the railway crosses the little river Mignone, anciently the Minio, mentioned by Virgil.

'Qui sunt Minionis in arvis.'

-Aen. x. 183.

At its mouth stands the solitary tower of Bertaldo, marking the site of the Roman station Rapinium. It is popularly called S. Agostino from the charming story of the Bishop of Hippo which is associated with the spot.

'While busied in writing his Discourse on the Trinity, S. Augustine wandered along the sea-shore lost in meditation. Suddenly he beheld a child, who, having dug a hole in the sand, appeared to be bringing water from the sea to fill it. Augustine inquired what was the object of his task? He replied, that he intended to empty into this cavity all the waters of the great deep. "Impossible!" exclaimed Augustine. "Not more impossible," replied the child," than for thee, O Augustine! to explain the mystery on which thou art now meditating." -Jameson, Sacred Art.'

After passing Porto Clementino on the left, Corneto1 the Queen of the Maremma '-crowns a long inland ridge of hills with its twenty-five towers, and, beyond it, rises à barren crest, which is the site of ancient Tarquinii.

A winding road ascends from the station, crossing the Aurelia to Corneto, about 1 mile distant. As we near the town its battlemented walls are very picturesque. Close to the gate in Piazza Cavour is the magnificent old Gothic palace of Cardinal Vitelleschi, whose splendid flamboyant windows are so little appreciated by the inhabitants of Corneto, that it has obtained the name of Il Palazzaccio-the great ugly palace. The court-yard has a beautiful cloister, with open galleries above, is now turned into a noble

museum.

Cardinal Vitelleschi, who built this palace, is mentioned by a contemporary chronicler as 'the most valorous captain of his time,' and, for his services as General of the Papal armies, was strangely rewarded with a Cardinal's hat by Eugenius IV. (1431-47). In his honour, also, an equestrian statue was erected in the Capitol by the Roman Senate, with the title of Pater Patriae, which had been bestowed upon Augustus; and, at the same time, because they were his fellow-townsmen, Roman citizenship was conferred upon all the inhabitants of Corneto. After rising to the highest point of prosperity, Cardinal Vitelleschi was suspected of treason by Pope Eugenius, and he was arrested as he was passing the castle of S. Angelo, but received so many wounds in attempting to defend himself and escape, that he died in the fortress, after only four days of imprisonment, in 1440. His shield of arms, with two heifers in allusion to his name, still hangs over his palace gate, and Corneto still possesses the bells of Palestrina, which he carried off, when, by order of that Pontiff, he took and totally destroyed that fortress of the Colonnesi, as it were, in imitation of Boniface VIII., six generations previously.

1 Probably from Cornus arbor, the cornel, which also gave its name to the Cornelian Gens. But this is not certain.