. Up hill and down dale in ancient Etruria. d pictures I imagine Bieda to be quite inferior in!the abundance and variety of sculptured tombs, as alsoin the artistic nature and character of their absence of inscriptions in both places is veryremarkable, and in that respect makes them inferiorin interest to Castel dAsso. I found it impossibleto elicit from my contadino-guide any informationabout Bieda. Nor was he reliable even about thename of the river,—although he made a shot,calling it by the name of the Village. But I haveobserved that the inhabitants of such ancient placesrarel
. Up hill and down dale in ancient Etruria. d pictures I imagine Bieda to be quite inferior in!the abundance and variety of sculptured tombs, as alsoin the artistic nature and character of their absence of inscriptions in both places is veryremarkable, and in that respect makes them inferiorin interest to Castel dAsso. I found it impossibleto elicit from my contadino-guide any informationabout Bieda. Nor was he reliable even about thename of the river,—although he made a shot,calling it by the name of the Village. But I haveobserved that the inhabitants of such ancient placesrarely have a name for their rivers and is always foso or fosso or fiumecello. Ferento. Ferento is a pleasant drive under five miles to thenorth of Viterbo. It well repays a visit as being thesite of an important Roman City. The very exten-sives ruins prove that ; of the threatre especially. 1 The sculptured cliffs of Bieda, Castel dAsso, and Norchia, seemto bear a great resemblance to those of Lycia as described bySir C. HP . VITERBO AND ENVIRONS 305 Ferentinum was a Roman colony, and amongst otherclaims to notice was the birthplace of the EmperorOtho. Ferento was long supposed to occupy the siteof an Etruscan City. But the more modern schoolof archaeologists place the Etruscan City oppositeFerento to the North-East and upon the other sideof one of the ravines which so intersect this greatEtruscan plain, and precisely upon the high groundknown to-day as the Farm of S. Francesco. Hereand on the adjacent lands have been discovered somuch in the way of antefixae,—terra-cotta vessels,friezes, fragments of polychrome painting adheringto terra-cotta, and especially wells and passages fordrainage. Nor are there wanting, in a locality named PratoCampo (below S. Francesco), remains of an earlierperiod, those of the Iron Age. Etruscan relics nothaving been found in Ferento,—we must thereforepronounce that that City did not stand upon anEtruscan site, and that fine
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