DISCOVERY 



211 



conversations, we have a good many descriptive 

 points. There are three separate pictures in the First 

 Eclogue. One is of the scene in which the conversation 

 takes place :' Tityrus is lying in the shade of a spreading 

 beech-tree, and at the end he points to the smoke 

 rising from farmhouses in the distance as a token that 

 evening is near, since the people in them are preparing 

 supper ; and he also points to the " lengthening 

 shadows " of the " high mountains." We gather also 

 that both of the shepherds live within reach of some 

 small town where they used to take their produce for 

 sale. But the way in which this expedition is described 

 in Eclogue IX seems to show that the town was a 

 good day's journey from the village 



The second picture in the First Eclogue is of the 

 farm which Melibceus, a neighbour of Tityrus, has to 

 leave. One of the things which he will no longer be 



ridge sink into the plain by a gentle slope, right down 

 to the water and to the group of beeches, once tall 

 trees, now broken with age." These " ancient 

 beeches " appear also in the Third Eclogue. It must 

 have been a spot which made some impression on 

 Vergil's boyish mind, partly, no doubt, because it 

 marked the end of his father's farm. 



From all this it is clear that Vergil meant his readers 

 to think of the farm as being in (or quite close to) 

 hilly country, with steep pastures, caves or nooks in 

 the hillsides, cliffs, rivers, and freshly running springs. 



Was it Pietole ? 



The defects which critics have felt will be easily 

 understood from a glance at a photograph of Pietole 

 (Fig. 2). The country there is flat ; or, to speak quite 

 strictly, it loses in height above sea-level one metre 



Fig. 3.— THB ridge K1 



able to do is to lie in a " green cave " or recess and 

 watch his sheep on a bushy slope some way off, on 

 which, while they browsed, they seemed to be " hanging 

 by their feet " — a pretty and exact description of the 

 appearance of sheep on a steep hillside. 



The third picture is of the farm of Vergil himself. 

 This is described modestly enough. Melibceus says 

 to Tityrus, who in this Eclogue represents Vergil, that 

 it is quite " big enough " for him, however much it 

 may be " cumbered with bare stones or muddy reeds.' 

 And we learn further that it had a willow hedge beloved 

 by the bees, a tall elm haunted by pigeons and turtle- 

 doves, and a cliff under the shade of which the vine- 

 dresser could rest and " sing to the breezes." Other 

 lines tell us of pine-trees and more than one stream ; 

 " familiar rivers and sacred springs." To this the 

 Ninth Eclogue adds, in the lines just noticed, that the 

 estate which Vergil lost ran some distance from the 

 point " where the hills begin to withdraw, and let their 



AST FROM CAKl'l.M.I" 'I.' 



in a distance of nine English miles, the distance from 

 Mantua to the nearest point of the River Po. Pietole 

 lies just on this line ; and when we consider that 

 Mantua itself lies between two great lagoons, we 

 realise that there is always plenty of water in Pietole, 

 but that it is practically stagnant, since the fall is so 

 slight. The whole country, in fact, is a mere network 

 of dykes and ditches, its only other feature being 

 monotonous rows of willows and tall, lean poplars. 

 Nothing like a hill can be seen , Pietole is more than 

 thirty miles in any direction from the nearest. And 

 if there were such a thing as a cave or recess to be 

 found, it could only be a kind of rat's-hole in the 

 hollow bank of a large ditch. The photograph of 

 the supposed farm of Vergil at Pietole makes 

 this clear ; and it makes clear also that if Vergil's 

 home was at Pietole, he must have indulged an 

 audacious imagination in describing it as we have 

 seen he does. 



