Deputies from the twelve states used to assemble in her temple, to deliberate upon the interests of the common weal. Some antiquaries, however, maintain, that this famous temple was situated nearly on the spot where Viterbo now stands. Be this as it may, these columns most certainly never belonged to any Etrurian temple, but to some building of the Roman Empire; for granite columns were unknown till introduced with the pomps and luxuries of that tasteful but corrupted period.

Few indeed, if any, are the monuments that remain to us of Etrurian times. The destruction that. has overwhelmed their works, and the obscurity that involves their origin, alike vainly excite our regret and our curiosity; and we must ever deeply lament, that almost all traces have disappeared of the early history of that singular people, who, in the very infancy of society, seem to have preferred, with rare philosophical discrimination, the culture of the arts of peace to the alluring conquests of war; and to have attained wisdom, civilization, and jurisdiction, while all the nations around them were plunged in barbarism, and the Romans themselves had not even a name. To these, their conquerors, they subsequently gave their arts, their sciences, their learning, their laws, and even their diversions; and, however little we know of the events of their history or the progress of their institutions, we may be assured, that a people who enjoyed freedom, and had organized a regular representative government, must have attained no inconsiderable stage of civilization: for despotism, in some of its

forms, is almost invariably the government of barbarous states-where they have any government at all. Independent of this, the vestiges of their fine arts, their sculpture, their painting, and their architecture, their statues and their vases, would alone attest that they were a refined and polished people.

Amongst the broken granite columns,—which I was describing when something or other led me away into this digression,-has been placed an ancient marble sarcophagus, which was found here, adorned with singularly beautiful sculpture. It represents the Triumph of Bacchus. The God appears surrounded by a train of Fauns, Satyrs, and Bacchantes; goats led along for sacrifice; panthers chained to his car; old Silenus drinking, and Hercules drunk. From its greatness of style, and classic purity of design, I should have no hesitation in pronouncing it to be a work of fine Grecian taste and sculpture.

But Volsinium, even according to the significa tion of its name, was the City of Artists,* and when taken by the Romans, two thousand statues were transported from it to Rome.

To my great surprise, I was assured by the inhabitants of Bolsena, that their town is not unhealthy even in summer, and that here there is absolutely no malaria.

It is difficult to credit this assertion, when proofs of disease and depopulation, so incontestible in the

* Hist. d' L'art, liv. iii. chap. 1, § 14.

ruins of San Lorenzo Vecchio, meet one's eyes at the distance of a few miles on the borders of this very lake.

It is however certainly true, that places half a mile from each other, and apparently similar in situation, vary in this respect in the most extraordinary degree.

But it is a most difficult matter to get the truth out of Italians; and I almost begin to credit old -'s assertion, who lived among them twenty years, that they only speak truth by acccident, and are liars by habit ;* for every hour brings fresh instances of their disregard of veracity, even when there would seem to be no temptation to falsehood.

About a mile from Bolsena, we stopped the carriage to explore the woody banks of the lake for some basaltic columns, which we had heard spoken of, and our search for them was successful. They cover the side of a cliff which is about forty feet in height. The highest column may measure nearly four feet; but in general they are from two to three, and even lower. They are perfectly distinct and separate, but thickly embedded together, and have the same appearance as the few we observed at

* My own subsequent experience certainly tended to confirm this opinion in a great degree. I never met with a race of people who had, generally speaking, so remarkable a contempt for truth. I need scarcely observe, that there are many individuals of high honour and unsullied faith; but the general censure, though it sounds illiberal, is, I fear, just.

Aqua Pendente and Radicofoni-that of the stems of young trees growing close together and cut down a little above the root. In all the three situations, they are on the steep declivity of a hill. I observed several bits of zeolite intermixed with the blue basalt of which they are composed.

It was evening as we slowly continued to wind our way along the shores of the lake, and through a wood of oak of singular grandeur, which seemed to be the growth of a long succession of ages. Some had been scathed and rent in twain by lightning, and round the gigantic trunks of others the dark ivy had twined itself, clinging to their aged branches, which were twisted round in many a grotesque and varied form.

Dark clouds lowered heavily over the still and wide waters of the lonely lake, and the faint, hoarse murmur of its waves breaking against the shore, was the only sound that answered to the mournful voice of the wind, as it sighed through the withered and rustling leaves.

A shepherd, clad in his sheep-skin, with his dog crouching at his feet, was sitting half hid in a hollow of the wood, whilst his flock were scattered among the trees, browsing on the short withered herbage. If report speak true, less peaceful and pastoral wanderers at times lurk amongst these shades. This forest is noted as the haunt of robbers, and many a bloody deed of murder is said to have been perpetrated here. As we passed along, we caught at times an uncertain view of caves,and dusky rocks among the trees, which, dimly seen in

the gathering shades of evening, our fancy might have peopled with the forms of banditti; not indeed wholly without reason, for not a week ago, a friend of ours saw, at this very place, the murdered body of a solitary traveller lying upon the road, with nothing to speak his name and country, or the circumstances of his horrible fate. A vigilant but fruitless search after the assassins, we were told, has been making ever since by the Sbirri, or Papal officers of justice, who, here, as well as in every other part of the continent, are at least semi-military. By the way, I must stop one moment to correct a very common mistake that my countrymen often fall into ;-when they hear that a person has been assassinato, they conclude that he is murdered; whereas like the Irish Kilt, it only means that he has been attacked and robbed-but it is more than probable that he is still alive and well.

Just before we quitted the shores of the lake, a parting gleam of the setting sun burst from the sky, bathing the landscape in one flood of yellow brightness, and lighting up every object with sudden enchantment. The rich brown woods, the jutting promontories, the glowing waters and the distant mountains that bounded our view, laughed in the evening beam, and kindled into beauty-such as I feel it is impossible for me to describe. We turned from this scene as its transient brightness was fading away, plunged into the darkness of the woods, and night closed in upon us long before we had ascended and descended one high hill, and then climbed to the top of another still higher, on the bleak sum