hailed his sacred shade on the spot where his ashes long reposed.

The laurel which was once said to have sprung up at its base, and
covered it with its luxuriant branches, now flourishes only in the
verses of youthful bards, or in the descriptions of early travellers;
myrtle, ivy and ilex, all plants equally agreeable to the genius of the
place, and the subjects of the poet, now perform the office of the
long-withered bays, and encircle the tomb with verdure and perfume.

The sepulchre of Virgil, it may be imagined, must have long remained an
object of interest and veneration, especially as his works had excited
universal admiration even in his life-time, and were very soon after his
death put into the hands of children, and made a part of the rudiments
of early education. Yet Martial declares that it had been neglected in
his time, and that Silius Italicus alone restored its long forgotten
honours.

The reader will learn with regret that Virgil's tomb, consecrated as it
ought to be to genius and meditation, is sometimes converted into the
retreat of assassins, or the lurking place of Sbirri. Such at least it
was the last time we visited it, when wandering that way about sun-set
we found it filled with armed men. We were surprised on both sides, and
on ours not very agreeably at the unexpected rencounter; so lonely the
place and so threatening the aspects of these strangers. Their manners
however were courteous; and on inquiry we were informed that they were
Sbirri, and then lying in wait for a murderer, who was supposed to
make that spot his nightly asylum. It would be unjust to accuse the
Neapolitans of culpable indifference towards this or any other monument
of antiquity; but it is incumbent on the proprietor or the public, to
secure them against such profanation. On the whole, few places are in