GLEANINGS AFTER "GRAND TOUR"-ISTS. * THE fields the author of these
Gleanings wanders over have been gathered often enough ; being Naples, Rome, Venice, Milan, the Swiss Alps, and circumjacent places. The bulk of the volume, however, is not exactly a book of travels. Narratives of journey- ing, descriptions of scenery, incidents of the road, will occasion- ally be met with ; but the work chiefly consists of reflections, or of disquisitions upon what the author observed in passing, or duurriinngg that kind of intimacy which a family traveller with good introdnotions may contrive to form. This facility to English families more especially exists at Rome, from the hopes of the priesthood, occasionally fulfilled, of restoring a wanderer to the bosom of the Church. The author fell in with two of these Ro- mish missionaries ; and his account of their character and his con- nexion with them has something of story interest about it, besides furnishing a glimpse of the singular organization of the Romish Church at head-quarters. Fronithe facts that fell under his ob- servation, and his deductions therefrom, as well as from pretty general report, the moral state of the Italian priesthood would seem to be very bad, and that not so much in merely individual or tolerated vices as founded on a sort of system. Neither does the tourist draw very satisfactory conclusions respecting the state of lay morals at either Rome or Naples. It should be said, how- ever, that he is an Irish gentleman of a Williamite family, whose ancestors were denounced nominatim by the Parliament of Tyrcon- nel and James ; so that his Protestant feelings are strong. In fact, at a great ceremony when the Pope passed through the kneel- ing crowd, the stanch Williamite only bowed, thereby drawing upon himself a look from Pius.
Besides social, moral, and religions topics, there is in the vo- lume a good deal of criticism on art, with architectural descrip- tions and historical discussions. In strictness, discussion may be said to be its main characteristic ; for nearly every chapter has some leading subject whose exposition is the purpose of the writer, whatever variety of topics may be introduced to illustrate it. Thus, Vesuvius furnishes an exposition of the best mode of making the ascent, and of arriving at a true conclusion as to the manner in which' the " lava flood" escapes during an eruption.
"I had always pictured to myself Vesuvius in eruption as something like a huge cauldron full of ingredients, which, when fused by intense heat to a boiling point, at last rose and ran over the edge of the crater, and flowed down the conical sides in the form of lava—constantly adding to the size of the mountain by successive coats of the semi-fluid matter, deposited in layers, like the coats of an onion. This is not at all according to the facts— at least the ordinary facts—of volcanic action : the lava never, that I could learn, (and I questioned our intelligent head guide, Signor Pasquale, of Resin*, closely on this point,) breaks over the top, but ever from some vent or weak point in the side of the cone, which is as it were burst out by the
violent internal action. •
"Notwithstanding this positive assurance of Signor Pasquale, some ac- counts of eruptions which I have seen speak so decisively of the lava break- ing over the mouth of the cone, that I qualify the assertion, although I own the idea of the crater' tilling up and brimming over with molten matters is, now that I have seen it, an idea I cannot well realize to myself."
The trip to Prestum, or the passage. of the pass to Splughen, has the most of mere travel, but disquisition peeps in even there. In Paestum, Italian malaria, and the mysterious ruins, form questions for discussion ; in the pass, its engineering difficulties and the operations of nature in those mountain regions. The disquisitional parts exhibit the trained scholar and the thoughtful man of the world, accustomed to turn over a subject thoroughly. The tourist, however, has a discursive tendency, which induces him to wander too far from his text, and import too many incidental arguments or illustrations. This not only draws the reader's attention aside from the main subject, but in- duces a contrariety traveland disquisition jostling each other. It also gives an appearance of writing, and induces something like tediousness as a whole. This last peculiarity, however, may arise from the fact that a good deal of the book was originally written for some magazine, where each section formed an inde- pendent paper.
The gleaner is a sharp observer, and seldom fails to see the real characteristic of what comes before him. One of these matters is Southern climate ; which, from all that has been turning up for the last quarter of a century, seems the merest delusion possible. Either people have pronounced upon the subject from too short an experience, or the idea of its salubrity was put abOut by strong
• Gkanings After " Grand Ibur"-ists. Published by Bosworth and Harrison.
men, who, taken with the novelty of the clearness and brightness, jumped to the conclusion of geniality, which interested parties did their best to uphold. What effect a residence in the Canary or other Atlantic Islands, or in some of the Mediterranean provinces of Spain, might have in strengthening the constitution where con- sumption was apprehended, by enabling the patient to pass much of his time in the open air throughout the winter, may be worth a trial. To send a person labouring under disease to the South of France or Italy, seems a piece of useless cruelty ; for not only is the climate more dangerous than that of England, but there is the want of English appliances, home comforts, and the presence of friends.
" 'Dear me ! why do you take those things? are not you going to the South of France?' was a query directed to one warm greatcoat, and two cloaks ditto, .which formed part of the equipment of my daughters and my- self for our journey. The South of France' stands, to the imagination of some people, as an alias for the Torrid zone ! and yet I do affirm, that in no season or climate did I ever experiende more intense and piercing cold than in our transit to and through this Southern region, and this in the season which poets call spring.' In our day, the Lyons railway (now of course complete) ceased at Tonnerre ; and as we crossed the high grounds to Dijon, at night, and through deep-lying snow, we felt all the rigour of an Alpine winter transit. • • •
"However, we were soon over this range of high land ; and when we got to Chalons next morning, we found sunshine again, with little more than a hoar-frost on the ground. This was once more varied, as we approached Marseilles, by the bise wind which blew steadily off the Pyrenees, and sent us to our wrappings with renewed congratulations on our foresight in having brought them : and when we arrived in that extremity of the vaunted South of France,' we found the inhabitants felicitating them- selves upon a piercing wind, which was cutting us Northern to the bone T. because—' it would avert the mosquito plague for a month or six weeks longer.'
"This variableness and quick change of temperature seems to belong to every region of the sunny South" : its sunniest day will close with a sharpness of cold most trying to a delicate constitution. Wo betide the invalid who, tempted by a burning noon,' exposes himself without winter appliances to the sudden chill which comes, not with twilight, for there is none, but with the instantaneous darkness which follows sunset; with his pores open, and his poncho lying in the depths of his portmanteau! The chances are much in favour of his pulmonary delicacy becoming a pleuritic sickness unto death.' And then, as to hint aught against the salubrious South would be fiat heresy, his case is pronounced one which 'must have been hopeless from the first, since the delicious climate of Italy proved of no avail.' Even at Nice, so freely prescribed in England as a great pulmonary hospital, a denizen assured me that I might look for a variation of as much as twenty degrees of the thermometer between the back and front rooms of the same house ! At Naples, they told us of the deadly danger of remaining at a certain season in the vicinity of the Tuffa Rock behind our lodgings on the Chiatamone.' At Rome, they rate lodgings higher or lower as the sun does or does not shine on the aide of the street at which you live; and everything everywhere bespeaks an inequality in the climate, of which in- valids are as seldom aware as they ought to be specially forewarned."
The days of torture and the brutalized feelings it indicates are supposed-to be past. Strange stories of doings in Italy within these few years throw a doubt upon that fact as regards Germans and Italians. A book, lately published anonymously by an Italian patriot, but with very respectable vouchers for his respect- ability, told some frightful tales of Austrian doings in Italy during the insurrection of 1848. Here is a story in which the Church and the Austrians are both implicated. "The attributes of the priesthood are made inherent at ordination, but their exercise depends on the granting of faculties,' these being something tantamount to the bishop's licence' to officiate in his diocese. A tale of cruelty of the Revolution of 1848 reminds me that it might be more correct' to say that the sacerdotal attributes are held to be adherent rather than inherent. Ugo into a Barnabite priest of Bologna, having joined the Milanese revolt, fell nto the hands of the Austrians. Roman canon law holds the priesthood inviolate from the hands of the laity, and yet Ugo Bassi must die ! But how ? The Inquisition solved the difficulty—' they skinned the palms, forefingers, and thumbs of both hands,' and, pretending thus to have di4sted him of his sacred character, delivered him to the Austrians. He walked to the side of a prepared hole, and lifting his eyes to heaven, said Viva Gesu! Viva l'Ita—' six balls silenced him, and he fell into his open gravel" During the author's sojourn in Rome, he had, as already inti- mated, two frequent companions ; one, a Jesuit, courteous, ob- liging, and learned ; the other, a Monsignor, courteous, obliging, and apparently simple-minded and very transparent. The tourist has his doubts of both, more especially of the simple-minded man. He gives various reasons for his suspicions, one of whiCh refers to this journal. " Another slight fact, which has somewhat impaired my exercise of the grace which thinketh no evil' in our friend's regard, is this. On leaving home, I had desired that the Spectator newspaper (as giving an admirable weekly rdsumd of things in general) should be duly forwarded to me. One evening it lay on the table, and Monsignor Z—, taking it up, made some playful attempts to pronounce the English words, and then, turning to the final page of advertisements, asked what that meant ?' I endeavoured to explain our system of advertising; and, as an illustration, pointed ou as subjects which might interest him, the announcements of Nicholini's Pon- tificate of Leo X, and Gladstone's Translation of Parini,' just then pub- lished. He seemed to take but slight notice at the time ; but among the Ro- man news which reached us in our further progress through Italy was a ru- mour that the Spectator newspaper had been prohibited at Rome.' Now, I may wrong our friend., but it seems to me not impossible that this absurd restriction may have originated in some report made by Monsignor Z— to the Congregation of the Index' of the gunpowder-looking advertise- ments' to which I had called his attention."
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