Louisa Courtenay Peach

“ We had ordered our donkeys to come early the next morning, to take us up the Monte Epomeo—the volcano which has now shown no signs of mischievous intentions for many a long year, and is consequently called extinct. On descending from our room, accordingly, at six o’clock, we found them and the guide at the hotel door. The road for the first mile or two, was like most Italian roads, buried between two lofty walls, from whose crevices capers and other creeping plants forced their way, decorating the old stones with their graceful festoons, while grape-vines and orange-trees peeped from above. ”

“ We were shortly joined by the guide, who had escaped from the fray without loss of life or limb, and when the fading daylight obliged us to quit our employment and seek the little piazza and the donkeys, we found them standing patiently awaiting us, looking as meek and enduring as if they had never lent the assistance of their heels and throats to swell the storm that raged half an hour before. ”

“ Michele was a treasure of a hackney-man: the best driver in Naples (where the best whips in Europe, next to the London cabmen, are to be found) , and perhaps the only Neapolitan who did not grumble at his fare, or his gratuity: with a good carrettella and a fast-trotting horse, he added to these virtues those of intelligence, good-humour, and a punctuality hardly to be found out of England, and by no means universal there. ”

“ Nevertheless, we embarked upon as amicable terms with our crew as if no difference of opinion had existed between us: for the mobile southern temper blazes up and subsides with a rapidity that is unintelligible to our phlegmatic natures. In fact, the struggle that a Neapolitan makes to extort more than his fair remuneration, is merely a duty that he owes to himself. Once this duty discharged, successfully or unsuccessfully, he dismisses it from his mind, feeling neither gratitude nor animosity towards his adversary. If he conquers, he is pleased with himself: if you conquer, he rarely sulks. ”

“ The same man who one minute would be throwing himself into attitudes of despair, and threatening, cursing, swearing, imploring and invoking all sorts of mischief on his head, if he were not the most ill-used of mortals, and we the most cruel of tyrants and oppressors,—the next, if he found his appeal disregarded, would be lounging beside us on the grass or shore, affably conversing, watching our sketches, and asking questions on the subject of our manners and customs, without a trace of ill-humour remaining. ”

“ The top of the mountain has been converted into a sort of socialist hermitage, where four or five gentlemen in Carmelite robes, with ropes round their waists, receive travellers, and sell them rosaries and other trifles, forage for their donkeys, and wine for themselves. Their habitation is like that of the Kenites, in the living rock, hollowed partly by nature, partly by art, and furnished with glazed windows and chimneys—not unnecessarily, for it must be very cold up here sometimes. There is no appearance of a crater. ”

“ Castle of Ischia.
“Signori miei,” said Michele, looking back at us from the driving-seat of his calessino, “if we meet any men with Ischia cherries, shall I stop for you to buy some?”
We were bowling along the dusty road to Pozzuoli, after passing through the Posilipo tunnel, under a burning Midsummer sun; and the idea of cherries rose refreshingly before our minds. Besides, we made a point of attending to Michele’s suggestions, which generally proved to be valuable: so we readily acceded. ”

“ A glorious view opened upon us here. At our feet, far down, lay the little town and port of Ischia, and the Castello di Nerone, diminished, as the American witness would have said, to the size of a bit of chalk; the summer palace of the King embosomed in trees; the Porto Nuovo just finished for the convenience of his Majesty’s yachts; and the vine-clad promontory and white villas of Casamicciola further west, with Foria in the distance. Across the purple sea the whole range of the Italian coast, from the Circæan promontory to the Campanella, was spread before us. The bay of Pozzuoli ”

“ He fights to the last: he prays, he remonstrates, he swears, he calls all the gods of heathendom and saints of Christendom to witness to the justice of his demand: but once convinced that you are not to be overcome, he gives in with a good grace, and rather likes and respects you for the prowess you have shown. ”