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The walls of Rome are from thirty to forty feet high on the outside, depending something on the formation of the ground. They are generally constructed of brick; but occasionally of large blocks of tufo, which is found in abundance on the Campagna. In truth, the ramparts are a piece of patch-work, alternately demolished and rebuilt, since the age of Aurelian; and there is nothing like uniformity either in the materials or construction. Sometimes the towers and bastions, by which they are flanked at short intervals, are round, and at others, square. `The defences are at present entirely abandoned, and the port-holes blocked up. In many places, the walls are in a ruinous condition, often overgrown and overhung with ivy, cypress, myrtle, and other shrubbery, which give to the parapet a picturesque appearance. The path is the whole way perfectly solitary. We did not, to my recollection, meet a human being, in making the circuit. The view is entirely cut off on one hand, and much obstructed by a wall on the other. Occasionally the luxuriant branches of the fig-tree, or the red blossoms of the pomegranate,* springing from the garden of some deserted villa, overhang the road. Near the Neapolitan gate, the remains of the Circus Castrensis, appropriated to military games, were observed, incorporated with the walls, but still exhibiting a few of its Corinthian pillars. The Campagna in this quarter is strewed with the ruins of the old Roman aqueducts.

Another excursion to the Porta Capena, and thence along the Appian Way, presented a much greater variety of objects. We examined en passant the ruins of the theatre of Marcellus, which was built by Augustus and reckoned among the finest of Ancient Rome. It was four stories high, fragments of only two of which are now remaining-the basement, adorned with beautiful Doric pillars, and the second with Ionic. Our visit to the tomb of the Scipios was extremely interesting. It is situated on a little declivity, by the side of the Appian Way, not far from the gate, and in the midst of a vineyard. The words "Sepulchra Scipionum" at the entrance guide the traveller to the mausoleum, which is overgrown with wild shrubs, weeds, and grass. An old woman brought out her three or four wax tapers, and

* The pomegranate is a beautiful tree of the size of the peach, with a spear-shaped, delicate leaf, glossy like the myrtle. Its petals are of the colour of the Japan rose---bell-shaped, and polyandrous---the fruit while growing resembles the red pepper.

VOL. II.

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each of us carrying his own light followed her through a narrow passage into the gloomy mansions of the dead. From the mouth of the sepulchre, there is a rapid descent to the farther extremity, a distance perhaps of a hundred feet or more; for it is impossible to say how far we went in the labyrinth of brick arches, lined with sarcophagi, standing in niches on either hand. All the family sleep here, except Scipio Africanus, who died an exile not far from Naples. Numerous tablets and inscriptions cover the walls of the mausoleum. The monuments are dropping away piecemeal, and the gloom of the place, united to its intricacy, is almost terrific.

Not far hence, and on the right side of the Appian Way, we visited the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, covering several acres, and rising in prodigious masses from the plain. Several of the stupendous arches, towers, and even saloons, are yet nearly entire, exhibiting a vivid image of their former extent and splendour. The walls were of brick, encrusted with marble. Excavations have been made to the Mosaic pavements, which were found strewed with statues and other ornaments. Among the more valuable articles, which have been disinterred, are the Farnesian Hercules and Flora, now at Naples. The ruins are luxuriantly shaded with ivy, shrubs and wild flowers, on which the bee feeds, and its hum alone breaks the solitude of this once fashionable, sumptuous, and gay retreat.

Two or three miles from the Porta Capena, on the left side of the Appian Way, stands the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, of whom little is known, except that she was the wife of Crassus, the most wealthy citizen of Rome. The monument is composed of large blocks of Travertine, compactly built, and rises like a strong circular fortress from the waste of the Campagna. It has in fact sometimes been occupied as a castle, and undergone slight alterations to fit it for military purposes. Its dimensions are about sixty feet in diameter and as many in height, girt at top with a frieze and sculptured garlands, as also with an image of Metella and the proud escutcheons of her family. The walls are thick and without windows, the rotunda in the interior for the reception of the sarcophagus being open at top. rich circle of verdure springing from the summit of the ruin, and breaking the light of the aperture, presents a most picturesque view in looking up through the long dark shaft. The

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sarcophagus has been removed, to decorate the courts of one of the palaces at Rome.

Within a hundred rods of this monument, and on the same side of the road, the ruins of Caracalla's Circus lie strewed upon the plain, covered with tall grass enamelled with flowers, through which we waded, to examine the spina, the bounds, the gaols, the seats for the judges, the orchestra for the military band, the triumphal arch for the victors, the immense amphitheatre for the audience, and in short, all the apparatus for the ancient chariot races, as they were celebrated in Greece and Rome. An obscure gate was pointed out to us on one side, through which the dead combatants were carried, who fell in the glorious career! The outlines are perfectly visible, and furnish valuable illustrations of the classics. It requires scarcely an effort of the imagination, to recal the images, the bustle, the hair-breadth 'scapes, the plaudits of the animated scene. Just under the walls of the

Circus are the remains of two temples, one of which was dedicated to Honour, and the other to Virtue. so arranged that the former could not be reached without passing through the latter-a good idea, which belonged to Marcellus, and 薑 not to Caracalla, a monster who never found either of the temples. The Circus is now the property of Torlonia, the - celebrated Roman banker, who has made money enough to purchase two titles of nobility; and instead of giving him the above familiar appellation, he ought perhaps to have been styled the Duke of Bracciano. He deserves credit for the excavations he has made in the Circus, and the specimens of = the arts he has brought to light.

Half a mile on the road towards Rome, we paused at the church of St. Sebastian, where sleeps the dust of that martyr-and descended into the catacombs, the dreary asylum of the early christians from the cruelties of their persecutors. A priest, with his lamps from the altar, led the way. Near the mouth is a subterranean chapel, where the tenants of these dreary abodes used to worship that God, whom they durst not proclaim in the light of day. We groped our way through passages so low, as to compel us to stoop, occa#sionally opening into little cells, which were at once the homes and the graves of the followers of the Cross.

The I walls are full of niches, in which the dead bodies of their ■ families were placed and sealed up. Numerous inscriptions are found in these caverns, which are artificially dug from

beds of tufo, and are said to extend to Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, a distance of sixteen miles.

Turning to the right near the church of St. Sebastian, and pursuing a solitary path through a field skirted with woods, we soon found ourselves at the Fountain of Egeria, whither the lawgiver of Rome used to retreat from the bustle of his infant empire, to hold communion with the ambiguous goddess. She had a sweet grotto, from which the water gushes and gurgles into the grassy vale below, with as much purity as ever. The retreat opens into the side of a hill, to the depth of perhaps thirty feet, with about the same breadth at the entrance. At the extremity is a mutilated statue, in a recumbent position, supposed by some to be Numa himself. In the sides of the grotto are some ten or twelve niches, probably intended to receive the rural divinities. The fountain is overhung by a tangled copse of ilex, elm, and wild shrubbery. A beautiful grove of oak crowns a neighbouring eminence, and the retired vale of the Almon, a little stream celebrated by Ovid, spreads all green and flowery beneath. On the whole, the political sage here found a secluded and rural retreat, equally fit for the lessons of wisdom or love.

On the top of the hill. above the fountain, are the remains of an ancient temple, said to have been consecrated to Bacchus, or the Muses, but more probably to Apollo, as there is a subterranean shrine, whence oracles used to issue. We descended into the sanctum sanctorum, without either seeing the priestess or hearing her responses. The temple is now metamorphosed into a chapel, with its tiny altar, at which the gray-friar who acted as our guide to the fountain of Egeria, seemed to be the sole worshipper. His church and dwelling are under the same roof, where he leads the life of a hermit.

I have visited this grotto almost as often as old Numa, and on one occasion at an earlier hour, than he probably ever saw it, unless his nocturnal consultations were prolonged to the dawn. Some of the guide-books informed me, that on the morning of the first festa in May, the Roman girls resort thither, and twining their heads with garlands, dance back to the city in the character of Bacchantes, in honour of the goddess Egeria. A strong desire to see such a classical fete induced me to made a solitary excursion at the peep of dawn, crossing in my way the Camp of Hannibal long before the hour of parade; but the brook was found murmuring on in perfect solitude. It is but justice however to Madam Starke

to say, that her "information to travellers" in this instance is founded in truth; for in returning to Rome, I met several coaches filled with belles and beaux on their way to the Fountain, as also a band of music and a corps of gens d'armes to keep the whole in order. But the plebeian company looked so unclassical and unpoetical, that I would not turn back, especially as the morning was rainy and unpleasant.

In another excursion, we visited the Baths of Titus, on the Esquiline Hill, and the Temple of Minerva Medica, near the gate of St. Lorenzo. The former are little inferior to those of Caracalla in extent; and much superior in interest. Excavations were made to an immense extent by the French, and many treasures discovered. There is a little world yet to be explored, in long subterranean arches filled with many species of rubbish. Here are frescos so perfect, that Raphael is said to have borrowed from them his famous cartoons. They appear as fresh and vivid in colouring, as if they were the work of yesterday. A fragment of Nero's Golden House is here seen. These ruins are extremely picturesque, situated in a grassy field, on the brow of the Esquiline, commanding a full view of the Coliseum. The Gardens of Mæcenas, and the houses of Virgil and Horace are supposed to have been in the vicinity.

The temple of Minerva Medica stands in the midst of a large kitchen garden, enriched by much plebeian dust; for it was the Potter's Field of ancient Rome, and the bones of millions have melted into the mellow soil, now appropriated to the cultivation of cabbages and artichokes. A party of labourers were at work in propping the roof and walls of the temple, which appear ready to tumble every moment. The ruin is a Rotunda, very lofty, and among the most striking at Rome. Fragments have fallen from the roof, leaving numerous rents, through which the eye sees patches of the blue sky contrasted with the dark, intervening masses.

In the Gardens of Sallust, near the Porta Pia, we had a long ramble; for they cover many acres with a suitable variety of hill and dale, appearing almost like the country. They afford a very charming view of the Alban Mount and the environs of Rome. The mind recurs with pleasure to the riod, when the philosophical historian, sick of the intrigues of courts and of the dissipation of fashionable circles, retired to these classic shades to enjoy his wealth and devote the rem

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