292 
Letters describing Pompeii , Mount Pesuvius, [Nov. 1, 
VIEW TAKEN IN THE RUINS OF POMPEII. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
letters from the south of Italy, 
by a recent Traveller . 
(Continued from No. 358 ,p. 102. J 
LETTER III. 
Naples, July 20,1819. 
I N ray last I described the ruins of 
Pompeii, accompanied by three 
drawings, and I now subjoin another 
view of the ruins, representing the 
house of a dealer in milk, indicated by 
the figure of a she-goat, sculptured on 
the stone. 
The allurements of pleasure, to which 
even the climate transports us, have 
not prevented me from visiting the cu¬ 
rious objects of nature and art dif¬ 
fused around Naples; I have already 
ascended three times to the summit of 
Vesuvius. Can you conceive that a 
great number of Neapolitans have never 
had the curiosity to go to the mountain ? 
Yet such is the fact. The sight of a 
volcano is certainly one of the most 
curious objects in the world. 
The first time that I went with 
my friend, M. Camille Rey, we hired 
mules : but mine proved so bad, that 1 
swore I would go the next time on 
foot. In a frightful road you march for 
some time by the light of torches, the 
smoke of which greatly annoys you. 
As this road is difficult, you genei'ally 
keep behind the guide. On both sides 
are the vines which produce the famous 
wine called Lachryma Christi. After 
marching an hour you come to a tor¬ 
rent of lava about three quarters of a 
mile in breadth. The astonishment 
with which I beheld the first aspect of 
these lavas, ltiakes me despair of giv¬ 
ing you a satisfactory description of 
them. They are huge blocks of black¬ 
ish stone, the surface of which is pierced 
into a number of holes, a sure sign 
that it has formerly boiled out and be¬ 
come cold by the air. If I wished to 
compare the sight of a torrent of lava 
to any thing, it would be to a field of 
heavy land newly ploughed, supposing 
each lump of earth infinitely more sin¬ 
gular than another, more irregular in its 
form, and twenty or thirty times larger. 
These pieces of lava, are in fact, some¬ 
times more than eight or ten feet in 
height. 
Having traversed the torrent, and 
ascended a steep rock, we arrived at 
the Hermitage. It is surrounded bv 
great elms ; these are the last trees of 
the mountain: we could hardly per¬ 
ceive even a few briars. A single her¬ 
mit formerly lived in this place; at 
present there are two and sometimes 
fhree. I don’t know if it is with rea¬ 
son that they are accused of being the 
harbingers of the brigands of Vesuvius. 
You find at the hermitage, bread, fruit 
and 
