Glimpses of the Old World; or, Excursions on the Continent, and in the island of Great Britain

Front matter

GLIMPSES OF THE OLD WORLD; OK, EXCURSIONS ON THE CONTINENT, AND IN THE ISLAND OF GREAT BRITAIN. BY THE REV. JOHN A. CLARK, RECTOR OF ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, AUTHOR OF " THE PASTOR'S TESTIMONY," " WALK ABOUT ZION," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. PHILADELPHIA : PUBLISHED BY W. MARSHALL AND CO. 1840. Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by W. Marshall & Co. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. C. SHERMAN AND CO. PRINTERS. TO THE ŒoiiOKQatfott of St _3nS«tD's ©tmrci), PHILADELPHIA, BY WHOSE KINDNESS THE AUTHOR WAS ENABLED TO ENJOY THOSE GLIMPSES OF THE OLD WORLD, WHICH ARE HERE FEEBLY SKETCHED, AS AN EXPRESSION OF GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE FOR THAT KINDNESS, AND OF HIS UNFEIGNED ATTACHMENT TO THE BELOVED FLOCK, OF WHICH THE HOLY GHOST HATH MADE HIM AN OVERSEER, THESE VOLUMES ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY THEIR FRIEND AND PASTOR.

Preface

. In this book-making age, the old-fashioned custom of stating in detail the various reasons why an author comes before the public to instruct or amuse those who will conde scend to favour his pages with a perusal, has nearly fallen into desuetude. In vindication of the modern usage the principle is assumed, that the great majority of readers are not at all concerned with the author's private reasons for appearing in print, and that if his book be worth reading, tliat is reason enough for its publication : whereas if it be not worth a perusal, no private reasons of the author can justify its publication. While this summary way of disposing of this matter will unquestionably be entirely satisfactory to many, there are some who still prefer the old-fashioned custom ; and read a book with more interest, when they have first learned, through the preface, the origin and history of the work.

For their satisfaction the following statement is subjoined. The author's great errand in his excursion to Europe was the recovery of his health, which seemed to be rapidly sinking under the influence of a disease, still lamentably prevalent, es pecially among clergymen, affecting both the throat and lungs. His medical advisers concurred in recommending a winter's residence in the south of Europe. This having been decided upon, an earnest wish was expressed by a number of the au thor's friends, that he would send home from different points of his route, a sketch of whatever might interest him in the places 1* VI

PREFACE.

. and countries through which he passed, designed for subsequent publication, if on his return it should be deemed expe dient. To meet these wishes, the letters contained in the fol lowing volumes were commenced. Some of them were written entire while the author was abroad — but the larger portion of them, owing to the state of the author's health, were only partially finished; these he has written out more fully since his return, from notes taken at the time that each event occurred. These letters are now published partly to gratify a numerous circle of friends, who desire to possess a detailed account of the author's journey while abroad : partly because he feels that he owes it to his congregation, by whose kindness he was enabled to make this tour, to tell them how he spent his time during his absence : but principally because he is under the impression, that the more extensively that a knowledge of the actual state of things in the odd world is circulated in this country, the more American citizens will be led to love and endeavour to preserve in their integrity their own civil institutions, and to prize the unspeakable blessing of our common Protestant Faith.

The author, while absent from his flock, his home and his country, endeavoured not to forget that he was still an ambas sador of the King of Kings, and he cherishes the hope that these volumes have been written in such a spirit that they will not be without their influence in deepening in the mind of the reader a love for " whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report." He need only add, that as he does not undertake to de scribe every thing in the various countries through which he passed, nor to give more than a rapid sketch of any thing which he saw, he hopes that the title will not be deemed inappropriate, inasmuch as it promises only Glimpses of the Old World. CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Embarkation on board the brig Pennsylvania — Sea-sickness — Depression of spirits — Diversified phases ofthe ocean — The Western Isles — Ships at sea — Coast of Spain — Trafalgar — Lord Nelson — Tarifa — The entrance of the Straits of the Mediterranean — The Rock of Gibraltar — The bay — View of the town — Troops of the garrison — First landing. ...... 13

Chapter II

impressions upon first landing — Aspect of the streets of Gibraltar — History of the place — Location of the town — Dilapidated castle — Excavations in the rock — Various chambers — Powerful batteries — Explosion — Affecting death of a soldier — Native apes — The signal-house — Prospect from the summit of the rock — St. Michael's Cave — An evening walk — Jewish synagogue — Roman Catholic church — Thc office of the Virgin — Devout soldiers — The Alameda — Adham Bey — Bishop Carr. ...... 28

Chapter III

The sabbathless sailor — Incidents on the voyage — Sermon in the Roman Catholic church — Service in the Episcopal church — Sermons of the civil and military chaplains — The Wesleyan chapel — Bishop Carr — Confirmation. ...... 50

Chapter IV

The New Year — Passage across the Atlantic — Appearance of Gibraltar — Its religious state — Motives to increased faithfulness — Considerations of death and eternity. .... CONTENTS.

Chapter V

Government steamer Volcano — Spain — Robberies — Incident — Cadiz- Seville — St. Roche — Spanish lines — Beggars — Algesiras — Incidents by the way— The armed cavalier — A pertinacious ragged Spanish boy — .Return to Gibraltar — Excursion to Malaga — Sunday — Roman Catholic churches— Cathedral— Innkeeper — Antonio— View of the town — Grenada. ..... 6S

Chapter VI

Passage up the Mediterranean in the Volcano — Company on board — ■ Amusing incident from ventriloquism— Young E -, an officer in the Chinese service — Bishop Carr — A Sunday on the Mediterranean — Missionary operations in India — A striking incident — The Barbary coast — The Fratclli— Pantelaria — Gozo— The Bay of Malta. 88

Chapter VII

Harbour of Malta — First landing — Valetta — Appearance of the town — Maltese porters — Morell's — Tlie Island of Malta — Its external aspect — Its history — The cathedral of Valetta — Governor's palace — An Excursion through the island — St. Paul's Bay — The place of his shipwreck — Passage to Gozo — Landing — View of the island — Rabbato — Excursion to the Fungus Rock— Giant's Tower — Scripture illustrations. .... . 103

Chapter VIII

Climate of Malta — Sirocco winds — Policy of the English government — Roman Catholics — Protestant worship— Rev. Mr. Cleuwh — Governor's ball — Confirmation lecture — New mode of preaching at Vitloriosa ■ Town of Citta Vecchia — Catacombs — Cathedral — The Church Missionary Society's publishing house — Mr. Sehleinz— Protestant burying ground— The monastery of the Capuchin Friars— A converted Capuchin— Makluba— A pleasant evening circle— Asaad Esh Shidiak —Baptiste Yeroushalmy— Mr. J.— The brigand assault— The imposture of Dr. Naudi. . . . . . J31

Chapter IX

Embarkation for Sicily— Neapolitan steamer— Syracuse— The site of the ancient city— The remains of the theatre— Ear of Dionysius— Fountain of Arethusa — Cathedral— Incident on board our steamer Convent and garden of the Capuchin monks— Temple of Jupiter CONTENTS. IX Olympicus — Coast of Sicily — Augusta — Catania — The appearance of Etna — Eruptions from the crater of the volcano — An alarm on board the steamer — Messina — Earthquake — Excursion from Messina — Si cilian scenery — Cholera — The Sabbath. - - 163

Chapter X

First impressions at Naples — Sail from Sicily to Naples — Scylla and Charybdis — Stromboli — Gulf of Salerno — Island of Capri — Bay of Naples — View of the town — The Toledo — Churches — St. Januarius — Gesu Nuovo — Filthy streets — Royal Museum — A young Prussian — The Queen Dowager — Corruption among the Catholic Priests — The making of a nun — Protestant Chapel — Royal Museum — Reserved objects — Villa Reale — The Queen of Sardinia — The King of Naples. ------- 186

Chapter XI

Excursion to Baiæ — Tbe Chiaja — Pausilypo — Nisida — Pozzuoli — The Emperor Caligula — St. Paul — The Lucrine Lake — Avernus — Sibyl's Cave — Nero's villa and hot baths — Ruins of Baiæ — Elysian Fields — Cumæ — The Cumæan Sibyl — Cicero's villa. - - 206

Chapter XII

Excursion to Pompeii — Distant view of Vesuvius — The eruption of A. D. 79 — Destruction of Torre del Greco — Appearance of Pompeii — Excursion to Pæstum — View of Salerno — The walls and temples of Pæstum — Italian beggars — Return — Nocera — Its ancient church — Resina — Herculaneum — Excursion to Vesuvius — The hermitage — Change of weather — Ascent of the cone — Return to Naples — Church of St. Martino — Virgil's Tornb — Caserta — The palace and aqueduct. 223

Chapter XIII

Brief recapitulation ofthe route of travel from Gibraltar to Naples — State of health — Season of Lent — Motives to spiritual improvement. 247

Chapter XIV

Excursion to Rome — Passengers in the Diligence — Aspect ofthe country — Aversa — An accomplished beggar — Capua — Appian Way — Mola di Gaeta — Itri — Fondi — Terracina — Pontine Marshes — Forum Appii — Three Taverns — Albano — Approach to Rome — First day in Rome. -..-... CONTENTS. X

Chapter XVIII

Church architecture — Impression of the Romish churches upon the external senses — St. Peter's — First impressions from the exterior view — Semicircular colonnade — The covered portico — Interior view — First impressions — Effect of frequent visits — The dome — The piazza in front — Obelisk and fountains — Entrances to St. Peter's — The nave — Bronze statue of the Apostle — Sandal of his foot worn by the kisses of the faithful — Statuary and mosaics — Transfiguration — Communion of St. Jerome — The Archangel — Tribune — Chair of St. Peter — Statue of Death— A Pieta. --.... 302

Chapter XIX

Roman palaces — The Dorian Palace — The Vatican — Statuary — The Laocoon — Galleries of Raphael — Sala Regia — Massacre of St. Bartholomew's — Sistine Chapel — Michael Angelo — The Last Judgment — Aretino — Amusing anecdote. .... 322

Chapter XX

Church of St. Gregory — An accidental interview with the Pope — The pomp and brilliancy of his private equipage — Ashwednesday in the Sistine Chapel — The entrance of the Cardinals — The entrance of the Pope — The ceremony of Salutation — The change of Robes — The Mass — Elevation ofthe Host — The Pope in the Church of Santa MariaSopra Minerva — Military parade — Reception of tbe Pope by the Cardinals Entrance into the Church — Mass — Procession of twelve girls. CONTENTS. XI

Chapter XXI

The Protestant Chapel at Rome — The Church of St. John Lateran — Baptistery — Scala Santa — The Church of the Holy Cross — Popish relics — Scene in St. Peter's — Church ofthe Capuchins — The Palazzo Barberini — Raphael's Fornarina — Indelicacy connected with the exhibition of picture galleries — Voluptuous character of Raphael — Pontifical palace — St. Peter's of the Golden Hill — The Cloaca Maxima — Baths of Titus — Church of S. Maria Maggiore — Policy ofthe Roman pontiffs — Borghese Palace — Beggars at Rome — Popery the court religion — Devotion to the Catholic faith the way to political power. 350

Chapter XXII

The Pantheon — Museum on the Capitoline Hill — Dorian Palace — Tomb of Caius Cestius — St. Paul's church — Conflagration — Excursion to Tivoli — Church of St. Lorenzo — Adventure at Adrian's villa — Picturesque falls of Tivoli — Return to Rome — Church of Ara Celi — Balhs of Caracalla — The Circus Maximus — A scene in the Colosseum — Strong analogy between Pagan and Papal Rome. - - 373

Chapter XXIII

Desire to preach the Gospel of Christ — Intelligence from home — Religious state of Rome — Incentives to increased piety and increased missionary efforts among Protestants — Exhortation to fidelity. 391

Chapter XXIV

Journey to Florence from Rome — Baccano — Ronciglione — Monte Cimino — Viterbo — Montefiascone — An Italian sky — Bolsena — Pass of the Apennines — Siena — Scenery around Florence — Sunday morning in Florence — Country girl with her wild flowers — Protestant Chapel — Gardens ofthe Ducal Palace — The Grand Duke — The Duomo — Dante — Statue of God — Church of St. Croce — Michael Angelo — Pitti Palace — Museum of Natural History — Venus de Medicis - 399

Chapter XXV

Journey to Pisa — Valley of the Arno — Appearance of Pisa — Its history — The Cathedral — Leaning tower — Baptistery — Campo Santo — Journey to Genoa — Lucca — Sarzana — La Spezzia — Passage over the Apennines — Approach to Genoa — Description of the place — Palaces — Churches — Sardinian government — Excursion to Nice — The maritime Alps — Nice. ...... CONTENTS.

Chapter XXVI

Journey from Nice to Marseilles— Antibes— Aix_Appearance of Marseilles — Fort Notre Dame — Cemetery — Good Friday — Cathedral Church — A singular decretal — A scene in the street on Sunday — Journey to Lyons — Avignon — Popes — Laura's grave — Petrarch — Vienne — Pontius Pilate — Banks of the Rhone — French women — Snow storm — Appearance of Lyons and its environs — Journey to Paris — An agreeable fellow-traveller — Evangelical Societies — The converted minister — Persecution — Christian soldier — M. De Felice — Fontainebleau. 431

Chapter XXVII

Arrival at Paris — Situation of the city — Sunday — Bishop Luscombe — Gardens ofthe Tuilleries — Champs Elysees — Louvre — Palais Royal — Bibliotheque du Roi — Place Venddme — Place Louis XV. — Pont Louis XVI 454

Chapter XXVIII

The Chamber of Deputies — The Hotel des lnvalides — Museum of Natural History — Gobelin Tapestry — The Madelaine — Notre Dame — Pantheon — Versailles — St. Dennis — Pere La Chaise — Character and influence of Popery. --....-

Chapter I. The Voyage

Embarkation on board the brig Pennsylvania — Sea-sickness — Depression of spirits — Diversified phases ofthe ocean — The Western Isles — Ships at sea — Coast of Spain — Trafalgar — Lord Nelson — Tarifa — The entrance of the Straits of the Mediterranean — The Rock of Gibraltar — The bay — View of the town — Troops of the garrison — First landing. Gibraltar, December 21, 1837. MY DEAR FRIEND, You were so urgent, upon my leaving America, that I should send home from time to time a connected and continuous account of my various journeyings while abroad, that I began at the very outset to keep some sort of memoranda, from which at my leisure I might glean materials to form the sketches you desired me to send you. I am anxious to gratify you in all your re quests, and therefore have not awaited the arrival of an hour of leisure, but have seized upon almost the first moment after having again set foot upon terra firma, to give you some account of our voyage.

In my next you shall hear something of this wonderful place — this giant rock, with which is connected such a volume of past history. November the 20th, 1837, will with me, to the close vol. i. of life, be a most memorable day. I shall not soon forget the sad pangs of that hour of parting ! You know I went down as far as Newcastle in the steamboat, our vessel having already advanced on her way just below that place. As we drew near Newcastle, the brig Pennsylvania, that lay at anchor in the stream, the vessel in which I was to embark, was pointed out to me. We took a small boat, and without landing went directly to the brig. We found that the wind was fa vourable, and that every preparation was being made on board to get the vessel immediately under way. The friends who had attended me thus far now took their leave, and we were soon moving before the wind.

Left to myself, I now had leisure to survey the length and breadth of the floating habitation that was for several weeks to be my home, and also to reconnoitre the somewhat motley group that along with me were to inhabit this tenement. There were two passengers be side myself, whom I found to be intelligent and most estimable young men. The entire crew, including the captain, mates, cabin-boy, cook, and common sailors, amounted in all only to ten souls. The appearance of the cabin was not altogether prepossessing ; but I fully resolved to make the best of every thing, and to look not only with content, but entire satisfaction, upon all that appertained to a vessel that promised to carry me speedily to a clime where I hoped to find renewed health. It was, therefore, with deep interest that I gazed upon the expanded sails, now filled with the breeze, and my thoughts, more rapid than the wings of the wind, were already verging towards Mons Calpe, and anticipating our speedy arrival at this destined port.

In the midst of these glowing anticipations, long before we had lost sight of Newcastle, the wind changed, and our progress was at an end. We thus had an early trial of our pa tience ; and the probation was somewhat long also, inasmuch as contrary winds prevailed for three succes sive days, all of which time we continued in the Dela ware, only a few hours' sail from home. At length, on Thursday morning, the 24th of November, the wind again changed decidedly in our favour, and we were soon beyond the Capes, with the broad ocean stretching around us. The wind now blew with tremendous fury, and as we bounded over the rolling billows of the mighty deep, we were made to realise that when the Lord send eth out his breath, and bloweth with his wind, the stout oaken vessel is a thing as frail and as easily demolished, as though its framework were of gossamer.

Having dismissed our pilot, we went onward in our course with delightful speed. I will not attempt to de scribe to you the incidents of the few following days, while we were paying the tax usually imposed upon landsmen, when they are first wafted over the rocking waves of the unquiet ocean ; for I have observed that those who are sea-sick usually get very little sympathy. But succeeding this deadly sickness, I experienced a season of ennui and depression totally novel in the history of my feelings. From some physical cause, my mind seemed to have lost its wonted elasticity. There seemed to have fallen a spell upon all my mental powers, unset tling my purposes, and leading me to regret even the step I had taken for the recovery of my health. The gloomy, and now vivid anticipation of sickness among strangers, and a grave in a foreign land, clung to my mind with a tenacity that I could neither overcome nor resist.

It seemed as though I had been removed by some sudden and painful transition from all that was dear to me on earth, to a scene of privation and peril — as though I had been torn by some giant arm from a blooming paradise, and shut up in solitary confinement —as though every gust of wind that blew was sweeping me on farther and farther from all the comforts, and friends, and warm hearts, and kind sympathy, that had hitherto clustered around me — from all the bright sunshine that had previously fallen upon my path, and cheered my sinking heart amid its despondency. Whither could I turn in such an hour but to the Cross of Calvary? From that cross, even in this hour of gloom, there did not fail to issue a light to cheer and sustain my drooping spirits. As I have before intimated, I have no doubt that this dreadful depression of mind was attributable in no slight degree to physical causes.

I find that others have experienced at sea similar trials of feeling. What a mercy it is that such states of feeling are not immutable ! He who gave to the mind its high faculties — who constituted and moves the mysterious springs of human feeling, so ordereth things, that " though heaviness may endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning." I have often seen, in my native State, huge masses of mist hanging darkly over the brow, and rolling down the side of the mountains amid which the Housatonic has its source, and blotting out from human view every thing that was beautiful in the landscape that girdled their base. But by-and-by the sun arose; these dense masses of cloud all disappeared; and a bright tide of radiance was poured over every crag and peak, and into every dark nook of those mountains, lighting them up with an ocean of splendour, as though their steep sides were a bright pathway to the skies.

When in my childhood I have stood and gazed upon this mountain scenery, thus lit up with matchless splendour, I have wondered how such forms of gloom could ever hang so darkly over the brow of those mighty precipices. In like manner, those gloomy feelings to which I have adverted soon passed away, and left me to wonder, amid the bright beamings of divine love, that I could have ever been the victim of such morbid sensibility. Well may we ex claim with the royal Psalmist, " I am fearfully and wonderfully made!" My spirits having regained their wonted buoyancy, I was in some degree prepared to watch the ocean, to observe the diversified phases it put on, and to find something to interest me in all its various moods of calmness and commotion. At first I felt disappointed in the view of the Atlantic.

It did not impress me with those ideas of vastness and immeasurable grandeur which I had supposed it would. But it daily grew upon me, and I began at length to see that it was a volume written all over with mysterious characters, and in itself eminently calculated to arouse trains of thought full of interest. I could now see on the face of the great deep much to impress me with increased reverential awe for that Being who " hath measured all its waters in the hollow of his hand ;" and I could fully understand why the Psalmist had said, " They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep." At one time the whole surface of the sea appeared hirsute, and ridged with quickly succeeding waves ; and as our vessel, under full sail, sought her pathway over these, there was stirred up on either side of us amid the 2* briny waters, a white milky foam, boiling up in appear ance precisely like the waters just below the falls of Nia gara.

When the sun favoured us with its beams, the motion of our vessel produced in the disturbed waters a variety of the most splendid and brilliant colours. At times when the wind blew still more fresh, the whole world of waters on the leeward side of our vessel seemed to rise up in the distance like a gently ascending acclivity, till it touched the horizon, and apparently propped the sky. The orb of night shone cloudless upon us one or two evenings. It was delightful, amid the solitude of the ocean, to gaze upon the stars hung out in the midnight sky, and to think of the bright mansions prepared for the heaven-bound mariner there. It struck me that the ocean appeared beautiful, but somewhat sombre, in moonlight. The eye seemed to discover beyond the illu mined circle constituting the bounding horizon, a dark mysterious world of unexplored waters, that made the mind shrink back with awe and apprehension.

The scene had nothing in it of that cheerful and picturesque character which attaches to a beautiful lake, seen in moonlight, whose green banks are studded with trees, and adorned with human habitations. There were times not a few in our passage, when we were stayed upon our course, and the sails hung down loose and flapping from the yard-arms. On these oc casions, though our captain stormed and swore fear fully, and all the sailors knew it was a time to be upon their good behaviour, or encounter the maledictions of a tongue that stung like an adder, I usually found in the vast expanded ocean that spread beneath and around, something to interest me. I distinctly recollect my musings on one of these occasions. We had not been long at sea, and I had not yet become accustomed to the sounds breathed up from the hollow caverns of the deep.

The sun had sunk beneath the waves, and his last rays were fading from our view. I sat on the deck, watching the departure of those fading rays, as they still glimmered by reflec tion on the unquiet bosom of the ocean, which even in a dead calm cannot rest. Unusual sounds met my ear, which seemed to come up from the mighty and un fathomed caves below. My attention at once became riveted, and imagination was instantly set at work to account for the cause and source of these strange and mysterious sounds. The shades of evening were now fast gathering around us: scarcely a breath of air shook the loose sails, and all on board our vessel seemed unusually quiet. As I listened, those sounds continued to come distinctly upon my ear. At one time they seemed like the moans and sighs of distressed and perishing victims : and then they appeared startling and terrific, like the elements of restrained wrath, which were ready to burst forth in some awful form of destruction.

And then again they seemed fitful as the uncertain winds ; the tones were all changed, and the sounds that issued from below at one moment seemed like the din of con flicting voices in angry dispute, and the next, like the wailing discontent of the monsters of the deep, shut up " in durance vile," or wounded by some passing levia than. As I thus sat leaning over the side ofthe vessel, I could not but think what a vast unpublished record of events there was in the abyss below ! What secrets those deep hollow caverns contained ! Perhaps beneath the very spot where our vessel now floated, some ship, freighted with precious lives, had suddenly gone down to rise no more. On board that ship was the husband and father returning to his happy home, where the loved ones of his heart long expected his coming, and knew not the cause of his detention.

There was the long-absent son returning to the home of his childhood, whose ar rival a doating mother watched and waited for till hope deferred made her heart sick, and she died ignorant ofthe fate of her child. Perhaps on board that vessel was the young and accomplished female, returning, after a residence abroad, with increased pleasure, to her own native shores. Though when the ship went down she clung to a father's arm, and the shriek of many voices went wildly up, the waters rolled relentlessly over them, and not one even of the crew was left to tell their sad story. This is the history of a thousand vessels that have been swallowed up in the deep, whose fate has never been known. But there is a day coming that will reveal all these sad events ; there is an hour speeding onward that will disclose all the secrets of the great deep : for we are told that on that eventful morn which will wit ness the winding up of the great drama of human existence, " the earth, and the sea, shall give up their dead."

But I have already occupied too much space in re lating to you some of my musings during a calm at sea. I must not forget to say, that the most magnificent and impressive scene of the ocean, occurred when " the stormy wind" was sent out. Then indeed old ocean put on its dark, dreadful face of wrath. Roaring most fearfully, it sent up its billows mountains high ; and drove our bark onward, trembling and rocking beneath its swelling waters, as though in danger every moment of going to the bottom — and yet darting over the surface of those agitated waters with the fleetness of a bird through the sky, acquiring increased speed with the increased agitation of the deep, and urging its way on ward as though scared by the commotion of waters around it, and seeking to flee from their rage. You can well understand, that with all the entertainment that the ocean can afford, there must be a weari some monotony experienced at sea.