e modern part, it might
be anywhere or anything--Paris, Nice, Boulogne, Calais, or one of a
thousand other places.

The weather is so atrocious (rain, snow, wind, darkness, hail, and cold)
that I can't get over into Sicily. But I don't care very much about it,
as I have planned out ten days of excursion into the neighbouring
country. One thing of course--the ascent of Vesuvius, Herculaneum and
Pompeii, the two cities which were covered by its melted ashes, and dug
out in the first instance accidentally, are more full of interest and
wonder than it is possible to imagine. I have heard of some ancient
tombs (quite unknown to travellers) dug in the bowels of the earth, and
extending for some miles underground. They are near a place called
Viterbo, on the way from Rome to Florence. I shall lay in a small stock
of torches, etc., and explore them when I leave Rome. I return there on
the 1st of March, and shall stay there nearly a month.

Saturday, February 22nd.--Since I left off as above, I have been away on
an excursion of three days. Yesterday evening, at four o'clock, we began
(a small party of six) the ascent of Mount Vesuvius, with six
saddle-horses, an armed soldier for a guard, and twenty-two guides. The
latter rendered necessary by the severity of the weather, which is
greater than has been known for twenty years, and has covered the
precipitous part of the mountain with deep snow, the surface of which is
glazed with one smooth sheet of ice from the top of the cone to the
bottom. By starting at that hour I intended to get the sunset about
halfway up, and night at the top, where the fire is raging. It was an
inexpressibly lovely night without a cloud; and when the day was quite
gone, the moon (within a few hours of the full) came proudly up, showing
the sea, and the Bay of Naples, and the whole country, in such majesty
as no words can express. We rode to the beginning of the snow and then
dismounted. Catherine and Georgina were put into two litters, just
chairs with poles, like those in use in England on the 5th of November;
and a fat Englishman, who was of the party, was hoisted into a third,
borne by eight men. I was accommodated with a tough stick, and we began
to plough our way up. The ascent was as steep as this line /--very
nearly perpendicular. We were all tumbling at every stop; and looking up
and seeing the people in advance tumbling over one's very head, and
looking down and seeing hundreds of feet of smoot