Naples, Past and Present

I have designed this book not as a guide, but as supplementary to a guide. The best of guide-books--even that of Murray or of Gsell-Fels--leaves a whole world of thought and knowledge untouched, being indeed of necessity so full of detail that broad, general views can scarcely be obtained from it.

In this work detail has been sacrificed without hesitation. I have omitted reference to a few well-known places, usually because I could add nothing to the information given in the handbooks, but in one or two cases because the considerations which they raised lay too far from the thread of my discourse.

I have thrown together in the form of an appendix such hints and suggestions as seemed likely to assist anyone who desires wider information than I have given.

A. H. N.

EALING, 1901

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I PAGE THE APPROACH TO NAPLES BY THE SEA 1

CHAPTER II THE ANCIENT MARVELS OF THE PHLEGRÆAN FIELDS 21

CHAPTER III THE BEAUTIES AND TRADITIONS OF THE POSILIPO, WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS UPON VIRGIL, THE ENCHANTER 49

CHAPTER IV THE RIVIERA DI CHIAIA, AND SOME STRANGE THINGS WHICH OCCURRED THERE 68

CHAPTER V THE ENCHANTED CASTLE OF THE EGG, AND THE SUCCESSION OF THE KINGS WHO HELD IT 85

CHAPTER VI THE BARBARITIES OF FERDINAND OF ARAGON, WITH CERTAIN OTHER SUBJECTS WHICH PRESENT THEMSELVES IN STROLLING ROUND THE CITY 101

CHAPTER VII CHIEFLY ABOUT CHURCHES--WITH SOME SAINTS, BUT MORE SINNERS 121

CHAPTER VIII A GREAT CHURCH AND TWO VERY NOBLE TRAGEDIES 143

CHAPTER IX VESUVIUS AND THE CITIES WHICH HE HAS DESTROYED--HERCULANEUM, POMPEII, AND STABIÆ 178

CHAPTER X CASTELLAMMARE: ITS WOODS, ITS FOLKLORE, AND THE TALE OF THE MADONNA OF POZZANO 226

CHAPTER XI SURRIENTO GENTILE: ITS BEAUTIES AND BELIEFS 251

CHAPTER XII CAPRI 273

CHAPTER XIII LA RIVIERA D'AMALFI AND ITS LONG-DEAD GREATNESS 299

CHAPTER XIV THE ABBEY OF TRINITÀ DELLA CAVA, SALERNO, AND THE RUINED MAJESTY OF PÆSTUM 327

APPENDIX 345

INDEX 357

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Bay of Naples from the Vomero Frontispiece PAGE Pozzuoli 24

Pozzuoli 32

Columns in the Serapeon Pozzuoli 35

Castle of Baiæ 44

Fishing Stage, Santa Lucia 54

Strada di Chiaia 68

Porta Mercantile 72

Boats at the Mergellina 76

Gradoni di Chiaia 78

Naples 90

Castle of St. Elmo 97

Old Town 113

Bay of Naples from San Martino 116

The Church of the Carmine 156

In the Strada di Tribunali 168

Card-players 188

A Slum 195

In the Strada di Tribunali 209

Porta Capuana 220

Roof top, Modern Naples 259

Courtyard in the Old Town 268

Unloading Boats, Bay of Naples 284

Naples: on the modern side, looking towards Capri from the Corso Vittorio Emmanuele 288

Gossip 334

NAPLES PAST AND PRESENT

CHAPTER I

THE APPROACH TO NAPLES BY THE SEA

On a fine spring morning when the sun, which set last night in gold and purple behind the jagged mountain chain of Corsica, had but just climbed high enough to send out shafts and flashes of soft light across the opalescent sea, I came up on the deck of the great steamer which carried me from Genoa to watch for the first opening of the Bay of Naples. It was so early that the decks were very quiet. There was no sound but the perpetual soft rustle of the wave shed off from the bow of the steamer, which slipped on silently without sense of motion. The Ponza Islands were in sight, desolate and precipitous, showing on their dark cliffs no house nor any sign of life, save here and there a seabird winging its solitary way round the crags and caverns of the coast. Far ahead, in the direction of our course, lay one or two dim, cloudy masses, too faint and shadowy to be detached as yet from the grey skyline which bounded the crystalline sparkles of the sea. And so, having strained my eyes in vain effort to discover the high peak of Ischia, I fell to wondering why any man who is at liberty to choose his route should dream of approaching this Campanian coast otherwise than by the sea.