DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0230
chap, xlii.] THE CECINA.—POMARANCE.—CASTELNUOVO. 213
where the deep wells and the evaporating factories are
well worthy of inspection. Through the hollow flows the
Cecina of classical renown,3 a small stream in a wide
sandy bed, between wooded banks, and here spanned, to
my astonishment, by a suspension bridge,—verily, as the
natives say, " una gran bella cosa !" in the midst of this
wilderness. From the wooded heights beyond, a magni-
ficent view of Volterra, with her mural diadem, is obtained.
A few miles further is Pomarance, a clean neat town, by
moonlight at least, which is all I can vouch for, but, as
the proverb saith, " What seems a Hon at night may prove
but an ape in the morning—"
La sera lione,
La mattina babbione.
Pomarance is said to have a comfortable inn. Let the
traveller then, who would halt the night somewhere on
this road, remember the same, especially if it be his in-
tention to visit the singular, interesting, and celebrated
borax-works of Monte Cerboli, about four miles distant.4
At Castelnuovo, a village some ten or twelve miles beyond
Pomarance, I can promise him little comfort, as he will
find, if he have my lot, his bed fully preoccupied, and the
mind of his host also preoccupied with extravagant
notions of the wealth and pluckability of the English. All
this district, even beyond Castelnuovo and Monterotondo,
is boracic, and the hills on every hand are ever shooting
3 Pliny (III. 8) shows that the river it as a river, as Cluver (II. p. 469)
had the same name in his time, " fluvius opines, who would read the passage—
Cseeinna,"—how much earlier we know " Etrusca et loca et flumina," instead of
not; but probably from very remote the current version—" loca et nomina."
times. Mela (II. 4) speaks of it among * A good description of these works
the towns on this coast. But he may is given in Murray's Hand-book. See
have cited " Cecina," instead of Vada also Repetti, w. Lagoni, Monte Cerboli,
Volaterrana, the port which was near Pomarance.
its mouth ; or he may have referred to
where the deep wells and the evaporating factories are
well worthy of inspection. Through the hollow flows the
Cecina of classical renown,3 a small stream in a wide
sandy bed, between wooded banks, and here spanned, to
my astonishment, by a suspension bridge,—verily, as the
natives say, " una gran bella cosa !" in the midst of this
wilderness. From the wooded heights beyond, a magni-
ficent view of Volterra, with her mural diadem, is obtained.
A few miles further is Pomarance, a clean neat town, by
moonlight at least, which is all I can vouch for, but, as
the proverb saith, " What seems a Hon at night may prove
but an ape in the morning—"
La sera lione,
La mattina babbione.
Pomarance is said to have a comfortable inn. Let the
traveller then, who would halt the night somewhere on
this road, remember the same, especially if it be his in-
tention to visit the singular, interesting, and celebrated
borax-works of Monte Cerboli, about four miles distant.4
At Castelnuovo, a village some ten or twelve miles beyond
Pomarance, I can promise him little comfort, as he will
find, if he have my lot, his bed fully preoccupied, and the
mind of his host also preoccupied with extravagant
notions of the wealth and pluckability of the English. All
this district, even beyond Castelnuovo and Monterotondo,
is boracic, and the hills on every hand are ever shooting
3 Pliny (III. 8) shows that the river it as a river, as Cluver (II. p. 469)
had the same name in his time, " fluvius opines, who would read the passage—
Cseeinna,"—how much earlier we know " Etrusca et loca et flumina," instead of
not; but probably from very remote the current version—" loca et nomina."
times. Mela (II. 4) speaks of it among * A good description of these works
the towns on this coast. But he may is given in Murray's Hand-book. See
have cited " Cecina," instead of Vada also Repetti, w. Lagoni, Monte Cerboli,
Volaterrana, the port which was near Pomarance.
its mouth ; or he may have referred to