LETTER LXIV.

NAPLES CONTINUED-CAPO DI MONTE--ALBERGO DE' POVERI --CHINESE COLLEGE-CATACOMBS--CAMPO SANTO-THEATRES-EXCURSION TO CAPRI.

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May, 1826. To the Royal Palace at Capo di Monte, a woody eminence two miles to the north of the town, we made a delightful excursion on a bright afternoon, in company with one of our friends. A magnificent road, the Strada Napoleon, leads to the hill; but its excellence was not very highly relished after receiving the information, that the expense of constructing it came out of the purses of American merchants. The proceeds of the sales of vessels to the amount of three or four millions of dollars, treacherously confiscated by Murat, were partly appropriated to this purpose. Although the king and his court feel no compunetions in enjoying the princely revenue; yet they refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the government, under whose auspices it was opened, and upon that ground withhold indemnity for their spoliations upon our commerce.

The Palace at Capo di Monte is an enormous pile, two stories high with an attic, built of lava, with its exterior walls stuccoed and painted in imitation of brick. It has no pillars, but heavy Doric pilasters, and is entirely destitute of architectural ornament. A terrace extends quite round the building at the height of the first story, affording a charming walk, as well as a wide view of the bay, islands, mountains, the city and its splendid environs. A custode, who was viceroy for the time being, took us the usual rounds. The fresco ceilings and painted floors are in the same style as those in the Palazzo Reale. A few pretty marble ornaments, and some good pictures are among the decorations. Of the latter, the school of Athens, Socrates, Alcibiades, and Aspasia-Ulysses and the Minstrel-and the seventy wise men collating the Septuagint, are the most celebrated. The most interesting room in the Palace is that which contains the presents made to the royal family by different individuals. Here may be seen furbelows and trinkets of all descriptions, labelled with flattering mottoes and loyal sonnets.

Beautiful medallions of the family hang round the walls. The king has nine children. A full length likeness of one of the daughters makes a handsome picture. This palace is not yet finished.

The royal domains at Capo di Monte are very extensive, and laid out in the style of Park scenery in England. They constitute the sole charm of the hill, and form the finest retreat in the vicinity of Naples. Passing under a long arch of evergreen, impervious to the sun at noonday, we pursued one by-path after another carpeted with white clover, and were soon lost in woods, having all the wildness and freshness of nature. A deep, picturesque dell opens to the north, in the depth of which are seen a few scattered huts and three little chapels buried in foliage. The scenery is in the highest degree romantic. Partridges stalked across the road, and rose on whizzing wings. A heedless ramble fairly bewildered us. At length a convent bell, in the very depth of the forest, tolled for vespers. Crossing an old bridge mantled with ivy, we directed our course towards the sound, and pilgrim-like sued for admission at the gate, to which the game-keeper conducted us, and which was readily thrown open by an old monk. He was of the order of St. Francis, wearing a long black beard, a coarse woollen robe, and sandals clouted upon his feet. The situation of the small convent and chapel is delightful, entirely secluded from the world. An inscription states, that it was erected by the late king, for several brothers of the order. A pretty flower garden, all in bloom, spreads in front. The monk showed us the cloisters, and the relics of St. Clement under the altar of the church. After listening to the chant of the evening hymn by the few inmates of this delicious retreat, we bade adieu to the kind-hearted brother and hastened back, charmed with the adventures of the ramble.

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Beautiful as the grounds are at Capo di Monte, it is said the king cannot endure the retirement, vastly preferring the hot lava roads of Portici and the crowded streets of Naples. The fact is not perhaps remarkable, as he has neither taste nor intellectual resources to render seclusion tolerable. theatre and a Corso are indispensable requisites to the happiness of the Italians, who have not the least relish for rural quiet. We visited a charming country seat, called the English Villa, in the vicinity of Capo di Monte, and enriched with the same description of scenery. Its gardens, fount

ains, grottoes, and refreshing shades are now absolutely deserted and cannot find a purchaser, while the wealthy proprietor probably hears fish and macaroni cried every morning under his window, in some dirty part of Naples.

With the exterior of the Albergo de' Poveri my readers are already acquainted. We paid a visit to the inside, as furnishing a specimen of the numerous similar institutions, with which the city, much to its credit, abounds. There is, in truth, a good deal of active benevolence among the Neapolitans, and never, never was a finer field presented for its .display. The French gave the impulse to nearly all the recent improvements at Naples, as well as in other parts of Italy. Murat enlarged the Albergo de' Poveri, (founded by Charles V.) and it is not yet entirely completed. Its situation is eligible, in a healthy part of the town, flanked on one side by a large botanic garden, with wooded hills in the rear superintendent conducted us through the establishment, which is almost a town in itself. Its present number of inmates is between three and four thousand, consisting of both sexes and all ages. Some of them are sent hither by the police, as to a sort of penitentiary for the punishment of minor offences; but the greater proportion solicit admission, such as orphans and persons having no means of support. The revenue amounts to $250,000 annually, of which, the sum of $40,000 is a contribution from the government.

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The whole of the interior is neatly painted of a brick colour, and the comfortable beds in the dormitories are of the same complexion, manifesting some taste as well as cleanliness. Paintings decorate the walls, and nine hundred of the paupers sit down at one table, to enjoy coarse but wholesome fare, served up on marble slabs. The police appeared to me judicious. Corporal punishment is seldom or never inflicted. The inmates are all kept busy. They commence their daily labours, consisting of all kinds of trades and manufactures, at 5 o'clock in the morning. At 11 they take breakfast, and dine at 5 P. M. One third of the profits of their industry goes to themselves, and the remainder for the support of the institution. We visited the school rooms, where the children are instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, the elements of the Italian language, vocal and instrumental music, and dancing. In addition to these branches, females are taught plain and ornamental needle work. Groups of the pupils were observed engaged with their books during the intermis,

sion, in conning their tasks. One of the little bronze-faced, black-eyed girls, the daughter, probably of a lazzarone, ran to the garden and brought each of us a cluster of fresh roses, dripping with dew. In the true Italian style, a theatre is attached to the institution, where the paupers on gala days enact Punch and the Beggar's Opera for their amusement. They have also a chapel, and, in fact, all the resources of a town within themselves. The residents are infinitely better off, than a majority of the inhabitants of the city.

Our visit to the Chinese college, for the education of mis-. sionaries, was interesting. It stands on an eminence upon the southern declivity of Capo di Monte, with a handsome terrace in front which overlooks the town. The halls of the large edifice are hung with Chinese portraits of men, who were here educated, and distinguished themselves as missionaries. We were introduced to the head of the institution, who is a man of learning, and freely communicated much information respecting the origin, history, and present condition of the school, which is now apparently on the decline. Some half a dozen oriental youth, consisting of Chinese and Greeks, are the only inmates. They were playing draughts upon the terrace, and a billiard table in one of the rooms seemed an odd apparatus for educating the young apostles of christianity. The reverend father did not appear to consider it at all inappropriate. One of the Grecian lads, now at the age of 16 or 17, had a fine face, with a keen, dark eye, and all the features of manly beauty. The Chinese manly_beauty. boys have the Asiatic countenance; high cheek bones, and other peculiarities of their countrymen. They are all clad in black gowns, girt with a red sash about the waist. They speak their native languages among themselves, but are taught Latin, Greek, and Italian. The principal of the college stated the number of christians now in China to be 500,000. He also mentioned, that the English East India Company give the missionaries their passages back and forth, amounting to a hundred guineas each.

At the base of the same hill, we "left the warm precincts of the cheerful day," and plunged into the Neapolitan Catacombs, the dark and dreary abode of the dead. Two guides led the way, each bearing a dim lamp, which glimmered upon stacks of human skulls lining the passages. Some of them were so fresh, that the tendons still hung dangling to the pro

cesses of the bones, as our cicerones thrust their fingers into the sockets of the eyes, and held them up for inspection, remarking with the hardened indifference of Shakspeare's grave-digger, that such a one must have belonged to a stout man, and such a one to a pretty woman. These catacombs are much more lofty and regular, than those at Rome. They are two stories high, with arched roofs, Gothic pillars, and many architectural embellishments, hewn from the solid masses of tufo. Two broad avenues form the principal entrance, and lateral ramifications branch off in all directions. One of the subterranean pathways leads to a village at the distance of sixteen miles: another to Puteoli, distant six or eight miles. Through this, an old saint used to walk and preach to the inhabitants of that town, till he was at last caught and beheaded. A third great avenue was begun towards Capua, and the impressions of the implements used in the excavation are still fresh, just as the work was left, when the intelligence perhaps arrived, that some edict against the early christians had been revoked, and that they might in safety revisit the light of heaven.

The cells and niches in the walls are similar to those at Rome, though on a larger scale. On the right of the principal avenue, and at a great depth from the entrance, a circular shaft opens upward to the summit of the hill, with a small aperture to admit the air. It is so high, that a musket ball will not reach the top. A pillar bearing a Greek inscription stands in the centre of the rotunda. These caverns used to be the abode of banditti, who sallied out during the night, committed murders, and threw the dead bodies with the plunder down the shaft. Murat hunted them out of their dens, and broke up the gang. The second story appears to have been the most fashionable part of this subterranean world. Here stood the church, and here the priesthood had their residences, which are as perfect as if they had been deserted but yesterday. The pulpit is at a considerable elevation, and cut from the solid rock. Behind the altar, rude images of two of the Apostles are traced upon the walls. In this quarter, an orifice opens laterally, like a telescope through the cliffs, to enable the former residents to take a peep abroad, and see when their days of misery dawned and closed. Such were the trials that awaited the primitive professors of christianity.

Burials are now discontinued in the Catacombs. The