108 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



L Ai.gHBt 8, 1806. 



GLEANINGS FROM ROCK AND FIELD 

 TOWARDS ROME.— No. 3. 



Leavinc; Siena by railway for Fioiille, we passed through 

 many miles of country so desert-like, so bleak and bare of 

 vegetation, that it looked as if just emerging from a second 

 deluge whicli had left but few of the inhabitants, and they 

 with the marks of sin and liorror still upon their brow. We 

 rejoiced when the railway journey gave place to a comfortable 

 carriage drawn by four horses and two white bullocks with 

 large, gazeUe-lilce eyes, and we were once more ascending a 

 mountain's steep side, where we could revel in nature with the 

 breath of Violets scenting the air around us. We saw few 

 habitations, but here and there peasant women in scarlet 

 hoods, distaff in hand, were carding what seemed to be flax, 

 as they minded flocks of sheep and pigs, wandering amidst 

 the flowery wilderness of Myrtle and white Ericas. On this 

 mountain I saw, for the first time in Italj-, the Pteris aquihna. 

 I also found Polystichum angulare and Asplenium trichomanes. 

 I looked in vain for some form or variety imknown to me ; and 

 yet I had plenty of time to look, for we were upwards of five 

 hovirs th'iving the twenty-one miles that divided the FicuUe 

 station from Orvieto, which appeared before us on its grand 

 elevation of rock, like the huge battlements of some giant castle ; 

 now close to us, now far away, as we wound round and round 

 the glorious hill. As we entered the town, daylight faded, and 

 the dimly-lighted houses showed us parties of men drinking at 

 long tables such as one sees in Dutch pictures. 



The next day was market-day, and the streets were filled 

 with i^arties of peasants, gaily dressed in various costumes, 

 driving in mules laden with wood and other commodities. 

 The peasant women wore many-coloured and richly-embroidered 

 stays, with white or coloured chemisettes and sleeves ; the 

 petticoat was short, and of some striped material ; some wore 

 on their heads Hat towels, folded square, and others red hoods ; 

 while the men were attired in velvet jackets, made very fan- 

 cifully, knee-breeches, bright stockings, and steeple-crowned 

 hats. The bright and varied streets were a fitting introduction 

 to the wonderful cathedral, the facade of which is a mass of 

 richly inlaid mosaics, and basso-relievos in wliite marble or 

 alabaster ; these latter were in compartments, each relating 

 some Bible story. The interior is rich with treasures, amongst 

 them some beautiful frescoes of Fra Angehco's. All the pictures 

 and frescoes were photographed, and the priests sell copies of 

 them in the cathedral, before the very altars, where a short 

 time before the mass was celebrated. It is a long time before 

 a Protestant travelling in a Roman catholic country can rm- 

 derstand what is considered sacred in their churches. Not 

 the church itself, for it is desecrated in evei-y way — not the 

 altars, for no knee bends before an empty shrine. As far as 

 I have been able to break through the outer crust of much 

 seeming irreverence, and to look beneath the surface, I should 

 say that respect is alone paid to the blessed Sacrament and to 

 statues or, so-eaUed, miraculous pictures. 



We left Orvieto for Viterbo on the 14th of March, driving 

 through a very cold hailstorm. On our way we found the 

 Anemone apennina (the only wild specimen I have ever met 

 with), Scilla obtusifoha, Violets of several shades of colour, 

 Pteris aquihna, Pulypodium vulgare, AcUantum nigrum, Poly- 

 stichum angulare, Asplenium trichomanes, Ceterach, &c. 



The drive had but little of beauty to recommend it, though 

 here and there a lovely scene of lake and tree, mountain and 

 sky, would call forth an exclamation of delight ; but the per- 

 vading atmosjihere was wretchedness. The cottages — as I 

 write the word, the dear whitewashed cottages of England 

 contrast themselves with the miserable huts I saw on this 

 route — huts in which no chimney was visible, no outlet for the 

 smoke of the scant fire, save the hole of the uuglazed window, 

 or the door, from which a herd of half-naked children rushed 

 at the carriage wailing piteously. I was divicUng some bread 

 amongst a group of three of these beggars — one a Uttle child of 

 three jears old — there was but bread enough for two, the httle 

 child saw this at a glance, and gave a cry of such wild terror 

 and hunger, that it pierced my very heart. Is there any cry 

 on earth like that of a little child for bread ? Its intense plead- 

 ingness haunted me into Viterbo. 



I shiver when I think of Viterbo, and of the scowling hand- 

 some faces of its people, that seemed to demand of me as I 

 walked along, " Your money or yoiu- life." " Of twenty 

 brigands taken in the last two years," said a friend to me, 

 " seventeen were from Viterbo." I had read of brigands all 

 my Ufe, but now I was, as it were, face to face with them, for 



the road from Viterbo to Rome is a part of their most con- 

 venient hunting-ground, its numerous windings and abrupt 

 turnings giving ample opportunity for concealment and escape. 

 Whether we should meet the brigands or whether we should 

 escape them ; who should be the spokesman of the occasion ; 

 who would give up jewels, and who would hide them, were the 

 questions to be decided while pressing the wild-flower specimens 

 or encom-aging wet logs of wood to give a friendly blaze. 



By seven o'clock on March 15th we left Viterbo by a dreary 

 ascent up steep hills covered with snow, protected at intervals 

 by gens d'armes, who looked so lonely and miserable in their 

 wretched huts that I fancied a brigand's friendly greeting would 

 have been better than none. We lunched at Monterose. The 

 inn is worth a visit on its own account. From a courtyard, filled 

 with horses and carriages, you ascend a broad flight of dirty stone 

 steps, and putting aside a dingy cotton curtain at the top, you 

 find yom-self in a large chamber, with a wide open fireplace at 

 the end, and several dining-tables spread around. Congregated 

 in this chamber is a miscellaneous company of wayfarers de- 

 vouring as best they can tough cocks and hens, accompanied 

 to the death by a band of fleas that hop about without cere- 

 mony or constraint. Different parties of travellers keep putting 

 aside the curtain and entering on the scene, Uke players on a 

 stage, save that the acting is to the very life. There is the 

 Englishman, silent and reserved, melting, if ever he does melt, 

 under a smile of protest, as though he should say, " Take 

 notice, I give way under the exigencies of travel ;" there is the 

 American loudly " guessing " and " calculating " as only Ame- 

 ricans can ; there is but no, I will not ilraw on my ima- 

 gination, for I saw only English and Americans at Monterose. 

 "I guess," said one, en route from Rome, "you'll find the 

 Eternal City about as unpleasant for climate as any place iu 

 the world ; fix it how you will, you must always wear two coats, 

 and then I calculate you '11 have bronchitis if you walk in the 

 shade, and fever if you walk in the sun." " iiVhere then," I 

 asked, " is the ' unchanging blue ' of the Roman sky ? " " Well," 

 was the reply, " I guess you '11 about have left that at Torquay." 



Not being able to eat the chickens, and wishing to escape 

 being eaten myself, I set off to walk in advance of the carriage. 

 The keen piercing wind came raving to meet me : the peasants, 

 clothed in sheep skins and goat skins, looked out at me from 

 miserable huts, roofed only with mud and leaves ; there 

 were very few wild flowers, only here and there a straggling 

 Rose, doing its cheerful best to adorn the rough masonry of 

 the bridges, which crossed the swamp-like road. On every side 

 there appeared evidences of poverty, degradation, and misery. 

 Hanging in festoons about one old bridge I found what I be- 

 lieved — from its long tendril-like branches of dark shining 

 leaves, and clusters of pointed buds — to be the Banksian Rose : 

 this seemed the more likely, as I aftenvards found the Bank- 

 sian growing all but wild in the hedges about Florence and 

 Rome. Entering Rome by this route, I can imagine nothing 

 more desolate : there were few crosses, and very few churches. 

 " Verily," said I, " the shoemaker's children are the worst 

 shod." 



Entering Rome ! Can any one enter Rome as they enter 

 any other place on earth ? What is it that gives to every tra- 

 veller Romewards that intensity of anticipation that keeps the 

 eye straining on the far distance for the first speck on the 

 horizon that conveys the certainty of Rome '.' The air around 

 one seems to vibrate to the echo of the old heroic deeds that 

 make the schoolboy's veins tingle with enthusiasm ; the wind 

 that blows upon one's brow seems yet wailing with the last cry of 

 agony \vrung from the martyr's heart ; your whole intelligence 

 is wrought to the highest point as you wait in almost breathless 

 silence for the first cry of — Rome ! In a few minutes a cry 

 came, but it was not Rome : only a poor man lying by the way- 

 side, dead, in a pool of blood. Whether he had been gored to 

 death by one of the wild bullocks that abound in the Campagna, 

 or whether he had been murdered, we never discovered : the 

 prelude to our entrance to Rome, as it has been to that of 

 thousands, was blood. A few minutes more and another cry 

 came, but it was not Rome, it was — St. Peter's ! 



Yes, there was St. Peter's ! and forthwith the old grand 

 thoughts of ancient Rome melted away, and in their place 

 came the Triple Crown. How woiJd it look near at hand ? 

 Were the jewels that adorned it diamonds, or only gUttering 

 paste ? There, however, is St. Peter's, square, and squat, and 

 roimd about the dome ; there is the Vatican, looking, with its 

 many rows of square windows, like MOlbank Penitentiary ; 

 there is the Tiber, trailing its thick clammy waters along, not 

 yellow nor yet brown, but very uncomfortable-looking in their 



