Pencillings by the Way (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LETTER VII. APPIAN WAY?TOMB OP CECILIA METELLA?ALBAHO?TOMB OP THE CURIATII?ARICIA TEMPLE OF DIANA FOUNTAIN OF EGERIA?LAKE OF SEMI ? VELLETRI? PONTINE MARSHES? CONVENT?CANAL?TEERACINA?SAN FELICE?FONDI?STORY OF JULIA CONZAGA CICERO'S GARDEN AND TOMMOLA? MINTURNA RUINS OF AN AMPHITHEATRE AND TEMPLE FALERNIAN MOUNT AND WINE?THE DOCTOR OF ST. AGATHA- CAPUA?ENTRANCE INTO NAPLES?THE QUEEN. Fu. 18Z3. With the intention of returning to Rome for the ceremonies of the holy week, I have merely passed through on my way to Naples. We left it the morning after our arrival, going by the Appian Way, to Mount Alhano, which bimlors the Campagna on the south, at a distance of fifteen miles. This celebrated road is lined with the ruined tombs of the Romans. Off at the right, some four or five miles from the city, rises the fortress-like tomb of Cecilia Metella, so exquisitely mused upon by Childe Harold. This, says Sismondi, with the tombs of Adrian and Augustus, became fortresses of banditti in the thirteenth century, and were taken by Brancaleone, the Bolognese governor of Rome, who hanged the marauders from the walls. It looks little like " a woman's grave." We changed horses at the pretty village of Albano, and, on leaving it, passed an ancient mausoleum, believed to be the tomb of the Curiatii who fought the Horatii on the spot. It is a large structure, and had originally four pyramids on the corners, two of which only remain. A mile from Albano lies Aricia, in a country of the loveliest rural beauty. Here was the famous temple of Diana, and here were the lake and grove sacred to the " virgin huntress," and consecrated as her home by peculiar worship. The fountain of Egeria is here, where Numa communed with the nymph; and the lake of Nemi, on the borders of which ...