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                             SUMMER CRUISE
                                   IN
                           THE MEDITERRANEAN.




                             SUMMER CRUISE

                                   IN

                           THE MEDITERRANEAN

                     ON BOARD AN AMERICAN FRIGATE.

                                   BY
                           N. PARKER WILLIS.

                                LONDON:
                    T. BOSWORTH, 215, REGENT STREET.
                                 1853.




                                LONDON:
               BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS




                                PREFACE.

                 *        *        *        *        *

Of one of the most delicious episodes in a long period of foreign
travel, this volume is the imperfect and hastily written transcript.
Even at the time it was written, the author felt its experience to be a
dream—so exempt was it from the interrupting and qualifying drawbacks
of happiness in common and working life—but, now, after an interval of
many years, it seems indeed like a dream, and one so full of unmingled
pleasure, that its telling almost wants the contrast of a sadness. Of
the noble ship, whose summer cruise is described, and her kind and
hospitable officers, the recollection is as fresh and grateful now, as
when, (twenty years ago,) the author bade them farewell in the port of
Smyrna. Of the scenes he passed through, while their guest, he has a
less perfect remembrance—relying indeed on these chance memoranda, for
much that would else be forgotten. It is with a mingled sense of the
real and the unreal, therefore, that the book is offered, in a new
shape, to the Public, whose approbation has encouraged its long
existence, and the author trusts that his thanks to the surviving
officers of that ship may again reach them, and that the kind favour of
the reading Public may be again extended to this his record of what he
saw in the company of these officers, and by their generous hospitality.

    HIGHLAND TERRACE,
        _October, 1852_.




                               CONTENTS.

                 *        *        *        *        *

                               LETTER I.

    Cruise in the Frigate “United States”—Elba—Piombino—Porto
    Ferrajo—Appearance of the Bay—Naval Discipline—Visit to the
    Town Residence of Napoleon—His Employment during his
    Confinement on the Island—His sisters Eliza and Pauline—His
    Country House—Simplicity of the Inhabitants of Elba      1

                               LETTER II.

    Visit to Naples, Herculaneum, and Pompeii      7

                              LETTER III.

    Account of Vesuvius—The Hermitage—The famous Lagrima
    Christi—Difficulties of the Path—Curious Appearance of the Old
    Crater—Odd Assemblage of Travellers—The New Crater—Splendid
    Prospect—Mr. Mathias, Author of the Pursuits of Literature—The
    Archbishop of Tarento      16

                               LETTER IV.

    The Fashionable World of Naples at the Races—Brilliant Show of
    Equipages—The King and his Brother—Rank and Character of the
    Jockeys—Description of the Races—The Public Burial Ground at
    Naples—Horrid and inhuman Spectacles—The Lazzaroni—The Museum
    at Naples—Ancient Relics from Pompeii—Forks not used by the
    Ancients—The Lamp lit at the time of our Saviour—The antique
    Chair of Sallust—The Villa of Cicero—The Balbi Family—Bacchus
    on the Shoulders of a Faun—Gallery of Dians, Cupids, Joves,
    Mercuries, and Apollos, Statue of Aristides, &c.      23

                               LETTER V.

    Pæstum—Temple of Neptune—Departure from Elba—Ischia—Bay of
    Naples—The Toledo—The Young Queen—Conspiracy against the
    King—Neapolitans Visiting the Frigates—Leave the
    Bay—Castellamare      32

                               LETTER VI.

    Baiæ—Grotto of Posilipo—Tomb of Virgil—Pozzuoli—Ruins of the
    Temple of Jupiter Serapis—The Lucrine Lake—Late of Avernus,
    the Tartarus of Virgil—Temple of Proserpine—Grotto of the
    Cumæan Sybil—Nero’s villa—Cape of Misenum—Roman villas—Ruins
    of the Temple of Venus—-Cento Camerelle—The Stygian Lake—The
    Elysian Fields—Grotto del Cane—Villa of Lucullus      38

                              LETTER VII.

    Island of Sicily—Palermo—Saracenic appearance of the
    town—Cathedral—The Marina—Viceroy Leopold—Monastery of the
    Capuchins—Celebrated Catacombs—Fanciful Gardens      45

                              LETTER VIII.

    The Lunatic Asylum at Palermo      51

                               LETTER IX.

