Though white herds are still seen wandering over the rich plain, watered by this river, yet a very small portion of it is employed in pasturage. Its exuberant fertility is better calculated for tillage, and every year sees it successively covered with wheat, grapes, mulberries, and olives. From Le Vene to Spoleto, is about nine miles.

The ancient town of Spoletum is situated on the side and summit of a hill. It is well-known that Hannibal attacked this town, immediately after the defeat of the Romans at Thrasimenus, and the inhabitants still glory in having repulsed the Carthaginian general, flushed as he was with conquest, and certain of success. An ancient gate commemorates this event, so honorable to the people of Spoleto, in an inscription on the great arch.

I have observed, as I have already hinted, with great satisfaction, not only in Spoleto, but in many Italian towns, particularly such as were founded by Roman colonies, a vivid recollection of the glory of their ancestors. Notwithstanding the lapse of so many ages, notwithstanding so many cruel and destructive invasions; though insulted and plundered, and almost enslaved, the Italians remember with generous pride, that the Romans were their ancestors, and cherish the records of their glorious achievements as an inheritance of honor, a birth-right to fame. Unhappy race! it is the only possession which their invaders cannot wrest from them-" Maneant meliora nepotes!" Two other gates seem, by their form and materials, to have some claim to antiquity. Some vast masses of stone, forming the piers of a bridge, the ruins of a theatre, and of a temple said to be dedicated to Concord, (though the latter

scarce exhibit enough to constitute even a ruin,) as being Roman, deserve a passing look. The cathedral, in a commanding situation, presents a front of five Gothic arches, supported by Grecian pillars, and within, consists of a Latin cross, with a double range of pillars, of neat and pleasing architecture. The order is Corinthian. The two side altars are uncommonly beautiful. Two vast candelabra, near the high altar, deserve attention. The view from the terrace of the cathedral is very extensive and beautiful. Near it, a very fine fountain of an elegant form, pours out, though near the summit of a high hill, a torrent of the purest water. The Roman pontiffs, it must be acknowledged, have, in this respect, retained the sound maxim of antiquity, and endeavoured to unite the useful and the agreeable. Never have I seen waters employed to more advantage, or poured forth in greater abundance than in the Roman territories. It is sometimes drawn from distant sources, sometimes collected from various springs, gathered into one channel, and always devoted to public purposes.

The castle is a monument of barbarous antiquity, built by Theodoric, destroyed during the Gothic war, and repaired by Narses, the rival and successor of Belisarius. It is a vast stone building, surrounded by a stone rampart, standing on a high hill that overlooks the town, but as it is commanded by another hill still higher, it loses at present much of its utility in case of an attack. Behind the castle, a celebrated aqueduct, supported by arches of an astonishing elevation, runs across a deep dell, and by a bridge, unites the town with the noble hill that rises behind it, called Monte Luco. This latter is covered with evergreen oaks, and adorned by the white cells of a tribe of

hermits, established on its shaded sides. These hermits are of a very different description from most others who bear the name. They are not bound by vows, nor teased with little petty observances; and notwithstanding this kind of independence, they are said to lead very pure and exemplary lives. The aqueduct is Roman, but said to have been repaired by the Goths. The town of Spoleto is, in general, well-built, and though occasionally damaged by earthquakes, as we were informed by various inscriptions on the public buildings, yet it possesses many noble edifices, and beautiful palaces.

The road from Spoleto is bordered by a stream on the left, and wooded hills on the right. About two miles from the town we began to ascend the Somma. The road is excellent, and winds up the steep, without presenting any thing particularly interesting, till you reach the summit, whence you enjoy a delightful and extensive view over Spoleto, and its plain, or the vale of Clitumnus on one side, and on the other towards Terni, and the plains of the Nar. Monte Somma is supposed to have taken its name from a temple of Jupiter Summanus placed on its summit, is near five thousand feet high, fertile, shaded with the olive, ilex, and forest trees; well cultivated, and enlivened with several little towns. The descent is long and rapid, and extends to the stage next to Terni. This ancient town, the Interamna of the Romans, retains no traces of its former splendor, if it ever was splendid, though it may boast of some tolerable palaces, and what is superior to all palaces, a charming situation. The ruins of the amphitheatre in the episcopal garden, consist of one deep dark vault, and scarce merit a visit. Over the gate is an inscription, informing the traveller that this colony gave

birth to Tacitus the historian, Tacitus and Florian, the emperors; few country towns can boast of three such natives. The principal glory of Terni, and indeed one of the noblest objects of the kind in the universe, is the celebrated cascade in its neighbourhood, called the "Caduta delle Marmore."

To enjoy all the beauties of this magnificent fall, it will be proper first to take a view of it from the side of the hill, beyond the Nar. The way to it runs through the valley along the Nar, sometimes overshaded by the superincumbent mountain, with its groves of pine, ilex, and beech, rustling above, and at every turn exhibiting new scenery of rocks, woods, and waters. At length you climb the steep shaggy sides of the hill, and from a natural platform, behold the cascade opposite. This point enables you to see, with much advantage, the second fall, when the river, bursting from the bason into which it was first precipitated, tumbles over a ridge of broken rocks, in various sheets, half veiled in spray and foam. Hence are taken most of the views hitherto published, and when we visited it, we found two Roman artists employed on the spot. If the contemplation of this scene, for ever shifting to the eye, should be found tiresome, the remainder of the day may be spent very agreeably in traversing the surrounding woods, and exploring the vale of the Nar and its enclosing mountains. The second day must be devoted to the examination of the cascade from above, and the excursion commenced from the earliest dawn. Mules, or one horse chairs, are commonly hired, though, if the weather be cool, and the traveller a good walker, it may easily be performed on foot.

The upper road to the Caduta crosses a plain, varied with

olives, vines, and corn-fields, and climbs the mountain through a defile, whose sides are clad with vines below, and with box and ilex above. Through the dell, the Nar, "sulfurea albus aquâ," of a wheyish colour, tumbles foaming along his rocky channel. In the centre of the defile rises an insulated eminence, topped with the ruins of the village of Papignia, destroyed by the French.

Ascending still higher, you come to an angle, where the road is worked through the rock, and forming a very elevated terrace, gives you a view of Terni and its plain; the dell below, with the Nar; the mountains around, with their woods; and the Velino itself, at a considerable distance, just bursting from the shade, and throwing itself down the steep. The road still continues along the precipice, then crosses a small plain bounded by high mountains, when, you quit it and follow a pathway that brings you to a shed, placed on the point of a hill just opposite to the cascade, and so near to it, that you are occasionally covered with its spray. Here we sat down, and observed the magnificent phenomenon at leisure. At a little distance beyond the cascade, rise two hills of a fine swelling form, covered with groves of ilex. The Velino passes near one of these hills, and suddenly tumbling over a ridge of broken rock, rushes headlong down in one vast sheet, and in three streamlets. The precipice is of brown rock, whose sides are smooth and naked, forming a semicircle, crowned with wood on the right, and on the left rising steep, and feathered with evergreens. On the one side, it ascends in broken ridges, and on the other sinks gradually away, and subsides in a narrow valley, through which the Nar glides gently along, while the Velino, after its fall, rolls through the dell in