nothing new to your Lordship, and can have no other design in this address than to declare that I am, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obliged, and J. ADDISON. PREFACE. It is THERE is certainly no place in the world where a man may travel with greater pleasure and advantage than in Italy. One finds something more particular in the face of the country, and more astonishing in the works of nature, than can be met with in any other part of Europe. the great school of music and painting, and contains in it all the noblest productions of statuary and architecture, both ancient and modern. It abounds with cabinets of curiosities, and vast collections of all kinds of antiquities. No other country in the world has such a variety of governments, that are so different in their constitutions, and so refined in their politics. There is scarce any part of the nation that is not famous in history, nor so much as a mountain or river that has not been the scene of some extraordinary action. As there are few men that have talents or opportunities for examining so copious a subject, one may observe, among those who have written on Italy, that different authors have succeeded best on different sorts of curiosities. Some have been more particular in their accounts of pictures, statues, and buildings; some have searched into libraries, cabinets of rarities, and collections of medals, as others have been wholly taken up with inscriptions, ruins, and antiquities. Among the authors of our own country, we are obliged to the Bishop of Salisbury, for his masterly and uncommon observations on the religion and governments of Italy: Lassels may be useful in giving us the names of such writers as have treated of the several states through which he passed: Mr. Ray is to be valued for his observations on the natural productions of the place. Monsieur Misson has wrote a more correct account of Italy in general than any before him, as he particularly excels in the plan of the country, which he has given us in true and lively colours. There are still several of these topics that are far from being exhausted, as there are many new subjects that a traveller may find to employ himself upon. For my own part, as I have taken notice of several places and antiquities that nobody else has spoken of, so, I think, I have mentioned but few things in common with others, that are not either set in a new light, or accompanied with different reflections. I have taken care particularly to consider the several passages of the ancient poets, which have any relation to the places and curiosities that I met with; for before I entered on my voyage, I took care to refresh my memory among the classic authors, and to make such collections out of them as I might afterwards have occasion for. I must confess, it was not one of the least entertainments that I met with in travelling, to examine these several descriptions, as it were, upon the spot, and to compare the natural face of the country with the landscapes that the poets have given us of it. However, to avoid the confusion that might arise from a multitude of quotations, I have only cited such verses as have given us some image of the place, or that have something else besides the bare name of it to recommend them. MONACO, GENOA,1 &c. On the twelfth of December, 1699, I set out from Marseilles to Genoa in a Tartane, and arrived late at a small French port called Cassis, where the next morning we were not a little surprised to see the mountains about the town covered with green olive-trees, or laid out in beautiful gardens, which gave us a great variety of pleasing prospects, even in the depth of winter. The most uncultivated of them 1 These travels are entertaining; especially to the classical reader. But the expression in this agreeable narrative is frequently careless: or possibly, the author, in the time of his travels, had not acquired the habit of that exact style, for which he was afterwards so famous. However, the general cast of the composition is elegant, and is even marked, occasionally, with that vein of humour which characterizes the best works of Mr. Addison; as the reader will observe, more especially, in the chapter on the little republic of St. Marino, and that of Meldingen in Switz erland. produce abundance of sweet plants, as wild thyme, lavender, rosemary, balm, and myrtle. We were here shown at a distance the Deserts, which have been rendered so famous by the penance of Mary Magdalene, who, after her arrival with Lazarus and Joseph of Arimathea at Marseilles, is said to have wept away the rest of her life among these solitary rocks and mountains. It is so romantic a scene, that it has always probably given occasion to such chimerical relations ; for it is perhaps of this place that Claudian speaks in the following description: Est locus extremum pandit quà Gallia littus CL. IN. RUF. lib. i. A place there lies on Gallia's utmost bounds, I know there is nothing more undetermined among the learned than the voyage of Ulysses; some confining it to the Mediterranean, others extending it to the great ocean, and others ascribing it to a world of the poet's own making: though his conversations with the dead are generally supposed to have been in the Narbon Gaul. Incultos adiit Læstrigonas Antiphatenque, &c. Fabula sive novum dedit his erroribus orbem. TIB. 1. iv. El. 1. Uncertain whether, by the winds conveyed, The next day we again set sail, and made the best of our way, till we were forced, by contrary winds, into St. Remo, a very pretty town in the Genoese dominions. The front to the sea is not large, but there are a great many houses behind it, built up the side of the mountain to avoid the winds and vapours that come from sea. We here saw several persons, that in the midst of December had nothing over their shoulders but their shirts, without complaining of the cold. It is certainly very lucky for the poorer sort to be born in a place that is free from the greatest inconvenience to which those of our northern nations are subject; and indeed without this natural benefit of their climates, the extreme misery and poverty that are in most of the Italian governments would be insupportable. There are at St. Remo many plantations of palm-trees, though they do not grow in other parts of Italy. We sailed from hence directly for Genoa, and had a fair wind that carried us into the middle of the Gulf, which is very remarkable for tempests and scarcity of fish. It is probable one may be the cause of the other, whether it be that the fishermen cannot employ their art with so much success in so troubled a sea, or that the fish do not care for inhabiting such stormy waters. Atrum Defendens pisces hyemat mare— HOR. Sat. 2, lib. ii. While black with storms the ruffled ocean rolls, And from the fisher's art defends her finny shoals. We were forced to lie in it two days, and our captain thought his ship in so great danger, that he fell upon his knees and confessed himself to a capuchin, who was on board with us. But at last, taking the advantage of a side-wind, we were driven back in a few hours' time as far as Monaco. Lucan has given us a description of the harbour that we found so very welcome to us, after the great danger we had escaped. Lib. i. Quàque sub Herculeo sacratus nomine portus On the promontory where the town of Monaco now stands was formerly the temple of Hercules Monacus, which still gives the name to this small principality. |