Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . Lateran, and the lazy, dirty, insolent beggar of the Campagna encamped himself withwife and children wheresoever it seemed good to him. Picturesque also these streetgroups ;—admirable compositions for the pencil of a sketching tourist, but—everythingin its place ! And such like vermin are not for a city about to don her modern holidayattire. Whosoever does not attend to the workmans cry : No more of slothful leisure ! Hasten, quick,Bring stones and lime, bring here the binding mortar ! whosoever does not follow that behest, let him go hence, out of the city.
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . Lateran, and the lazy, dirty, insolent beggar of the Campagna encamped himself withwife and children wheresoever it seemed good to him. Picturesque also these streetgroups ;—admirable compositions for the pencil of a sketching tourist, but—everythingin its place ! And such like vermin are not for a city about to don her modern holidayattire. Whosoever does not attend to the workmans cry : No more of slothful leisure ! Hasten, quick,Bring stones and lime, bring here the binding mortar ! whosoever does not follow that behest, let him go hence, out of the city. Rome must andwill be remodelled by the spirit of the times ; her obsolete toga will be exchanged for the THE ETERNAL CITY IN A MODERN TOGA. 235 costume of the Boulevards and the West End. But never fear! She will still beRome, and her ruins will not be painted red, white, and green, but will keep their hoarytime-stained colour, such as we shall continue to see in numerous streets and alleys of thetown for many a year to Do but plunge into some quarter where the fresh air of the Venli Settembre has notpenetrated, and you will be unable to find any difference between Rome and the obscurestlittle hole in the Volscian or Sabine Hills. It seems strange that artists should under-take inconvenient and costly journeys to those mountain places in order to bring home,after months of labour, a sketch-book full of old doorways, crooked staircases, brokenwindow-arches, and other subjects stamped with the mark of destroying Time, whenthey can have all that and more, still older, still more ruinous, and therefore still more H H 2 236 ITALY. picturesque in the obscurer quarters of their own holy city, together with all the Volscianand Sabine smells into the bargain ! Look as you walk, and wonder at the homes ofindustry amid the filthy narrow lanes of the metropolis. Gaze in astonishment at theblack edifices with rusty iron gateways, whereof you are puzzled to know whether theyhave
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