LIFE IN AX ISLAND. 81 



out of Capri, with which we started, but it is in ac- 

 cordance with the spirit of our argument to take time 

 on the way. Capri lies in the blue Mediterranean, a 

 kind of everlasting sentinel watching at the entrance 

 of the Bay of Xaples. The early sun rises upon us 

 in the morning over the wild height of St Angelo, on 

 the Sorrento side, and Ischia lies full in his way to 

 the west, and arranges for him a magnificent fore- 

 ground for his final ceremony. But Ischia, and St 

 Angelo, and even the heights of our own island, 

 though more imposing neighbours, are not nearly so 

 ready names upon our lips as are the melodious names 

 of a crowd of good-natured, handsome people, who 

 came pouring down the steep roads to give us the 

 bon viutjr/io when we said farewell to Capri ; for did 

 not farewell to Capri mean farewell to a host of 

 Marias mainly to be distinguished by secondary 

 names to Eosina the alert and skilful, to Carminello 

 and Carminello s mother, to ugly Eaffael, and honest 

 Luigi, and Feliciello handy and handsome 1 Such are 

 the kindly ties that link even a passing visitor to the 

 dear Italian soil ; and indeed, even to the most care- 

 less eye, the race in these regions is worth looking at. 

 Capri is famed for beautiful women ; that is to say, a 

 certain number of years ago several English gentle- 

 men, of various degrees, making the plunge in com- 

 mon, abandoned the usages of society and married 

 Capriote girls, possessed of nothing but beauty not 

 even of those universal faculties which, according to 



VOL. VI. F 



