27 



eye cannot detect that the rock has even been worn by well-shod feet. 

 Scant, however, was our time for observation, for night was drawing on, 

 and the countiy was unknown, and no house on our road home was in 

 sight. What speculations did not a smattering of antiquarianism call 

 up here ! A town on the top of a hill, in what did it differ from 

 the camps of the ancient Britons, and the strong places of the mound- 

 builders of America ? Where did they get their water, and how could 

 they store their food? Did the people live there? If so, why are the 

 paths not more accessible and smooth ? We turn in our dilemma to 

 our guide-book.jiud find that the people only resorted to these places 

 . when invaded by their enemies, and that their usual residence was in 

 the lower valleys. * * ■■'- ■■• '■' * 



As he extends his journey, the traveller finds- his attention called 

 away from the soil to the inhabitants that dwelt upon it, and the habi- 

 tations they erected for their comfort or their safety. 



With Edinburgh and Stirling, Carnarvon and Conway, York and 

 Chester, strong in his memory, with many another British town of 

 ancient note, with many a Rhenish fortress of the good old times when 

 might made right, " when still it was the plan that he should get \vho 

 had the power, and let him keep who can," in his recollection — with 

 Berne and Sion, and other Swiss fortresses — with many a thought of 

 Jericho, Ai, Jerusalem, and other fortified towns of Palestine, as well 

 as of Thebes, Nineveh, Tyre, and Babylon, and the strong castles of 

 India, and the still ruder remains in Central America and Mexico — the 

 traveller approaches the once famous towns of Italy, and tries to frame 

 some idea of their size, wealth, and importance. Bolsena, the site of 

 the Etruscan Volsinii, is the first that comes under our notice, and we 

 examine with surprise its present contracted appearance, wondering 

 whether the ancient town was much lai'ger than the modern. We see 

 that Plinv declares that it contained 2,000 statues when taken by the 

 Romans, but we cannot help doubting, whether in its palmiest days it 

 contained as many men. Close by a large lake, occupying the bed of 

 an old crater, it must always have been unhealthy and its population 

 low ; a surmise which receives some authority from the very few tomb- 

 stones found recording the deaths of old men. We cross the great 

 Etruscan plain, pass near Ferento and Bomarzo, celebrated for its tombs, 

 and arrive at Viterbo, said to be the Fanum Voltumnae, the Washing- 

 ton of the Etrurians — are obliged, from considerations of health, to 

 omit Norchia, Bieda, and Castel dAsso, all interesting from the num- 

 ber of tombs found in and around them, but we can see well, as we 

 rise Monte Cimiuo, whose forests were for a long time the barrier 

 between Etruria and Rome, that there is nothing in all the plain to 



