the
Neapolitans--Museum--Churches--The Opera-house--English and Italian
beauty--Aquarium--Vesuvius--Excursion to Pompeii--Portici--A novel mode
of grooming--The entombed city--Its disinterment--Museum, streets, and
buildings--Remarks--A cold drive.

The first thing we experienced on reaching Naples was the inveterate
habit of begging and cheating among the lower classes. Our
carriage-driver began by asking three times the amount of the usual fare
for driving us to our hotel, and the whole of the way along never once
desisted from trying to persuade us that we must pay what he had asked,
and perhaps a little more. There was another fellow seated by him on the
box, evidently a "hanger-on" and friend of his, who had come with the
hopes that we should believe he had carried our luggage to the carriage,
and was therefore entitled to something. These Neapolitan beggars are as
importunate and persistent as a swarm of gnats, and it is almost
impossible to get rid of them; however, on reaching the hotel, I
requested our landlord to pay the driver the right fare, and so got quit
of the nuisance for that time at least. It is a good plan, as a rule,
for travellers to let the landlord of the hotel arrange for their
carriage hire.

We found "the Bristol" a very comfortable hotel, and happily secured a
room on the third floor, with a verandah. The situation being on high
ground above the town, on the Corso Vittorio Emmanuele, we had a fine
view of the whole of the city and harbour below, the glorious bay
beyond, and the great smoking Vesuvius on our left. There were several
other hotels on the same heights, and also a comfortable pension
establishment kept by a Scotch lady. I believe this is considered the
healthiest part of Naples.

The weather opened finely the next morning; the sky a pretty pale blue,
and the sea calm and beautiful. The bay stretching boldly round on
either side; the city clustering on the shores and up the slopes of the
hills, the busy harbour lying in the foreground, terraced gardens all
around;--

"And yonder, see! as if in throes of death,--
Vesuvius wreaths her foul Plutonic breath."

Yet I must confess that on the whole I was disappointed. I thought of
the lovely coast scenery around Monaco and Monte Carlo, and felt that
they exceeded in beauty the famous bay before me. The fact is, some
people rave about certain places without exactly knowing the reason why,
simply because it happens to be