FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121  
122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   >>  
never even caught sight of one. After Tivoli, when the road enters the mountains, there are a dozen small towns or so, all perched on the summits of high hills, under which the road winds in passing. Detached houses or cottages there are, as a rule, none--certainly not half a dozen in all--the whole way along. There was little appearance of traffic anywhere. A few rough carts, loaded with charcoal or wood for the Roman markets; strings of mules, almost buried beneath high piles of brushwood, which were swung pannier-wise across their backs; and a score of peasant- farmers mounted on shaggy cart-horses, and jogging towards the fair, constituted the way-bill of the road. The mountain slopes were apparently altogether barren, or at any rate uncultivated. In the plain of the valley, bearing traces of recent inundation from the brook-torrent which ran alongside the road in strange zig-zag windings, were a number of poorly tilled fields, half covered with stones. The season was backward, and I could see no trace of anything but hard, fruitless labour; and the peasants, who were working listlessly, seemed unequal to the labour of cultivating such unprofitable lands. Personally the men were a vigorous race enough, but the traces of the malaria fever, the sunken features and livid complexion, were painfully common; their dress too was worn ragged and meagre, while the boys working in the fields constantly left their work to beg as I passed by, a fact which, considering how little frequented this district is by travellers, struck me unpleasantly. With my English recollections of what going to the fair used to be, I looked but in vain for farmers' carts or holiday-dressed foot-folk going towards Subiaco. I did not meet one carriage of any description, except the diligence without a passenger, and could not have guessed, from the few knots of peasants I passed, that there was anything unusual going on in what I suppose I might call the county town of the district. By the time I reached Subiaco, the first day of the fair was at its height. The topography of the place is of the simplest description,--a narrow street running up a steep hill, with a small market-place; on the summit stands a church; half a dozen _cul-de-sac_ alleys on the right, terminated by the wall that hems in the river at their feet; a long series of broken steps on the left, leading to a dilapidated castle, where the Legate ought to reside, but does n
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121  
122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   >>  



Top keywords:
district
 

traces

 

description

 

Subiaco

 

farmers

 
passed
 
fields
 

working

 
peasants
 

labour


common

 

looked

 
painfully
 

features

 
dressed
 

ragged

 
complexion
 
holiday
 

frequented

 

constantly


reside

 

meagre

 

English

 

unpleasantly

 

travellers

 

struck

 

recollections

 

church

 

alleys

 

stands


summit

 
market
 

Legate

 

terminated

 

broken

 
series
 

dilapidated

 
leading
 

castle

 
running

street
 

unusual

 
suppose
 
sunken
 

guessed

 

passenger

 
carriage
 

diligence

 
height
 

topography