. Recollections of a lifetime : or men and things I have seen : in a series of familiar letters to a friend : historical, biographical, anecdotical, and descriptive . ctyour attention, you will be carried back to periodsanterior to the building of Rome. The guide willpoint you to the track of Hannibal through themarshes of the Arno, then a wilderness without in-habitants, amid which the Carthaginian general losta number of elephants, and whose tusks are even atthis day dug up from their deep beds in the me to give you a somewhat prosy descriptionin rhyme of this wonderful and sugges
. Recollections of a lifetime : or men and things I have seen : in a series of familiar letters to a friend : historical, biographical, anecdotical, and descriptive . ctyour attention, you will be carried back to periodsanterior to the building of Rome. The guide willpoint you to the track of Hannibal through themarshes of the Arno, then a wilderness without in-habitants, amid which the Carthaginian general losta number of elephants, and whose tusks are even atthis day dug up from their deep beds in the me to give you a somewhat prosy descriptionin rhyme of this wonderful and suggestive place—the best in the Avorld to study early Roman geogra-phy and history—which I wrote on the spot, andwhich has at least the merit of being brief: This is Fiesole—a giant mound,With fellow-giants circling phalanxd round ;Hoary with untold centuries they rest,Yet to the top with waving olives dressd,While far beyond in rugged peaks ariseThe dark-blue Apennines against the tliis deep vale, with sentried liills around,Set foot to foot, and all with villas crownd,Fair Florence lies—its liuge Duonio flingingEen to Fiesole its silvery 525 Ah, what a varied page these scenes unfold—How much is written, yet how much untold!Here on this mound, the huge Cyclopean wall—Its builders lost in Times unheeding thrall—Speaks of whole nations, ages, kingdoms, races,Of towers and cities, palaces and places—Of wars and sieges, marches, battles, strife,The hopes and fears—the agonies of life—All passd away, their throbbing weal and Rome was built, three thousand years ago! On the twenty-second day of February we enteredRome, and found the peach-trees in blossom. Themodern city is in no respect remarkable. Its wallsare of some strength, but readily yielded to the at-tack of the French army in 1849. Its present popu-lation is one hundred and seventy-five the streets are narrow, and even the far-famedCorso is not over fifty feet wide. I
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