cant to detain the traveller for an instant: but no place can be considered unworthy of notice which Vesuvius not unfrequently lights up with terrific splendour, and from which have been observed, almost from time immemorial, the grandest phenomena of the volcano. If tradition speak true, it was in the immediate vicinity of this town that Pliny the elder perished in the suffocating fumes of the eruption; and Pompeii itself is but three or four miles distant. In the ruin that involved that city fell the ancient town of Stabiæ, which formerly occupied the site of Castell-a-mare; and several papyri, it is said, have been at various times discovered among its ashes. The only thing which the town itself has to recommend it is its agreeable situation in the bend of the bay of Naples, of which it commands a delightful view, while the hills behind it rise in all the pomp and beauty of sylvan solitude. By the good taste of the public authorities, an elegant and spacious terrace has been formed towards the sea, and adorned with a row of handsomely built mansions, its appearance altogether strongly reminding the stranger of the delicious promenade of the Chiaja at Naples. Since the invasion of the French, Castell-a-mare has received additional importance from the erection of its new fortifications; and the formation of a small line of battle-ships begun there by Murat. The only object to which the attention of travellers is directed, in the town itself, is a mineral spring, which flows in an open canal through the city, and resembles in many respects the Solfaterra in the neighbourhood of Rome. Immediately, however, on stepping beyond the walls, the tourist finds himself environed with lovely scenes, which are only exceeded in attractiveness by those which extend before him in long and almost interminable vistas of ever-varied beauty. Castella-mare, therefore, by the grandeur with which it is occasionally invested by Vesuvius, and by the surpassing loveliness of the neighbouring country, may fairly claim a portion of the honor which the stranger in Italy is so ready to bestow on the generality of its cities. |