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

264

CLASSICAL TOUR

Ch. VI.

that strangers should follow their advice and ex-
ample in guarding against its inconveniences;
yet it is impossible not to suspect that there is on
this occasion a considerable degree of groundless
apprehension. In reality, if a cold is taken in a
rural excursion during the hot months, it is attri-
buted to the malaria. Every fever, and indeed
every disposition caught by travellers who pass
the Pomptine marshes, or the Campagna during
the summer months, is ascribed to the influence of
the air; while such disorders might very natu-
rally be supposed to arise from heat and fatigue,
causes sufficiently active to prodiice fatal distem-
pers in any climate.
The conclusion which I am inclined to draw
from these observations is, that the Campagna di
Poma may, from very obvious causes, be in some
places and at certain seasons unhealthy ; that ac-
tive cultivation, draining, extensive plantations,
and, above all, an increase of population, might
in a great degree remedy this insalubrity ·, but,
that it is unjust and uncandid to attribute to the
Popes an evil which the ancient Romans either
did not, or could not remove, though they might
command and combine for that purpose all the
skill, and all the riches of the universe*. If there

* The appearance of the few peasants that inhabit the
3