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the rattling of our coach-wheels over the rough pavements of the streets, broke all my classical and romantic dreams, which neither the sound of cascades nor the echo of the rocks could restore. An unwelcome idea of mill-privileges was constantly obtruding itself among images borrowed from poetry; and one could not help thinking, that the Anio might have been lashed into foam by water-wheels, instead of whitened by the crags of its own precipices.

Leaving our carriage at the hotel of La Sibilla, and procuring a cicerone, we at once commenced a round of observations. Nearly all that is worth seeing was finished in twenty minutes after our arrival. The first object is the temple of Vesta, seated upon a cliff which may almost be said to overhang the upper fall. Its position is extremely romantic, looking down upon the Anio far beneath, and abroad upon the hills sweeping round in semicircular ridges. The temple is a beautiful Rotunda, of nearly the same size and construction, as the one already described on the bank of the Tiber at Rome. Its portico of fluted Corinthian pillars is extremely rich, and all its decorations are of the chastest kind. Its antiquity is undoubted, though it has sustained scarcely a single mutilation, either from the hand of time or the barbarian. An English nobleman, (Lord Bristol, I believe,) offered something like £20,000 for the building, with an intention of removing it to his Park! The bargain was about to be struck, when his Holiness interfered, and broke off a negotiation worthy of a more Gothic age than the present.

Within a few paces and on the verge of the same cliff, stood the temple of the Tiburtine Sibyl, whose name was Albunea, and who seems to have held a high rank among the prophetic sisterhood, though inferior to her Cumæan rival. Her oracles are now silent, and a religion, resting for its truth 66 upon a more sure word of prophecy," is substituted in their place. The shrine is in ruins, and the few Ionic pillars, which survived the wreck, have been incorporated into the church erected upon the site, and are seen in the façade fronting the cliff. It was the oldest temple at Tivoli, and as the mode of worship probably had some peculiarities, its demolition is a subject of regret to the scholar.

While the French held possession of Italy, the commanding officer in this department constructed a terraced walk from the cliffs in front of these buildings, to the foot of the

principal cascade, called the Grotto of Neptune. These rocks seem to have been all formed by accretion, within the memory of man, and since the invention of implements now in common use. On the right of the path in descending to the water, we examined a perfect impression of a carriage wheel, which had evidently been buried and bedded for ages in solid masses of secondary formation. The prints of iron bars and other instruments of labour have been found at the depth of several feet below the surface. Yet the cliffs on which the temples stand must have remained unchanged for at least two thousand years.

The Grotto of Neptune is a high-sounding appellation; and although it might be large enough for Horace's "domus Albuneae"-the domicil of the Sibyl, or the retreat of a Naiad, it is hardly worthy of the god of ocean. If he ever held his court beneath its pendant rocks, fanned by the descent of the cascade, he must have travelled thither by land; for the current of the Anio is not broad enough for his pathway, nor its depth sufficient to put the wheels of his chariot in motion. The stream divides in the hills above, and nearly one half of it is diverted through the town for mechanical purposes: the residue here leaps a perpendicular cliff, something like eighty feet in height, working itself into a fury in the descent, filling the twilight and misty cavern with its echoes. Vopiscus, an old Roman, had a seat hanging upon the very verge of the precipice. Some traces of it are yet visible. Salvator Rosa has sketched this scene; but the guide-books inform us that even his pencil could not do justice to its sublimity and beauty. Who ever saw any but a tame picture of a waterfall? Two of the most prominent concomitants, sound and motion, are necessarily excluded; and without these, a sheet of water upon the canvass, if as high as Olympus, cannot excite an emotion.

At a little distance below, the Anio makes another descent of nearly equal height; and here is a second cavern, similar to the Grotto of Neptune, denominated the Grotto of the Sirens. But I leave the musical sisterhood to sing on undisturbed, and by their sweet incantations to seduce other footsteps to their watery abode, while we ascend the cliffs, mount our donkies, and commence an excursion of four miles--particularly recommended by the cicerone, who cheerfully walked, for the sake of seeing us ride. It was the oddest lot of beasts, which all the Italian stables have af

forded. Their tails much resembled the cues of the last century; and a single rope tied about the small of the neck was the only helm to their stubborn dispositions.

With such an outfit, we crossed the bridge of the Anio in grand procession and stumbled over the circuit, looking alternately at the hills above, and the waters foaming below, talking all the while of Horace, Mecænas, Quintilius Varus, et id omne genus, whose houses we passed on the route. The credulity of my classical friend was somewhat severely put to the test, and his logical deductions not very satisfactorily answered by the positive assurances of the cicerone. My mode of arguing led to less scepticism--thus: these great men must have lived somewhere: tradition says they lived here in the absence of better evidence, let tradition be followed: so let us make ourselves comfortable with the belief, that the lyric poet and his patron here dwelt, elevated upon the brow and nestled in the shades of the Apennines, soothed by the murmurs of the Anio, and peeping out occasionally upon the distant city, which their genius and taste had embellished.

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The Cascades of Tivoli, technically so called in contradistinction to the falls already described, consist of six or seven streamlets, gushing out from the foundations of the town, through which they have been made to pass, and descending in silver threads down a green declivity of 80 or 100 feet. We rode into the depth of the vale, which is rural and quiet, and took a view from every possible position. The epithet pretty is the very highest that can be applied to these hackneyed waters, divested of their native freshness and purity in passing through a dirty town. Crossing the lower bridge of the Anio, we climbed a high hill on the old Valerian Way, constructed in the same manner as the road already described. Classical as ancient Tibur was, it seems to have worshipped strange gods. A ruin was observed on our way, which goes by the name of Tempio della Tossa-the temple of Cough. Who was she?--a new divinity in the calender. But the cicerone contended that the shrine of the goddess of Cough was not to be sneezed at-and so we gave it a cursory examination. It very nearly resembled the temple of Minerva Medica at Rome; and as colds were prevalent in the Apennines, it was perhaps consecrated to the healing deity. But I have no time to waste on conjec

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tures, and no wish to stop at the Cathedral, which occupies the site of the temple of Hercules.

After dining on fish from the Anio, at the hotel of the Sibyl, (a double hit at the classics,) we descended rapidly to the Villa of Adrian, on the left of the road, situated upon another spur of the mountains, commanding a view as wide as that of Tivoli. The ruins are very extensive, and so perfect, that the construction and style of the buildings may be distinctly traced. Adrian was an Emperor of boundless wealth, (ex officio,) fond of luxury, of some taste, a great traveller, enamoured of the Greek philosophy, and the religion of Egypt. All these traits of character have been exemplified in the ornaments of his Villa, which covers many acres. A poor old man, who is the last and sole tenant of the ruins, save the wild beasts and birds from the hills, conducted us through theatres, amphitheatres, and naumachiæ ; through Porches and Academies, the imperial walks of philosophers; through the temples and shrines of Serapis and Isis, Egyptian divinities; through Baths and Libraries of colossal dimensions; through palaces, halls, and saloons, still exhibiting traces of their gilded ceilings and splendid frescos; and last, though not least in extent, through the stables of the Emperor.

Extensive excavations have been made among the ruins ; and the innumerable statues here disinterred now fill the galleries of Italy. It must not be forgotten, that the peerless goddess of the Arno was found entombed among the meaner rubbish of the Villa. Nature is fast resuming her sylvan empire over the wreck of buried splendour. A luxuriant growth of woods, consisting of pine, cypress, and ilex, now shades the ruins. Among these wild trees, a beautiful shrub was observed, the name of which has escaped my memory. Our old guide said, that Adrian brought it with him from Egypt and it still lingers in the deserted gardens, hanging its white and fragrant blossoms, as if out of respect to the memory of its former protector.

On our return across the Campagna, we narrowly escaped a tremendous tempest. The rain descended in torrents, and the thunderbolts fell fast and heavy. A scene of so much grandeur called to mind one of Virgil's finest descriptions, which my classical friend repeated to us, while the peals were rattling round the domes and echoing among the

ruins of the Capital. Sublime as the imagery of the poet is, it did not transcend the grandeur of the reality.

Thus have I finished all that will be said of Rome at present. The palaces and churches, with the innumerable works of art they contain; the Villas and Gardens; the galleries of modern artists; religious ceremonies and public amusements, with a hundred other topics, must be postponed till my return from Naples-a respite to which my readers will doubtless have no objection.

LETTER LXI.

DEPARTURE FOR NAPLES-ALBAN MOUNT-ARICIA-GENZANO -VELLETRI-PONTINE MARSHES-TERRACINA-ENTRANCE OF THE NEAPOLITAN DOMINIONS-FONDI-ITRI-MAUSOLEUM OF CICERO-MOLA DI GAETA.

May, 1826.-From Rome to Naples, a distance of a hundred and fifty miles, we made an experiment of another kind of conveyance. Our friends and fellow-travellers, contrary to their previous arrangements, and in search of a milder climate than had been found upon the banks of the Tiber,* concluded to accompany us to the South of Italy; and with the double view of economy and of sociability, a coach with four horses was engaged to take us to Naples in two days and a half. The vetturino promised, that he would send on word in advance, for every thing to be in readiness, to prevent any unnecessary delay; but this stipulation proved to be all a sham, as will every other agreement with these contractors, which is not reduced to writing.

At one o'clock on the afternoon of the 8th, we made our exit through the Neapolitan Gate, (the Porta di San Giovanni,) and not without many lingering regrets, saw the domes and towers and ramparts and ruins of the city rapidly receding from our view. There is a charm about Rome which

*The weather was colder at Rome than it had been found three weeks before in the vale of the Arno. A fire was kept up in our chambers every night during our stay. Much rain fell, and the winds were frequently chilly and piercing. On going out one morning, about the first of May, the hills about Tivoli and Mont Albano were observed covered with a coat of newfallen snow, and the air was so keen as to drive some of our party back to the comforts of the fire-side.

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