After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819
by
Major W. E Frye
Part 6 out of 8
T[reytorre]us,[107] situated on the banks of the lake Morat. It is a very
pretty country house, spacious and roomy, and I was received with the
utmost cordiality by M. de T[reytorrens] and his amiable family. He is a
very opulent proprietor in this part of the country, and has spent part of
his life in England. He is a dignified looking man, a little too much
perhaps of the old school and no friend to the innovations and changes
arising from the French Revolution. Having lived much among the Tory
nobility of England, he has imbibed their ideas and views of things. His
son is now employed in one of the public offices in London. His wife and
three daughters, one of whom is married to a _ministre_, dwell with him.
With this family I passed three days in the most agreeable manner. I find
the style and manner of living of the _noblesse_ (or country gentlemen, as
we should style them) of Switzerland very comfortable, in every sense of
the word. I wish my friends the French would take more to a country life,
it would essentially benefit the nation. The way of living in M. de
T[reytorre]us family is as follows. A breakfast of coffee and bread and
butter is served up to each person separately in their own room, or in the
_Salle a manger_, Before dinner every one follows his own avocation or
amusement. At one, the family assemble to dinner which generally consist of
soup, _bouilli, entrees_ of fish, flesh and fowl, _entremets_ of
vegetables, a _roti_ of butcher's meat, fowl or game, pastry and desert.
The wine of the country is drunk at dinner as a table wine, and _old_ wines
of the country or wines of foreign growth are handed round to each guest
during the desert. After dinner coffee and liqueurs are served. After an
hour's conversation or repose, promenades are proposed which occupy the
time till dusk. Music, cards or reading plays fill up the rest of the
evening, till supper is announced at nine o'clock, which is generally as
substantial as the dinner.
On taking leave of Mr. de T[reytorre]ns' family I walked to the banks of
the lake Neufchatel, having a stout fellow with me to carry my _sac-de
nuit_. On arrival at the lake I crossed over in a boat to Neufchatel, which
lies on the other side. I remained there the whole of the day. It is a very
pretty neat little city, in a romantic position. Its government is a
complete anomaly. Neufchatel forms a component part of the Helvetic
confederacy, and yet the inhabitants are vassals of the King of Prussia,
and the aristocracy are proud of this badge of servitude. The King of
Prussia however does not at all interfere with its internal government, and
his supremacy is in no other respects useful to him than in giving him a
slight revenue. French is the language spoken in the canton. There is a
marked distinction of rank all over Switzerland, except in Geneva, Vaud and
the small democratic cantons such as Zug and Schwytz, where it is merely
nominal. In short, tranquillity is the order of the day. Each rank respects
the privileges of the other and the peasant, however rich, is not at all
disposed to vary from his usual mode of life or to ape the noble; and
hence, tho' sumptuary laws are no longer in force, they continue so
virtually and the peasantry in all the German cantons adhere strictly to
the national costume.
BERN, 14 July.
I put myself in the diligence that plies between Neufchatel and Bern at
nine p.m., on the 12 July, and the following morning put up at the _Crown
Inn_ in the city of Bern, in the _Pays Allemand_, whereas the French
cantons are termed the _Pays Romand_. Bern is a remarkably elegant city as
much so as any in Italy, and much cleaner withal. The streets are broad,
and in most of them are _trottoirs_ under arcades. There are a great number
of book-sellers here, and the best editions of the German authors are to be
procured very cheap. Bern is situated on an eminence forming almost an
island as it were in the middle of the river Aar; steep ravines are on all
sides of it; and there is a bridge over the Aar to keep up the
communication; and as the borders of the island, on which the city stands,
are very steep, a zig-zag road, winding along the ravines, brings you to
the city gates. These gates are very superb. On each side of the gates are
two enormous white stone bears, the emblems of the tutelary genius of this
city. The houses are very lofty and solidly built. The promenades in the
environs of Bern are the finest I have seen anywhere, and the grounds
allotted to this purpose are very tastefully laid out. These promenades are
paved with gravel and cut thro' the forests, that lie on the _coteaux_ and
ravines on the other side of the Aar. There are several neat villas in the
neighbourhood of these promenades, and there are _cafes_ and _restaurants_
for those who chuse to refresh themselves. Such is the beauty of these
walks, that one feels inclined to pass the whole day among them. They are
laid out in such variety, and are so multiplied, that you often lose your
way; you are sure however to be brought up by a _point de vue_ at one or
other of the angles of the zig-zag; and this serves as a guide _pour vous
orienter_, as the French say. Another favorite promenade is a garden, in
the town itself, that environs the whole city from which and from the
superb terrace of the Cathedral you have a magnificent view of the glaciers
that tower above the Grindelwald and Lauterbrunn. The immense forests that
are in the neighbourhood of Bern form a striking contrast with the
cornfields in the vallies and on the _coteaw._ There are but few vineyards
in the neighbourhood of Bern.
BERN, 16 July.
The Diet is held this year in Bern and it is now sitting. I have met with
the two Deputies of the Canton de Vaud, MM. P----- and M-----. I am glad to
hear from them that the animosity existing between the two cantons of Bern
and Vaud is beginning to subside. M. P------ has made a most able and
conciliating speech at the Diet. Still there is a good deal of jealousy
rankling in the breast of the Bern _noblesse_ and the _avulsumimperium_ is
a very sore subject with them. I recollect once at Lausanne meeting with a
young man of one of the principal families of Bern, who had been hi the
English service. The conversation happened to turn on the emancipation of
the Canton de Vaud from the domination of Bern, when the young man became
perfectly furious and insisted that the Vaudois had no right whatever to
their liberty, for that the Canton of Bern had purchased the province of
Vaud from the Dukes of Savoy. _"En un mot" (said he), "ils sont nos
esclaves, nos ilotes et ils sont aussi clairement notre propriete que les
negres de la Jamaique le sont de leurs maitres"_
A very harsh measure has lately been passed in the Diet, evidently
suggested by the aristocracy of Bern, which tended to fine and punish those
Swiss officers who remained in Prance to serve under Napoleon after his
return from Elba, and who did not obey the order of the Diet which recalled
them. A very able objection has been made to this measure in a _brochure,_
wherein it is stated that many of these officers had no means of living
out of France and that, on a former occasion, when a number of Swiss
officers were serving the English Government and were employed in America
in the war against the United States in 1812 and 1818, the Diet, then under
Napoleon's influence, issued a decree recalling them and commanding them to
quit the English service forthwith. This they refused to do and continued
to serve. No notice whatever was taken of this act of disobedience, when
they returned to their native country on being disbanded in 1814, and they
were very favourably received. Why then, says the author of this pamphlet,
is a similar act of disobedience to pass unnoticed in one instance and to
be so severely punished in another? Or do you wish to prove that your
vengeance is directed only against those who remained in France, to fight
for its liberties, when invaded by a foreign foe, while those who remained
in America to fight against the liberties and existence of the American
Republic you have received with applause and congratulation? Is such
conduct worthy of Republicans? O, fie!
Such an argument is in my opinion convincing for all the world except for
an English Tory, a French _Ultra_ or a Bern Oligarch.
The Arsenal here is well worth seeing; here is a superb collection of
ancient armour, much of which were the spoils of the Austrian and
Burgundian chivalry, who fell in their attempts to crush Helvetic liberty.
By way of shewing how fond the Bernois are of old institutions and customs,
they have been at the trouble to catch three or four bears and keep them in
a walled pit in the city, where they are well fed and taken care of. The
popular superstition is that the bears entertained in this manner
contribute to the safety of the commonwealth; and this establishment
continued ever in full force, until the dissolution of the old Confederacy
took place and the establishment in its place of the Helvetic Republic
under the influence of the French directorial government. The custom, then,
appearing absurd and useless, was abolished, and the bears were sold. But
since the peace of 1814 other bears have been caught and are nourishd, as
the former ones were, at the expence of the state.
Bern derives its name from _Bueren_, the German word for _Bears_ (plural
number). Only the French spell _Berne_, with an _e_ at the end of it.
There are no theatrical amusements going forward here. Cards and now and
then a little music form the evening recreations.
In the inn at Bern I became acquainted with a most delightful Milanese lady
and her son. Her name is L------; she is the widow of an opulent banker at
Milan and has a large family of children. She was about thirty-eight years
of age and is still a remarkably handsome woman. Time has made very little
impression on her and she unites very pleasing manners with a great taste
for litterature. She is greatly proficient in the English language and
litterature, which she understands thoroughly, tho' she speaks it with
difficulty. She is an enthusiastic admirer of Shakespeare, Milton and
Byron. She had been to Zurich for her son, who was employed in a commercial
house there, in order to take him back with her into Italy. She spoke
French as well as Italian, and her son had a very good knowledge of German.
She offered me a seat in her carriage, on the understanding that I was
going to Lausanne, where she intended to stop a day or two. An offer of the
kind made by so elegant and fascinating a woman you may be assured I did
not scruple to accept, and I was in hopes of improving on this acquaintance
and renewing it at Milan. Indeed, did not business oblige me to remain some
weeks at Lausanne, I should certainly offer my services to escort her all
the way to Milan. She had letters of introduction for Lausanne, and during
her stay there I acted as her _cicerone_, to point out the most interesting
objects and points of view, which the place affords.
[104] Louis Charles Joseph Gravier, vicomte de Vergennes d'Alonne, was the
son of the Comte de Vergennes, who was minister under the reign of
Louisi XVI. Born at Constantinople in 1766, he took service at the
early age of thirteen, was promoted captain in 1782 and colonel in
1788. Having emigrated in 1791, he served in Conde's army, then took
service in England from 1795 to 1797. On the 3rd March, 1815, he
re-entered the army as "marechal de camp," and, on the 2nd November of
that same year, was promoted general commander of the department of
Puy de Dome. He retired on the 8th March, 1817, and seems to have been
much regretted at Clermont. Died 1821.--ED.
[105] Jean Francois Wlnkens, born at Aix-la-Chapelle In 1790, is mentioned
in the records of the French War Office as having served in the 25th
Regiment at Waterloo. His family may have belonged to Strassburg.--ED.
[106] Pierre Jacques Jomini, Protestant minister at Avenches from 1808 to
1819.--ED.
[107] The Treytorrens family, of old nobility and fame, now extinct,
possessed a large estate at Guevaux, on the borders of the lake of
Morat.--ED.
CHAPTER XIV
SEPTEMBER 1817-APRIL 1818
Journey from Lausanne to Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples--Residence at
Naples--The theatre of San Carlo--Rossini's operas--Gaming in Naples--The
_Lazzaroni_--Public writers--Carbonarism--Return to Rome--Christmas eve at
Santa Maria Maggiore--Mme Dionigi--Theatricals--Society in Rome--The papal
government--Lucien Bonaparte, prince of Canino--Louis Napoleon, ex-King of
Holland--Pope Pius VII--Thorwaldsen--Granet--The Holy Week in Rome--The
Duchess of Devonshire--From Rome to Florence by the Perugia road.
I started from Lausanne with a party of two ladies in a Milanese _vettura_
on the morning of the 20th September. We arrived at Milan on the 25th late
in the evening. On passing the Simplon we met with three or four men who
had the appearance of soldiers, and asked for alms something in the style
of the old Spanish soldier who accosted Gil Blas on his first journey. Our
ladies were a little alarmed. On travelling over the plains of Lombardy,
one of these ladies, who had never before been out of her country
(Switzerland) and was consequently accustomed to see the horizon bounded at
a very short distance by immense mountains on all sides, was much alarmed,
on arrival at the plain, at seeing no bounds to the horizon; she was
apprehensive of _falling down_ and _rolling over_. Her remark reminded me
of one of the objections made to the project of Columbus's voyage in
discovery of a western passage to India; it was said that in consequence of
the rotundity of the earth they would roll down and never be able to get up
again. The sensation experienced by my fellow traveller, however, may be
well accounted for and explained by any one who from a plain surface
situated on a great height looks down without a railing or balcony.
These ladies were quite delighted with the splendour and bustle of Milan
and particularly when I took them to the _Scala_ theatre, where a very
splendid _Ballo_ was given, intitled _Sammi Re d'Egitto_. The scenery and
decorations were magnificent, being taken from Denon's drawings of Egyptian
views, and the costume was exceedingly appropriate. My fellow travellers
were much struck at the appearance of the horses on the stage and the
grotesque dancing. The last scene was the most magnificent. It represented
the great Pyramids, on the angles of which stood a line of soldiers from
the _base_ to the _apex_ holding lighted torches. The _coup d'oeil_ was
enchanting. I took the ladies to see my old friend Girolamo and in fine was
their _cicerone_ every where. We remained only four days at Milan and then
proceeded to Florence, where we arrived on the 7th October. We employed six
days for our journey and one day we halted at Bologna. After remaining four
days at Florence and taking the Radicofani road we arrived at Rome the 18th
October.
At Rome I met my friend P.G. and his wife who were travelling towards
Naples and I likewise made two very pleasant acquaintances, the one a
Portuguese, the other a Milanese. The Milanese is a cousin of the
Neapolitan minister Di M------; and the Portuguese (M. de N------) had been
employed by his Government in a diplomatic capacity at Vienna. At Rome I
engaged appartments from the 20th of December for three months and then
started for Naples, with the intention of passing two months there, and
returning to Rome, to be in time to witness the fete at Christmas Eve. At
Velletri I met with a Jamaica family, Mr and Mrs O------, with their
daughter and daughter-in-law; and we were strongly advised to take an
escort as far as _Torre tre ponti_, being obliged to start very early from
Velletri in order to reach Terracina before night-fall. Nothing however
occurred and we arrived at Terracina without accident. The rascally
innkeeper there made Mr O------ pay forty franks for each miserable room
that he occupied, and fifteen franks a head for his supper; he was very
insolent with all. I was rejoiced to find that in one instance he failed in
his hopes of extortion. As he is obliged by law to furnish supper and beds
at a fixed price to those who travel with _vetturini_ and are _spesati_,
he, whenever a _vetturino_ arrives locks up all his decent chambers and
says that they are engaged, in order to keep them for those travellers who
may arrive in their own carriages and whom he can fleece _ad libitum_. A
friend of mine and his lady, who were travelling in their own carriage,
had, in order to avoid this extortion, engaged with a _vetturino_ to
conduct them from Naples to Rome with _his horses_, but their own carriage,
and, had stipulated to be _spesati_. Mine host of Terracina, seeing a smart
carriage drive up, ordered one of his best rooms to be got ready, ushered
them in himself and returnd in half an hour to ask what they would have for
supper; when to his great astonishment and mortification, they referred him
for the arrangement of the supper to the _vetturino_, saying that they were
_spesati_. He then began to curse and swear, said that they should not have
that room, and wanted to turn them out of it forcibly; but my friend Major
G---- took up one of his pistols, which were lying on the table, and told
the innkeeper that if he did not cease to molest them and instantly quit
the room, he would blow out his brains. This threat had the desired effect,
and he withdrew. It appears that this fellow has in the end outwitted
himself, for most people now, who travel on this road in their own
carriage, chuse to travel with a _vetturino_ and his horses and are
_spesati_, solely in order to avoid the extortion practised upon them.
We arrived at Naples on the 29th October without accident. A _buona grazia_
of a _scudo_ at the frontier obviated the delay which would otherwise have
occurred in examining our baggage by the _douaniers_. I put up at No 1
_Largo St Anna di Palazzo_, near the _Strada di Toledo_, at the house of
one Berlier, who had been a domestic of poor Murat's. The Austrian troops
being now withdrawn, the military cordon of sentinels from the frontier to
Naples is kept up by the Neapolitan troops; but what a contrast between the
vigilance of the Austrian sentinels, and the negligence of the Neapolitans!
The last time I travelled on this road, I never failed, after dusk, to hear
the shout of _Wer da?_ of the Austrian sentries, long before I came up to
them, and I always found them alert. Now that the cordon was Neapolitan, I
always found the sentries either asleep, or playing at cards with their
companion (the sentries being double), both having left their arms at the
place where they were posted. At night I have no doubt they all fall
asleep, so that three or four active _banditti_ might come and cut the
throats of the whole chain of sentries in detail.
30th October, 1818.
I have begun my course of water drinking at the fountain of Sta Lucia.
Since I was here the last time, the theatre of St Carlo has been finished
and I went to visit it the second night after my arrival. It is a noble
theatre and of immense size, larger it is said than the _Scala_ at Milan,
tho' it does not appear so. The profusion of ornament and gilding serves to
diminish the appearance of its magnitude. It is probably now the most
magnificent theatre in Europe. The performance was _Il Babiere di Siviglia_
by Rossini, and afterwards a superb _Ballo_ taken closely from Coleman's
_Blue-Beard_ and arranged as a _Ballo_ by Vestris. The only difference lies
in the costume and the scenery; for here the _Barbe Bleue,_ instead of
being a Turkish Pacha, as in Coleman's piece, is a Chinese Mandarin, and
the decorations are all Chinese. A great deal of Scotch music is introduced
in this _Ballo,_ and seems to give great satisfaction. At the little
theatre of San Carlino I witnessed the representation of Rossini's
_Cenerentola,_ a most delightful piece. The young actress who did the part
of Cenerentola acted it to perfection and sung so sweetly and correctly,
that it would seem as if the _role_ were composed on purpose for her. The
part of Don Magnifico was extremely well played, and those of the sisters
very fairly and appropriately. The three actresses who did the part of
Cenerentola and her sisters, were all handsome, but she who did Cenerentola
surpassed them all; she was a perfect beauty and a grace. I think the music
of this opera would please the public taste in England. Rossini seems to
have banished every other musical composer from the stage.
I have seen, at the Theatre of San Carlo, the _Don Giovanni_ of Mozart; but
certainly, after being accustomed to the extreme vivacity of Rossini's
style, the music, even of the divine Mozart, appears to go off heavily.
There is too much of what the French call _musique de fanfares_ in the
opera of _Don Giovanni_ and I believe most of the Italians are of my way of
thinking.
We have just heard of the death of the poor Princess Charlotte. I am no
great admirer of Kings and Queens; and yet I must own, I could not help
feeling regret for the death of this princess. I had formed a very high
opinion of her, from many traits in her character; and I fancied and hoped
that she was destined to redeem England from the degradation and bad odour
into which she had been plunged by the borough-mongers and bureaucrats,
engendered by the Pitt system. She had liberal ideas and an independent
spirit. I really almost caught myself shedding tears at this event, and had
she been buried here, I should have gone to scatter flowers upon her tomb:
His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani
Munere.[108]
Has no royalist or ministerial poet been found to do hommage to her
_manes_? Had she lived to be Queen of England she would have found a
thousand venal pens to give her every virtue under heaven.
There is a professor of natural philosophy now at Naples, of the name of
Amici, from Modena, who has invented a microscope of immense power. The
circulation of the blood in the thigh of a frog (the coldest animal in
nature), when viewed thro' this microscope, appears to take place with the
rapidity of a Swiss torrent.
Since I have been here, I have once more ascended Vesuvius; there was no
eruption at all this time, but I witnessed the sight of a stream of red-hot
liquid lava flowing slowly down the flank of the mountain. It was about two
and a half feet broad.
In my letters from Naples, the last time I was there, I gave you some idea
of the state of society. Among the upper classes gaming is reduced to a
science and is almost exclusively the order of the day. There is little or
no taste for litterature among any part of the native society. The upper
classes are sensualists; the middling ignorant and superstitious. With
regard to the _Lazzaroni_, I do not think that they at all deserve the ill
name that has been given to them. They always seem good humoured and
willing to work, when employment is given to them; and they do not appear
at all disposed to disturb the public peace, which, from their being so
numerous and formidable a body, they could easily do. The Neapolitan
dialect has a far greater affinity to the Spanish than to the Tuscan, and
there are likewise, a great many Greek words in it. When one takes into
consideration the extreme ignorance that prevails among the Neapolitans in
general, one is astonished that such a prodigy of genius as Filangieri
could have sprung up among them. What talent, application, deep research
and judgment were united in that illustrious man! And yet there are many
Neapolitans of rank who have never heard of him. Would you believe that on
my asking one of the principal booksellers in Naples for Filangieri's work
on legislation (an immortal work which has called forth the admiration and
eulogy of the greatest geniuses of the age, of which Benjamin Franklin and
Sir Wm Jones spoke in the most unqualified terms of approbation; a work
which has been translated into all the languages of Europe), I was told by
the bookseller that he had never heard either of the author or of his work.
A very curious thing at Naples is the number of public writers; who compose
letters and memorials in booths, fitted up in the streets. As the great
majority of the people are so ignorant as to be unable to read or write, it
follows that when they receive letters, they must find somebody to read
them for them and to write the answers required. They accordingly, on the
receipt of a letter, bring it to one of these public scribes, ask him to
read it for them and to write an answer, for which trouble he receives a
fixed pay. These writers are thus let into the secrets of family affairs of
more than half of the city; and as some-of them are in the pay of the
Government for communicating intelligence, you may guess how formidable
they may become to liberty and how dangerous an engine in the hands of a
despotic Government.
It appears that the theatre of San Carlo is principally kept up by gaming;
that is to say, the managers and proprietors would not undertake the
direction of it without the Gaming Bank being annexed to it; for otherwise
they would lose money, the expence of the Opera on account of the
magnificent decorations of the Ballets being very great, which the receipts
of the theatre are insufficient to meet; but the profits of the Casino
cover all and amply reimburse the proprietors.
With regard to political opinions here there is a great stagnation. It
costs the Neapolitans too much trouble to think and reflect. M-----, the
principal minister, is however no favourite; neither is N-----, who has
quitted the Austrian service, and is nominated Captain-General of the
Neapolitan army.[109]
There is a great talk about the increase of Carbonarism. You will probably
ask me what Carbonarism means. I am not initiated in the secret of the
Carbonari; but as far as I can understand, this sect or secret society has
its mysteries like modern Free-masonry or like the Orphics of old, and
several progressive degrees of initiation are required. Its secret object
is said to be the emancipation of Italy from a foreign despotism and the
forming of a government purely national. This is the reason why this sect
is regarded with as much jealousy by the different governments of Italy as
the early Christians used to be by the Pagan Emperors. Great proofs of
courage, constancy and self denial are required from the initiated; and
very many fail, or do not rise beyond the lower degrees of initiation, for
it is very difficult for an Italian to withstand sensuality. But the
leaders of this sect are perfectly in the right to require such proofs, for
no man is fit to be trusted with any political design whatever, who has not
obtained the greatest mastery over his passions. The word _Carbonari_, I
need not tell you, means _Coalmen_; the Italian history presents many
examples of secret societies taking their appellation from some mechanical
profession.
I have now been nearly two months in Naples, and the _zampogne_ or
bag-pipes, which play about the streets at night, announce the speedy
approach of Christmas, so that I shall soon take my departure for Rome.
* * * * *
I left Naples on the 18th of December and arrived at Rome on the 22d. I am
settled in my old lodgings, No. 29 _Piazza di Spagna_. Nothing worth
mentioning occurred during the journey.
The fete, of the birth of Christ held at Santa Maria Maggiore on the
evening of the 24th December is of the most splendid description, and
attended by an immense crowd of women. Guns are fired on the moment that
the birth of the Saviour is announced, and this event occurs precisely at
midnight. The Romans seem to rejoice as much at the anniversary of this
event, as if it happened for the first time, and as if immediate temporal
advantage were to be derived from it.
I have mixed a good deal in society in Rome since my return from Naples.
Among other acquaintance I must particularly distinguish Mme Dionigi, a
very celebrated lady, possessing universality of talent.[110] She is well
known all over Italy, for the extent of her litterary attainments, but more
particularly for her proficiency in the fine arts, above all in painting,
of which she is an adept. She also possesses the most amiable qualities of
the heart, and is universally beloved and respected for the worth of her
private character, and for her generous disposition. She has all the
vivacity of intellect belonging to youth, tho' now nearly eighty-six years
of age,[111] and of a very delicate physical constitution; in short she
affords, and I often tell her so, the most striking proof of the
immortality of the soul. There is a _conversazione_ at her house twice a
week, where you meet with foreign as well as Italian _litterati_, and
persons of distinction of all nations, tongues and languages. Her eldest
daughter, Mme D'Orfei, is an excellent _improvisatrice_, and has frequently
given us very favourable specimens of the inspiration which breathes itself
in her soul. I have likewise witnessed the talent of two very extraordinary
_improvisatori_, the one a young girl of eighteen years of age, by name
Rosa Taddei. She is the daughter of the proprietor of the _Teatro della
Valle_ at Rome, and sometimes performs herself in dramatic pieces; yet,
strange to say, tho' she is an admirable _improvisatrice_ and possesses a
thorough classic and historical knowledge, she is but an indifferent
actress.
It is a great shame that her father obliges her to act on the stage in very
inferior parts, when she ought only to exhibit on the tripod. I assisted at
an _Accademia_ given by her one evening at the _Teatro della Valle_, when
she improvised on the following subjects, which were proposed by various
members of the audience: 1st, _La morte d'Egeo_; 2dy, _La Madre Ebrea_;
3rd, _Coriolano alle mura di Roma_; 4th, _Ugolino_; 5th, _Saffo e Faone_;
6th, in the Carnaval with the following _intercalario: "Maschera ti
conosco, tieni la benda al cor_!" which _intercalario_ compels a rhyme in
_osco_, a most difficult one. The _Madre Ebrea_ and _Coriolano_ were given
in _ottava rima_ with a _rima obbligata_ for each stanza. The _Morte
d'Egeo_ was given in _terza rima_. Her versification appeared to be
excellent, nor could I detect the absence or superabundance, of a single
syllable. She requires the aid of music, chuses the melody; the audience
propose the subject, and _rima obbligata_, and the _intercalario_, where it
is required. In her gestures, particularly before she begins to recite, she
reminded me of the description given of the priestess of. Delphi. She walks
along the stage for four or five minutes in silent meditation on the
subject proposed, then suddenly stops, calls to the musicians to play a
certain symphony and then begins as if inspired. Among the different rhimes
in _osco_, a gentleman who sat next to me proposed to her _Cimosco_. I
asked him what _Cimosco_ he meant; he replied a Tuscan poet of that name.
For my part, I had never heard of any other of that name than the King
_Cimosco_ in the _Orlando Furioso_, who makes use of fire-arms; and Rosa
Taddei was, it appears, of my opinion, since this was the _Cimosco_ she
chose to characterise; and she made thereby a very neat and happy
comparison between the gun of Cimosco and the arrow of Cupid. This talent
of the _improvisatori_ is certainly wonderful, and one for which there is
no accounting. It appears peculiar to the Italian nation alone among the
moderns, but probably was in vogue among the ancient Greeks also. It is
certain that Rosa Taddei gives as fine thoughts as are to be met with in
most poets, and I am very much tempted to incline to Forsyth's opinion that
Homer himself was neither more nor less than an _improvisatore_, the Greek
language affording nearly as many poetic licences as the Italian, and the
faculty of heaping epithet on epithet being common in both languages.
The other genius in this wonderful art is Signer Sgricci. He is so far
superior to Rosa Taddei in being five or six years older, in being a very
good Latinist and hi _improvising_ whole tragedies on any subject, chosen
by the audience. When the subject is chosen, he develops his plan, fixes
his _dramatis personae_ and then strikes off in _versi sciolti_. He at
times introduces a chorus with lyric poetry. I was present one evening at
an _Accademia_ given by him in the Palazzo Chigi. The subject chosen was
_Sophonisba_ and it was wonderful the manner in which he varied his plot
from that of every other dramatic author on the same subject. He _acted_
the drama, as well as composed it, and pourtrayed the different characters
with the happiest effect. The ardent passion and impetuosity of Massinissa,
the studied calm philosophy and stoicism of Scipio, the romantic yet
dignified attachment of Sophonisba, and the plain soldierlike honorable
behaviour of Syphax were given in a very superior style. I recollect
particularly a line he puts in the mouth of Scipio, when he is endeavouring
to persuade Massinissa to resist the allurements and blandishments of love:
Che cor di donne e laberinto, in quale
Facil si perde l'intelletto umano.
This drama he divided into three acts, and on its termination he improvised
a poem in _terza rima_ on the subject of the contest of Ajax and Ulysses
for the armour of Achilles.
Wonderful, however, as this act of improvising may appear, it is not
perhaps so much so as the mathematical faculty of a youth of eight years of
age, Yorkshireman by birth, who has lately exhibited his talent for
arithmetical calculation _improvised_ in England and who in a few seconds,
from mental calculation, could give the cube root of a number containing
fifteen or sixteen figures.
Is not all this a confirmation of Doctor Gall's theory on craniology? viz.,
that our faculties depend on the organisation of the scull. I think I have
seen this frequently exemplified at Eton. I have known a boy who could not
compose a verse, make a considerable figure in arithmetic and geometry; and
another, who could write Latin verse with almost Ovidian elegance, and yet
could not work the simplest question in vulgar fractions. Indeed, I think
there seems little doubt that we are born with dispositions and
propensities, which may be developed and encouraged, or damped and checked
altogether by education.
I have become acquainted with several families at Rome, so that I am at no
loss where to spend my evenings. Music is the never failing resource for
those with whom the spirit of conversation fails. The society at Rome is
perfectly free from etiquette or _gene_. When once presented to a family
you may enter their house every evening without invitation, make your bow
to the master and mistress of the house, enter into conversation or not as
you please. You may absent yourself for weeks together from these
_conversazioni_, and nobody will on your re-appearance enquire where you
have been or what you have been doing. In short, in the intercourse with
Roman society, you meet with great affability, sometimes a little _ennui_,
but no _commerage_. The _avvocati_ may be said to form almost exclusively
the middling class in Rome, and they educate their families very
respectably. This class was much caressed by the French Government during
the time that Rome was annexed to the French Empire, and most of the
employes of the Government at that time were taken from this class. I have
met with several sensible well-informed people, who have been accurate
observers of the times, and had derived profit in point of instruction from
the scenes they had witnessed.
The Papal Government began, as most of the restored governments did, by
displacing many of these gentlemen, for no other fault than because they
had served under the Ex-government, and replaced them by ecclesiastics, as
in the olden time. But the Papal Government very soon discovered that the
whole political machine would be very soon at a stand, by such an
_epuration_; and the most of them have been since reinstated. Consalvi, the
Secretary of State, is a very sensible man; he has hard battles to fight
with the _Ultras_ of Rome in order to maintain in force the useful
regulations introduced by the French Government, particularly the
organisation of a vigilant police, and the putting a stop to the murders
and robberies, which used formerly to be committed with impunity. The
French checked the system of granting asylum to these vagabonds altogether.
But on the restoration of the Papal Government a strong interest was made
to allow asylums, as formerly, to criminals. Many of these gentry began to
think that the good old times were come again, wherein they could commit
with impunity the most atrocious crimes; and no less than eighty persons
were in prison at one time for murder. This opened the eyes of the
Government, and Consalvi insisted on the execution of these men and carried
his point of establishing a vigilant police. The Army too has been put on a
better footing. The Papal troops are now clothed and disciplined in the
French manner, and make a most respectable appearance. The infantry is
clothed in white; the cavalry in green. The cockade is white and yellow. No
greater proof can be given of the merit and utility of the French
institutions in Italy, than the circumstance of all the restored
Governments being obliged by their interests (tho' contrary to their wishes
and prejudices), to adopt and enforce them. There is still required,
however, a severer law for the punishment of post office defalcations.
Simple dismissal is by no means adequate, when it is considered how much
mischief may ensue from such offences. A very serious offence of this
nature and which has made a great sensation, has lately occurred. As all
foreign letters must be franked, and as the postage to England is very
high, one of the clerks at the Post office had been in the habit of
receiving money for the franking of letters, appropriated it to his own
use, and never forwarded the letters. This created great inconvenience; a
number of families having never received answers to their letters and being
without the expected remittances, began to be uneasy and to complain. An
enquiry was instituted, and it was discovered that the clerk above
mentioned had been carrying on this game to a great extent. He used to tear
the letters and throw the fragments into a closet. Several scraps of
letters were thus discovered and, on being examined, he made an ample
confession of his practises. He was merely discharged, and no other
punishment was indicted on him. I am no advocate for the punishment of
death for any other crime but wilful murder; but surely this fellow was
worse than a robber, and deserved a greater severity of punishment.
ROME, 10th February, 1818.
The Carnaval has long since begun, and this is the heaven of the Roman
ladies. On my remarking to a lady that I was soon tired of it and after a
day or two found it very childish, she replied: "_Bisogna esser donna e
donna Italiana per ben godere de' piaceri del Carnevale_."
When I speak of the Carnaval, I speak of the last ten days of it which
precede Lent. The following is the detail of the day's amusement during the
season.
After dinner, which is always early, the masks sally out and repair to the
_Corso_. The windows and balconies of the houses are filled with
spectators, in and out of masks. A scaffolding containing an immense number
of seats is constructed in the shape of a rectangle, beginning at the
_Piazza del Popolo_, running parallel to the _Corso_ on each side, and
terminating near the _Piazza di Venezia_; close to which is the goal of the
horse race that takes place in this enclosure. Carriages, with persons in
them, generally masked, parade up and down this space in two currents, the
one ascending, the other descending the _Corso_. They are saluted as they
pass with showers of white comfits from the spectators on the seats of the
scaffolding, or from the balconies and windows on each side of the street.
These comfits break into a white powder and bespatter the clothes of the
person on whom they fall as if hair-powder had been thrown on them. This
seems to be the grand joke of this part of the Carnival. After the
carriages have paraded about an hour, a signal is given by the firing of a
gun that the horse race is about to begin. The carriages, on the gun being
fired, must immediately evacuate the _Corso_ in order to leave it clear for
the race; some move off and _rendezvous_ on the _Piazza del Popolo_ just
behind the scaffolding, from the foot of which the horses start; others
file off by the _Via Ripetta_ and take their stand on the _Piazza Colonna_.
The horse-race is performed by horses without riders, generally five or six
at a time. They are each held with a bridle or halter by a man who stands
by them, in order to prevent their starting before the signal is given; and
this requires no small degree of force and dexterity, as the horses are
exceedingly impatient to set off. The manes of the horses are dressed in
ribbands of different colours to distinguish them. Pieces of tin, small
bells and other noisy materials are fastened to their manes and tails, in
order by frightening the poor animals, to make them run the faster, and
with this view also squibs and crackers are discharged at them as they pass
along. A second gun is the signal for starting; the keepers loose their
hold, and off go the horses. The horse that arrives the first at the goal
wins the grand prize; and there are smaller ones for the two next. This
race is repeated four or five times till dusk, and then the company
separate and return home to dress. They then repair to the balls at the
different casinos, and at the conclusion of the ball, supper parties are
formed either at _restaurants_ or at each other's houses. During the time
occupied in the balls and promenades, as every body goes masked either in
character or in _domino_, there is a fine opportunity for pairing off, and
it is no doubt turned to account. This is a pretty accurate account of a
Roman Carnaval. A great deal of wit and repartee takes place among the
masks and they are in general extremely well supported, and indeed they
ought to be, for there is a great sameness of character assumed at every
masquerade, and very little novelty is struck out, except perhaps by some
foreigner, who chuses to introduce a national character of his own, which
is probably but little, or not at all, understood by the natives, and very
often not at all well supported by the foreigner himself. An American
gentleman once made his appearance as an Indian warrior with his
war-hatchet and calumet; he danced the war dance, which excited great
astonishment. He then presented his calumet to a mask, who not knowing what
the ceremony meant, declined it, when the Mohawk flourished his hatchet and
gave such a dreadful shriek as to set the whole company in alarm.[112] On
the whole this character was so little understood that it was looked upon
as a _mauvaise plaisanterie_.
The usual characters are Pulcinelli, Arlecchini, Spanish Grandees, Turks,
fortune tellers, flower girls and Devils; sometimes too they go in the
costume of the Gods and Goddesses of the ancient mythology. I observe that
the English ladies here prefer to appear without masks in the costume of
the Swiss and Italian peasantry.
There is a very large English society at Rome, and at some of the parties
here, you could suppose yourself in Grosvenor Square.
The late political changes have brought together in Rome many persons of
the most opposite parties and sentiments, who have fallen from the height
of political power and influence into a private station, but who enjoy
themselves here unmolested, and even protected by the Government, and are
much courted by foreigners. I have seen at the same masquerade, in the
_Teatro Aliberti_, in boxes close to each other, the Queen of Spam (mother
of Ferdinand VII), and the Princess Borghese, Napoleon's sister. In a box
at a short distance from them were Lucian Buonaparte, his wife and
daughters. Besides these, the following ex-Sovereigns and persons of
distinction, fallen from their high estate, reside in Rome, viz., King
Charles IV of Spain; the ex-King of Holland, Louis Buonaparte; the
abdicated King of Sardinia, Victor Emanuel; Don Manuel Godoy, the Prince of
Peace; Cardinal Fesch, and Madame Letitia, the mother of Napoleon.
I had an opportunity of being presented to Lucian, who bears the title of
Prince of Canino, before I left Rome for Naples, as on leaving the Pays de
Vaud I was charged by a Swiss gentleman to deliver a letter to him, the
purport of which was to state that he had rendered services to Joseph
Napoleon, when he was resident in that Canton, in consequence of which he
had been persecuted and deprived of his employment at Lausanne, which was
that of Captain of the Gendarmerie; and in the letter he sollicited
pecuniary assistance from the Prince of Canino. I rode out one morning to
the Villa of Ruffinella where the Prince resides and was very politely
received; it appeared however that the Prince was totally unacquainted with
the person who wrote the letter, nor was he at all aware of the
circumstances therein mentioned. I told him that I was but little
acquainted with the writer of the letter, but that he, on hearing of my
intention of going to Rome, asked me to deliver it personally. The Prince
told me he would write himself to the applicant on the subject. Here the
negotiation ended; but on my taking leave the Prince said he should be
happy to see me whenever I chose to call. The Prince has the character of
being an excellent father and husband, and seems entirely and almost
exclusively devoted to his family. He has a remarkably fine collection of
pictures and statues in his house at Rome.
I had an opportunity likewise of seeing the ex-King of Holland, Louis
Napoleon, who seems to be a most excellent and amiable man, and in fact
everybody agrees in speaking of him with eulogy.
With regard to the present Pontiff Pius VII, from the excellence of his
private character and virtues, and from his unassuming manners and goodness
of heart, there is but one opinion respecting him. Even those who do not
like the ecclesiastical Government, and behold in it the degradation of
Italy, render justice to the good qualities of Pius VII. He always
displayed the greatest moderation and humanity in prosperity, and in
adversity he was firm and dignified. In his morals and habits he is quite a
primitive Christian, and if he does not possess that great political talent
which has distinguished some of his predecessors, he has been particularly
fortunate and discriminating in the choice of his minister, in whom are
united ability, firmness, suavity of manner and unimpeachable character. I
think I have thus given a faithful delineation of Cardinal Consalvi.
ROME, March 12th.
I have made a very valuable acquaintance in M. K[oelle][113] the envoy of
the King of Wuertemberg, to the Holy See. He is an enthusiastic admirer of
his countryman the poet Schiller, and thro' his means of procuring German
books, I am enabled to prosecute my studies in that noble language. An
Italian lady there having heard much of Schiller and Buerger, and not being
acquainted with the German language, requested me to make an Italian
translation of some of the pieces of those poets; chusing the _Leonora_ of
Buerger as one, and leaving to myself the choice of one from Schiller, I
represented the extreme difficulty of the task, but as she had read a
sonnet of mine on Lord Guildford's project of establishing an University in
the Italian language, she would not hear of any excuse. To work then I set,
and completed the translation of _Leonora_, together with one of Schiller's
_Feast of Eleusis_. These and my sonnet were the cause of my being
recommended for admission as a member of the Academy _degli Arcadi_ in Rome
and I received the pastoral name of _Galeso Itaoense_.
The Carnaval is now over and the ladies are all at their _Livres d'Heures_,
posting masses and prayers to the credit side, to counterbalance the sins
and frailties committed during the carnaval in the account which they keep
in the Ledger of Heaven. Dancing and masquerading are now over and
_Requiems_ and the _Miserere_ the order of the day at the _conversazioni_.
At Mr K[oelle]'s house I have become acquainted with Thorwaldsen, the famous
Danish sculptor, who is by many considered as the successful rival of
Canova; but their respective styles are so different, that a comparison can
scarce be made between them. Canova excels in the soft and graceful, in the
figures of youthful females and young men; Thorwaldsen in the grave, stern
and terrible. In a word, did I wish to have made a Hebe, a Venus, an
Antinoues, an Apollo, I should charge Canova with their execution. Did I
wish for an Ajax, an Hercules, a Neptune, a Jupiter, I should give the
preference to Thorwaldsen.
In their private characters they much resemble each other, being both
honorable, generous, unassuming, and enthusiastic lovers of their
profession and of the fine arts hi general.
I have been to see a remarkably fine picture, by a modern French artist, of
the name of Granet. It may be considered as the _chef d'oeuvre_ of the
perspective or dioramic art. This picture represents the ulterior of the
convent of the Capuchins, near the Barberini Palace. The picture is by no
means a very large one; but the optical deception is astonishing. You fancy
you are standing at the entrance of a long hall and ready to enter it; on
looking at it, thro' a piece of paper rolled hi form of a speaking
trumpet--which by hiding from the sight the frame of the picture, prevents
the illusion from being dissipated--you suppose you could walk into the
hall; and each figure of a monk therein appears a real human creature, seen
from a long distance, so skilfully has the artist disposed his light and
shade. This picture has excited the admiration of connoisseurs, as well as
others, and it is universally proclaimed a masterpiece. M. Granet's house
is filled every day with persons coming to see this picture, and many
repeat their visits several tunes in the week. He has received several
orders for copies of this picture, and I fancy he begins to be tired of
eternally copying the same thing; for he told me that he wished that the
gentlemen who employed him would vary their subjects, and either chuse some
other themselves, or let him chuse for them. But no! such is the effect of
vogue and fashion, and such the despotic influence they exercise even over
the polite arts, that everybody must have a copy of Granet's picture of the
interior of the Convent of Capuchins _coute que coute_; so that poor Granet
seems bound to this Convent for life; except in the intervals of his
labours, he should hit off another subject, with equal felicity, and this
alone may perhaps serve to diminish the universal desire of possessing a
copy of the Convent. The original picture is destined for the King of
France.[114]
I remarked, in the collection of the works of this artist, a small picture
representing Galileo in prison, and a monk descending the steps of the
dungeon bringing him his scanty meal. A lamp hangs suspended from the roof,
in the centre of the dungeon, and the artist has made a very happy hit in
throwing the whole glare of the lamp on the countenance of Galileo, who is
seated reading a book, while the gaoler monk is left completely in the
shade. On seeing this I exclaimed: _Veramente, Signor Granet, e buonissimo
quel vostro concetto!_
Easter Tuesday.
I have at length seen all the fine sights that Rome affords during the Holy
Week, and have witnessed most of the religious ceremonies, viz., the
illuminated cross hi St Peter's on Good Friday; the high mass celebrated by
the Pope in person on Easter Sunday; the Papal benediction from a window of
the church above the facade on the same day; the illumination of the facade
of St Peter's on Easter Monday, and the _Girandola_ or grand firework at
the Castle of St Angelo on the same evening. The ceremony of the Pope
washing the feet of twelve poor men I did not see, for I could not get into
the Sistine Chapel, where the ceremony was performed: and at the mass
performed by the Pope in the Sistine Chapel I did contrive to enter, but
was so oppressed by the crowd and heat, that I almost fainted away, and was
very glad to get out of the Chapel again, before the ceremony commenced.
Why in the name of commonsense do they perform these ceremonies in the
Sistine Chapel which is small, instead of doing them in the church of St
Peter's, which would contain so many people and produce a much grander
effect?
A great many people are deprived of seeing the ceremonies in the Sistine
Chapel from the difficulty of getting in. The Pope's Swiss Guard attend on
that day in their ancient _costume_, with helmets, cuirasses and halberds;
these guard the entrance of the staircase leading to the Chapel, and they
have no small trouble and difficulty in maintaining order, as there is
always a great scuffle to get in, and they are particularly importuned by
German visitors, who thinking to be favored by them, in speaking to them in
their own language, vociferate; _Ich bin Ihr Landsmann!_ and hope by this
to obtain a preference.
On Friday evening a large Cross is erected before the grand altar; every
part of this Cross is filled with lamps, and at seven in the evening the
whole is illuminated. It has a most brilliant appearance and gives the
happiest _chiaro-oscuro_ effect to the statues, columns and pilasters which
abound in this vast temple. There is no other light on this occasion than
that reflected from the Cross. On Easter Sunday, when the Pope celebrates
high mass in the church of St Peter's, the Papal noble Guard, composed of
young men from the principal families in Rome, form a hedge on each side of
the nave of the church, from the entrance of the facade to the grand altar.
The street or interval formed between this double line may be about thirty
feet broad, and behind this guard or in any other part of the church, the
spectators may stand; but as these guards wear very large feathers in their
hats, they intercept very much the sight of those who stand behind them.
The uniform of the Papal Noble Guard is very splendid, being a scarlet
coat, covered with gold lace, white feathers, white breeches and long
military boots. The approach of the Pope is announced by the thunder of
cannon, and he is brought into the Church dressed in full pontificals, with
the triple Crown on his head, on a chair borne by men, _palanquin_ fashion;
he is conducted thro' the lane formed by the Papal Guard, and as he passes
he makes the sign of the cross several times with his finger, repeating the
words: _Urbi et Orbi_. He is then set down, with his face fronting the
baldachin, when he immediately takes off the tiara, and begins the
ceremony. That ended, he leaves the church in the same state, and then
ascends the staircase, in order to prepare to give the benediction, which
is usually given from a window above the facade of the church. The Pope is
there seated on a chair with the triple Crown on his head. Troops of
cavalry and infantry are drawn up in a semi-circle before the facade of the
church, and the whole vast _arena_ of the _Piazza di San Pietro_ is covered
with spectators. On a sudden his Holiness rises, extends his hands towards
heaven, then spreads them open, and seems as if he scattered something he
held in them on the crowd below; a silly young Frenchman who was standing
next to me said: _Le voila! Le voila qui arrache la benediction au ciel, et
qui la repand sur tout le monde!_ I could not refrain from laughing at this
sally, tho' I was much impressed with the solemnity of the scene, which I
think one of the grandest and most sublime I ever beheld. This ceremony
concluded, salves of ordnance were fired. The Pope retires amidst clouds of
smoke, and seems to vanish from the Earth. The troops then fire a _feu de
joie_ and move off, playing a march in quick time, and the company
disperse.
It is the etiquette on these occasions that no person be admitted either
into the church of St Peter or into the Sistine Chapel except in full
toilette. The ladies dress generally in black with caps and feathers; the
gentlemen either in black full dress or in military uniform. From the
variety of foreigners of all nations that are here, most of whom are
military men, or intitled to wear military uniforms, much is added to the
splendour of the spectacle.
On the evening of Easter Monday, I was present at the illumination of the
facade of St Peter's. Rows of lamps are suspended the whole length of the
columns and pilasters and all over the cupola, so that, when illuminated,
the style of the architecture is perceptible. The illumination takes place
almost at once. How it is managed I cannot say; but a splendid illuminated
temple seems at once to drop from the clouds, like the work of an
enchanter; I say _drop from the clouds_, because the illumination begins
from the cross and cupola and is communicated with the rapidity of
lightning to every other part of the edifice. About ten o'clock the same
evening the most magnificent firework perhaps in the world begins to play
from the castle of St Angelo. All kinds of shapes are assumed by these
fireworks: here are castles, pagodas, dragons, griffins, etc. These last
about an hour and then conclude, and with them conclude all the ceremonies
used in commemoration of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Among the sights of Rome I must not omit that of a famous robber of the
name of Barbone, who was the terror of the whole surrounding country from
the depredations he committed. Having capitulated, and surrendered himself
to the Papal Government, he is now confined in the Castle of St Angelo as a
state prisoner. His wife, or a woman calling herself so, is confined there
with him, and she is said to be a woman of uncommon beauty. It is quite the
rage among the English here to go to see these _illustrious_ captives, and
Madame Barbone, superbly dressed, receives the hommage of the visitors. The
Duchess of D[evonshire] is said to have visited her, and made her a present
of a pearl necklace. I hope this is not true. Surely the Duchess, who is a
woman of talent and an encourager of the fine arts, might have found some
other object worthier of her munificence. What claims the mistress, or even
the wife, of a public robber can have on the generosity of travellers, I am
at a loss to conceive; but such is the _bizarrerie_ and _inconsequence_ of
the English, and no doubt, be this story of her Grace of D[evonshire]
having given a present true or not, it will occasion many other presents
being made to the captive Princess by a host of silly lord-aping English
men and women. Barbone has, it is said, made an excellent capitulation. He
has stipulated to be released from prison after a year and a day's
confinement, and no doubt he will then resume his old trade of brigandage.
In the meantime he has disbanded his troops, as he calls them; but will his
troops obey him, now that he is a captive? will they not rather chuse
another leader?
In the time of the French occupation, nothing of this kind took place; but
the present Government is weak and timid. I have not been myself to see
either Barbone or his wife, but I have heard quite enough about them; they
form one of the principal sights in Rome, and I am quite _unfashionable_ in
not having gone to visit them; for according to the opinion of my English
acquaintance, he who has not seen Barbone and his wife has seen nothing.
* * * * *
I started from Rome on the second of April with a _vetturino_, and on
arrival at Baccano, we struck off into a road on the right hand, and
arrived at Civita Castellana at a late hour. Civita Castellana merits no
further attention, except that it is supposed to stand on the site of the
ancient city of Veii. The following day at ten o'clock we reached the small
town of Narni. Here are the remains of a beautiful bridge, constructed over
the ravine, thro' which flows the river Nera, and which was built in the
time of Augustus. It affords a very favorable specimen of the Roman bridge
architecture. There is a small chapel here, and it contains, engraved on a
stone, a description of a miracle wrought here about four years ago by the
Virgin Mary, who saved the life of a postillion. He went into the river to
water his horses, when he was carried off by the torrent and would have
been drowned, had not the Virgin, on her aid being invoked, dashed into the
river and haled him out by the hair of his head. Of this story, to use a
phrase of old Josephus,[115] every one may believe as much as he thinks
proper; but certain it is that the postillion made oath (which oath is
registered) that his life was saved by the Virgin Mary in this manner, and
he has put up a votive tablet at her shrine, which remains to this day,
commemorative of the event. There is also a Roman aqueduct in the
neighbourhood, eleven Italian miles in length.
We arrived at Terni at three o'clock and immediately hired a _caleche_ (the
other travellers and myself) to visit the famous cascade of the Velino,
about three miles distant from the town of Terni. The road thither is very
rugged, and is a continual ascent on the flank of a ravine. For a long time
before you arrive on the brink of the cascade, you hear the roaring of the
waters; and it certainly is the most magnificent and awe-inspiring sight of
the kind I ever beheld. It is far more stupendous than any cascade in
Switzerland. That of Tivoli compared to it is as an infant six months old
to a Goliath. The Velino forms three successive falls, and the last is
tremendous, since it falls from a height of 1,068 feet into the abyss
below. The foam and the froth it occasions is terrific; and the spray
ascends so high that in standing at the distance of fifty yards from the
fall you become as wet as if you had been standing in a shower of rain. The
first fall it forms is of 800 feet; the second little less; the third I
have stated already. No painting can possibly give a faithful delineation
of this, and very possibly no poetic description can give an adequate idea
thereof. We passed the whole night at Terni and the next morning we stopped
to dine at Spoleto. The same evening we arrived at Foligno. Spoleto is a
neat town and well paved. Several ruins of ancient buildings are in its
vicinity. Before you arrive there, on the left of the road, is an immensely
high two-arched bridge. There is an aqueduct likewise just outside the
town. We did not omit to read the inscription on the gate of the town, in
commemoration of the repulse of Hannibal, who failed in his attempt to make
himself master of this city, after having beat the Romans near the lake
Trasymene. The gate is called in consequence _Porta Fugae_, and this gate
constitutes the principal glory of Spoleto. We were shown the rums of a
Palace built by Theodoric. On leaving the town, just outside the gate, we
were shewn a bridge which had laid underground for many centuries and had
been lately discovered. A bridge was known to have been built here in the
time of Augustus, and it is very probably the identical one; we could only
see the top and part of the parapet.
Foligno is a large, well built city, neatly paved, populous and commercial,
renowned for manufactories of paper, wax, and confectionary.
The whole road between Spoleto and Foligno is thro' a beautiful valley in
high cultivation. There is a good deal of rich pasture ground, and it is
watered by the river called in ancient tunes Clitumnus. Here are to be seen
a fine breed of white cattle for which this part of the country has been
long renowned, which cattle were used, in preference, for sacrifices
(_Albi, Clitumne, greges_).[116] A similar breed is to be found in India
and Egypt.
The streets in Foligno are broad. I remarked the _Palazzo Pubblico_ and
Cathedral as very fine buildings. Our next day's journey brought us to
Perugia, after passing by Assisi, the birth place of the famous St Francis,
founder of the order of Franciscans. It is situated on an eminence:
convents and churches abound therein.
Perugia is a large and opulent city, standing like a fortress on a
mountain, and towering over the plain below. It is of steep ascent from the
plain, and there are various terraces along the ramparts, commanding
several fine points of view of the rich and fertile plains all round. These
terraces are planted with trees and form the promenades appertaining to the
city. The architecture of the various churches and Palaces is very
superior. The streets are broad and every building has an air of
magnificence. The Cathedral, dedicated to St Laurence, is well worth
visiting; it stands on the _Piazza del Duomo_, where there is a fine
fountain ornamented with statues. In the church of St Peter's there are
some fine columns of marble and some pictures of Perugino and Raffaello.
[108] Virgil, _Aen_., VI, 886.--ED.
[109] Of the two persons here mentioned, by their initials only, the first,
Luigi de' Medici, was chosen as Chancellor of the Exchequer by King
Ferdinando in June, 1815. The second was Nugent, an Austrian
_marescallo_, who became _capitano generale_ of the Neapolitan army,
August, 1816, and _capo del supremo comando_, February, 1817.--ED.
[110] This most distinguished lady, Marianna Candidi, was born in Rome in
1756; her mother, Magdalena Scilla, was the daughter of a well known
antiquary of Messina, Agostino Scilla. Marianna learned Latin, drawing
and music; she achieved a reputation as landscape painter, and was
elected a member of the Academies of St Luke in Rome, of Bologna, Pisa
and Philadelphia. She married the lawyer Domenico Dionigi, and gave him
seven children, one of whom, Henrietta, became Madame Orfei, and was
much esteemed as "improvisatrice." Madame Dionigi herself published
several works, among which a _Storia de' tempi presenti_, written in
view of the education of her children. Her _salon_ in Rome was
frequented by many men of distinction, such as Visconti, d'Agincourt,
Erskine, etc. She died on the 10th June, 1826, at the age of seventy.
--ED.
[111] She was no more than sixty-two at that time.--ED.
[112] To present the calumet is an offer of peace and amity among the
aborigines of North America and to refuse it is regarded as the
greatest insult.
[113] Frye gives only the initial of the name, which I have completed from
the _Almanach de Gotha_, 1818.--ED.
[114] The Interior of the Convent of the Capucini was first painted by
Granet in the year 1811. None of the numerous replicas are in the
Louvre, but there is one in London (Buckingham Palace) and one at
Chatsworth.--ED.
[115] The author may have meant "old Herodotus."--ED.
[116] Virgil, _Georg._, II, 146.--ED.
CHAPTER XV
APRIL-JULY, 1818
Journey from Florence to Pisa and from thence by the Appennines to
Genoa--Massa-Carrara--Genoa--Monuments and works of art--The
Genoese--Return to Florence--Journey from Florence through Bologna and
Ferrara to Venice--Monument to Ariosto in Ferrara--A description of
Venice--Padua--Vicenza--Verona--Cremona--Return to Milan--The Scala
theatre--Verona again--From Verona to Innspruck.
It is the custom for most travellers going to Genoa to embark on board of a
_felucca_ at Spezia, which lies on the sea coast, not far from Sarzana: but
I preferred to go by land, and I cannot conceive why anyone should expose
himself to the risks, inconveniences and delays of a sea passage, when it
is so easy to go by land thro' the Appennines. I started accordingly the
following morning, mounted on a mule, and attended by a muleteer with
another mule to convey my portmanteau. I found this journey neither
dangerous nor difficult, but on the contrary agreeable and romantic. The
road is only a bridle road. I paid forty-eight franks for my two mules and
driver, and started at seven in the morning from Sarzana. The wild
appearance of the Appennines, the aweful solitudes and the highly
picturesque points of view that present themselves at the various
sinuosities of the mountains and valleys; the view of the sea from the
heights that tower above the towns of Oneglia and Sestri Levante, rendered
this journey one of the most interesting I have ever made. I stopped to
dine at Borghetto and brought to the night at Sestri Levante, breakfasted
the next morning at Rapallo, and arrived the same evening at four o'clock
in Genoa. Borghetto is a little insignificant town situate in a narrow
valley surrounded on all sides by the lofty crags of the Appennines. Sestri
Levante is a long and very straggling town, part of it being situated on
the sea shore, and the other part on the gorge of the mountain descending
towards the sea beach; so that the former part of the town lies nearly at
right angles with the latter, with a considerable space intervening. The
road for the last four miles between Borghetto and Sestri Levante is a
continual descent. The inn was very comfortable and good at Sestri Levante.
The beginning of the road between Sestri and Rapallo is on the beach till
near Rapallo, when it strikes again into the mountains and is of
considerable ascent. Rapallo is a very neat pretty place, situate on an
eminence commanding a fine view of the sea. The greater part of the road
between Rapallo and Genoa is on the sea-coast, but cut along the mountains
which here form a bluff with the sea. Villas, gardens and vineyards line
the whole of this route and nothing can be more beautiful. The neatness of
the villas and the abundance of the population form a striking contrast to
the wild solitudes between Sarzana and Sesto, where (except at Borghetto)
there is not a house to be seen and scarce a human creature to be met, and
where the eagle seems to reign alone the uncontrolled lord of the creation.
GENOA, 23rd April.
The view of Genoa from the sea is indisputably the best; for on entering by
land from the eastern side, the ramparts are so lofty as to intercept the
fine view the city would otherwise afford. From the sea side it rises in
the shape of an amphitheatre; a view therefore taken from the sea gives the
best idea of its grandeur and of the magnificence of its buildings, for
everybody on beholding this grand spectacle must allow that this city well
deserves its epithet of _Superba_.
I observe in my daily walks on the _Esplanade_ a number of beautiful women.
The Genoese women are remarkable for their beauty and fine complexions.
They dress generally in white, and their style of dress is Spanish; they
wear the _mezzara_ or veil, in the management of which they display much
grace and not a little coquetry. Instead of the fan exercise recommended to
women by the _Spectator_, the art of handling the _mezzara_ might be
reduced to a manual and taught to the ladies by word of command.
I put up at the house of a Spanish lady on the _Piazza St Siro_, and here
for four _livres_ a day I am sumptuously boarded and lodged. There are
three principal streets in Genoa, viz., _Strada Nuova_, _Balbi_, and
_Nuovissima_. Yet these three streets may be properly said to form but one,
inasmuch as they lie very nearly in a right line. These streets are broad
and aligned with the finest buildings in Genoa. This street or streets are
the only ones that can be properly called so, according to the idea we
usually attach to the word. The others deserve rather the names of lanes
and alleys, tho' exceedingly well paved and aligned with excellent houses
and shops. In fact the streets _Nuova_, _Nuovissima_ and _Balbi_ are the
only ones thro' which carriages can pass. The others are far too narrow to
admit of the passage of carriages. The houses on each side of them are of
immense height, being of six or seven stories, which form such a shade as
effectually to protect those who walk thro' these alleys from the rays of
the sun. The houses diminish in height in proportion as they are built on
the slant of the mountain from the bottom to the top, those at the bottom
being the loftiest. Carriages are scarcely of any use in the city of Genoa,
except to drive from one end of the town to another thro' the streets
_Nuova_, _Balbi_ and _Nuovissima_; and accordingly a carriage with four
wheels, or even with two, is a rare conveyance in Genoa. The general mode
of conveyance is on a sedan chair, carried by porters, or on the backs of
mules or asses. Genoa is distinguished by the beauty of the Palaces of its
patricians, which are more numerous and more magnificent than those of any
other city, probably, in the world.
The Ducal Palace or Palace of Government, where the Doge used to reside,
claimed my first attention; yet, tho' much larger, it is far less splendid
than many of the Palaces of individual patricians. In fact, the Ducal
Palace is built in the Gothic taste and resembles a Gothic fortress, having
round towers at each angle. The Hall, where the Grand Council used to sit,
is superb, and is adorned with columns of _jaune antique_. On the _plafond_
is a painting representing the discovery of America by Columbus; for the
Genoese duly appreciate, and never can forget their illustrious countryman.
The lines of Tasso, "_Un uom della Liguria avra ardimento_," etc., and the
following stanza, _Tu spiegherai Colombo a urn nuovo polo_, etc. are in the
mouth of everyone.[117] The Hall of the Petty Council is neat, but it is
the recollection of the history of this once famous Republic that renders
the examination of this Palace so interesting. But now Genoa's glory is
gone; she has been basely betrayed into the hands of a Government she most
detested. The King of Sardinia is nowhere; and he is not a little proud of
being the possessor of such a noble sea port, which enables him to rank as
a maritime power.
The Genoese are laborious and make excellent sailors; but now there is
nothing to animate them; and they will never exert themselves in the
service of a domination which is so little congenial to them. They sigh for
their ancient Government, of whose glories they had so often heard and
whose brilliant exploits have been handed down to the present day not
merely by historical writers and poets, but by _improvisatori_ from mouth
to mouth. The Genoese nobles, those merchant Kings, whose riches exceeded
at one time those of the most powerful monarchs of Europe, who were the
pawn-brokers to those Sovereigns, are now in a state of decay. Commerce can
only flourish on the soil of liberty, and takes wing at the sight of
military and sacerdotal chains; and tho' the present Sovereign affects to
caress the Genoese _noblesse_, they return his civilities with sullen
indifference, and half concealed contempt and aversion. The commerce of
Genoa is transferred to Leghorn, which increases in prosperity as the
former decays.
The climate of Genoa is said to be exceedingly mild during the winter,
being protected on the north by the Appennines, which tower above it to an
immense height. Beautiful villas and grounds tastefully laid out in
plantations of orange trees, pomegranates, etc., abound in the environs of
this city, and everything announces the extreme industry of the
inhabitants, for the soil is proverbially barren. This shews what they have
done and what they could still do were they free; but now they have nothing
to animate their exertions. The public promenades are on the bastions and
curtains of the fortifications, on the _Esplanade_ and in the streets
_Balbi_, _Nuova_ and _Nuovissima_. There is also another very delightful
promenade, tho' not much used by the ladies, viz., on the Mola or Pier
enveloping the harbour.
One of the most remarkable constructions in Genoa is the bridge of
Carignano, which is built over an immense ravine and unites the hills
Fengano and Carignano. It is so high that houses of six stories stand under
its arches in the valley below. No water except in times of flood runs
under this bridge and it much resembles, tho' somewhat larger, the bridge
at Edinburgh which unites the old and new towns. The principal churches
are: first, the Cathedral, which is not far from the Ducal Palace; it is
richly ornamented and incrusted with black marble; the church of the
Annunziata and that of St Sire. They are all in the Gothic style of
architecture and loaded with that variety of ornament and diversity of
beautiful marbles which distinguish the churches of Italy from those of any
other country. Near the bridge of Carignano is a church of the same name,
wherein are four marble colossal statues.
On the west of the city and running two miles along the sea-beach is the
_faubourg_ of St Pietro d'Arena, which presents a front of well built
houses the whole way; these houses are principally used as magazines and
store houses.
FLORENCE, 5 May.
I left Genoa on the 30th April, returned on mule-back from Genoa to
Sarzana, stopping the first night at Sestri. The second evening when near
Sarzana, it being very dark, I somehow or other got out of the road and my
mule fell with me into a very deep ditch; but I was only slightly bruised
by the fall; my clothes however were covered with dirt and wet. The road
from Genoa to Sarzana might with very little expense be made fit for
carriages by widening it. At present it is only a bridle road, and on some
parts of it, on the sides of ravines, it is I think a little ticklish to
trust entirely to the discretion of one's _monture_; at least I thought so
and dismounted twice to pass such places on foot. A winding stream is to be
forded in two or three places, but it is not deep except after rains; and
then I think it must be sometimes dangerous to pass, till the waters run
off. Those, who are fond of mountain scenery will, like myself, be highly
gratified in making this journey; for it is thro' the loftiest, wildest and
most romantic part of the Appennines. From Sarzana I hired a cabriolet to
return to Pisa and from thence I took the diligence to Florence.
FERRARA.
On the 9th of May I set out from Florence on my journey hither. Two days'
journey brought me to Bologna where I stopped one day; and the following
day I reached this place (Ferrara), six miles distant from Bologna. The
country between these two cities is a perfect plain and very fertile. At
Malalbergo (half-way) We crossed the Reno in a boat. I put up at the _Tre
Mori_ in Ferrara. Having remained two and half days here I have had time to
inspect and examine almost everything of consequence that the city affords.
The city itself has an imposing, venerable appearance and can boast of some
fine buildings; yet with all this there is an air of melancholy about it.
It is not peopled in proportion to its size and grass is seen growing in
several of the streets. I believe the unhealthiness of the environing
country is the cause of the decrease of population, for Ferrara lies on a
marshy plain, very liable to inundation In the centre of the city stands
the ancient Palace of the Dukes of Ferrara, a vast Gothic edifice, square,
and flanked with round towers, and a large court-yard in the centre. It was
in this court-yard that Hugo and Parisina were decapitated. From the top of
this palace a noble view of the plain of the Po represents itself, and you
see the meanderings of that King of Rivers, as the Italian poets term it.
As the Po runs thro' a perfectly flat country, and is encreased and swollen
by the torrents from the Alps and Appennines that fall into the smaller
rivers, which unite their tributary streams with the Po and accompany him
as his _seguaci_ to the Adriatic, this country is liable to the most
dreadful inundations: flocks and herds, farm-houses and sometimes whole
villages are swept away. Dykes, dams and canals innumerable are in
consequence constructed throughout this part of the country, to preserve it
as much as possible from such calamities. Ariosto's description of an
over-flowing of this river is very striking, and I here transcribe it:
Con quel furor che il Re de' fiumi altero,
Quando rompe tal volta argine e sponda,
E che ne' campi Ocnei si apre il sentiero,
E i grassi solchi e le biade feconde,
E con le sue capanne il gregge intero,
E co' cani i pastor porta neil' onde, etc.[118]
Even with that rage wherewith the stream that reigns,
The king of rivers--when he breaks his mound.
And makes himself a way through Mantuan plains--
The greasy furrows and glad harvests, round,
And, with the sheepcotes, nock, and dogs and swains
Bears off, in his o'erwhelming waters drowned.
--Trans. W.S. ROSE.
The next place I went to see was the Lyceum or University, where there is a
very fair cabinet of natural history in all its branches. The Library is
very remarkable, and possesses a great number of valuable manuscripts. But
my principal object in visiting this Museum was to see the monument erected
in honour of Ariosto, which has been transferred here from the Benedictine
church. The inkstand and chair of this illustrious bard are carefully
preserved and exhibited. They exactly resemble the print of them that
accompanies the first edition of Hoole's translation of the _Orlando
Furioso_. Among the manuscripts what gratified me most was the manuscript
of the _Gerusalemme liberata_ of Tasso. But few corrections appear in this
manuscript; tho from the extreme polish and harmony of the versification
one would expect a great many. It is written in an extremely legible hand.
I also inspected the original manuscripts of the _Pastor Fido_ of Guarini
and of the _Suppositi_ of Ariosto.
I then went to visit the Hospital of St Anna, for the sake of seeing the
dungeon where poor Tasso was confined and treated as mad for several years.
When one beholds this wretched place, where a man can scarce stand upright,
one only wonders how he could survive such treatment; or how he could
escape becoming insane altogether. The old wooden door of this cell will
soon be entirely cut away by amateurs, as almost everyone who visits the
dungeon chops off a piece of wood from the door to keep as a relic. The
door is in consequence pieced and repaired with new wood, and in a short
time will be in the state of Sir John Cutter's worsted stockings which were
darned so often with silk that they became finally all silk.
Ferrara has a strong citadel which is still garrisoned by Austrian troops;
and they will probably not easily be induced to evacuate it. The Austrian
Eagle seldom looses his hold.
VENICE, 18th May.
On the 16th May at six o'clock in the morning I left Ferrara in a
_cabriolet_ to go to the _Ponte di Lago oscuro_, which is a large village
on the south bank of the Po, three miles distant from Ferrara. A flying
bridge wafted me across the river, which is exceedingly broad and rapid to
the north bank, where a barge was in waiting to receive passengers for
Venice. This barge is well fitted up and supplied with _comestibles_ of all
sorts and couches to recline on. The price is twelve francs for the
passage, and you pay extra for refreshments. The bark got under weigh at
seven o'clock and descended rapidly this majestic river, which however,
from its great breadth, and from the country on each side of it being
perfectly flat, did not offer any interesting points of view. Plains and
cattle grazing thereon were the only objects, for they take care to build
the farms and houses at a considerable distance from the banks, on account
of the inundations. After having descended the Po for a considerable
distance, we entered a canal which unites the Po with the Adige. We then
descended the Adige for a short distance, and entered another canal which
unites the Adige with the Brenta. Here we stopped to change barges, and it
required an hour and half to unload and reload the baggage. We then entered
the Brenta and from thence into the Lagoons, and passing by the islands of
Malamocco and Chiozzo entered Venice by the _Canale grande_ at three
o'clock in the morning. The whole night was so dark as totally to deprive
us of the view of the approach of Venice. The barge anchored near the Post
office and I hired a gondola to convey me to the inn called _Le Regina
d'Ungheria_.
VENICE, 26th May.
I was much struck, as everyone must be who sees it for the first time, at
the singular appearance of Venice. An immense city in the midst of the
Ocean, five miles distant from any land; canals instead of streets;
gondolas in lieu of carriages and horses! Yet it must not be inferred from
this that you are necessarily obliged to use a gondola in order to visit
the various parts of the city; for its structure is as follows. It is built
in compartments on piles on various mud banks, always covered indeed by
water, but very shallow and separated from each other (the mud banks I
mean) by deep water. On each of these compartments are built rows of
houses, each row giving front to a canal. The space between the backs of
the rows of houses forms a narrow street or alley paved with flag stones,
very like Cranborn Alley for instance; and these compartments are united to
each other (at the crossings as we should say) by means of stone bridges;
so that there is a series of alleys connected by a series of bridges which
form the _tout ensemble_ of this city; and you may thus go on foot thro'
every part of it. To go on horseback would be dangerous and almost
impracticable, for each bridge has a flight of steps for ascent and
descent. All this forms such a perfect labyrinth from the multiplicity and
similarity of the alleys and bridges, that it is impossible for any
stranger to find his way without a guide. I lost my way regularly every
time that I went from my inn to the _Piazza di San Marco_, which forms the
general rendezvous of the promenaders and is the fashionable lounge of
Venice; and every time I was obliged to hire a boy to reconduct me to my
inn. On this account, in order to avoid this perplexity and the expence of
hiring a gondola every time I wished to go to the _Piazza di San Marco_ I
removed to another inn, close to it, called _L'Osteria della Luna_, which
stands on the banks of the _Canale grande_ and is not twenty yards from the
_Piazza_.
I then hired a gondola for four days successively and visited every canal
and every part of the city. Almost every family of respectability keeps a
gondola, which is anchored at the steps of the front door of the house.
After the _Piazza di San Marco_, of which I shall speak presently, the
finest buildings and Palaces of the nobility are on the banks of the
_Canale grande_, which, from its winding in the shape of an S, has all the
appearance of a river. The _Rialto_ is the only bridge which connects the
opposite banks of the _Canale grande_; but there are four hundred smaller
bridges in Venice to connect the other canals.
The _Rialto_, the resort of the money changers and Jews, is a very singular
and picturesque construction, being of one arch, a very bold one. On each
side of this bridge is a range of jewellers' shops. A narrow Quai runs
along the banks of the _Canale grande_.
I have visited several of the _Palazzi_, particularly those of the families
Morosini, Cornaro, Pisani, Grimani, which are very rich in marbles of
_vert_ and _jaune antique_; but they are now nearly stripped of all their
furniture, uninhabited by their owners, or let to individuals, mostly
shopkeepers; for since the extinction of the Venetian Republic almost all
the nobility have retired to their estates on the _terra firma_, or to
their villas on the banks of the Brenta; so that Venice is now inhabited
chiefly by merchants, shopkeepers, chiefly jewellers and silk mercers,
seafaring people, the constituted authorities, and the garrison of the
place.
Tho' Venice has fallen very much into decay, since the subversion of the
Republic, as might naturally be expected, and still more so since it has
been under the Austrian domination, yet it is still a place of great
wealth, particularly in jewellery, silks and all articles of dress and
luxury. In the _Merceria_ you may see as much wealth displayed as in
Cheapside or in the Rue St Honore.
I have had the pleasure of witnessing a superb regatta or water _fete_,
given in honour of the visit of the Archduke Rainier to this city, in his
quality of Viceroy of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. There were about one
hundred and fifty barges, each fitted up by some department of trade and
commerce, with allegorical devices and statues richly ornamented,
emblematical of the trade or professions to which the barge belonged. Each
barge bore an appropriate ensign, and the dresses of the crew were all
tasteful, and thoroughly analogous to the profession they represented.
These barges are richly gilded, and from the variety of the costumes and
streamers, I thought it one of the most beautiful sights I ever beheld.
Here were the bankers' barge, the jewellers', the mercers', the tailors',
the shoe-makers', and, to crown all, the printers' barge, which showered
down from the masthead sonnets in honor of the _fete_, printed on board of
the barge itself. Every trade or profession, in short, had a barge and
appropriate flag and costumes. A quantity of private barges and gondolas
followed this procession. The Archduke and his staff occupied the
Government barge, which is very magnificent and made in imitation of the
Bucentaur. Musicians were on board of many of the barges, and the houses on
both banks of the _Canale Grande_ were filled with beautiful women and
other spectators waving their handkerchiefs. Guns were fired on the
embarkation of the Viceroy from the _Piazzetta di San Marco_, and on his
return. The _Piazza_ itself was splendidly illuminated, and the _cafes_
which abound there, and which constitute one half of the whole quadrangle,
were superbly and tastefully decorated.
The _Piazza di San Marco_ is certainly the most beautiful thing of the kind
in the world. It is a good deal in the style of the _Palais Royal_ at
Paris, and tho' not so large, is far more striking, from the very tasteful
and even sumptuous manner in which the _cafes_ are fitted up, both
internally and externally; they have spacious rooms with mirrors on all
sides, some in the shape of Turkish tents, others in that of Egyptian
temples. The _Piazza_, forming an oblong rectangle, is arcaded on the two
long sides, and of the two short ones, one presents a superb modern palace
built by Napoleon, and richly adorned with the statues of all the heathen
Gods on the top, which Palace was usually occupied by Eugene Napoleon; the
other presents the church of St Marco and the old palace of Government,
where in the time of the Republic the Doge used to reside. The church of St
Mark is unique as a temple in Europe, for it is neither Grecian nor Gothic,
but in a style completely Oriental, from the singularity of its structure,
its many gilded cupolas and the variety of its exterior ornaments. At
_first sight_ it appears a more striking object than either St Peter's in
Rome or St Paul's in London. On the top of the facade, which is singularly
picturesque, stand the four bronze horses which have been brought back from
Paris to their old residence.
I ascended the top of the facade in order to examine them. They are
beautifully formed, in very good cast and have not at all been damaged by
the journey. The _Piazza_ is paved with broad flagged stones. The Doge's
palace is a vast building, very picturesque withal, and seems a _melange_
of Gothic and Moorish architecture. At right angles to it and facing the
_Piazzetta_, which issues from the _Piazza_ and forms a quai to the _Canale
Grande_, stands the famous state prison and _Ponte de 'Sospiri_. On the
_Piazzetta_ and fronting the landing place stand two columns of white
marble, on one of which stands the winged Lion of St Marco and on the other
a crocodile, emblematical of the foreign commerce and possessions of the
Republic. The space between these two columns was allotted for the
execution of State criminals. Not far from the church of St Marco, and near
to that angle of the _Piazza_ which connects it with the _Piazzetta_,
stands the famous _Campanile_ or Steeple of San Marco. It is a square
building 800 feet in height, from the top of which one has the best view of
Venice and its adjacent isles, the distant Alps and the _marina dove il Po
discende_. A Quai, if Quai it may be called, which has a row of houses on
each side, one row of which is on the water's edge, leads from the
_Piazzetta_ to some gardens, which terminate on a point of land. This Quai
is very broad and well paved, and is the only thing that can be called a
street in all Venice. The _Piazza di San Marco_, therefore, this Quai and
the garden before mentioned form the only promenades in Venice. This garden
moreover has trees, and these are the only trees that are to be met with in
this city. In this garden are two _Cafes_.
The variety of costume is another very agreeable spectacle at Venice. Here
you meet with Albanians, Greeks, Turks, Moors, Sclavonians and Armenians,
all in their respective national costumes. The first Armenian I met with
here was sitting on a stone bench on the _Piazza di San Marco_, and this
brought forcibly to my recollection the Armenian in Schiller's
_Ghost-seer_.
These _Cafes_ and _Casinos_ on the _Piazza_ are open day and night. Ices
and coffee superiorly made and other refreshments of all kinds at very low
prices are to be had. Some of these _casinos_ are devoted to gaming. The
first families in Venice repair to the _Piazza_ in the evening after the
Opera, female as well as male. They promenade up and down the _Piazza_ or
sit down and converse in the _Cafes_ and _Casinos_ till a late hour. Few go
to bed in Venice in the summer time before six In the morning, so that
sleep seems for ever banished from the _Piazza_. Music and singing goes
forward in these _casinos_, and the ear is often charmed with the sound of
those delightful Venetian airs, whose simple melody ravishes the soul. The
Venetian dialect is very pleasing, and scarcely yields in harmony to the
Tuscan. It contains a great many Sclavonic words. It is the only dialect of
Italy that is at all pleasing to my ear, for I do not at all relish the
nasal twang and truncated terminations of the Piedmontese and Lombard
dialects, nor the semi-barbarous jargon of the Genoese and the Neapolitan
and, least of all, the execrable cacophony of the Bolognese.
I visited of course the Arsenal and the Doge's Palace. The apartments in
the latter are very spacious and ornamented in the Gothic taste of
grandeur. The chamber of the Council is peculiarly magnificent. There is a
good deal of tapestry and some fine paintings and statues: among the former
I particularly noticed an allegorical picture, representing the triumph of
Venice over the league of Cambray. Venice is represented by the winged
Lion, and the powers of the Coalition are pourtrayed by various other
beasts. Among the latter is a beautiful group in marble representing
Ganymede and the Eagle. The terror depicted in the countenance of the
beautiful boy, and the passion that seems to agitate the Eagle, are
surprizingly well pourtrayed.
The principal theatre at Venice, the _Teatro Fenice_, is not open; but I
have visited the other theatres, and among other things witnessed the
representation of a new opera, call'd _Il Lupo d'Ostende_. The piece itself
was rather interesting; but the music was feeble and did not seem to give
general satisfaction. The singing is in general very good at Venice, but in
scenery, dresses and decorations the theatres here are far inferior to
those of Milan and Naples.
I find the air of Venice very hot and unpleasant, arising from the
exhalation from the canals; and it appears to me as if I were on board of
an enormous ship. I begin to pant for _terra firma_ and green fields.
I have visited in a gondola some of the islands, viz., Malamocco and St
Lazare, where there is a convent of Armenian monks.
Why are the gondolas hung with black? it gives to them such a dismal
funereal appearance. They always resemble the bodies of hearses placed on
boats. I am not fond of gaudy colours in general, yet I do think a gondola
should have a somewhat livelier color than black.
PADUA, 8th June.
Padua is not above ten miles distant from Fusina. As I started from Venice
at six in the morning I had a fine receding view of the Ocean Queen, with
her steeples and turrets rising from the sea. Venice has no fortifications
and needs them not. Her insular position protects her from land attacks,
and the shoals prevent the approach of ships of war. Floating batteries
therefore and gunboats are her best defence. The road from Fusina to Padua
is on the banks of the Brenta the whole way, and is lined with trees. There
are a great number of villas on the banks of the Brenta, well built in the
best style of architecture, the most of them after the designs of Palladio,
the Prince of modern architects.
Padua is an exceedingly large city: but its arcades and the narrowness of
the streets give it a gloomy appearance. There are however some beautiful
promenades in the suburbs. There are also the remains of an ancient Arena.
Padua is famous for its Seminario or University, which is a superb edifice.
The Church of St Anthony of Padua is of vast size, having six cupolas.
There are four organs in this church. In the chapel of the Saint himself
are a great many ornaments, among which are a crucifix in bronze and
fresques representing the different actions and miracles of this patron
Saint of the Padovani. Probably as this city was founded by the Trojan
Antenor they have transformed his name into that of a Christian Saint and
called him St Anthony, just as Virgil has been transformed into a magician
at Naples. There is a fine view from the steeple of this immense edifice.
There is another magnificent church also in this city, that of St Justine,
built after the designs of Palladio, the principal ornament of which is a
painting of the martyrdom of the Saint by Paul Veronese. But one of the
greatest curiosities in this ancient city is the immense Saloon in the
_Palazzo della Giustizia_. It is, I presume, the loftiest and largest hall
in the world that is supported by nothing but its walls, it being three
hundred feet long, one hundred feet broad and one hundred feet high. In
the Saloon is the tomb of Livy, the Historian, who was a native of Padua.
The inhabitants of Padua dress much in black, seem a quiet, staid sort of
people, and are very industrious. I put up at the _Stella d'Oro_, a good
inn.
VICENZA, 10th June.
I arrived at this beautiful _bijou_ of a town on the morning of the 9th
June at eight o'clock. I call it a _bijou_ from its exceeding neatness, and
the extreme beauty of the architecture of its edifices, which are almost
all after the designs of Palladio, of white stone and in the Greek taste.
Palladio was a native of Vicenza. The _Piazza_ and _Palazzo Pubblico_
perfectly correspond with the beauty of the rest of the city, and the
promenades about it are tastefully laid out. But the two most striking
objects in point of edifices in Vicenza and both constructed by Palladio
are the covered portico and the _Teatro Olimpico_. The covered portico is
two miles in length and leads to the chapel of the _Madonna del Monte_,
situated on an eminence, at that distance from the city. A magnificent
triumphal arch stands before it, and there is an extensive view of the
surrounding country. The _Teatro Olimpico_ is a small, but beautiful
theatre, built strictly after the model of the ancient Greek theatres. It
is peculiarly precious as being the only one of the kind in Europe. How
admirably adapted both for seeing and hearing are such theatres! It has,
for scenery, the model of a Palace, curiously carved in wood, which
represents a Royal Palace, for the ancients never shifted their scenes, and
this may account for their adhering so strictly to the unities. Statues and
bas-reliefs adorn this beautiful little theatre. Many years ago, on
particular occasions, it was the custom to act plays here, either
translated from the Greek, or taken strictly from the Greek model. This
theatre is esteemed Palladio's _chef d'oeuvre_.
The _Campo di Marie_ is a vast _Place_ outside the town. The Place and its
gate are well worth inspecting, so is the famous villa with the Rotonda,
belonging to the Marchese di Capra, the original after which the villa
belonging to the Duke of Devonshire at Chiswick is built. The environs of
this interesting city are very beautiful and present an exceeding rich
soil, highly cultivated in corn, mulberry trees and vines hanging from them
in festoons.
VERONA, 12th June.
I started yesterday morning from Vicenza and arrived here in about three
hours, the distance being nearly the same as between Vicenza and Padua. We
crossed the Adige which divides the city into two unequal parts and drove
to the _Due Torri_, a large and comfortable inn with excellent rooms and
accommodations. Verona is a very handsome city, for here also Palladio was
the designer or builder of many edifices. It has a very cheerful and gay
appearance, tho' not quite so much so as Vicenza. The reason of this
difference is that in Verona the greater part of the buildings are in the
Gothic style, which always appears heavy and melancholy, whereas in Vicenza
all is Grecian. The Amphitheatre of course claimed my first notice. It
yields only to the Coliseum in size and grandeur and is in much better
preservation, the whole of the ellipse and its walls being entire, whereas
in the Coliseum part of the walls have been pulled down. Indeed the
Amphitheatre of Verona may be said to be almost perfectly entire. _Tempus
edax rerum_ has been its only enemy; whereas avarice and religious
fanaticism have contributed, much more than time, to the dilapidation of
the Coliseum. The Amphitheatre of Verona can contain 24,000 persons. In it
is constructed a temporary theatre of wood, where they perform plays and
farces in the open air. Verona is much embellished by several _Palazzi_
built by Palladio, which form a curious contrast with the other buildings
and churches which are in the Gothic style. Verona can boast among its
antiquities of three triumphal arches, the first, _Porta de' Bursari_,
erected in the year 252 in the reign of the Emperor Gallienus; the second,
called _Porta del Foro_; and the third, built by Vitruvius himself, in
honour of the family Gavia.
The churches here are richly ornamented and the _Palazzo del Consiglio_ has
many fine marble and bronze statues. In this city also are the tombs and
monuments of the Scala family, who were at one time Sovereigns of Verona.
They are in the Gothic style and of curious execution. The Cathedral has an
immense _campanile_ (steeple), from which is a fine view of the surrounding
country, and the progressive risings of the Alps, the lower parts of which
lie close upon Verona. Beautiful villas and farmhouses abound in the
neighbourhood of this city. The favourite promenades are the _Corso_ and
the _Bra_. On the _Bra_ I saw a very brilliant display of carriages, and
some very pretty women in them. The theatre is by Palladio, is exquisitely
beautiful, and very tastefully fitted up. I assisted at the representation
of _La Gazza Ladra_, one of Rossini's best operas.
I should think Verona would be a very delightful sejour; everything is very
cheap; a fine country highly cultivated; a remarkably healthy climate; a
society which unites much urbanity and a love of amusement with a taste for
the fine arts and for the graver sciences, and a general appearance of
opulence and comfort. The shops in Verona appear very splendid, and the
_Bra_, when lighted up in the evening, is a very lively and animating
scene.
MANTUA, 15 June.
I could not go to Milan without stepping a little out of my road to visit
this ancient and redoubtable fortress, so celebrated in the early campaigns
of Buonaparte, besides the other claims it has on the traveller's attention
as the birth place of Virgil. This place is of immense strength, as a
military post; being situated on a small isthmus of land, separating two
lakes, and communicating with the rest of the country by an exceeding
narrow causeway. This position, added to the strength of the
fortifications, render the fortress impregnable, if well garrisoned and
provisioned. The city is, however, unhealthy from the lake and marshy land
about it, and there is but a scanty population. Grass grows in the streets
and it is the dullest and indeed the only dull town in all Italy.
Everything in this city announces decay and melancholy, and I met with
several men looking full as halfstarved and deplorable as Shakespeare's
Apothecary in Romeo and Juliet. Yet the city is by no means an ugly one.
The buildings are imposing, the streets broad and well paved, and there is
a fine circular promenade in the centre of which is a Monument erected in
honor of Virgil by the French general Miollis, who had a great veneration
for all poets. The _Palazzo pubblico_ and the Cathedral are the most
striking buildings. The latter contains the tombs and monuments of the
Gonzaga family, the whilom Sovereigns of Mantua. There are also several
monuments in honor of some French officers, who were killed in the
campaigns of Italy under Buonaparte and erected to their memory by his
direction.
Outside the town, at a short distance from the causeway and _tete de pont_,
is the celebrated palace called the T, from its being in the form of that
letter, which was the usual residence of the Dukes of Mantua. It is a noble
edifice and its gardens are well laid out. These gardens have this
peculiarity, that at the entrance of each of the grand avenues is a figure
of a man on horseback caparizoned in armour, like the Knights of old. This
is all I have to say about Mantua. The Mincio beset with "osiers dank"
flows into the lake.
CREMONA, 16th June.
From Mantua I directed my course to this city, which is large and
fortified, situated on the Po which forms many little islands in the
environs. This city is of great antiquity, and has a number of Gothic
buildings. You do not find here the specimens and imitations of Grecian
architecture as at Vicenza and Verona. The _campanile_ of the Cathedral is
of immense height, but one is repaid for the fatigue of ascending by the
extensive view from its summit. There are 498 steps. I put up at the
_Colombina_, a very good inn. The Cremonese seem to be an industrious
people. There is a great deal of pasture land in the environs of this city
and much cheese is made here and in the Lodesan. Several ricefields are
also to be met with between this place and Lodi.
MILAN, 25 June.
I have been on a visit to the ancient and venerable city of Pavia, which is
about eighteen miles distant from Milan, thro' a rich highly cultivated
plain. The road lies in a right line the whole way. About three miles
distant from Pavia on the Milan side stands the celebrated _Certosa_, which
we stopped to visit. The church of the _Certosa_ contains the greatest
quantity of riches in marbles, and precious stones, of any building in the
world, probably. The architecture is Gothic, and the workmanship of the
exterior exquisite; but the ulterior is most dazzling; and at the sight of
the rich marbles and innumerable precious stones of all kinds with which it
abounds, I was reminded of Aladdin and began to fancy myself in the cavern
of the Wonderful Lamp. This church was built by Galeazzo Visconti, whose
coffin is here, and his statue also, in white marble. There are several
bas-reliefs of exquisite workmanship. There are no fewer than seventeen
altars here and of the most beautiful structure you can conceive, being
inlaid in mosaic with jasper, onyx and lapis-lazuli. Besides these precious
marbles of every colour and quantity under heaven, here are abundance of
rubies, emeralds, amethysts, aquamarines and topazes, incrusted in the
different chapels and altars. Here again is a proof of the falsehood and
injustice of the aspersions cast on the French army, as being the
plunderers of churches; for if they were so, how comes it that the
_Certosa_ the richest of all, was spared? Mr Eustace[119] in his admiration
of Church splendour, should at least have given the French no small degree
of credit for their abstinence from so rich a prize. A canal runs parallel
to the road the whole way from Milan to Pavia, where it joins the Tessino.
The banks of the Canal and each side of the road are lined with poplars.
Pavia is one of the most ancient cities in Italy and has something very
antique and solemn in its appearance. It is quite Gothic and was the
capital city of the Lombard Kings. The streets are broad and the _Piazza_
is large. I could not find any traces of the ancient palace of the Lombard
Kings, which I should like much to have done; for then I should have
endeavoured to make out the chamber into which Jocondo peeped and
discovered what cured him of his melancholy, and where the impatient Queen
received the petulant answer from her beloved Nano, conveyed by one of her
waiting maids who told her:
E per non stare in perdita d'un soldo,
A voi nega venire fl manigoldo.[120]
Nor, lest he lose a doit, his paltry stake,
Will that discourteous churl his game forsake
--_Trans._ W.S. ROSE.
MILAN, 28th June.
I have been to the _Scala_ theatre, to see the _Ballet of the Vestal_, one
of the most interesting Ballets I ever beheld. Oh! what a mighty magician
is the ballet master Vigano, and as for the prima ballerina, Pallerini,
what praises can equal her merit? then, the delightful soul soothing music,
so harmonious, so pathetic, and the decorations so truly tasteful and
classical! I can never forget the impression this fascinating Ballet made
on me. It is called _La Vestale_. It opens with a view of the Circus in
ancient Rome, and various gymnastic exercises, combats of gladiators, of
athletes, and ends with a chariot race with real horses. The Roman Consuls
are present in all their pomp, surrounded by Lictors with axes and fasces.
The Vestal virgins assist at this spectacle, and from one of them the
victor in the games receives a garland, as the recompense of his prowess.
The victor is the son of one of the Consuls and the hero of the piece; the
heroine is the Vestal Virgin who crowns him with the garland. The young
victor becomes desperately enamored of the Vestale, and she appears also to
feel an incipient flame. After the games are over, the victor returns to
his father's house, and meeting there one of his friends, discloses to him
his love for the Vestale and his idea of entering by stealth into the
temple of Vesta, where his beloved was appointed to watch the sacred fire.
His friend endeavors, but in vain, to dissuade him from so rash an attempt,
which can only end in the destruction, both of his beloved and himself. All
the remonstrances, however, of the friend are vain; and the hero fixed in
his resolve watches for the opportunity, when it is the turn of his beloved
to officiate in the temple of Vesta, and enters therein. The Vestale is
terrified and supplicates him to retire: in vain; and after a long but
ineffectual struggle she sinks into his arms at the foot of the altar.
Suddenly the sacred flame becomes extinguished; a noise is heard; the
Vestals enter; the unfortunate fair is roused from her stupor by the noise
of footsteps and has just time to oblige her lover to retire, which he
reluctantly does, but not unperceived by the Vestals. The Matron of the
Vestals reproaches her with the crime she has committed and orders her to
be placed in a dungeon. She is brought out to be examined by the High
Priest, found guilty and condemned by him to the usual punishment of the
Vestals for a breach of their vow, viz., the being buried alive outside the
gates of Rome. The moment the sentence is pronounced a black veil is thrown
over her. The scene then changes to the place of execution; the funeral
procession takes place; the vault is dug and a man stands by with a pitcher
of water and loaf of bread, to deliver to her when she should descend. The
Consuls are present, attended by the Lictors and Aediles. All the other
vestals are present, of whom the culprit takes an affectionate leave and is
about to descend into the vault. Suddenly a noise of arms and shouts are
heard. It is her lover who having collected a few followers come rushing
forward with arms in their hands to arrest the execution. He forces his way
into the presence of the Consuls, but the sight of his father inspires him
with awe; he staggers back; at this moment a Lictor at the command of the
other Consul plunges a spear into his breast. The Vestal is hurried to the
brink of the vault, into which she is forced to descend to the
accompaniment of mournful music, while her dying lover vainly endeavours to
crawl towards her. The curtain falls.
The exquisite acting of La Pallerini drew tears from my eyes: it was indeed
too horrible a subject for a _Ballo_, which in my opinion ought to end
happily. The scenery was the finest of the kind I think I ever witnessed.
The first scene represents the _Circus maximus_; the interior of the temple
of Vesta and the place of execution outside the walls of Rome were most
classically correct and appropriate: the music was beyond all praise and
singularly affecting. This Ballet has excited such an enthusiastic
approbation that Vigano the Ballet master, Pallerini who acts the Vestal
and the young man who performs the hero of the piece were summoned every
evening after the termination of the Ballet, to appear on the stage, and
receive applauses, which seemed to increase at every representation. I have
been to see this ballet six or seven times, and always with increased
delight. I was there on the last night of its representation, when some
amateurs and people connected with the theatre put in practice what
appeared to mean ill-judged _concetto_, however well merited the compliment
it meant to convey. When the Vestal was about to descend into the vault, a
genius with wings rose from it and repeated a few lines beginning _Tu non
morrai_ and telling her that the suffrages of the Insubrian people had
decreed to her immortality, and printed sonnets were showered down on the
stage from all parts of the house. I think it would have been much better
to let the piece finish in the usual way, and then at its termination call
for La Pallerini to advance and receive the garlands and hommage so justly
her due.
I was in the _loge_ belonging to my friend Mme L-----; there were three or
four _litterati_ with her, and they were all unanimous that it was an
absurd and pedantic _concetto_.
In a day or two I shall start from Milan for Munich thro' Brescia and
Verona and the Tyrol.
CHAPTER XVI
JULY-SEPTEMBER 1818
Innspruck--Tyrol and the Tyrolese--From Innspruck to Munich--Monuments and
churches--Theatricals--Journey from Munich to Vienna on a floss--Trouble
with a passport--Complicated system of Austrian money--Description of
Vienna--The Prater--The theatres--Schiller's _Joan of Arc_--A
_Kinderballet_--The young Napoleon at Schoenbrunn--Journey from Vienna to
Prague.
INNSPRUCK, 15th July.
I had engaged with a _vetturino_ to convey me from Verona to Innspruck for
four _louis d'or_ and to be _spesato_. A Roman gentleman and his lady were
my fellow travellers; they were going to pass the summer months at a small
_campagne_ they possess in the Tyrol. We stopped the first night at
Roveredo. The road from Verona to Roveredo is on the banks of the Adige
(called in German the Etsch) in a narrow and deep valley, shut up on both
sides by mountains, almost immediately on leaving Verona. We found the
weather extremely hot in this valley. Roveredo seems to be a very neat
clean little city, and the Adige flows with astonishing rapidity along this
narrow valley. The women of Roveredo have the reputation of being very
beautiful; and I recollect having seen two Roveredo girls at Venice, who
were models of female beauty. They have a happy mixture of German and
Italian blood and manners, but Italian is the language of the country. The
second morning of our journey we arrived and stopped to dinner at the
venerable and celebrated city of Trent. The country we passed thro' is much
the same as that between Verona and Roveredo, the Adige being on our left.
Trent lies also in the valley of the Adige, shut up between the Alps. The
whole valley appears in high cultivation. The streets of Trent are broad;
the Cathedral is a remarkably fine Gothic building. In the church of Sta
Maria Maggiore was held the famous council of Trent. There are a great many
silk mills in Trent. German as well as Italian is spoken; indeed the two
languages are equally familiar to most of the inhabitants. In the evening
we arrived at Sabern after passing thro' Lavis. One description will serve
for these towns and indeed for most of the towns in the Tyrol, viz., that
of being neat, clean and solidly built. The inns are excellent and the
inhabitants very civil. The Adige runs close to the road and parallel to
it, nearly the whole way to Bolsano or Botzen, where Italian ceases to be
spoken and German is the national tongue. Botzen is a large and flourishing
place.
One general description will serve for the Tyrol, regarding the towns,
adjacent country, customs, inns, inhabitants, dress and manners.
First the towns are fully as neat, clean and well built as those in
Switzerland; the country too is very similar, tho' not quite on so grand a
scale of sublimity; but you have fully as much variety in mountain and
valley, glacier and cascade. The climate is exactly the same as that of
Switzerland, being very hot in the valleys in summer. The inns are clean
and good, the provisions excellent and well cooked, the wines much better
than those of Switzerland; there is good attendance by females and all at a
far cheaper rate than in Switzerland. The Tyroleans are much more courteous
in their manners than the Swiss; they have not that boorishness and are of
more elegant figure than their Helvetic neighbours. The women of the Tyrol
are in general remarkably beautiful, exceedingly well shaped and of fine
complexions.
In the towns the bourgeoises dress well, something in the French style, and
it is their custom to salute travellers who pass by kissing their hands to
them. The dress of the female peasantry, however, is unpleasing to the eye
and so uncouth, that it would make the most beautiful women appear homely.
In the first place I will speak of their head dress, of which there are
three different kinds, two of which are as _bizarre_ as can be imagined.
The first sort is a cap of sheepskin, the fleece of which is as white as
snow, and the cap is of conical shape, the base being exceeding large in
proportion to its height, and resembles much the sugar loaves made in
Egypt. The second is a black scull cap, with the three pieces of stiff
black _gaze_, sticking out like the vanes of a windmill; so that when put
on the head, one vane stands upright from the forehead and the other two
from each ear. The third head dress is a broad straw hat, and I wish they
would stick to this coiffure, and discard the two others. Then the waist of
their dress is as long as
...du pole antarctique an detroit de Davis.[121]
Their petticoats are exceedingly short, scarcely reaching the calf of the
legs, which are enveloped in a pair of flaming red stockings. Who the devil
could invent such an ungraceful dress for a female?
The costume of the men on the contrary is becoming and graceful. It
resembles very much the costume of the Andalusians. The hat is exactly the
same, the crown being small and the rim very broad.
The Tyroleans are a fine gallant race of men and are excellent marksmen.
They were formerly much attached to the House of Austria; but that
attachment is now entirely changed to dislike, from the ingratitude they
have met with, since they have been replaced under that scepter.
The only fault I find in the Tyroleans, is that they are rather too devout
and consequently too much under the influence of the clergy. Yet in their
devotion there is not the smallest tinge of hypocrisy and they are esteemed
a highly moral people.
If you arrive at an inn in the evening, while the family are at prayer,
neither master nor servants will come to wait on you, till prayers are
over; and then you will be served with sufficient alacrity; but the prayers
are rather long.
I believe the priests extort a good deal of money from these good people.
The road thro' the Tyrol was made by the Romans, in the time of Septimus
Severus. An immense number of Crucifixes on the road attest and command the
devotion of the people.
How Kotzebue can call Innspruck a dirty town I am at a loss to conceive. He
must have visited it during very rainy weather; for to me it appears one of
the cleanest and most chearful towns I have ever seen. There are several
very fine buildings, for instance the Jesuits' College, and the Franciscan
monastery; Nothing can be more picturesque than the situation of this city
in the valley of the Inn and its romantic windings. The suburbs are very
extensive and can boast several fine houses. The cupola of the Government
House is gilded, which gives it a splendid appearance. In the _Hofkirche_
or church of the court there are a number of statues, large as life, in
bronze; among which my guide pointed out to me those of Clovis, Godfrey of
Bouillon, Albert the Wise, Charles V, Philip II of Spain, Rudolph of
Hapsburgh, and to my great astonishment the British King Arthur; there were
twenty-eight statues altogether. But on my return to my inn, I found that
my guide had made a great error respecting King Arthur, and that the said
statue represented Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII, King of England, and
not the old Hero of Romance; and my hostess' book further informed me that
these statues were those of the Kings and Princes belonging to families
connected by descent and blood with Maximilian I. In the same _Hofkirche_
is a fine monument erected to Maximilian and a statue of bronze of this
Emperor is figured kneeling between four bronze figures representing four
Virtues. In the gardens of the Palace of the Archduke Ferdinand in this
city is a fine equestrian statue which rests entirely on the hind feet of
the horse. From Innspruck there is a water passage by the river Inn all the
way to Vienna, as the Inn flows into the Danube at Passau. The banks of the
Inn are so romantic and picturesque that I would willingly prolong my
_sejour_ at Innspruck, but as I mean to take the journey from Mittenwald to
Munich by the river Isar, I must take advantage of the raft which starts
from that place the day after to-morrow.
MUNICH, 20th July.
I left Innspruck in a _chaise de poste_ on the 16th, and arrived the same
evening at five o'clock at Mittenwald. At a short distance before I arrived
at Mittenwald, I entered the Bavarian territory, which announces itself by
a turnpike gate painted white and blue, the colours and _Feldzeichen_ of
Bavaria. In the Austrian territory the barriers are painted black and
yellow, these being the characteristic colors of Austria.
Mittenwald is a small neat town, offering nothing remarkable but a church
yard or _Ruhe-garten_ (garden of repose) as it is called, where there are a
number of quaint inscriptions on the tombstones. At Mittenwald I had some
trouble about my passport, as it was not _vise_ by a Bavarian authority;
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