DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0368
340
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. IX.
If this description be accurate, it is singular
that no trace should now remain of all these
splendid monuments. No mounds nor remnants
of walls, no mouldering heaps of ruins, scarce
even a solitary tomb, has survived the general
wreck. On the contrary, beyond Nepi, or rather
beyond Monte Rosi the next stage, the Cam-
pagna di Roma begins to expand its dreary
solitudes; and naked hills, and swampy plains
rise, and sink by turns, without presenting a
single object worth attention. It must not,
however, be supposed, that no vegetation deco-
rates these dreary wilds. On the contrary, ver-
dure but seldom interrupted, occasional corn
fields, and numerous herds and flocks, communi-
cate some degree of animation to these regions
otherwise so desolate: but descending from
mountains the natural seat of barrenness, where
still we witnessed rural beauty and high cultiva-
tion, to a plain in the neighborhood of a populous
city, where we might naturally expect the per-
fection of gardening and all the bustle of life,
we were struck with the wide waste that spreads
around, and wondered what might be the cause
that deprived so extensive a tract of its inhabi-
tants. But neatness and population announce
the neighborhood of every common town; they
are the usual accompaniments of Capitals, and
excite no interest. The solitude that encircles
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. IX.
If this description be accurate, it is singular
that no trace should now remain of all these
splendid monuments. No mounds nor remnants
of walls, no mouldering heaps of ruins, scarce
even a solitary tomb, has survived the general
wreck. On the contrary, beyond Nepi, or rather
beyond Monte Rosi the next stage, the Cam-
pagna di Roma begins to expand its dreary
solitudes; and naked hills, and swampy plains
rise, and sink by turns, without presenting a
single object worth attention. It must not,
however, be supposed, that no vegetation deco-
rates these dreary wilds. On the contrary, ver-
dure but seldom interrupted, occasional corn
fields, and numerous herds and flocks, communi-
cate some degree of animation to these regions
otherwise so desolate: but descending from
mountains the natural seat of barrenness, where
still we witnessed rural beauty and high cultiva-
tion, to a plain in the neighborhood of a populous
city, where we might naturally expect the per-
fection of gardening and all the bustle of life,
we were struck with the wide waste that spreads
around, and wondered what might be the cause
that deprived so extensive a tract of its inhabi-
tants. But neatness and population announce
the neighborhood of every common town; they
are the usual accompaniments of Capitals, and
excite no interest. The solitude that encircles