BOOKS.

BARTLETT'S PICTURES PROM SICILY.*

Wrrn the exception of Greece herself, there is no country whose history or remains would seem entitled to so much consideration as Sicily, or which has received so little. Colonized by Greeks, her numerous state-cities rivalled those of the mother-country in wealth and civilization, as well as perhaps in art, and in celebrated rulers. Reduced like the rest of the ancient world under the Ro- man yoke, she exhibited more variety of fortune during the middle ages than most other nations. The Saracen, the Norman, the Frenchman, and the Spaniard alternately ruled the country, till the island fell under the dominion of the Austrian Bourbons ; the Saracen and the Norman.leaving behind them traces of their taste and munificence in architecture such as in its peculiar way cannot be matched elsewhere.. Yet is Sicilian history neglected, though parts of it, or rather anecdotes from it, are well known • the neglect apparently arising from the want of originality or nationality. Sici- lian art, however great, was Grecian in ancient times, and in the more modern periods Byzantine, Saraeenie, Norman ; though ex- amples of a rich and fantastic combination of the three may be found, which seems entitled to the name of. Sicilian. In like man- ner, the history of Sicily relates to foreigners. Greek colonists, Car- thaginian invaders, Roman conquerors, Saracen occupation, Nor- man, French, Spanish, and Bourbon dynasties, supersede the Sici- lians. In those great mutations of races which seem to have taken place not long before the dawn of authentio history, and again on the extinction of the Roman empire, Sicily, like Ireland, was rather frequently invaded than actually repeopled. The Sicilian Vespers were indeed a national movement, but the nation could not support it without foreign aid. The disastrous insurrection within these last few years was also national, but, we suspect, partial. Its real and earnest supporters were the nobility and the middle class of towns. The bulk of the people, especially in the country, seem to have been too ignorant and too much under the influence of the priests to be rational lovers of freedom.

The island is as much neglected as its history, and for reasons more palpable. Its climate in the late autumn and winter is de- licious. Its vegetation in not only Southern but almost Tropical, and plants the glory of our green-houses are in Sicily a wildflower, a wild shrub, or a hedge-row tree. Etna is the most remarkable volcano in the .world. Sicilian scenery has every variety, from i

the black and desolate-looking lava streams, tossed into the wildest forms, to the reposeful classical beauty in which the Greek eye luxuriated. The remains are more complete and More numerous than those of Greece herself ; and the middle-aged palatial and ec- clesiastical edifices are well worth examining. But the accommo- dations are bad—we cannot "take mg ease in our inn." Even at the two chief modern cities, MessimWAnd Palermo, the hotels are not first-rate in comforts ; at the second-rate cities they are indif- ferent or positively bad, at some places there are none. In the i large towns you are beset by filth ; in every place you " assist" by night at a banquet not where you eat but are eaten. In the few public vehicles they stuff in six when the coach was built for only four ; and besides delays, you are exposed to the attacks of, rob- bers. The other modes of travel are mostly the leetica of the middle ages, or horseback; since only certain roads are -formed for carriages, and the traveller is liable to delays by floods.

" Among the other annoyances of Sicilian travel are the numerous fiu- mara, or water-courses, which descend from the mountains into the sea. Even on the line of carriage-road it is often impossible to bridge them over, from their immense width, and the mass of stones and debris that they hurry down in their headlong course. In the drought of summer they are for the most part dry and practicable ; but in stormy weather the traveller's carriage is often arrested in the midst of one of these shallow but furious torrents ; the baggage has to be taken off, and the passengers, male or female, pre- cariously carried pick-a-back through the foaming waters and deposited on dry land, while the driver, up to his middle, by dint of whipping and yell- ing, and pushing the wheels behind, succeeds m working his vehicle across the miry stream. " In the wilder parts of the island, where there is merely a mule-track and but few bridges, the horseman is sometimes kept waiting for a day or two at a miserable flea-bitten hovel, until some swollen torrent has subsided enough to allow him to ford it with safety."

It necessarily follows from these facts, that the subject of Mr. Bartlett's tour is much less hacknied than some of the previous countries he selected for his annual volume. Sicily has not been without learned and accomplished travellers, although their works may have slipped out of the general mind ; and the island has been partially visited within these few years. But it is far less over- run than Egypt, the Holy Land, and other spots that now form part of the grand tour, to which Mr. Bartlett has heretofore directed his "footsteps." This freshness may have contributed to give his present volume more than its precursors the character of a regular book of travels, which it undoubtedly possesses. There is more of that series of movements and occurrences which constitute a nar- rative; there is more of adventures by the way ; the scenery is fresher, with greater variety ; and as a consequence, Mr. Bartlett is less driven to obtrude the artist, and relies "more on the read- er's sense than gazer's eye." There are also life and interest in the late struggle, and the present condition of the Sicilian mind, which is, as might be supposed, in a state of suppressed rebellion, perhaps more indignant than even Italy ; as she has suffered more than Italy, and with more cruelty and wantonness, by as much as Neapolitan cowardice and cruelty are greater than German. It is

• Pictures from Sicily. By the Author of ...Forty Days in the Desert." Published by Hall and Virtue.

possible that Mr. Bartlett's retrospection of Sicilian history might for some readers be spared ; but to many they will be almost a ne- cessity, and they are clearly and succinctly presented. Pictures of Sicily is not altogether limited to Sicily. The tourist Fives a rapid sketch of the manner in which he reached it ; and this is not the least interesting part of his book. The source of interest is, that the writer deals mainly with the present and the practical ; with information useful to those who follow his steps, indications of how our officials attend to their duties abroad, or notices of the present state of things in Italy. The following is from Marseilles.

"While expressing to the waiter my vexation at having missed the steamer by an hour or two, he assured me that had I arrived some hours sooner, it was doubtful if I could have left, as there would have hardly been time to procure the visa of the English Consul, without which the consuls of the Italian ports, as well as the local authorities, refuse their respective signa- tures; and he assured me that two English travellers, who had arrived the day before, had lost their passage because this indispensable visa, for which a considerable fee is demanded, could not, in consequence of the Consul's ab- sence, be procured, together with all the others, in time. This story was fully confirmed next day by the gentlemen themselves, who I found were fellow-passengers on board the same vessel ; and I set it down as illustrating the often serious hinderances which befal the unfortunate traveller in spite of all his precautions. "These travellers, then, being informed as soon as they arrived of the ne- cessity of getting the Consul's signature, repaired immediately to his office ; but, although within the proper business hours, that gentleman was not in the city, nor, as it seemed, any other person competent to perform his func- tions. The consequence was, that his signature could not be procured, and the travellers lost their passage. They were men who had devoted the few days they could snatch from the cares of business to taking a peep at Italy, and they were compelled to be back again upon a given day ; yet here, for want of a single sigbature, and through no neglect or even inadvertence of their own, they would have been compelled, but for the accidental departure of another steamer next day—(the usual interval is about a week)—to re- nounce their further journey, and return home disappointed."

No doubt, it is a great tie to be constantly confined to one place, and that place Marseilles ; but it is what thousands have to submit to everywhere. A man who undertakes a post and receives a salary should make up his mind to discharge its duties ; and this particu- lar duty of signing passports might readily be arranged, at all events, so as not to delay passengers by the steamers by an attend- ance at the time when they are about to start. The following is a hint upon defences. As Sterne says, " they manage these things better in France."

" One thing forcibly struck me on leaving this port ; and at the present time, when our national defences are the subject of some anxiety, it may not be amiss to mention it. The commerce of Marseilles, though consider- able and increasing, is a mere nothing to that of Liverpool: yet, while tre- mendous forts and batteries—enough to blow any invading force out of the water—defend the entrance to the French harbour, what is there to protect the mouth of the Mersey and the stupendous docks and shipping of flyer- pool, should any enemy be disposed to attempt a sudden descent upon our coasts?"

The voyage from Marseilles to Naples is so arranged as to give passengers time to land at the principal places, the steamer gene- rally arriving in the morning and departing in the evening. Mr. Bartlett, indeed, made out a trip of two days to Pisa and Florence ; but that was a special case. The suspicions of the police and the passport system form a serious drawback to this advantage. " Herefat Leghorn] began our Paasaporta and Dogana tribulations in Italy. In general it may be remarked, that these become more severe in proportion to the tyranny of the Peninsular Governments ; so that, bad enough. in Tuscany, they get worse in the Papal States, and attain their climax of annoyance in the dominions of the King of Naples. These formalities are always disagreeable ; but here the worst of it is, that you have never done with them, the penin- sula being parcelled out into so many little states, each with its separate police, and customhouse, and its army of needy officials. And it is difficult to say whether you are more beset by land or sea,—that is, supposing you de- sire to go ashore, if even for an hour, to see the different ports at which the steamer touches. In the former case, if you are leaving the state of Lom- bardy, to enter that of Parma, you are subject before you cross the Po at Piacenza to a passport and customhouse examination ; which is repeated as soon as you have gained the other side. Ten miles further, at Parma, it is necessary to get a fresh visa to the passport ; and on leaving this little state, only twenty miles long, for that of Modena, which is smaller still, the same ceremony awaits you as in the forenoon ; thus making five examinations in one day and upon a distance of thirty miles, and so on in every state and almost every town. The deliberation with which—unless quickened by a bribe—the lazy officials perform their functions, is enough to drive a Stoic to distraction. And here, on'the sea-coast, you cannot land without having first procured the signature of the consul or ambassador of the particular place ; and if this is happily done, there is still the same passport and cus- tomhouse ordeal to be passed. The mere expense entailed by all this is a serious item, but nothing to the vexation and hinderance that it occasions ; moreover, at present, owing to Mazzini and the Secret Societies, they are al- ways on the look-out for suspicious characters, which renders the examination doubly rigorous. It was dark a long time before we fought our way through all these obstacles into the town of Leghorn, and bestowed ourselves for the night at a comfortable hotel."

We take leave of Mr. Bartlett with part of a scene which has been often described, but never more artistically—sunrise from the summit of Mount Etna.

" The guides had timed the thing exactly. It was between three and four; the stars were rapidly disappearing from the paling sky, while the Eastern horizon began to faintly redden with the dawn. Those who have never witnessed can scarcely realize by any description the strangeness of such a scene. Everything in the vast gulf below was dark and formless— the sea barely distinguishable from the land—vast whitish clouds like wool- sacks floating solemnly above it. A few bars of crimson soon appeared on the Eastward horizon, the sea-line became defined, the jagged edges of the distant mountains of Apulia cut against the sky. At this moment our guides shouted to us to stand up on the edge of the crater, and look out over the interior of the island, which stretched away to the Westward like a sea of rugged•summits, blended in the shadowy mist of dawn. Just as the sun rose an immense shadow of the most exquisite purple was projected from the volcano half over the island, while without its range the light struck with magic suddenness upon the tops of the mountains below ; a phsenomenon so admirably beautiful that it would have more than repaid us for the labour of the ascent,

" The wind had now become so violent and penetrating that not one of us was able to make the circuit of the crater, or indeed to stand up to windward for more than a few momenta together. The crater, however, so far as we could observe, is not in itself by any means so striking as that of Vesuvius. All the top of the mountain is heated, and little jets of steam shot up at in- tervals from the crevices of the yellow-crusted sulphur.

" The view from Etna proved rather different from what previous descrip- tion had led me to anticipate. Vastness and dreary sublimity predominate, relieved with some few touches of exquisite beauty. Standing on the dread summit of the volcano, the eye takes in with astonishment the immense ex- tent of the region, at once desolated and fertilized by its eruptions. Wide beds of lava, black, abrupt, and horrid, may be traced down its deep sinuos- ities and chasms, winding, half concealed, among the extensive forests be- low, even through the midst of the fertile region which reposes at its,base until they pour into the sea ; and interspersed with these are broad dismal beds of ashes and scoria; the seat of eternal desolation. Beneath the Bosco, and around the base of Etna, the boundary of the region subject to its effects may be distinctly traced. Beyond, in all directions, extend the fertile plains and mountains of the island; the latter, however, of an aspect little less wild and desolate than that of Etna itself. The range of the view is almost boundless; Catania, Syracuse, and even, when clear, Malta itself, are visible. Castro Giovanni stands up on its rock, conspicuous in the centre of the island. The expanse of sea is most magnificent, with the distant mountains of Cala- bria and Apulia, and the entrance to the Faro di Messina."

The text is illustrated by thirty-three steel engravings of the most striking scenery, ruins, and edifices in Sicily, with sixteen wood-cuts of smaller objects ; the whole drawn with truth and spi- rit, and executed in a good style of art.