Anxuris æquorei placidos frontine recessus On the cool shore, near Baja's gentle seats, Where silver lakes, with verdant shadows crown'd, Impositum saxis latè candentibus Anxur. Capua Luxum vide apud Murranus came from Anxur's show'ry height, HOR. S. 5. 1. 1.. SIL. IT. lib. 4. Idem, lib. 4. Idem, lib. 11. I don't know whether it be worth while to take notice that the figures, which are cut in the rock near Terracina, increase still in a decimal proportion as they come nearer the bottom. If one of our voyage writers, who passed this way more than once, had observed the situation of these figures, he would not have troubled himself with the dissertation that he has made upon them. Silius Italicus has given us the names of several towns and rivers in the Campania Felice. Jam verò quos dives opum, quos dives avorum, Non Prochite, non ardentem sortita Tiphaa NAPLES. SIL. IT. lib. 8. My first days at Naples were taken up with the sight of processions, which are always very magnificent in the holy week. It would be tedious to give an account of the several representations of our Saviour's death and resurrection, of the figures of himself, the Blessed Virgin, and the apostles, which are carried up and down on this occasion, with the cruel penances that several inflict on themselves, and the multitude of ceremonies that attend these solemnities. I saw, at the same time, a very splendid procession for the accession of the duke of Anjou to the crown of Spain, in which the viceroy bore his part at the left hand of Cardinal Cantelmi. To grace the parade, they exposed, at the same time, the blood of St. Januarius, which liquified at the approach of the saint's head, though, as they say, it was hard congealed before. I had twice an opportunity of seeing the operation of this pretended miracle, and must confess I think it so far from being a real miracle, that I look upon it as one of the most bungling tricks that I ever saw yet it is this that makes as great a noise as any in the Roman church, and that Monsieur Paschal has hinted at among the rest, in his marks of the true religion. The modern Neapolitans seem to have copied it out from one, which was shown in a town of the kingdom of Naples, as long ago as in Horace's time. -Dehinc Gnatia lymphis Iratis extructa dedit risusque jocosque, Non ego At Gnatia next arriv'd, we laugh'd to see Sat. 5. 1. 1. That in the sacred temple needs would try One may see at least that the heathen priesthood had the same kind of secret among them, of which the Roman catholics are now masters. I must confess, though I had lived above a year in a Roman catholic country, I was surprised to see many ceremonies and superstitions in Naples, that are not so much as thought of in France. But as it is certain there has been a kind of secret reformation made, though not publicly owned, in the Roman catholic church, since the spreading of the protestant religion, so we find the several nations are recovered out of their ignorance, in proportion as they converse more or less with those of the reformed churches. For this reason the French are much more enlightened than the Spaniards or Italians, on occasion of their frequent controversies with the Huguenots; and we find many of the Roman catholic gentlemen of our own country, who will not stick to laugh at the superstitions they sometimes meet with in other nations. I shall not be particular in describing the grandeur of the city of Naples, the beauty of its pavement, the regularity of its buildings, the magnificence of its churches and convents, the multitude of its inhabitants, or the delightfulness of its situation, which so many others have done with a great deal of leisure and exactness. If a war should break out, the town has reason to apprehend the exacting of a large contribution, or a bombardment. It has but seven gallies, a mole, and two little castles, which are capable of hindering an enemy's approaches. Besides, that the sea, which lies near it, is not subject to storms, has no sensible flux and reflux, and is so deep, that a vessel of burden may come up to the very mole. The houses are flat roofed to walk upon, so that every bomb that fell on them would take effect. Pictures, statues, and pieces of antiquity are not so common at Naples, as one might expect in so great and ancient a city of Italy; for the viceroys take care to send into Spain every thing that is valuable of this nature. Two of their finest modern statues are those of Apollo and Minerva, placed on each side of Sannazarius's tomb. On the face of this monument, which is all of marble, and very neatly wrought, is represented, in bas relief, Neptune among the Satyrs, to show that this poet was the inventor of piscatory eclogues. I remember Hugo Grotius describes himself in one of his poems, as the first that brought the muses to the seaside, but he must be understood only of the poets of his own country. I here saw the temple that Sannazarius mentions in his invocation of the Blessed Virgin, at the beginning of his De partu Virginis, which was all raised at his own expence. -Niveis tibi si solennia templis Serta damus; si mansuras tibi ponimus aras Lib. 1. Thou bright celestial goddess, if to thee With fairest flow'rs and freshest garlands deck'd, On tow'ring rocks, whence Margelline spies Thine own propitious aid to his unpractis'd Muse. There are several very delightful prospects about Naples, especially from some of the religious houses; for one seldom finds in Italy a spot of ground more agreeable than ordinary, that is not covered with a convent. The cupolas of this city, though there are many of them, do not appear to the best advantage when one surveys them at a distance, as being generally too high. and narrow. The marquis of Medina Cidonia, in his viceroyalty, made the shell of a house, which he had not time to finish, that commands a view of the whole bay, and would have been a very noble building had he brought it to perfection. It stands so on the side of a mountain, that it would have had a garden to every story, by the help of a bridge which was to have been laid over each garden. The bay of Naples is the most delightful one that I ever saw. It lies in almost a round figure of about thirty miles in the diameter. Three parts of it are sheltered with a noble circuit of woods and mountains. The high promontory of Surrentum divides it from the bay of Salernum. Between the utmost point of this promontory, and the Isle of Capera, the sea enters by a streight of about three miles wide. This island stands as a vast mole, which seems to have been planted there on purpose to break the violence of the waves that run into the bay. It lies long-ways, almost in a parallel line to Naples. The excessive height of its rocks secures a great part of the bay from winds and waves, which enter again between the other end of this island and the promontory of Miseno. The bay of Naples is called the Crater by the old geographers, probably from this its resemblance to a round bowl half filled with liquor. Perhaps Virgil, who composed here a great part of his Æneids, took from hence the plan of that beautiful harbour, which he has made in his first book; for the Libyan port is but the Neapolitan bay in little. Est in secessu longo locus. Insula portum Within a long recess there lies a bay, 1. Æn. DRYDEN. Naples stands in the bosom of this bay, and has the pleasantest situation in the world, though by reason of its western mountains, it wants an advantage Vitruvius |