JOTTINGS FROM A TRAVELLER’S JOURNAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1023, 16 August 1883, Page 4

JOTTINGS FROM A TRAVELLER’S JOURNAL.

[WRITTEN SPECIALLY FOR THE ‘ ‘ASHBURTON GUARDIAN. , No. xx. - The Pincio —The Rotten Row op Rome ' —The Castle op St Anoelo —A Beautiful Panorama—A Recollection op Nero A Superstition Lucullus’s Yilla— Messaxjna. So much has been written about Rome : that it will be almost impossible foi* me to say anything about the places I visited and the things I saw that has not already i been said by others ; and perhaps more pertinently and graphically. Readers of m y jottings must therefore be indulgent, attd not expect to find* startling novelties. I can but relate, in my own plain way, the impressions made upon my mind by what I saw, and occasionally, perhaps, recal some of the historical associations connected with the localities. T’wpuld •lie'absurd to attempt to “ do Rome.” • No -mere visitor can be qualified for the task. * A' residence of several years would hardly ! suffice for a thorough acquaintance with all the narrow squalid streets to he found -■ in some parts of the modern city ; arjd a lifetime might be fully occupied in studying.: and making researches amid the ancient ruins, and recording the spirit- : stirring historical memories connebted ■with them. I was twice at Rome :on the first- occasion pay stay was brief, but after a trip to Naples, I returned ,and remained for a longer period But 1 shall follqw a due sequence in myjjottinga, ' noting each event in the order of time as

it occurred. . ... . My first visit was : to the Pincio. Tbe jg, ancients called ib collis hortorum, the hill of-gardens. ■ The fact of the patrician (■family of the Pincii having once had a residence on the spot is sufficient for its modern name. A vineyard that once belonged to a community of monks has been transformed into sub-

lie pleasure grounds. The Pincio is now 1 i a'feglon of tehees and statues,’and “busts *'*' and fountains, broad drives, and ornamental plots of shrubs and flowers. It is the “Rotten Row” of Rome; here the beau rjfionde may be seen, especially* on ,» ' (! >>&ttlfdayil£''dritfng round the mimosa-lined roads in gay, equipages, .while a military hand discourses music. The lively Miss Thackeray likened the place to “a fashionable h*lo of sunset and pink parasols. ” The terrace affords a fine panoramic nriqw. f The winding,Tiber is a prominent .iiatifte in the foreground of the picture—- , beyond, the castle of St Angelo, with the bronze archangel on its summit. Cromwell, it may be remembered, threatened , . ,th,e reigning/Popoupf his day that English ‘ * ’ ’guns should be heard at the castle of St Angelo if the “ people of God ” were not treated with due consideration. Between the Monte Mario and the Janiculum, the wall-knowmdoma of St v Peter’s,.the cathedrat of tho 'Catholic"world, towers aloft—and in the distance tlie roof of the Pan'/■ll the columns bf Trajan ‘ and Aurelius are seen, and between the spectator and the river a network of roofs of houses and intersecting streets, and spires and domes and turrets of various forms and'election*. ’t I? a scene well-fitted to. promote o reflection. But < •unit confess tii * a-.cien* associations of the plac-> on wtnoh 1 stood, the phantoms of the past. r 3 none attractive to me _ than the •. " . of the present. I remembered v. . v. alking about a locality ojv • . *’ stly memories. Here, the ©died spirit; of the miscre-a. " • ported to have wandered darns; idle ages. We kn.rw his i-c-> ;nr*. *<• " buried in the ’ /. tells us that Eel" g.' ■" N r ©ro‘.tad by a favorite conferee </ 1. • ’ - /rant, took the mualna of V ■ \v. i-r, /hose memory perhaps, -ne -• i J with* affection, though the ~or.d - execrated it, and vmj*oc"i /ich white’stuff embroic/jr-.H .-A and deposited them ifi the -a m mument which ia Sean In the Campus -la-dus under the hill of gardens, ‘ last:, i.i. therefore, no -doubt that IVeto s budj '.ns buried /some-

■ . where near the-. Pincio, w hatever donhtf njay disturb ear belief in !le tradition ol ■ ih l ,. prorcgrinxtions of hi* spirit. The tradition is that a gigantic walnut tree grow up on the spot, where ho was in* terroth-and became the u ■ rt of innumerable biacs demons whe took the shape of ' black crows. These diabolical - birds confined t'bharrass end-dia'.uru the neighborhood until Pope Pascal i.- , admonished » by the Virgin Mar;.- in ; dream of the r.'—t shuraot-'r of tbo tjun.-.! -.jirds, cut down liip t?ee, dispersed ris. demons, and sfvui ;u» etfecttul ban- a- against their return by building a chuvcK on the site, '.Fit.i money collt ctet! fro n the people who had been iujnrc-l end, disturbed* ■Who ran contradict this sv-fy, when those who tell it point to the Ohurch, of San Maris, del Popoic and say there stands the proof ■ !u was on the Pincic that the Sybarite Luoolli-a —to aunts aliice a« a,glutton and B warrior—had his and emong o thru - guoiixs. em u r{|njflid Cicero ..and Pc-mp«y. That must 'Kaye been-a . special ?p;r. •; i--: e nr.? to/d that be indicated hi; idh-yj mto t hja*bill of fare, to his ;rii Mj or steward of the household, by ibc ulc command —“ I sup io-niubt in the H-tU. of Apollo.” 1 • This was understood to mean that every delie»-cy v-'iis to bo provided that wealth could purchase, or biy-nuity devise. " Plutarch saya: was like an ancient comedy, where first , we. see, great actions, both, rpolitical and military, and .Per., inis tf.sts, debauches, taces by torchlight and every kind of frivolous arnueemait.- Phr frivolous amusements,! cannot but reckon his uumptuous villas, 'walk,-*, and 'baths ; and still more so the paintings,* statues and rihet worts cf art which ne collected at immense 07.1-snso, bbv gq-Madering away "Upon them the-t'/rt'f.-rtnoe he amassed in the wars. Insomuch thm now, when luxury is so muf-; #dvau.-' I, the gardens of Lucullus rank wi'h to ■■ , of the Kings, and are esteem-.! t‘.« >r st magnificent evan’of these ■ ' 1 Lucullan’:-. ceP ; -:r. r.d • ilia afterwards came into tae ooirwesio: of the ilbfated ■Valerius Asia'i-v-v! Riu Mesjsalina, a Homan: Ahab i-i rm’iiv jats, ,coveted Sabeth's Vju yu:d for a worse'purpose than garden herbs. She-'was the fifth wife r-C the ~.'}.e n ,r Ohudius; l He absorimi iu pfh.y;- and war, probably had no idea of ri-e life she was leading, , fler very name hat i-rcon-e the symbol, l and a synonym fur vt-luprjousnesa and Tice, Sho inai»v<rd to vet possession et the villa by instigating Siliusy .the, , tut >r cf her yin, to accuse AsiUticus of tif-fjsjnobiu practices, b< bis hrst-'-ry ■'if the Romans , undue the Empire, rubies the sequel, thu* ;—“ Assatii-.js war. condemned 1 to' ...death ,vbut he declined the counsel of his fnenda to starve ?. cmrs, which might lea v>an ; I< n 1 for Mie chi-nceof P**«oa; but after the lofty fashion oh the .-.Mcicat Romans, bathed, pn fumed, and Mpped luagmlicoutly, .utu hen opened I - /okl ia? Mu) H-. 1 lilc-od to. death. .Befcio d,--itg ht 'r:-;-, ’ i.-i pyre 'preparot for him k- ,m, ..,v gardens, And lu ‘ *- ■ ■ bo another: -CMt,, t , which ovMrci ii'-t be injured ny the naji.-.,). *' r » •' 'li.uji , ,t .