being out of the question, it was given up, and read aloud by command of the sovereign. Signature it had none; but it was dated Bologna, and intimated that the news of the late arrest at Modena had produced a great effect in that city.... that the insurgents were in all directions getting under arms, and that their purpose was openly declared to be a visit to the palace of Modena, an attack upon the Duke and his family, who were all to be made prisoners, if their lives were spared, and an entry into the prison, in order to release the condemned captive. The letter concluded by conjuring the person to whom it was addressed not to risk his safety by remaining where scenes so terrible were about to be acted; . and a postscript was added, stating that an immense body of the insurgents were already on the march for Modena.

... ·

a very

The agitation produced by such news as this may easily be imagined; few words in the way of question and answer showed that the terrified receiver of the letter which bore them fully sympathised with the feelings expressed by all in the presence; and he was accordingly dismissed. . . . Within as short a time as possible after this scene, the reigning family of Modena were one and all en route for Turin, and the prisoner, whose detention had produced such unforeseen effects, at liberty; such being the orders left by the sovereign, probably from the idea that when the rebellious persons who were coming to rescue him,

discovered that he was already free, their violent purposes might alter, and Modena be left by them in safety.

It was not very long before the illustrious fugitives discovered that the Bolognese correspondent of the Modena gentleman had been altogether mistaken in the facts his letter communicated.... Bologna was perfectly tranquil, and their own Modena also; whereupon they returned to their forsaken homes; . ..... but, upon inquiry for the nervous gentleman who had suffered himself to be so unnecessarily alarmed by these idle rumours from Bologna, it was discovered that he and the late state prisoner had departed together; and the next news heard of them was that they had arrived safely in America.

To-morrow we set off for Rome, and mean to take the little-frequented road that leads through what is called the pass of Forli, as we have been told by many that it will show us some of the finest scenery in Italy. I hope we may have better weather for it than what has accompanied us hitherto since we left Venice; for we have scarcely seen the sun since the last time that we beheld him sink into the lagune.

LETTER IX.

Necessity of keeping to the Highways of Italy.- Dreadful Poverty and Ignorance of the Roman States.-Forli.-Beautiful Women. --The Madonnas of Guido and Guercino.-Passing the Rubicon. -Rimini.-Roman Bridge.- Francesca.- St. Anthony.-Julius Cæsar.-The Tombs of Malatesta.-View of the Adriatic.-Villa of Queen Caroline, near Pesaro. - Country between Fano and Foligno.-Urbino.— Raffael. — Pass of Furlo.- Spolito.- Clitumnus without Water.-Terrace Road from Terni to the Falls.Germany and Italy.—The Falls of Terni.— Preparing for Rome.

Terni, November, 1841.

It is a dangerous experiment to quit the great routes through Italy in search of the picturesque, or of any thing else; and since I closed my last letter we have experienced more difficulties (though I cannot conscientiously add dangers) than the whole of our journey had previously produced. . . . I believe I love fine scenery as well as most people; but I do not think I would voluntarily undertake to endure the same again, unless some one particularly worthy of credit in such matters would vouch for my seeing something as wonderful as Niagara, or as beautiful as Schwatz, as my reward. It is not, however, so much the badness of the road that I complain of, as the very "plentiful lack" of accommodation at the miserable little inns. . . . Never before have

VOL. II.

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162

DREADFUL POVERTY AND

I been so literally called upon to "enter into the venerable presence of Hunger, Thirst, and Cold," as during this memorable expedition. To make this statement accurately correct, however, the word "Dirt," must be substituted for "Cold." Although we have occasionally been met by a cutting and a biting wind, that accorded not well with the rich foliage, which has still for the most part more the aspect of August than of November.

But the dirt and melancholy neglect of themselves, which we have found among the people at the miserable little inns, where we have been obliged to pass several nights, is beyond any thing you can imagine, and has offered us a sadder picture of human misery, ignorance, and destitution than I have ever witnessed. . . . except perhaps among the manufacturing population of Manchester and its neighbourhood. . . . The wretched ignorance and poverty of the Ecclesiastical States presses most painfully upon the observation at every step you go, by every object you see, and from every question you ask. . . . "It is not that we are idle," said a man with whom my son entered into conversation. "We are not idle. . . . We would dig the very rocks. to get bread, if we were not so sorely burdened." "Si gravita," was his phrase .... and he added, that those who would live well must live either in Tuscany or Lombardy. "A man may do well in either."

idle....

IGNORANCE OF THE ROMAN STATES. 163

The consequence of this sort of hopeless despair is a supine abandonment of all the little contrivances which we so frequently see giving decency, and even comfort, to poverty. . . . Rags, filth, and very deficient nourishment, all seem endured with a degree of sullen calmness, that must be either the prelude to a storm, or one stage of a process, by which the inhabitants of this unhappy portion of the finest country in the world is to sink into a moral condition in no way superior to that of Hottentots.

man

There is something inexpressibly painful in travelling through a country where the contrast is so fearfully strong, between the munificent operations of nature and the pitiful management of and this too in a land that owns the same language as that spoken in the prosperous fields of Tuscany and Lombardy.... In many cases the commonest resources of human industry appeared to be absolutely unknown. . . . We were repeatedly told, when asking for milk, "that no COWS were kept in that neighbourhood." "That there was nothing for them to eat." And that in a climate where the very air seems to generate vegetation!.... But all this is too painful to dwell on and, moreover, so very very useless a speculation for those who are here only to obey the mandate, "Guarda e passa," that the sooner we leave it, the better.

Our starvings, &c. did not begin, however,