We pursued our way over a level road running through a vast plain of wide pastures, in the midst of which we came upon certain spots where there was no grass, and where springs of clear cold water gushed forth, but this water reeked so strongly of sulphur that it might be smelt a long way off. After riding twenty-three miles we slept that night at Monterossi, and on the morrow, Sunday, twenty-three more brought us to Rome.
THE AQUEDUCT OF NERO
From Piranesi’s Views of Rome
To face p. 166, vol. iii.
The weather at this season was very cold, with an icy north wind. On the Monday and several days following I suffered from indigestion, and for this reason I took my meals apart, so I might eat less. From the effects of a purge I felt an improvement in my general health, but my head still gave me the same discomfort. On the very day of my arrival at Rome I received a letter from the Jurats of Bordeaux, who wrote to me most courteously concerning my election as the Mayor of their city, and begged me to repair thither to take up the office.
On Sunday, October the 8th, I went to the baths of Diocletian on Monte Cavallo to see the performances of an Italian who, during a long captivity amongst the Turks, had learnt some wonderful feats of horsemanship: for instance, while the horse was going at full speed, he would stand upright on the saddle and hurl a dart with all his force, and at the same moment drop down into his seat. Again, in full course he would get off the horse, grasping the saddle-bow with one hand, touching the ground with his right foot and keeping the left in the stirrup. He mounted and dismounted several times in this fashion, and turned somersaults on the saddle while the horse was going full speed, and shot arrows from a Turkish bow in front and in the rear with the utmost rapidity. He next rode the horse standing upright on his feet, and bending his body downwards so that his head and shoulders rested on the horse’s neck, and then he took a club in hand and, having thrown it off into the air, caught it again during his course. Standing on the saddle he took a lance, with which he struck a glove and transfixed it as if he were running at the ring. On foot he caused a staff to revolve in a circle round his neck, having first set the same going with his hand.[108]
THE BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN
From Piranesi’s Views of Rome
To face p. 168, vol. iii.
On the 10th of October the French ambassador sent a messenger to me after dinner to inform me that he would call in his coach to take me, if I might be willing, to see the goods of Cardinal Ursino[109] which were to be sold, the cardinal having died in Naples last summer and left all his vast wealth to an infant niece. Amongst other rare things was a counterpane of taffetas lined with swansdown. In Siena it is common to see the skins of swans entire, covered with feathers, and ready for use, at the price of a crown and a half, and as they are of the bigness of a sheepskin, it takes but few of them to make a coverlet of this sort. Then there was an ostrich’s egg carved and beautifully painted, a square jewel casket with certain gems therein, and fitted inside with mirrors in such fashion that the casket, when opened, seemed in every way much larger than it really was, while the gems were multiplied tenfold, each stone being exhibited many times by the reflection in the mirrors. Meantime it is hard to perceive that these are really mirrors.