Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . ACROSS THE BRENNER. i5 The longest of the twenty-seven tunnels of the Brenner railway is that of Miihlthal,(two thousand eight hundred feet long) which brings us to the station of Matrey. Thiswas the ancient Matrejum, a permanent camp of the Roman legions, of whom its soil stillcovers many relics; it was a noble seat in the rude times of the German Empire,as the walls of its castle still record. The tower greets us silently from the height,and the iron rails are laid almost among its rocky foundations. It is now deserted ; the. ON THE BRENNER, BELOW GOSSENSA
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . ACROSS THE BRENNER. i5 The longest of the twenty-seven tunnels of the Brenner railway is that of Miihlthal,(two thousand eight hundred feet long) which brings us to the station of Matrey. Thiswas the ancient Matrejum, a permanent camp of the Roman legions, of whom its soil stillcovers many relics; it was a noble seat in the rude times of the German Empire,as the walls of its castle still record. The tower greets us silently from the height,and the iron rails are laid almost among its rocky foundations. It is now deserted ; the. ON THE BRENNER, BELOW GOSSENSASS. Princes of Auersperg, to whom it now belongs, living far away. Amongst the greatpersonages whom the village has received and sheltered, was Pius the Sixth, when he wason his way to Germany in 1782, and a baker on that occasion conceived the happythought of obtaining the blessing of his Holiness on all his bread ! When Charles theFifth came to Matrey in the year 1530, he found the whole place in flames, so that hewas obliged to take shelter in an isolated house, the Grieshof. Since then the villagehas been seven times destroyed by fire. Stcinach turns its back on the railway, the fronts of its houses looking it is left on one side, looking sullen and neglected; and yet it was, once upon a time,one of those flourishing old-fashioned post stations to which the last ten years have put anend for ever. In the old days the road was frequented clay and night; sixty horses i6 ITALY. stood in the stables, and the gay frescoes with which the houses
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