interior, consisting generally of two chambers. All the tombs have been rifled, but are strewn with broken pottery; brass arms and scarabei have been found there.

'The doors of the tombs have been engraved high up on the rocks in the Egyptian form, that is, smaller at the top than at the bottom, and they have a broken and defaced, but perfectly visible, rock-cornice above them. These rock-sepulchres joined one another in a continued series; there was indeed fully a mile of them, thirty of which we courted, and the castle valley is met by another towards its centre, and directly opposite the ruin, in which we saw sepulchres in the cliffs on both sides. They were like a street, the dwellings of which correspond to each other. We found beneath each engraved door, if I may use such an expression, an open one, six or eight feet lower, which led into the burial-chamber. It would appear that these cavern mouths had formerly been covered up with earth, and that nothing remained aboveground but the smooth face of the rock, with its false Egyptian door and narrow cornice.

The great interest of Castel d' Asso arises from its having been the ancient Voltumna, the grand gathering place of all the Etruscan tribes, where the national councils were held from the time of their first establishment in Central Italy; frequented on every occasion by the assembled nobles and their trains, by the rulers of each separate state, and by the priests with all the pomp of their gorgeous and awful worship. There the national chief, or dictator, was elected; hence laws were promulgated, and peace and war declared, not by one state only, but by all Etruria, collected for her own internal government, or for defence against her foes; there all those solemn councils were held which required the highest religious sanctions, and the universal national consent a plan of government under which the nation increased and flourished for six centuries, until about fifty years before the building of Rome.

'At the head of the glen is supposed to have stood the great temple in the precincts of which the council assembled, and within which sacrifices were made; and in its immediate vicinity were the rocks dedicated to be the sepulchres of those whom Etruria honoured and mourned—the high captains of the league, the high priests, the distinguished patriots, noted orators, dreaded warriors, or beloved and wise kings; those, in short, to whom the whole nation gave a grateful burial, and for whom they wept.'—Mrs. Hamilton Gray's 'Sepulchres of Etruria.'

The important Etruscan remains of Norchia are 14 miles from Viterbo. A carriage may be used till about 2 miles

beyond the picturesque mediaeval town of Vetralla, which stands finely on an outlying spur of the Ciminian Hills. Travellers occasionally pass the night there, but the inn is most miserable. The Church of S. Maria in Forcassi, called 'Filicassi' by the natives, about a mile from Vetralla, marks the site of Forum Cassii. This was the third station from Rome on the Via Cassia, one of the three roads by which Cicero said he could reach Cisalpine Gaul,' and which passed through the centre of Etruria.2

Norchia is about 4 miles beyond Vetralla. A walk through a forest of brushwood leads to a little ruined Romanesque church, occupying the end of a promontory between two ravines, and marking the site of an ancient village, called Orcle in the 9th century, a name which has

been supposed to come from Hercules, who was worshipped by the Etruscans as Ercle. The church was ruined and the village pulled down at a very early period, when the place was utterly deserted on account of the malaria, and all the inhabitants removed to Vitorchiano. The ravines, beneath the church, abound in sepulchres, but much concealed by brushwood, at great distances from each other, and very difficult to discover. The only way of finding the famous tombs is, after the ruined church is attained, to turn your back upon the path from Vetralla, and observe which is then the first collateral valley on the right; on the other side of that valley are the Temple Tombs.

1 Phil. xii. 9.

2 Etruriam discriminat Cassia.

The banks of this featureless glen, smaller than its neighbours, are covered with wild pear and cistus, and slope on either side to the low ranges of tufa rock which separate it from the flat plain around. Here, on turning a corner, we find two sculptured Doric sepulchres, which recall the monuments of Petra in extreme miniature. The appearance is that of a double tomb, with two massive projecting entablatures, but one part encroaches on the other which is cut away to receive it, so that they are evidently not of the same date. Both are much alike and have been covered with sculptures in the boldest relief. Half of one of the pediments has fallen down, but on the tomb and a half which remain, though much worn by time, the forms of warriors are distinctly visible. One figure seems to have fallen and others are fighting over him; a winged genius is also discernible; and there are remnants of colour over the whole, the groundwork apparently red. The pediments end on either side in a volute, within which is a Gorgon's head. There are traces of pillars having once supported the heavy entablatures. On the mass of tufa below the pediments are traces of more figures, probably once painted, with the armour in low relief. All archaeologists are agreed that both architecture and sculpture are imitations of the Greek. Orioli attributes the monuments to the 4th or 5th century of Rome. The interiors of the tombs are quite devoid of ornament, mere chambers hewn in the tufa.

Bieda is about 4 miles from Vetralla (in the opposite direction from Norchia). It may be reached with donkeys, and is much more worth seeing than either Norchia or Castel d' Asso; as, though exaggerated descriptions have been given of the Etruscan remains, the natural scenery of the place is most beautiful. The road is only a stony, sandy track across rough uplands, with occasional steps in the tufa. After crossing a bridge, it becomes a mere ledge in the face of the precipice, and Bieda is seen hanging, eyrie-like, a

nest of old worn houses on the edge of the cliff, which is furrowed beneath with ranges of rude sepulchres, for the most part mere caves and devoid of ornament. Deep below a little stream murmurs through the ravine. As the Etruscan city of Blera, this place was of considerable importance, and though unapproached by any road, it continued to be so through the middle ages. Two Popes, Paschal II. and Sabinianus, were natives of Blera. The town has still an old gateway, and there is a beautiful well with the arms of the great extinct family of Anguillara in its little piazza. The church was once a cathedral, and there were fourteen bishops of Blera who also ruled over Civita Vecchia and Toscanella. Over its west door is a little figure of the local saint, the 'Divus Viventius,' who was a native of the place, where he officiated first as priest and then as bishop. His shrine is in the crypt (now entered by steps in front of the altar, but once approached by two side staircases), which is supported by fluted marble columns, apparently from a pagan temple. In a side chapel is a Flagellation by Annibale Caracci. In proof of the healthiness of Bieda, the tomb of Joannes Samius is pointed out, who died here in his hundred and eighth year, having been parish-priest for seventy-eight years.

The garden of the Conte di S. Giorgio, the great man of Bieda, is decorated with beautiful vases and amphorae, found in his own scavi. With the purchase of the estates of Bieda, the family of S. Giorgio have acquired almost feudal rights in the place, but their tenure obliges them to reside here at least six months of every year-six months of exile from all civilised life. Opposite the Palazzo S. Giorgio, which is a mere country villa, are the remains of the stately tower of the Anguillara, destroyed by the people three hundred years ago, and its lord murdered, because he insisted on an old baronial right which allowed him to forestall every bridegroom on his estates.

A steep path, a mere cleft in the tufa, leads from the gate near this tower to a famous Etruscan bridge, the 'Ponte del Diavolo,' built of huge blocks of tufa. The

bridge is gone, and only its three arches remain, formed of huge stones, fastened together without cement. The whole is now overgrown with shrubs and most picturesquely overhung with smilax and ivy.

The central arch was a true semicircle thirty feet in space. It has been split throughout its entire length, probably by an earthquake; the blocks, being uncemented, have been much dislocated, but few have fallen. It is clear that this split occurred at an early period; for in crossing the bridge, passengers have been obliged to step clear of the gaps, which in some parts yawn from one to two feet wide, and, by treading in each others' footsteps, have worn holes far deeper than pious knees have done in the steps at à Becket's shrine, or in the Santa Scala at Rome. They have worn a hollow pathway almost through the thick masses of rock, in some spots entirely through—a perpendicular depth of more than three feet.'-Dennis's Cities of Etruria.'

The cliffs beyond the bridge rise to a great height, and the valley is exceedingly beautiful. The rock above a cave close to the bridge is covered with bullet-marks, for by old feudal custom, every inhabitant of Bieda on returning successful from the chase is compelled to discharge his gun against this rock, in order to warn his lord, the Conte di S. Giorgio, who then descends from the height to claim his tithe of the boar's thigh. Without returning into the town, one may follow a path along the hollow, where there is another old bridge. Here, beneath the houses, the cliff is perfectly honey-combed with tombs, many of them used. now as pig-sties or cattle-sheds.

'Here are rows of tombs, side by side, hollowed in the cliff, each with its gaping doorway; here they are in terraces, one above the other, united by flights of steps carved out of the rock; here are masses split from the precipice above, and hewn into tombs, standing out like isolated abodes-shaped, too, into the very forms of houses, with sloping roofs culminating to an apex, overhanging eaves at the gable, and a massive central beam to support the rafters. The angle of the roof is that still usual in Italian buildings—that angle, which being just sufficient to carry off the rain, is naturally suggested in a climate where snow rarely lies a day. On entering any one of the tombs, the resemblance is no less striking. The broad beam carved in relief along the ceilingthe rafters, also in relief, resting on it and sinking gently on either side -the inner chamber in many, lighted by a window on each side of the