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238 A CANTER OVER THE CAMPAGNA ,
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...
nibbling the somewhat scanty herbage to bestow any attention > . upon us , but the curious little black and white lambs gather round
to stare at the strange vision , and frisk about in apparent ecstasy at the pleasant break we afford in their monotonous existence .
The shepherd leans on a rock close by , in an attitude and dress that forcibly remind me of the Royal Academy and a hundred
sketchbooks . I seem to have known that bronzedhandsome face , > partially shaded by the conical hat , a bunch of flowers stuck into
the green ribbon tied round it , that wide cloak hanging in broad _, folds from one shoulderand those shaggy goat-skin leggingsfrom _,
, , my infancy ; he smiles and greets us civilly as we pass . Miss Hose _^ the " gushing" young lady of our party , loudly announces her *
intention enchanting of man returning . " Our " earl ¦ " Cassandra y the very " next again morning shakes , to his sketch head , that and "
trusts " she will do nothing rash ; none of those peasants are safe to deal with , one and all are robbers and thieves , or would be if
they could . " I venture to doubt this assertion , and am punished by such doleful warnings of what will overtake meif I persist in
dis-, believing the innate vice of every Italian , that I retire silenced , though not converted . My next companion has come straight from London ,
and the Campagna air has not yet blown away his London topics and ideas . It ought to have interested me more deeply to hear that
" Lord D was going to marry Miss F , and that old H had died , leaving £ 10 , 000 only , instead of £ 100 , 000 , as was
confidently expected , " but I was ungratefully conscious of a decided wish to get away from all our talking , agreeable society , and ride alone
, with no necessity of talking or doing my best to be agreeable with the rest ; the silence and dreamy beauty of all around inclined me to
silence and dreams also . I knew , by former experience , exactly how to effect my object .
There is a certain Mr . Brown in our company , who has a mania for diverging from the track taken by the majorityand by some
, mysterious means he can always induce that pretty , gentle Miss Grey to trust to his guidance , notwithstanding the difficulties in which
he has already so often entangled her . He is now finding a short . cut along a narrow , thorn-beset path , and , " somehow , Miss Grey's
horse will follow his . " I join them for a little way , not much to their satisfaction apparentlyand then " I find the path too thorny "
and turn back to overtake , or rather not to overtakethe others , who have got on some little , way before me . , ,
As the voices and laughter and tramp of horses' feet grow inaudible in the distance , there is absolutely no sound whatever to
break the marvellous stillness , no distant bell , no child ' s voice , nor even bleat of sheep , or chirp of bird ! There is no wind either to
rustle through the branches of the dark , solitary pine , or stir the tall reeds and flowers growing by that deep pool . The sun is
shining down in undimmed brilliancy , yet all nature seems wrapped
in a mournful , deathlike sleep , unbroken and deep as the sleep of
238 A Canter Over The Campagna ,
238 A CANTER OVER THE CAMPAGNA ,
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1862, page 238, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121862/page/22/
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