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318 ^OIJHHMi Km £&' EX&UItSIOK tfftOM
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
^ ^ Alx The First Days Of The Month Of A...
them to Ms side . But to go as soldiers under V . E ., that they won't . Wellthe consequences are as follows : the troops are sent
out in search of , themand of courserather than let themselves be takenthey fight and , as almost all of , them are well armed , these
skirmishes , are often very bloody , and the soldiers especially suffer severely . Of course when these young men have been hemmed in
by the soldiers and have been unable to get provisions for some daysthey will now and then stop a carriage and take what they
can , get ; but in no instance have they done harm to the passengers if there has been no resistance . Knowing all these circumstances
perfectly well , I was assured that a party of four ladies , driven by a man well known as Garibaldi ' s coachman , were as safe both hy
day and night on the road to Alcamo as on the road to _Hichmond . So with pleasure undamped by any fears , we called early in the
morning of the 1 lth , for our friend the Signora F—— -, and took the road round the walls to the Porta _Nuova , and thence to Monreale .
As we wound up the steep hill that leads to this old city , the sun was burning in a clear blue sky , and we all longed for a few
clouds to give us a little shade , the heat was so intense . The lain of Palermo lay below usdotted with Villas embedded in
orange p gardens and olive grove , s , and encircled on all sides with mountains ; Monte Pellegrino , with its peculiar formbeing the
_, prominent feature in the landscape . As we had many times driven to Monrealeespecially to visit the Cathedral , which is a
mag-, nificent monument of the Norman Saracenic time , erected by William II . about the year 1182 we now drove through the town ,
, glad to escape from the attacks of the hundreds of beggars who storm every carriage-load of foreigners .
Passing Monreale , the road continues to mount ; running along the slope of Monte Caputo , which rises rugged and barren to the
right hand , while all below to the left is green , luxuriant , and fragrant with the perfume of the orange blossoms . At the little
village of Chiuppo , we waited a few minutes for Giuseppe to greet his many friends—and dozens of goodnatured people hurried to
the carriage door to wish us a huon viaggio . A mile or two beyond Chiuppoas you ascend the passcultivation almost ceases , and
you are , surrounded on all sides , with rocks of the strangest and most weird-like forms . But the views , looking back towards
Palermo , are unspeakably beautiful . We get cheerful greetings from the country people as they pass us on their mules , or mounted
in carts painted a bright yellow , and ornamented with hideous little pictures of the saintsand mottoes— -of which the favourite is
, Viva la divina providenza—a mode of expression which is strange and almost comic to an English ear . These people were intensely
amused at the _larg'e white sketching umbrella which we had mountedto shelter us a little from the scorching rays of the sun ,
, and called out numberless jokes about the handier a .
V
318 ^Oijhhmi Km £&' Ex&Uitsiok Tfftom
318 _^ _OIJHHMi Km £ _& ' EX _& _UItSIOK _tfftOM
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1863, page 318, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071863/page/30/
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