eenstown
on the 8th of May without any special incident, proceeding thence
to Liverpool and London, where we stopped at the Hotel Metropole.
Here all our companions except our family party of four left us.
As it was our desire to visit Italy before the hot weather set in,
we determined to push on as rapidly as convenient to Naples. We
spent a day or two in London. We pushed on to Paris via Folkestone
and Boulogne. We remained three days at the Hotel Liverpool in
Paris and there met several friends, among them Mrs. William Mahone
and daughter, and Major and Mrs. Rathbone. On the 14th we went to
Lyons, the 15th to Marseilles, and the 16th to Nice. On the 17th
we visited Monte Carlo, and on the 18th went to Genoa. Here we
spent two days in visiting the most interesting places in that
ancient and interesting city. From thence, on the 20th, we went
to Rome. The city had already been abandoned by most of the usual
visitors, but we did not suffer from the heat, and leisurely drove
or walked to all the principal places of interest, such as the
ruins of the Roman forum, the Colosseum, the baths of Caracalla
and St. Peter's, and the many churches in that ancient city. In
the six days in Rome we had, with the aid of maps and a good guide,
visited every interesting locality in that city, and had extended
our drives over a large part of the Campagna. At Liverpool I had
employed a Swiss with the awkward name of Eichmann as my courier.
He had a smattering knowledge of many languages, but could not
speak any well; he proved to be faithful, and, so far as I could
discover, was honest. He relieved us from petty cares and could
generally find the places I wished to see. On the 27th we went to
Naples, and on the 28th by steamer to Sorrento and Capri. On the
29th we traveled by carriage to Pompeii and thence to Naples. On
the 30th we drove about Naples as well as we could, but here we
began to feel the heat, which was damp and depressing. It is the
misfortune of this city that, although surrounded on all sides by
the most beautiful and picturesque scenery of sea and mountain, in
a land rich in historical and poetical annals, yet a large portion
of the inhabitants impress a stranger with the conviction that they
are the poorest, and perhaps the most ignorant, population in
Europe. It is a sad reflection, that applies especially to all
parts of southern Italy, that the descendants of the Romans, once
the rulers of the world,