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

Ch. VIII. THROUGH ITALY. 319
peasants to have rolled a torrent of blood to the
Trasimenus, and impurpled its waters to a con-
siderable distance. This rill is the most popular
and perhaps the most permanent memorial of
this disastrous battle; it is known and pointed
out by every peasant and driver, and contem-
plated by all with some degree of horror. To
throw a certain gloom and melancholy over the
scenes of human destruction is natural to the
mind, and usual in all countries. It is reported,
that after sunset a sound like the clashing of
shields and the onset of distant armies is heard
on the plain of Marathon: at Neerwinderi* a
countryman assured me that strange noises were
often heard on the plains at night; and near
Tewkesbury, a close where the greatest number
of the Lancastrians were massacred, is still
called the bloody field, and is supposed by the
people to be haunted by spectres.
Ingemuisse putes campos, terramque nocentem
Inspirasse animas, infectumque aera totum
Manibus, et superam Stygia formidinc noctem.
Lucan vii. 769s

* Near Louvain, where the French under Dumourier
were defeated with great slaughter by the Austrians com-
manded by the Prince of Sfixe Cobowrg, in the month of
March, 1793.