the pictures are:-in the 2nd Room, the Madonna with St. Andrew and St. John, by Santafede: in the 3rd Room, 5 Landscapes, by Salvator Rosa: in the 4th Room, an Entombment, by Vandyke; Garland-maker at the window, by Albert Dürer, with monogram and date, 1508, and the words ich pint mit vergis mein nit: in the 5th Room, Portraits of Rubens and himself together, by Vandyke; Portraits of d'Avalos, Marquis of Pescara and Vittoria Colonna, by Sebastiano del Piombo-"The treatment is facile and able; but for feeling and power, this is not one of the happiest efforts of its kind."-Crowe and Cavalcaselle; Holy Family, attributed to Ghirlandaio, but, according to Crowe and Cavalcaselle, by Filippino-"The feeling in the Virgin's head, the fresh and somewhat entire colour, the free execution, reveal Filippino's talent." -Crowe and Cavalcaselle; The Assumption of the Virgin by Michael Wohlgemuth, painted for the family of Volkamerin of Nuremberg, and dated 1479. Few of the Villas in the neighbourhood of Naples are remarkable for anything but their gardens and the view. We shall mention one or two of the principal ones here, leaving the others to be noticed as they occur in the course of the description of the drives and rides. Villa Floridiana, in the Vomero, so called from its former owner, the Duchess of Floridia, second wife of Ferdinand IV. The Casino, built by Niccolini, is a fine square building, with two flights of marble steps leading to the garden, which commands beautiful views of the bay; the grounds are handsomely laid out. The villa is now the property of the Conte de Monte S. Angelo. Villa Gallo, or Regina Isabella, on the hill of Capodimonte, derives its name from the Queen Dowager of Ferdinand IV. It was built in 1809, for the Duke Gallo, from the designs of Niccolini; and stands upon arches and substructions of a massive character. The situation is extremely picturesque, and the gardens are laid out with skill; but the chief interest of the Villa is the view, especially towards Naples, which is nowhere seen to more advantage. The interior is fitted up with elegance and taste. It contains some pictures, including a Holy Family by Leonardo da Vinci; 2 Holy Families by Andrea del Sarto; a Cleopatra of Correggio; and a series of family portraits of the House of Bourbon. In the collection of antiquities, &c., is a bronze table, found at Pæstum in 1829, with a Latin inscription relating to the election of a Protector of that city. The villa is now the property of the Conte del Balzo, who married the widow of Ferdinand IV. $23. DRIVES AND RIDES IN THE IMMEDIATE ENVIRONS OF NAPLES. The pleasantest drives in the vicinity of Naples are on the W. side of the city. Among them may be mentioned: 1. The Str. di Piedigrotta, leading to Fuorigrotta, and thence to Bagnoli and Pozzuoli.-2. The Mergellina and Str. Nuova di Posilipo, leading to Nisida, and thence to Bagnoli.-3. The Str. di Agnano, leading through Fuorigrotta to the Grotta del Cane, the Lake of Agnano, and Astroni.-4. The Str. di Pianura, leading to the town of that name at the foot of Camaldoli.-5. The Corso Vittorio Emanuele, running along the heights round the entire W. side of the town, from Piedigrotta to the Str. dell' Infrascata.-6. The Str. dell' Infrascata and its continuation the Str. S. Gennaro, leading to Antignano (thence on donkeys or foot to Camaldoli), and thence by the Vomero and the Str. Belvedere to Posilipo. On the N. side are:-7. The Str. Nuova di Capodimonte, leading to Capodimonte.-8. The road continuing N., from Capodimonte, skirting the park to Miano and Secondigliano, and there joining the Naples and Capua high road.-9. The road E. from Capodimonte, down the Str. di Ponti Rossi to the Isla di Ponti Rossi and the Str. di Foria, whence the | and so gloomy that there was nothing drive can be prolonged to the Campi but "darkness visible." Petronius Santi.-10. The road W. from Capo- describes it as being so low that it was dimonte by the Villa Gallo, through the valley between the Camaldoli and the Vomero to Fuorigrotta. On the E. side are:-11. The Str. di Portici, leading to Portici, Resina, &c.-12. The Str. Poggio Reale, by which the Campi Santi, and the Caserta and Capua high roads can be reached, and also a road leading into the Portici road. We proceed to give a description of such places of interest as occur in the course of these drives, which are not mentioned in the account of the city of Naples, or of the excursions in the environs. DRIVE 1.-The Strada di Piedigrotta -Grotto di Pozzuoli-Virgil's Tomb -Fuorigrotta-Bagnoli. On leaving the Chiaia where it divides, the righthand road called the Str. di Piedigrotta, ascends through a deep cutting in the tufaceous rock to the entrance of the Grotta di Pozzuoli, or di Posilipoa tunnel excavated in the older volcanic tufa, nearly due E. and W. It is 750 yards long, 22 feet wide, 25 feet high at the E. entrance, and 69 feet in the centre. It is ventilated by two circular air-shafts, which pierce the roof in an oblique direction, and is lighted day and night by numerous gas-lamps. We find no mention of this tunnel before the time of Nero, though attempts have been made to show that it must have existed from the earliest times of Cuma and Naples. A passage of Strabo has been quoted as referring to this grotto, but it undoubtedly refers to that near the Punta di Coroglio (p. 185); otherwise his description of its having many airshafts, and being wide enough for two carriages abreast, would be in direct opposition to Seneca's and Petronius' descriptions, and to the fact that the Grotta had no air-shafts before they were opened by Alfonso of Aragon. Seneca, who passed through it on his way from Baia to Naples, describes it as a long prison, so full of dust and mud 66 necessary to stoop in passing through. In the middle ages it was believed to be the work of Virgil. Petrarch says that in his time the people regarded it as formed by the magic incantations of the poet. King Robert, he tells us, conducted him to the Grotta, and asked him what he thought of the popular belief. "Relying," says Petrarch, on the royal humanity, I jestingly answered that I had nowhere read that Virgil was a magician. To this the king, assenting with a nod, confessed that the place showed traces not of magic, but of iron." In the 15th cent. it was enlarged by Alfonso I., who lowered the floor, opened the two air-shafts, and raised the roof at the extremities. The sides exhibit a proof of this enlargement in the marks left by the axles of the wheels of vehicles in the sides, many feet above the level of the present roadway. In the 16th cent. Don Pedro de Toledo paved it. Charles III. renewed the pavement and repaired the roof and sides as we now see them, strengthening the former in places where it was decayed, by erecting arches for its support. A short distance before reaching the Grotta at its E. or Naples end, is the ch. of St. Maria di Piedigrotta (see p. 133); and a few steps further on is the entrance to the steps in the rock leading to The Tomb of Virgil. The custode lives close by, and charges fr. for unlocking the gates of the Vigna. There are some beautiful points of view during the ascent through the vineyard. The best place for seeing the tomb is on the brow of the precipice, overlooking the Grotta. It is now clothed with ivy, and the site nearly concealed; but, when it was erected, it must have been visible from the ancient road, which was at a higher level than the modern one, and from the shore, from which it is about m. distant. The Tomb is in the form of a Roman Columbarium consisting first of a chamber about 15 feet square, with a | vaulted roof, and lighted by 2 windows. In the walls are 10 niches for cinerary urns,a doorway,and what appears to have been a larger niche in the ruined wall opposite the entrance. Virgil had a villa on the shores of Posilipo, in which he wrote the Eclogues and the Georgics. The Eneid also was written either in this villa or at Naples. After finishing the 12th Book, and before he had revised the poem, he set out by sea for Greece to meet Augustus on his return from the East, a voyage which Horace has invested with a melancholy interest by that touching ode in which he prays that the ship may bear him safely to the Attic shores, Sic te diva potens Cypri, Sic fratres Helena, lucida sidera, Obstrictis aliis, præter Iapyga, Debes Virgilium, finibus Atticis Et serves animæ dimidium meæ. Od. 1. 3. Virgil met Augustus at Athens, but, being attacked by illness at Megara, he was obliged to return to Italy. He landed at Brundusium in a very feeble state, and died there a few days afterwards, B.C. 19. His ashes, at his request, were conveyed to Naples for interment, but the precise spot where they were deposited is not mentioned by any cotemporary writer. The evidence which connects this monument with the Tomb of the poet is by no means so weak as was supposed by Cluverius, who founded his objection on a too literal interpretation of some verses of Statius. This poet, who was born at Naples about half a cent. after Virgil's death, describes his visits to the Tomb, telling us that he followed the shore to reach it, and composed his verses while reclining near it :— ...En egomet somnum et geniale secutus Littus, ubi Ausonio se condidit hospita portu Parthenope, tenues ignavo pollice chordas Pulso, Maroneique sedens in margine templi Sumo animum, et magni tumulis accanto magistri: * * * * Hæc ego Chalcidicis, ad te, Marcelle, sonabam Littoribus fractas ubi Vesbius erigit iras, Emula Trinacriis volvens incendia flammis. From the mention of Vesuvius in these lines, and from the word littus, Cluverius inferred that the Tomb was on the shore at the foot of the volcano; but if a single line may thus be separated from the context, which is a general description of the scenery commanded from the locality, we might as well contend that the words Chalcidicis littoribus would fix the site of the Tomb on the shores of Cuma. This expression, which is obviously inapplicable to the neighbourhood of Vesuvius, is the strongest argument against the theory of Cluverius, and of those who, like Addison, have followed his authority. Taken in connection with the rest of the passage, it shows that the Tomb was situated near the W. shores of the Bay of Naples; but it proves nothing which will identify the locality, unless the opening lines may be considered to indicate that Naples and Vesuvius were visible from the spot. Cotemporary with Statius was Silius Italicus, whose idolatry of Virgil was so great that he made a pilgrimage to Naples for the purpose of visiting his tomb. Silius found it so deserted that it was kept by a solitary peasant. From this degradation he rescued it by purchasing the grounds in which it stood, having previously become the owner of the Villa of Cicero at Arpinum, to which Martial alludes: Silius hæc magni celebrat monumenta Maronis Jugera facundi qui Ciceronis habet. Heredem dominumque sui tumulique larisque Non alium mallet nec Maro nec Cicero. Ep. XI. 48. Jam prope desertos cineres, et sancta Maronis Nomina qui coleret pauper et unus erat. Having thus become possessor of the site, he was accustomed, as Pliny tells us, to approach it with the same reverence as he would show to a sacred edifice, and to keep, on the spot, the birthday of Virgil more religiously than his own. These facts, however, afford no evidence as to the site of the Tomb. The Neapolitan antiquaries have adduced a more direct confirmation in the Life of Virgil attributed to 1 Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua, rura, duces. He says that the urn and columns, and some small statues which decorated the Tomb, were given by Robert of Anjou to the Cardinal of Mantua for re Donatus, a writer of the 4th cent. In this work it is stated that the ashes of Virgil were placed in a tomb on the Via Puteolana, cryptam Pausilypanam versus, near the Grotta di Posilipo, at the 2nd milestone from the city. The old gate of Naples called the Porta Puteolana, destroyed in 1300, was situ-moval to Virgil's birthplace at Andes ated on the spot now occupied by the obelisk in the Piazza di S. Domenico, a position which corresponds exactly with the distance of the obelisk from this Tomb. But there is some reason to believe that the Life attributed to Donatus was written much later than the 4th cent. We can therefore rely no more on Donatus as an authority than on the testimony of St. Jerome to the same effect, as given in the Chronicle of Eusebius, which Heyne and other critics suppose to have been interpolated. Although, however, we may question the authenticity of both these works, it is difficult to doubt that the date of their composition was sufficiently early to afford strong collateral evidence of the antiquity of the tradition which connects the ruin with the Tomb of Virgil. From the earliest period of the revival of letters this tradition has been unbroken, and we know that it was accepted without question by all the great masters of Italian literature. Petrarch was accompanied to the spot by King Robert, and he is said to have planted a laurel upon it. Boccaccio acknowledged the truth of the tradition by feeling his love of letters kindled by the religio loci, and by renouncing in the pre sence of the Tomb the mercantile pursuits to which his father had destined him. At this period of the 14th cent. there is evidence that the Tomb was entire. Capaccio, in his 'Historia Puteolana,' cites Alfonso Heredia, Bishop of Ariano, who was living in 1500, and was a canon of the neighbouring ch. of S. Maria di Piedigrotta, to which the farm containing the Tomb belonged. The bishop is said to have possessed records proving that the Tomb was perfect in 1326, and that it had 9 small columns supporting a marble urn, with the well-known inscription on the frieze : near that city; that the Cardinal, returning by sea, died at Genoa, and that all trace of the precious relics perished with him. Giovanni Villani, in his Chroniche de Napole, published in 1526, also describes the form and arrangement of the Tomb, and says that the marble which contained the epitaph, carved in antique characters, was entire in 1326. Pietro di Stefano, in his Descrizione de' Luoghi Sacri, confirms Capaccio's statement respecting the existence of the urn at the beginning of the 14th century, but states that King Robert removed it to the Castel Nuovo, for its better preservation; but though Alfonso of Aragon had diligent search made, not a trace of it was found in the middle, of the 15th cent. Eugenio Caracciolo in his Napoli Sacra, published in 1623, states that a stone had been discovered in the neighbourhood, bearing the inscription-Siste, Viator, quæso, pauca legito, hic Maro situs est. Cardinal Bembo in the 16th cent. has shown his belief in the tomb by the epitaph which he composed for Sannazzaro (see p. 133). To a different pen must be attributed the inscription which was placed here in 1554: Qui Cineres? Tumuli hæc Vestigia? Condi tur olim Ille hic qui cecinit pascua, rura, duces. Capaccio tells us, that there were formerly these two other lines:Quod scissus tumulus? Quod fracta sit urna quid inde? Sat celebris locus hic nomine vatis erit. The laurel supposed to have been planted by Petrarch disappeared in the beginning of the present cent. under the knives of visitors of all nations; and the one planted as its successor by Casimir Delavigne has as little chance of perpetuity. The Margravine of Baireuth in the last cent. had a branch of Petrarch's laurel cut off and sent to her brother Frederick the Great, accompanied by some lines written by Voltaire expressive of the appropriateness of such a gift to his military glory and poetic talents; and the Russian Admiral Czernischeff made a similar present to Voltaire himself during his visit to Ferney. We have no space to record the many other reminiscences of the Tomb. It has now become venerable by the homage which men of genius during six centuries have paid to it; and where such pilgrims have trodden, posterity will regard the spot as one of those consecrated sites upon which has been fixed the seal of immortality. Vespero è già colà dove sepolto with its earliest vegetables; and it derives its name from its two warm mineral springs. The first of these, the Acqua di Bagnoli, resembles Seltzer water in its large amount of muriate and bicarbonate of soda, with free carbonic acid gas; the temperature is 104° Fahr. The Acqua di “Subveni homini” is of the same character, but with more than four times the amount of muriate of soda. The temperature varies with the season from 82° to 107° Fahr. Bagnoli was the birthplace of the physician Sebastiano Bartolo, the reputed inventor of the thermometer. At Bagnoli we enter on the road to Pozzuoli, but we shall reserve our description of it for our excursion to the W. district near Naples. (See Exc. vii.) DRIVE 2.-Mergellina-Str. di Posilipo-Villa of Vedius Pollio, and other ruins Grotta di Sejano Nisida. E'l corpo, dentro al quale io facea ombra: Napoli l' ha, e da Brandizio è tolto. DANTE, Purg. III. 25-27. Fuorigrotta.-At the W. extremity of the Grotta di Posilipo is the vil-(This can be combined with Drive 1, lage of Fuorigrotta, where several roads branch off. The 1st turn on the rt. joins the new road by Orsolone to Capodimonte. The 2nd leads to Pianura (Drive 4). The 3rd branches off about m. farther to the Lago di Agnano and to Astroni (Drive 3). The continuation of the road from the Grotta proceeds to Bagnoli, and was constructed in 1568 by the Viceroy di Ri vera. At the W. end of Fuorigrotta is the little ch. of S. Vitale, in which Giacomo Leopardi, the poet, is buried, with a simple monument erected to his memory in the porch. Not far from the ch. are two inscriptions, one bearing the words Hinc Puteolos, to indicate the direction of the new route; the other, Hinc Romam, to show that the Agnano road falls into the Via Campana from Pozzuoli to Rome beyond the Solfatara. The road to Bagnoli is bordered on each side by poplar and mulberry-trees festooned with vines; the valley through which it runs, bounded on the 1. by the ridge of Posilipo, is cultivated with wheat, maize, and flax. Bagnoli, a cluster of houses near the shore, with several bathing establishments and some hotels. It lies in a fertile valley that supplies Naples other.) The road on the left hand, going one way and returning the after leaving the Chiaia, proceeds along the Mergellina, and is called Str. Nuova di Posilipo. It was constructed in 1812, but the descent towards Bagnoli was not finished till 1823. Before leaving the Mergellina we pass under the ch. which contains Sannazzaro's tomb (p. 133). Beyond, on the rt., is the the Restaurant il Monaco, and beyond Villa Angri, and further on, on the 1., the picturesque ruins of the Palazzo di Donna Anna, often misnamed della Regina Giovanna, built in the 17th cent. by Fansaga for Donna Anna Carafa, the wife of the Viceroy Duke of Medina. It was erected on the site of a more ancient palace of the princes of Stigliano, of whom Donna Anna was the last heiress; it has never been finished, and is now converted into a glass manufactory. There are several Restaurants winds round the hill by a gentle ascent a little further on, and the road through villas and gardens. Many of the villas are beautifully situated. After passing on the 1. the Lazzaretto or Quarantine, the Rocca Romana, the Rocca Matilde, the Delahante, and the Minutolo Villas, a road on the 1., passing by the entrance to the Villa de |