to his villa. Rustica is pronounced short, not according to our stress upon-"Usticæ cubantis." It is more rational to think that we are wrong, than that the inhabitants of this secluded valley have changed their tone in this word. The addition of the consonant prefixed is nothing: yet it is necessary to be aware that Rustica may be a modern name which the peasants may have caught from the antiquaries.

The peasants show another spring near the mosaic
pavement, which they call "Oradina," and which
flows down the hills into a tank, or mill-dam, and
thence trickles over into the Digentia.
But we must not hope

"To trace the Muses upwards to their spring," by exploring the windings of the romantic valley in search of the Bandusian fountain. It seems strange that any one should have thought Bandusia The villa, or the mosaic, is in a vineyard on a a fountain of the Digentia-Horace has not let drop knoll covered with chestnut-trees. A stream uns a word of it; and this immortal spring has in fact down the valley; and although it is not true, as said been discovered in possession of the holders of in the guide-books, that this stream is called Limany good things in Italy, the monks. It was cenza, yet there is a village on a rock at the head attached to the church of St. Gervais and Protais, of the valley which is so denominated, and which near Venusia, where it was most likely to be may have taken its name from the Digentia. Li- found. (2) We shall not be so lucky as a late tracenza contains 700 inhabitants. On a peak a little veller in finding the occasional pine still pendent way beyond is Civitella, containing 300. On the on the poetic villa. There is not a pine in the banks of the Anio, a little before you turn up into whole valley, but there are two cypresses, which Valle Rustica, to the left, about an hour from the he evidently took, or mistook, for the tree in the villa, is a town called Vicovaro, another favour-ode. (3) The truth is, that the pine is now, as it able coincidence with the Varia of the poet. At was in the days of Virgil, a garden tree, and it was the end of the valley, towards the Anio, there is a not at all likely to be found in the craggy acclibare hill, crowned with a little town called Bardela.vities of the valley of Rustica. Horace probably At the foot of this hill the rivulet of Licenza flows, and is almost absorbed in a wide sandy bed before it reaches the Anio. Nothing can be more fortunate for the lines of the poet, whether in a metaphorical

or direct sense :

"Me quotiens reficit gelidus Digentia rivus,
Quem Mandela bibit rugosus frigore pagus."

The stream is clear high up the valley, but, before
it reaches the hill of Bardela, looks green and
yellow, like a sulphur rivulet.

Rocca Giovane, a ruined village in the hills, half an hour's walk from the vineyard where the pavement is shown, does seem to be the site of the fane of Vacuna, and an inscription found there tells that this temple of the Sabine Victory was repaired by Vespasian. (1) With these helps, and a position corresponding exactly to every thing which the poet has told us of his retreat, we may feel tolerably secure of our site.

The hill which should be Lucretilis is called Campanile, and, by following up the rivulet to the pretended Bandusia, you come to the roots of the higher mountain Gennaro. Singularly enough, the only spot of ploughed land in the whole valley

is on the knoll where this Bandusia rises :"... tu frigus amabile

(1)

Fessis vomere tauris
Præbes, et pecori vago."

IMP. CESAR VESPASIANVS
PONTIFEX MAXIMVS. TRIB.
POTEST. CENSOR, ÆDEM
VICTORIE. VETVSTATE ILLAPSAM.
SVA. IMPENSA. RESTITVIT.

had one of them in the orchard close above his farm, immediately overshadowing his villa, not on the rocky heights at some distance from his abode. The tourist may have easily supposed himself to have seen this pine figured in the above cypresses; for the orange and lemon trees which throw such a bloom over his description of the royal gardens at Naples, unless they have been since displaced, were assuredly only acacias and other common garden shrubs. (4)

XXXII.

EUSTACE'S CLASSICAL TOUR.

The extreme disappointment experienced by choosing the Classical Tourist as a guide in Italy must be allowed to find vent in a few observations, which, it is asserted without fear of contradiction, will be confirmed by every one who has selected the same conductor through the same country. This author is in fact one of the most inaccurate, unsatisfactory writers that have in our times attained a temporary reputation, and is very seldom to be must be presumed to have seen. His errors, trusted even when he speaks of objects which he from the simple exaggeration to the downright mis-statement, are so frequent as to induce a suspicion that he had either never visited the spots described, or

(2) See Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold, p. 43.

(3) See Eustace's Classical Tour, etc. chap. vii p. 250. vol. ii. (4) "Under our windows, and bordering on the beach, is the royal garden, laid out in parterres, and walks shaded by rows of orange-trees." Classical Tour, etc. chap. xi. vol. ii. oct. 368.

bad trusted to the fidelity of former writers. Indeed, the Classical Tour has every characteristic of a mere compilation of former notices, strung together upon a very slender thread of personal observation, and swelled out by those decorations which are so easily supplied by a systematic adoption of all the common-places of praise, applied to every thing, and therefore signifying nothing.

The style which one person thinks cloggy and cumbrous, and unsuitable, may be to the taste of others; and such may experience some salutary excitement in ploughing through the periods of the Classical Tour. It must be said, however, that polish and weight are apt to beget an expectation of value, It is amongst the pains of the damned to toil up a climax with a huge round stone.

ment, or governors, is meant to be here offered; but it is stated as an incontrovertible fact, that the change operated, either by the address of the late imperial system, or by the disappointment of every expectation by those who have succeeded to the Italian thrones, has been so considerable, and is so apparent, as not only to put Mr. Eustace's antigallican philippics entirely out of date, but even to throw some suspicion upon the competency and candour of the author himself. A remarkable example may be found in the instance of Bologna, over whose papal attachments, and consequent desolation, the tourist pours forth such strains of condolence and revenge, made louder by the borrowed trumpet of Mr. Burke. Now Bologna is at this moment, and has been for some years, notorious amongst the states of Italy for its attachment to revolutionary principles, and was almost the only city which made any demonstrations in favour of the unfortunate Murat. This change may, however, have been made since Mr. Eustace visited this country; but the traveller whom he has thrilled with horror at the projected stripping of the copper from the cupola of St. Peter's, must be much relieved to find that sacrilege out of the power of the French, or any other plunderers, the cupola being covered with lead. (1)

The tourist had the choice of his words, but there was no such latitude allowed to that of his sentiments. The love of virtue and of liberty, which must have distinguished the character, certainly adorns the pages of Mr. Eustace; and the gentlemanly spirit, so recommendatory either in an author or his productions, is very conspicuous throughout the Classical Tour. But these generous qualities are the foliage of such a performance, and may be spread about it so prominently and profusely, as to embarrass those who wish to see and find the fruit at hand. The unction of the divine, and the ex- If the conspiring voice of otherwise rival critics hortations of the moralist, may have made this work had not given considerable currency to the Classomething more and better than a book of travels,sical Tour, it would have been unnecessary to but they have not made it a book of travels; and this observation applies more especially to that enticing method of instruction conveyed by the perpetual introduction of the same Gallic Helot to reel and bluster before the rising generation, and terrify it into decency by the display of all the excesses of the Revolution. An animosity against atheists and regicides in general, and Frenchmen specifically, may be honourable, and may be useful as a record; but that antidote should either be administered in any work rather than a tour, or, at least, should be served up apart, and not so mixed with the whole mass of information and reflection, as to give a bit-Florentine publishers, who had been persuaded by terness to every page for who would choose to have the antipathies of any man, however just, for his travelling companions? A tourist, unless he aspires to the credit of prophecy, is not answerable for the changes which may take place in the country which he describes; but his reader may very fairly esteem all his political portraits and deductions as so much waste paper, the moment they cease to assist, and more particularly if they obstruct, his

actual survey.

Neither encomium nor accusation of any govern

(1) "What, then, will be the astonishment, or rather the horror, of my reader, when I inform him.......... the French Committee turned its attention to Saint Peter's, and employed a company of Jews to estimate and purchase the gold, silver, and bronze

warn the reader, that however it may adorn his library, it will be of little or no service to him in his carriage; and if the judgment of those critics had hitherto been suspended, no attempt would have been made to anticipate their decision. As it is, those who stand in the relation of posterity to Mr. Eustace may be permitted to appeal from cotemporary praises, and are perhaps more likely to be just in proportion as the causes of love and hatred are the farther removed. This appeal had, in some measure, been made before the above remarks were written; for one of the most respectable of the

the repeated inquiries of those on their journey southwards to reprint a cheap edition of the Classical Tour, was, by the concurring advice of returning travellers, induced to abandon his design, although he had already arranged his types and paper, and had struck off one or two of the first sheets.

The writer of these notes would wish to part (like Mr. Gibbon) on good terms with the Pope and the Cardinals, but he does not think it necessary to extend the same discreet silence to their humble partisans.

that adorn the inside of the edifice, as well as the copper that covers the vaults and dome on the outside." Chap. iv. p. 130, vol. ii. The story about the jews is positively denied at Rome.

Hints from Horace;

(1)

BEING AN ALLUSION, IN ENGLISH VERSE, TO THE EPISTLE AD PISONES, DE ARTE POETICA AND INTENDED AS A SEQUEL TO "ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS.

some omissions of names and passages, it will do; and I could pu my late observations for Pope amongst the notes. As far as versi fication goes, it is good; and, in looking back at what I wrot about that period, I am astonished to see how little I have traine on. I wrote better then than now; but that comes of my havin fallen into the atrocious bad taste of the times." On hearing however, that, in Mr. Hobhouse's opinion, the iambics wou! require "a good deal of slashing" to suit the times, the notion o printing them was once more abandoned. They were first pub lished, therefore, in 1831, seven years after the poet's death

(1) Authors are apt, it is said, to estimate their performances more according to the trouble they have cost themselves, than the pleasure they afford to the public; and it is only in this way that we can pretend to account for the extraordinary value which Lord Byron attached, even many long years after they were written, to these Hints from Horace. The business of translating Horace has hitherto been a hopeless one; and notwithstanding the brilliant cleverness of some passages, in both Pope's and Swift's Imitations of him, there had been, on the whole, very little to encourage any one to meddle seriously even with that less difficult department. It is, comparatively, an easy-E. affair to transfer the effect, or something like the effect, of the majestic declamations of Juvenal; but the Horatian satire is cast in a mould of such exquisite delicacy - uniting perfect ease with perfect elegance throughout-as has hitherto defied all the skill of the moderns. Lord Byron, however, having composed this piece at Athens, in 1811, and brought it home in the same desk with the first two cantos of Childe Harold, appears to have, on his arrival in London, contemplated its publication as far more likely to increase his reputation than that of his original poem. Perhaps Milton's preference of the Paradise Regained over the Paradise Lost is not a more decisive example of the extent to which a great author may mistake the source of his greatness.

(2) The date of this Satire has given rise to Moore's astonishmen that Byron, "as if in utter defiance of the 'genius loci,'" shoul have penned in such a place such a production, "impregnated a it is with London life from beginning to end."-E.

(3) In an English newspaper, which finds its way abroa wherever there are Englishmen, I read an account of this dirt dauber's caricature of Mr. H—— as a “beast," and the consequer action, etc. The circumstance is, probably, too well known require further comment.-[The gentleman here alluded to w: Thomas Hope, the author of Anastasius, and one of the mo munificent patrons of art this country ever possessed. Having somehow, offended an unprincipled French painter, by nam Dubost, that adventurer revenged himself by a picture calle "Beauty and the Beast," in which Mr. Hope and his lady wer represented according to the well-known fairy story. The pictur had too much malice not to succeed; and, to the disgrace of Job Bull, the exhibition of it is said to have fetched thirty pounds in day. A brother of Mrs. Hope thrust his sword through the car vass; and M. Dubost had the consolation to get five pounds da

Lord Byron was prevented from publishing these lines, by a feeling which, considering his high notion of their merit, does him honour. By accident, or nearly so, the Harold came out before the Hints; and the reception of the former was so flattering to Lord Byron, that it could scarcely fail to take off, for the time, the edge of his appetite for literary bitterness. In short, he found himself mixing constantly in society with persons who had- from good sense, or good-nature, or from both-overlooked the petu-mages. The affair made much noise at the time, though Mr. Hop lancies of his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, and felt, as he said, that he should be "heaping coals of fire on his head" if he were to persist in bringing forth a continuation of his juvenile lampoon. Nine years had passed ere he is found writing thus to Mr. Murray:-"Get from Mr. Hobhouse, and send me, a proof of my Hints frem Horace: it has now the nonum prematur in annum complete for its production. I have a notion that, with

had not then placed himself on that seat of literary eminend
which he afterwards attained. Probably, indeed, no man's rep
tation in the world was ever so suddenly and completely altere
as his was by the appearance of his magnificent romance
-E.

(4) "Moschus."—In the original MS., "Hobhouse."-E.
(5) "All artists."-Originally, "We scribblers."-E.

Sed non ut placidis coëant immitia; non ut
Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni.
Incœptis gravibus plerumque et magna professis
Purpureus, late quí splendeat, unus et alter
Assuitur pannus; cum lucus et ara Dianæ,
Et properantis aquæ per amœnos ambitur agros,
Aut flumen Rhenum, aut pluvius describitur arcus.
Sed nunc non erat his locus; et fortasse cupressum
Seis simulare: quid hoc, si fractis enatat exspes
Navibus, ære dato qui pingitur ? amphora cœpit
Institui; currente rotâ cururceus exit?
Denique sit quod vis, simplex duntaxat et unum.
Maxima pars vatum, pater, et juvenes patre digni,
Decipimur specie recti. Brevis esse laboro,
Obscurus fio: sectantem levia, nervi
Deficiunt animique: professus grandia, turget:
Serpit humi, tutus nimium, timidusque procellæ.
Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam,
Delphinum sylvis appingit, fluctibus aprum.

In vitium ducit culpæ fuga, si caret arte.
Emilium circa ludum faber unus et ungues
Exprimet, et molles imitabitur ære capillos;

(1) "Where pure description held the place of sense."-Pope. (2) "This is pointed, and felicitously expressed."-Moore. (5) Mere common mortals were commonly content with one tailor and with one bill, but the more particular gentlemen found it impossible to confide their lower garments to the makers of their body-clothes. I speak of the beginning of 1809 : what re- |

(1) Old ballads, old plays, and old women's stories, are at pre-whom, like Pope, it is the present fashion to decry, will ever be sent in as much request as old wine or new speeches. In fact, this is the millennium of black letter: thanks to our Hebers, Webers, and Scotts!-[There was considerable malice in thus putting Weber, a poor German hack, a mere amanuensis of Sir Walter Scott, between the two other names.-E.]

(2) Mac Flecknoe, the Dunciad, and all Swift's lampooning ballads. Whatever their other works may be, these originated in personal feelings, and angry retort on unworthy rivals; and though the ability of these satires elevates the poetical, their poignancy detracts from the personal, character of the writers. -[For particulars of Dryden's feud with his successor in the laureateship, Shadwell, whom he has immortalised under the name of Mac Flecknoe, and also as Og in the second part of Absalom and Achitophel, and for the literary squabbles in-["Cicero also," says Addison, "has sprinkled several of his which Swift and Pope were engaged, the reader must turn to the lives and works of these three great writers. See also Mr. D'Israeli's painfully interesting book on The Quarrels of Authors.-E.]