On this page
-
Text (3)
-
i ¦ ¦ ¦ '¦'¦¦ ¦ ...'. ' ¦ ¦ . ' ..¦ • ¦ ...
-
TIOKEIGX CORRESPONDENCE. Kome, 14th Apri...
-
* Ulatoire (In CoiisuJat ot do I'JSnwire...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Kecent Pllench Literature.. Tvtovel^ Or ...
para gr aph , a simile , can suffice to introduce such men as St . Fbaitcois ^/ s ^ es , BALSAC . andM . deLamaetine , there will be no reason for condemning any a propos dehottes that may surest itself to another discursive - writer . Everybody , nevertheless-, will read Port i 2 oya £ —everybody will admire that clear and brilliant style \ yliieh is daily becoming more and more inimitable , and that critical acumen which is so peculiar to M . Saixte-Beuve . Amongst the recent publications of note , the seventeenth , volume of JSi . TuiEiis's JUstoire du Comidat et de VEmpire * is unquestionably the most important . But its very importance prevents us from doing more than alluding- to it here . Let us only quote the following curious passage , which the present Emperor of the Fke , nch would do well to consider attentively : — " Napoleont etait dans lc droit international ce que les Jacobins avaient . etc' dans le droit social . Us avaient voulu refaire la societe ' , il avait voulu reiaire l'Europe . Us y avaient employe la guillotine , il y em ploy ait Je canon . Le moven e ' tait infiniment morns odieux et en t on re d ailleurs du prestige de la gloire . II n ' otait guere plus sense . We do not know whether the idea of a new translation of bcmi ,-iee ' s works was suggested to M . HACHETTEf by the centenary festival but it was high time that such an undertaking / ¦ should be attempted M . ¦ Eegsiek has performed most creditably a task for which no one was better qualified , and the volumes already issued leave no room for the closest criticism . In conclusion , we shall notice an amusing ' duodecimo , * in which the Marquis de Mooes ¦ relates- his Souvenirs of the late embassy sent to China by the French -and English Governments . If the French attacheis more sparing of details than Mr . Olimiant , his narrative is still worth reading-, and contains a lively account of the expedition .
I ¦ ¦ ¦ '¦'¦¦ ¦ ...'. ' ¦ ¦ . ' ..¦ • ¦ ...
i ¦ ¦ ¦ '¦'¦¦ ¦ ... ' . ' ¦ ¦ . ' .. ¦ ¦ - ¦ ¦ .. . ¦ . 382 ^ The Leader and Saturday Anal yst . [ April 21 , I 860 .
Tiokeigx Correspondence. Kome, 14th Apri...
TIOKEIGX CORRESPONDENCE . Kome , 14 th April , 1 SGO . "A COUNTRY FAIR . "; : , I ? AR away amongst the Sabine hills—right up the valley of the Teverone , as the Romans now-a-days call the stream which once bore the name of Anio—hard by the- mountain frontier land of Naples—lies the little town of Subiaco . I am not aware that of itself this out-of-the-world nook possesses much claim to notice . Antiquarians , indeed , visited it to search after the traces of a ^ pahice where ifero may or may not have dwelt . Students of ecclesiastical lore make pilgrimages thereto to behold the famous convent of the Santo Speco , the home of the Benedictine order . In summer time , the Eonuiiv artists ' wander out here to take shelter from the burning heals of the Hat Campagna land , « nnd to sketch the wild Svlvatok Rosa scenery which hems in . the town on every side . I cannot say , however ; that it was love of antiquities , or divinity , or scenery / which led my steps Subiaco-wards . The motive of iny journey was of a less [ romantic and more matter-of-fact character . Some few days ago , a yellow plny-bill-looking placard caught iny eye as I strolled down the Corso . A perusal of its contents informed me that , on the approaching feast day of St . Benedict , there . was to be held at Subiaco the annual festa e fiera . Many and various were the attractions offered . There was to be ahorse race , a tombola , or open lottery , an illumination , display of fireworks , high mass , and , more than ail , a public procession , in which the sacred image of St . Benedict was to be carried from the convent to the town . Such a bill of fare was irresistible , even had there not been added to it the desire to escape from the close , muggy climate of Home into the fresh mountain air , a desire whoso intensity nothing but a long residence here can enable one to appreciate . Subiaco is some forty odd miles from Home , and , amongst the petty towns of "the Papal States , is a place of small importance . The means of CQmmunication , however , with the metropolis are of the scantiest . Two or three times a week , a sort of Italian JEilioagen ,. a funereal and tumble-down , flea-ridden coach , with windows boarded up so high that you cannot , seated , see out of them , and closed hermetically , after Italian fashion , shambles along at a jogtrot pace between the two towns , and takes a ljvolong clay , from early dawn till late at night , to perform the journey . Other public mode of transit there ib none ; and therefore , not having . patience for , tho diligence , I had to travel in a private conveyance , and if there had boon any one else going to tho fair from Rome , which there was not , they must perforce have done tho same As to tho details of tho journey , and the scenei'y through which you paps , aro they not written in tho book of MukkalY , wherein whoso likea may rend ? Ib is enough for me to note one or two facts , which tell their own story . Throughout tho forty and odd miles of the rood I traversed , I novor passed through a single village 1 or town , with the exception of Tivoli j and between that town and Rome , a distonoo of twenty miles , never oven caught sight of ono . After Tivoli , whoa the rond enters the mountains , there are a dozen small towns or so , all porched on the summits of high \\\\ h , under which , the road winds and passes , Detached houses or cottages there nro , as a rule , none—certainly not hnH-a « dozen in all tho whole way along . There was little appearance of traffic anywhere . A few rough carts , loaded with ohnrcoal oi' stone for tho Roman markets—strings of mules , almost buried beneath high piles of brushwood , which wero
swuno- panier-wise [ across them , and a score of peasants mounted on rou 4 i country horses ,. and jogging towards the fair , , constituted-. ; the waybill of the road . The mountain slopes were apparently altogether barren , or at any rate uncultivated , i In the plain oj the . vallev bearing traces of recent inundation from the torrent brook which ' ran alongside the road in strange zigzag ^ windings , were a number of poorly-tilled fields , half covered with stones I could see no traces of ¦ anything but hard labour ; and the peasants , who were workin- listlessly ^ seemed unequal to the labour oi cultivating such thankless lands . Personally , the men are a fine race enough ; but the traces of the malaria fever , the sunken features and livid complexion , were painfully " common ; their dress too , was worn , ragged . and dirty , while the boys constantly left their work to beg a * I passed by , a fact whieh , considering how little frequented this district is by strangers , struck me unpleasantly With my Lnghsh recollections of what " going to the fair " used to be I looked , but in vain , for farmers' carts or holiday-dressed pedestrians going towards Subiaco . I did not meet one carriage of any description , except the diliirence without apassenger , and could not have guessed , : from the few knots of peasants I passed , that there was anything ~ oing on in what I suppose 1 may call the county town o ( the district . By the time Ireadied Subiaco , the . tu-st day . of tl . e fanwas at its hei-ht . The topography of the place is of the simplest description—a narrow street running up a . steep lull , with a small market-place , on which stands a church at toe summit half-a-dozen cul-de-sac- alleys on the right , terminated by the Wall that hems m the torrent at their feet , a long series of flights -of broken steps on the left , leading to a dilapidated castle where . the -Cardinftl Legate ou-ht to reside ^ -such are the main features of the town . In fact it you fancy Skinner's Street , Holborn Hill , shrunk to about a quarter of its width , all its houses reduced to the condition ot that gaunt corner house which has excited my ungraded , curiosity tor years past Newgate Gaol replaced by the fasade of a dmgy Italian church , the dimensions of the locale .. considerably decayed , and a small section of the dark , alleys between Farringdon Street and the prison cut off by the Fleet ditch , uncovered , you will have a very iair impression of the town of Subiaco . _;¦ ¦¦ ¦ _ . 1 f The fair , such as it was , was confined to this High Street , and to the little square at its head . The street Was ti led with people , chiefly men , bartering at the cloors of the unwindowed shops Averv small crowd would fill so small a place , but T think there could hnrdlv have been less than a thousand persons . Cutlery and hosiery of the rudest kind . seemed to be the . great articles ot ; commerce There were , of course , an" office for the . Pupal Lottery , which did a good trade , aix itinerant vendor of quack medicines , and a few scattered stalls ( not a single booth , by the way ) , where shoes , and caps and pots and pans were sold by hucksters of -Jewish ph . YS . iqn-nom . yi Lean , black-bristled pigs ran at every , tep between your legs , and . young kids , slung across their nwiiers . shouluers , with tla > ir heads downwards , bleated piteously . The only . sights ot a private description were a series of deformed beggars , drawn in go-carts , and wriggling with the most hideous contortions : but tire fat woman , and the infant with two heads , and the learned dog , were nowhere visible . There was not even an . organ-boy or a hurdy-gurdy . Music , alas ! like prophecy , has no honour m its own country . The crowd was of a very humble description ; the number of bonnets or hats visible wight be counted on one ' s linger ? , » wl tno fancy peasant costumes , of which Snbiaco fair is sa : d to be iliu great rendezvous , were Scarcely more in number . There was very little animation apparent of any kind , vory little of gesticulation , or s . tm less of shoutiiig-. Indeed , tho crowd , to do them justice , were perfectly quiet and well behaved . The party , to which I belonged , antl which consisted of several Englishmen , all mpro or less . attired . in those outIhndfeh costumes which none but Englishmen ever weai , and no Englishman ever thinks of woimug in his own country , excited no qomment whatever , and scarcely attracted a pus » ino glance . Fancy what the effect would be of four bloused and bearded Frenchmen strolling 1 arm in arm through a village wake . . By tho time I had passed through tho fuir , tho guns , or vutnei two most debilitated old fowling-pieces , wero firing us a signal wi the race . Tho horses wore the sivme rts those run at the Carnnai races in Home ; and as tho only difference was that the couwe , besides being over bard slippery stones , was also up ft very sttjep nm , mid the race therefore somewhat more cruel ,. I did not wait to . see it , but wandorocl up the hill to hoar tho vesper service at . tlio convent of tho Santo Specor I should have been sorry to have inidBed t . ijo service . Through a number of winding passage * , up ilignta oi uiurow steps , and by terrace ledges cut from the rook on w ^ j " . ];" stood , and overhanging tho river sido , wo camo to a vnuii-i "" chapel , with low Saraeonio arches and qunint old dark recesses , ft »« a dim , shadowy air of mystery . Round tho candlo ^ ightcil ui »» standing brightly from out tho darkness , knelt , hi uvery » osll " * £ some seventy monks ; and over and anon tho dreary niwnl eliain o ooased , and a strain of real murfp camo from out tho l » u don e o »» rising and dying fitfully . Tho whole souno was buuuti iil onouM » , but—what a pity that in everything there should ho a but . —wm » yoxi came to look on ib in the light of a service , the charm pawoa away . There werp plenty of performers , but no uudienco . j »« qongrogatiou consiflted of four peasant women , two men , nn « * oliild in arms . Tho town below was , crowded . Tho service w . iw one of tho ohiof ones in the year , but somohow or other the poopi « stopped away . , , ,, ,,, , nf Whon tho muflio was ovor , I was showix throug h tho eonvorn .. There wero , of convso , tho stock marvels s a holo throng iwj » you looked and , behold n—shall X call it eaorod P—picture oI » ata >» with horns nnd hoofs oomplotoj a email plot of ground wnoro w ™
* Ulatoire (In Coiisujat Ot Do I'Jsnwire...
* Ulatoire ( In CoiisuJat ot do I'JSnwire . l ' ar M , A . Tiuers . 8 vo . Vol . XVII . ¦ f ClSuin'os o 8 (? hlUor > Trnduotion N ~ ouvo / le . Par Ail , llKcmiun , } Sfom-} ixo clo l'lnstltut . I » ftris ofc Londroa . Maohotto . 8 vp . Vols . I . to VI . ^ fi ' nuvcniva 'd ' ww jlin f fasfwdo m CMvo et an JPajpan en 1067 ct , 1868 , Pur lo AInvquis PK Mqoks . Paris ot Londres , Iliighotto . 12 mo .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), April 21, 1860, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21041860/page/18/
-