Page:Selected letters of Mendelssohn 1894.djvu/44

30 When I got outside, an Italian boy, who was wonderfully pretty and clever as well, explained everything to me, and added that the festival would have been much finer if the disturbances had not broken out; they had stopped the horse races and the bonfires, and so it was a misfortune that the Austrians had not arrived sooner. The next morning at six, we continued our journey across the Pontine Marshes. It is a sort of mountain road, which goes through an avenue lying straight as a thread on the level; on one side there runs a chain of hills, on the other the marshes spread away without limit. They are covered with innumerable flowers, and a sweet odour pervades them; after a time, however, it is depressing, and I could feel the heaviness of the air in spite of the happy weather. Along the high road goes a canal which Pius VI. had made for the drainage, and a herd of buffaloes lay wallowing in this, with only their heads out of the water, and enjoyed themselves immensely. The absolute straightness of the road has a curious effect; at the first halting-place one sees the mountains closing the vista of the lines of trees on either side, and just the same at the second and third places, only taller as they get nearer. Terracina, which lies immediately at the end of this road, one does not see till one comes straight on it. Then the road turns suddenly leftwards on a rocky shoulder, and discloses a view of the whole sea lying before you; on the hills sloping down from the walls are citron groves and palm trees, and all sorts of growths of the South. The towers rise above the branches, below is the harbour standing