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A CATSTTEE, OVER THE CAMPA0NA. 237
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.
"Well! Rome Would Be A Charming Place If...
-and his horse , unwilling to be left behind its companions , breaks into a rough gallopwhich reduces him to at least a silent protest .
The ordinary Roman , hack is a wonderfully spirited , though docile little animal ; ill fedill lodgedand hard workedhe never
utterly loses heart or coura , ge , and needs , no whip or spur , to make him do his very utmost . He is often a raw-boned , rough-coated , ugly
creature to look at , and when I first saw him I despised him in any heart , and compared him disparagingly with his £ C sleek , glossy
English brethren ; but when my gentle sure-footed Argentina " had carried me safely and willingly , day after day , over some eighteen or twenty miles _« of Campagnaup and down
steepslippery hills , over and through all mann , er of ditches , usuall , y at no contemptible paceI repented my first hasty judgmentand
, , my contempt changed to grateful admiration , * few English horses could do so much so easily .
There can be no better riding ground in Europe than the Roman Campagna ; for miles and miles there is nothing but soft , yet firm
turf , no ploughed fields and hedges as in England , nor stout stiff heather-stalks and bogs ( as on the otherwise satisfactory moors of
Scotland and Ireland ) to bar one ' s progress ; to be sure , there are occasionally high railings to keep in the cattleand awkward
sli-banked ditches for the same , but either the ditches ppery and railings can be scrambled and purpose broken , through
somehow , or a whole tribe of wild-looking peasant children fly to unfasten the gates , which are very seldom kept locked . The gates
_through which most of the seventy riders ( whom it is computed leave Rome every fine day in a good season ) must pass , are a source
of no inconsiderable revenue to the shepherds and children , who scamper down from their various posts of observation to open them
> and receive a shower of coppers in exchange , with which , like true Italiansthey begin to gamble the instant the gate is shut again .
They are , handsome and picturesque little fellows generally , with bright dark eyes , tangled elf-locks , and olive-brown faces , which
( as far as I can judge ) bear no traces of the malaria that is said to haunt the Campagna , more or less , at all seasons . The older boys
and shepherds almost invariably employ themselves in knitting stockings during " the intervals of business" but the women and
, . I girls aske never d a girl seem who to sat engage idly twistin in this g daisies usually together feminine , emp why loyment she did .
not knit too , " but could get no other answer than an " O , Signora mia I" and fits of laughter , as though such an absurd question could
only be asked in joke . It is difficult to tell where the children and lads come fromfor except the isolated farm-houseswhich are very
few and far between , , no human dwelling is to be discerned , ; far off on the mountain sides , towns and hamlets gleam white in the
sunshine , but not one single village or even cluster of houses relieves the lonely desolation of all the wide-spreading Campagna .
Flocks of sheep are scattered about in every direction , too busy
A Catsttee, Over The Campa0na. 237
A _CATSTTEE , OVER THE _CAMPA 0 _NA . 237
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1862, page 237, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121862/page/21/
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