Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1853-06-08
Modern Rome.

As thirsty traveller rushes to water brook,
bends down To the stream, and sakes his thirst
at the first draught, so we determined to fill our
minds and hearts with Rome, BY first sight.
For this purpose we ascended the Capitoine Hill,
passed, with bare recognition, the colossal stat
ues Of Castor and Pollux, and the magnificent E.
questrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, and clamber-
ed up to the Tower Of the Capitol. We feA dis
posed to turn away from the views presented at
the various angles Of ascent, until the eye, With
out obstruction, could sweep the entire panorama.
We gained the highest point, and Rome bay al
our feet! The city Of the Cesas, all in ruins.
lay on one side of the hill the city Of the Popes,
with its palaces and churches, on the other. Be-
yond the walls, deserted and death like, lay the.
Campagna, an irregular plain, which of Old con-
tanned parts of Latium, and Etrnria whilst the
horizon was bounded by the blue line Of the ocean.
Soracte, the Sabine, and Volscian hills. Hope
was lost in fruition-the poetry of our feelings
passed away like foam upon the waters, and there
LAY Rome in its ruins, its splendor and its prose.
before us. And at the risk Of being charged with
want of taste, want of reverence, a want Of
historic appreciation, and perhaps many other
wants, i will give my own views sfmen and things
as saw them in Rome.
Looking out from the tower Of the Capitol, the
Tiber flows beneath you, dividing the city into
two equal parts. 1t is narrow, muddy, winding
stream, spanned by four or five bridges, on which
not mast is seen, nor boat plying, nor sign
of life, save machine for catching fish, which
turned by the current, is ever-more azily tossing
its arms in the air! You are struck with its ut
ter meanness, and exclaim, sis that the Tiber!"
You ask your Vale, after running your eye a.
round in vain search for them, "Where are the
seven hills" And he points you to little SWELL
ings here and there within the walls, saying,
'that is the Aventne.-and that is the Palatine
and that is the Coelian-and that is the Esqui-
line-and that is the Quirinal-and that is the
Viminal-and this upon which you are standing
is the Capitolne." And there they lie all with
in circumference far too narrow to bound the
plantation of even moderate Western farmer -
And when it is remembered that cities were built
upon those hills-that nations contended in the
valies that separate hem-that in these vallies,
yer which an Indian would shoot his arrow, the
Etruscans, the Sabnes, the I.atins contended for
empire, how the magnificent takes its departure
from all the views we were led to entertain in our
youthful days, as to the origin of Rome and the
Romans! Indeed whilst straining our eyes In the
direction of the finger of our Vale pointing out
this hill and that, we made the remark that were
the seven hills even with searchwarrant. And
soon the poetry of"the seven hills" was all gone!
And there beneath US are tn ruins OF the Ro-
man Forum, consisting of falling pillars, tottering
walls, and rubbish in piles, giving obvious ndica-
tions of former magnifcence, strength and extent.
And at little farther remove are the ruins Of the
grand, historic; and suggestive Of
scenes and events from which the mind and heart
recoil. And as we, subsequently, wandered amid
its arches and around and over its walls and seats,
we could recall the day when the holy Ignatius
was turned into the area-when that area was
crowded with matrons, virgins, confessors, and
when wild lions, tigers, leopards were Let loose
upon them, and amid the plaudits of some eighty
thousand spectators, tore them to pieces! And
in full view, scattered over the Esquiline and Pal
atine hills. and the space between them, are the
column of Trajan, the Arch of Titus, the palace
Constantine and the ruins of temples, mutely elo-
and arches are noble--the Coliseum is magnif-
cent, worth going to Rome to see-but, in the
main, the ruins have nothing save historic interest,"
And you are soon lost in wilderness Of founda-
tions and dilapidating walls. And when we saw
brawny Italians stuffing the palace of the C@sars
with hay to feed the horses Of the French-and
swarthy women hoeing potatoes and cabbage upon
the top fit,-and the Forum changed into cow
other things after the same fashion,
the reader may Judge how suddenly We fell from
the poetic region in which we had so long revel-
led, into the prosac bathos Of roofess walls, crum
bling arches, and piles Of brick !-Kir,ran's Let
tefs,