the music, which is always worth two carlins. But to a stranger, the Opera House, after the novelty of the show has vanished, is the most stupid of all places. With the Italians, who go to the theatre, as they would go to a party to meet their friends and hold conversaziones, the case is very different. Their boxes are their houses, where they have all the conveniences of eating, drinking, and receiving company. The play is no more than a mere accompaniment of the social enjoyments of the evening.

To three of the other theatres, appropriated partly to operas and partly to plays, we went once; and to a fourth, the San Carlino, (as much a diminutive in size as it is in name, in comparison with San Carlo,) several visits were paid. It is so popular and so small, as to be opened twice a day to accommodate the crowd, who throng its portals. Who but the Italians would think of exposing painted faces and tinsel dresses to the glare of sunshine, or look for an audience in the hours of business? But they must be engaged in spectacles of some kind, from highest to lowest-from the archbishop who liquifies the blood of St. Gennaro in the Cathedral, or burns incense on the tawdry altars of the Toledo, down to the vilest harlequin that gathers a mob and caresses his living snakes,* on the Piazza del Castello. San Carlino is confessedly devoted to what all the other theatres are in realitybuffoonery! There is a leading character called Pulcinella, (corresponding to Punch among puppets,) who performs his part in the Neapolitan dialect, the Yorkshire or Gascon of Italy, and is considered the representative of the nation. His wit was in a great measure lost upon us, from an imperfect knowledge of his jargon; but the pantomime and the intelligible parts were sufficient to show the piece to be of the lowest and broadest humour. Several noblemen, an Admiral with three stars blazing upon his breast, and some of the priesthood, were among the audience. Every body rallies round Punch; and if the standard of General Pepe, (Phœbus, what a name!) had enkindled half the enthusiasm, Naples might not now have been a degraded province of Austria, though the people apparently possess too little energy of character, and too much tameness of spirit ever to be free.

Thus have I finished the rounds of the most prominent features, which an overgrown, but a comparatively uninteresting city presents.

* I have frequently seen these showmen coil full-grown serpents about their naked necks, put them into their bosoms, and play with their forked tongues-all, too, "free gratis for nothing," as the exhibition is in the streets. One of them got up a fight between two snakes and a lizard.

Nearly half of our visit of three weeks to Naples was occupied in excursions to the environs, if environs may be said to extend to a distance of fifty miles and upwards. The first of these was an aquatic expedition to the Island of Capri, in the steam-boat Royal Ferdinand, one of the largest and finest I have seen in Europe. She is owned and manned by Scotchinen, who have made money by the enterprise. Her regular trips are from Naples to Palermo and Messina, in Sicily, whither she goes every week. Had not the season been so far advanced as to lead us to look towards the north, we should have availed ourselves of this opportunity for visiting old Trinacria. But one would not care to go, without climbing to the top of Etna, rambling over the ruins of Syracuse, and making a general tour through the Island, which would occupy a month or six weeks, a longer term than our arrangements would permit.

The trip of the Ferdinand was an extra, on a party of pleasure, and the passengers, amounting to something more than a hundred in number, were a motley assemblage of both sexes and all ages, composed chiefly of travellers from every nation of Europe, collecting in separate groupes and jabbering different languages. Two of our American friends, the Chargé des Affaires, and our old messmate, the Surgeon in the Navy, joined us in the excursion. At the hour of embarkation, between 9 and 10 o'clock in the morning, the weather was pleasant, affording a charming view of the city and its environs, from the cleft and burning top of Vesuvius, to the yet snow capt Apennines in the distance. But the reign of pleasure was shortlived. Rapidly as the boat receded from the shore, she had scarcely reached the middle of the Bay, when the blue skies of Campania suddenly vanished, and the blowing of the Sirocco, tumbled in the sea in tremendous swells from the south. Placid and tranquil as is the general character of these waters, they are often lashed into fury by squalls, to which the whole coast of Italy is very liable. From the windows of my apartment, I have frequently watched the progress of the storm, accompanied sometimes by thunder and lightning. Fleets of little boats, hovering like sea-birds to the land, are generally the precursors; for the fishermen, grown familiar with the climate, can judge from a speck in the horizon, when a tempest impends. With all their caution, however, they have occasionally been observed to be too tardy, and their white sails to disappear instantly in the dense verge of the storm. Then the waves, crested with foam, rapidly extend their circles to the inmost recesses of the Bay. I have seen them run so high, that the British ship-of-war Revenge, lying at anchor in the Roads, danced and rocked like a skiff.

The Royal Ferdinand on the present occasion, though a staunch

boat, rolled merrily, and the consequence was that more than half of the hundred passengers soon strewed the deck. They fell like soldiers on the field of battle, in the places where they stood, sometimes five or six at a lurch. Russians, Austrians, Germans, Italians, French, and English all yielded to the impulses of sympathy; for the barriers of national prejudice had been effectually broken down by the motion of the ship. Some of the party had already taken so much lachrymachristi, that they were in a state of happy ignorance, whether their sickness proceeded from the influence of the bottle or the sea. A pretty Italian woman was just ill enough to cause a portion of the blood to retreat from her cheek, and render her face more interesting. All the well gentlemen on board who had smelling-bottles, seized this opportunity to tender their services. She appeared to retain her senses, and manifested inore gratitude than did her husband, who stood by in amazement at the formidable array of whiskers and mustaches which encircled her. A tall blue-eyed German girl, taking a hint from the occasion, fell sick about the same time; but Priests and Levites passed by on either hand. Such are the advantages of personal beauty.

As soon as the boat reached the lee of Capri, the water became comparatively tranquil, though the storm had by no means abated. We were now in sight of the rocks of the Sirens, off the capes of Sorrento; but in such a day at least, the warbling trio had retired to their ocean caves, and the only melody which greeted our ears, was the whistling of the Sirocco and the beating of the surge upon the naked crags. Coming to anchor close to the shore, and about midway the Island, we had a tolerable view of this insulated ridge of tufo, the position of which has already been described. Its length from east to west is three miles, and its breadth less than one, giving a circumference of nine miles. It is extremely broken, and exhibits the strongest evidences of being a ruin. Its greatest height above the level of the Bay may be something like twelve or fifteen hundred feet. There are two tremendous bluffs-one near the centre, up which steps have been cut in the rock to the village of Anacapri on the summit; and the other terminating in impending cliffs, down which Tiberius Cæsar used to order criminals to be thrown, to amuse his sullen solitude.

The apex of the Island is crowned with ruins. Palaces were here commenced by Augustus, and embellished by his successor, Tiberius, at an immense expense. The latter found in this solitary retreat an abode suited to his gloomy and suspicious tyranny. He was killed upon the very rocks, whence hundreds had been hurled into the sea for his recreation.

After his death, the palaces were suffered to fall into decay. Some traces of them are yet discoverable. The Island

is at present covered with rich verdure, which contrasts beautifully with the white cliffs. Nearly in its centre, the little village of Capri is seated far up the acclivity, many hundreds of feet above the sea. It is approached by a flight of steps, winding up from the landing, and something more than a mile in extent-one of the most fatiguing walks I have ever taken. As the rain poured in torrents, and there is no hotel in the town, we took shelter in the Cathedral, the principal ornaments of which were images of the Virgin and Child, tricked out with a new suit of finery, each wearing a tinsel crown upon curled and frizzled locks. The storm continued with such severity, that it became wholly impracticable to visit the ruins of the imperial palace, and a few other antiquities scattered over the Island. One of our friends found an asylum in a Convent, and took lodgings for the night, determining to wait for a fair day. The rest of us, who, like the King of Spain with his twenty thousand men, "marched up the hill and then-marched down again," embarked at 4 o'clock, and scudded back before the wind to Naples, happy to escape from scenes of intoxication, profanity, and rudeness of behaviour among a portion of the passengers.

LETTER LXV.

EXCURSION TO BAIE-PAUSILY PO-LAKE AGNANO-GROTTO DEL CANE -GULF OF BALE-POZZUOLI ANCIENT PORT-BATHS OF NEROLUCRINE LAKE-LAKE OF AVERNUS-GROTTO OF THE SIBYL-CUME -ACHERON--RUINS OF BALE-ELYSIAN FIELDS-CAPE MISENO→→

VILLA OF CICERO-SOLFATARA.

May, 1826.

ONE day was actively and delightfully employed in an excursion to Baiæ, some seven or eight miles west of Naples. A friend who had recently been over the whole ground, was so kind as to accompany us, affording at once the pleasure of his society and the benefit of his acquaintance with all the localities. As the objects to be seen in this direction are both numerous and interesting, we left Naples at an early hour in the morning, and were favoured with one of the brightest days, that had been found in this soft and delicious climate. The road we pursued, leads through the faubourg of the city as far as the Tomb of Virgil, and thence pierces the hill of Pausilypo,* by an arch, or grotto, as it is called of the same name. This arch resembles the tunnels of canals, or the galleries on the road between Nice and Genoa. It is forty or fifty feet in height, and barely wide enough for two carriages abreast, hewn out of a solid ridge of tufo, and paved with blocks of lava. Two small apertures open diagonally through the roof, serving the double purpose of ventilation and of admitting a feeble light. In neither respect, however, are they of much importance, being of less size than Herschel's telescope, and half closed at top by the foliage of the hill. They were not observed at all in our first ride through the grotto, which in the central parts has more than the dimness of twilight. A lamp suspended before the image of the Virgin, is kept constantly burning. The deafening noise of coaches, and the obscure glimpses of pedestrians, gliding like ghosts through the shades, render the way gloomy, and even terrific, to the foot passenger, who is not protected from carriages by side-walks. In the month of Oc

*This appellation is derived from two Greek words (Tauris and λun) signifying the cessation of sorrow, classically given to the hill by the scholars of the Augustan age, on account of the charm of its scenery, and its exhilarating effects on the mind. The word is written Posilipo, Posilippo, and in half a dozen other different ways. As the orthography seems to be wholly unsettled, I take the liberty of following the analogies of the Greek and English languages.

VOL. II.

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