, but the wood, from its length and opaqueness, inspired me with some
apprehension lest it might be the abode of some modern votaries of Mercury,
people having confused ideas of _meum_ and _tuum_, and the _appropriative
faculty_ too strongly developed in their organization, and I expected every
moment to hear a shot and the terrible cry of _ferma_; but we met with no
accident nor did we fall in with a living soul. On issuing from this forest
we perceived on an eminence before us, at a short distance, the town of
Montefiascone. We stopped there as almost all travellers do to taste the
famous Montefiascone wine or _Est_ wine, as it is frequently called. This
wine is fine flavored, _petillant_ and wonderfully exhilarating. It is
renowned for having occasioned the death of a German prelate in the
sixteenth century, who was travelling in Italy and who was remarkably fond
of good wine. The story is as follows. He was accustomed to send on his
servant to the different towns thro' which he was to pass with directions,
to taste and report on the quality of the different wines to be found
there, and if they were good to mark the word _Est_ on the casks from which
he tasted them. The servant, on arrival at Montefiascone, was highly
pleased with the flavour of the wine, of which there were three casks at
the inn where they put up. He accordingly wrote the word _Est_ on each of
the casks. The Bishop arrived soon after and took such a liking to this
wine that he died in a few days of a fever brought on by continual
intoxication. He was buried in one of the churches at Montefiascone and the
monks of the Convent there, themselves _bons-vivans_, determined to give
him a suitable epitaph. They accordingly caused to be engraved on his tomb
the following Latin inscription commemorative of the event: _Est, Est, Est,
propter nimium Est, Dominus Episcopus mortuus_ EST. From the above
circumstance this wine is called _Vino d'Est_, and it affords no small
revenue to the proprietor of the _cabaret_ on the road side who sells it.

We arrived at Viterbo to breakfast and at Ronciglione in the evening.
Viterbo is a large and handsome city and contains several striking
buildings. It is paved with lava and contains a great variety of fountains.
There is some appearance of commerce and industry in this town and there
are several _maisons de plaisance_ in the neighbourhood. From Viterbo,
thro' Monterosi, to Ronciglione the road lies over a mountain of stee