The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly
Magazine, February 1844, by Various

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Title: The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, February 1844
Volume 23, Number 2

Author: Various

Release Date: October 14, 2006 [EBook #19542]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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T H E K N I C K E R B O C K E R.

VOL. XXIII. FEBRUARY, 1844. NO. 2.

SICILIAN SCENERY AND ANTIQUITIES.

BY THOMAS COLE.

A few months only have elapsed since I travelled over the classic land of
Sicily; and the impressions left on my mind by its picturesqueness,
fertility, and the grandeur of its architectural remains, are more vivid,
and fraught with more sublime associations, than any I received during my
late sojourn in Europe. The pleasure of travelling, it seems to me, is
chiefly experienced after the journey is over; when we can sit down by our
own snug fire-side, free from all the fatigues and annoyances which are
its usual concomitants; and, if our untravelled friends are with us,
indulge in the comfortable and harmless vanity of describing the wonders
and dangers of those distant lands, and like Goldsmith's old soldier,
'Shoulder the crutch and _show_ how fields were won.' I was about to
remark, that those who travel only in books travel with much less
discomfort, and perhaps enjoy as much, as those who travel in reality; but
I fancy there are some of my young readers who would rather test the
matter by their own experience, than by the inadequate descriptions which
I have to offer them.

Sicily, as is well known, is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
It was anciently called Trinacria, from its triangular shape, and is about
six hundred miles in circumference. Each of its extremities is terminated
by a promontory, one of which was called by the ancients Lilybeum, and
faces Africa; another called Pachynus, faces the Peloponessus of Greece;
and the third, Pelorum, now Capo di Boco, faces Italy. The aspect of th