202 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 
Greenough ! to see how the statue of Washington is 
coming on, but had not time. 
At sunrise I was on the mountain-summits, among 
the clouds, which a strong wind for a moment blew 
_ aside, and gave me some magnificent views. We 
journeyed for some hours in this elevated region, but 
at length crossed the Tuscan frontier and were once 
more in the country of his Holiness. Just as we 
commenced our descent, which is very abrupt, a dense 
fog enveloped us and it began to rain ; in consequence 
of this I lost the view which you often have of the 
Adriatie and the Mediterranean at the same time, as - 
well as the plains of the Po on the north. This was 
the first rain I encountered, excepting a few drops at 
Rome, since I left Lyons; so you may judge of the 
dryness of the climate in the south of France and 
Italy. It is very different, however, near the moun- 
tains. At length, after a long and rapid descent, we 
arrived at the foot of the mountain, and stopped at a 
comfortable inn to take our dinner and breakfast at 
once, it being about two o’clock. Several carriages 
were there before us, and just before I left another 
arrived, bringing with it a most genuine Yankee, who 
amused me excessively. It seems that he came out in 
the Great Western, a few weeks ago, had seen what 
he thought worth seeing in London and Paris, had 
been even to _ Naples, and was now on his way from 
Rome to § 1,and expected to reach London 
to return by steamship in —TI forget how many days! 
But the feat upon which he prided himself above all 
was that he had ascended Vesuvius and come back 
again in—TI don’t remember precisely how many min- 
utes, but in an inconceivably short space of time, and 
1 Horatio Greenough ; the American sculptor in Florence. 
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