horse shut up the pass behind. Flaminius came to the lake -near Broghetto at sunset; and, without sending any spies before him, marched through the pass the next morning before the day had quite broken, so that he perceived nothing of the horse and light troops above and about him, and saw only the heavy-armed Carthaginians in front on the hill of Torre. The consul began to draw out his army in the flat, and in the mean time the horse in ambush occupied the pass behind him at Borghetto. Thus the Roman was completely inclosed, having the lake on the right, the main army on the hill of Torre in front, the Gualandra hill filled with the light-armed on their left flank, and being pre vented from receding by the cavalry, who, the farther the advanced, stopped up all the outlets in the rear. rising from the lake now spread itself over the army of th consul, but the high lands were in the sunshine, and all th different corps in ambush looked towards the hill of Torr for the order of attack. Hannibal gave the signal, an moved down from his post on the height. At the sam moment all his troops on the eminences behind and in th flank of Flaminius, rushed forwards as it were with on accord into the plain. The Romans, who were forming their array in the mist, suddenly heard the shouts of th enemy amongst them on every side, and before they could fall into their ranks, or draw their swords, or see by whom they were attacked, felt at once that they were surrounded and lost. A fo There are two little rivulets which run from the Gualan dra into the lake. The traveller crosses the first of thes at about a mile after he comes into the plain, and this divide! the Tuscan from the Papal territories. The second, abou a quarter of a mile further on, is called " the bloody rivulet,' and the peasants point out an open spot to the left betweer the "Sanguinetto" and the hills, which, they say, was the principal scene of slaughter. The other part of the plain is covered with thick set olive-trees in corn-grounds, and is nowhere quite level except near the edge of the lake. It is indeed, most probable that the battle was fought near the end of the valley, for the six thousand Romans, who, at the beginning of the action, broke through the enemy, escapec to the summit of an eminence, which must have been in this quarter, otherwise they would have had to traverse the whole plain and to pierce through the main army of Hannibal. The Romans fought desperately for three hours, but the death of Flaminius was the signal for a general dispersion. The Carthaginian horse then burst in upon the fugitives, and the lake, the marsh about Borghetto, but chiefly the plain of the Sanguinetto and the passes of the Gualandra, were strewed with dead. Near some old walls on a bleak ridge to the left above the rivulet many human bones have been repeatedly found, and this has confirmed the pretensions and the name of the "stream of blood. Every district of Italy has its hero. In the north some painter is the usual genius of the place, and the foreign Julio Romano more than divides Mantua with her native Virgil.* To the south we hear of Roman names. Near Thrasimene tradition is still faithful to the fame of an enemy, and Hannibal the Carthaginian is the only ancient name remembered on the banks of the Perugian lake. Flaminius is unknown; but the postilions on that road have been taught to show the very spot where il Console Romano was slain. Of all who fought and fell in the battle of Thrasimene, the historian himself has, besides the generals and Maharbal, preserved indeed only a single name. You overtake the Carthaginian again on the same road to Rome. The antiquary, that is, the hostler, of the posthouse at Spoleto, tells you that his town repulsed the victorious enemy, and shows the gate still called Porta di Annibale. It is hardly worth while to remark that a French travel writer, well known by the name of the President Dupaty, saw Thrasimene in the lake of Bolsena, which lay conveniently on his way from Sienna to Rome. (36.) But thou, Clitumnus. Stanza Ixvi. line 1. No book of travels has omitted to expatiate on the temple of the Clitumnus, between Foligno and Spoleto; and no site, or scenery, even in Italy, is more worthy a description. For an account of the dilapidation of this temple, the reader is referred to Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold. About the middle of the XIIth century the coins of Mantua bore ou one side the image and figure of Virgil. Zecca d'Italia. pl. xvii. i. 6. (37.) Charming the eye with dread,--a matchless cataract. Stanza lxxi. line 9. I saw the "Cascata del marmore" of Terni twice, at different periods; once from the summit of the precipice, and again from the valley below. The lower view is far to be preferred, if the traveller has time for one only; but in any point of view, either from above or below, it is worth all the cascades and torrents of Switzerland put together: the Staubach, Reichenbach, Pisse Vache, fall of Arpenaz, &c. are rills in comparative appearance. Of the fall of Schaffhausen I cannot speak, not yet having seen it. (3S.) An Iris sits amidst the infernal surge. Stanza Ixxii. line 3. Of the time, place, and qualities of this kind of Iris the reader may have seen a short account in a note to Manfred. The fall looks so much like "the hell of waters" that Addison thought the descent alluded to by the gulf in which Alecto plunged into the infernal regions. It is singular enough that two of the finest cascades in Europe should be artificial-this of the Velino, and the one at Tivoli. The traveller is strongly recommended to trace the Velino, at least as high as the little lake, called Pie' di Lup. The Reatine territory was the Italian Tempe, and the ancient naturalist, amongst other beautiful varieties, remarked the daily rainbows of the lake Velinus. (31,) The thundering lauwine. Stanza Ixxii. line 5. In the greater part of Switzerland the avalanches are known by the name of lauwine. (40.) I abhorred Too much, to conquer for the poet's sake, The drilled dull lesson, forced down word by word. Stanza lxxv. lines (5, 7, and 8. These stanzas may probably remind the reader of Ensign Northerton's remarks: "D-n Homo," &c. but the reasons for our dislike are not exactly the same. I wish to express that we become tired of the task before we can comprehend the beauty; that we learn by rote before we can get by heart; that the freshness is worn away, and the future pleasure and advantage deadened and destroyed, by the didactic anticipation, at an age when we can neither feel or understand the power of compositions which it requires an acquaintance with life, as well as Latin and Greek, to relish, or to reason upon. For the same reason we never can be aware of the fulness of some of the finest passages of Shakspeare, ("To be or not to be," for instance), from the habit of having them hammered into us at eight years old, as an exercise, not of mind but of memory; so that when we are old enough to enjoy them, the taste is gone, and the appe. tite palled. In some parts of the Continent, young persons are taught from more common authors, and do not read the best classics till their maturity. I certainly do not speak on this point from any pique or aversion towards the place of my education. I was not a s ow, though an idle boy; and I believe no one could, or can be more attached to Harrow than I have always been, and with reason; -a part of the time passed there was the happiest of my life; and my preceptor, (the Rev. Dr. Joseph Drury,) was the best and worthiest friend I ever possessed, whose warnings I have remembered but too well, though too late-when I have erred, and whose counsels I have but followed when I have done well or wisely. If ever this imperfect record of my feelings towards him should reach his eyes, let it remind him of one who never thinks of him but with gratitude and veneration-of one who would more gladly boast of having been his pupil, if, by more closely following his injunctions, he could reflect any honour upon his instructor. (41.) The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now. Stanza lxxix. line 5. For a comment on this and the two following stanzas, the leader may consult Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold. (42.) The trebly hundred triumphs. Stanza lxxxii. line 2. Orosius gives three hundred and twenty for the number of triumphs. He is followed by Panvinius; and Panvinius by Mr. Gibbon and the modern writers. (43.) Oh thou, whose chariot rolled on Fortune's wheel, &c. Stanza lxxxiii. line 1. Certainly were it not for these two traits in the life of Sylla, alluded to in this stanza, we should regard him as a monster unredeemed by any admirable quality. The atonement of his voluntary resignation of empire may perhaps be accepted by us, as it seems to have satisfied the Romans, who if they had not respected must have destroyed him.— There could be no mean, no division of opinion; they must have all thought, like Eucrates, that what had appeared ambition was a love of glory, and that what had been mistaken for pride was a real grandeur of soul. (44.) And laid him with the earth's preceding clay. Stanza lxxxvi. line 4. On the third of September Cromwell gained the victory of Dunbar, a year afterwards he obtained "his crowning mercy" of Worcester; and a few years after, on the same day, which he had ever esteemed the most fortunate for him, died. (45.) And thou, dread statue! still existent in Stanza lxxxvii. lines 1 and 2. The projected division of the Spada Pompey has already been recorded by the historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Mr. Gibbon found it in the memorials of Flaminius Vacca, and it may be added to his mention of it that Pope Julius III. gave the contending owners five hundred crowns for the statue: and gave it to Cardinal Capo di Ferro, who had prevented the judgment of Solomon from being executed upon the image. In a more civilized age this statue was exposed to an actual operation; for the French who acted the Brutus of Voltaire in the Coliseum, resolved that their Cæsar should fall at the base of that Pompey, which was supposed to have been sprinkled with the original dictator. The nine foot hero was therefore removed to the Arena of the amphitheatre, and to facilitate its transport suffered the temporary amputation of its right arm. The republican tragedians had to plead that |