WALK TO PAESTUM, LEUCOSIA, &c. We took up our lodging at a wretched taverna, one of the few houses within the walls of Paestum, and having reposed a little, went forth to examine the temples. How grandiosi, how imposing, how sublime are these old edifices-ruins they can hardly be called, they have still such a character of firmness, of entireness! These "firm-set". columns seem to be rooted in the earth -to have grown from it-mysterious, eternal, they seem almost productions of other energies than those of man! How inadequate are models or drawings to convey the grand characters of architecture! How we felt the fact, when our eyes took in the magnitude of the proportions, the grandeur of the ensemble of these structures! And so great a charm exists in their wild solitary situation -this wide-wide plain seems to reserve itself exclusively for their basis, this circus of mountains, and this sea form so appropriate a frame for them-the silence of man seems here the silence of reverence, and the tinkle of the sheep-bell, the distant low of the ox, the rustle of the green lizard, and even i stridi ingrati Delle cornici squallide e de' corviare sounds consonant to the hoary antiquity, to the obscured but venerable glories of the edifices. We have no wish (probably because we have no means of adding much to the volumes of description that already exist, of these remains-so be not frightened, gentle editor-we here serve up our few observations with a brevity that must excuse their illogical disorder. Padre Paoli must have been mad, or curst indeed with a Borrominesco taste in architecture (as Paolini observes), when he said that the style of these temples was rozzo e goffo (rude and clumsy), condemned by all persons that loved delicacy; his supposing them to be works of the Etruscans, and in the Etruscan order, was bad enough; his career of ignorance might have stopped there-the bar barous old monk ought to have been confined to his cell a year for his contumacy! Mr. Forsyth was certainly right in curtailing the antiquity of the Paestum temples, and Mr. Eustace's assertion, that "from the solidity or heaviness of their forms, we must conclude that they are the oldest specimens of Grecian art now in existence," can hardly be made good. "The proportions of an order," says the former gentleman, are but a matter of convention: they often vary in the same country, nay in the same edifice; and surely a Phidias working in the metropolis of Grecian art, with its two best architects and the Pentelic quarry at his command, might well produce more elegance than contemporary, or even later artists, who were confined to the ruder materials and tastes of a remote colony." In support of this opinion we would observe that the materials the very coarse, porous, and at the same time, very brittle stones, of which the temples are built, are such as adapt themselves more agreeably to large masses than to fine light pieces. These stones were undoubtedly formed and found at Paestum itself; they are hard coralline petrifactions: the brackish water of the river Salso that runs by the walls of the town, and in different branches across the plain, has so strong a petrifying virtue that you can almost follow its operation with the eye; the waters of the neighbouring Sele have always been remarkable for the same quality in many places where the soil had been removed, we perceived strata of stones similar to those which compose the temples, and we would almost venture to say, that the substratum of all the plain, from the Sele to Acropoli, is of the like substance. Curious petrifactions of leaves, pieces of wood, insects, and other vegetable and animal matters, are observed in the materials of the columns, walls, &c. : The cyclopean walls of the city are pretty well preserved, except on the side towards the sea; on the eastern See vol. ix. p. 122, for the first part. side they have suffered little, and fragments of towers, which seem to have flanked the walls at regular distances, yet exist. The gate in this part, called La Porta della Sirena (from a small rudely sculptured figure, which looks more like a dolphin, over the arch) is very perfect, but mean and small, and here the aqueduct which conveyed the water from the mountains behind Capaccio is traced for some distance. Near the hollow, called the Amphitheatre, we perceived the figure of a gladiator, seated with a shield on his arm, executed in bold relief, on a large block of fine white stone, which had been but lately discovered. It may serve to strengthen the rights of the "scooped out space" to its title of amphitheatre.-Yet if this hole was the arena of an amphitheatre, what a diminutive one it must have been! Did not the Roman taste for that amusement take so deeply among the Paestans, as among their other colonies and conquests? And yet the coin most frequently found here, bearing the Latin epigraph Paest., has the figure of a gladiator on one side and of a wild beast on the other. We did not quit the interesting ruins until evening closed in. Our quarters at O S Pepe's were not particularly good; his hostelry consisted of a stable and pig's-sty on the ground floor; upstairs a good sized room that was kitchen, tap, parlour, and dining-room, a bed-room for the whole family behind, and on one side a spence about ten feet square, in which they had shaken down two sacks of straw for us. Comfort we could not expect, but we were very merry withal the few inhabitants of that secluded spot met at St Pepe's to spend the evening in jollity befitting the season (you remember it was Easter Sunday); an old man played the Spanish guitar, and a boy beat a tabor; the landlord's children (ne aveva una bella provista) danced the tarantella, while the older bystanders beat time and cracked their fingers for castanets. We contributed our portion to the amusement by treating them to supper and wine, and this had so good an effect that we were soon in as gay a circle as can be imagined. The joke, the story, the rustic song went round, one peal of laughter followed another, but though rough and noisy, their mirth was not at all gross or offen- This mouth of thine throws forth flowers, Thou seemest to me a sail in the high sea! Admire, we beseech you, the orientality of the simile," when thou puttest thy brown napkin over thy head, thou seemest to me a sail in the high sea.' No northern imagination, less than Macpherson-Össian can come up to this! When our merriment was at its height, it was interrupted by loud cries across the plain, and the barking of dogs: a boy came in saying, "sono calati i lupi" (the wolves are come down), and we all ran to the door: the noise, however, waxed weaker and weaker, and soon ceased. This incident introduced a long conversation on the privation of fire-arms, on wolves, and shooting. On the reintegration or pristination (the latter is the favourite word now) of King Ferdinand's government after the fall of the constitution, the people were disarmed, punishments decreed against such as concealed their arms, and many obstacles placed in the way of obtaining licences, especially for such as had been, or were suspected of having been Carbonari. This was felt as a dreadful evil all over the kingdom, and the inhabitants of this part of the country had strong and particular motives of discontent. "The mountains around are full of wolves," said our host, and mares before our eyes, and we "Wolves are kings-true kings, "Our King Ferdinand cares more "We were all Carbonari here about and we watched them with a mute pleasure until they had all disappeared behind projecting rocks, and their chaunt had sunk to a melancholy murmur. From Capo di fiume we toiled up a very precipitous path to Capaccio Vecchio. On a small flat which we found very much crowded stands the church and an hermitage attached to it, the only buildings not in ruins; several gay flags were flying by the church door, within they were celebrating mass, and the wide nave was covered with kneeling women, for the most part very pretty, and dressed in the same costume. We saw the object of the devotion and the festa in a hideous wooden gilt statue of a madonna, holding a pomegranate in one hand; besides this treasure the church contains an old marble pulpit and a marble urn, in which, according to tradition, reposed the bones of a certain San Matteo, until the wealth or power of the Salernitans transported them to the cathedral of Salerno, where they have ever since remained, and work a miracle annually, even unto this day. According to old chronicles, the inhabitants of this town, safe in their situation, and the walls and fortresses with which they had strengthened it, lived peacefully and happily, while the towns in the plains and on the sea coast were continually devastated by the Saracens and other enemies. This happiness at length came to a fatal termination in 1218, when the Count of Capaccio, who had joined a rebellion of the Barons against the Emperor Frederic II. was obliged to retreat and defend himself in this, his last strongest hold, and after a long and obstinate resistance to surrender to an enraged enemy. The popular tradition says, the place was taken through the treachery of an old woman, to whom the conquerors emphatically expressed their detestation of her crime-a crime by which they had succeeded, by throwing her from the loftiest of the towers down a tremendous precipice. How alike are these stories in all ages and in all countries! they proceed from sentiments which are natural, and do honour to man. It appears that the Emperor's troops destroyed the town and castles, and that the portion of the population that escaped repaired to a neighbouring village called San Pietro, which thenceforward assumed the name of Capaccio Nuovo. The punishment inflicted on the conspirators was barbarous and bizarre at the same time; each was sewed in a sack with a dog, a monkey, a cock, and a viper, and so thrown into the sea; their relations even to the fourth and fifth remove, were burned after having their eyes scooped out, and only one, a boy nine years old, was saved from that horrid fate, by the fidelity and craft of a servant. The ruins of the town, which are very considerable, show it to have been surrounded by high walls, strengthened by a number of towers; large parts of these, as well as of the main castle or keep, are yet standing, the stone work of a number of little houses is almost entire--they have been deserted for centuries, and yet they seem as if they had been inhabited but the other day. When the devotional exercises in the church were terminated, the scene assumed the character of a country fair; there were little stalls exposing coarse laces, ribbons, corone (rosaries), pictures of saints, and madonnas, wine-barrels, shoes, fox and badger skins, and a variety of other articles for sale: there were stalls of bread, wine, and fruit, and little cookshops with fires in the open air, frying meat, boiling maccaroni, minestra verde and other good things. We procured a dish of eels, taken in the river Salso below, a boiled fowl, and a little meat-we had providently brought a boraccio of good wine from our host O Sì Pepe's, and about noon we sat down with our two conductors on the brow of the hill, to dinner. The picture was peculiarly pleasing and exhilarating-the day was lovely; not a single spot dimmed the cerulean canopy-a playful zephyr mitigated the heat of the sun, and wafted to us the sweets of flower and herb, of shrub and blossoming tree; before us spread the wide Paestan plain, specked with its grand edifices and scattered farms, and bounded majestically by the blue Mediterranean, and the lofty irregular Apennines-our eyes could make out through the light silvery vapours of noon the white mass of Salerno and several other towns-we marked 1824 A Walk to Paestum, Leucosia, &c.-Part II the position of Amalfi of Posidonia, Di tutti i beni che ci ha dato Iddio. Il Ricciardetto. cealing the hair, except a few wan- A rough road along the sides of |