page_0063

Facsimile

Transcription

Status: Page Status Transcribed

222

and gratifying. Each step was accomplished as though we
had been provided with seven leagued boots - the ashes yielding
under the weight of our bodies and allowing each step to cover
from six to ten feet of downward distance. This return from the
top of Vesuvius is one of the well known experiences of the excursion
and is never forgotten by those who have enjoyed it.

On our return to Naples we should have stopped at a maccaroni
factory and seen the process of manufacture. It was an omission
for which I never had the opportunity of making amends until
I was in New Orleans in Dec 1884, when I saw the process in a
factory which exists there, the product of which I tasted and
found very palatable.

Maccaroni as served to us at our hotel at Naples was delicious,
owing as much I suppose to the cooking as to the superior quality
of the material. I am told that no manufacture outside of Na-
ples has yet fully equalled the home made article. Perhaps there is
some secret about it which has never been divulged.

Having been acquainted with the family of Prince Lucien Murat
in Paris as already related, I looked about for any evidences of
the reign of his father at Naples. These were but few and had
to be carefully searched for, as the reigning king was interested in
obliterating all traces of that Napoleonic period. They consisted
of two small paintings in an unoccupied palace in the suburbs
One represented king Joachim uniformed as the grand admiral
of his kingdom, standing in a small fort on the edge of the sea
and waving his hand towards a British fleet in the distance.
Murat is known to have been a very vain man who was usually
dressed in a style of his own, but it remained for him when king
to undertake to command his naval as well as his land forces.
There was a life size portrait of him also at the palace of Portici,
which I did not see, where he was again represented as grand
Admiral. The other little painting represented the two sons of the
king, Achille & Lucien, descending into the excavations of Hercu-
laneum. The two boys were in uniform, one being in that of a lancer,
and it was a very creditable picture. I mentioned it to Prince Lucien
when I saw him at Buzinval, his country place near Paris, two months
afterwards, and it seemed to interest him.

The gallery of paintings and statuary at Naples, known then as
the “Muses Borbonico,” appeared to me to be a valuable collection.
I have seen notices of it in which it is considered as not ranking
high, which may be a more correct opinion. If I could have seen
it after having been at Rome, I would have been more capable of
judging. The hall of statuary is probably the best part of it as con-
taining several antiques, of which the “Toro Farnese,” or Farnese
Bull, is one.

The grand Opera House of the San Carlo was not open during our
week’s stay. We looked in one morning while passing but it was
so dark within that its great size could not be appreciated. Our
only evening at the theatre was to see the Naples satirist of the day,
a man dressed as Punch who carried on a long monologue of which
we understood not a word, in which he commented with considera-

Notes and Questions

Nobody has written a note for this page yet

Please sign in to write a note for this page