246 Mary Somerville. 



We had been acquainted with the Eev. Dr., after- 

 wards Cardinal Wiseman at Eome. He was head of 

 a college of young men educating for the Catholic 

 Church, who had their " villeggiatura " at Monte 

 Porzio. We spent a day with him there, and visited 

 Tusculum ; another day we went to Lariccia, where 

 there is a palace and park belonging to the Chigi 

 family in a most picturesque but dilapidated state. 

 We went also to Genzano, Rocca del Papa, and 

 occasionally to visit friends at Frascati. There was 

 a stone threshing floor behind our house. During the 

 vintage we had it nicely swept and lighted with 

 torches, and the grape gatherers came and danced 

 till long after midnight, to the great amusement of 

 my daughters, who joined in the dance, which was 

 the Saltarello, a variety of the Tarantella. They 

 danced to the beating of tambourines. Italy is the 

 country of music, especially of melody, and the 

 popular airs, especially the Neapolitan, are ex- 

 tremely beautiful and melodious ; yet it is a fact, 

 that the singing of the peasantry, particularly in 

 the Roman and Neapolitan provinces, is most dis- 

 agreeable and discordant. It is not melody at all, 

 but a kind of wild chant, meandering through 

 minor tones, without rhythm of any sort or apparent 

 rule, and my daughters say it is very difficult to 

 note down ; yet there is some kind of method and 



