which can be so easily got in other cities. Guide-books contain a vast
amount of information, but there are many points interesting to the
antiquarian and the historian which they overlook altogether. There is
no English book, for instance, like Ruffini's _Dizionario
Etimologico-Storico delle Strade, Piazze, Borghi e Vicoli della Città
di Roma_, to tell one of the origin of the strange and bizarre names
of the streets of Rome, many of which involve most interesting
historical facts and most romantic associations of the past. There is
no English book on the ancient marbles of Rome like Corsi's _Pietre
Antiche_, which describes the mineralogy and source of the building
materials of the imperial city, and traces their history from the law
courts and temples of which they first formed part to the churches and
palaces in which they may now be seen. Every nook in London, with its
memories and points of interest, has been chronicled in a form that is
accessible to every one. But there is an immense amount of most
interesting antiquarian lore regarding out-of-the-way things in Rome
which is buried in the transactions of learned societies or in special
Italian monographs, and is therefore altogether beyond the reach of
the ordinary visitor. Science has lately shed its vivid light upon the
physical history of the Roman plain; and the researches of the
archæologist have brought into the daylight of modern knowledge, and
by a wider comparison and induction have invested with a new
significance, the prehistoric objects, customs, and traditions which
make primeval Rome and the surrounding sites so fascinating to the
imagination. But these results are not to be found in the books which
the English visitor usually consults. In the following chapters I have
endeavoured to supply some of that curious knowledge; and it is to be
hoped that what is given--for it is no more than a slight sample out
of an almost boundless store--will create an interest in such
subjects, and induce the reader to go in search of fuller information.