Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

CLASSICAL TOUR

Ch. II.

long- night of eighteen centuries, when once be-
held must remain for ever pictured on the ima-
gination ; and whenever it presents itself to the
fancy, it comes, like the recollection of an awful
apparition, accompanied by thoughts and emo-
tions solemn and melancholy.
Among the modern wrorks tha. adorn the ter-
ritory, or rather the vicinity of Naples, the two
noblest are the aqueduct and the palace of Ca-
serta. Both lie north of Naples; the former is
most distant; the road is over a delicious plain
to Acerra, a very ancient town, remarkable
however for nothing but its attachment to the
Romans, even after the battle of Cannes, and in
the presence of Annibal.* Some miles farther
we passed Sessola, now a village, once Suessula,

* Liv. xxiii. 17. It is perhaps better known for the fer-
tility of its soil extolled by Virgil, or rather for the har-
mony of the verses which terminate in its name.
Talem dives arat Capua et vicina Vesevo
Ora jugo, et vacuis Clanius non aequis Acerris.
Georg, ii.
The inhabitants seem to.have secured themselves by em-
bankments against the mischievous swells of the Clanius
(now Chiagno, and sometimes Lagno) alluded to in the last
Tine.