No. VII. — Islands of Procida and Ischia. M^ 



aoast of Italy and the island of Ischia, as 'a glance at any tole- 

 rable map will at once prove. 



' I can conceive nothing more perfectly beautiful than the 

 view of this majestic island as approached from the north, 

 especially if under the enchantment of an Italian sunset. 

 There is just that degree of symmetry in its structure which 

 is requisite without formality, and sufficient ruggedness to 

 relieve the surpassing verdure with which nature has clothed 

 the greater part of the island. The peculiar structure of 

 the volcanic mass has given a peaked character to almost 

 every more important part of its outward form. But the de- 

 grading nature of the soil, the lapse of centuries, and the ac- 

 tion of the waves and of earthquakes, have prevented any 

 thing monotonous in the general configuration, and the whole 

 is grandly surmounted by the majestic summit of Monte Epo- 

 meo, which constituting, in fact, almost the whole of IsChia, 

 at once unites, and is supported by its tributary eminences. 



The entire surface of the island is so completely intersected 

 with rugged dells, and bestrewed with shivered crags of rock, 

 the work no doubt of those great hands, which, according to 

 tradition, have here so often desolated the face of nature, that 

 travelling is difficult and the roads precarious. Neither hor- 

 ses nor vehicles of any kind exist ; and asses (or ciuci, as in 

 the debased dialect of this island they are called,) form the 

 only mode of conveyancie. Yet, generally speaking, over so 

 rough a foundation, nature has lavished the charms of verdure 

 to a degree seldom met with even in Italy, and there might be 

 found many a sequestered picture of retirement and natural 

 luxuriance, upon which the eye of the traveller, returned to 

 the sterner features of more northern zones, might wish long 

 enough to find, except within the precincts of this favoured 

 island. Various detached masses, such as that we have men- 

 tioned as the seat of the castle of Ischia, and many abrupt 

 cliffs, break the sea landscape ; and farther inland, though 

 vast quantities of Spanish chestnut and other woods, mostly 

 cut for copse, clothe almost every rising ground, some bare 

 crags arise in the interior of the island, and some lava currents 

 of unbending sterility, brea^k the green slopes of the hills ; 

 while the rich mass of brushwood which wraps the enormous 



