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The richness of the country beyond Mola is very striking. Nature here breaks out into new luxuriance; wild fig-trees and myrtles overspread the ruined tombs of the Appian Way, and huge aloes shoot up in the ditches; hedges of laurestinus-olives and vineyardsorange and citron-trees, loaded with golden fruit-together with here and there a solitary palm tree, and the beautiful foliage of the carob and the cork-give a new and softer character to the landscape:

In florid beauty fields and groves appear,

Man seems the only growth that dwindles here;

and his misery apparently increases in proportion to the greater kindliness of the climate and fertility of the soil. No where, not even among the squalid population of our most crowded manufacturing districts, will you meet with more shocking instances of human wretchedness than in this smiling land of corn, wine, and oil.

Some are for ascribing this misery to the oppressive nature of the government; others, to the enervating influence of the climate and the very richness of the soil which would almost seem to supersede the necessity of labour. And yet “the plain itself is highly cultivated, though not a house can be seen. The labourers retire before night from the exhalations of the low grounds, to towns built on the skirts of the Apennines; such as Castel Onorato, which furnishes vipers for sale, or Trimenzo and Traietto, which stand more advantageously on a long green hill*."

* Forsyth.

From that hill the Minturnian Aqueduct stretches across the country to a ruined amphitheatre on the borders of the Garigliano-the silent Liris of antiquity, which, acting against soft banks, is still quietly eating into the plain:

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Mordet aquâ, taciturnus amnis.-HOR. Lib. i. Od. 31.

The rich fields that Liris laves,

And eats away with silent waves.-FRANCIS.

Near this river, which formed the boundary of Latium, are still seen to the right the ruins of Minturnæ, spread over a considerable space of ground. The marshes between these ruins and the sea, famous for the adventure of Marius, have lost much of their malignity, and are now a rich cultivated plain. At the ferry is a tower, based on the tomb of a proud Roman, who appears to have been unsocial even in death*.

Beyond the Liris, to the right, rises Mount Massicus, still retaining its ancient name; but its wines have long since lost their celebrity.

Emerging from the defiles of this mountain, we passed through Francolisi, and traversed the Ager Falernus— the tract inclosed between the sea, Mount Massicus, and the river Vulturnust-once celebrated for its wines.

* The following is the inscription on the tomb:-Hujus monumenti jus, qua maceria clusum est cum taberna et coenaculo, heredes non sequetur, neque intra maceriam humari quemquam licet.

The Liris and the Vulturnus are the two largest rivers of the Campagna Felice. The former, as we have seen, was celebrated by the

But these wines too have degenerated, and no longer retain the virtues that inspired the panegyrics of the Augustan poets; though still

the vines

Wed, each her elm, and o'er the golden grain
Hang their luxuriant clusters, chequering

The sunshine.

The country between Capua and Naples, called the Terra di Lavoro, displays a varied scene of lavish fertility; and if the richest and most generous soil, with the mildest and most agreeable climate, were all that is required to render a country happy, this might well be styled Campania Felix*.

Latin poets for the gentleness of its course, and the latter was noticed equally for its rapidity and noise:—

Vulturnusque celer.-Lucan. Lib. 2, 28.

Fluctuque sonorum

Vulturnum.-Sil, Ital. L. 8.

Multamque trahens sub gurgite arenam

Vulturnus.-Ovid. Met. Lib. 15.

Hinc felix illa Campania est. Ab hoc sinu incipiunt vitiferi colles, et temulentia nobilis succo per omnes terras inclyto, atque ut veteres dixêre, summum Liberi patris cum Cerere certamen.—Plin. N. H. iii. 5.

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NAPLES.

Partout on fend la foule; partout on craint d'ecraser un enfant : les places, les rues, les boutiques, les maisons semblent inondés d'habitans. . . . Cette population, toujours courante, pour ainsi dire, à travers la ville, est continuellement sillonnée par une multitude de carrosses, et surtout de petites calèches qui ne vont pas, mais qui volent.-DUPATY.

NAPLES occupies the site of the two ancient Greek towns, Palæpolis and Neapolis, the latter of which is mentioned by Livy for the first time on occasion of its having, together with Palapolis, taken part with the Samnites against the rising power of Rome. In the short space of two years Palapolis was taken, and Neapolis, which was then the more inconsiderable town of the two, probably shared the same fate. In little more than a century from this period, it appears to have identified itself with the interest of the Roman people, and under their protection to have risen rapidly in importance. Even after the fatal battle of Cannæ, it refused to open its gates to the conqueror; and such was its strength that Hannibal did not think fit to hazard an attack.

No subsequent mention is made of Neapolis for a considerable period, during which it seems to have been left to the uninterrupted enjoyment of all its natural advantages. It was during this peaceful period, embracing the fall of the republic and the infancy of the empire, that its environs became the fashionable winter retreat of the

Roman citizens; among whom there were few of any note who could not boast a villa among the romantic recesses of its shores.

The first interruption to its prosperity was the desolation caused by the first recorded eruption of Vesuvius, which took place in the year 79, and cost the elder Pliny his life. During the subsequent centuries, it shared with the rest of Italy the calamities incident to civil war and foreign invasion. Harassed and plundered by a succession of barbarian hordes, by Goths, Vandals, Lombards, Saracens, and Normans, it afterwards fell a prey to Germans, French, and Spaniards. The latter at length became undisputed masters of it, and having carried on the government for many years by viceroys, at last gave it a king in the person of Charles IV.

Naples contains no monuments of ancient days. Its temples and theatres have disappeared before the ravages of war and the convulsions of nature, and of its former architectural taste no vestige now exists.

The Bay of Naples is about thirty miles in diameter: it has been called The Crater, from its resemblance to a bowl. At the head of this bay the town is built in the form of a vast amphitheatre, sloping from the hills to the sea.

The view from the Villa Reale, a favourite promenade on the shore, combines all the elements of the grand and the beautiful—the town-the bay-Vesuvius. To the east are the rich plains leading to Pompeii; to the west, the grotto of Pausilipo, with Virgil's tomb. On the north are the hills which rise gradually from the shore to the Terra di Lavoro, backed by the bold outline of

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