ogies; from convenient visiting distances like coun- | revelations of beauty and of grace, vouchsafed to try society, and not from congenialities. Thus me in this the very mourning-time of my life. Rome is regularly "done," and a useless kaleido- Angels have ministered, do minister, to me incesscope, a pasticcio of pillar and post, impressed on of the beauty-worshipping heathens, is to me a very santly; and this enchanting presence, this divinity the mind's eye. All, moreover, are in the art-messenger of my God bidding me bless him who buying vein; Rome is sacked and ransacked for hath permitted me to behold it!"—Vol ii., p. 11. original copies, modern antiques, Francesco da Imolas, and rubbish, as if Wardour street did not exist. Happily, the disease is local. Sweet home is the sure specific, where, once safely back, the most frantic taste is put away with the passport and courier. Poetical, pagan, and passionate this. Colderblooded men, Germans and others, have criticised We omit their the Apollo's form as effeminate. learned speculations. Certainly its elegant proportions are heightened by the contrasts and odious Liberal in everything but admiration of Yankees, comparisons afforded by the desiccated New Yorkour heroine exercises her private judgment on pic-ers and duck-legged Bavarians that come to see it, The Last Judgment of the to say nothing of the Roman Custodes who, being fearfully made, pantaloons and all, are, we suppose, placed there by his holiness on principle, as permanent foils. Many again of the modern artists who look on, and would fain copy, disfigure the human form, originally not over-divine, by superfluous hairs, negation of soap, and bandit costume. From their numbers and constant residence tures as on popes. these are chartered libertines at Rome; the “season" once over, they rule in the city and out of it. Sistine "horrifies her." Perhaps it was not easy to make the subject attractive, and Michael's object was to awe. At all events he here emancipated art from its swaddling clothes, shattering the timid and conventional with colossal power. We have less quarrel with her criticism on the face of the Fornarina, which is, says she," without feelingthat of a stupid, staring, handsome, yet unlovely creature." This transcript of a vulgar peasant, ripe and brown as an apricot, is stamped with an Safe from robbers, even in inns, they, like absence of purity and ideality, and a presence of our commercial travellers, exact the best accomNor does mine the she-tiger, that one would have thought must modations for the worst prices. have "horrified" the gentle Raphael, unless pi- host dare refuse: once placed under their ban, he quant contrast motived his caprice. To us it lacks is ruined. Poor their customers must be, as the the Juno-like quality of beauty, so characteristic market is overstocked; yet poverty degrades none, of the lower classes of Roman women-that se- whom art ennobles, second-rate as it is; for amid verity which scorns to coquet or captivate, and the thousands of greasy-bearded aspirants, few at resents the passing admiration of a male Goth or Rome attain mediocrity. Meanwhile they live Celt-misplaced, indeed, according to our sharp- among each other in jolly freemasonry, unincumeyed judge, who in her stern summing-up pro-bered with the cares of three per cents, dressingnounces their persons clumsy, their feet and cases, or etiquette. Some of their saturnalia are ankles extremely thick and ill-shaped, their divinity singular. That at Cervera (vol. ii., p. 24) is decoming no lower than their shoulders." If this scribed, like the Carnival at Rome, (vol. i., p. 151,) be true, which we are unable to settle, these di- with far more words than wit, which, say the best vinities are best seen in kitcat size, and in distant authorities, should be brief, keen, and polished as balcony like the charmers of Beppo, nor would a razor. The quality of our tourist's is not firstnearer attractions be diminished, were forget me not" inscribed on their ablutionary appurtenances. Select parties to visit the Coliseum in the glimpses of the moon are said to form the sweetest morsel of the night at Rome-for mothers who have many daughters to marry.* Hymen, however has ceased to expect homage even from the imagination of Fanny Kemble who (Love's Labor Lost) lights her torch in the cold statue-peopled Vatican. Gentlemen of an æsthetic turn may like to hear the effect produced by the Apollo on a lady student. She thus makes her confession : 66 66 "I could believe the legend of the girl who died for love of it; for myself my eyes swam in tears, and my knees knocked together, and I could hardly hold my breath while I stood before it ;-I have no words to speak my sense of gratitude for these new *Botany can bore as badly as geology. Woe to the professor (we are sorry to say his name is Italian) who discovered that the Flora Čolisea exhibits "Two hundred and sixty species of plants-whereof one-fourth are Papilionacea, while the Cryptogamia make a large proportion of the remainder.". Handbook of Central Italy, p. 296. Perhaps the Manualist who made the quotation was sly. rate. Drolleries and comicalities which "kill her" read flat and savorless in her telling. The body figures more than the mind in her merriment. At the first squeaking of the wry-necked fife, she clambers to the casement to gaze on fools with varnished faces which mock the stern dignity of Rome; then motley is hers and the only wear. The tomb of Cæsar and the shrine of St. Peter reecho the squeak of conventional nonsense, the roars of school-boy rapture in middle-aged multitudes; and our desolate mother having played her part with the noisiest, returns happy home, jaded and pelted to her heart's content with sugar-plums, which fill stays and bosoms, getting down backs, and all over us." These are matters of taste; to ours the pith and marrow of her book consists in her record of more lucid intervals, when divorced from things and persons which, as she sometimes confesses, render Rome a bear-garden. Her summer is past in villegiatura at Frascati, and this subject, rarely touched on, is brought before us with all the grace of a genuine and worthy enthusiasm. O! si sic omnia! "Oh! how lovely it was! A happy company | wassail, fiddling, and Roman candles. Mr. Lear of friends gathered together under one roof, from assisted at a grand festivity, which came off at whose national and individual dissimilarities no ele-Tagliacozzo, the time-honored birth-place of the ment of discord arose, but one variety of harmony learned Taliacotius, who fabricated human noses -hearts bound in golden link of friendly fellowship. How charming the life was, too, with its monotony supplemental," after processes vouched for by and variety like that of beautiful nature itself! erudite Carsignani and immortal Hudibras. Mr. The early morning walk through dewy vineyards, Lear's lively and painter-like report will give our where I forestalled my breakfast, picking from the readers some notion of these national assemblages. purple and amber bunches, like a greedy bird, the It also affords us some pleasing glimpses of counfinest grapes, all bathed in bloom and freshness, or breaking from the branches over my head the try-house style in the Italian interior-date, Auheavy-hanging luscious figs, while my eyes slowly gust, 1843: for he is the guest of Don Filippo Mastroddi, the lord of the town, who does its honors to the Intendente, or Governor, and all the other congregated dignitaries of the Province. wandered from the Sabine hills to the Alban mountain, and from the shining glorious Campagna to the glittering Mediterranean. Then the noon-day plunge in the cool fountain, with those beautiful children, their round rosy limbs shining through the "Suppose yourself in the Casa Mastroddi at clear water, and their bead-like glancing eyes bright sunrise: a cup of coffee is brought to you in your with delight. Then the readings, and the music; natives do not indulge in anything so like breakfast,) own room, (a biscuit, if you ask for it, though the that exquisite voice, and learned lovely art, enchanting the hours with the songs of every land; or you go to seek your café in the room of Donna the earnest, silent, begrimed, absorbed drawing Caterina, the step-mother of the two brothers Mashours; the quiet enthusiasm of our artist friend; troddi, who continually labors to fill little cups, the infinite anecdote, varied learning, marvellous which are dispersed by the domestics all over the memory, and eloquent outpourings of our traveller; and into the great loggia, where you find the ladies mansion. Then you wander into the large room, the graceful universal accomplishment and most gentle chivalrous benevolence of our dear excel- and officers walking about in parties, or listening to lency. How many, many elements of pleasure and the bands of music incessantly performing below the of happiness were there! How perfectly all the window. The Piazza is like the scene in a theatre, elements were united and tempered and attuned! all hung with crimson and gold draperies and tapesThe evening rides, when the sun began to with- try from window to door, and crowded with people; draw his potent presence; the merry meeting of the constant hum of the multitudes filling up the the numerous cavalcade, in front of the fine man-pauses between the music. About eleven, a stir sion; the salutations from balcony and terrace from those who stayed, alas! behind, to those who, blessed with health and strength, went forth to increase them both by pleasure. The sober procession at starting up the broad ilex avenue, the unfailing exclamations of delight and admiration as we stood on the royal terrace of the Dragon's mount, and then the sweeping gallops over the wide Campagna to the Lake Regillus, Gabii, Pentana, Lunghezza, or through the chestnut woods below Rocca di Papa, and at the base of Monte Cavo, or along the smooth verdant sward (smoother and greener in the spring and autumn than green Ireland ever saw) of the long Latin valley, and then the return, by rosy sunset or pearly moonlight, through the filbert woods of Tusculum, by the Camadoli, and down the fragrant, warm, mysterious cypress-avenue. It was a perfect life, and to have led it for several months was a miracle."Vol. ii., p. 3. takes place among the magnates of the house; everybody comes forth full dressed, and the Prince Intendente, (with his staff in full uniform,) and all the company following, walk through lines of military to the chapel, where the Bishop of Sulmona officiates at high mass. A friar having preached a Latin sermon of most painful duration, the Prince and the Mastroddi party return to the palace in the same order and state; the gay colors and the brilliant light of the summer over the whole procession making it a very sparkling scene; nor should I omit that the dress of a Neapolitan bishop-a bright green satin hat, amethyst-colored silk robes, lined with scarlet, gold chain and cross, with lilac stockings-is in itself a world of glitter."—Lear, vol. i., p. 64. This gaudy foreground, although portions may savor to drab-loving eyes of the crimson lady of Babylon, is both orthodox, artistic, and in perfect keeping with the rest of the picture, which the The age of miracles, fortunately for true believ-all-gilding sun renders surpassingly glorious; chilly ers, flourishes in primitive force throughout the lawn sleeves and hoar-frosty wigs, which admirapatrimony of St. Peter, and this wondrous Ville-bly suit cathedrals sobered down by Wyat's nangiatura comes to pass every summer as regularly keen washes, would be auto-de-feed in the Abruzzi as figs ripen; then July suns hatch Roman society, by priests and painters, as heretical and antiwhich emerges from the torpid hybernation of the aesthetic. In the interval between the church and eternal city where native hospitality-your banker dinner-service the whole party went to make a call excepted—consists in accepting foreigners' invi- of ceremony on some grandees of the town, or tations; anon smoke wreaths gracefully curling attended the bishop and governor to the foundafrom country-house kitchen-chimneys, enliven the tion-school," where they earnestly inspected samland-skip, and suggest leaving town on a tour. ples of artificial flowers made by the prettiest set The local welcome, always hearty, is open-armed of little girls possible, the bishop noticing all with on those solemn occasions, when the compassion- a kindness of manner that showed the old gentleate church, acting on the attractive principle of man's heart was full of good feelings." In all making holy days and holidays synonymous, miti-these visitings, as they passed along, the people gates the severities of her ordinances with wine, kneeled without intermission for their worthy nades; and that which should have been a fountain 66 bishop's benediction. "To one whose greatest erroneously among chimney-pots and was consumed on the house-tops, to the great disgust of the Tagliacozzesi. Now followed an invitation from Madame Marcini, or some one else possessed of a house in the piazza, in order to see the fire-works; so away we went, the governor leading the way, and ate ices in the draped galleries overlooking the square. This was about Ave Maria: the dense crowd of people, some four or five thousand, were at once on their knees, and burst forth as if one voice were singing the evening chant to the Virgin; the echoes of which rang back from the black rocks of the Pass, with a solemnity of deep melody, the most soothingly beautiful after the hours of hubbub."Ibid., p. 65. picturesque and touching beyond description. To Not an unpleasant life this, in the Abruzzi, "An old woman, Donna Lionora, (who, like many I had observed in the course of the day, was a goîtreuse,) cooked me some beans and a roast that one had need to have had a long journey to fowl; but the habitation was so dirty and wretched the chimney, (it had the additional charm of being a provoke any appetite. While I was sitting near very smoky one,) I was startled by the entrance of several large pigs, who passed, very much at their ease, through the kitchen, if so it were called, and walked into the apartment beyond, destined for my This tender sentiment and spectacle, which sleeping-room. Sapete che ci sono entrati i porchi? affect Protestants deeply-"Ave Maria! blessed-Do you know that the pigs have got in? said I Ci vanno a dormirebe the hour!"-is lost upon too many callous to the amiable Lionora. Romanists, with whom it is an every night's form; the spiritual is merged in the mechanical, and the Tagliacotians comply, indeed, but vote it sheer loss of time, as aldermen do the saying grace before mayor's dinners. Accordingly, ere the last echoes of prayer die away in the mellow dis-voce-Lo sono tutti, tutti, tutti, (so they are all, tance They are going to bed, quoth she, nowise moved at all, all,) responded an old man, with an air of wisdom-Tutti gli Inglesi sono matti-an assertion he "Crack-bounce-whizz!-the scene was changed proved on the ground that the only Englishman in a twinkling by the flash and explosion of all kinds who had ever been known to visit Isola (several of fireworks; rockets flying hither and thither; years previously) had committed four frightful serpents rushing and fizzing all around the colon-extravagancies, any one of which was sufficient to 1 deprive him of all claim to rationality-viz., he fre- them with saffron, red peppers, garlic, and conquently drank water instead of wine; he more than diments from his own satanic cruets. The peasonce paid more money for an article than it was worth; he persisted in walking, even when he had antry of these regions seem to be diametrically hired a horse; and he always washed himself-si, opposed in their notions of luxury to friend Paddy, anche due volte la giornata (yes, even twice a who prefers a potato to a pork-chop, not to menday :) the relation of which climax of absurdity tion cormorant soup; and rather than eat turbots was received with looks of incredulity and pity by in a famine, sees them carted out by the hundred his audience."-Ibid., p. 109. for manure to the fields. In the immediate neighborhood of Prince Giardinelli's laudable ménage, Mr. Mr. Lear soon washes his hands of these pigs Lear encountered a rustic carrying a dead fox. “It and peasants. Doleful inconveniences of bad fare is delightful food," said he, "cibo squisito, either and strange bed-fellows have plagued tourists in boiled or roast." Said Lear, "I wish you joy." these parts since the days of Horace, and, we The travelled prince's new inventions puzzle the dare swear, long before; the remedy continuing vulpicides, who, ever since the establishment of also unchanged; and all prudent wayfarers will, like him, request some Muræna to furnish lodg- the tuber," invariably put this question to every an iron foundry and a mill for obtaining sugar from ings and some Capito a cook. Such was, after a little experience, the wrinkle adopted by Mr. Lear. stranger-"Are you one of those who extract He had plenty of letters with him, and whenever of this confusion of ideas, chemical and culinary, sugar from iron, or iron from potatoes?" Much the great man of a place was at home, he seems is attributable, we fear, to his deceased holiness, to have been courteously received and very dewho prohibited in his own states, and elsewhere cently dieted. To be sure, it was not often that discountenanced, rails, journals, and periodical he found the cuisine so entirely to his mind as he did at Antrodoco. There, frightened by the lar-fine raw material for naturalists, if duly encouraged, meetings of peripatetic philosophers. The natives, derless locanda, and "that speckly appearance of the walls, which denotes to the initiated certain entomological visitors, politely called B flats and F sharps," he plucked up courage to send some credentials to no less a personage than the Intendente of the Abruzzo Secondo Ulteriore himself, whose palace overlooked the dirty town; and the result was an invitation to supper from the said governor, to wit, Prince Giardinelli, a "lively little man of friendly manners, who spoke Eng lish:" would doubtless produce papers worthy to be read, not merely after plain mutton and mashed potatoes, but as a chasse to the turtle and punch by which our great British Association are so regularly inspired. In proof of such capabilities, the important discovery of a friend of Mrs. Fanny's may be cited. of tarantulas, and confined them in a tumbler toThis rising zoologist "caught a number gether; their first movement was to construct within that narrow space each a sort of fortress of its own, from which sallying forth, they immedi"Near him was a sweet little girl, his only child, ately fell upon, and with incredible fury and about ten years of age; and about the room were rapidity devoured each other-the conquerors invarious uffiziali attached to his suite, and sundry creasing in size as the process of victory and canpersonaggi of the town, who were paying their nibalism proceeded, until there remained at the evening devoirs. These by degrees subsided, and we were left with the governor and Donna Caterina, bottom of the glass one huge hideous creature, the who, after a long hour, in which I was more than universal conqueror, whose bloated body had behalf asleep, took us into a room, where there was a come the sepulchre of his enemies as fast as he table, plate, and covers; and what did we see when demolished them."-F. Kemble, vol. i., p. 50.) those covers were removed!-a positive plain Eng-Amiable animalcule; and henceforward to be lish-looking roast leg of mutton, in all its simplicity classed by our Broderips among the genera Robesand good odor; and two dishes, one of simple mealy pierre and Bonaparte, not Terpsichore. boiled potatoes and the other ditto baked; add to this a bottle of excellent champagne, and imagine our feelings. The secret of these amazing luxuries was that the prince and his cook had both been in England. Nor, when all this was discussed, had we anything more to do with the vile inn; our roba had been taken to the comfortable private house of a Don Luigi Mozzetti, whither we proceeded to sleep."-Vol. i., p. 49. Noctes cœnæque deûm! Such blissful nights, such suppers, sweet in simplicity as three per cents, are fleshly comforts unknown to those who stay at home, racked on too easy couch and sated with saddles of mutton; they, to be relished, must be earned, as in cognate Spain, by long rides over hungry hills, where the plagues of Egypt are fixtures in beds, and war perpetual is claimed at boards against knives and forks; where the evil one either denies meats or sends Canidias to blast The contrast in bearing and forbearing between Mr. Lear, a real invalid, and our rude-healthed Fanny, is remarkable: his temper flows unruffled, even by the "small deer;"-where she is petulant and put out with everything and everybody, he takes men, women, gentle and simple, as they come, making the best of the worst, and just doing in Rome and out of Rome as the Romans do. It must be added that his travelling "indispensables," artistic as well as social, were undeniable; he could discourse eloquent Italian, sing Scotch songs, strum Spanish guitars, and, what is better, had an English heart in its right place. He could and would listen to landed proprietors' yarns, without yawns, although the Thames Tunnel were passim the twice-told tale of the Abruzzi squirearchy; and considering the sums of public money which have been buried never to fructify in that colossal boring, the artist's letter press, his fair colleague's poetical descriptions are, on the whole, his best Roman commentary. She revels in the luxuriant theme it surprised us much that it should be productive its Egeria, into which we heartily wish every Nie of the smallest interest of any kind anywhere. buhr thrown. He has treated with clever but Furnished with such powers of face, Mr. Lear conscientious drawing the leading characteristics needed no costly passport of Downing street; of the scenery, giving us well-selected specimens which, as we shall presently see, does not always of each variety;-but, without disparagement to answer. Welcome everywhere as rent, and admitted behind the curtain, his eye has been quick to mark, and his hand busy to realize strange scenes of nature and society. Thanks to him, we and happily do her skill and his combine to set are at home among places and people which, al- before us the forlorn Grand Campagna, where though within a few days' journey of Rome and Melancholy broods, and the Eternal City sits, its Naples, were scarcely better known than the coun- queen and centre, moated by the silvery Meditertry and best resident families near Timbuctoo. An ranean, and guarded by walls of purple mountain unaffected modesty beams out, whether he draws-fit frame for such a picture. Mr. Lear has well or writes. There is no attempt at elaborate pic-effected the delineation of far-stretching space and tures with the pen; a few pithy expressions suffice flatness by an infinite series of horizontal lines: to let off his artistic enthusiasm; but on them is in his engravings we behold the Campagna spread the smell of the field, not of Cheapside gas. He out like a tawny sea, and feel its solemn sentiment will probably think it a doubtful compliment when of antiquity, its uncultivated, uninhabited air, we say that we have sometimes been inclined to dreamy tranquillity, and Claude-like atmosphere of like him even better as an author than as an artist. heat and haze. Cleverly his crayon carries us Prepared by annual experience of the stereotyped through ravines choked with vegetation, where stuff of illustrated books, we began by only looking creepers festoon crumbling temples whose creeds at his engravings; but by and bye, from an acci- are extinct, and hide the wrinkles of time with the dental glance at a sentence or two, we found our- repairs of tender spring. Now we climb slopes selves tempted on-and so on, until we read the spread with a cloak of flowers, and chequered with entire letter-press-to be well repaid by much new lights and shadows, as the sun and clouds play at observation, nice marking of manners, genuine rel-hide-and-seek; while long-horned cattle drink with ish for nature, and quiet dramatic humor. On the whole we are left with a conviction that, in spite of all Mrs. Fanny's sweeping charges, the domestic affections are in a very healthy state;-perhaps, indeed, English people may see cause to blush slightly at some of the incidental traits—of filial and fraternal cordiality and liberality especially. A most delightful octavo for any well-cushioned boudoir or britchca might be extracted from these bulky tomes, were all the extraneous matter cut out, that has cost author and us the most pains, and on which he sets the highest estimation; for, ignorant of the value of his own diamond, he has overlaid its sparkle with husks, historical, topographical, and so forth, quoted from older and outlandish folios, with the best-meant motive of disarming learned critics like ourselves, who are supposed by the unlearned to doat on books of whose dulness worms die. Two mortal pages are filled with the names and titles only of the Dry-as-looking hamlets, which nestle and crouch about dust compilers thus forced on the unthankful. Deferential to Dunciad authors, Mr. Lear has better appreciated his own attainments as an artist; and we regret that we cannot make any specimens of his pencil speak, like the literary extracts, for themselves. There is no mistake in their originality, or in the lively interest which the impressions of individual mind and local identity must With the Abruzzi he makes us feel ourselves as familiar as if we had paced every step with his mule and here we have no help to his pencil but from his own pen. As to Rome, his eye is fully impregnated with the emphatic points of the city and its environs, where everything is so suggestive-where every field has its Livian battle, every hill its Horatian ode, every fountain ever convey. patient eye from some fountain that drops its dia- feudal castles, whose frowning Poussinesque masses |