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Page 268:-
Down in a vale, with pine and cypress clad,
Refresh'd with gentle winds, and brown with shade,
The chaste Diana's private haunt there stood,
Full in the center of a darksome wood,
A spacious grotto, all around o'ergrown
With hoary moss, and arch'd with pumice-stone:
From out its rocky clefts the waters flow,
And trickling swell into a lake below.
Nature had every where so play'd her part,
That every where she seem'd to vie with art,
Here the bright goddess, toil'd and chaf'd with heat,
Was wont to bathe her in the cool retreat.
Addison.
Over the cave where the water flows, is another subterranean
passage, of about twenty-four feet in length, and from three to
ten in height. It enters the other obliquely, and looks like a
natural orchestra, and where indeed a band of music would exhibit
to great advantage to an audience below. The roof of the cave, at
the entrance by the stream, is about two yards high, but soon
encreases to six. When we had proceeded out of sight of day, a
new train of ideas were excited in our imaginations. We could not
but fancy that it was like the cave of Polypheme, or of some
giant in modern romance, who hung up the mangled limbs of the
unhappy victims that fell into his hands, to the dome of his
murky den. From the roof were pendant large petrifactions, in
every grotesque shape; some like hams, others like neats'
tongues, many like the heads and various parts of different
animals.- Some parts of this cave appeared like dreary vaults, or
catacombs, where were deposited the reliques of ancient heroes or
martyrs: some rocks at the bottom appeared like huge stone
coffins, and some large petrifactions on the shelves like virgins
or children represented in alabaster.- As we proceeded along, we
met with several bye-streets or lanes, down some of which came
tinkling little currents; but they seemed not to admit a
passenger with ease to any great distance. As we went along, we
observed that the way divided, for a considerable part of the
whole length, into two main streets, which united again,
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