ur
courts; and although it is possible that ours might be better, it
is not possible that theirs could be worse.

I soon left the Court, and walked up the Strada di Toledo--the
finest and liveliest street in the world, I believe--crowded with
people. An Italian proverb says, 'Quando Dio onnipotente e
tristo, prende una finestra nella Toledo.' Then to the Museum, of
which everything was shut but the library and the papyri. The
former contains 180,000 volumes, but is deficient in modern
(particularly foreign) books. They showed us the process of
deciphering the papyri, which is very ingenious. The manuscript
(which is like a piece of charcoal) is suspended by light strings
in a sort of frame; gum and goldbeater's skin are applied to it
as it is unrolled, and, by extreme delicacy of touch, they
contrive to unravel without destroying a great deal of it, but
probably they have been discouraged by the small reward which has
attended their exertions; for there are several black-looking
rolls which have never yet been touched, and very few men at
work. The gentlemen who explained to us the process said that Sir
Humphrey Davy had attended them constantly, and had taken great
pains to contrive some better chemical process for the purpose,
but without success.

[Page Head: MARQUIS DI GALLO'S VILLA]

April 20th, 1830 {p.335}

A delightful drive (made by Murat) to the Marquis di Gallo's
villa on the Capo di Monte, which far surpasses all the villas I
saw at Rome. The entrance is about half a mile from the house,
through a wood, one part of which is a vineyard; the vines
hanging in festoons from cherry trees, and corn growing
underneath. The house is not large, but convenient; a wide
terrace runs along the whole front of it with a white marble
balustrade; below this is a second terrace covered with
rose-trees; below that a third, planted with vines, and oranges,
and myrtles. From the upper terrace the view is beautiful. Naples
lies beneath, and the Bay stretches beyond with the opposite
mountains, and all the towns and villages from Portici to
Sorrento. On the right the Castle of St. Elmo and the Certosa,
and Vesuvius on the left. There is a large wood on one side, cut
into shady walks and laid out with grottoes, and on the other a
vineyard, through which there is also a walk under a treillage of
vines for nearly half a mile. The ground extremely diversified,
and presenting in every part of it views of the surrounding
coun