Etruscan citadel, to which many of the tombs in its rockbarriers may have belonged.

'This celebrated city, unlike the other rivals of Rome, has preserved entire the circuit of her ancient walls. Not one ancient building is standing within them: they have survived all that they were erected to defend. It is very fine to see the enormous masses of travertine masonry glowing in the rays of the setting sun, and throwing their long purple shadows on the bright fresh green of the spring grass and blossoming thickets. And most of all, where the walls, skirting one of the deep glens, are built down even into its depths, presenting a face of solid masonry not less than fifty feet in height. One longs to have a painter there, to catch the warm glow of the great wall, lichened and weather-stained, as it descends into the verdure, and then into the deep shadow of the underlying ravine; then the same is again repeated, but with all the varieties of receding colour, as, promontory after promontory, the defences run up the glen; till at length a barrier of high rocks closes in its head, over which, after a belt of wooded country, rises the graceful group of Soracte, in loveliest, tenderest blue. But no painter can give us the fragrance of the spring flowers which fills the air, nor the gushing notes of many nightingales from the balmy thickets below.'-Dean Alford.

On the first of May we drove out from Civita Castellana to spend the day upon Soracte, emerging from the town. through an Etruscan cutting in the rock, which is lined with tombs. The excursion is a very easy one, though when we made it the stone bridges in the hollow had all been washed away in a flood, and a man had to be sent on to help in taking our horses out and in drawing our carriage over a temporary wooden structure.

No drive can be uninteresting with such an object as Soracte before one, ever becoming more defined. Those who look at it from Rome have no idea whatever of the majestic character of the mountain as seen from this side, where it rises abruptly in the midst of the rich green plain

of the table-land. Dennis compares it to the rock of Gib. raltar. Ampère says that it resembles a blue island in the Aegean Sea. At first it is a sharp blue wedge against the sky, darkened by the woods with which it is covered, then it lengthens out into several peaks of sharp cliff succeeding one another and crowned by white convents and hermitages. The lower slopes are rich and green. They melt gradually into thick olive groves, which terminate in steeps of bare grey rock, white and dazzling when the sun falls upon them.

It is a mark of a severe winter when Soracte is capped with snow :

and, thus crested, it is the most beautiful feature in the wellknown view from the terrace of the Pamfili-Doria villa at Rome. But all the snow will have melted before the charms of the fresh spring have attracted visitors to Civita Castellana, and its lower slopes will be breaking into such a loveliness of tender green as is quite indescribable. Though of no great altitude, Soracte, from its isolation, its form, and its glorious colour, is far more impressive than many mountains which are five times its height.

'Athos, Olympus, Etna, Atlas, made

These hills seem things of lesser dignity,

All, save the lone Soracte's height, displayed
Not now in snow, which asks the lyric Roman's aid
For our remembrance, and from out the plain
Heaves like a long-swept wave about to break,

And on the crest hangs pausing.'

Byron, Childe Harold,' c. iv.

Separated from the main mass of the mountain on the Roman side is an attendant rock supporting the picturesque little town of Sant' Oreste, which has given its modern name to Soracte. At the foot of this smaller hill is the fountain of Felonica, marking the site of Feronia, where the peasants of the surrounding districts offered their firstfruits to the

great Sabine goddess, who would seem to have been identical with Proserpine.

'The most important of all the Italian fairs was that which was held at Soracte in the grove of Feronia, a situation than which none could be found more favourable for the exchange of commodities among the three great nations. That high isolated mountain, which appears to have been set down by Nature herself in the midst of the plain of the Tiber as a goal for the pilgrim, lay on the boundary which separated the Etruscan and Sabine lands (to the latter of which it appears mostly

to have belonged), and it was likewise easily accessible from Latium and Umbria. Roman merchants regularly made their appearance there, and the wrongs of which they complained gave rise to many a quarrel with the Sabines.'—Mommsen's Hist. of Rome,' ch. xiii.

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It was narrated by Strabo, that pilgrims to Feronia, possessed with her spirit, could walk with bare feet, uninjured, over burning coals. The goddess was honoured with such valuable offerings of gold and silver, that Hannibal thought it worth while to turn aside hither, to plunder the famous shrine.

'Annibal alla au pied du Soracte piller le sanctuaire de Féronia les paysanes capenates, aussi dévotes à la grande déesse sabine que leurs descendants peuvent l'être à Saint Oreste, offraient à ce sanctuaire célèbre les prémices de leurs moissons. Elle recevait aussi des offrandes en or et en argent. Annibal traita le sanctuaire de Féronia comme le général Buonaparte devait traiter un jour le sanctuaire de NotreDame de Lorette: il le dépouilla.'—Ampère, Hist. Rome,' iii. 100.

It

A carriage can ascend the mountain as far as S. Oreste, and here we left it near the gate of the town and followed a foot-path, which turns up to the left by a small chapel. is about two miles to the top. Most of the convents are in ruins. S. Lucia is the first which comes in sight, on the crest of the nearest peak, then S. Romana on the eastern slope. Then, by the pilgrims' road, which winds through an avenue of ancient ilexes and elms, we reached the gates of S. Maria delle Grazie. The long drive, and the steep walk in the great heat, had made us faint with hunger and thirst. The monks came out with wine, and slices of Bologna sausage and delicious coarse bread, to a room at the gate, for ladies are not allowed to enter the walls, and never was refreshment more acceptable. There are only thirteen monks now, who live an active life of charity, and whose

advice and instruction are widely sought by the country. people around. There is little fear of their suppression, as they have scarcely any finances, and their humble dwellings on the bare crag, far from all human habitations, could not be sold for anything, and would be useless to the present Government. Those we saw were a grand group: one, a tall and commanding figure with handsome face and flashing eyes, told us of the peace and blessing he received from his solitary life here, and of the ever-growing interest of the place and all its associations; another, of a coarse common expression, spoke in murmuring tones, and was sceptical about all his stories, which he wound up always by E tradizione;' a third was an old venerable man of eighty-six, who had passed his life in these solitudes, a life so evidently given up to prayer, that his spirit seemed only half to belong to earth. We spoke to him of the change which was coming over the monastic life, but he did not murmurÈ la volontà di Dio ;' only when he talked of the great poverty of the people from the present taxation, and of their reduced means of helping them, he lamented a little. He said the people came to him every day, and they asked why they had such sufferings to bear, that they had been quite happy before, and had never wished or sought for any change; and that he urged them to patience and prayer, and to the faith that though outward events might change and earthly comforts be swept away, God, who led His children by mysterious teaching which we could not fathom, was Himself always the same.

The three monks went with us to the top, where the temple of Apollo, the 'guardian of the holy Soracte,' formerly stood, and where the Hirpini, as the people of the