The town of Squillace, which stands on an almost inac-~ cessible rock, contains at present only 2000 inhabitants, having suffered considerably from the effects of the great earthquake of 1783, which may be said to have altered the face of the whole of Calabria Ultra. It is an episcopal see of some antiquity, and boasts as remote an origin as any of the cities of Magna Græcia. According to Strabo, its former name was Scylletium, though it was called in his time Scyllacium. Mr. Craven spent some days at the country-house of a friend, most enchantingly situated on the myrtle-covered declivity of the Monte Moscia, just below Squillace. The town of La Serra, in the midst of high mountains, is chiefly remarkable for the remains of St. Stefano del Bosco, a celebrated monastery, once the wonder and pride of these sequestered: glades, but now a monument of the awful visitations to which they have been subject. The earthquake which took place on the 5th of February, 1783, levelled to the earth, in less than three minutes, a fabric which had grown in size and magnificence during seven centuries.

Descending to the plains, we again meet with the vine, the olive, the myrtle, and the orange: but the towns of Casalnovo and Terranova again exhibit awful traces of the earthquake. Every edifice in the former was cast to the earth; a cross and fountain alone remaining in their original position. Terranova now consists of a village of one street, containing 700 inhabitants, placed in the midst of ruins, which are those of a town containing 13,000 persons. During six weeks from the. 5th of February, the internal fever of the earth was marked by not less than a thousand distinct shocks. After having drawn a pathetic picture of the universal despair and desolation of this period, the traveller advanced to the town of Gerace, in quest of the ruins of the antient Locris: of which he found abundant vestiges, chiefly in the garden of a landed prietor, who was more anxious to secure the produce of his soil than to investigate the curiosities beneath it, and consequently unwilling that any farther excavations should be made.

pro

We now pass to the shores of Scylla. This celebrated rock is stripped of all its former terrors; and the cause may be found, perhaps, in the frequent recurrence of earthquakes, which would alone sufficiently account for such alterations in its form and magnitude, as may have greatly diminished the dangers which it once presented to navigators. The houses of Scylla are regular and well built; and the inhabitants, about 5000, are remarkable for their good looks, cleanliness, and industry. The men are also good mariners, and principally employed in fishing, or making silk. The various occu

pations afforded to the women by the latter article impart life and picturesque effect to every habitation on this coast, where it forms the principal and almost only branch of industry.

Nothing can be more impressive than the account here given of the earthquake of 1783, at Scylla. To escape from the danger of falling buildings, the Prince, with 4000 of bis people, had sought security on the sea-shore.

At about half-past seven, a distant but loud crash proclaimed some new disaster, and awakened to a fearful state of suspense all the silent sufferers. A powerful recurrence of the morning's shocks had severed a large portion of Mount Baci, which forms the next promontory towards the south, and dashed its shivered mass into the sea. The darkness precluded an immediate communication of this event to the trembling population on the sands, and also shrouded from their knowledge the anticipation of its consequences. They were roused by the earthquake; but, extended on the beach, and out of the reach of all buildings, they thought themselves comparatively secure from real danger. A low rustling noise soon was heard, and gradually but rapidly increased to the roar of the most impetuous hurricane. The waters of the whole canal, impelled by the pressure of the fallen mountain, in a single wave had rushed with irresistible force over the opposite point of the Faro, which it entirely inundated. Thrown back towards the Calabrian coast, it passed with impetuosity over the shore of Scilla; and, in its retreat to the bosom of the deep, swept from its surface every individual who had thought to find safety in the bareness of its sands. One abhorrent shriek uttered by the united voices of 4000 beings, thus snatched to eternity, re-echoed from the mountains; and the tremendous wave returning a second and last time, rose to the elevation of the highest houses that yet remained entire, and buried many of them in masses of mud and sand, leaving on their flat roofs, and among the branches of the trees which grew out of the impending rocks, the mangled bodies of the victims it had destroyed. But these were not many; for the mass, including the Prince of Scilla, were never seen or heard of more.

Reggio is described at length, with the addition of its etymology and antient history. It was entirely destroyed by the same shock which converted Calabria Ultra into one mass of ruin; and only within a very few years has it begun to recover from the effects of that devastation, which are still visi ble in all the unfinished streets, and some of the antient masses of structure. The inhabitants are sociable and lively; and, as they are mostly in easy circumstances, the town, with the addition of a very pretty theatre, is by no means an unpleasant residence, notwithstanding its distance from the eapital: while the climate and air are undoubtedly the finest in the whole continental portion of the realm. The fabrication

of silk and the exports arising from the culture of oranges and lemons form its principal commercial resources.

6

Returning to Casalnovo, Mr. Craven passes, without any adventure, a defile in the mountain beyond Solano, proverbial in the province for the robberies and murders committed within its precincts; and he institutes a comparison between the mountains of Sicily and those of Calabria. Sicily boasts of some situations, so extraordinary in their effect, that nothing in any other country can bear a comparison with them; but, as a whole, it yields the palm of picturesque beauty to the southern extremity of Italy, which, more particularly in its interior recesses, combines every attribute of Salvator Rosa's romantic compositions, with the softer graces and glowing brilliancy which charm us in the paintings of Claude.

Monteleone is a town of ten thousand inhabitants, in an airy commanding situation; and a fine old castle contributes to its imposing appearance. We here deviate from the direct road in order to visit Il Pizzo, the scene of the landing, and, in a few days afterward, of the execution, of Joachim Murat, in the autumn of 1815. (See our last Appendix, p. 485.) Cosenza, the capital of Calabria Citra, containing 9000 persons, has only one good street, but the shops are respectable, and the interior presents an appearance of industry and animation. It produces silk, wine, rice, hemp, and flax. Passing again within view of Cassano, the traveller proceeds through Castrovillari to Morano, which is placed, like a hundred other towns in Calabria Citra, on a pyramidical eminence, crowned by a fine Gothic castle. Soon afterward, he bids adieu to the mountains of Calabria, with feelings of unqualified regret at quitting a region so fitted to produce deep and charming impressions; and of which the merits and the disadvantages are impartially balanced in an interesting summary of the whole.

Lago Negro is described as exhibiting all the attributes of wild picturesque beauty; such as darkly wooded mountains, rising into bare and frowning peaks, which almost exclude the cheering influence of the sun. It is approached by two bridges over ravines, from among the dark and narrow depths of which is heard the roar of invisible torrents. The air of gloom and coldness, which invests it, has doubtless contributed to the origin of its unpromising name. After a ride of twentyfive miles through the fine country of Basilicata, the author entered the province called Principato Citra, or sometimes Provincia di Salerno, and arrived at Val di Diano, twentythree miles in length and three miles wide, and celebrated among the Neapolitans for its fertility and beauty. On the right of this valley, stands on an eminence what was the nionastery

M 4

monastery of San Lorenzo, belonging to the order of St. Bruno, vying in magnitude with the finest convents in Sicily: but, sharing the fate of almost all the monastic establishments in the kingdom, it was converted into a military hospital by the French. At La Sala, Mr. Craven found it expedient to pass the night, although on account of its bad air it had been numbered in the list of places at which he had been advised not to rest. On this occasion, he remarks that, according to all the observations which he had been able to make, foreigners were much less liable to the effects of malaria than the inhabitants.

The Val di Diano communicates with the succeeding valley by means of the Ponte di Campestrino; a magnificent work, consisting of a zig-zag road supported on masses of masonry of the best construction, along the sides of a steep declivity, and ending in a bridge of seven arches, which rise perpendicularly from a ravine of immense depth: through which a narrow but impetuous torrent rolls its waters, of a bright vitriol-color. The range of Mount Alburnus now separated the road from the sea, and screened the plain of Pæstum from the north; displaying, in its sublime masses and romantic recesses, features as magnificent as any in the Calabrian Appennines.

Passing the forest of Persano, which forms one of the finest royal preserves for game of all kinds, we arrive at Eboli, whence the road to Salerno runs across the plain extending along the gulf of that name. Like all the other flat tracts in the kingdom, it is well watered and fertile, but unhealthy, and inferior in beauty to the plains of the Crati, St. Eufemia, or Gioia. At Salerno, we will take our leave of Mr. Crayen; the remainder of the route to Naples having been often described.

We have confined ourselves to a mere analysis of this volume, with the view of presenting our readers with as much information relative to these unfrequented regions as could be compressed within the limits allotted to us. Those whose appetite for knowlege makes them indifferent to the form in which it is served up, and the sauce with which it is seasoned, will find in the original work much to gratify their curiosity:but the more volatile and mercurial class of readers would probably complain of something dull and soporific in a constant register of population and buildings, soil, produce, and manufactures, with never-failing etymologies and remote historical deductions. The author's style, though always polished, is too often elevated into stiffness and laboured into obscurity. In mere narrative it is elegant, because more simple and na

tural:

tural: but in sentiment it commonly fails, as we frequently meet with unwieldy and overgrown sentences like the following, relative to Louis the Eleventh and St. Francis: pavadz

It is difficult to imagine a scene of more impressive moral import, than that exhibited by a powerful monarch and unrelent ing tyrant, greeting the arrival of a barefooted monk, and catch ing with childish avidity every word which dropped from tips accounted divine; endeavouring, by the workings of self-delusion, to convert the consolatory expressions applicable to spiritual hope into promises held out to material existence, and vainly flattering himself that the mediation of sanctified humility might effectually prevail in obtaining from Heaven the prolongation of a career of unrepentant iniquity.'

The whole production, however, is written in the mild and liberal spirit of a gentleman; and we are willing to receive it as an useful and agreeable accession to the stores of local information which have been, at other times, collected on the same subject. The engravings are from views taken by the traveller himself.

By the Author of "Waverley," 12mo. 1. 11s, 6d. Boards. London, Hurst and Co. 1822.

ART. V. The Fortunes of Nigel. "Kenilworth," &c. 3 Vols. Edinburgh, Constable and Co.; THE singular rapidity with which Nigel' has followed the steps of his predecessor " The Pirate," and the report that we may shortly expect the appearance of his successor, convince us that our task begins to grow serious. Kindly solicitous to prevent our time from hanging heavily on our hands, this fertile writer seems resolved, at every vacant season of the year, to offer his best assistance in diverting our ennui; and accordingly, having in the Christmas holidays contributed his stock of amusement in the shape of "The Pirate,” no soøner did Whitsuntide arrive than he proffered The Fortunes of Nigel,' to while away a few of the sultry hours which have lately oppressed us. We therefore look forwards with confidence to his aid in killing a tedious day or two in the decline of the summer, or, at all events, before the fall of the leaf; and we shall be fully prepared, as Christmas again returns, once more to greet the appearance of our great periodical novelist. We are now fully persuaded, by the perusal of the introductory Epistle to the present work, that it is in vain to expect him to stay his course; and, indeed, he frankly confesses that he shall continue to write as long as the public will persist in reading his productions. He should, however, recollect that the world will not be satisfied unless he surpasses him

self,