miles in circumference. Here Hadrian imitated every thing that had taken his fancy during his progress through the distant provinces of the empire, and here he brought together the different edifices and institutions of other countries: All things that strike, ennoble-from the depths According to Spartian, each portion of the villa bore the name of the town or district from which it was copied:"Tiburtinam villam mirè ædificavit, ut in eâ et provinciarum et locorum celeberrima nomina inscriberet, et veluti Canopum, Pæcilem, Tempe vocaret; et ut nihil prætermitteret, etiam Inferos finxit." Thus there were the Lyceum, the Academus, the Stoa, the Pæcile, the Prytaneum, the Tempe, all borrowed from Greece; the Canopus and its hideous statues, copied from similar objects in Egypt. Of all these various edifices nothing now remains but a mass of ruins, exhibiting all the confusion of a demolished town. These ruins, however, which enable us to trace the vestiges of baths, porticos, a library, a palæstra, a hippodrome, a menagery, a naumachia, an aqueduct, theatres both Greek and Latin, temples for different rites, and every appurtenance requisite for an imperial residence, are amply sufficient to attest the ancient magnificence of the villa. MONS ALBANUS-VAL RUSTICA FRASCATI. Where yon bar Of girdling mountains intercepts the sight, The Sabine farm was tilled, the weary bard's delight.-BYRON. NEMI*-the modern appellation of the Nemus Dianæ, or Arician Grove-and the Alban Hill, are well worth a visit, both for the charms of the scenery, and the interesting recollections which it recalls. The two beautiful lakes of Nemi and Albano, which, to all appearance, occupy the craters of extinct volcanos, must not be forgotten. The emissary, or tunnel, carried through the heart of the mountain, for the purpose of sluicing off the redundant waters of the Alban Lake, is one of the most astonishing instances of Roman perseverance now existing. Livy, who notices the work, after briefly stating that it had been advised by a Tuscan soothsayer and the Delphic oracle, merely adds, "jam ex lacu Albano aqua emissa in agros." The tunnel-built of solid masonry, three feet and a half wide, six feet high, and nearly two miles in length-is said to have been completed in a year. It is objected, however, that, as not more than two or three men could have worked together in so con The village of Nemi was near the Arician retreat of Egeria, and, from the groves which surrounded the Temple of Diana, it was called Nemus Dianæ; whence its present name-The Grove. fined a space, and must have worked at one end only, the other being under water, the work could not have been finished in so short a time. Others, however, contend that the assumption on which this objection is founded is inadmissible; that the line of the canal was first traced above ground, and shafts sunk at certain distances, for the purpose of accelerating the work, by carrying it on at various points at once. But whatever was the mode adopted, or the time employed, in its formation, the tunnel has fulfilled the object for which it was constructed, from the Veian war down to the present day, without receiving or requiring repairs. The whole declivity of the Monte Cavo, for such is the modern name of the Alban Hill, is justly celebrated for its beauty. From the convent on the summit of the hill, erected on the foundations, and partly, as it is said, with the materials of the Temple of Jupiter Latialis, the prospect embraces the Mediterranean, the whole scene of the latter half of the Eneid, and a line of coast extending from beyond the mouth of the Tiber to the Circæan Promontory and the Cape of Terracina. This scene, lovely in itself, is rendered still more so by the recollections with which it is associated; for nothing can be more just than Walpole's remark, that "our memory sees more than our eyes in this country:-" In this, this land of shadows, where we live More in past time than present, where the ground, Is covered o'er with mouldering monuments.-ROGERS. The same eminence commands a view of the Sabine hills, embosomed in which lies the long valley of Rustica. "There are several circumstances," says Hobhouse, "which tend to establish the identity of this valley with the Ustica' of Horace*; and it seems possible that the mosaic pavement which the peasants uncover by throwing up the earth of a vineyard may belong to this villa. Rustica is pronounced short, not according to our stress upon- Usticæ cubantis'. It is more rational to think that we are wrong than that the inhabitants of this secluded valley have changed their accent on this word. The addition of the consonant prefixed is nothing; yet it is necessary to be aware that Rustica may be a modern name, which the peasants have caught from the antiquaries. "The villa, or the mosaic, is in a vineyard on a knoll covered with chesnut trees. A stream runs down the valley, and although it is not true, as said in the guide books, that this stream is called Licenza; yet there is a village on a rock at the head of the valley which is so denominated, and which may have taken its name from the Digentia. On the banks of the Anio, a little before you turn up into Val Rustica, to the left, about an hour from * "Claverius," says Eustace, "insists upon Ustica's being a valley, on account of the epithet cubantis, which he maintains could not be applied to a hill. Most of my readers will probably think otherwise, and conceive that such an epithet is applicable to hills only; and this opinion is confirmed by the name which a hill in the neighbourhood of Mount Lucretilis still bears. Its form is long and rises gradually, like that of a person leaning on his elbow: its surface is marked by a number of white smooth stones; and it is always pointed out as the Ustica alluded to by Horace: Utcunque dulci, Tyndari, fistula Valles et Ustica cubantis Levia personuêre saxa.—OD. i. 17.” the villa, is a town called Vicovaro, another favourable coincidence with the Varia of the poet. At the end of the valley, towards the Anio, there is a bare hill, crowned with a little town called Bardela. At the foot of this hill the rivulet of Licenza flows, and is almost absorbed in a wide sandy bed before it reaches the Anio. Nothing can be more fortunate for the lines of the poet, whether in a metaphorical or direct sense: Me quotiens reficit gelidus Digentia rivus, Quem Mandela bibit, rugosus frigore pagus. "Rocca Giovane, a ruined village in the hills, half an hour's walk from the vineyard where the pavement is shewn, seems to be the site of the fane of Vacuna; and an inscription found there records that this temple of the Sabine Victory was repaired by Vespasian. With these helps, and a position corresponding exactly with every thing which the poet has told us of his retreat, we may feel tolerably secure of our site." Indeed, as Eustace has justly observed, the tract in question "corresponds in every particular with the description which Horace gave of it two thousand years ago. Not only the grand and characteristic features*—the 'continued chain of mountains' -the shady valley'-the winding dell'-the abund * Continui montes, nisi dissocientur opacâ Valle.-EPIST. i. 16. 5. Hic in reductâ valle Caniculæ Vitabis æstus.-OD. i. 17. Fons etiam rivo dare nomen idoneus.- EPIST. i. 16. 12. Deserta et inhospita tesqua.-EPIST. i. 14. 19. |