hostile and distant country. Let Gibbon's
+stately prose therefore present to us a word-painting of the Great
+Adventurer himself:--
+
+"His lofty stature surpassed the tallest of his army; his limbs were cast
+in the true proportion of strength and gracefulness; and to the decline of
+life he maintained the patent vigour of health and the commanding dignity
+of his form. His complexion was ruddy, his shoulders were broad, his hair
+and beard were long and of a flaxen colour, his eyes sparkled with fire,
+and his voice, like that of Achilles, could impress obedience and terror
+amidst the tumult of battle. In the ruder ages of chivalry, such
+qualifications are not below the notice of the poet or historian; they may
+observe that Robert at once and with equal dexterity could wield in the
+right hand his sword, his lance in the left; that in the battle of
+Civitella he was thrice unhorsed, and that on the close of that memorable
+day he was adjudged to have borne away the prize of valour from the
+warriors of the two armies. His boundless ambition was founded on the
+consciousness of superior worth: in the pursuit of greatness he was never
+arrested by the scruples of justice, and seldom moved by the feelings of
+humanity: though not insensible of fame, the choice of open or clandestine
+means was determined only by his present advantage. The surname of
+_Guiscard_ was applied to this master of political wisdom, which is too
+often confounded with the practice of dissimulation and deceit; and Robert
+is praised by the Apulian poet for excelling the cunning of Ulysses and
+the eloquence of Cicero. Yet these arts were disguised by an appearance of
+military frankness: in his highest fortune he was accessible and courteous
+to his fellow soldiers, and while he indulged the prejudices of his new
+subjects, he affected in his dress and manners to maintain the ancient
+fashion of his country. He grasped with a rapacious, that he might
+distribute with a liberal hand; his primitive indigence had taught the
+habits of frugality; the gain of a merchant was not below his attention;
+and his prisoners were tortured with slow and unfeeling cruelty to force a
+discovery of their secret treasure. According to the Greeks, he departed
+from Normandy with only five followers on horse-back, and thirty on foot;
+yet even this allowance appears too bountiful;--the sixth son of Tancred of
+Hauteville passed the Alps as a pilgrim, and his first military band was
+levied among the adventurers of Italy."
+
+Gaining over the Pope Nicholas II. to his interests, the new Count was
+able to exact an oath of fealty in 1060 from the Italian barons, hitherto
+his equals, to recognise him as "Duke of Apulia, Calabria, and here-after
+of Sicily, by the grace of God and of St Peter," although it took many
+years of hard fighting before these lands, thus proudly claimed, could be
+subdued. Beginning with the conquest of the Duchy of Benevento, Guiscard
+at once laid siege to Salerno, taking it after an obstinate resistance
+lasting over eight months, during which he was himself severely wounded by
+a splinter from one of his own engines of war. The city captured with such
+difficulty now became the victor's favourite residence and the recipient
+of his bounty and enlightened rule, so that Salerno quickly rose to the
+rank of one of the most illustrious towns in Europe, supplanting even its
+magnificent neighbour Amalfi in popular esteem.
+
+  "Urbs Latii non est hac delitiosior urbe,
+  Frugibus arboribus vino redundat; et unde
+  Non tibi poma nuces, non pulchra palatia desunt,
+  Non species muliebris abest probitasque virorum."
+
+  ("All Latium shows no more delightful place,
+  Whose sunny slopes the vine and almond grace;
+  'Midst fruitful groves her palaces uprear,
+  Her men are virtuous, and her women fair.")
+
+It was under the Guiscard's auspices that the famous school of Medicine
+that had long been seated at Salerno rose to its highest point of
+excellence. "Paris for learning, Bologna for law, Orleans for poetry, and
+Salerno for Medicine";--such was the verdict of the age. With the somewhat
+grudging consent of the clergy, the hygienic skill of the dreaded Arabs
+was in this city permitted to temper the crass ignorance of medieval
+Italy, and at Salerno alone were the works of the infidel Avicenna and of
+the pagans Galen and Hippocrates openly studied. The result was that the
+fame of the doctors of this _Fons Medicinae_ spread over all Western
+Europe, so that distinguished patients either came hither to be treated in
+person or else sent emissaries to explain their symptoms and to obtain
+advice. Nor were the professors of the healing art at Salerno tied down by
+a strict adherence to drugs and boluses, for they fully realised that the
+height of all human ambition, the _mens sana in corpore sano_, is in any
+case more easily to be obtained by self-control than by all the
+ingredients of the pharmacopoeia. They were warm believers apparently in
+the doctrine of moderation in all things, which after all is one of the
+most valuable prescriptions of modern hygiene:
+
+  "Curas tolle graves, irasci crede profanum,
+  Parce mero, coenato parum, non sit tibi vanum,
+  Surgere post epulas, somnum fuge meridianum."
+
+  ("Throw off dull care; thine angry moods restrain;
+  Eschew the wine-cup; lightly eat, nor vain
+  Deem our advice to make Enough thy feast.
+  Take exercise, and shun the noon-day rest.")
+
+Such was the oracular reply of the Salernitan sages to Robert, Duke of
+Normandy, and no one can dispute the sound common sense of the
+prescription given, nor doubt that it is applicable to half the patients
+who to-day throng the consulting rooms of fashionable London physicians.
+
+But to return to Robert Guiscard, who shares the historical honours of the
+place, together with the great Pope Gregory VII., of whom we shall speak
+presently. After subduing the southern half of Italy and the island of
+Sicily, the great Duke next turned his victorious arms against the Eastern
+Empire, with the secret intention, it was suspected, of ascending the
+throne of Constantine. With the pseudo-Emperor Michael in his train, the
+Great Adventurer in 1081 assembled a vast army at Otranto, consisting of
+30,000 Italian subjects and of 1300 Norman knights, with the object of
+crossing over to Epirus. Durazzo on the opposite Albanian coast, the
+Dyrrachium of the ancients, a city that was henceforth destined to be
+closely associated with succeeding dynasties of South Italy, was the
+objective of this gigantic expedition, for it was commonly reported to be
+the key of the Eastern Empire. Thither the flotilla set sail, but before
+reaching the Greek shore, an unexpected and unseasonable tempest scattered
+Guiscard's argosy, destroying many of the ships and drowning many crews.
+Nevertheless, the undaunted spirit and endless resources of the Norman
+Duke rose superior to all misfortunes. Landing with the remnant of his
+army he at once laid siege to Durazzo, despite the fact that the Emperor
+Alexius was marching to its relief, and that the Venetian fleet was
+already anchored in its harbour. In spite of overwhelming odds, Guiscard
+utterly routed the Byzantine army. With his heir Bohemond and his wife
+Sigilgaita beside him, the Duke watched the progress of the battle, and at
+its most critical juncture, at a moment when it appeared inevitable that
+the hard-pressed Italian army must yield to the sheer numbers of the foe,
+the deep voice of the leader could be heard booming like a deep-toned bell
+over the battlefield, as he addressed his wavering troops. "Whither do ye
+fly? Your enemy is implacable, and death is less grievous than slavery!"
+Joined with the hoarse voice of Guiscard, the Norman warriors could
+distinguish the exhortations of the Amazon-like Sigilgaita, "a second
+Pallas, less skilful in arts, but no less terrible in arms than the
+Athenian goddess." Rallying at the words of their master and shamed by the
+martial ardour of the Duchess, the invading troops made one last desperate
+effort, whereby the Imperial army was driven back and scattered, so that
+Alexius barely escaped with his life. Having routed the Emperor in fair
+fight, Guiscard now made use of his unparalleled cunning by bribing the
+treacherous Venetians, who eventually assisted the Italian forces to enter
+the city gates, and thus Durazzo was gained at the point of the sword
+after one of the fiercest sieges known to history. Scarcely had the
+beleaguered town been reduced, than the indomitable Guiscard found himself
+compelled to return to Italy, where the Emperor of the West, the unhappy
+Henry IV., vainly endeavouring to wipe out the humiliation of Canossa, had
+seized Rome and was actually besieging the great Hildebrand in the Castle
+of Sant' Angelo. Leaving his son Bohemond in command of the army in
+Macedonia, Robert recrossed the sea, and hastened with a handful of men
+towards Rome. But so intense a fear did the victor of Durazzo inspire,
+that the terrified Emperor without waiting to give combat fled headlong
+together with his anti-pope from the Holy City, where Guiscard was
+received with acclamation. "Thus, in less than three years," remarks
+Gibbon, "the son of Tancred of Hauteville enjoyed the glory of delivering
+the Pope, and of compelling the two Emperors of the East and West to fly
+before his victorious arms." Guiscard's triumphal entry into Rome was
+however marred by scenes of violence and scandal, due to the conduct of
+the Saracen troops which his brother, the great Count Roger of Sicily, had
+brought to assist the enterprise. So infuriated were the Romans by the
+behaviour of the infidels, that the prudent Gregory deemed it wiser to
+return to Salerno together with his deliverer, and it was in Guiscard's
+palace that the famous "Caesar of spiritual conquest" expired three years
+later. As to the Great Adventurer himself, he died in the island of
+Cephalonia in the very year of the Pope's death at Salerno (1085) and was
+buried beside his first wife, the gentle Alberada, at Venosa in Apulia,
+though the city which he had always loved and favoured would seem to have
+offered a more appropriate spot for his interment.
+
+But although the mortal remains of the Great Adventurer do not rest within
+the precincts of his beloved city, an undying monument of his glorious but
+turbulent reign is to be found in the Cathedral, which despite the neglect
+and alterations of eight centuries may still be ranked as one of the most
+interesting buildings in Southern Italy. Standing in a secluded part of
+the town, this magnificent church gains nothing from its position, for it
+can only be reached by means of tortuous dingy lanes, and even on a near
+approach the effect produced on the visitor is not impressive. "The
+Cathedral-church of San Matteo," says the Scotch traveller, Joseph
+Forsyth, in quaint pedantic language, "is a pile so antique and so modern,
+so repaired and rhapsodic, that it exhibits patches of every style, and is
+of no style itself." But is not this quality, we ask, exactly what a great
+historic building, such as Guiscard's church, truly demands? Ought not it
+to bear the impress of the various ages it has survived, and of the many
+famous persons who have contributed to its embellishment? From Duke
+Robert's day to the present time, the Cathedral is an epitome of the
+history of Salerno, a sermon in stones concerning the great past and the
+inglorious present of the city.
+
+In the year preceding his own death and that of the great Pontiff, who was
+tarrying at Salerno as his not over-willing guest, Duke Robert erected
+this Cathedral, obtaining the chief ornaments for his new structure and
+also its most important relic, the supposed body of the Apostle St
+Matthew, from the lately deserted city of Paestum across the bay. The
+church is approached by means of a quadrangular fore-court, a cloister
+supported on antique columns, such as can still be observed in a few of
+the old Roman churches, so that we venture to think that this idea at
+Salerno was suggested by the great Pope himself. A number of sculptured
+sarcophagi, which, like the pillars, were the spoils of Paestum, are
+ranged alongside the entrance walls; and once upon a time there stood in
+the centre of the courtyard the huge granite basin that all visitors to
+Naples will recall as set in the middle of the Villa Reale, where it
+performs the humble office of decorating a miniature pond, wherein
+lily-white ducks quack and gobble at the bread crumbs thrown to them by
+children and their nurses. Fancy the irate disgust of Duke Robert at
+waking to learn that the antique fountain for his new Cathedral, brought
+with such care and toil from distant Poseidonia, should have been
+transported to the rival city and turned to such base uses! Above the
+splendid bronze doors, the gift of Landolfo Butomilea and his wife shortly
+after Guiscard's death, we perceive the dedication of the church to the
+Apostle Matthew by the proud conqueror of the Two Sicilies and the
+protector of Hildebrand.
+
+  "A Duce Roberto donaris Apostole templo:
+  Pro meritis regno donetur ipse superno."
+
+The donor, we note, is confident that the Apostle, in return for so
+glorious a fabric, will undertake to obtain the Kingdom of Heaven for this
+generous client upon earth.
+
+The interior, which is sadly marred by white-wash and gaudy decoration, is
+a perfect treasure-house of works of art--antique, medieval, Renaissance--of
+which the guide-book will give a detailed list. Succeeding generations
+have put to strange uses some of the fine marble reliefs that Guiscard
+transported hither from Paestum, and we note that one archbishop has gone
+so far as to filch a sarcophagus carved with a Bacchanal procession to
+serve for his own tomb. We might perhaps infer that the deceased prelate
+was addicted to the wine-flask, and to have been a firm believer in and
+follower of one of the rules of the medical school of his own diocese:
+
+  "Si nocturna tibi noceat potatio vini,
+  Hoc ter mane libas iterum, et fuerit medicina."
+
+  ("If a carouse at night do make thee ill,
+  For morning medicine drink of wine thy fill")
+
+Let us hope that this extraordinary receipt for "hot coppers" was intended
+satirically, or else given seriously as the only advice that a confirmed
+toper was likely to follow in any case. But the use of classical adjuncts
+to adorn Christian tombs, which to-day appears so incongruous to us, was
+popular enough at the time of the Renaissance, and readers of Robert
+Browning's poetry will call to mind the story of the dying Bishop's
+injunction to his heirs concerning his tomb in St Praxed's church at Rome:
+
+  "The bas-relief in bronze ye promised me,
+  Those Pans and Nymphs ye wot of, and perchance
+  Some tripod thyrsus with a vase or so,
+  The Saviour at His sermon on the mount,
+  Saint Praxed in a glory, and one Pan
+  Ready to twitch the Nymph's last garment off,
+  And Moses with the tables...."
+
+But it is necessary to shake off the spirit of Renaissance dilettantism
+before we venture to approach the chapel of John of Procida to the right
+of the high altar, where stands the stern figure of the greatest of the
+medieval Pontiffs. Above the marble statue of the Caesar of the Papacy,
+that was tardily erected to his memory by the unfortunate Pio Nono, appear
+the glittering mosaics of the apse of the chapel, from which look down the
+figures of John of Procida and of King Manfred, the last sovereign prince
+of the hated Suabian line that Gregory twice anathematized. Beneath the
+cold forbidding eye of the last of the Hohenstaufen and his friend and
+avenger here rest, strangely enough, the ashes of that "great and
+inflexible asserter of the supremacy of the sacerdotal order: the monk
+Hildebrand, afterwards Pope Gregory the Seventh." Born the son of a poor
+carpenter in the Tuscan village of Soana, this extraordinary man rose to
+eminence as a monk of Cluny, where he became famous for his extreme
+asceticism of life in an age of undisguised clerical corruption and
+luxury, when simony, lay investiture and priestly marriages were the rule
+rather than the exception on all sides, so that but few Churchmen were
+able to rise above their surrounding temptations. Such few as could resist
+the world, the flesh and the devil were accounted, and not unfrequently
+were in reality, ignorant crazy fanatics, half-pitied and half-despised.
+Between these two extremes of worldly indulgence and of unreasoning
+severity of life, Hildebrand ever pursued a middle course, for whilst on
+the one hand he eschewed the vanities of life around him, on the other he
+never sank into the self-effacement of a hermit. His acknowledged purity
+and zeal soon won for him from the laity a respect mingled with awe,
+whilst his natural talents, his indomitable will, and his genuine piety in
+course of time brought all Churchmen who had any regard for their holy
+office to fix their hopes upon this Clugniac monk, now a Cardinal. For
+some years before his actual election to the Papal throne in 1079,
+Hildebrand had begun to exercise an immense control over the councils of
+the Church, and he was personally responsible for the epoch-making
+resolution under Nicholas II., which declared that the choice of a new
+Pontiff was vested in the College of Cardinals alone. His own election,
+under the terms of this new and drastic arrangement, became the signal for
+the fierce struggles, equally of the battlefield and the council-chamber,
+that were destined to distract Italy for generations to come. For, as
+might have been expected, the Emperor Henry IV., King of the Romans, was
+not long in protesting against so decided an infringement of his secular
+claims. From the synods of Worms and Piacenza came the Imperial decree of
+deposition against Gregory, which was addressed by "Henry, not by
+usurpation but by God's holy ordination, King, to Hildebrand, no longer
+Pope, but false monk." Gregory, strong alike in virtue and in resolve, and
+aided by the might of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany and of Robert
+Guiscard, answered by pronouncing a solemn anathema upon his secular
+adversary. In awe-struck silence the Council of the Lateran listened to
+the Pope's final excommunication of the King, and of all those who dared
+to associate themselves with him. "I absolve," said Gregory, "all
+Christians from the oaths which they have taken or may take to him; and I
+decree that no one shall obey him as king; for it is fitting that he, who
+has endeavoured to diminish the honour of the Church, should himself lose
+that honour which he seems to have." We all know the final act of that
+terrible unequal struggle, the duel of brute force against spiritual
+terrors in a rude age of violence and superstition, which took place in
+the courtyard of the Castle of Canossa, the Countess Matilda's fortress in
+the Apennines.
+
+"On a dreary winter morning, with the ground deep in snow, the King, the
+heir of a long line of Emperors, was permitted to enter within the two
+outer of the three walls which girded the Castle of Canossa. He had laid
+aside every mark of royalty or of distinguished station; he was clad only
+in the thin white linen dress of the penitent, and there, fasting, he
+awaited in humble patience the pleasure of the Pope. But the gates did not
+unclose. A second day he stood, cold, hungry and mocked by vain hopes. And
+yet a third day dragged on from morning till evening over the unsheltered
+head of the discrowned King. Every heart was moved save that of the
+representative of Jesus Christ."
+
+  [Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO RAVELLO]
+
+Can we wonder then that the phrase "to go to Canossa" (_gehen nach
+Canossa_) has become ingrafted on to the German language, or that so
+significant an expression was openly used by Prince Bismarck during the
+fierce religious struggles in the days of the "Kultur-kampf" between the
+newly-formed Empire and the direct successor of the spiritual Caesar who
+had thus humbled a former Emperor of Germany? It was in vain that Henry
+afterwards endeavoured, by making war upon his oppressor, to undo the evil
+effects of his public recantation at Canossa; the act of humiliation was
+too marked ever to be wiped out either by himself or by his descendants.
+For good or for bad, Gregory had succeeded in rendering the Papacy free
+from lay control; he had gained for ever for the Church one of her most
+cherished tenets, the absolute independence of the Pope's election by the
+College of Cardinals; and he had even partially reduced the Western Empire
+into a fief of the Church itself. The former of Gregory's great objects,
+the freedom of election, still remains intact after an interval of more
+than eight hundred years; the latter attempt, though long struggled for
+and apparently with success at times, has, we know, ultimately failed.
+
+Having accomplished so much during his reign, it is strange to think that
+Gregory's last days should have been passed in a form of exile away from
+the Eternal City which he claimed as the metropolis of the Universal
+Church. There is pathos to be found in the Pope dying at Salerno, far
+removed from the scene of his ambition and success. With the bitter
+feeling that his name was execrated in Rome after Guiscard's sack, and
+that his host was bent upon obtaining the imperial title from his
+reluctant guest, Gregory's declining days were spent in melancholy
+reflections. To the last he spoke confidently of the righteousness of his
+cause, and whilst making his peace with all mankind in anticipation of his
+approaching end, he deliberately excepted from his own and God's mercy the
+names of his arch-enemy Henry and the anti-pope Guibert, together with all
+their followers. Thus the aged Pontiff languished to his end within the
+walls of the Castle of Salerno, encircled by flattering Churchmen who did
+their utmost to cheer their dying champion. "I have loved justice and
+hated iniquity, and therefore I die in exile," are the famous words
+recorded of Hildebrand in the face of the King of Terrors. "In exile thou
+canst not die!" eagerly responded an attendant priest. "Vicar of Christ
+and His Apostles, thou hast received the nations for thine inheritance,
+and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."
+
+Perhaps the expiring Pope was cheered by these words--who can tell? In any
+case they were prophetic, for the present world-wide character of the
+Roman Church, which embraces in its fold all nationalities and holds its
+members together all the globe over in one indissoluble bond of a
+spiritual empire, is largely due to the trials and exertions of one man:
+the monk Hildebrand, Pope Gregory the Seventh.
+
+Here then he sleeps his last sleep, the friend of Matilda, the mortal foe
+of King Henry, the patron of William the Conqueror, the guest of Robert
+Guiscard:--what a galaxy of illustrious names shines upon that dim silent
+chapel in the Cathedral of Salerno! Here stands in unchanging benediction
+his gleaming marble effigy, calmly surveyed by King Manfred near at hand
+in imperial robes, the last prince of the hated and twice banned Suabian
+House, whose bones were destined to bleach in the sun and rattle in the
+wind by the bridge of Benevento under a Papal curse.
+
+Before we quit the Cathedral in order to enjoy the evening sunshine, which
+is filling the interior with its roseate glow, let us return for one brief
+moment to the northern aisle, to glance at the grave of the Duchess who
+fought so boldly by her husband's side at Durazzo. It is easy to find, for
+her simple tomb stands not far from the beautiful and elaborate monument
+of Margaret of Durazzo (strange coincidence!) wife of King Charles of
+Naples, wherein the sculptor has portrayed angels drawing aside a curtain
+so as to display the sleeping form of the dead Queen within. Close to this
+monument of a not unusual Renaissance type, we discover the last resting
+place of Robert Guiscard's second wife, the Duchess Sigilgaita, their son
+Roger Bursa and their grandson William, in whom the direct line of the
+Great Adventurer became extinct. Many stories are told by the old
+chroniclers of this bold intrepid princess (not always to her
+credit)--daughter of the last Lombard prince Gisulf of Salerno and wife of
+her father's supplanter, whose humble Norman ancestry she affected to
+despise. But despite her reputation for cruelty and even for murder,
+Sigilgaita was a faithful wife and a brave woman, with a character not
+unlike that of our own Queen Margaret of Anjou; and it seems strange that
+so devoted and well mated a pair as herself and Robert Guiscard should be
+separated in death, he at Venosa and she in the cathedral of her husband's
+foundation.
+
+Passing out of the silent church into the warm light of eventide, by steep
+alleys and by stony footpaths we gradually mount upwards towards the
+ruined castle that commands a lofty position with an all-embracing view of
+the bay and its encircling mountains. The crumbling fragment of the old
+palace of Salerno differs but little in appearance from any one of those
+innumerable dilapidated piles of the Middle Ages with which Southern Italy
+is so thickly studded, yet coming fresh from visiting Guiscard's cathedral
+and Hildebrand's last resting-place, we find it comparatively easy to
+conjure up some recollections of its past, so as to invest its crumbling
+red-hued walls with a spell of interest. These broken apertures were
+surely once the windows through which the dying Pope must have wearily
+glanced upon the sun-smitten waves and violet-shadowed hills that we
+behold to-day; here in this embrasure, long despoiled of its marble seat,
+must have brooded the fierce and unscrupulous Sigilgaita, thinking of how
+best to rid herself of her step-son Bohemond, in order that her own
+children might inherit their father's realms. The ghosts of princes and
+popes are around us, yet the only living inhabitant of the roofless castle
+is the ragged little goat-herd, whose unsavoury charges are cropping the
+short grass that covers the site of the banqueting hall, where Norman
+knights and Italian barons once caroused in the crusading days of long
+ago. We seat ourselves on the dry sward in a sun-warmed angle of the
+ruins, where an almond tree that has sprouted from the rubble sends down
+from time to time upon our heads a tiny shower of pale pink blossoms at
+the bidding of the soft evening breeze. At our feet are masses of the dark
+shiny leaves of the wild arum, and rank grass which is plentifully starred
+with tall-stemmed crimson-petalled daisies and the mauve wind-flowers that
+are drowsily closing their cups at the approach of night. The little
+goat-herd eyes us solemnly, but--strange and welcome to relate--shows no
+inclination to pester the _signori_. The soft murmuring of the distant
+sea, the subdued hum of the city far below us and the drowsy buzzing of
+the bees in the almond and ivy bloom close at hand combine to strengthen
+the golden chain of imagination. As we sit basking in the peaceful beauty
+of the scene around us and serenely conscious of its glorious past, one of
+our party suddenly remembers in a welcome flash of inspiration that this
+deserted courtyard has been made the scene of one of Boccaccio's most
+famous tales. It is a story that many writers of succeeding ages have
+endeavoured to imitate in prose or verse, but this fictitious love-tragedy
+between a princess and a page at Salerno has a simple charm and dignity in
+its original setting that only the master-hand of the Tuscan author could
+impart. The scene of the novel of Guiscard and Ghismonda is laid, as we
+have said, at this very spot, and as the hero, the heroine and the villain
+of the tale have Norman names, we may be allowed to conjecture that this
+graceful story, which Boccaccio puts into the mouth of the lady Fiammetta,
+was founded upon some actual but half-forgotten family scandal in the
+annals of the mighty but self-made House of Hauteville.
+
+
+                               * * * * * *
+
+
+Once upon a time there reigned in Salerno the Prince Tancred, who was a
+widower, and the father of an only daughter, Ghismonda, Duchess of Capua.
+The Duchess, who was considered one of the most beautiful, accomplished
+and virtuous princesses of her day, had been early married to the Duke of
+Capua, but on his death after a very few years of matrimony had been left
+a childless widow. Being still very young, the Princess Ghismonda was now
+taken back to his court by her father, who jealously guarded her and
+seemed unwilling for her to be remarried. Living in rooms that over-looked
+the courtyard of the palace, the Duchess, who found time hang on her hands
+somewhat heavily, used to spend hours daily in watching the lords and
+pages of her father's household passing and repassing the quadrangle
+below, and amongst the many well-favoured youths a certain page named
+Guiscard found most favour in her sight. Now Guiscard, who had thus all
+unwittingly attracted Ghismonda's attention and finally won her heart, was
+a young Norman of no great lineage and of small means, but being discreet,
+upright and sensible-minded, had obtained a high place in Prince Tancred's
+estimation. Skilfully questioning her maids of honour without exciting
+their suspicions, the Princess gained all she wished to know concerning
+Guiscard's position and attainments, and it was not long before she found
+means of conveying the secret of her affection to the youth, who in fact
+had already fallen head over ears in love with the beautiful Duchess who
+so often leaned from the casement above. She now sent him a letter hidden
+in a pair of bellows, wherein she explained to him the existence of a
+secret passage, long disused, that led from a hollow in the hillside below
+the castle walls up to her own apartment. Over-joyed at receiving this
+missive, the infatuated page took the first occasion, as we may well
+imagine, to make use of this friendly clue, and before many hours had
+passed after receiving the letter, the young man, flushed and triumphant,
+was standing in the chamber of his beloved mistress, who had meanwhile
+taken every necessary preparation for receiving her lover in secret. Many
+a time were the pair able to meet thus without awakening the least
+suspicion in the minds of Prince Tancred or of the maids of honour, and
+all would doubtless have gone well for an indefinite period of time, but
+for a most unforeseen accident. It appears that one morning the old Prince
+of Salerno, wishing to confer with his daughter on some matter of state,
+came to her private apartment, and on learning that she had gone out
+riding settled himself upon a couch that stood within a curtained alcove,
+and whilst waiting for her return fell sound asleep. After some hours of
+repose the prince was suddenly roused from his heavy slumber by the sound
+of two voices in the room, that of his daughter and of a strange man.
+Peeping stealthily through the folds of the draperies, he now beheld to
+his fury and amazement the Duchess alone with his page Guiscard. But the
+descendant of Robert the Wiseacre well knew how to temper vengeance with
+dissimulation. Dreading the scandal that would follow an open exposure,
+the Prince, in spite of his years and the stiffness of his joints,
+contrived to quit the chamber unperceived by means of a convenient window.
+That very night the unsuspecting Guiscard was seized by his sovereign's
+orders and thrust into a foul dungeon of the palace, whither Tancred
+himself descended to question his prisoner and to reprove him violently
+for his base ingratitude. But the unhappy page could only make repeated
+answer: "Sire, love hath greater powers than you or I!" On the following
+morning Tancred proceeded to visit the Duchess, still ignorant of her
+paramour's fate, and in a voice strangled with the conflicting emotions of
+paternal love and desired vengeance bitterly upbraided his erring child.
+"Daughter, I had such an opinion of your modesty and virtue, that I could
+never have believed, had I not seen it with mine own eyes, that you would
+have violated either, even so much as in thought. The recollection of this
+will make the pittance of life that is left very grievous to me. As you
+were determined to act in that manner, would to Heaven you had made choice
+of a person more suitable to your own quality; but this Guiscard is one of
+the meanest persons about my court. This gives me such concern, that I
+scarce know what to do. As for him, he was secured by my order last night,
+and his fate is determined. But with regard to yourself, I am influenced
+by two different motives: on one side, the tenderest regard that a father
+can have for a child; and on the other, the justest vengeance for the
+great folly you have committed. One pleads strongly in your behalf; and
+the other would excite me to do an act contrary to my nature. But before I
+come to a resolution, I would fain hear what you have to say for
+yourself."
+
+Seeing clearly from her father's words that her secret had been discovered
+and that her lover was in prison, the intrepid Ghismonda, a true daughter
+of the high-spirited House of Hauteville, assuming a composure she was
+very far from feeling, made a dignified appeal on behalf of Guiscard and
+herself.
+
+"Father, it is not my purpose either to deny or to entreat; for as the one
+can avail me nothing, so I intend the other shall be of little service. I
+will by no means bespeak your love and tenderness towards me; but shall
+first, by an open confession, endeavour to vindicate myself, and thus do
+what the greatness of my soul prompts me to. It is most true that I have
+loved, and do still love Guiscard; and whilst I live, which will not be
+long, shall continue to love him; and if such a thing as love be after
+death, I shall never cease to love him.... It appears from what you say,
+that you would have been less incensed if I had made choice of a nobleman,
+and you bitterly reproach me for having condescended to a man of low
+condition. In this you speak according to vulgar prejudice, and not
+according to truth; nor do you perceive that the fault you blame is not
+mine, but Fortune's, who often exalts the unworthy, and leaves the
+worthiest in low estate. But, not to dwell on such considerations, look a
+little into first principles, and you will see that we are all formed of
+the same material and by the same hand. The first difference amongst
+mankind, who are all born equal, was made by virtue; they who were
+virtuous were deemed noble, and the rest were all accounted otherwise.
+Though this law, therefore, may have been obscured by contrary custom, yet
+is it discarded neither by nature nor good manners. If you regard only the
+worth and virtue of your courtiers, and consider that of Guiscard, you
+will find him the only noble person, and these others a set of poltroons.
+With regard to his worth and valour, I appeal to yourself. Who ever
+commended man more for anything that was praise-worthy than you have
+commended him? And deservedly, in my judgment; but if I was deceived, it
+was by following your opinion. If you say, then, that I have had an affair
+with a person base and ignoble, I deny it; if with a poor one, it is to
+your shame to have let such merit go unrewarded. Now concerning your last
+doubt, namely how you are to deal with me: use your pleasure. If you are
+disposed to commit an act of cruelty, I shall say nothing to prevent such
+a resolution. But this I must apprise you of; that unless you do the same
+to me, which you either have done, or mean to do to Guiscard, mine own
+hands shall do it for you. If you mean to act with severity, cut us off
+both together, if it appear to you that we have deserved it."
+
+The Duchess' able defence of her choice of Guiscard and her democratic
+views of society were hardly likely to influence the proud tyrant of
+Salerno, although his house was sprung from a plebeian stock of Normandy.
+Ignoring her plea and arguments, Tancred left his daughter alone with her
+grief, and proceeded to the cells below to give the order for Guiscard's
+immediate death by strangling. But Tancred's fury was by no means appeased
+by the page's death, for tearing the unhappy youth's heart from the warm
+and still quivering body, the brutal prince had the bleeding flesh placed
+in a golden covered cup, which he bade his chamberlain deliver to
+Ghismonda, with these cruel words: "Your father sends this present to
+comfort you with what was most dear to you; even as he was comforted by
+you in what was most dear to him." With a calm countenance and with a
+gracious word of thanks, the Princess accepted the gift, and on removing
+the cover and realising the contents of the cup, said with meaning to the
+bearer of this gruesome present: "My father has done very wisely; such a
+heart as this requires no worse a sepulchre than one of gold." Then after
+lamenting for a while over her lover's fate, Ghismonda filled the goblet
+with a draught of poison that she had already prepared in anticipation of
+her father's vengeance, and quaffed its contents. After this she lay down
+upon her bed, clasping the cup to her bosom, whereupon her maids, all
+ignorant of the cause of their mistress' conduct, ran terrified to call
+Prince Tancred, who arrived in time to witness his unhappy daughter's
+death agony. Now that it was too late, the Prince was stricken with
+remorse and began loudly to bewail the violence of his late anger. "Sire,"
+said the dying Princess, "save those tears against worse fortune that may
+happen, for I want them not. Who but yourself would mourn for a thing of
+your own doing?" Then dropping her tone of irony, she made one last
+request of her weeping and repentant father, that her own and Guiscard's
+bodies might be honourably interred within the same tomb. Thus perished by
+her own hand the beautiful Princess Ghismonda of Salerno, Duchess of
+Capua, urged to the fell deed by a parent's inexorable cruelty. And it is
+some slight consolation to the sad ending of the story to learn that
+Tancred did at least carry out his daughter's dying entreaty, for the
+bodies of Ghismonda and Guiscard were duly laid in one grave amidst the
+pomp of religion and the cold comfort of a public mourning.(7)
+
+
+                               * * * * * *
+
+
+But the sun has long since sunk below the horizon, and the chill dews of
+night are falling round us. Hastily we leave the old palace of the princes
+of Salerno to the solitary occupation of the bats and owls, to seek warmth
+and cheerfulness in our inn upon the Marina.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER IX
+
+
+                  PAESTUM AND THE GLORY THAT WAS GREECE
+
+
+In these days of easy travelling there lies a choice of two routes to
+Paestum and its temples: one by driving thither direct from La Cava or
+Salerno, in the mode of our forefathers; and the other by taking the train
+to the little junction of Battipaglia, and thence proceeding southward by
+the coast line to the station of Pesto itself, that stands almost within a
+stone's throw of the chief gate of Poseidonia. A third, and perhaps a
+preferable way, consists in using the railway beyond Battipaglia to Eboli,
+a town of no little interest in the upper valley of the Silarus, and
+thence driving along the base of the rocky hills that enclose the maritime
+plain and through the oak wood of Persano that was brigand-haunted within
+living memory. But though the scenery between Eboli and Paestum
+undoubtedly owns more charm and variety than the marshy flats can boast,
+yet the strange loneliness of the sea-girt level has a fascination of its
+own, which will appeal strongly to all lovers of pristine undisturbed
+nature. For the larger portion of these Lucanian plains still remains
+uncultivated, so that thickets of fragrant wild myrtle and lentisk, of
+coronella and of white-blossomed laurustinus, stud the landscape; whilst
+the open ground is thickly covered with masses of hardy but gay flowering
+weeds. The great star-thistles run to seed unchecked by the scythe, and
+the belled cerinthia and the glaucous-leaved tall yellow mulleins seem to
+thrive heartily on the barren soil. Boggy ground alternates with patches
+of dry stony earth, and in early summer every little pool of water affords
+sustenance to coarse-scented white water-lilies, and clumps of the yellow
+iris that are over-shadowed by masses of tall graceful reeds. These
+_arundini_, which are to be found near every water-course or pool
+throughout Italy, are characteristic of the country with their broad grey
+leaves, their heads of pink feathery bloom, and their mournful whispering
+answers to the question of every passing breeze; elegant in their growth,
+they are also beloved by the practical peasant who utilizes their long
+slender stems for a variety of purposes in his domestic economy. For the
+reeds, stripped of their foliage, support his tender young vines and make
+good frame-work whereon to train his peas and tomatoes; the longest canes
+of all, moreover, serve well as handles for the long feather brushes which
+are used so extensively in all Italian households. Other floral denizens
+of the plain are the great rank _porri_, or wild leeks, conspicuous with
+their bright green curling leaves issuing from globe-like roots above the
+ground, and of course, the asphodel, the plant of Death. For the asphodel
+is pre-eminently the flower of Southern Italy and of Sicily, since it
+presents a fit emblem of a departed grandeur that is still impressive in
+its decay. How beautiful to the eye appear the dark grey-green sword-like
+leaves from the centre of which up-shoots the tall branching stem with its
+clusters of delicate pink-striped blossoms, that show so lovely yet smell
+so vile! Apart from its fetid odour, the asphodel is a thing of intense
+beauty, so that a long line of these plants in full bloom, covering some
+ridge of orange-coloured tufa or the velvety-grey crest of some ancient
+wall, with their spikes of starry flowers standing out distinct like
+floral candelabra against the clear blue of a southern sky, makes an
+impression upon the beholder that will ever be gratefully remembered.
+
+But flowers and shrubs are not the only occupants of the Poseidonian
+plain, for as we proceed on our way towards the Temples, we notice in the
+drier pastures large herds of the long-horned dove-coloured cattle of the
+country, whilst in marshy places our interest is aroused by the sight of
+great shaggy buffaloes of sinister mien. The buffalo has long been
+acclimatized in Italy, though its original home seems to have been the
+trackless marshes of the Tigris and Euphrates. The conquering Arabs first
+introduced these uncouth Eastern cattle into Sicily, whence they were
+imported into Italy by the Norman kings of Naples. In spite of its
+malevolent nature and the poor quality of its flesh and hide, the buffalo
+came to be extensively bred in the Pontine and Lucanian marshes, where the
+moisture of the soil and the unwholesome air always affected the native
+herds unfavourably. For hours together these fierce untameable beasts love
+to lie amidst the swampy reed-beds, wallowing up to their flanks in slimy
+malodorous mud and seemingly impervious to the ceaseless attacks of the
+local wasps and gad-flies, which try in vain to penetrate with their
+barbed stings the thick hairy covering of defence. Perchance between
+Battipaglia and Paestum we may encounter a herd of these shaggy beeves
+being driven by a peasant on horse-back, with his _pungolo_ or small lance
+in hand: a human being that in his goat-skin breeches and with his
+luxuriant untrimmed locks, seems to our eyes only one degree less savage
+and unkempt than the fierce beasts he guides. As cultivation has made
+progress of recent years and the unhealthy marshes of the coast line are
+being gradually drained, the numbers of buffalo tend to decrease, whilst
+the native Italian oxen are being introduced once more into the newly
+reclaimed pastures. That former arch-enemy of the cattle in the days of
+Vergil seems to have disappeared: that "flying pest," the _asilo_ of the
+Romans and the _aestrum_ of the Greeks, which in antique times was wont to
+drive the grazing herds frantic with terror and pain, until the valley of
+the Tanager and the Alburnian woods re-echoed with the agonised lowing of
+the poor tortured creatures. And speaking of noxious insects, a general
+belief prevails in Italy that their bite--as well as that of snakes and
+scorpions--becomes more acute and dangerous when the sun enters into the
+sign of Lion, so that human beings, as well as defenceless cattle, must
+carefully avoid all chances of being bitten during the months of July and
+August.
+
+Before our goal can be reached it is necessary for us to cross the broad
+willow-fringed stream of the Sele, the Silarus of antiquity, which
+according to the testimony of Silius Italicus once possessed the property
+of petrifying wood. In the distant days of the eighteenth century, the
+traveller to Paestum had to endure amidst other difficulties and dangers
+of the road the disagreeable business of being ferried across the Sele,
+which was then bridgeless. Owing to the malaria and the loneliness of the
+spot, the acting of ferryman over this river was not an agreeable post,
+and Count Stolberg, a German dilettante who has left some memories of his
+Italian wanderings, relates how a feeble dismal soured old man, a
+veritable Charon of the upper air, had great difficulty in conveying
+himself, his horse and his servant across the swollen stream. The old
+man's age and misery aroused the Count's compassion, so that he asked him
+why he continued thus to perform a task at once so arduous and so
+distasteful. "Sir," replied the boatman, "I would gladly be excused, but
+that my master compels me to undertake this work." "And who, pray, is this
+tyrant of a master of yours?" indignantly enquired the Count. "Sir, it is
+my Lord Poverty!" grimly answered the old ferryman, as he pocketed the
+Teuton's fee. Times have changed with regard to the necessity of a ferry
+over the Sele, but to judge from the appearance of the people and from the
+accounts in the journals, we much doubt if my Lord Poverty's sway has been
+much weakened in these parts.
+
+At length we reach the tiny hamlet and station of Pesto, surrounded by its
+groves of mournful eucalyptus trees, and if we visit the station itself,
+we cannot help noticing the fine gauze net-work over every window and
+door, also the veiled faces and be-gloved hands of the station-master and
+his _facchini_. It is not difficult to gauge the reason of the eucalyptus
+trees at Pesto, an alien importation like the buffalo, for these native
+trees of Australia have been planted here with the avowed object of
+reducing the malaria, for which the place is only too renowned. Scientists
+have positively declared that the mosquitoes which rise in clouds from the
+poisonous swamps at sunset are directly responsible for this terrible form
+of ague, and a paternal Government has accordingly introduced gum-trees to
+improve the quality of the air, and has presented gloves, veils and fine
+lattice work to its servants in the hope of protecting them from the bites
+of these tiny pestilence-bearing insects. We do not wish to dispute the
+wisdom of modern bacteriologists, but somehow we have no great faith in
+this elaborate scheme for battling with Nature; and indeed not a few
+persons who have studied the matter declare that though the reeking
+marshes are certainly productive of malaria in themselves (so much so that
+it is dangerous to linger amidst the ruined temples of an evening), yet
+these spiteful little creatures are at least innocent of innoculating
+humanity with this particular disease. Moreover, a plausible idea that is
+now largely held insists that the recent spread of cultivation over the
+Lucanian Plain is itself largely responsible for the increase of malaria;
+it is the up-turning of the germ-impregnated earth that has lain fallow
+for centuries, say the supporters of this theory, which awakens and sets
+free the slumbering demon of fever in the soil, so that the speeding of
+the plough on the Neapolitan coast must inevitably mean also the spreading
+of this fell and mysterious sickness. Let us therefore give the devil his
+due: the mosquito is a hateful and persistent foe, and his sting is both
+painful and disfiguring, but do not let us accuse him of carrying malaria
+until the case can be better proved against him. But enough of fevers and
+doctors' saws! Let us turn our willing eyes towards the three great
+temples that confront us close at hand. Before however proceeding to
+inspect these great monuments of Grecian art and civilization, which rank
+amongst the most venerable as well as the most beautiful relics of
+antiquity, it is only meet that we should carry with us into their ruined
+halls a few grains of historical knowledge, whereby our sense of reality
+and our appreciation of their greatness and splendour may be increased.
+
+  [Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE, PAESTUM]
+
+Although we do not possess a definite history of Paestum, similar to that
+of Rome or of Athens, yet from the many allusions to be found scattered
+throughout the pages of classical historians, as well as from the various
+inscriptions and devices found upon ancient coins of this city, it is not
+a difficult task to piece together the main features of Poseidonian
+annals. From a very remote period of antiquity there was undoubtedly a
+settlement on or near the coast to the south of the river Silarus, whilst
+it is commonly held that this spot was called Peste--a name almost
+identical with the modern Italian appellation--many hundreds of years
+before the arrival of Doric settlers on the shores of the Tyrrhene Sea.
+Late in the seventh century before Christ, the Greek colony of Poseidonia,
+the city of the Sea God, was founded on or near the site of Italian Peste
+by certain Hellenic adventurers from Troezen, who were amongst the
+inhabitants of Sybaris, at that time one of the most flourishing of the
+famous cities of Magna Graecia: and this new colony of Troezenians
+henceforward was accounted one of the twenty-five subject-towns that
+recognised Sybaris for their metropolis, or mother and suzerain city. We
+have no details of its early history, but it is quite certain that under
+the protection of Sybaris the new city of Poseidonia rose by degrees to
+such wealth and importance that in course of time it gave its own name to
+the whole Bay of Salerno, which henceforth became known to the Greeks as
+the Poseidonian Gulf and later, to the Romans, as the Bay of Paestum. With
+the fall of the mother city, this flourishing colony was left alone to
+face the attacks of the Samnites, the native barbarians who peopled the
+dense forests and the barren mountains of Lucania; yet it somehow
+contrived to retain its independence until the close of the fourth century
+B.C., when the Samnite hordes, forcing the fortified line of the Silarus,
+made themselves masters of Poseidonia, and put an end, practically for
+ever, to its existence as a purely Hellenic city. From its Lucanian
+masters the captured town received the name of Paestum, and its
+inhabitants were at once deprived of their independence, were forbidden to
+carry arms, and were probably in many instances reduced to the level of
+serfs. A large number of Samnites also settled within the walls of the
+town, and compelled the former owners to surrender to them the larger and
+richer portion of the public and private lands upon the maritime plain.
+The use of the Hellenic language and public worship were however
+permitted, and, strange to relate, no interference was made with a solemn
+annual festival, which the depressed and enslaved population now
+inaugurated with the confessed object of remembering for ever their Greek
+origin and their former greatness. For once a year at a fixed date all
+Greeks were wont to gather together and to bewail in public, outside the
+great temple of Poseidon, their lost liberty and their vanished power. It
+is evident that the Lucanians did not fear the tears and lamentations of
+this unhappy subject state, for this custom continued to be observed
+throughout the whole period of Samnite oppression, and survived even till
+Roman times--perhaps to the very end of the city's existence,--although in
+the course of passing generations there could have been but few persons of
+pure Greek descent left in the place.
+
+With the advent of Alexander of Epirus, who had been called into Italy by
+the Greeks of Tarentum in order to assist the sorely-pressed colonies of
+Magna Graecia, Epirot troops were landed at the mouth of the Silarus.
+Under the very walls of Paestum there now took place a stubborn fight
+wherein the army of the Samnites was completely routed, and its survivors
+driven in confusion from the coast into the wild woods and rocky valleys
+of the Lucanian hills. For a brief interval of years Poseidonia regained
+its lost liberty and its Hellenic name, but with the overthrow and death
+of Alexander of Epirus, the scattered hordes pressed down once more from
+their mountain fastnesses upon the rich plain, and the city was for the
+second time enslaved by the ruder conquering race. Forty years later,
+after the Pyrrhine war, all Lucania fell under the rising power of Rome, a
+change that was by no means unacceptable to the Greek cities, which were
+groaning under the rude tyranny of the Samnites. A Latin colony was now
+planted at Paestum, to form a convenient centre whence the neighbouring
+district could be kept in order and peaceably developed according to Roman
+ideas. These Roman colonists, although they did not restore the lands and
+buildings held by the expelled Samnites to their rightful owners, yet
+lived on terms of amity with the Greek population, with whom they must
+have freely intermarried. The original Hellenic inhabitants, relieved of
+the bonds of servitude, were now placed on an equal footing with the new
+colonists, partaking of political rights in the city thus freshly
+re-created under the supremacy of Rome, and soon they grew to imitate the
+speech and manners of their new masters, so that as an immediate result of
+the expulsion of the barbaric Samnites and the entry of the progressive
+Romans, Paestum began to recover a considerable portion of its ancient
+splendour.
+
+During the course of the second Punic War the name of Paestum is not
+unfrequently mentioned in Roman annals, and owing its revived prosperity
+to its annexation by Rome, it is not surprising to find the existence of a
+strong feeling of gratitude amongst the inhabitants. At the date of fatal
+Cannae this faithful Greek city sent assurances of unswerving allegiance to
+the Senate, and also more substantial help in the form of all the golden
+vessels from its temples. It was Paestum also that early in the third
+century B.C. supplied part of the ill-fated fleet of Decius Quinctius,
+that was raised to run the blockade of Tarentum. But even the loss of its
+ships and men did not deter this loyal city from coming forward a second
+time with expressions of fealty and promise of further aid to the great
+suzerain city in this dark hour of its difficulties. From this point
+onward till the close of the Republic, History is almost silent with
+regard to Paestum; but its numerous coins go far to attest its continued
+welfare, for it now shared, together with Venusia, Brundusium and Vibo
+Valentia, a special right to strike money in its own name and with its own
+devices. Under the Empire, Paestum managed to uphold its size and
+importance, so that it became the capital of one of the eight Prefectures
+into which the district of Lucania had been divided. At this period, there
+can be no doubt, the surrounding plain was in the highest state of
+cultivation, whilst its prolific rose-gardens--_biferi rosaria Paesti_--have
+supplied the theme of every Roman poet from Vergil to Ausonius. Yet in
+spite of its apparent prosperity, the seeds of coming decline had already
+been sown. Strabo tells us that even in early Imperial days the city was
+obtaining an unenviable reputation for malaria: a circumstance that was
+due to the over-flowing of the unwholesome streamlet, the Salso, whose
+reeking and fever-bearing waters began to impregnate the earth.
+Engineering works on a large scale were planned to remedy this drawback,
+but these were never executed, and in consequence the unhealthiness of the
+place increased. With the decline of the Roman power the population and
+prosperity of Paestum likewise tended to lessen, so that its citizens were
+placed in a worse position than before with regard to the carrying out of
+this vast but necessary scheme of sanitation.
+
+In a spot so accessible to external influence, it is easy to understand
+that Christianity early took root in Paestum, which in the fifth century
+of our own era had already become a bishopric. The story of the growth of
+the Faith in Lucania is closely connected with a legend that centres round
+a native of the place, a certain Gavinius, a general in the army of the
+Emperor Valentinian, who whilst serving in Britain against the Picts by
+some means succeeded in obtaining a valuable relic, supposed to be nothing
+less than the body of the Apostle Matthew, which he brought back with him
+to his native place. Early in the ninth century there appeared a fresh
+cause of alarm, more serious and far-reaching even than the dreaded
+malaria, for plundering Saracens, foes alike to the old Roman civilisation
+and to the new Christian creed, now began to harass the Tyrrhenian shores.
+Settling at Agropoli to the south of the Bay, these Oriental freebooters
+found little difficulty in effecting a landing on the Poseidonian beach,
+and in raiding the weakened and almost defenceless city. Able-bodied men
+and young maidens were forcibly carried off to the pirates' nest at
+Agropoli, or perhaps even to the distant coast of Barbary, to be sold into
+perpetual slavery. Alarmed beyond measure by this raid, the remaining
+inhabitants of the place, at the advice and under the guidance of their
+bishop, now decided--wisely, for they had to choose between immediate
+flight or gradual extermination by disease, slavery and the sword--to
+remove themselves to the barren mountains in their rear, once the haunts
+of the Samnites, and to build a new Paestum on a site at once more healthy
+and better protected by Nature against the raids of infidel corsairs. In a
+body therefore the remaining citizens amid deep wailing left for ever the
+ancient city with its glorious temples, and retired to a strong position
+to the east. The spot chosen for the new residence of these exiles lay
+close to the source that supplied with pure water their ancient aqueduct,
+known for this reason as Caputaqueum, now corrupted into Capaccio. A link
+with the old city, that lay deserted in the plain below, was still
+retained by the bishop of the newly founded town in the mountains, who
+continued to be known as _Episcopus Paestanus_. In the eleventh century
+Robert Guiscard systematically plundered the ruins of Paestum in order to
+erect or embellish the churches and palaces of Salerno and Amalfi. Every
+remaining piece of sculpture and of marble was removed, and it was only
+the vast size of the pillars of the three great temples, and the
+consequent difficulty attending their transport by boat across the bay or
+along the marshy ground of the coast line, that saved from destruction
+these magnificent relics of "the glory that was Greece." But even humble
+Capaccio did not afford a final resting-place to the harried Paestani, for
+in the year 1245 the great Emperor Frederick II., who had been defied by
+the feudal Counts of Capaccio, besieged and utterly destroyed this
+stronghold of the mountains that had been the child of Poseidonia of the
+sea-girt plains. Another and a yet loftier retreat had to be sought by the
+survivors of the Imperial vengeance, so that the ruined Capaccio the Old
+was abandoned for another settlement, which still exists as a miserable
+village amidst those barren hills that had ever looked down with jealous
+envy upon the proud city with its pillared temples. One curious
+circumstance with regard to Paestum must finally be mentioned, in that the
+existence of its ruins, the grandest and most ancient group of monuments
+on the mainland of Italy, remained unknown to the learned world until
+comparatively modern times. Only the local peasants and the inhabitants of
+the poverty-stricken towns in the Lucanian hills seem to have been aware
+of the presence of the gigantic temples standing in lonely majesty by the
+shore and as the superstitious nature of these ignorant people attributed
+these structures to the work of a magician--perhaps to the great wizard
+Vergil himself--they were shunned both by night and by day as the haunt of
+malignant spirits. Poor fisher-folk and buffalo-drivers, who had of
+necessity to pass near the ruined fanes, were wont to slink by in fear and
+trembling, and doubtless they brought back strange stories of its ghostly
+occupants with which they regaled their friends or families by the
+fire-side of a winter's evening. Yet it is most strange that during the
+period of the Renaissance, at a time when enthusiastic research was being
+made into the neglected antiquities of Italy, this unique group of Doric
+temples should have escaped notice. For neither Cyriaco of Ancona nor
+Leandro Alberti, who visited Lucania ostensibly for the sake of recording
+its classical remains, make mention of "the ruined majesty of Paestum,"
+and it was reserved for a certain Count Gazola (whose name is certainly
+worthy of being recorded), an officer in the service of the Neapolitan
+King, to present to the notice of scholars and archaeologists towards the
+middle of the eighteenth century the first known description of what is
+perhaps Italy's chief existing treasure of antiquity. From Gazola's day
+onward the beauty and interest of Paestum have been appraised at their
+true worth, and numberless artists and writers of almost every nationality
+have sketched or described its marvellous temples.
+
+With this brief introduction to the history of a city, whose chief
+building is still standing almost intact after a lapse of 2500 years, let
+us take a rapid survey of Poseidonia as it exists to-day. Its walls, of
+Greek construction but probably built or restored as late as the time of
+Alexander of Epirus, who gave the captured town a fleeting spell of
+liberty, form an irregular pentagon about three miles in circumference,
+whereon the remains of eight towers can be observed, whilst the four
+gates, placed at the four cardinal points of the compass, are clearly
+traceable. We enter this _citta morta_ by the so-called Porta della
+Sirena, the eastern gate that faces the hostile Samnite Hills and (oh, the
+prosaic touch!) the modern railway-station. This gate remains in a
+tolerable state of preservation, and draws its name from the key-stone of
+its arch, which bears in low relief a much defaced design of a mermaid or
+siren, its counterpart on the inner keystone being a dolphin: two devices
+very appropriate to the entrance of a city dedicated to the Lord of Ocean.
+Passing the picturesque yellow-washed Villa Salati, with its high walls
+and iron-barred windows testifying only too plainly to the lawlessness
+that once reigned in this district, we find ourselves face to face with
+the great temple of Neptune or Poseidon, and its companion-fane, the
+so-called Basilica. The Temple of Neptune (for in this instance at least
+the popular appellation chances to be the correct one), in all probability
+co-eval with the first Greek foundation of the city, formed the central
+point of the life of Poseidonia during the 1400 years of its existence as
+a Hellenic, a Samnite, and finally a Roman city. In its simple grandeur
+and its perfect proportions this wonderful temple possesses only one rival
+outside Greece itself: the Temple of Concord at Girgenti, which the poet
+Goethe compared to a god, after designating the building before us as a
+giant. Superiority in grace is therefore a disputed point between the two
+great structures of Poseidonia and Agrigentum, yet in every other respect
+the temple of the Lucanian Plain surpasses its Sicilian rival.
+
+To-day, after more than a score of centuries of exposure to the salt winds
+and to the burning sunshine of the south, the walls and pillars of these
+great buildings have been calcined to a glorious shade of tawny yellow,
+fit to delight the soul of every artist, whether he views their Titanic
+but graceful forms outlined against the deep blue of sky and sea on the
+western horizon, or against the equally lovely background of grey and
+violet mountains to the east. But it was not always thus. The porous local
+travertine that gave their building material to the Greeks of the sixth
+century before Christ was once carefully stuccoed, and, in the manner of
+Hellenic art, painted in the most brilliant hues of azure and vermilion,
+so that it becomes hard for us to realise the original effect of such
+gorgeous masses standing erect in a landscape that is itself fraught with
+glowing colour. But better to appreciate the magnificence before us, let
+us give a brief technical description of the greatest of the temples in
+the choice words of an eminent French antiquary.
+
+"The largest and most elegant, and likewise the oldest of the Temples of
+Paestum, is that commonly known by the name of the Temple of Neptune. This
+building shares, together with the Temple of Theseus at Athens, the honour
+of being the best preserved monument of the Doric order in existence, and
+the impression of grandeur that it gives to the spectator rivals even the
+first sight of the Parthenon itself. In front of the building is a
+platform in the midst of which can be seen the hollow space that formerly
+held the altar of sacrifice, for according to the practice of the Greek
+religion, these rites of blood-shedding took place in the open air and
+outside the temple. With a length of 190 feet and a breadth of 84 feet,
+this building is hypoethral, which means that the _cella_, or sanctuary
+that held the statue of the deity, was constructed open to the sky. It is
+peripteral, and presents a row of six pillars fluted at base and top, with
+twelve on each side, making thirty-six in all. The _cella_ itself in the
+interior is upheld by sixteen columns about six feet in diameter, which in
+their turn are surmounted by two rows of smaller pillars above that
+support the roof. With the exception of one side of the upper stage of the
+interior every column of the temple remains intact, as do likewise the
+entablature and pediments. Only the wall of the _cella_ has been pulled
+down; doubtless to supply material for building."(8)
+
+Having quoted Monsieur Lenormant's careful description of the chief pride
+of Poseidonia, we shall confine ourselves to as few remarks as possible
+concerning the two remaining temples. The Basilica, a misnomer of which
+the veriest amateur must at once perceive the absurdity, is inferior both
+in size and in beauty of proportion to its close neighbour of Neptune. Its
+chief peculiarity from an architectural point of view will be at once
+remarked, for it has its two facades composed of seven--an odd number--of
+columns, so that its interior easily divides itself into two narrow
+chambers of equal length, affording ample ground for the theory, now
+generally held, that this building was not a hall of Justice, or
+_Basilica_, but a temple intended expressly for the worship of dual
+divinities. Almost without a doubt it was erected--probably not long after
+the Temple of Poseidon--in honour of Demeter (Ceres) and of her only child
+Persephone (Proserpine), who was seized from her mother's care by the
+amorous god of the Infernal Regions, as she was plucking anemones in the
+verdant meadows of Enna. We all know "the old sweet mythos"; we all
+understand its hidden allegory with regard to the sowing, the up-springing
+and the garnering of the yellow corn, that spends half the year in the
+embraces of the earth, the palace of Pluto, and half the year on the broad
+loving bosom of Mother Demeter. Here then within these bare and ruined
+walls were mother and daughter worshipped by the people of Poseidonia, who
+reasonably considered that the two goddesses of the Earth should have
+their habitation as near as possible to the Sanctuary of the Sovereign of
+Ocean.
+
+Much smaller than either of these immense temples is the third remaining
+Greek building of Paestum, which lies a good quarter of a mile to the
+north, not far from the Golden Gate, the Porta Aurea, that leads northward
+in the direction of Salerno. Like that of Neptune, this temple is
+hexastyle, with six columns on each of its facades and twelve on either
+flank, but as it is little more than half the size of its grander and
+older brethren, it is now frequently known as "Il Piccolo Tempio,"
+although its former incorrect ascription to Ceres still clings to it in
+popular parlance. It is from this building, which stands on slightly
+rising ground, that the best impression of the whole city and of its
+wondrous setting between the savage Lucanian hills and the blue
+Mediterranean can be obtained.
+
+  "Between the mountains and the tideless sea
+  Stretches a plain where silence reigns supreme;
+  A land of asphodel and weeds that teem
+  Where once a city's life ran joyfully.
+  'Vanity! Vanity! All Vanity!'
+  Whisper the winds to Sele's murmuring stream;
+  Whilst the vast temples preach th' eternal theme,
+  How pass the glories and their memory.
+  Think what these ruins saw! what songs and cries
+  Once through these roofless colonnades did ring!
+  What crowds here gathered, where the all-seeing skies
+  For centuries have watched the daisies spring!
+  Dead all within this crumbling circle lies:
+  Dead as the roses Roman bards did sing."
+
+Beautiful as Paestum presents itself in the bright noontide of a Spring
+day, beneath a cloudless sky and with the blue waters of the Mediterranean
+lapping the distant yellow sands, there appears something incongruous in
+the sharp contrast between this joyfulness of vigorous life and the solemn
+atmosphere of the deserted city. The noisy twittering of multitudes of
+ubiquitous sparrows, equally at home in Doric temples as amongst the sooty
+chimney stacks of London; the twinklings and rustlings of the lizards in
+the young leaves and grass; the polyglot babble of excursionists from
+Naples or La Cava that a warm day in Spring invariably attracts to
+Paestum:--these are not sounds that blend well with the solemn spirit of
+the place. We long to cross the intervening ages so as to throw ourselves,
+if only for one short hour, outside the cares and interests of to-day into
+the heart of that refined civilisation which is gone for ever;--with the
+cheerful sunlight around us, and with our fellow-mortals on pleasure bent
+close at hand, we find it difficult to forget the present. Would it be
+possible, we ask ourselves, to spend a nocturnal vigil within the hall of
+the great temple of the Sea God, so as to behold, like that undaunted
+traveller, Crawford Ramage, the shafts of crystalline moonlight shed
+through the aperture of the roof leap from pillar to pillar, making bars
+of brilliant light amidst the surrounding blackness! O to sit and meditate
+thus engrossed with the memory of the past, and with no other sounds
+around us than the sad cry of the _aziola_, the little downy owl that
+Shelley so loved! But the gaunt spectre of Fever ever haunts this spot,
+and after sunset his power is supreme; so that he would be a bold man
+indeed who in an age of luxury and selfish comfort would carry out an idea
+at once so romantic and so perilous.
+
+We ourselves were especially fortunate on the occasion of our last visit
+to Poseidonia on a mild day in December, a month which on the Lucanian
+shore somewhat resembles a northern October. A soft luminous haze hung
+over the landscape and over the Bay of Salerno itself, rendering the
+classic mountains at once indistinct in outline and unnaturally lofty to
+the eye. More grandiose and mysterious than under the fierce light of a
+sunny noontide appeared that day the three giant pillared forms, as we
+entered the precincts of the ruined city by the Siren's Gate, and made our
+way through the thick herbage still pearled with dew, since there was
+neither sunshine nor sirocco to dry "the tears of mournful Eve" off the
+clumps of silver-glinted acanthus, or the tall grasses bending with the
+moisture. In the warm humid air we seated ourselves on the plinth of a
+column, and gazing around allowed the influence of this marvellous spot to
+sink deep into the soul. No tourists with unseemly or unnecessary chatter
+arrived that day to share our selfish delight or to break the
+all-pervading spell of solitude; all lay peaceful and deserted. All was
+silent too save for the low monotonous sobbing of the sea on the unseen
+beach near at hand, the historic beach on which at various times
+throughout the roll of past ages Doric colonists, Epirot warriors, Roman
+legionaries and fierce Mohammedan pirates had disembarked, all with the
+same object:--to seize the proud city that had now for the last thousand
+years lain uninhabited, save for the owls and the bats. It was too cloudy
+a day for sun-loving creatures such as lizards or serpents to emerge and
+rustle amongst the broken stones and leaves, over all of which during the
+silent hours of the past night Arachne had been employed in weaving her
+softest and whitest textures, that the windless morning had allowed to
+remain intact. The only sign of animate life was visible in a pair of
+lively gold-finches, which with merry notes were fluttering from thistle
+to thistle, picking the down from each ripened flower-head and prodigally
+scattering the seeds upon the weed-grown soil where once had bloomed the
+odorous Roses of Paestum that the poets loved.
+
+Sitting thus amid the silence and solitude of a city half as old as Time
+itself, we were unexpectedly aroused by a gruff salutation proceeding from
+a little distance behind the temple. Turning quickly in the direction of
+the sound, we perceived the figure of a tall bearded man dressed in
+conical hat, with goat-skin trousers and cross-gartered legs, who but for
+the gun slung across his shoulders by a stout leathern strap might well
+have been mistaken for an apparition of the god Pan himself returned to
+earth. Vague recollections of the brigand Manzoni, the scourge of the
+neighbourhood and the murderer of more than one unhappy visitor to the
+ruins of Paestum in the good old _vetturino_ days, flashed through our
+mind, as we surveyed the muscular frame and the fowling-piece of the
+strange being before us. It was with a sigh of relief that we noted upon
+the straight stretch of white road leading to the Little Temple in the
+distance the presence of two royal _carabinieri_ majestically riding at a
+foot's pace, their tall forms enveloped in long black cloaks whose folds
+swept over their horses' tails. We felt reassured, and when for a second
+time the guttural voice addressed us in unintelligible _patois_, we
+perceived the innocent object of this mysterious visit. Searching in a
+capacious goat-skin bag, a species of Neapolitan sporran, this descendant
+of the Poseidonian Greeks produced and held up to our gaze three birds
+that he had shot in his morning's hunting. For the modest sum of three
+lire the game exchanged hands, and the sportsman departed, well satisfied
+with his luck. Next evening we feasted royally in our inn at Salerno upon
+a succulent woodcock fattened upon the berries of the wood of Persano, and
+upon a couple of snipe that had grown plump amongst the Neptunian marshes.
+Nor was this dainty addition to our supper that night altogether
+undeserved; for having decided in a momentary fit of enthusiasm to forego
+the usual basket of hotel food at the time of starting from Salerno, in
+order to follow the advice of old Evelyn "to diet with the natives," we
+had preferred to take our chance of midday refreshment at the solitary
+_osteria_ within the ruined city wall. The good people of the inn did what
+they could to regale the two _gran' signori Inglesi_, whose unexpected
+presence had the effect of creating some stir within their humble walls.
+No little time was expended in bustling preparations, before a flask of
+red wine, some coarse bread, a dish of fried eggs and a plateful of cold
+sausage were placed before us upon the rough oak table, well scored with
+knife-cuts. Eggs, wine and bread are usually tolerable everywhere
+throughout Italy, no matter how mean the inn that provides them; but the
+Lucanian sausage, though interesting as a relic of classical times, is
+positive poison to the Anglo-Saxon digestion. For the Lucanian sausage of
+to-day is the _Lucanica_ unchanged; the same tough, greasy, odoriferous
+compound, in fact, that Cicero describes as "an intestine, stuffed with
+minced pork, mixed with ground pepper, cummin, savory, rue, rock-parsley,
+berries of laurel, and suet." And we have only to add that mingling with
+the above-mentioned condiments there was an all-pervading flavour of
+wood-smoke, due to the sausage's place of storage, a hook within the
+kitchen chimney. But if the fare was rough, it was cheap and smacked of
+classical times, and our reception by the Paestani of to-day was most
+cordial.
+
+We left Poseidonia late in the afternoon, casting back many regretful
+glances at the three giant sentinels of the plain, looming preternaturally
+large in the rapidly fading light of a starless evening. At that hour we
+felt we could understand and sympathise with the poor untutored peasant's
+fear and avoidance of these lonely ruins, for superstition is often as
+much the result of chance environment as of crass ignorance.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER X
+
+
+                          SORRENTO AND ITS POET
+
+
+It has been said of more than one spot on this globe, that it was so
+beautiful in summer the marvel was to think any one could die there; and
+so wretched in winter, it was a miracle for its inhabitants to survive.
+Sorrento may be said to belong to this class of place, for the climate of
+its short winter is one of the most trying and inclement that can possibly
+be imagined, whilst during spring, summer and early autumn it well merits
+its local reputation as _il piccolo paradiso_ of the Bay of Naples, and
+its air is considered by Neapolitans as the "balm in Gilead" for every
+evil to which human flesh is heir. The Lactarian Mountains protect the
+plain of Sorrento in summer from the scorching rays of the sun, and lay
+their beneficent shadow for several hours of the long hot summer's day
+over the many thousands who dwell on the fertile Piano di Sorrento at
+their base. But in winter these same hills intercept the blessed sunshine,
+which is what most travellers speed southwards to obtain, and leave the
+coast line from Castellamare to the Punta di Sorrento with its northern
+aspect wrapped in shade and moisture, whilst the remainder of the Bay is
+still basking in the genial warmth, so that anything more miserable than a
+mid-winter sojourn in Sorrento it would be impossible to conceive. There
+are of course calm warm days to be met with even in December and January,
+but these are occasional and by no means dependable blessings, and the
+visitor who persists in taking up his abode here at this season of the
+year must prepare himself to experience cold, damp, wind and rain, without
+any of the contrivances or comforts of a northern winter. "One swallow
+does not make a summer," and on the same principle a southern latitude and
+the presence of orange groves do not necessarily imply a salubrious
+climate; indeed, the sub-tropical surroundings seem to add an extra degree
+of chilliness to the place. To sit at Christmastide in a large lofty room
+before a meagre fire of sputtering smoky logs, with Vesuvius wrapped from
+crest to base in a white mantle of new fallen snow, and with an icy
+_tramontana_ from the bleak Abruzzi howling round the house, bending the
+bay trees and penetrating into every corner of the chamber, is by no means
+the ideal picture of a winter in the Sunny South; yet this is only what
+the traveller must be prepared to face, and is very likely to obtain. Nor
+is the cold compensated for by any advantages in the neighbourhood itself,
+for there is but the high road from Castellamare which passes through the
+town and leads above the seashore to Massa Lubrense. It is all very well
+in its way, but in wet weather its surface is one sheet of slippery mud,
+and the streams pouring down the hillside make it chilly and damp for all
+who are not quick walkers. Besides this not very attractive and soon
+exploited walk, there are only the _vicoletti_, the narrow steep rocky
+paths running up hill, which make rough going and give little pleasure,
+for they are almost all bounded on either side by high stone walls that
+jealously exclude the view. So much for Sorrento in its winter dress. But
+when the spring comes, here truly is a transformation from cold and
+torpor! The soft warm air is redolent of the penetrating fragrance of
+orange blossom, of stocks, of jessamine, of wallflower, and of a hundred
+odorous plants and shrubs from each garden and grove behind the many
+obstructing walls. The balconies and gate-pillars are draped in scented
+masses of the beautiful wistaria, which in Italy produces its long pendant
+bunches of purple flowers before putting forth its bronze-coloured leaves.
+Cascades of white and yellow banksia roses fall over each confining
+barrier, or else their stems may be seen climbing like huge serpents up
+the trunks of pine and olive, to burst forth amidst the topmost boughs
+into floral rockets against the cloudless sky. The ravines with which the
+whole of the Piano di Sorrento is intersected are filled with a perfect
+jungle of fresh spring foliage, amidst whose varied tints of green appear
+here and there the bright red shoots of the pomegranate trees bursting
+into leaf. In the heavily perfumed air at dusk, or when the bright
+moonlight is flooding the whole scene and is turning the Bay into a mirror
+of molten silver, the song of the innumerable nightingales can be heard
+resounding from all sides; alas! too often sweet songs of sorrow for nests
+despoiled by the ruthless hands of young Sorrentine imps, as in the days
+of the Georgics.
+
+  "Qualis populea maerens Philomela sub umbra
+  Amissos queritur fetus, quos durus arator
+  Observans nido implumes detraxit, at illa
+  Flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen
+  Integrat, et moestis late loca questibus implet."
+
+  ("At nightfall hear sad Philomel upraise
+  Her mellow notes amid the dark-leaved bays,
+  Mourning her babes and desecrated bower,
+  Which some rough peasant robbed in evil hour;
+  She tells her story of despair and love,
+  Until her plaintive music fills the grove.")
+
+All is fragrant, warm, genial, and peaceful, save for the melancholy notes
+of poor ill-used Philomel, who is foolish enough to visit a cruel country,
+wherein every bird is merely regarded as a toothsome morsel for the family
+pot. We bird-lovers of Britain, with our Selborne Societies and our Wild
+Birds' Protection Acts, find it extremely difficult to understand the
+utter indifference displayed by Italians of all classes towards the
+feathered race. The whole of the beautiful country with its cypress hedges
+and olive groves lies almost mute and lifeless, for on every festival the
+fields and lanes are patrolled by bands of _cacciatori_ with dogs and guns
+on the look-out for game, if blackbirds and sparrows can be accounted
+such. In some districts it is even dangerous for pedestrians to use the
+roads on a Sunday, for fear of a stray bullet, since all, as a rule, fire
+recklessly at any creature within and out of range. Nor is this senseless
+war of extermination carried on merely with guns, for trapping is used
+extensively, and very ingenious and elaborate are some of the arts
+employed in this wretched quest. Every country house has its _uccellare_,
+or snare for the securing of small birds for the table, whilst many of the
+parish priests in the mountain districts add to their scanty incomes by
+catching the fledglings which the young peasants sell in the neighbouring
+market. The result is what might only naturally be expected--a scarcity of
+birds and an almost complete absence of song, for the whole countryside
+has been practically denuded of blackbirds and thrushes; even the
+nightingale has escaped destruction rather on account of its nocturnal
+habits than of its tiny size and exquisite notes. It is positively
+sickening to observe the quantities of slaughtered wild birds in an
+Italian market at any season of the year, for the work of devastation
+proceeds apace equally in spring time. Basketfuls of thrushes and
+blackbirds, and strings of smaller varieties--linnets, sparrows, robins,
+finches, even the diminutive gold-finches, most beautiful, most gay, and
+most innocent of all songsters--are being hawked about by leathern-lunged
+_contadini_, who, alas! always manage to find customers in plenty. No
+matter how melodious, how lovely, or how useful to the farmer a bird may
+be, no Italian, high or low, seems to have any sense or appreciation of
+its merits except as an article of food; it is merely a thing that
+requires to be caught, killed, cooked and eaten, and Providence has
+decreed its existence for no other purpose; even gold-finches in the eye
+of an Italian look better served on a skewer than when they are flying
+round the thistle-heads, uttering their bright musical notes and
+enlivening the dead herbage of winter with their gay plumage. _Che bel
+arrosto!_ (what a glorious dish!) sigh the romantic peasants, as they
+glance upward for a moment from their labour in the fields at the sound of
+the larks carolling overhead; and though an educated Italian would
+probably not give vent to so vulgar a remark, he would much prefer the
+_bel arrosto_ to the "profuse strains of unpremeditated art" that so
+entrance the northerner, who is in reality far more of a poet by nature
+than the more picturesque dweller of the South. _Tantum pro avibus._
+
+As summer advances, the delight of bathing in the limpid waters of the Bay
+is added to the other attractions of Sorrento, whilst many pleasant and
+profitable hours can be passed in reading or writing during the long
+midday rest in the cool airy carpetless and curtainless rooms, where on
+the frescoed ceilings there plays the green shimmer of light that
+penetrates through the closed bars of the _persiani_, the outside heavy
+wooden shutters that let in the sweet air, but somehow seem to exclude the
+intense heat. With the approach of sunset and the throwing open of
+casements to catch the westerly breeze, there comes a delightful ramble,
+perhaps an excursion on mule-back to the famous convent of the Deserto or
+some other point of interest; or else a row upon the glassy waters at our
+feet, to explore "Queen Joanna's Bath," or some strange caverns beyond the
+headland of Sorrento, well known to our boat-men. That is the true life of
+_dolce far niente_, but such an ideal existence can only be indulged in
+during summer time or in late spring; to pass a winter at Sorrento the
+heaviest of clothing, abundance of overcoats and rugs, hot-water bottles,
+cough drops, ammoniated quinine and all the usual adjuncts of a northern
+yule-tide must be carefully provided before-hand by the traveller, who is
+bold enough to tempt Providence by turning what is essentially a warm
+weather retreat into a place of winter residence.
+
+In early autumn also the place has its charms, in the days when the market
+is filled with stalls heaped with glowing masses of fruit, many of them
+unknown to us wanderers from the north. There are peaches that resemble
+our own fruit at home, and there are also great yellow flushed velvety
+globes, like the sun-kissed cheeks of a fair Sorrentina, that appear
+tempting to the eye, but are in reality tough as leather, for they are the
+_cotogni_ or quince-peaches of Italy, which to our feeble palates and
+digestions seem only fit for cooking, though the experienced native
+contrives to make them edible by soaking the fruit in wine. The moment he
+sits down to table, he carefully pares his _cotogne_ and cuts it into
+sections, which he drops into a glass of red wine where they repose until
+the meal is finished; by this time the fruit has become thoroughly
+saturated, and it is then eaten with apparent relish. There are hundreds
+of apples, some of a shining rich crimson and others of dull yellow
+peppered over with tiny black specks, the _renati_, highly prized by the
+natives for their delicate flavour and soft flesh. There are of course
+loads of grapes, varying from the little honey-tasting purple sort, that
+has been introduced from California, to the huge but somewhat insipid
+bunches of the white _Regina_; we note also the quaintly shaped "Ladies'
+Fingers," which are especially sweet. The figs, massed together in serried
+layers between fresh vine leaves and costing a _soldo_ the dozen, stand
+around in glossy purple pyramids, so luscious that their sugary tears are
+exuding from their skins, and so ripe that they seem to cry to be eaten
+before noon. Here is a barrow piled high with the little green fruit, each
+separate fig being decorated with a pink cyclamen stuck in its crest; and
+here is a smaller load of the black _Vescovo_, which is said to obtain its
+ecclesiastical name from the fact that the parent stock of this highly
+esteemed variety originally flourished in the bishop's garden at Sorrento.
+No one who has not visited the shores of the Mediterranean in September or
+early October can realize the luscious possibilities of the fig; for there
+seems nothing in common between the freshly-picked fruit of the south,
+bursting its skin with liquid sugar, and the dry sweetish woolly object
+which tries to ripen on the sheltered wall of an English garden and is
+eaten with apparent gusto by those who know not its Italian brother. Being
+autumn, we have missed one prominent feature of the fruit market, the
+great green-skinned water-melons (_poponi_) with their rose-coloured pulp
+and masses of coal-black seeds, which form the favourite summer fruit of
+the people, who find both food and drink in their cool nutritious flesh.
+But even gayer and more striking than the fruits are the piles of
+vegetables, arranged with a fine appreciation of colour to which only an
+Italian eye can aspire. Carrots, turnips, tomatoes, purple-headed
+cauliflowers, all the broccoli and many others to be observed are old
+familiar friends, but who in England ever saw such gorgeous objects on a
+coster's stall or in a green-grocer's shop as the yellow, scarlet and
+shining green pods of the _peperoni_, or the banana-shaped egg-plants of
+iridescent purple, or the split pumpkins, revealing caverns of
+saffron-hued pulp within? Truly, the Sorrentine market contains a feast of
+colour to satisfy the craving of an artist!
+
+At vintage time the whole Piano di Sorrento reeks with the vinous scent of
+the spilt juice, that is carelessly thrown on to the stone-paved roads by
+the jolting of the country carts which bring in the great wooden tubs, so
+that the very streets seem to run with the crimson ooze. Slender youths in
+yet more slender clothing, with legs purple-stained from treading the
+grapes (for in the South wine is still made on the primitive plan), are to
+be met with on all sides, playing at their favourite game of bowls on the
+public road, in order to relieve their brains of the pungent fumes of the
+fermenting grape juice. Somehow at the very thought of a Campanian vintage
+with its long hot dusty days, its bare-legged brown-skinned peasants
+treading the pulp, and its all-pervading aroma of wine-lees, there rise to
+memory the truly inspired lines of John Keats:
+
+  "O for a draught of vintage, that hath been
+  Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
+  Tasting of Flora and the country-green,
+  Dance, and Provencal song, and sun-burnt mirth!
+  O for a beaker full of the warm South,
+  Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
+  With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
+      And purple-stained mouth."
+
+But all these joys of odorous gardens made musical by nightingales, of
+morning plunges into the blue Mediterranean, of the wealth of southern
+fruit and the novel delights of the vintage are not for the winter
+traveller, who had far better spend the December or January days of his
+visit to the Bay in a steam-heated Neapolitan hotel, rather than face the
+cold and wet in a Sorrentine inn on its overhanging cliff. Nevertheless
+the warm autumn often extends itself into a continuous St Martin's summer,
+that lasts almost until the New Year, before skies grow clouded and the
+snow-flakes descend upon the vineyards and the lava streams of Vesuvius.
+Nothing can be pleasanter in fact than some of the long walks in a sharp
+exhilarating air, and though days are short and nights are often chilly,
+one can sometimes linger on comfortably in Sorrento, though it is as well
+to be prepared for departure in case of a sudden spell of stormy weather,
+for winter sunshine is a necessity, not a luxury, on the Piano di
+Sorrento.
+
+  [Illustration: AFTERNOON, SORRENTO]
+
+Unlike other towns upon the Bay of Naples, Sorrento is divided into two
+distinct portions; the city on the cliffs, with its streets and squares,
+its cathedral and ancient walls, its villas and gay gardens; and the
+Marina, lying at the mouth of the gorge below, close to the water's edge.
+The population of Upper Sorrento is agricultural and labouring, whilst
+that of the lower consists entirely of fisher-folk and sailors; it is
+needless to add that the latter are far less prosperous than their
+fellow-citizens who live over-head. Until recent times little
+communication between these two sets of Sorrentines took place and
+intermarriages were rare, for the sea-faring population only ascended to
+the town above and intermingled with the people of Upper Sorrento on the
+great occasions of local festivals, such as the enthronement or funeral of
+a bishop. Nor has the levelling spirit of the age as yet broken down the
+deep-rooted feeling of local clannishness; although it cannot be long
+before time-honoured customs and prejudices will be swept away in the
+tidal wave of modern development. One of the chief industries of the place
+is the manufacture of scarves and sashes of rich silk woven in cross bars
+of strong contrasting colours, so that the Sorrentine silk work strongly
+resembles the well-known Roman variety. Equally popular with visitors are
+the various articles made of olive wood and decorated in _tarsia_, the art
+of inlaying with pieces of stained wood, which is a speciality of the
+place. There are two kinds of this Sorrentine inlaid work; one consisting
+of figures of peasants dancing the _tarantella_, of Pompeian maidens in
+classical drapery, of _contadini_ or priests bestriding mules, and of
+similar local subjects; and the other, of fanciful patterns made up of
+tiny coloured cubes of wood, much in the style of the old Roman stone
+mosaics. The designs employed vary of course with the fashion of the day,
+for there is a local school of art supported by the municipality, which
+professes to improve the tastes of the _tarsiatori_, but most persons will
+certainly prefer the trite but characteristic patterns of the place.
+
+But the main industry of Sorrento consists in the culture of the orange;
+and the dark groves, covered with their globes of shining yellow fruit,
+"like golden lamps in a green light," to quote Andrew Marvell's charming
+conceit, constitute the chief feature of its environs. Even the
+coat-of-arms of the medieval city, showing a golden crown encircled by a
+wreath of the dark glossy leaves, attests the antiquity of this industry
+here. The cultivation of the orange in Southern Italy is by no means an
+easy pursuit, though under favourable conditions it may prove a very
+lucrative one, even in a spot so subject to sudden changes of temperature
+as Sorrento in winter time, when a continuance of severe weather, like
+that experienced around Naples in the opening months of the year 1905,
+means total destruction of the fruit crop and temporary ruin to the
+owners.
+
+The fruit of commerce is propagated by means of grafting the sweet variety
+on to the stock of the bitter orange--said on doubtful authority to be
+indigenous to this district--which is fairly hardy and can be grown in the
+open as far north as Tuscany, so that every _aranciaria_ ought to possess
+a nursery of flourishing young sweet-orange shoots, ready in case of
+necessity. For eight long years the grafted tree remains as a rule
+profitless, but having survived and thriven so long, it then becomes a
+valuable asset to its proprietor for an indefinite period;--as a proof of
+the longevity of the orange under normal conditions we may cite the famous
+tree in a Roman convent garden, which on good authority is stated to have
+been planted by St Dominic nearly six hundred years ago. As to the amount
+of fruit yielded, the growers of Sorrento commonly aver that one good
+year, one bad year and one mediocre year constitute the general cycle in
+the prospects of orange farming. Two crops are gathered annually, the
+principle one in December and the other at Eastertide, the fruit produced
+by the later and smaller crop being far finer in size and flavour than
+those of the Christmas harvest. Mandarin oranges are gathered on both
+occasions, but the large luscious loose-skinned fruit of March and
+April--_Portogalli_ as they are commonly termed--are far superior to the
+small hard specimens that appear in December, and seem to consist of
+little else than rind, scent and seeds. The oranges begin to form in
+spring time, almost before the petals have fallen, when the peasants
+anxiously draw their conclusions as to the expected yield. But however
+valuable the fruit, the wood of the tree is worthless for commerce, except
+to make walking-sticks, or to serve the ignoble purpose of supplying
+hotels and cafes with tooth-picks! Lemons, which are far more delicate
+than oranges and require to be kept protected by screens and matting
+during the sharp winter nights, are less common at Sorrento than on the
+warmer shores of the Bay of Baia or the sunny terraced slopes of the
+Amalfitan coast.
+
+With the ripening of the oranges on the trees appear those strange
+creatures from the wilds of the Basilicata or Calabria, the _Zampognari_,
+who visit Naples and the surrounding district in considerable numbers.
+They usually arrive about the date of the great popular festival of the
+Immaculate Conception (December 8th) and remain until the end of the
+month, when they return to their homes with well-filled purses. In outward
+aspect these strangers resemble the stage-brigands that appear in such
+old-fashioned operas as _Fra Diavolo_, for they wear steeple-crowned hats
+with coloured ribands depending, shaggy goat-skin trousers, crimson velvet
+waistcoats, blue cloaks, sandalled feet and gartered legs. Their pale
+faces are unshorn, and their hair hangs in great tawny masses over neck
+and ears, which are invariably adorned with golden rings. These fellows
+come in pairs, one only, properly speaking, being the _zampognaro_, for it
+is he who carries the _zampogna_ or classical bag-pipe of Southern Italy,
+whilst his companion is the _cennamellaro_, so called from his
+ear-splitting instrument, the _cennamella_, a species of primitive flute.
+The _zampogna_ may be described as first cousin to the historic bag-pipes
+of Caledonia, for the sounds emitted strongly resemble the traditional
+"skirling" of the pipes; but no Scotchman even could pretend to delight in
+the shrill notes of the _cennamella_. The former at least of these two
+popular instruments of southern Italy was well known to the omniscient
+author of the Shakespearean plays, for in _Othello_ we have a direct
+allusion to the uncouth braying music still made to-day by these
+outlandish musicians.
+
+"Why, masters, have your instruments been in Naples, that they speak i'
+the nose thus?... Are these, I pray you, wind instruments?... Then put up
+your pipes in your bag, for I'll away: go; vanish into air; away!"
+
+In the midst of their instrumental duet the two shaggy mountaineers are
+apt to break into a harsh nasal hymn in honour of the Virgin, to visit
+whose shrines at this season of the orange harvest is the main object of
+their Christmas migration to the Neapolitan shores. Very tastefully
+decorated are many of the Madonna's little sanctuaries in or near the
+orange groves, when the arrival of the _zampognari_ is considered
+imminent. The tiny lamps are well trimmed and shine brightly, whilst heavy
+garlands composed of masses of bay or laurel or ilex leaves, interspersed
+with some of the golden clusters of the ripening fruit are suspended round
+the alcove that holds the figure of the Virgin. This effective but simple
+form of ornamentation will at once suggest the beautiful glazed and
+coloured terra-cotta wreaths of fruit and foliage that are to be seen so
+frequently in Tuscan churches; indeed, it is possible that the members of
+the Della Robbia family may have originally borrowed the decorative
+schemes for their famous plaques and lunettes from the rustic shrines thus
+simply but tastefully embellished. Nominally, the two performers are
+supposed to sing and make music on nine different days at the houses of
+all their patrons in order to make up the total number of the _novena_,
+but the extent of their performances is generally calculated in accordance
+with the depth of the householder's purse, the sum given for their
+services varying from a few _soldi_ to a five _lire_ note. All classes of
+society employ the zampognari, for it is with the first appearance of the
+lovely golden fruit, essentially _the_ winter fruit of the Italians, that
+the arrival of these picturesque strangers has been associated from time
+immemorial. The _zampognari_ are in fact as much of a national institution
+with the Neapolitans at Christmastide as are the waits or carol-singers in
+our own country, so that to the majority of these people _Natale senza
+zampogna e cennamella_ would seem no true Christmas at all.
+
+Closely connected with the life of the people of the Piano di Sorrento is
+the famous dance known as the _Tarantella_, which may be witnessed by the
+curious at almost any time--for money. Even when performed by professional
+dancers, tricked out in spick and span stage-peasant finery, the
+Tarantella is a most graceful exhibition of movement, although the dance
+naturally gains in interest when it takes place in the days of vintage or
+on the popular festivals of the Church, without the presence of
+largesse-giving strangers. The origin of the name has always puzzled
+antiquarians, although in all probability the dance derives its curious
+appellation from the Greek city of Taranto, whence the Tarentines
+introduced its steps and action into other parts of Italy. But vulgar
+belief is very strong, so that this graceful dance is still closely
+associated in the popular mind with the _tarantula_, a kind of poisonous
+spider found in the neighbourhood of Taranto, the effects of whose bite
+are said to yield to violent exercise followed by profuse perspiration. In
+order to excite the proper amount of exertion necessary for the cure, the
+person afflicted, _il tarantolato_, is induced to leap and caper by the
+sound of music, with the result that there exist a number of tunes
+specially connected with this wild species of dancing. The real
+explanation of this fable seems to lie in the extremely excitable nature
+of the Tarentines themselves, assisted by the exhilarating music and by
+frequent pulls at the wine barrel. The two lines sung to the air of one of
+the tunes employed:
+
+      "Non fu Taranta, ne fu Tarantella,
+      Ma fu la vino della carratella:"
+
+
+    ("It was neither the taranta, nor the tarantella, but it was the
+    wine from the cask.")
+
+
+sums up pretty accurately the real cause of these strange Tarentine
+orgies, which have really nothing whatever in common with the rhythmical
+dance that is still so popular in the environs of Naples. Nevertheless the
+theory of _tarantella_ and _tarantismo_ has been gravely discussed by old
+Italian writers, and a certain learned prelate of the fifteenth century,
+Niccolo Perotto, Archbishop of Siponto, alludes to the malignant cause of
+this dance-cure as "a species of speckled spider, dwelling in rents of the
+ground caused by excessive heat. It was not known in the time of our
+fore-fathers, but now it is very common in Apulia ... and is generally
+called _Tarantula_. Its bite seldom kills a man, yet it makes him half
+stupid, and affects him in a variety of ways. Some, when a song or tune is
+heard, are so excited that they dance, full of joy and always laughing,
+and do not stop till they are entirely exhausted; others spend a miserable
+life in tears, as if bewailing the loss of friends. Some die laughing, and
+others in tears."
+
+Such is the curious legend concerning the origin of the Tarantella, which
+is still danced with something of the old spirit by the holiday-making
+crowds of Naples, though it is at the _festa_ of San Michele, the patron
+of Procida, that the Tarantella can now be seen to best advantage. Of the
+three islands that lie close to Naples, Procida is the least known or
+visited by strangers, so that when the Tarantella is danced by the
+Procidani, the old-fashioned popular orchestra is employed to give the
+necessary music. This consists of five quaint instruments (obviously of
+Oriental origin as their counterparts can still be seen amongst the
+Kabyles of Northern Africa): the first being a fife (_siscariello_); the
+second a tin globe covered with skin pierced by a piece of cane
+(_puti-puti_); the third a wooden saw and a split stick, making a
+primitive bow and fiddle (_scetavaiasse_); the fourth an arrangement of
+three wooden mallets, that are rattled together like a gigantic pair of
+bones (_tricca-ballache_); and the fifth a Jew's harp
+(_scaccia-pensieri_). A tarantella danced to the accompaniment of so weird
+a medley of instruments and by real peasants full of gaiety is naturally a
+thing altogether diverse from the stilted, though graceful and decorous
+performance that can be observed any day for payment in a Sorrentine or
+Neapolitan hotel; yet it must ever be borne in mind that the Tarantella
+proper, whether danced _con amore_ by Procidan peasants or performed for
+lucre by costumed professionals, is no vulgar frenzied _can-can_, but a
+musical love-dance expressive of primitive courtship.
+
+"The Tarantella is a choregraphic love-story, the two dancers representing
+an enamoured swain and his mistress. It is the old theme--'the quarrel of
+lovers is the renewal of love.' Enraptured gaze, coy side-look, gallant
+advance, timid retrocession, impassioned declaration, supercilious
+rejection, piteous supplication, softening hesitation; worldly goods
+oblation, gracious acceptation; frantic jubilation, maidenly resignation.
+Petting, wooing, billing, cooing. Jealous accusation, sharp recrimination,
+manly expostulation, shrewish aggravation; angry threat, summary
+dismissal. Fuming on one side, pouting on the other. Reaction,
+approximation, exclamation, exoneration, reconciliation, osculation,
+winding up with a grand _pas de circomstance_, expressive of confidence
+re-established and joy unbounded. That's about the figure of it; but no
+word-painting can give an idea of the spirit, the 'go' of the tarantella
+when danced for love and not for money."(9)
+
+On a modest scale Sorrento can lay claim to be called an eternal city, for
+the Surrentum of the ancient Romans was a place of no small importance,
+filled with villas of wealthy citizens and boasting a fair-sized
+population, as its numerous remains of antiquity can easily testify;
+whilst its crumbling ivy-clad walls and towers point to its prosperity
+during the Middle Ages, when Sorrento shared the political fortunes of
+Naples. It is now a busy thriving little cathedral town, and the possessor
+of silk and _tarsia_ work industries, so that like Imperial Rome it can
+boast a continuous existence as a city from remote times to the present
+day. Its chief local Saint--for what Italian town does not boast a special
+patron?--is Sant' Antonio, whose most famous feat is said to have been the
+administering of a severe drubbing to Sicardo, Duke of Benevento, for
+daring to interfere with the liberties of his city in the ninth century.
+It would appear from the legend that all arguments as to ancient rights,
+the quality of mercy and the honour of keeping faith having been vainly
+exhausted upon the cruel and obstinate prince, Bishop Antonio came forward
+with a stout cudgel and belaboured the tyrant in order to obtain a
+favourable answer to the people's petition. The sanctity of the pugnacious
+prelate and the force of this _argumentum ad baculum_ were evidently too
+much for the Duke of Benevento, who at once conceded the popular demands,
+whilst Antonio's name has deservedly descended to posterity as the capable
+protector of his native city.
+
+
+                               * * * * * *
+
+
+But the name which above all others Sorrento will cherish as her own, "so
+long as men shall read and eyes can see," is that of the famous Italian
+poet, Torquato Tasso, whose interesting but melancholy life-story is
+closely associated with this, the town of his birth. Tasso is reckoned as
+the fourth greatest bard of Italy, ranking after Dante and Petrarch, and
+being esteemed on a level with rather than below his rival and
+contemporary, Ludovico Ariosto. In one sense however he may be described
+as the most truly national poet of this immortal quartet, for his career
+is connected with his native country as a whole, rather than with any one
+of the little cities or states then comprising that "geographical
+expression" which is now the Kingdom of Italy. His father's family was of
+Lombard origin, having been long settled in the neighbourhood of Bergamo,
+where a crumbling hill-set fortress known as the Montagno del Tasso still
+recalls the name of the poet's ancestors. His mother, Porzia de' Rossi,
+was Tuscan by birth, her family haling from Pistoja at the foot of the
+Apennines, but owning property near Naples; whilst the poet himself was
+destined to spend his years of childhood at Sorrento and at Naples, his
+youth at Rome and Verona, his brilliant period of fame and prosperity at
+Ferrara and the Lombard courts, and again some of his closing years of
+disgrace and disappointment amidst the familiar scenes of his infancy. Of
+good ancient stock the Tassi owed their acquisition of wealth to the
+re-establishment of the system of posting throughout Northern Italy in the
+thirteenth century, when the immediate progenitor of the poet, one Omodeo
+de' Tassi, was nominated comptroller, and it is curious to note that owing
+to this circumstance the arms of the family containing the posthorn and
+the badger's skin--_Tasso_ is the Italian for badger--continued to be borne
+for many centuries upon the harness of all Lombard coach-horses.
+Torquato's father, Bernardo Tasso, himself a poet of no mean calibre and
+the composer of a scholarly but somewhat prolix work, the _Amadigi_,
+formed for many years a prominent member of that brilliant band of
+literary courtiers within the castle of Vittoria Colonna, the Lady of
+Ischia, of whom we shall speak more fully in another place. But for the
+overwhelming and all-eclipsing fame of his distinguished son, Bernardo
+might have been able to claim a high place in the list of Italian writers
+of the Renaissance; as it was, the father's undoubted talents were quickly
+forgotten in the blaze of his own beloved "Tassino's" popularity, so that
+he is now chiefly remembered as the sire of a poetic genius, as one of the
+great Vittoria's favourite satellites and as the author of an oft-quoted
+sonnet to his intellectual mistress. Bernardo Tasso did not marry until
+the somewhat mature age of forty-seven, when, as we have already said, he
+espoused the daughter of the Tuscan house of Rossi, by whom he had two
+children; a daughter, Cornelia, and the immortal Torquato, who was born in
+1544, three years before the death of the divine poetess of Ischia.
+
+But Bernardo was not merely a bard and a courtier, for he was also,
+unfortunately for himself and his ill-fated family, a keen politician in
+an age when politics offered anything but a safe pursuit, and as his views
+invariably coincided with those of his chief friend and patron, the head
+of the powerful Sanseverino family, Tasso the Elder found himself in
+course of time an exile from Neapolitan territory on account of his
+dislike of the new Spanish masters of Naples. The poet-politician
+therefore took up his abode at Rome, whilst his wife and two young
+children continued to reside at Naples and Sorrento. The boy was a born
+student, almost an infant prodigy of learning, and so great was his desire
+for knowledge that he would insist upon rising long before it was
+day-light, and would even make his way to school through the dark dirty
+streets of Naples, conducted by a servant with a torch in his hand. The
+Jesuits, who had just set up their first academy at Naples, soon
+discovered in the future poet an ideal pupil, and not only did they impart
+to the child all the lore of ancient Greece and Rome, but they also imbued
+his mind, at an age when it was "wax to receive and marble to retain,"
+with their own peculiar theological tenets. It is obvious indeed that the
+faith implanted by the Fathers in his tender years was largely, if not
+wholly answerable for the unswerving belief and firm religious convictions
+that ever stood Tasso in good stead throughout the whole of his chequered
+career. "Give me a child of seven years old," had once declared the great
+Founder of the Society of Jesus, "and I care not who has the
+after-handling of him"; and in this case the Jesuit professors did not
+fail to carry out Loyola's precept. But his home life with his mother,
+whom he loved devotedly, and his course of study at the Jesuit school were
+suddenly interrupted when he was barely ten years of age, for the elder
+Tasso was anxious for his little son to join him in Rome, there to be
+educated under his own eye. The boy left his mother, but after his
+departure the Rossi family brutally refused to allow their sister access
+to her absent husband, who had lately been declared a rebel against the
+Spanish government and deprived of his estates. Thus persecuted by her
+unfeeling brothers, Porzia Tasso sought refuge together with Cornelia in a
+Neapolitan convent, where, deprived of her erratic but beloved husband and
+pining for her absent son, the poor woman died of a broken heart a year or
+two later. As for Cornelia, she became affianced when of a marriageable
+age to a gentleman of Sorrento, the Cavaliere Marzio Sersale, and
+consequently returned to live in the home of her childhood.
+
+Of Tasso's many adventures, of his universal literary fame, of the honours
+heaped upon him by his chief patron, Duke Alfonso of Ferrara, and of his
+subsequent disgrace and imprisonment for daring to lift his eyes in love
+to a princess of the haughty House of Este, we have no space to speak
+here. Let it suffice to say that he was one of the most charming,
+virtuous, brilliant, manly figures, as he was also almost the last true
+representative, of the great Italian Renaissance, the end of which may be
+described as coinciding with his decease. According to his biographer
+Manso, the author of the _Gerusalemme Liberata_ was singularly noble and
+refined in appearance, though always possessed of an air of melancholy; he
+was well-built, strong, active and resourceful, anything in fact but a
+carpet-knight who spent his days in writing verse and dallying with
+Italian court beauties:
+
+  "Colla penna e colla spada,
+  Nessun val quanto Torquato;"
+
+sang the populace of Ferrara in honour of their illustrious Sorrentine
+guest, for the Ferrarese delighted in the handsome stranger who could in
+an emergency wield the sword as skilfully as he could ply his quill. Twice
+only however did Tasso revisit the city of his birth, and each return home
+was occasioned by deep tragedy. In 1577, wounded by the attacks of his
+literary rivals and humiliated by the Duke Alfonso's discovery of his
+infatuation for the Princess Leonora d'Este, the unhappy poet travelled
+southward, reaching Sorrento in the disguise of a shepherd. Making his way
+to the Casa Sersale, the house of his sister, now a widow with two sons,
+Torquato passed himself off as his own messenger, and so eloquently did he
+relate the story of his own grief and wrongs, that the tender-hearted
+Cornelia fainted away at this recital. Having satisfied his mind as to his
+sister's genuine affection, the pseudo-shepherd now revealed his true
+character, whereupon the pair embraced with transports of joy, though it
+was deemed prudent not to acquaint their friends with the arrival of
+Torquato, who was represented to the good people of Sorrento as a distant
+relative from Bergamo. Cornelia Sersale now entreated the poet to take up
+his abode permanently in her house, and to forget the rebuffs of the cruel
+world without in the enjoyment of family ties and affections; and well
+would it have been for Torquato, had he accepted his sister's advice and
+passed the succeeding years in simple rural pleasures. But restless and
+inconsequent despite all his virtues, the poet must needs return to
+Ferrara to bask in the presence of his beloved Leonora, with the dire and
+undignified result that all the world knows. Tasso's second visit took
+place not long before his death, when his strength was rapidly failing, so
+that it seems strange that he did not decide to end his days amidst these
+lovely and well-remembered scenes of his early boyhood, instead of
+deliberately choosing for the last stage of his earthly journey the Roman
+convent of Sant' Onofrio, where the death-chamber and various pathetic
+relics of the poet are still pointed out.
+
+Students of Tasso's immortal epic are apt to overlook the immense
+influence exercised on its author by his early Sorrentine days and
+surroundings. The _Gerusalemme Liberata_ contains, as we know, a full
+account of the First Crusade and constitutes an apotheosis of Godfrey de
+Bouillon, first Christian King of Jerusalem; but it is also something more
+than a mere poetical description of a departed age of chivalry. For there
+can be little doubt that the poet aspired to be the singer of a new
+movement which should wrest back the Holy City from the clutches of the
+Saracens, and set a second Godfrey upon the vacant throne of Palestine. To
+this important end the experiences of his infancy and his training by the
+Jesuits had undoubtedly tended to urge the precocious young poet. The
+servants of his father's house at Sorrento must many a time have regaled
+his eager boyish mind with harrowing tales of the infidel pirates who
+scoured the Tyrrhene Sea within sight of the watch-towers on the coast;
+within ken, perchance, of Casa Tasso itself, perched on the commanding
+cliff above the waters. Scarcely a family dwelling on the Marina below but
+was mourning one or more of its members that had been seized by the
+blood-thirsty marauders, perhaps to be brutally slain on the spot or to
+languish in the dungeons of Tripoli and Smyrna, eking out a life of
+slavery that was far worse than death itself. Stories of tortured
+Christians, like that of the pious Geronimo of Algiers who was tied with
+cords and flung into a mass of soft concrete, were common enough topics
+among the Sorrentine folk, all of whom lived in constant dread of a
+successful raid by the Barbary pirates. For, despite the efforts of the
+great Emperor Charles the Fifth to protect his maritime subjects, the
+swift galleys of Tunis and Tripoli out-stripped the Imperial men-of-war,
+and continued to carry on their vile commerce of slavery. Such a state of
+terrorism must have appeared intolerable to the highly romantic, deeply
+religious spirit of the young poet; and his Jesuit preceptors, working on
+the boy's imagination, were soon able to instil into his youthful brain
+the notion of a new Crusade which would not only sweep the infidel ships
+from off the Italian seas, but would also recapture the Holy City itself.
+The Church, beginning at last to recover from the effects of Luther's
+schism, was once more in a position to re-assert its ancient authority
+over Catholic Christendom, and in Torquato Tasso it found an able
+trumpeter to call together the scattered forces of the Faithful, and to
+reunite them in a holy war. Astonished and delighted, all Italy was swept
+by the golden torrent of Tasso's impassioned verses, that were intended to
+urge the Catholic princes of Europe to the inauguration of a new Crusade.
+Nor were the times unpropitious for such an event. Tunis, that hot-bed of
+infidelity, piracy and iniquity, was in the hands of the Christians; and
+the fleets of the Soldan had been well-nigh annihilated by Don John of
+Austria at the glorious battle of Lepanto:--to convince a doubting and
+hesitating world that the actual moment had come wherein to recover the
+city of Jerusalem was the main object of the author of the _Gerusalemme
+Liberata_. And it was his infancy spent upon this smiling but
+pirate-harassed coast that was chiefly responsible for this desired end in
+the epic of the Crusades; it was Tasso's early acquaintance with the Bay
+of Naples, combined with his special training by the Jesuits, that forced
+the poet's genius and ambition into this particular channel.
+
+It is pleasant to think that Sorrento is still appreciative of its honour
+as the birth-place of the great Italian poet. The citizens have erected a
+statue of marble in one of their open spaces; they have called street,
+hotel and _trattoria_ by his illustrious name; and can the modern spirit
+of grateful acknowledgment go further than this? His father's house has
+perished, it is true, through "Nature's changing force untrimmed," for the
+greedy waves have undermined and swallowed up the tufa cliff which once
+supported the old Tasso villa. But there is still standing in Strada di
+San Nicola the old Sersale mansion, wherein the good Cornelia received her
+long-lost brother in his peasant's guise, an unhappy exile from haughty
+Ferrara. Of more interest however than the old town house of the Sersale
+family is the ancient farm, known as the Vigna Sersale, which once
+belonged to Donna Cornelia, and supplied her household with wine and oil.
+It is a lovely sequestered spot lying on the breezy hill-side not far down
+the Massa road, facing towards Capri and the sunset. Hallowed by its
+historic connection with the poet and his devoted sister, the Vigna
+Sersale can claim perhaps to be one of the most interesting and beautiful
+places of literary pilgrimage upon earth. Ascending by the steep pathway
+that leads upward from the broad high road, it is not long before we reach
+the old _podere_, amidst whose olive groves and vineyards the poet was
+wont to sit dreamily gazing at the glorious view before him. Here are the
+same ancient spreading stone-pines, the same gnarled olive trees that
+sheltered the gentle love-lorn poet, whilst Cornelia and her sons sate
+beside him in the shade, endeavouring--alas! only too vainly--by their
+caresses to detain the roving Torquato in their midst. Could not, we ask
+ourselves, the erratic poet have been content to remain in this spot, "in
+questa terra alma e felice" as he himself styles it, instead of plunging
+once more into the dangers and dissipation of that Vanity Fair of distant
+Ferrara? Why could he not have brooded over his ill-starred infatuation
+for the high-born Leonora in this soothing corner of the earth, allowing
+its quiet and beauty to sink into his soul, until the recollection of his
+Innamorata declined gradually into a fragrant memory that could be
+embalmed in never-dying verse? But like his own favourite hero, the
+Christian King of Jerusalem, the poet must in his inmost heart have
+preferred a changing storm-tossed life to the ideal existence of rustic
+ease; and had he not returned to the treacherous splendours of Alfonso's
+court, how much less entrancing would his own life-story have appeared to
+after ages! Unconsciously he seems to have composed his own epitaph in
+describing Godfrey's death; for the crusading king lived and died like a
+true Christian knight, for whom the world has afforded many adventures,
+and but few intervals of peace until the final call to endless rest.
+
+  "Vivesti qual guerrier cristiano e santo,
+  E come bel sei morto: ei godi, e pasci
+  In Dio gli occhi bramosi, o felice alma,
+  Ed hai del ben oprar corona e palma."
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER XI
+
+
+                      CAPRI AND TIBERIUS THE TYRANT
+
+
+Lying between the classic capes of Misenum and Minerva, the island of
+Capri appears like a couched lion, guarding the entrance of the Bay of
+Naples; his majestic head being formed by the stupendous cliffs of the
+Salto that face the sunrise, whilst his back and loins are represented by
+the long broad slope which stretches from the summit of Monte Solaro to
+the most westerly headland of Vitareta. Nor is it only as a guardian to
+their Bay that Capri serves the Neapolitans, for it also presents them
+with a gigantic natural barometer. In fine settled weather a soft haze
+invariably lies over the sea, so that Capri is only faintly visible from
+the shores of Parthenope, save at sunrise and sunset, when for a short
+time the graceful form of the islet looms out clear-cut like a jagged
+amethyst upon a sapphire bed; but before rain or storm it yields up its
+inmost secrets to the public gaze of Naples. The northern Marina, the
+towns of Capri and Ana-Capri, even the little terraced fields become
+discernible to the naked eye: "It will be wet to-morrow" augur the
+weather-wise of Naples, and the prediction is rarely falsified.
+
+  [Illustration: FARAGLIONI ROCKS, CAPRI]
+
+It is an easy matter to cross from Sorrento to the island, whether it be
+by the little steamer that plies daily between Naples and Capri, putting
+in at Sorrento on its journeys backwards and forwards, or--far pleasanter
+if somewhat slower way--by engaging a boat with four rowers, who on a calm
+day ought to make the Marina of Capri in less than two hours. Nothing can
+be more delightful or exhilarating than this old-fashioned method of
+transit; and it gives also a feeling of superiority over less enterprising
+persons who prefer the quicker passage on a smoky steamer, crammed with
+tourists and attendant touts. It is the very morning for a row on the cool
+glassy water, as we step joyfully into our boat with its four stalwart
+Phrygian-capped sailors in attendance:
+
+  "Con questo zeffiro
+    Cosi soave,
+  Oh, com' e bello
+    Star su la nave!
+  Mare si placido,
+    Vento si caro,
+  Scordar fa i triboli
+    Al marinaro."
+
+Bending with a will to their oars, our genial mariners quickly impel our
+barque round the first jutting headland, so that the thickly populated
+Piano di Sorrento is at once lost to view. Making good headway over the
+clear water, it is not long before we find ourselves passing beneath the
+wave-washed precipices of the Salto, and well within our time limit of two
+hours we reach the roadstead of the Marina, to find ourselves in a bright
+and busy world of traffic and pleasure. Between the houses coloured
+coral-pink, white, blue, and yellow, and the pale green transparent water
+lies a long stretch of beach covered with every sort of craft that sails
+the Mediterranean, and with a motley crowd of fishermen, tourists and
+noisy children; whilst the whole atmosphere rings with raucous voices
+raised in giving directions, in quarrelling, or in addressing the many
+perplexed strangers. We disembark, and cross the intervening beach with
+its sea-weed veiled boulders and masses of tawny fishing nets; we reach
+the village, and here we meet with our first disappointment in romantic
+Capri. It was not so very many years ago, barely thirty in point of fact,
+that this island was roadless, and in those primitive days the visitor was
+met at the Marina Grande by tall strapping Capriote women, who were wont
+to seize the traveller's pieces of baggage as though they had been light
+parcels, and to march up the old stone staircase poising these burdens on
+their heads with the carriage of an empress. The stranger's own entrance
+into Capri was less dignified, for either he had to toil painfully in the
+blazing sun up that steep picturesque flight of steps and reach the
+plateau above, perspiring and probably out of temper; or else he was
+compelled to bestride a miserable ass which a bare-footed damsel steered
+upward by means of the quadruped's tail. Nowadays, we are spared this
+original and somewhat humiliating manner of arrival at our journey's end.
+There are little _carrozzelle_, drawn by clever black Abruzzi cobs
+awaiting us, and even one or two hotel conveyances. We find ourselves
+being driven rapidly up the excellent winding road constructed only a
+quarter of a century ago, past the domed Church of San Costanzo, the
+patron Saint of the Caprioti, past hedges of aloe and prickly pear, until
+we gain the saddle of the island-mountain, where stands the small capital
+perched upon a ledge that overlooks the Bay of Naples to the north, and to
+the south the endless expanse of the unruffled Tyrrhene.
+
+It is evident even to the most casual untrained eye, that this huge mass
+of sea-girt rock whereon we stand must in remote ages have formed part of
+the mainland opposite, until some fierce convulsion of nature, common
+enough in this region that is ever changing its outward face through
+subterranean forces, tore what is now Capri asunder from the Punta della
+Campanella, and placed the sea as an eternal barrier between the riven
+headlands of continent and new-formed island. The charm of this rocky
+fragment, thus placed in mid ocean by volcanic action, was first
+discovered by the great Emperor Augustus, who chancing to visit the island
+for some obscure reason was greatly affected by the spectacle of a
+withered ilex tree, that revived and burst into foliage at the auspicious
+moment of his setting foot at the Marina. Flattered at the compliment paid
+by Nature's self to his august presence and drawing a happy omen from the
+incident, the Emperor at once proposed to the people of Neapolis, who then
+owned the island, that they should exchange barren Capreae for the larger
+and more fertile imperial appanage of Aenaria (Ischia)--a bargain to which
+the shrewd Neapolitans readily agreed. Here then in a spot at once so
+salubrious and so convenient for the management of affairs of state, the
+Emperor sought rest and relaxation at such times as he could escape the
+cares of government. At his bidding villas and pleasaunces were
+constructed; roads were carried by means of viaducts across the airy
+plateau lying between the Salto and the Solaro; and the able bodied
+inhabitants of the island were enrolled as a sort of honorary bodyguard
+for the person of Augustus during his occasional visits. In this secluded,
+yet accessible retreat, the ruler of the Roman world could easily lay his
+finger, as it were, upon the beating pulse of his mighty empire, for
+Capreae was at no great distance from Rome itself, and from the heights of
+the island note could be made of the movements of the Imperial fleet lying
+at Baiae or of the arrival of the corn ships from Egypt and Asia Minor.
+But the name of the good Augustus is scarcely remembered in connection
+with Capreae, which alone recalls its association with Tiberius the
+Tyrant, who spent the last nine years of his reign upon the rocky islet
+that was so beloved of his predecessor. To this spot "Timberio" (as the
+natives invariably misname the Emperor) feeling the rapid approach of
+senile decay, weary of the thankless task of ruling an ungrateful people,
+sick of family dissensions and of court intrigue, at last came in the
+cherished hope of spending the few remaining years of his life in cultured
+leisure and in comparative solitude. An enthusiastic student of astronomy
+and of its sister science, or rather pseudo-science, astrology, Tiberius
+proposed to study the heavens in the company of chosen mathematicians and
+soothsayers. Twelve buildings--palaces, villas, pavilions, call them what
+you will--were now constructed for the special examination of the planets,
+and in consequence the whole of the island, whose limited area after all
+is exceeded by many an English park, was practically turned into one vast
+maritime residence, for all the Imperial pleasure-houses seem to have been
+connected with each other by means of viaducts or secret stair-ways. Yet
+whilst immersed in astronomy and occultism, the aged Emperor contrived to
+find time for the routine of public business, and, like Augustus, he was
+still able to direct from his rocky retreat the policy of the Empire. The
+reports of governors of provinces, for example, were received, read, and
+commented upon by Tiberius in his Capriote home, and amongst these there
+must have been included a certain official document from one Pontius
+Pilatus, Procurator of Judaea, relating how a Jewish prophet from Nazareth
+had been condemned, scourged and crucified by his orders at the special
+request of the Jews themselves. How eloquent is this bald statement of a
+simple fact, that here in this tiny barren islet was brought the casual
+news of the death of Jesus Christ to the then ruler of the Roman world!
+Surely an historical incident such as this is of more value than all the
+hazy legends or pointless miracles of St Januarius or of San Costanzo,
+upon which the imagination of the islanders has been fed for generations.
+
+  [Illustration: CAPRI FROM THE VILLA JOVIS]
+
+Remnants of Tiberius' palaces, all of which are said to have been razed to
+the ground by order of the Roman Senate at his death, are scattered thick
+as fallen leaves in Vallombrosa over the whole surface of the island, and
+it is to the ruins of the Villa Jovis at its eastern crest that the
+visitor will in all probability first direct his steps. The way thither
+from the little city of Capri leads through narrow lanes along a stony but
+populous hill-side, to which the flat-roofed dazzling white houses with
+their small iron-barred windows lend an oriental aspect; an illusion that
+is aided by the appearance of an occasional date-palm over-topping some
+low wall, and by clumps or hedges of the prickly pear. This latter plant,
+of Indian extraction as its name of _Ficus Indica_ betrays, grows in
+profusion over the sun-baked rocky slopes of southern Italy, especially in
+the neighbourhood of the sea. The peasants find it most useful, for it
+makes impenetrable hedges, and its coarse pulpy leaves when pounded up
+afford good provender for their goats and donkeys. The fruits of the
+prickly pear, those quaint crimson or yellow knobs attached to the edges
+of the leaves, are likewise gathered and eaten by the people, or else
+cleaned of their protecting layers of spiny hairs and despatched in
+baskets to Naples, where the cactus-fruit forms an important item of the
+popular fare. The fruit itself has a lovely colour and a fragrant scent,
+which give promise of a better flavour than it actually possesses, for it
+is hopelessly insipid to the taste, although the Neapolitans declare that
+the pulp, when mashed up into patties and iced, is very palatable.
+
+A long up-hill ramble over rough paths leads eventually to the Villa of
+Jupiter, perched on the Salto--the _Saltus Caprearum_, the "Wild Goats'
+Leap," of the ancients. There is little of interest to be seen in the
+existing portions of Tiberius' chief villa, for the building has been
+despoiled centuries ago of its rich marbles, its slabs of _giallo_ and
+_verde antico_, its pillars of red porphyry and _serpentino_, some
+fragments of which may be found imbedded in the pavement of the
+mosque-like little Duomo of Capri. But it is evident from the immense
+extent of its substructures, now used for humble enough purposes, that the
+Villa Jovis must have been a palace of remarkable size. A hermit who
+offers sour wine, a fat middle-aged woman, a figure of fun in her gay
+be-ribboned dress who begins languidly dancing a _tarantella_, and a
+vulgar pestilent guide who produces a spy-glass usually haunt these
+caverns on the look-out for any chance visitor. Buy them off, O stranger!
+with _soldi_, is our advice, for you cannot otherwise escape their
+importunities, and then mounting to the highest point, peer down into the
+clear depths of the water nearly a thousand feet below. For it was here,
+if we can credit serious Roman historians, that the Imperial tyrant, half
+crazy with terror and ever thirsting for human blood, was wont to hurl the
+objects of his hate into the sea; "from this eminence," Suetonius gravely
+tells us, "after the application of long drawn-out and exquisite tortures,
+Tiberius used to order his executioners to fling their victims before his
+eyes into the water, where boats full of mariners, stationed below, were
+waiting in readiness to beat the bruised bodies with oars, in case any
+spark of life might yet be left in them." The terrible legend fits in
+aptly with the appearance of this forbidding dizzy precipice, especially
+on a dark stormy afternoon, when the dull roar of the waves dashing
+against the cliffs below, mounts upward to the Villa Jovis like the angry
+bellowing of some insatiable sea-monster.
+
+It was whilst brooding here after the death of Sejanus in Rome, that the
+Emperor, not daring to move beyond the walls of his palace, shunning the
+society of all save his familiar friends and attendants, and with his face
+disfigured by an eruption of the skin of which he was painfully sensitive,
+that there took place an incident (which may or may not be true) mentioned
+by Suetonius. In the privacy of this villa Tiberius was one day surprised
+by an ingenious Capriote fisherman, who in ignorance or defiance of the
+Emperor's wishes had managed to scale with his naked feet the steep cliffs
+from the sea below, in order to present a fine mullet for the imperial
+table, and of course to earn a high reward for his "gift." Terrified at
+the mere notion of anybody being able thus to penetrate into his most
+secret domain, the irate Emperor at once gave orders for the intruder's
+face to be scrubbed with the mullet he had brought, a sentence that the
+imperial minions performed without delay. The intrepid fisherman might
+have congratulated himself on so mild a punishment for having disturbed a
+tyrant's repose, had he not been possessed of an unusually strong sense of
+humour. For at the close of the mullet-scrubbing episode, the foolish
+fellow remarked by way of a jest to the officer on duty, that he was
+thankful he had not also offered the emperor a large crab which he had
+likewise brought in his basket. This imprudent speech was immediately
+reported to Tiberius, who thereupon commanded the man's face to be
+lacerated with the aforesaid crab's claws; but whether this pleasing
+incident ended with a cold plunge from the Salto, the Roman historian does
+not relate.
+
+Other tales of Timberio's vices and cruelties have been handed down from
+generation to generation, so that the dark deeds committed at the Salto
+have almost passed into a local article of faith; and such being the case,
+it would seem almost a pity to pronounce these picturesque horrors untrue
+or exaggerated. Nevertheless, of recent years there has arisen amongst
+scholars a certain degree of scepticism as regards these highly coloured
+anecdotes of Roman historians known to be prejudiced. The Emperor was
+nearly seventy years old at the time he came to reside in Capreae, and
+until that date his life had been orderly and above reproach; it is not
+likely therefore, argue these modern writers, that Tiberius should
+suddenly, at so extreme an age, have flung himself into a whirl of vices
+and crimes that he had hitherto shunned. The thing is of course possible,
+but it sounds improbable. That he was moody and morose; that he loved
+solitude and hated formal society in the spot he had especially chosen as
+the retreat of his declining years; that he practised certain of the
+mystic arts, as well as studied astronomy, are all likely enough
+conjectures; and these circumstances probably formed the foundation for
+the extravagant legends which now surround the Emperor's memory. Very
+shocking and reprehensible were the doings at Villa Jovis, if they really
+occurred there, but to try and dispute their authenticity would be a task
+quite outside the scope of this work.(10)
+
+If, despite the negative theories held to-day concerning the private life
+and character of the second Emperor of Rome during his residence on
+Capreae, the traveller be still inclined to trace the sites of the
+remaining eleven Imperial villas, he will find little difficulty in
+meeting with numberless Roman remains scattered over all parts of the
+island. On the beach, for example, a little to the west of the Marina
+Grande, are clearly visible the sunken foundations of the great
+sea-palace, which in the Roman manner jutted into the water and ranked
+probably second in size to the Villa Jovis. The neighbourhood of Ana-Capri
+also, and in fact the whole western portion of the island, is likewise
+plentifully besprinkled with ancient ruins, one of which is still known by
+the suggestive title of Timberino. But most people will prefer to explore
+the unrivalled natural beauties of Capri, rather than to make themselves
+acquainted with its archaeological points of interest.
+
+First and foremost of the many wonders that Capri has to show must be
+ranked the Grotta Azzurra. The pleasantest way of reaching this
+world-famous cavern is by small boat from the Marina, rather than by the
+daily steamer from Naples; and a perfectly calm and bright morning must be
+selected for the expedition, for if the surface of the sea appears in the
+least degree ruffled by northerly winds, it becomes impossible for any
+craft to make the low entrance of the grotto. Capriote boatmen are as a
+rule intelligent and pleasant to deal with, and not a few of the denizens
+of the Marina own to some knowledge of English, or rather of American,
+since several of the inhabitants are the sons of emigrants who have
+settled in the cities of the United States or the Argentine, but whose
+love for their island home is still so strong that they contrive to send
+their children back to Capri, in order that they may retain their Italian
+citizenship and be ready to serve their expected term of years in the
+Army.
+
+Past the gay-coloured shipping of the noisy Marina, past the wave-washed
+halls of Tiberius' _palazzo a mare_, our boat swiftly glides over the
+pellucid expanse until it reaches those vast towering cliffs of limestone
+that spring almost perpendicular from the waters' edge to the plateau of
+Ana-Capri, fully a thousand feet above our heads. Clumps of palmetto, of
+cytizus, and of various hardy shrubs manage to sprout and to exist in the
+crannies of this sheer wall of rock; and on some of the larger ledges, far
+out of reach of a despoiling human hand, we see masses of the odorous
+narcissus, though whence they draw their sustenance it is hard to tell. At
+length we reach the entrance of the Grotto, and here, at a signal from our
+boatman, we crouch down low in the body of the boat, whilst our rower,
+skilfully taking advantage of a gentle surging wave, guides our craft with
+his hands through an opening in the sheer wall, so low that the gunwales
+grate against the rocky surface of the natural arch. At once we find
+ourselves in a scene of mystical beauty, in an extravagant voluptuous
+dream of loveliness, such as the Arabian Nights alone could dare to
+suggest. Above us, around us, behind us, before us lies a luminous azure
+atmosphere, which produces the effect of a gigantic molten sapphire, whose
+secret blue fires we have actually tracked to their lurking-place in the
+very heart of the gem. Against the all-pervading shimmering light our own
+forms stand out distinct of an intense and velvety blackness, yet the
+blades of the oars that cleave the melted sapphire of the water, the tips
+of our fingers that dabble in the celestial liquid, appear as if coated
+with tiny globules of silver. Our boatman's son, a picturesque lad of
+fifteen or there-abouts, has, we notice, been engaged in hastily casting
+off his scanty attire; for a moment his slight graceful figure is outlined
+against the blue light like some antique bronze of Pompeii or Herculaneum,
+and then there is a splash as the youthful form, diving into the pool, is
+instantaneously changed by the genius of the place into a
+silver-glistening sea-god, the very image of the fisherman Glaucus sung of
+old by Ovid, who became an Immortal and dwelt ever afterwards, according
+to the ancient myth, in an azure palace beneath the sea. As the stripling
+rises to the surface all glittering to breathe the air, his head turns
+from frosted silver to ebon blackness, as does likewise his hand, raised
+from the water to clasp the boat's prow. Slowly we are propelled round the
+lofty domed cavern, and are shown the little beach at its further
+extremity with its mysterious and unexplored flight of stone steps, down
+which, so our mariner informs us, the wicked Timberio used to descend from
+his villa at Damecuta, hundreds of feet overhead, to take a plunge in
+these enchanted waters. The Emperor and his friends may or may not have
+gambolled in this jewelled bath; but certain it is that Tiberius knew of
+the existence of this unique cavern; and equally certain that an artistic
+but demented potentate of our own days was so smitten with the idea of
+owning a secret staircase descending to a blue grotto, that he must needs
+construct within the walls of a fantastic castle in the highlands of
+Bavaria an artificial counterpart of the Grotta Azzurra, with metal swans
+moved by clockwork swimming thereon!
+
+Our genial boatman beguiles the time of our returning by a long story,
+told him in his boyhood by his old grandfather, of how two English
+_Signori_ had managed to rediscover the entrance to the Blue Grotto, which
+had been lost since the days of the Emperor Timberio, and how in
+expectation of the Englishmen's reward a plucky sailor, named Ferrara, had
+made his way all round the island in a cask, trying to force an entrance
+into every possible cavern, until at last he hit upon the mouth of the
+Grotta Azzurra itself, and thus gained the prize. But as a matter of fact
+the existence of the Grotto was never wholly forgotten, for its beauties
+were certainly known to the old Italian chronicler Capaccio. Yet doubtless
+during the long period of the Napoleonic wars, when Capri from its
+strategic position became a choice bone of contention between French,
+English and Neapolitan forces, there were few if any persons who possessed
+the courage or curiosity to visit the cavern; with the result that its
+_exact_ locality became temporarily lost. It was known, however, to exist
+somewhere at the base of the great northern cliff, so that only a very
+small portion of the coast-line had to be explored, before its tiny
+inconspicuous entrance could be rediscovered. A far more exciting event
+than the refinding of the Blue Grotto was the genuine discovery of the
+beautiful Grotta Verde on the southern side of the island by two
+Englishmen, Mr Reid and Mr Lacaita, in the summer of 1848. This grotto,
+esteemed the second in importance of the many caves that Capri boasts,
+consists of a huge natural archway formed in the cliffs wherein the water
+and rocks appear of an emerald hue, contrasting strangely with the opaque
+blue of the sea beyond, and suggesting in its dual colouring the
+marvellous combination of dark blue and iridescent green in the peacock's
+tail.
+
+  [Illustration: IN THE BLUE GROTTO, CAPRI]
+
+Capri is a pleasant enough place of residence for a short time,
+particularly if one invests in a pair of the rope-soled shoes affected by
+the people, which enables the wearer to follow with greater ease the rough
+stony tracks, often at a dizzy height above the sea, that form the only
+walks in the eastern portion of Capri, except the villa-lined Tragara road
+leading to the Guardiola, now become the fashionable promenade of the many
+foreign residents upon the island. There are some delightfully peaceful
+nooks to be sought near the water's edge, not far from the Faraglioni,
+that picturesque trio of rocks lying off the south-eastern corner of
+Capri. Here we can find a sheltered corner, unfrequented alike by the
+pestering native or by the ubiquitous tourist; perchance the deserted hall
+of some maritime villa, for the caverns near the Piccola Marina abound in
+traces of Roman architecture. In such a retreat, with a book on one's
+knees and with one's own thoughts for sole company, how fascinating it is
+to lie
+
+  "... on Capri's rocks, close to their snowy streak
+  Of ambient foam, and watch the restless sea
+  Tossing and tumbling to Eternity,
+  Feeling its salt kiss fall upon the cheek."
+
+But to those who prefer to take long tramps afield rather than to linger
+in meditation on the sunny beaches near the Piccola Marina, there is
+always the ascent to Ana-Capri by the broad smooth winding road that
+affords a fresh view of the Bay of Naples at every one of its many twists
+and turnings. Over a ravine filled with masses of ilex and myrtle; past
+the fragment of the pirate Barbarossa's aerial castle, perched on a rocky
+pinnacle and looking like some fantastic creation of Gustave Dore's brush;
+the broad ribband of road leads across the steep northern flank of Monte
+Solaro, until it ends at Ana-Capri with its white houses nestling round a
+domed church. It is an easy ascent, taking no great space of time, yet
+strange to relate, well within living memory the only approach to this
+hill-set village was by means of the interminable stone staircase with
+some five hundred steps that connected it with the Marina Grande below. A
+charming writer on Neapolitan life and character thus shrewdly sums up the
+general opinion concerning this altered aspect of conditions with regard
+to Ana-Capri, now brought at last into close touch with modern
+civilization and its accruing benefits:
+
+"Before the culminating point is reached, the road crosses the old
+staircase, which has unfortunately been almost completely destroyed by the
+huge masses of rock dislodged from the cliff above by the workmen. It
+makes one sad to look at it, and almost regret that the new road ever was
+constructed. Were every invective that has been vented on those same steps
+turned into a paving-stone, there would be more than sufficient to pave
+the streets of Naples anew; were every drop of sweat that has fallen upon
+them collected, there would be enough water to flood them. And yet now
+that this dreadful staircase has been superseded by a good macadamised
+road, every one seems to regret the change. Says the heavily laden
+_contadina_: 'The old way was the shortest;' says the artist: 'It was
+infinitely more picturesque; that new parapet wall is a dreadful
+eye-sore;' says the archaeologist: 'It had the merit of antiquity; it is
+not everywhere that one can tread in the footprints of a hundred
+generations.' Even those whose every step in the olden time was
+accompanied by a malediction, can remember how good a glass of very
+inferior wine tasted on reaching Ana-Capri."(11)
+
+But whether Ana-Capri has or has not been really benefited by the Italian
+Government's finely engineered road, there can be no doubt that the
+primitive charm of the island, which in by-gone days constituted one of
+its chief attractions, has greatly declined with the wholesale
+introduction of modern conventions and improvements. With the sudden
+influx of wealthy strangers, Anglo-Saxon, German, French and Russian, it
+is not surprising to learn that the islanders have become somewhat
+demoralized under the changed conditions of life, and that not a small
+proportion of them have grown venal and grasping. The happy old days when
+artists and inn-keepers, peasants and such chance visitors as loved the
+simple unsophisticated life, hob-nobbed together on terms of equality are
+gone for ever. Fashion, that merciless deity, has annexed the Insula
+Caprearum to her ever-growing dominions;--there are smart villas on the
+Tragara road and even at Ana-Capri; there are British tea-rooms and
+Teutonic _Bierhaelle_ in the town. At the present time the tourists and
+foreign residents form the chief source of wealth to the islanders, now
+that the quails have more or less deserted these shores. Instead of
+awaiting in due season with nets ready prepared the advent of the plump
+little feathered immigrants from the African coast, the modern Caprioti
+are continually on the look-out for the steamers that bear hundreds of
+money-spending tourists to the Marina, and these they proceed to enmesh
+with proffered offers of service. And, speaking of the quails, in the days
+before breech-loading guns and reckless extermination had injured this
+valuable source of revenue, the arrival of the birds winging their way
+northward was the signal for every sportsman on the island to hasten to
+collect the annual harvest of game. High poles, supporting nets twenty
+feet broad and sixty feet long, were erected on the grassy slopes of the
+Solaro or in the plateau of the Tragara, towards which, by dint of
+judicious scaring and shouting from expectant watchers stationed at
+various points, the flight of the on-rushing birds was directed. Dashing
+themselves with force against this wall of netting, the poor quails fell
+stunned to the ground, where they were easily taken by hand, whilst scores
+of guns were levelled ready to bring down such birds as had escaped the
+snare prepared for them. From the thousands of quails thus captured the
+islanders were enabled to pay their taxes to the Bourbon Government, as
+well as to provide the income of their Bishop--for in those distant days a
+prelate dwelt at Capri--who in allusion to his chief source of income was
+jocularly known at the Roman court as "Il Vescovo delle Quaglie."
+
+From Ana-Capri to the western shore extends the most fertile stretch of
+land in the island: a broad slope set with vineyards and groves of
+silver-grey olives, that are interspersed here and there with clumps of
+almond and plum trees. Fine oil is yielded by the _poderi_ of Ana-Capri
+and Damecuta, whilst the grapes produce the highly prized red and white
+Capri vintages, choice wine of which the casual traveller rarely tastes a
+good sample, for it is usually doctored and "improved" for purposes of
+keeping by the wine-merchants of Naples. Thus the rasping red liquid that
+appears on the table of a London restaurant, and the scented
+strong-tasting white stuff that is sold in the hotels of the island itself
+or of Naples under the name of Capri, have little in common with the pure
+unadulterated product of these sunny breezy vineyards. But besides wine
+and oil, the island is likewise celebrated for its beautiful and varied
+flora, and it is amongst the olive groves and lanes of the western side of
+the island that the wild flowers can be found in the greatest profusion.
+Amongst the tender green shoots of the young springing corn are set
+myriads of brilliant hued anemones, purple, scarlet, and white with a
+crimson centre; and even in January can be found in warm sheltered nooks
+the pretty mauve wind-flower, one of the earliest of spring blossoms in
+Italy. The grassy pathways that intersect the various holdings are gay
+with rosy-tipped daisies, white "star-of-Bethlehem," dark purple
+grape-hyacinth, and the tiny strong-scented marigold, that seems to bloom
+the whole twelve-month round. Amongst the loose stone-work of the walled
+lanes, where beryl-backed lizards peep in and out of every crevice, can be
+found fragrant violets and the delicate fumitory with its pink waxy bells.
+In moist places flourish patches of the wild arum or of the stately great
+celandine, the "swallow-wort" of old-fashioned herbalists, who believed
+that the swallow made use of the thick yellow juice that runs in the veins
+of this plant to anoint the eyes of her fledgelings! And with the
+disappearance of the anemones as the season advances, their place is taken
+by blood-red poppies, by golden hawkweeds and by masses of tall
+magenta-coloured blooms of the wild gladiolus, the "Jacob's Ladder" of our
+own English gardens. Strange enough amongst these familiar homely flowers
+appear the sub-tropical clumps of prickly pear, and the hedges of aloe
+which here and there have thrown up a gigantic spike of blossom eight or
+ten feet in height, a triumphal favour of Nature that the plant itself
+must pay for by its subsequent death.
+
+From Ana-Capri we ascend to the peak of the lofty Solaro, by no means an
+arduous climb from this point, for we have but to follow a narrow
+goat-track leading across slopes covered with coarse grass and some low
+thickets of stunted lentisk and myrtle. The rosemary too grows plentifully
+on the dry wind-swept soil, and the soft sea breeze wafts its refreshing
+scent to our nostrils. There is a pretty legend of the people which
+relates the cause of this plant obtaining its perfume of unearthly
+sweetness:--how the Madonna one day hung the swaddling clothes of the
+Infant Christ to dry upon a common pot-herb in the garden at Nazareth--the
+rosemary is freely used in Italian cookery, and its taste is as unpleasant
+as its scent is delicious--whereupon the humble plant thus honoured was
+ever afterwards endowed with the delicate odour that is so highly prized.
+And beyond this, the rosemary was likewise permitted to put forth masses
+of flowers of the Madonna's own colour of blue, concerning which a
+tradition--Celtic, not Italian--avers that on Christmas morning upon every
+plant of rosemary will be found by those who care to seek them expanded
+blooms in honour of St Joseph, the Virgin and the Holy Child. Reaching the
+crest of the Solaro, we are well rewarded for our climb over the stony
+slopes by a wide-spreading view. Owing to the central position of the
+island, we can from its airy summit, some sixteen hundred feet above
+sea-level, command a glorious panorama of the three bays of the Neapolitan
+Riviera, each teeming with a thousand associations of classical or modern
+history. Upon those dancing waters of the Bay of Naples appeared in the
+dim ages of the heroic world the Trojan galleys that were bearing the
+founder of the Roman race towards the beach by Cumae yonder, where dwelt
+the venerable Sibyl; the fleets of ancient Rome and Carthage, the
+war-ships of the great Emperor Charles V., the pirate galleys of the
+Soldan's vassals, the men-of-war of Nelson have all rode and fought upon
+the bosom of the bay beneath us. What a marvellous perspective of the
+whole naval history of the Mediterranean does a survey of the Bay of
+Naples suggest!
+
+Exquisite and inspiring as is the view on a clear cloudless day, with the
+keen _tramontana_ off the distant Abruzzi flecking the azure waves with
+streaks of creamy foam and driving the white-sailed feluccas merrily
+towards the open sea, the landscape is even more impressive in dull
+lowering weather, when the inky clouds that envelop the sky give promise
+of the approaching hurricane. At such times a striking phenomenon, said to
+be peculiar to the Parthenopean shores, may be observed. From out the
+purple threatening masses that fill the heavens there suddenly falls a
+shaft of rosy light, as though directed by some vast celestial lens fixed
+aloft in the sky, upon a small portion of the opposite shore. The plateau
+of Sorrento with its many white hamlets first becomes illuminated; then
+the light rapidly passes towards Vesuvius, which is instantly revealed
+with marvellous clearness, whilst Sorrento returns to its former dark
+brooding shadows. For some moments we watch the circlet of towns that
+fringe the base of the burning mountain and Camaldoli erect on its wooded
+height, and then our gaze is diverted towards Naples, so clearly revealed
+that one can almost fancy it possible to detect the carriages driving
+along the white line of the Caracciolo. From the city this weird
+fairy-like light glides swiftly towards the headland of Posilipo and the
+great sombre mass of Ischia, and then finally seems to vanish altogether
+in the leaden-hued expanse of the watery horizon. Storm, rain, wind, hail
+and thunder will certainly follow the appearance of this fantastic
+rose-coloured glow, and the visitor to Capri may in consequence be
+compelled to remain willy-nilly upon the island until such time as
+communication with Naples shall be once more restored, for rough weather
+on Capri means complete isolation from the mainland and the outside world.
+A spell of four or five days without a letter or a newspaper may in
+certain cases be restful and even beneficial, but it can also be highly
+inconvenient.
+
+
+                               * * * * * *
+
+
+Comparatively few persons are aware that in the history of Capri is to be
+found a page, not a particularly glorious one perhaps, of the annals of
+our own nation. In the spring of 1806, the year after Trafalgar, whilst
+our fleet was blockading Naples on behalf of its worthless monarch, King
+Ferdinand, then skulking in cowardly ease at Palermo, Admiral Sir Sidney
+Smith, the hero of Acre, managed to capture the island after a sharp
+struggle with the French troops then holding it in the name of Joachim
+Murat, King of Naples and brother-in-law of the great Napoleon. Sir Hudson
+(then Colonel) Lowe--afterwards famous as the Governor of St Helena during
+Buonaparte's captivity--was now put in command of the newly conquered
+island with some 1500 English and Maltese troops at his disposal. Lowe and
+his second in command, Major Hamill, at once set to work to put the place
+into a strong state of defence, and so satisfied were they with their work
+of fortification, that Lowe in his confidence nick-named the islet "Little
+Gibraltar." For more than two years the Union Jack floated in triumph from
+the fort-crowned heights of Capri, much to the annoyance of the monarch on
+the mainland, who finally determined at all costs to recapture the
+stronghold facing his capital. Fancying himself perfectly secure in his
+"Little Gibraltar," now deemed impregnable by a combination of art and
+nature against any hostile descent, Lowe made light of any possible
+expedition from Naples, and when Neapolitan warships actually appeared as
+though making to land troops at the Marinas on either side of the saddle
+of the island, the British commandant was delighted at the ease with which
+these attempts were repelled. But whilst the garrison was busied in
+thwarting the movements on the Marinas, which in reality only constituted
+a feint on Murat's part, transports were engaged in disembarking at the
+low cliffs of Orico, the western extremity of the island, boat-loads of
+men, who quickly swarmed up the terraced slopes towards Ana-Capri and
+surprised its garrison. On the following day, October 6th 1808, in spite
+of Lowe's efforts, Ana-Capri with its eight hundred men surrendered to the
+French and Neapolitan troops led by General Lamarque, who at once set up a
+battery on the crest of the Solaro, so as to command the town of Capri and
+the English head-quarters, fixed at the Convent of the Certosa that lies
+between the Tragara Road and the southern shore. The eastern half of the
+island still of course remained in the hands of the British; and failing
+to reduce the town itself and the Convent of the Certosa by bombardment
+from above, General Lamarque decided upon taking the place by storm, so as
+to forestall the arrival of the English fleet, which was hourly expected
+to come to the rescue of the beleaguered garrison. As we have already
+mentioned, there was no road existing upon the whole island in those days
+a hundred years ago, so that in order to attack the capital, the French
+general had to march his victorious troops by the precipitous flight of
+stone steps down to the Marina Grande and then try to carry the position
+from below. Before however the Frenchmen, now further aided by supplies
+sent by Murat's order from Sorrento, could arrange for the projected
+assault upon the town, the delayed British fleet suddenly appeared in the
+offing, evidently with the intention of bearing down upon the island. But
+on this occasion the luck was all on the side of the French, for scarcely
+had the eagerly expected ships hove in sight, than the besieged garrison
+had the mortification to see their hopes of succour overthrown by the
+uprising of one of those sudden squalls, so common on the Mediterranean,
+which drove the warships southward. More than one assault was repulsed
+with heavy loss by the small English garrison, which had already been
+deprived of half its numbers at Ana-Capri, including the gallant Major
+Hamill, whose death is commemorated in a marble tablet set in the little
+piazza of the town. But with the retirement of the relieving fleet and the
+continuance of foul weather, Colonel Lowe deemed it useless to resist
+further, and like a sensible man decided to capitulate on the best terms
+he could obtain. In return for his immediate surrender of Capri the
+British commandant accordingly stipulated that his garrison should be
+allowed to embark and sail for Sicily unmolested, and that the persons and
+property of the islanders, who seem to have appreciated the British
+occupation, should be respected. But Lamarque, on communicating Colonel
+Lowe's request to King Murat, received peremptory orders to demand an
+unconditional surrender, whereupon an aide-de-camp of the King's, a
+certain Colonel Manches, was sent to interview Lowe with the royal letter
+in his pocket. Had the missive been delivered to him, the British Governor
+would in all probability have decided to fight to the bitter end rather
+than to submit to such severe and humiliating conditions. Happily so
+terrible a catastrophe, which must have involved heavy loss of life on
+both sides, followed by a sack of the town, was unexpectedly, averted at
+the last moment, for whilst Manches was actually advancing with a flag of
+truce, the approach of the British fleet was again signalled from the
+look-out on the hill now called the Telegrafo. Before the Governor could
+be made aware of this piece of news, Colonel Manches, cunningly keeping
+his master's imperious letter in his pocket, told Colonel Lowe that King
+Murat was ready to accept the terms of surrender offered. The weather
+being propitious, the British fleet would have been able this time to
+reach the island, but its nearer approach was prevented by Colonel Lowe
+himself, who sent to acquaint the Admiral, much to his chagrin, of the
+compact already concluded with the besiegers, a compact which, as Hudson
+Lowe himself very properly pointed out, was binding upon the British
+Government. On October 26th, three weeks from the date of the first
+attack, the English troops embarked for Sicily, and the island was
+formally handed over to the French and Neapolitan forces, who held it
+undisturbed until the close of the Napoleonic Wars.
+
+  [Illustration: A GATEWAY. CAPRI]
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XII
+
+
+                     ISCHIA AND THE LADY OF THE ROCK
+
+
+Embarking at Torregaveta, the little terminus of the _Ferrovia Cumana_,
+which traverses the classic district of the Phlegraean Fields, we are
+quickly transported in a small coasting steamer past the headland of
+Misenum to the island and port of Procida, the "alta Prochyta" of Virgil.
+Although the poet calls the island lofty, it is remarkably flat
+considering its volcanic origin, for Procida and Ischia were undoubtedly
+one in remote ages, as the learned Strabo rightly conjectured. Its only
+eminence is the Rocciola, the castle-crowned hillock to the north-east of
+the island, but as this hill must first have caught the expectant eye of
+Aeneas' steersman, perhaps the epithet is after all not so misplaced as
+would appear at first sight. Carefully tilled and densely populated, the
+island produces a large proportion of the fruit, vegetables, and olive
+oil, that are sold in the Naples market, and as it possesses no remains of
+antiquity, no medieval churches, no works of art, and but few beauties of
+nature to recommend it for inspection, Procida is rarely visited by
+strangers. Its inhabitants, who are chiefly husbandmen, are hard working
+and independent, and content also to retain the manners and customs of
+their frugal forefathers, and even to a certain extent to continue the use
+of their national dress, so that the festivals of Procida have more
+interest and local colour than those observed in tourist-haunted Capri or
+Sorrento. Unconcerned at the progress of the world without, unspoiled by
+the gold of the _forestiere_, the Procidani pursue the even tenor of their
+old-fashioned ways, unenvious of and unenvied by their neighbours on the
+mainland.
+
+  "O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint,
+  Agricolas!"
+
+We halt at the port of Procida, with its flat-roofed gaily coloured houses
+lining the quay and ascending the gentle slope towards the Rocciola.
+Thence, skirting the low-lying fertile shores of the island, and passing
+the olive-clad islet of Vivara, we soon come in sight of the steep
+headland on which are perched the grey masses of the Castle of Ischia,
+"the Mount St Michael of Italy."
+
+Covered from base to summit with fume-weed, lentisk, aromatic cistus, and
+every plant that loves the sun, the wind and the salt foam of the
+Mediterranean, the huge solitary cliff rises majestically from the deep
+blue water. Whether viewed in brilliant sunshine under a cloudless sky, or
+in foul weather, when the sea is hurling its waves over the stone causeway
+that connects the isolated crag with the little city of Ischia, the first
+sight of this historic castle is singularly impressive. Nor is its
+grandeur lessened on a near approach, for the ascent to its topmost tower
+takes us through a labyrinth of staircases and mysterious subterranean
+passages, through vaulted chambers and curious hanging gardens to an airy
+platform, which commands a glorious view in every direction over land and
+sea.
+
+Built by Alphonso V. of Aragon in the fifteenth century, this massive
+pile, half-fortress and half-palace, is famous in Italian annals for its
+long association with the noble poetess Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of
+Pescara. Born in the old Castle of Marino, near Rome, one of the
+strongholds of the great feudal house of Colonna, the poetess, who was
+great-great-niece to Pope Martin V., was betrothed in her infancy at the
+instigation of King Ferdinand of Naples to the youthful heir of the
+d'Avalos family, hereditary governors of the island of Ischia. The elder
+sister of Vittoria's affianced husband, Constance d'Avalos, the widowed
+Duchess of Francavilla, was the "chatelaine" of Ischia during her
+brother's minority, so that it was but natural that his Colonna
+bride-elect should be sent to dwell with Constance in this castle. Here
+Vittoria under her sister-in-law's excellent tutelage grew up to womanhood
+amidst the intellectual atmosphere of the Italian Renaissance, and here
+she was trained to develop into one of the most learned, the most
+interesting and the most attractive figures that all Italy produced at
+this period. Childless in her early marriage at eighteen, and with her
+husband frequently, not to say usually, engaged in military expeditions on
+the mainland, Vittoria had every opportunity of cultivating her mind and
+of filling her sea-girt palace with men of genius. The poets Cariteo and
+Bernado Tasso (the father of Torquato Tasso), were frequent visitors at
+this
+
+  "Superbo scoglio, altaro e bel ricetto,
+  Di tanti chiari eroi, d' imperadori,
+  Orde raggi di gloria escono fuori,
+  Ch' ogni altro lume fan scuro e negletto."
+
+Strange to relate, her husband, the Marquis of Pescara, was destined to
+forestall his learned lady in the matter of poetry, for during his
+imprisonment at Milan in the year 1512, he composed a "Dialogo d'Amore" to
+send to his sorrowing wife at Ischia, a production which the learned Paolo
+Giovio, the historian and bishop of Nocera, pronounced as being "summae
+jucunditatis," though in reality it seems to have been feeble enough. But
+however halting and commonplace the warrior's verses, Pescara's
+composition had the immediate effect of opening the flood-gates of his
+wife's poetic temperament, for she replied at once to her spouse's effort
+with an epistle conceived in the _terza rima_ employed by Dante, and
+though the poem is turgid in diction and shallow in thought, full of
+classical names and allusions, "a parade of all the treasures of the
+school-room," it exhibits the graceful ease and high scholarship which
+mark all Vittoria's writings. Meanwhile, unblest with offspring of her own
+and ever separated by the cruel circumstance of war from the husband she
+seemed perfectly content to admire from a distance, Vittoria did not
+expend all her time at Ischia in sacrificing to Apollo and the Muses, for
+she now undertook the education of her husband's young cousin and heir,
+Alphonso d'Avalos, Marchese del Vasto, whose manhood certainly did credit
+to his instructress, for del Vasto under her influence grew up to be a
+brave soldier and a tolerable scholar.
+
+After sixteen years of married life with a husband who, although
+professing deep devotion to his brilliant and virtuous consort, was almost
+invariably absent from her side, Vittoria found herself left a widow
+shortly after the great battle of Pavia in 1525 wherein Francis I. of
+France surrendered to the Emperor Charles V. The Marquis of Pescara, after
+the usual career of bloodthirsty adventures which passed in those days for
+a life of knight-errantry, died at Milan towards the close of this year,
+leaving behind him an unenviable reputation for treachery towards his
+master. But however hard were the things said of the deceased Fernando
+d'Avalos by the outside world, no breath of suspicion seems ever to have
+penetrated to the heart of the faithful if placid Vittoria, who mourned
+bitterly if somewhat theatrically over her departed hero. The Lady of the
+Rock was now in her thirty-fifth year, and her beauty, so we are told,
+still remained undimmed; in fact it was rather improved by a tendency
+towards plumpness, for sorrow and poetry are not necessarily associated
+with a meagre appearance. Spending her time partly in the great Italian
+cities, but chiefly on her beloved _scoglio superbo_, the widow of Pescara
+now set herself to write that series of sonnets in memory of her dead
+husband which have rescued his unworthy name from oblivion and have
+rendered her own famous in Italian literature. For the sonnets of Vittoria
+Colonna, though appearing cold classical and pedantic to our northern
+ideas, evidently appeal to the Italian temperament, so that the praises of
+Pescara and his widow's stilted complaints, couched in the elegant
+language of the Renaissance, are still read and appreciated to-day by her
+compatriots. As time passed, and the ghost of sorrowful remorse was
+supposed to be decently laid, the sonnets contain somewhat less of
+hero-worship, and assume a religious and speculative character. Some
+critics have even gone so far as to affect to perceive a latent spirit of
+Protestantism underlying the graceful platitudes and commonplace but
+grandly expressed ideas. Very likely the Lady of the Rock dabbled in the
+fashionable heterodoxy of the hour, as it is at least certain that she was
+on terms of intimacy with the celebrated Princess Renee, the "Protestant"
+Duchess of Ferrara. On the other hand, several of her acquaintances and
+correspondents were amongst the most prominent of the unyielding Churchmen
+of the day; in their number being, it is interesting to note, Cardinal
+Reginald Pole, great-nephew of King Edward IV. of England and afterwards
+Queen Mary's Archbishop of Canterbury, who was certainly not likely to
+encourage Vittoria's unorthodox or reforming tendencies. "The more
+opportunity," so writes the poetess to Cardinal Cervino, afterwards Pope
+Marcellus II., "I have had of observing the actions of his Eminence the
+Cardinal of England, the more clear has it seemed to me that he is a true
+and sincere servant of God. Whenever, therefore, he charitably condescends
+to give me his opinion on any point, I conceive myself safe from error in
+following his advice." And on the strength of Cardinal Pole's astute
+counsels, Vittoria promptly broke off all communication with the leading
+reformer, Bernardino Ochino, and (a thing which does not strike us as
+particularly honourable) forwarded his letters to herself unopened to his
+spiritual adversaries. But it is evident that Vittoria's "Protestantism"
+was a mere pose, assumed at a time when adverse criticism from all sides
+was being levelled at the political abuses of the Papacy and at the
+various scandals in the Church which were patent to the eyes of all
+onlookers. In short her religious verses are if anything more frigid and
+artificial than those which compose the _In Memoriam_ to her husband, her
+_Bel Sole_, as she usually terms him. Whilst admitting considerable merit
+in Vittoria's compositions, we find it at this distance of time very
+difficult to understand the extravagant praise which was showered upon her
+poems by the Italian critics of the day, or to conceive how a sonnet from
+the gifted pen of the Marchioness of Pescara could possibly have been
+considered an important event in the literary world by cardinals, princes,
+poets, wits and scholars. From Naples to Rome, from Rome to Ferrara, from
+Ferrara to Mantua and Milan, the precious manuscript containing the
+last-born sonnet of the illustrious Lady of Ischia was eagerly passed
+along. Court poets read aloud amidst breathless silence the divine
+Vittoria's fourteen lines of jejune sentiment draped in folds of elegant
+verbiage; nobles and prelates applauded, hailing the authoress as a
+heaven-sent genius. Sincere to a certain extent this strange admiration
+undoubtedly was, although the homage was paid perhaps in equal proportions
+to the excellence of the verse and to the high rank of the author. She was
+a Colonna by birth; she was the widow of a petty despot; she was governor
+of a large island;--any literary production, however indifferent, from so
+high a personage would have been received throughout Italy with respect or
+flattery. But Vittoria was no mean or careless aspirant to fame; it was
+the fault of an artificial age rather than the lack of her own natural
+ability that has made her poetry cold and soulless, for under healthy
+conditions of life and thought, "the Divine Vittoria" was doubtless
+capable of producing something warmer and more human than the lifeless but
+graceful sonnets that bear her name.
+
+It is chiefly through her close connexion with the great literary movement
+of the Italian Renaissance and her intimacy with its leading artists and
+writers, rather than through her own reputation as a poetess, that the
+name of Vittoria Colonna herself is remembered outside the borders of
+Italy. With her wealth, her culture, her virtue and her unique position in
+the world of rank and of letters, it is nothing marvellous that so
+fortunate and gifted a mortal should have become the idol of the leading
+persons of her day. She belonged, in fact, to a brilliant and famous group
+of which she was the soul and centre; of which she was at once the patron,
+the disciple and the teacher. That great master of Italian prose, Pietro
+Bembo, set a high value on her powers of criticism; other men, almost as
+distinguished as the Venetian cardinal, besought her for advice on
+literary subjects. Foremost in her circle of admirers appears of course
+the great Michelangelo, with whom the immaculate Vittoria condescended to
+indulge in one of those cold platonic pseudo-passions which constituted
+the true _divino amore_ of the idealists of the Renaissance. So here was
+nothing to cavil at, nothing to arouse base suspicion. Considered the
+greatest man and the greatest woman in all Italy, both were of mature age,
+he in the sixties and she in the forties, when Michelangelo first
+professed himself seized with a pure but unquenchable love and devotion
+for the widowed Lady of the Rock.
+
+The last days of Vittoria, which were chiefly spent within the walls of
+the Convent of Sant' Anna at Rome, were clouded by ill-health and sorrow.
+The death of the young Marchese del Vasto, "her moral and intellectual
+son," was an irreparable loss, for which her boundless fame and popularity
+could offer little real consolation. At length the poetess, feeling death
+approaching, moved to the house of Giulia Colonna, her relative, and there
+expired in February 1547, in the fifty-seventh year of her age. To the
+last her death-bed was surrounded by sorrowing and adoring friends,
+amongst them being Michelangelo, who is said to have witnessed with his
+own eyes the last moments of his beloved Lady. And the famous sculptor,
+painter and poet--perhaps the most stupendous genius the world has yet
+produced--is reported to have bitterly regretted in after years that on so
+solemn an occasion he had not ventured to imprint one chaste kiss upon the
+forehead of the woman he had adored so ardently, yet so purely during
+life. By her expressed wish the body of the poetess was buried in San
+Domenico Maggiore at Naples, the finest and least spoiled of all the
+Neapolitan churches, where a velvet-covered coffin containing the ashes of
+the Divine Vittoria and her "Bel Sole," and surmounted by the sword,
+banner and portrait of Fernando d'Avalos, is still pointed out to the
+stranger, resting on a shelf in the sacristy of the church. We cannot but
+regret that Vittoria's body did not find a final resting-place in her
+_superbo scoglio_, where all her happiest years were spent and where her
+memory still survives so fresh.
+
+Sadly deserted appear to-day the historic buildings, which are fast
+falling into hopeless decay; even the large domed church of the Castle has
+been desecrated and turned into a stable.
+
+  "Tocsins from yon bleak turrets never ring;
+  No knight or pages pace those galleries,
+  So sombre and so silent: ever cling
+  To that cold church and palace draperies
+  Of glaucous fume-weed; sea-birds ever sing
+  The vanished glories with low mournful cries."
+
+Ischia itself is a quaint, dirty, straggling town, possessing a small
+cathedral of ancient foundation, but modernised within and without, its
+sole object of interest being a curious font resting on marble lions. The
+charm of the city lies chiefly in the busy scenes to be witnessed daily on
+its sandy beach and on the stone causeway that leads to the Castle, where
+a large part of the population seems to spend most of its time in mending
+the deep brown fishing nets or in attending to the gaudily painted boats.
+
+Almost adjoining the outskirts of the little capital of the island is
+Porto d'Ischia, with a deep circular harbour that was once the crater of
+an extinct volcano, wherein every variety of Mediterranean fishing craft
+is to be seen at anchor. Close to the port, embowered among groves of
+orange and lemon trees that in winter time are laden with bright or pale
+yellow fruit, stands a fine old villa of the Bourbon kings of Naples, once
+a favourite summer retreat of his Majesty King Bomba. Royalty has long
+abandoned Ischia, and the villa has now been converted into a bath house.
+Beyond its neglected park stretches an extensive pine forest, carpeted in
+spring time with daisies, marigolds and anemones, and even in February gay
+with yellow oxalis and redolent with the scent of hidden violets.
+
+The road from Ischia to Casamicciola, a distance of four miles, leads
+along the base of Monte Epomeo through olive groves and vineyards, the
+whitewashed walls of the domed cottages, the flat roofs and cisterns, and
+the frequent clumps of aloe or prickly pear giving an Eastern aspect to
+the scenery, though the sharp tinklings of the goat bells among the
+thickets of white heath and dark myrtle scrub on the hill-sides and the
+continual murmur of the waves breaking on the rocks below, serve to remind
+us we are upon the Neapolitan Riviera. Our destination at length is
+reached, the roadway crossing the deep valley of the Gurgitello with its
+sulphur baths, which once had a wide reputation and are still much
+frequented in the summer months by the people of Naples. Although the
+sources of the springs were certainly damaged by the earthquake of 1883,
+new bathing establishments have been built, and a fair number of patients
+are once more availing themselves of these beneficent waters, which of
+course are warranted to heal every bodily evil under the sun. A course of
+the Ischian waters therefore applied externally and internally (so the
+local doctors inform us)
+
+  "Muove i paralitici,
+  Spedisce gli apopletici,
+  Gli asmatici, gli asfitici,
+  Gl' isterici, i diabetici
+  Guarisce timpanitidi,
+  E scrofule e rachitidi."
+
+Formerly the most populous and prosperous township of the whole island,
+Casamicciola consists to-day principally of a mass of shapeless ruins,
+together with a number of dismal corrugated iron huts grouped round an
+ugly modern church, nor can its exquisite views and luxuriant gardens make
+amends for the settled air of melancholy which continues to brood over
+this unlucky spot. Every reader will doubtless remember the story of the
+terrible earthquake of July 28th 1883, when almost without warning the
+whole town, then crowded with its usual influx of summer visitors, was
+overthrown and engulfed in the space of a few seconds of time. Hotels,
+villas, churches, cottages, all suffered equally, and though the exact
+number of those who perished of all classes will never be known, the most
+moderate accounts put the figure as high as 3000 souls. Several English
+people lost their lives in that brief but terrible upheaval, and as many
+of the bodies as were recovered from the wreckage were laid to rest in the
+little cemetery outside the town, a plot of ground overhanging the sea,
+and shaded by cypress and eucalyptus trees. Many and impressive are the
+stories still to be heard from the lips of the present inhabitants, who
+are wont to date all events from that fearful night of darkness and
+destruction, and who all have piteous tales to tell of relations killed
+and houses shattered. The English landlady of the _Piccola Sentinella_,
+who herself had an almost miraculous escape on the occasion, gave us a
+most vivid and heart-rending description of how her hotel and most of its
+inmates were overwhelmed on that awful July night, and how the existing
+inn is literally built upon foundations that are filled with many
+unrecovered bodies of victims. It was on a dark sultry night after the
+evening meal had been finished, when the many guests of the _Piccola
+Sentinella_ were sitting in the public rooms or on the terrace overlooking
+the hotel gardens. In the _salon_ a young Englishman, an accomplished
+musician, had been playing for some time on the piano, when suddenly and
+unexpectedly he plunged into the strains of Chopin's _Marche Funebre_,
+which had the immediate effect of scattering his audience, since many of
+his listeners, not caring for so melancholy a piece of music, deserted the
+room for the garden. Lucky indeed were those persons driven forth by the
+strains of Chopin's dirge, for a few moments later came the earthquake,
+when in a trice the whole hotel was swallowed up in the yawning chasm of
+the earth. Everybody inside the walls was killed, and the body of the poor
+pianist was actually discovered later amidst the wreckage, crushed down
+upon the instrument which had struck the warning notes of impending
+disaster. The horrors of that night still linger vividly in the memory of
+the people, and many are the terrible incidents, and many also, we are
+glad to say, the acts of bravery which are recorded of it. One elderly
+English lady, who owned a small villa on the slope above the hotel, rushed
+at the first suspicion of the catastrophe into the stone archway of a
+window, whence she beheld the whole of her house collapse like a castle of
+cards around her. Nothing daunted by the spectacle, this gallant woman, as
+soon as the shock had ceased and the clouds of dust rising from the ruin
+had cleared away, left her own dismantled home, of which nothing but the
+one wall that had sheltered her remained standing, and joined the
+_parrocco_, the parish priest of Casamicciola, in the task of succouring
+the living and comforting the dying. To the darkness of the night was now
+added a heavy rainfall, yet the good priest and this noble woman traversed
+together the altered and devastated scene amidst the wet and gloom on
+their errand of mercy. It is some satisfaction to learn that this piece of
+unselfish heroism and devotion on the part of the priest was officially
+acknowledged, for the humble curate of Casamicciola was afterwards made a
+prelate by Pope Leo XIII. in recognition of his signal services. Even
+to-day people are inclined to be somewhat chary of spending any length of
+time in this unfortunate spot, where the ruined streets and shapeless
+mounds of earth, only too suggestive of a latter-day Pompeii, speak so
+eloquently of terrible experiences in the past and of possible dangers in
+the future. Nevertheless, if one can triumph over these gloomy feelings,
+Casamicciola affords a delightful centre whence to explore the whole
+island, and many are the pleasant walks to be found on the overhanging
+slopes of Mont' Epomeo, and many the boating expeditions to be made from
+the Marina below the upper town.
+
+  [Illustration: ON THE PICCOLA MARINA, CAPRI]
+
+It is a two-mile walk through stony lanes overhung by branches of fig and
+orange from Casamicciola to Lacco, a large village well situated on a
+little bay which is distinguished by a curious mushroom-shaped rock, aptly
+nicknamed "Il Fungo" by the natives. This place, which also suffered
+severely in the earthquake of 1883, is the head-quarters of the
+straw-plaiting industry of the island, the women and children noisily
+beseeching every chance visitor to buy their wares in the guise of
+baskets, hats and fans; the pretty coloured tiles (_mattoni_), which are
+used with such good effect in the churches and houses of the island, are
+likewise manufactured here. Lacco is particularly associated with the
+great annual festival of St Restituta on May 17th, which is always marked
+by religious processions and by universal merry-making, followed by
+illuminations and fireworks at nightfall. This saint, of whom an early
+mosaic portrait still exists in her ancient chapel within the Neapolitan
+Cathedral, was once the patroness of the city of Naples, but since
+medieval times she has been honoured as the special guardian of this
+island, whither her body (so the legend runs) was miraculously conveyed
+from Egypt in a boat rowed by angels. A local tradition also asserts that
+on her landing by the beach of Lacco, an Egyptian lotus bloom was found in
+the saint's hand, as fresh as when it had been plucked months before from
+the banks of the Nile.
+
+Leaving the little bay with its sulphur-impregnated sands, and turning
+inland, we proceed along a road across an ancient lava-stream over-grown
+with pine trees, wild caper and a tangle of aromatic brushwood, to Forio,
+which with its white domed houses, its palm trees, and its stately
+bare-footed women bearing tall pitchers on their heads gives at first
+acquaintance the full impression of an Oriental city. There is little to
+be seen in Forio itself, with the exception of some fine vestments of
+needlework that are preserved in the sacristy of its principal church, but
+no traveller should fail to visit its wonderfully picturesque Franciscan
+monastery, a barbaric-looking pile of dazzling white walls and cupolas set
+against a background of cobalt waters, which stands outside the town on a
+rocky platform jutting into the Mediterranean and is approached by a broad
+flight of marble steps adorned with most realistic figures of souls
+burning in brightly painted flames of Purgatory. This point too commands a
+good view of the extreme north-eastern promontory of the island, a tall
+cliff known as the Punta del Imperatore in honour of the great Emperor
+Charles the Fifth, beyond which visitors rarely penetrate owing to the
+roughness, or rather non-existence of roads, though the southern side of
+the island, which lies between this cape and the castle of Ischia, is
+fully as beautiful as the northern portion just described.
+
+The chief attraction, however, of a visit to Ischia is the ascent of Mont'
+Epomeo, an easy expedition on foot to the active, and feasible to the weak
+or lazy on mule-back. This extinct volcano, whose broad lofty summit is
+visible from many points of the Bay of Naples, is naturally rich in
+classical associations, the ancients believing that within it lay
+imprisoned the giant Typhoeus, whose agonised movements were wont to cause
+the frequent eruptions of the crater that eventually drove away the early
+Greek settlers from this island--the Aenaria or Inarime of antiquity--and in
+later times accounted for the neglect of Ischia as a winter resort by the
+luxurious Romans, in spite of its near presence to fashionable Baiae. So
+destructive of life and property were these convulsions of nature, that
+for long periods, notwithstanding its fertile soil and its lucrative
+fisheries, the island remained uninhabited, and an old tradition,
+mentioned by Ovid, derives one of its ancient names, Pithecusa, from a
+race of apes (_pithekoi_) that dwelt on its abandoned shores. Since the
+great eruption of 1302, the effects of which can still be traced among the
+large pine woods near Porto d'Ischia, the mountain has been quiescent, and
+the population of the island has increased considerably, although the
+constant shocks of earthquake have always made a permanent residence in
+Ischia somewhat insecure. Nor can we rest assured that Typhoeus himself is
+truly dead, not merely sleeping, but ready to renew his fierce efforts
+after his long spell of slumber, and to change the face of nature as
+unexpectedly as did the Demon of Vesuvius in the reign of Titus.
+
+Like the great volcano of Etna, which the Ischian mountain somewhat
+resembles on a tiny scale. Epomeo contains three distinct climatic zones.
+The lowest is that of the coast line with its rich sub-tropical
+vegetation, the early part of the ascent leading by steep stony paths
+through sun-baked vineyards which produce the white wine of Ischia,
+wholesome and light but somewhat acid in taste. For the storing of this
+vintage the peasants make use of the numerous old stone towers, that once
+served as safe retreats for the terrified inhabitants in times when the
+Barbary pirates frequently descended on the Italian coasts to plunder and
+enslave. Very curious it is to step out of the blinding sunlight into the
+interior of one of these medieval buildings, where in the icy gloom stand
+great barrels of the new white wine, each carefully inscribed with a
+prayer in praise of St Restituta, from one of which the swarthy
+_contadino_, in expectation of a few pence, draws a glassful of the sour
+chilly liquid to offer his visitor. Leaving behind this region of houses
+and of cultivation, the zone of forest is reached, covered with woods of
+chestnut and oak, with a thick undergrowth of heather, myrtle, laurustinus
+and sweet-scented yellow coronella; there is grass under our feet, and
+long-stemmed daisies, violets, mauve anemones and small fragrant marigolds
+everywhere. Through the trees comes the nasal but not unmelodious singing
+of an unseen charcoal-burner, or the plaintive note of the little
+goat-herd's rustic pipe, accompanied by the musical jingling of his
+goat-bells;--for a moment we try to fancy ourselves in the pastoral Italy
+of Theocritus, where nymphs and shepherds, peasants and dryads, lived
+together on terms of amity in the woods. But soon the chestnut trees
+appear stunted, and the groves become less thick, and we finally gain the
+last zone, the desolate expanse of naked rock and dark lava deposits of
+the summit, where only a few hardy weeds can thrive. Here in some damp
+mouldy chambers dwells a hermit, for nearly all the classic mountains of
+Southern Italy are tenanted by an anchorite, generally an old and
+ignorant, but pious peasant, of the type of Pietro Murrone, the holy
+recluse of the Abruzzi, who was finally dragged from his cell to be
+invested forcibly with the pontifical robes and tiara as Celestine the
+Fifth. The present hermitage on Mont' Epomeo dates however from
+comparatively modern times, for its first occupant is said to have been a
+German nobleman, a certain Joseph Arguth, governor of Ischia under the
+first Bourbon king, who in consequence of a solemn vow made in battle
+deliberately passed his last years of existence on the topmost peak of the
+island he had lately ruled. His example has been followed and his cell
+filled by many successors, who have endured the spring rains, the summer
+heats, the autumn storms and the winter chills upon this airy height,
+where the glorious view may be found a compensation for eternal
+discomfort, if hermits condescend to appreciate anything so mundane as
+scenery. The shrine and cell are dedicated to St Nicholas of Bari, and to
+this circumstance is due the local uninteresting name of Monte San Niccolo
+to the entire mountain, whose crest, some 3000 feet above sea-level, we
+finally gain by means of steps roughly hewn in the lava.
+
+The view from this height, embracing two out of the three historic bays of
+the Parthenopean coast, is one of the noblest and most extensive in
+Southern Italy. Looking southward, the fantastic cliffs of Capri are seen
+to rise abruptly from the ocean; beyond them appears the graceful outline
+of Monte Sant' Angelo, with the crater of Vesuvius beside it, veiling the
+clear blue sky with volumes of dusky smoke. Beneath extends the broken
+line of shore, stretching north and south as far as the eye can travel,
+with its classic capes and islands basking in the strong sunshine; whilst
+behind the foam-fringed boundary of land and sea rises the jagged line of
+the Abruzzi Mountains with the huge snow-clad mass of the Gran Sasso
+d'Italia towering above the lower peaks. At our feet is spread the
+beautiful and fertile island, in outward appearance little changed since
+the days when the good Bishop Berkeley "of every virtue under Heaven"
+penned its description nearly two centuries ago in a letter to Alexander
+Pope, wherein he described Ischia as "an epitome of the whole earth."
+
+In spite of the good Bishop's eloquent tribute to the genial climate and
+the natural beauty of Ischia, it must be borne in mind that a residence on
+the island possesses one or two serious drawbacks. Apart from the
+ever-present fear of earthquakes, which hangs like the sword of Damocles
+above the heads of the inhabitants, there is yet another disadvantage,
+prosaic but very real, in the lack of pure water, every well and rivulet
+on Ischia being more or less impregnated with sulphur, with the result
+that water for drinking (and in summer even for domestic) purposes has to
+be conveyed by boat from Naples. It is bad enough to be dependant on a
+distant city for a food supply (which is to some extent also the case
+here), but the possibility of enduring a water famine through storms or
+misadventure would be a far more serious calamity; nevertheless as casual
+visitors to this charming and little-known island, we can easily afford to
+smile at such misfortunes.(12)
+
+  [Illustration: ISCHIA FROM CASTELLAMARE (SUNSET)]
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+                  PUTEOLI AND THE GRANDEUR THAT WAS ROME
+
+
+Passing along the noisy thronged street of the Chiaja and plunging thence
+into the chill gloomy recesses of the ancient grotto of Posilipo, we
+emerge at its further side into a new world, as it were, into a district
+where "there is scarcely a spot which is not identified with the poetical
+mythology of Greece, or associated with some name familiar in the history
+of Rome." In truth, the headland of Posilipo presents a wonderful landmark
+in the history of Naples, for it forms a barrier between the busy world of
+to-day and the departed civilisation of the ancients: at the latter end of
+this tunnel, the fierce life and movement of a great commercial city; at
+its western exit, a tract of land teeming with recollections of the
+glorious past.
+
+As our carriage emerges once more into the warmth and sunlight, we find
+ourselves in the miserable village of Fuorigrotta, which, by a strange
+coincidence, is associated with the memory of a famous Italian poet. For
+if the name and verses of Sannazzaro cling to Piedigrotta and the
+Parthenopean shore on the eastern side of the hill, the genius of Count
+Giacomo Leopardi sheds its melancholy radiance over the unlovely purlieus
+of Fuorigrotta. Here in the vestibule of the parish church of San Vitale,
+lie the ashes of that unhappy writer, the Shelley of Italian literature,
+who so bewailed the Austrian and Bourbon fetters that enchained his native
+land. Poor Leopardi! It was but eleven years before the first great
+movement of the _Risorgimento_ swept over Italy in 1848 that he passed
+away; his poems were indeed songs before sunrise, a sunrise of which he
+failed to detect the far-off glimmering, so that he could only lament
+without hope the sad condition of his dismembered country, once the
+mistress and now the play-thing of the world, and the abject slave of
+hated Austria:
+
+  "O patria mia, vedo le mure e gli archi
+  E le colonne e i simulacri e l' erme
+  Torri degli avi nostri,
+  Ma la gloria non vedo;
+  Non vedo il lauro e'l ferro ond' eran carchi
+  I nostri padri antichi."
+
+It is a flat dusty stretch of road that lies between Fuorigrotta and
+Bagnoli; the high walls give only occasional glimpses of well-tilled
+_parterres_--one cannot call these tiny patches of cultivation fields--with
+thriving crops of brilliant green corn, of claret-red clover, of purple
+lucerne, and of the white-flowered "sad lupin," which Vergil has
+immortalised in verse. The round bright yellow beans of the lupin crop,
+known locally by the name of _spassa-tiempi_ (time-killers), afford an
+article of food to the very poorest of the population. A quaint story runs
+that one day an impoverished philosopher, reduced to making his dinner off
+a handful of these beans, and imagining himself in consequence the most
+wretched wight in existence, was cheered and comforted by observing
+himself followed by a still more miserable fellow-mortal, who was engaged
+in picking up and eating the husks of the beans that, _more italiano_, he
+had thrown carelessly on to the pathway after their insipid farinaceous
+contents had been sucked out!
+
+Above us to the right are the heights of Monte Spina, covered with groves
+of the umbrella pine, the typical tree of Naples; to our left extends the
+verdant ridge of Posilipo, ending in Cape Coroglio, beyond which the
+massive form of Nisida rises proudly from the blue expanse of water. All
+the landscape shows somewhat hard in the glare of noontide, and we find
+the enveloping clouds of fine white dust very oppressive and disagreeable.
+From time to time a lumbering country cart is passed with its attendant
+bare-footed peasant; otherwise there is little sign of life on the high
+road. The bright sunlight flashes upon the horse's polished brass harness,
+and upon the elaborate erection of charms placed thereon, with the avowed
+object of averting the dreaded Evil Eye, that everlasting bugbear of all
+dwellers upon these southern shores. On his poor drooping head the
+worn-out old steed carries a large bell with four jingling clappers and
+two brazen crescents, the horns of one of which point upwards and of the
+other towards the ground. On the off-side of the headgear is a bunch of
+bright-coloured ribbands or woollen tassels, from which depends the single
+horn, the invaluable Neapolitan talisman that is supposed to protect every
+man, woman, child or beast, from the chance glance of a passing
+_jettatore_. Above this glowing mass of colour some three or four feathers
+of a pheasant's tail are stuck, apparently with no ulterior purpose than
+that of ornament; but beside the bunch of ribbands there is also fixed a
+piece of wolf's skin, to give strength to the jaded animal, for, remarks
+the sapient Pliny, "a wolf's skin attached to a horse's neck will render
+him proof against all weariness." Personally, we should think a little
+more consideration and some elementary knowledge of farriery would have
+been of more service to the ill-used beasts round Naples than the
+excellent Pliny's highly original receipt. Besides this powerful battery
+of charms to intercept the _jettatura_, there is the light brass headpiece
+engraved with sacred figures, so that any evil glance must be fully
+absorbed, baffled or exhausted, before it can fix itself upon the animal.
+In addition however to this shining mass of headgear, the horse carries on
+his back one of those curious high pommels that are peculiar to Southern
+Italy and Sicily. The front of the pommel itself is of well-polished
+brass, and covered with a number of studs, whilst at its back is fastened
+a miniature barrel, upon which there stands erect the figure of some local
+saint, generally that of San Gennaro. The exact part that the barrel and
+the row of studs play in this mystic battle against the Evil Eye is
+unknown, but the two revolving flags of brass that swing and creak above
+the pommel itself are believed to represent "the flaming sword which
+turned every way," and finally expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of
+Eden. Certainly this shimmering metal has the appearance of a flaming
+sword in the bright sunshine, so that it ought to prove efficacious in
+catching and averting any baleful glance. A second patch of wolf skin on
+the crest of the pommel, and some red worsted wound round the spindle of
+the flags complete the list of strange charms that are considered
+necessary to protect a Neapolitan horse from the pernicious influence of a
+casual passer-by.
+
+We soon reach the sea-shore at Bagnoli, a little watering-place much
+frequented by Neapolitans of the middle classes, and on looking back we
+obtain a charming view of the headland of Posilipo and of stately Nisida,
+the Nesis of the ancients, with its memories of Brutus, "the noblest Roman
+of them all," who on this little island bade farewell for ever to his
+devoted Portia. A very different tenant from the chaste Portia, however,
+who once possessed a villa in this sea-girt retreat during the Middle
+Ages, was Queen Joanna the Second, the last member of the Durazzo branch
+of the Angevin royal house, and sister and heiress of King Ladislaus II.,
+whose splendid monument in San Giovanni a Carbonara is one of the chief
+artistic treasures of Naples. It is of course unnecessary here to remark
+that there were two Queens of Naples, both Joanna by name, and that the
+first of these, the contemporary of Petrarch (whose proper feeling she
+contrived to shock) was certainly not a pattern of female virtue, but that
+she shone as a moral paragon when contrasted with her name-sake and
+successor, the sister of King Ladislaus. Of this second Queen, tradition
+more or less accurate relates a host of stories, none of them to her
+credit; how she dabbled in necromancy and was immersed in love intrigues,
+the most celebrated of which was her amour with the handsome "Ser.
+Gianni," Giovanni Caracciolo, head of an eminent family that has figured
+prominently in Neapolitan history from the days of Angevin monarchs to
+those of King Ferdinand. Little good did the fickle Queen's favour do Ser.
+Gianni, who suffered an ignominious fate for having one day boxed Joanna's
+ears during a lovers' tiff. Murdered secretly by four assassins,
+Caracciolo's body was laid to rest in the family chapel in San Giovanni a
+Carbonara beneath a splendid monument which is surmounted by the luckless
+favourite's effigy. Joanna the First with all her faults was never guilty
+of such light conduct as this, but the peasant mind is always impatient of
+dry details of fact, so that in the popular imagination to-day both Queens
+are blended into one personage, whose character, it is needless to say, is
+about as vile as can be conceived. "Siccome la Regina Giovanna," is a form
+of peasant execration around Naples that has some historical affinity with
+the time-honoured Irish malediction of the "Curse o' Cromwell."
+
+Turning our backs on the island with its memories of Portia the Perfect
+and of Queen Joanna the Improper, we pursue our course along the sea-shore
+with rocks of ancient lava above us to the right, now heavily overgrown
+with brushwood and plants, amongst which we notice tufts of the pretty
+wild asparagus, that the observant Pliny centuries ago found flourishing
+in this district. As an early herb, coming into season long before its
+cultivated cousin is fit for cutting, this succulent vegetable is highly
+prized in the South, and its flavour though somewhat bitter is most
+palatable, so that an omelette _aux pointes d'asperges sauvages_ is a dish
+not to be despised by those who get the opportunity of testing this local
+delicacy. Before us lies our goal, Pozzuoli, with its ancient citadel
+jutting into the placid waters and backed by the classic headland of
+Misenum, above which in turn towers the crest of distant Epomeo.
+
+Pozzuoli in recent years has been much neglected by strangers, so much so
+that no inn worthy to be called an hotel now exists, and such _trattorie_
+as the place offers are all equally extortionate and detestable. Some time
+ago there was a comfortable _pension_ at the edge of the town on the road
+to the Amphitheatre, but its English landlady has long since migrated
+elsewhere, and the comfortable "Hotel Grande Bretagne" is no more; whilst
+nowadays there are to be found no visitors hardy enough to endure a
+prolonged sojourn in the wretched hostelries of the town itself. The
+electric tram and the rail-road have in fact killed Pozzuoli as a winter
+resort, more's the pity, for it is not only a spot of singular interest in
+itself but its climate is certainly superior to that of Naples, for the
+great headland which shuts off the city from the Phlegrean Fields serves
+also to act as a buffer against the icy _tramontana_ that sweeps along the
+Chiaja in winter and early spring. Invalids used at one time to inhabit
+Pozzuoli on account of its mild atmosphere, and even to visit the
+Solfatara daily on mule-back, in order to inhale its sulphureous fumes,
+which were then believed to be good for weak chests. But medical fashions
+vary like all others, and consumptive patients now seek other places than
+Pozzuoli for their cure.
+
+Many are the walks outside the town, and none are without beauty or
+interest, for, the neighbourhood of Syracuse excepted, we can think of no
+place in Italy wherein one is brought so closely into touch with the
+classical past. Nature has long clothed the ruined area of the ancient
+city with her kindly drapery of foliage and flowers, so that the crumbling
+masses of tawny brick that we come across in our rambles are all swathed
+in garlands of clematis, myrtle, honey-suckle and coronella. It is a
+delight to speculate upon the original use and appearance of these
+shapeless blocks of creeper-clad masonry, which attract the eye on all
+sides amidst the vineyards and orange groves, where the peasants delving
+in the rich soil frequently alight upon treasures of the antique world.
+What a delight it is to wander through the Street of Tombs--alas, long
+rifled of their contents!--where the gay valerian and the pink silene
+sprout from every fissure of the soft tufa rock, and lizards of unusual
+size and brilliancy play games of hide-and-seek in the warm sunshine. We
+moderns are afraid of graveyards and the paraphernalia of the dead: many a
+stout-hearted Englishman objects to passing through a church-yard at
+night; not so the pagan Romans, who placed their cemeteries in public
+places and were wont to proceed through lines of tombs as they entered the
+city of the living: a very salutary and practical reminder of the
+transitory nature of life itself. The whole neighbourhood in short is
+sprinkled with these memorials of Imperial Rome; there is not an orange or
+lemon orchard but stands above some forgotten villa, not an acre of tilth
+but must conceal some hidden mine of classical associations. Charming too
+are the walks by the sea-shore--now sadly disfigured by the _Cantiere
+Armstrong_, with its smoke and ugliness looking like a dirty smudge upon
+the delicate landscape of the Bay--for here again we find endless traces of
+the Imperial age. There can be no more fascinating employment than to
+wander along the beach after one of the heavy winter storms that so often
+vex the quiet of the Bay of Naples, and to search for fragments of
+precious marbles that have been spied by the waves amidst the sunken
+foundations of Roman villas, and thence idly flung upon the shore. Pieces
+of the choicest white Parian, squares of speckled Egyptian porphyry, of
+_verde_, _rosso_ and _giallo antico_, of the coal-black _Africano_, all
+wet and glistening from the waves, can be picked up by the quick-sighted,
+and the gathering of these beautiful trifles, cut and polished by skilled
+hands nearly two thousand years ago, makes an interesting occupation. Nor
+is its classical lore the only feature of the Bay of Baiae, for though its
+actual scenery cannot compare with the grandeur of Capri nor its
+vegetation with the rich luxuriance of Sorrento, yet these shores have a
+quiet beauty of their own. Vine, olive and almond abound on all sides, and
+everywhere we see the groves of orange and lemon that in spring time scent
+the air with their perfumed blossoms. And in the early months of the year
+every patch of warm-coloured, up-turned earth is gay with sheets of that
+beautiful but rapacious weed, hated of the peasant, the oxalis, with its
+clusters of pale yellow flowers: a species of sorrel that is allied to our
+own white-blossomed variety. From many a point on the little ridges that
+rise behind Pozzuoli magnificent views can be obtained, whilst to those
+who care to study the scientific results of volcanic action the Phlegraean
+Fields afford endless occupation and interest. Every one of course visits
+the Solfatara, that curious semi-extinct crater, the _Forum Vulcani_ of
+Strabo, which has remained for over seven hundred years in its present
+condition of languor. A strange experience it is to enter the heart of a
+volcano that is still comparatively active, and to observe woods of poplar
+and a large pine tree beneath which grow masses of spring flowers--bright
+blue bugloss, the crimson vetch, starch hyacinths, purple self-heal, and
+golden spurge--and to pass from these thickets on to a space of bare
+white-coloured ground that trembles and sways under the feet like a sheet
+of insecure ice. Beyond, one sees the little fissures (_fumaroli_)
+emitting fumes of sulphur, and the guides take us to stifling caverns in
+the hill-side where we are shown the beautiful primrose-coloured crystals.
+The Solfatara, the Amphitheatre and the Temple of Serapis, these are the
+recognised "sights" of Pozzuoli, which strangers visit to-day in the space
+of an hour or two, and then return to Naples comforted with the feeling
+that they have exhausted the attractions of the place. Certainly their
+reception in the town is not likely to inspire them with a wish to return,
+for the guides and touts swarm here more than in any other spot in Italy;
+"until he has spent half an hour in Pozzuoli," says the author of _Dolce
+Napoli_, "let no man say that he understands the signification of the verb
+to pester."
+
+Putting aside even the objectionable habits of so many of its citizens, it
+cannot be said that the town itself of Pozzuoli to-day is particularly
+attractive, although its situation on the Bay of Baiae is charming and its
+quays are full of picturesque life and movement. Lines of irregular
+yellow-washed buildings, with faded green _persiani_ and balconies draped
+with the domestic washing, with here and there a domed rococo church, look
+down upon the clear tideless waters that gently lap the ancient stone-work
+of the Mole, whilst a mixed crowd of fishermen with bare bronzed limbs, of
+chattering women with gay handkerchiefs tied over their thick black hair,
+and of blue uniformed dapper little customs officers,--_lupi marini_
+(wolves of the sea) as the poor people facetiously term these revenue
+officials of the coast--loiter in the sunlight amidst the piles of tawny
+fishing nets or the pyramids of golden oranges. From the quay we make our
+way to the Largo del Municipio, a typical square of a provincial town in
+the South, enclosed by shabby houses and adorned by a couple of stunted
+date-palms and a battered marble fountain, around which numberless
+children and some slatternly women noisily converse or dispute. There is
+an old proverb in the South, that a good housewife has no need to know any
+thoroughfares save those leading to her church and her fountain, and as
+conversation cannot well be carried on in the former, it is the daily
+visits to the well that usually afford the required opportunity for
+exchange of gossip or for the picking of quarrels. Two statues decorate
+this unlovely but not uninteresting space; one is that of a Spanish
+bishop, Leon y Cardenas, one of King Philip the Third's viceroys, which
+serves as a reminder of the many vicissitudes this classic land has
+experienced in the course of history:--Phoenician, Greek, Carthaginian,
+Roman, Barbarian, Norman, German, French, Spanish conquerors have all left
+"footprints on the sands of Time" in the coveted land of the Siren, which
+all have possessed in turn but none have held in perpetuity. His
+Excellency the Bishop Cardenas stands therefore in the open as a solid
+memento of the glory that once was Spain, when half Europe and all America
+owned the sway of the Catholic King. The second statue, though not a thing
+of beauty, has always had the attraction of an unsolved puzzle, for we
+cannot decide whether it proves a complete absence or an abundant
+superfluity of humour in the Puteolani of to-day. It is the figure of a
+Roman senator, vested in his flowing toga, and owning (as the ancient
+inscription informs us) the grandiose name of Quintus Flavius Mavortius
+Lollianus, whose marble trunk was one of the earliest archaeological
+"finds" made in the excavations at Pozzuoli some two hundred years ago.
+Since the statue lacked a head and was otherwise of no especial value as a
+work of art, the Viceroy of Naples very generously presented this object
+to the place of its discovery, whose citizens, doubtless thinking the
+appearance of the headless statue uncanny, popped a stray antique occiput
+(of which a goodly number, more or less mutilated, are constantly brought
+to light by the peasants) upon Lollianus' vacant shoulders. Anything more
+comical and at the same time more repellent than this hybrid statue it
+would be impossible to imagine, yet Lollianus of the unknown head remains
+a favourite with the people of Pozzuoli. Leaving the Largo del Municipio,
+with its weird senator and its dusty palms, we ascend by a zigzag lane
+between tall featureless houses to the Cathedral of San Proculo, which
+occupies the site of a temple of Augustus, that once dominated the ancient
+city and harbour below. Within, the cathedral of Proculus, who was a
+companion of St Januarius and a fellow-martyr, is gaudy and painted, one
+of those dismally gorgeous ecclesiastical interiors that are such a
+disappointment to the antiquarian in Southern Italy. In opposition to the
+memorial of Spanish conquest in the square below, we find here an
+elaborate monument to a French viceroy, the Duke of Montpensier, who
+served for some time as Governor of Naples after Charles VIII.'s capture
+of the city. Except the tomb of the young musician Pergolese, who composed
+the original _Stabat Mater_ there is little else to see, and we gladly
+ascend the tower in order to gain a bird's eye view of the town from a
+point of vantage whither noisy coachmen, troublesome beggars and impudent
+ragamuffins cannot pursue. Captured by the Greek colonists of Cumae, who
+gave the city the name of Dicoearchia instead of its ancient one of
+Puteoli,--a corruption, perhaps, of the Syriac word _petuli_
+(contention)--this old Hellenic settlement was rechristened Puteoli by the
+conquering Romans, under whose beneficent rule the place rapidly aspired
+to wealth and prosperity. With the rise however of Naples, the fame of
+Puteoli began to grow dim, and its importance to decline, although
+throughout Imperial times it ranked after Ostia as the chief victualling
+port of Rome. And of the two celebrated cities which adorned the shores of
+this Bay in classical times, Puteoli was the seat of commerce, and Baiae
+the resort of pleasure and luxury; yet both were doomed to dwindle and
+almost perish in the disastrous years that followed the break-up of the
+Empire. The invading hordes of Germany, the raids of Saracen pirates, and
+the constant presence of malaria on this deserted coast were sufficient
+causes in themselves to reduce in the course of time the thriving port of
+Puteoli to the squalid town of to-day. From our lofty post we can easily
+distinguish the limits of the city in the days of Tiberius and Caligula,
+for to the north we turn our faces towards the ruined bulk of the
+Amphitheatre, now lying amidst fields and gardens, but well within the
+town walls at the time when Nero entertained the Armenian king Tiridates
+and shocked his Asiatic guest by himself descending into the arena and
+deftly performing the usual disgusting feats of a professional gladiator.
+To westward lies the Bay of Baiae, a semi-circle of glittering water
+surrounded by low hills amidst which the Monte Nuovo, unknown to the
+ancients, stands conspicuous. How completely have all traces of splendour
+and extravagance disappeared from these shores! At fashionable Baiae
+across the Bay there is nothing visible save a few shapeless ruins over
+the identity of which scholars dispute; at busy Puteoli there survive
+to-day but the ruined Amphitheatre, the Temple of Serapis, and the arches
+of the famous Mole, to prove to wondering posterity how great were the
+wealth, the population and the magnificence of a spot which is closely
+associated with all the power and culture of the Roman Empire in its
+zenith.
+
+  [Illustration: ON THE BEACH]
+
+Of the various fragments of antiquity that are still standing in this
+district of the Phlegrean Fields, the Mole of Puteoli is undoubtedly the
+best preserved and the most interesting. So splendidly constructed is this
+relic of the past, that but for continuous shocks of earthquake the whole
+breakwater must have survived intact; as it is, more than half the Mole
+has withstood the wear and tear of centuries of wind and storm. It is
+built on the model of a Greek pier, a series of arches of massive masonry,
+acting at once as a barrier against the force of the invading waves and as
+a means of preventing the silting of the sand. Formed of brick, faced with
+stone, and cemented with the local volcanic sand, which is consequently
+known as _puzzolana_, this wonderful breakwater must originally have
+stretched out into the Bay a total length of twenty-five arches, its
+furthest extremity being crowned by a light-house. If we could only call
+up in imagination the Bay of Baiae in the days of the Empire, when its
+shores were fringed by sumptuous villas of famous or infamous Romans and
+its expanse was thickly covered with every variety of vessel of pleasure
+or merchandise, instead of the few fishing boats that now and again flit
+across its glassy surface, we might better be able to realise the
+extraordinary episode which is connected with this classical fragment in
+the little port of Pozzuoli below us. For it was from the Mole of Puteoli
+to the spit of land we see on the western shore opposite that the demented
+tyrant, Caius Caligula, constructed his historic bridge of boats across
+the Baiaean gulf. Every large vessel in the surrounding harbours had been
+pressed into the service of the Emperor for this gigantic piece of folly,
+so that the inhabitants of Rome were seriously inconvenienced by the
+detention of their corn ships, and loud in consequence were the complaints
+of the Roman populace, for whose anger, it is needless to state, the
+Emperor cared not a fig. "History," says Gibbon, "is but a record of the
+crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind;" and this smiling Bay of Baiae
+will ever be memorable as the scene of what was perhaps the worst
+exhibition of tyrannical caprice that the world has yet witnessed.
+
+Using a double line of vessels well yoked together as a compact and solid
+base, the Emperor now gave orders for a military road of the usual Roman
+type to be constructed of planks of timber covered with earth and paved
+with hewn stones. When this stupendous work was completed, the usual
+station-houses were erected at various intervals, and fresh water was laid
+on by means of pipes connected with the Imperial cisterns at Misenum. Upon
+this broad road, laid across the Baiaean Gulf, the young Emperor now
+advanced on horseback, followed by his whole army clad in array of battle.
+Caligula on this occasion wore a historic coat of armour studded with rare
+gems that had once belonged to Alexander the Great; a jewelled sword was
+fastened to his thigh, and a crown of oak leaves bound his temples.
+Solemnly the Emperor and his army crossed the broad expanse of water on
+dry land and entered Puteoli with mock honours of war. After remaining a
+day in the port to refresh his victorious troops, the Emperor was driven
+back in a splendidly equipped chariot, which was surrounded by a number of
+pretended captives of rank, some noble Parthian hostages being utilised
+for the occasion. At the centre of the bridge the procession halted, and
+the crazy prince next indulged in an absurd bombastic harangue, wherein he
+congratulated his soldiers on their glorious campaign just concluded, and
+declared to them that the famous feats of Xerxes and Darius had at length
+been surpassed. Finally, he invited his troops to a magnificent banquet
+upon this bridge of boats, an entertainment which lasted till far into the
+night and was accompanied by lavish illuminations by land and sea. As
+might only have been expected, the feast soon degenerated into a drunken
+orgy, wherein every guest from the Master of the Roman world to his
+meanest soldier became intoxicated, whilst many persons in their cups lost
+their balance and fell into the waters, so that the sounds of music and
+revelry throughout the midnight hours were mingled with groans and cries
+of drowning men close at hand.
+
+Apart from its senseless extravagance and innate folly, the story of the
+bridging of the Baiaean Gulf, of this harnessing of old Ocean, affects us
+moderns with astonishment at the extraordinary thoroughness of all the
+ancient Roman feats of engineering; had this high road across the Bay been
+intended to serve any useful purpose, instead of merely to satisfy the
+passing whim of a selfish tyrant, we could have had no choice but to
+admire the marvellous speed of the artificers and the completeness of the
+scheme undertaken.
+
+Quarter of a century later, and the Mole of Puteoli was destined to become
+the scene of another event in the world's history, which has left a far
+more enduring impression on mankind than the so-called miracle of
+Caligula. In the early spring of the year 62 A.D. there dropped anchor in
+the port a certain Alexandrian corn-ship, the _Castor __and__ Pollux_,
+coming from Malta after touching at Syracuse and Rhegium (Reggio) on her
+way northward. Unnoticed amidst the vast phalanx of shipping that lined
+the Mole and filled the broad harbour of Puteoli, the vessel emptied her
+cargo on the quay, whilst there also disembarked from her hold a number of
+prisoners of no great social consequence, who were on their way to Rome
+under the guardianship of a kindly old centurion, named Julius, belonging
+to the cohort _Prima Augusta Italica_. Amongst the persons under Julius'
+charge was a Jew named Paul, who was accompanied by three of his friends,
+Timothy, Luke and Aristarchus of Thessalonica, and all four, thanks to the
+kindness of the centurion, who was evidently much attached to his
+exemplary captive, were permitted to remain at this spot for seven days.
+Paul himself was anxious to tarry at this spot, for of all the Italian
+ports Puteoli was most frequented by men of his own nation, so that the
+city possessed its little community of Christians, who naturally were
+eager to detain the Apostle. So hopelessly intermingled are truth,
+tradition and legend concerning the various places on Italian soil that St
+Paul is known to have visited, that we cannot be too grateful for the
+undoubted link with his journey to Rome that we possess in the existing
+Mole of Puteoli, whose surface has undoubtedly been trodden by the
+sandalled feet of the great Apostle of the West. Here Paul landed amid the
+haughty scenes of Roman pride and power; above him he saw the pagan Temple
+of Augustus, all gleaming with marble and gilded bronze that were mirrored
+in the calm waters of the port: along this famous causeway he passed,
+unmarked by the busy crowd, except perhaps to be mocked by some idler for
+his nationality or his halting speech. Guided by Christian compatriots,
+the Apostle with his three faithful friends was led through the noisy
+jostling concourse of all countries that thronged the great Roman city to
+the humble dwelling of his host. Where he lodged in that mighty city we
+know not, but we do know for a certain fact that he landed on the Mole,
+and that he passed along it to the shore; it is not much, perhaps, but
+that little is very precious.
+
+What a contrast do these two incidents connected with the Mole of Puteoli
+afford! The Roman Emperor, glittering like the morning star in purple
+mantle and jewelled cuirass, riding on his charger across the solid road
+that to humour his own caprice had been flung across the buoyant waters,
+accompanied by soldiery, by music, and by bands of wealthy sycophants; and
+the Apostle, poor, in bonds, a despised prisoner in an alien land, meekly
+threading his way through the crowds towards his mean lodging. Where is
+the proud Temple of Augustus that beheld these two strange scenes, that
+occurred with no great interval of time apart? Where are the villas and
+quays that lined the Bay of Baiae? The very ruins of the palaces and
+warehouses are swept away; the gorgeous temple is a Christian Cathedral
+dedicated to a follower of the despised Jewish captive; the name of
+Caligula lives but in human execration, whilst that of the Apostle is
+enshrined in the hearts of the whole Christian world.
+
+
+                               * * * * * *
+
+
+It is but a three-mile walk along the beach from Pozzuoli to Baiae,
+passing beside the Lucrine Lake and the southern slope of the Monte Nuovo,
+which always seems to us a far more wonderful freak of Nature than the
+Solfatara. Here we have a miniature mountain, a mile and a half round its
+base and nearly five hundred feet high, that was made in the course of a
+single night, and is to-day less than four hundred years old! The presence
+of this brand-new intruder on the shore of the Baiaean Gulf must ever
+remain a wholesome warning to all dwellers on these coasts, that their
+tenure of King Pluto's dominions is very insecure. One morning towards the
+close of September 1538, after some days of earthquake shocks, "Pozzuoli
+awoke," says the flippant Alexandre Dumas, "and on looking about did not
+recognise herself! She had left a lake the evening before, and lo! she
+found a mountain; where she had owned a forest, she found ashes; and last
+of all, where she had left a village, she perceived no trace!"
+
+In one sense Dumas' facetious description is correct: the New Mountain was
+born with extraordinary celerity, and woods, lake and village--familiar and
+beloved landmarks to the people of Baiae and Pozzuoli--disappeared at its
+birth. But the event was no peaceful act of Nature; on the contrary, it
+was accompanied by loud rumblings, by showers of red-hot stones, by clouds
+of smoke, by torrents of scalding water, and by the retreating of the sea,
+which left thousands of fish lying helpless on the exposed shore. The
+village of Tripergola, a summer pleasaunce of the Angevin kings of Naples,
+and many traces of ancient Roman villas and engineering works, all
+perished in this notable cataclysm. Four eye-witnesses have left us
+details of this strange scene of desolation, whilst only a few days after
+Mother Earth had brought forth this new mountain, one of them, the Spanish
+Viceroy of Naples, the valiant Don Pedro of Toledo, owned sufficient pluck
+and curiosity to make the ascent of the Monte Nuovo, still smoking hot and
+reeking of sulphur. Who can tell when this _parvenu_ volcano may spout
+forth fire and ashes? Would any sane person have the courage ever to
+settle within range of a possible eruption? No, the Phlegrean fields are
+interesting to visit, but he must require a strong nerve who would fain
+dwell beneath the shadow of this dormant crater.
+
+It is a very short walk from the base of the Monte Nuovo to the "golden
+shores" of Imperial Baiae, which is certainly not an imposing place in
+these days. What with the destroying hand of time and the still more
+obliterating action of the neighbouring volcano, there is little left for
+the fancy to build upon; certainly the three ruined shells that are called
+temples by courtesy, but served probably a much humbler purpose than that
+of worship, are not particularly striking. It requires not only a good
+classical knowledge, but also no small amount of imagination to picture
+the Baiae of the Roman poets.
+
+"If Pozzuoli has gone down in the world, still more so Baiae. It does not
+require any more sinking; it is low enough as it is, so low that some of
+its ancient villas and palaces can only be visited in a diving-bell. So
+dreary and deserted is the site, that at first glance the visitor feels
+mightily inclined to question the veracity of the historian, and to doubt
+whether Baiae--Baiae the gay, the fashionable, the dissolute, the beloved
+of emperors, statesmen and poets--ever existed. But when he is shown the
+enormous sub-structures lying under water, and the masses of solid masonry
+wherewith the surrounding hills are over-spread, incredulity gives place
+to amazement. What towns of lath and plaster are Brighton, Newport and
+Trouville, when compared with this 'Rome by the sea,' where the materials
+used for the foundations of a single villa would more than suffice for the
+construction of a dozen 'genteel marine residences' of the modern style!
+What would a Roman architect think of the card-board streets and squares,
+and the stucco crescents and terraces, of an English watering-place? of
+those 'eligible family mansions' wherein dancing is dangerous, and to
+venture on whose balconies is perilous in the extreme? Echo answers:
+'What!' "(13)
+
+Here on this desolate strip of sea-shore, now dominated by the Spanish
+viceroy's frowning fortress on the hill above, the great and opulent of
+ancient Rome founded a city composed wholly of palaces. Here were no noisy
+market-places to annoy aristocratic nerves; no slums to afflict
+plutocratic nostrils; no families of the proletariat to disturb the
+refined senses of the jaded pleasure-seekers who retired hither in the
+winter months. A writer, from whom we have just quoted, makes comparison
+between Baiae and Brighton or Trouville; but in reality the fashionable
+American resort of Newport has more in common with the old classical
+watering-place than any modern European sea-side resort. The hot sulphur
+baths on the Lucrine shore formed of course only a shallow excuse for the
+annual migration of Roman fashionables to Baiae, where blue-blooded
+senators and pushing plutocrats indulged in fierce social struggles for
+individual pre-eminence. Yet certain of the natural warm springs had been
+enclosed in splendid buildings, and were used by the luxurious citizens,
+so that even to-day the Thermae of Nero (Stufe di Nerone) are pointed out
+by the local guides. "Quid Nerone pejus? Quid thermis melius Neronianis?"
+(what is worse than Nero? yet what more beneficent than his baths?) asks
+the poet Martial, whose name will ever be bound up with the tales of
+luxury and vice that are associated with this spot. Baiae in winter, Tibur
+(Tivoli) in summer, the two names stand for the beau-ideal of a Roman
+existence, the cynosure of every wealthy citizen.
+
+But let us ascend out of the close and enervating air of low-lying Baiae
+to the breezy heights of Misenum, which has immortalised the name of the
+Trojan trumpeter whose end was mourned by the tears of pious Aeneas
+himself. In gaining its summit and in gazing upon the landscape spread
+around us, we have penetrated, so it seems, into the very heart of Italy:
+not the Italy of Roman history, but the land of Ausonia itself, the fabled
+shore that the Trojan hero sailed at his goddess-mother's bidding to
+discover, when all the world was young and the high dwellers of Olympus
+still condescended to take a personal interest in the affairs of favourite
+mortals. Surely the vine-clad terraces of Lake Avernus, the pools of the
+Lucrine and the Mare Morto, the verdure-clad hillocks lying beneath us
+must conceal the true secret of the antique Tyrrhenian country, in whose
+history the rise and fall of Roman power afford but one amongst many
+epochs. Looking to northward, beyond the little landing-stage of
+Torregaveta, we behold the heights of Cumae, that was a flourishing city
+with harbour and citadel hundreds of years before a certain Romulus built
+a wall of mud near the banks of Tiber and slew his brother Remus for
+leaping over his handiwork. The founding of Rome is enveloped in
+impenetrable clouds of legend; the building of Cumae is a fact:--here then
+we obtain a key to Italian history. Rome, whose origin is lost in mists of
+obscurity, is a flourishing modern capital; Cumae is but a shapeless mass
+of crumbling ruins, overgrown with ivy and cytizus, and inhabited by
+lizards and serpents. But both cities, dead Cumae and living Rome, present
+but passing events in the long slow progress of the centuries, which have
+witnessed successive phases of civilisation and destruction in this
+
+  "Woman-country, wooed, not won,
+  Loved all the more by Earth's male lands,
+     Laid to their hearts instead."
+
+Is the Genius of Italy, the Sibyl of Cumae, still living, we wonder, in
+some dim recess, some secret cavern of Cimmerian gloom, beneath those
+decaying heaps of the ancient Greek city? She was old, very old, we know,
+when pious Aeneas found her shrieking her strange prophecies, and that was
+long ages before Hellenic wanderers raised a fortress upon the wooded
+heights above the dread lake of Avernus.--Venerable Mother of Italy! dost
+thou still survive muttering thy strange warnings in some sunless
+labyrinth, that the rapacious guides of Baiae have yet failed to
+penetrate? Art thou, like King Arthur of romantic Wales, still keeping
+watch over the destiny of thy country, ever ready to assist in the hour of
+need?
+
+  "Thy cave was stored with scrolls of strange device,
+     The work of some Saturnian Archimage,
+  Which taught the expiations at whose price
+     Men from the gods might win that happy age
+  Too lightly lost, redeeming native vice;
+     And which might quench the earth-consuming rage
+  Of gold and blood--till men should live and move
+  Harmonious as the sacred stars above."
+
+For Italy has not wholly forgotten her ancient guardian and soothsayer,
+who welcomed the founder of the victorious Roman race; nor did the artists
+of the revived glories of the Renaissance neglect to honour the mysterious
+priestess of the Cimmerian shore. With prophetic mien the Sibyl of Cumae,
+that Michelangelo depicted, watches ever the come-and-go of humanity from
+her lofty post within Pope Sixtus' Chapel, bidding all remember her
+ancient prophecy of the Judgment Day, which the Roman Church has included
+in one of its most solemn canticles:
+
+  "Dies Irae! Dies illa!
+  Solvet saeclum in favilla,
+  Teste David cum Sibylla."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  INDEX
+
+
+      Abbondanza, Via dell', 51
+      Abruzzi Mountains, 36, 122, 222
+      Acre, 270
+      Adrian IV., Pope, 156
+      Agerola, 123
+      Agropoli, 209
+      Alberada, 181
+      Albergo Cappuccini, 128
+      Alcubier, 11
+      Aleppo, 121
+      Alexander of Epirus, 206
+      Alexandria, 121
+      Alexius, Emperor, 179
+      Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, 242
+      Algiers, 56
+      Alphonso V. of Naples, 277
+      Amalfi, 5, 36, 100, 106, 112, 126
+      Ana-Capri, 249, 259, 271
+      Angelo, Monte S., 28, 30, 63, 76
+      Annunziata, Torre, 19, 92, 94
+      Aosta, Duke and Duchess of, 93, 94
+      Appian Way, 62
+      Apulia, 181
+      ---- William of, 135
+      Arabia, 134
+      Arco, 106
+      Arguth, Joseph, 292
+      Ariosto, Ludovico, 239
+      Aristarchus, 312
+      Arno, 2
+      Arnold of Brescia, 156
+      Arriengo, 123
+      Arthur, King, 318
+      Athens, 28, 39, 58
+      Atrani, 152
+      Atrio del Cavallo, 77
+      Augustus, Emperor, 59, 69
+      ---- Temple of, 313
+      Aulus Vettius, Corvina, 55
+      ---- ---- Restitutus, 40, 55
+      Ausonius, 208
+      Avicenna, 177
+      Avvocata, Madonna dell', 166
+
+      Baghdad, 121
+      Bagnoli, 296
+      Baiae, 253, 307
+      Bajalardo, Pietro, 117
+      Barbary, 209
+      Barisanus of Trani, 159
+      Barra, La, 8
+      Battipaglia, 198
+      Bembo, Cardinal, 282
+      Benevento, 111
+      Bergamo, 240
+      Berkeley, Bishop, 293
+      Bismarck, 186
+      Boccaccio, 137, 157
+      Bohemond, 179
+      Bomba, King, 6, 8, 16, 109, 284
+      Bosco-Trecase, 92, 97
+      Bowdler, Mr, 81
+      Braccini, Abate, 77
+      Breakspear, Nicholas, 156
+      Browning, R., 33, 36, 183
+      Brunetto Latini, 121
+      Butomilea, Landolfo, 182
+      Byzantium, 118, 142
+
+      Caecilius Jucundus, 40
+      Cairo, 121
+      Caligula, Emperor, 5, 308
+      Camaldoli, 18, 270
+      Campagna Felice, 66
+      Campanella, Punta della, 112
+      Canneto, 132, 140
+      Canossa, 180, 186
+      Capaccio, 209, 262
+      Capodimonte, 2
+      Capri, 4, 5, 13, 45, 63, 74, 90, 112, 249
+      Capua, 66
+      Capuano, Cardinal Pietro, 126, 143
+      Caracciolo, 2
+      Cardenas, Bishop, 305
+      Cariteo, 277
+      "Carlo il Zoppo," 102, 103, 121
+      Carmine, Church of the, 105
+      Casamicciola, 284
+      Casa Nuova, 53
+      Castellamare, 18, 25, 26, 100, 113
+_      Castor and Pollux, The_, 311
+      Cathay, 121
+      Cava, La, 113
+      Celestine V., Pope, 292
+      Cellini, Benvenuto, 27
+      Cephalonia, 180
+      Cerrato, Monte, 168
+      Cetara, 134, 170
+      Chalcidicum, 49
+      Charles III. of Naples, 8
+      ---- VIII. of France, 307
+      ---- of Anjou, 102, 156, 167
+      Chiabrera, 89
+      Chiaja, 2
+      Chiosse, Monte di, 119
+      Cicero, 40
+      Clement VIII., Pope, 167
+      Clementia, Princess, 102
+      Clodius Glabrus, 70
+      Cluny, 184
+      Colonna, Giuliano, 104
+      ---- Vittoria, 5, 277
+      Conca, Capo di, 125
+      Concordia Augusta, 51
+      Conradin, 156
+      Constantinople, 80, 134
+      Coppola, Monte, 28, 167
+      Corniche Road, 100
+      Costantinopoli, Strada, 2
+      Crassus, 70
+      Cumae, 4, 317
+
+      Damecuta, 261
+      Dante, 120, 121, 239, 278
+      Devonshire, 107
+      Domenichino, 161
+      Domitiana, Via, 62
+      Dragone, 152
+      Dumas, A., 9, 314
+      Durazzo, 178
+
+      Eboli, 198
+      Elboeuf, Prince d', 11
+      Epidius Rufus, 40
+      Epirus, 178
+      Etna, 77, 291
+      Eumachia, 40, 49
+      Exeter, 40
+
+      Faito, Monte, 37
+      Falerio, Monte, 170
+      Faliero, Marino, 103
+      Farnese, Elizabeth, 27
+      ---- Pier-Luigi, 5, 27
+      Ferdinand, King, 27, 270, 277
+      Ferrara, 240, 248
+      Filangieri, 103
+      Fiorelli, Signor, 53
+      Florence, 2, 112, 132, 148
+      Florus, 70
+      Forio, 289
+      Forsyth, J., 181
+      Francis, King, 109
+      Frederick II., Emperor, 27, 210
+      Fuga, 159
+      Fuorigrotta, 295
+      Furore, 123
+
+      Gaeta, 16, 36
+      ---- Bay of, 4
+      Galen, 106, 177
+      Garibaldi, 6
+      Gaurus, Mons, 57, 76
+      Gavinius, 208
+      Gazola, Count, 211
+      Gell, Sir William, 44
+      Genoa, 157
+      Gibbon, Edward, 175, 309
+      Gioja, Flavio, 119
+      Glaucus, 261
+      Goethe, 13, 212
+      Gragnano, 20
+      Greco, Torre del, 8, 13, 18, 77
+      Gregory VII., Pope, 178
+      Grotta Azzurra, 259
+      Grotta Verde, 262
+      Guallo, 116
+      Guiscard, Robert, 5, 136, 155, 174
+      Gurgitello, 285
+
+      Hale, Sir Matthew, 110
+      Hamill, Major, 271
+      Hamilton, Sir William, 80
+      Hare, Augustus, 7
+      Hart, Emma, 80
+      Hauteville, House of, 174
+      Helbig, 44
+      Helene, Princess, 94
+      Henry IV., Emperor, 180
+      Herculaneum, 1, 9
+      ---- Gate of, 62
+      Hermolaus, 162
+      Hildebrand, 5, 180, 182, 184
+      Hippocrates, 177
+      Hohenstaufen, 163
+      Homer, 114
+      House of the Surgeon, 43, 56
+      ---- Vettii, 53
+
+      Innocent IV., Pope, 152
+      Ischia, 4, 13, 78, 241, 252, 275
+
+      Joanna II., Queen, 144, 299
+      John XVI., Pope, 167
+      John of Procida, 184
+      Julius the Centurion, 311
+      Jupiter, Temple of, 52
+      Justinian, Emperor, 135
+
+      Keats, John, 229
+
+      La Barra, 8
+      La Cava, 172, 198
+      La Scala, 166
+      Lacaita, Mr, 262
+      Lacco, 288
+      Lactarian Hills, 101
+      Ladislaus II., King, 299
+      Lamarque, Gen., 271
+      Lauretta, 157
+      Lavoro, Terra di, 18
+      Lenormant, F., 214
+      Leo XIII., Pope, 288
+      Leonora d'Este, 243, 248
+      Leopardi, Giacomo, 295
+      Lepanto, 246
+      Libella, 64
+      Livia, 50
+      Livy, 73
+      Lowe, Sir Hudson, 271
+      Lubrense, Massa, 122
+      Lucrine Lake, 313
+      Ludius, 59
+      Luke, 312
+
+      Maddalena, Ponte della, 84
+      Majori, 166
+      Malta, 311
+      Mammia, 64
+      Manches, Colonel, 273
+      Manfred, King, 87, 152, 184
+      Manso, 243
+      Mansone II., Doge, 118
+      Macellum, 52
+      Marcellus II., Pope, 280
+      Margaret of Durazzo, 189
+      Marina, Porta, 39, 45
+      Martin V., Pope, 277
+      Matteucci, Professor, 94, 97
+      Matilda, Countess, 185
+      Mau, 44
+      Maurice, 142
+      Maximian, Emperor, 162
+      Melfi, 133
+      Mercato, Il, 2, 96
+      Mercury, Temple of, 52
+      Mergellina, 96
+      Messina, 91
+      Meta, 106
+      Metastasio, 8
+      Michelangelo, 283, 319
+      Milan, 278
+      Minerva, Cape of, 112, 117, 153
+      Minori, 166
+      Misenum, 71, 74, 249
+      Mole of Puteoli, 308
+      Monreale, 159
+      Mont' Epomeo, 290
+      Montapertuso, 119
+      Monte Nuovo, 313
+      Montorio, S. Pietro in, 2
+      Montpensier, Duke of, 307
+      Murat, Joachim, 5, 8, 270
+      Muscettola, Sergio, 159
+      Museo Nazionale, 1
+
+      Naccarino, 145
+      Napoleon, 8, 270
+      Natale, Michele, 103
+      Nelson, 104, 269
+      Neptune, Temple of, 212
+      Nero, Emperor, 308
+      Nicholas II., Pope, 176, 185
+      Nicomedia, 162
+      Nisida, 297
+      Nola, 41
+      Nuceria, 41, 173
+
+      Ochino, Bernardino, 280
+      Oliveto, Monte, 96
+      Orico, 271
+      Orlando, Capo d', 102
+      Oscan inhabitants, 41
+      Otranto, 178
+      Ottajano, 94, 98
+      Overbeck, 44
+      Ovid, 106, 261, 291
+      Oxford, 156
+
+      Paestum, 41, 57, 143, 173, 182, 198
+      Palermo, 91, 159
+      Palumbo, 155
+      Pansa, the AEdile, 40
+      Pantaleone, 142, 148, 161
+      Paolo Giovio, 278
+      Paris, Comte de, 94
+      Parthenope, 249
+      Paul III., Pope, 27
+      Pavia, 279
+      Pedimentina, La, 77
+      Pericles, 40
+      Pescara, Marquis of, 278
+      Petrarch, 116, 138, 239, 299
+      Philip the Bold, 102
+      Phillips, John, 68
+      Philodemus, 10
+      Piacenza, 185
+      Pimentel, Eleonora, 104
+      Piperno, Pietro, 111
+      Pisa, 136
+      Pistoja, 240
+      Pius II., Pope, 27, 144
+      Plato, 58
+      Pliny, 59, 71, 76
+      Pliny the younger, 71
+      Plutarch, 70
+      Pole, Cardinal, 280
+      Pompeii, 1, 5, 24, 38
+      Pomponianus, 72
+      Pontone, 152
+      Portici, 8, 80, 88, 97
+      Porzia de' Rossi, 240
+      Posilipo, 1, 8, 37, 295
+      Positano, 119
+      Pozzano, 37
+      Pozzopiano, 106
+      Pozzuoli, 109, 301
+      Prajano, 124
+      Procida, 4, 237, 275
+      Puteoli, 5, 295
+
+      Quisisana, 27, 37
+
+      Ravello, 134, 152
+      Reggio, 311
+      Reid, Mr, 156, 262
+      Renee, Duchess of Ferrara, 280
+      Resina, 8, 79, 88, 98
+      Retina, 8, 72
+      Revigliano, 26
+      Rhegium, 311
+      Robert of Normandy, 178
+      ---- the Wise, 116, 156
+      Roger, Count, 155, 180
+      ---- King, 116, 136
+      Rome, 39, 94, 144, 156, 180, 312
+      Ruffo, Cardinal, 104
+      Rufolo, Niccolo, 155, 160
+
+      S. Agnello, 106
+      S. Alessio al Lavinaio, 105
+      S. Angelo, 13, 119, 122
+      S. Bridget of Sweden, 144
+      S. Brigida, 3
+      S. Chiara, 2
+      S. Costanzo, 251
+      S. Elia, Punta, 117
+      S. Elmo, 2, 67
+      S. Francis of Assisi, 144
+      S. Gennaro, 298
+      S. Giovanni a Teduccio, 8
+      S. Giovanni del Toro, 164
+      S. Giuseppe, 94
+      S. Luca, 124
+      S. Lucia, 3
+      S. Maria a Pozzano, 102
+      S. Maria del Gradillo, 162
+      S. Maria di Pompeii, 65
+      S. Martino, 2
+      S. Matteo, 173, 181
+      S. Michael, 35
+      S. Miniato, 2
+      S. Paul, 312
+      S. Pietro, Punta di, 123
+      S. Proculo, 307
+      S. Restituta, 291
+      S. Romualdo, 19
+      S. Salvatore a Bireta, 153
+      S. Trinita, 172
+      S. Vitale, 296
+      Salerno, 4, 36, 111, 117, 133, 172
+      Samnite Hills, 212
+      Sannazzaro, 295
+      Sanseverini, 169
+      Sardinia, 15
+      Sarno, 26, 41, 95
+      Scala, 134, 167
+      Scaletta, 152
+      Scaricotojo, Lo, 113, 118
+      Scutolo, Punta di, 106
+      Sebeto, 8
+      Sejanus, 256
+      Serapis, Temple of, 308
+      Serra, Gennaro, 104
+      Shelley, 13, 33, 64
+      Shrewsbury, 40
+      Sibyl of Cumae, 318
+      Sicily, 15
+      Sigilgaita, 161, 179
+      Silarus, 198
+      Sirens, Isles of the, 114
+      Sixtus IV., Pope, 318
+      Smith, Sir Sydney, 270
+      Soana, 184
+      Socrates, 40
+      Solaro, 268
+      Soldan, 246
+      Somma, Monte, 67, 94, 99
+      Sorrentine Plain, 5, 106
+      Sorrento, 5, 90, 221
+      Sottile, Cape, 123
+      Spartacus, 69, 76
+      Stabiae, 26, 72, 76
+      Stamer, W. J. A., 16, 52, 238, 265, 316
+      Staurachios, 142
+      Stolberg, Count, 202
+      Stowe, Mrs H. B., 16
+      Strabo, 69, 275
+      Strada Costantinopoli, 2
+        "  de' Tribunali, 3
+      Stromboli, 91
+      Suetonius, 256
+      Syracuse, 58, 107, 311
+
+      Tacca, 51
+      Tacitus, 69, 71, 73
+      Tafuri, Bishop, 159
+      Tancred of Hauteville, 178, 180
+      Tarver, J. C., 258
+      Tasso, 5, 106, 145, 239
+        "  Bernardo, 106, 240, 277
+      Theocritus, 154, 292
+      Thermae of Nero, 316
+      Tiber, 116, 156
+      Tiberius, Emperor, 5, 50, 253, 308
+      Timgad, 38
+      Timothy, 312
+      Tiridates, 308
+      Titian, 27
+      Titus, Emperor, 10, 57, 71, 76
+      Toledo, The, 2
+      Torregaveta, 275, 317
+      Trafalgar, 270
+      Tragara, 263
+      Tripoli, 15
+      Tunis, 56, 246
+
+      Ulysses, 114
+      Urban IV., Pope, 144
+      Ustica, 91
+
+      Vaccaro, Il, 84
+      Valentinian, Emperor, 208
+      Valley of the Mills, 140, 149
+      Venice, 103, 112, 134, 148
+      Venosa, 181
+      Venus, Temple of, 52
+      Vergil, 208, 211, 275, 296
+      Vesuvius, 5, 11, 36, 66
+      Via Domitiana, 62
+      Vico Equense, 31, 102, 103
+      Victor III., Pope, 155
+      Victor Emmanuel III., King of Italy, 94
+      Vietri, 165, 171
+      Vigna Sersale, 247
+      Villa Jovis, 254
+      Villa Reale, 2
+      Vincenzo, 37
+      Vitruvius, 60, 69
+      Vittoria Colonna, 5, 277
+      Vivara, 276
+      Vomero, 3
+      Vozzi Family, 127
+
+      Wales, 107, 318
+      William Bras-de-Fer, 174
+      Wordsworth, 33
+      Worms, 185
+
+      Zampognari, 233
+      Zoppo, Carlo il, 102, 103, 121
+
+
+
+
+
+                                FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 W. J. A. Stamer: _Dolce Napoli_.
+
+    2 W. J. A. Stamer: _Dolce Napoli_.
+
+    3 Professor John Phillips: _Vesuvius_.
+
+    4 Pliny's Letters. (_Church's and Brodribb's Translation._)
+
+_    5 La Nazione_, April 24, 1906.
+
+_    6 The Decameron._ Novel IV. of the Second Day.
+
+_    7 The Decameron_--Novel I, of the Fourth Day.
+
+    8 F. Lenormant: _A travers l'Apulie et la Lucanie_.
+
+    9 W. J. A. Stamer: _Dolce Napoli_.
+
+   10 For an able defence of the Emperor Tiberius, the reader is referred
+      to Mr J. C. Tarver's _Tiberius the Tyrant_, chap. xviii.
+
+   11 W. J. A. Stamer: _Dolce Napoli_.
+
+   12 A portion of this chapter has already appeared in an article by the
+      Author, entitled _The Island of Ischia_, in the _Westminster
+      Review_, December 1905.
+
+   13 W. J. A. Stamer: _Dolce Napoli_.
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+The caption of two images (frontispiece, page 288) has been supplied from
+the List of Images.
+
+The following obvious typographical errors have been corrected:
+
+      page xi, "Republiques" changed to "Republiques"
+      page 55, "castastrophe" changed to "catastrophe"
+      page 90, quote mark added after "vendemmia?"
+      page 158, footnote, italics added to "The Decameron", removed from
+      "Novel IV. of the Second Day". (Other inconsistencies between the
+      two citations of the _Decameron_ were not changed.)
+      page 159, "mosiac" changed to "mosaic"
+      page 189, "gradully" changed to "gradually"
+      page 206, "Paestum" changed to "Paestum" (twice)
+      page 212, "wheron" changed to "whereon"
+      page 238, "circomstane" changed to "circomstance"
+      page 241, double "the" removed
+      page 275, "costing" changed to "coasting"
+      page 300, "maledicton" changed to "malediction"
+      page 301, "then" changed to "than"
+      page 311, "aud" changed to "and"
+
+In the Index, the following words have been changed to the spelling used
+in the main text:
+
+      "Baiae" (was: "Baiae")
+      "Caecilius Jucundus" (was: "Caecilius")
+      "Cumae" (was: "Cumae")
+      "Hohenstaufen" (was: "Hohenstauffen")
+      "Matteucci" (was: "Mateucci")
+      "Paestum" (was: "Paestum")
+      "Pimentel" (was: "Pimental")
+      "Rufolo, Niccolo" (was: "Nicolo")
+      "Sannazzaro" (was: "Sannazaro")
+      "Stabiae" (was: "Stabiae")
+      "Staurachios" (was: "Straurachios")
+      "Thermae of Nero" (was: "Thermae")
+      "William Bras-de-Fer" (was: "Bras de Fer")
+      "Zoppo, Carlo il" (was: "Zoppo, Carlo Il")
+
+Apart from the index and two occurrences of "Paestum" in the main text, all
+"ae" ligatures have been maintained: "aedile" (and "aedile"), "archaeologist"
+(and "archaeologist"), "aesthetic", "Cannae", "Mediaeval" (in a quotation,
+otherwise "medieval"), "maerens", "Praetor", "tesserae".
+
+Not changed or normalized were small errors in Italian or German
+quotations ("a riverderla", "Kultur-kampf", "Bierhaelle"), inconsistent
+hyphenation (e. g. "boat-man"/"boatman", "sea-shore"/"seashore"), spelling
+variations ("Phlegraean"/"Phlegrean") and unusual spellings ("elegible"
+[in a quotation], "pleisosaurus", "innoculating", "choregraphic").
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NAPLES RIVIERA***
+
+
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