The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-05-14
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> NS*
* WILL SEABROOK'S TRAVELS *
~ 81
iBv ". 3. Seabrook.)


Rome, Italy, May, l909.-The Pro-
testant Burial ground at Rome IS, for
English speaking travellers, one Of the
saddest spots in the world. 1t IS sit
uated near the Porta di San Paolo,
close to the Pyramid Of Calus Ces-
tius, in silent and secluded grove,
where the inscriptions, which tell the
Anglo Saxon visitor in his native
tongue Of those who have found their
last resting place beneath the bright
skies Of the Eternal City, appeal IT.
restibly to the heart.
The cemetery has an air of roman
tic beauty which forms striking con-
trust with the tomb Of the ancient
Roman Praetor and with the massive
walls and towers which overlook it.
The Georgia pine trees, the willows
transplanted from the banks of Eng
lish streams, the homely daisies, the
blackbirds clamoring among the cedar
branches, the simple Gothic chapel,
the plain marble slabs with their
strong, familiar words Of faith en-
craven in the good old mother tongue,
are bound to stir the breast Of the
expatriated wanderer with an ineffa-
! bic melancholy longing for his native
land, the land to which those fellow
countrymen who sleep beneath the
sod were not permitted to return.
But this little corner Of Rome IS
more than sad and beautiful. It is
pitiful; for youth and hope lie bur
led here, in nearly every grave. In
our own land, most of us regard
Gods Acre as the mortal goal OF
those whose race is run, of men and
women to whom death comes only at
ter they have lived and loved and
1abored and grown old: friends and
kindred, it is true, are sometimes
called away in the morning OF llte'
but such deaths always occasion dou-
bic grief, because they seem contrary
to nature, and so we term them ''un-
timelv.' But here almost every
grave contains the ashes of bighted
youth, of shattered hope, Of unachlev-
ed ambition; few are the gray heads
which lie beneath these mournful
mounds. few the names above which
is written "Father' Of "Mother,
and. with notable exceptions, the
short life stories of the unfortunates
who lie buried here may be told IN
simple phrase,
"He came to Rome in search of
health-or fame-and died.
Some of the inscriptions on the
tombs are bitter, some expressive OF
} hopeless resignation, some Of glorious
faith. To me, the saddest one of all,
written below the name Of a young
Englishman, who, like so many OF
his race, had been lured into this
treacherous climate in the vain be-
lief that by residence in sunny Italy
he might be delivered from the dread
disease which had marked him for It's
own.
''He asked life Of Thee, and Thou
eavest him a long life, even forever
and ever"
, On a neighboring shaft are the fol-
h lowing words:
A "Sacred to the memory of the Rev.
I Edward Glyn Hammond, rector OF
Widford Herts, and fellow of Jesus
College, Cambridge, who died at
Rome, where he came for the benefit
Of his health on the 26th day of JAN
uary, 1926, in the 3Oth year of his
age.''
And a few steps further down the
slope, upon pedestal surmounted by
the marble likeness Of a manly, no
BILE browed youth is engraved the
>epitaph of a young dragon Of the
Royol Greys, who had "sought
health in many foreign climes, and
departed this life in Rome, on the 3rd
day of Nay, 1856, aged twenty one
years. and at whose own request
the following words were carved up
on the front Of the stone,
"Britania! Mihi ct meis patrla car
rissima!
Cor ut semper, meum, 81 non ossa
contines!'
The Roman climate, Though not,
properly speaking, unhealthy, is ez-
ceedingly dangerous for strangers
who do not know how to guard
against the fevers which have arisen
from the Pontine marshes to ravage
,,1I al