85

No. V.

PATRICK BRYDONE, Esq.

F. R. S. OF LONDON AND EDINBURGH, AND F.A.S.

Ir is greatly to be lamented, that the materials for a life of this ingenious gentleman are scanty and incomplete. We know little of him indeed, but from his travels; and even in respect to these, he does not appear to have communicated to the public an account of all his peregrinations.

Mr. Brydone, who claimed his descent from an ancient family in the North of England, was born about the year 1741, and received an excellent education at one of the universities. His first wishes were pointed towards the profession of arms; but he chiefly distinguished himself by his tours in foreign countries. At the commencement of these, Dr. Franklin had aroused the curiosity of mankind by his discoveries in electricity; and when the subject of this memoir first set his foot on the Continent, he was provided with the best instruments that England could furnish, for the purpose of making discoveries as to the precise state and temperature of the air on the summits of the highest mountains of Europe. He accordingly visited Switzerland as well as Italy, and crossed both the Alps and Appenines. In these excursions, he often witnessed phenomena not uncommon in the regions just alluded to; for more than once he beheld a thunder-storm bursting under his feet! His apparatus, and his experiments, acquired for him the reputation, not of a philosopher, but of a conjurer, amidst the habitable recesses of the elevated summits to which we have just alluded; while his talents and conversation charmed all whom he approached.

It was in the year 1767, or 1768, that Mr. Brydone accompanied Mr. Beckford of Somerly, in Suffolk, in a scientific excursion to the Continent. He afterwards travelled with the late Mr. Fullarton, then only seventeen years of age, to Italy, and some of the islands of the Mediterranean. In the course of these voyages and journeys, he was introduced to the first order of society; and it is evident, indeed, that every attention and information possible to be communicated by the higher circles, was most readily afforded. A certain degree of eclât was accordingly obtained for our traveller; and on his return to England, an account of his journey was expected with a certain degree of impatience. The public were accordingly gratified soon after by a very masterly publication; and in 1790, a second edition of the "Tour through Sicily and Malta," in two volumes, octavo, made its appearance.

This work consists of a series of epistles addressed to his friend William Beckford, esquire, the first of which is dated "Naples, May 14, 1770." Both Sicily and Malta were then almost considered as non-descripts; and the author, indeed, very modestly observes in his preface, "Had there been any book in our language on the subject of the following letters, they never should have seen the light." It may be fairly doubted, after the lapse of near fifty eventful years, whether there be any publication of a similar kind so deserving of otice as the one now under consideration.

Letter I. contains an account of the climate of Naples, which is here termed one of the warmest and most inconstant of all Italy. According to his account, it disagreed with all English valetudinarians, particularly young people, who found themselves far better at Rome, which, although colder in winter, was deemed more healthy. The former, however, is stated to be eligible in summer, as the air is constantly refreshed with sea-breezes; and in 1769, Fahrenheit's thermometer never rose higher there than 76., while at the latter it was at 89.: at the end of January, it stood at 36.; at Rome, it fell to 27.: so that the difference between the two extremes of heat and

cold, at the one was only 40 degrees, while at the other it was no less than 62. "The rain, which often endures for six weeks, and the Sirocco, or south-east wind, are, however, both highly disagreeable at Naples; for the last gives the vapours in a much higher degree than the worst of our rainy Novembers; and it has now blown for these seven days without intermission.

"Sea-bathing," observes he, "we have found to be the best antidote against the effects of the Sirocco; and this we certainly enjoy in great perfection. Lord Fortrose, who is the soul of our colony here, has provided a large commodious boat for this purpose. We meet every morning at eight o'clock, and row about half a mile on the sea, where we strip and plunge into the water. My Lord has ten watermen, who are in reality a sort of amphibious animals, as they live one half the summer in the sea. Three or four of these generally go with us, to pick up stragglers and secure us from all accidents,

"To accustom us to swimming in all circumstances, my lord has provided a suit of clothes, which we wear by turns; and from a very short practice, we have found it almost as commodious to swim with as without them: we have likewise learned to strip in the water, and find it no difficult matter. After bathing, we have an English breakfast at his lordship's; and after breakfast, a delightful little concert, which lasts for an hour and a half. Barbella, the sweetest fiddle in Italy, leads our little band. This party, I think, constitutes one principal part of the pleasure we enjoy at Naples. We have also some very agreeable society amongst ourselves, though we cannot boast of much of that with the inhabitants. There are, to be sure, many good people amongst them; but in general, there is so little analogy betwixt an English and a Neapolitan mind, that the true social harmony, that sweetener of human life, can seldom be produced.

"In lieu of this (the exchange, you will say, is but a bad one), the country round Naples abounds so much in every

thing that is curious, both in art and nature, and affords so ample a field of speculation for the naturalist and antiquary, that a person of any curiosity may spend some months here very agreeably, and not without profit. Besides the discoveries of Herculaneum and Pompeia, which of themselves afford a great fund of entertainment, the whole coast that surrounds this beautiful bay, particularly that near Puzzoli, Cuma, Micænum, and Baia, is covered with innumerable monuments of Roman magnificence.

"Yesterday we rode over the greatest part of Baia, a shooting of porcupines, a new species of diversion which I have never heard of before. We killed several of these animals on the Monte Barbaro, the place that formerly produced the Falernian wine, but now a barren waste. I do not know if you are acquainted with this kind of sport: to me, indeed, its novelty was its greatest merit; and I would not, at any time, give a day of partridge for a month of porcupine shooting."

Our travellers, consisting of Mr. Beckford, Mr. (afterwards Colonel) Fullarton, Mr. Glover, and Mr. Brydone, now prepared for their intended expedition to Sicily, which was deemed impracticable by the Italians, partly because there then were no inns on the island, and partly because many of the roads lay over dangerous precipices, or through bogs and forests, infested with the most resolute and daring banditti in Europe.

However, all these considerations, formidable as they certainly were, did not deter Mr. Hamilton (afterwards Sir William Hamilton, K. B.), his lady *, and Lord Fortrose, who had actually engaged in this expedition during the course of the preceding summer, and these were all amply gratified by the pleasure and entertainment resulting from it. But instead of crossing from Regium to Messina, to avoid the bad accommodation of, and the danger from the banditti in, Calabria and Apulia, our travellers preferred to hazard all the feigned

*This was his first wife.

terrors of Scylla and Charybdis, together with the more real ones of sea-sickness.

They accordingly hired an English vessel called the "Charming Molly," and taking advantage of a brisk tramontane, or north wind, advanced towards the island of Caprè, or Caprea, once so famous for the abode of Augustus, and afterwards so infamous for that of Tiberius. A little to the west lay Ischia, Procida, and Nisida; the celebrated promontory of Micænum, where Eneas landed; the classic fields of Baia, Cuma, and Puzzoli, with all the variety of scenery that formed both the Tartarus and Elysium of the ancients; the Campi Phlegrei, or Burning Plains, where Jupiter overcame the giants, &c. &c.

Those extensive coasts, along which they afterwards navigated, consisting of mountains, valleys, promontories, and islands, covered with an everlasting verdure, and loaded with the richest fruits, are all the produce of subterraneous fire. The traces of such dreadful conflagrations are still conspicuous: they have been violent indeed in their operations, but in the end have proved salutary in their effects. The fire in many places, indeed, is not yet quite extinguished, although there is only one spot where it rages with any degree of activity.

During a very dark evening, Vesuvius flamed at a dreadful rate, so that they could distinctly behold the red-hot stones thrown to a vast height in the air, and after their fall rolling down the side of the mountain. This was a fine specimen of the sublime; but in the course of the next morning, the sirocco wind returned, accompanied by sea-sickness. At length, however, a fresh breeze from a different quarter sprung up, and they came in sight of Strombolo and the mountains of Calabria. About eleven at night, they beheld part of the coast of Sicily, the irruptions of which appeared of a different kind from those of Vesuvius; and on the 19th, found themselves within half a mile of the object of their researches. Soon after which they entered the bay of