Boxing, however, is not confined to Siena; it is common all over Tuscany, even in Florence itself, where, to say the truth, it puts on a very unscientific character. "There," says Rose, "to recur to poetry for assistance, Dalle lor man cazzotto non discende Che l'inimico non colpisca appieno; Their hands fair knocks or foul in fury rain, But blood from eyes and mouth and nostrils oozes. Whatever comes to hand, hair, nose, or gullet.—Rose. "If a man finds himself overmatched at this foul play, he usually shouts in soccorso!' and, by the aid of the first comer, turns the tables upon his antagonist. The latter also finds his abettors, and the combat thickens, till the street wears the appearance of the stage at the conclusion of Tom Thumb. "At Siena the art puts on a more scientific form. In this city are regular academies for pugilistic exercise, and a code for the regulation of boxing matches; a certain time for resurrection is accorded to the person knocked down, and the strife assumes all the features of a courteous combat. "The Sienese and Florentine boxers contend with what may be called courteous weapons-the unarmed fist; but those of Pisa and Leghorn clench a cylindrical piece of stick, which projects at each end of the doubled fist, and inflicts a cruel wound when they strike obliquely. In some antique statues, the clenched hand may be seen armed in the same manner, and the stick secured to the fist by thongs." JOURNEY FROM SIENA TO ROME. None stirring, save the herdsman and his herd, To the south and south west of Siena is the Maremma*, a tract which, whether it was formerly salubrious or not, seems at least to have been both fertile and well peopled. Most of the twelve cities which composed the Etruscan league were situated in this district. The ruins of Populonia and Vetulonia are still visible in the most pestilential part of it; nor was the situation of Luna much more favourable. Pisa and Volterra were at that time rich and flourishing towns, though they sunk into insignificance under the empire. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries they revived again, insomuch that the former boasted no less than one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, and even the latter reckoned as many as fifty thousand. While these republics retained their liberty, Massa and Grosseto, in the neighbourhood of Populonia and Vetulonia, contained, each of them, from twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants: at present, they are almost • The Maremma, in its largest extent, stretches along the shore of the Mediterranean from Leghorn to Terracina, reaching inland as far as the first chain of the Apennines. Its length is about 200 miles; its breadth varies, and, in the Agro Romano, where it is greatest, is from thirty to forty miles. deserted: during the winter months the population of Massa may amount to two or three thousand, while in the summer it scarcely exceeds as many hundreds. In the country the depopulation is even greater still. In each district the possessions of such families as became extinct devolved upon the community; hence it came to pass, that some few families which had escaped the general devastation inherited the property of all the rest. In process of time, however, these families also became extinct; and the whole district, under the name of a bandita, devolved upon one of the neighbouring villages. There are villages to be found in the Maremma which possess as many as seven or eight of these bandite, and yet cannot muster inhabitants enough to cultivate a fourth part of their domains. The population itself, therefore, being too insignificant for the culture of the soil*, the inhabitants of the Casentine and other high and healthy The country thus depopulated, nothing remained but to take advantage of the spontaneous production of the soil, to let the land run to grass, and to introduce a sort of wandering tribes, who should dwell here only in winter. During that season, men, as well as cattle, may roam through the wilderness with comparative impunity. It did not, however, suit the metayer of the upland districts to leave his home, and take up his abode in the Maremma. There came, therefore, necessarily to be interposed between the proprietors of the lands in the interior, and those on the sea coast, a race of wandering shepherds, possessing nothing but their cattle, and migrating with them, according to the seasons, from the hilly to the level country. Under the conduct of these men, 400,000 sheep, 30,000 horses, with a vast number of cows and goats, are annually reared for the supply of the Valdarno, and the other vales of Tuscany, where no cattle are bred. See Chateauvieux, tracts migrate hither to feed their cattle, to sow corn, make charcoal, saw wood, cut hoops, and peel cork. The most usual season of descent is the winter; but a portion of the mountain peasantry also assist in getting in the harvest. Most of the summer workmen imbibe the diseases of the place, and some even of those who are employed in winter operations decamp too late, leaving their corpses on the road, or crawling away, "like poisoned rats to die at home." Leaving Siena, we traversed a dreary country, where, instead of valleys, we met with wide yawning ravines, separated by irregular hillocks of bare brown earth. For many miles round Siena the country is hill or mountain. The more rugged hills are planted with olive-trees; the rest are arable, interspersed with vineyards, some of which are in high repute. Those of Montepulciano, for example, produce a wine celebrated by Redi as the "king of wines;" Montepulcian che d'ogni vino è il re; while those of Chianti yield from their "canine grape a' vino scelto,' which many prefer to his majesty." We passed through Buon Convento, a wretched village, where the Emperor Henry VII. was poisoned by receiving the sacrament from a Dominican friar—an event from which this "good convent" received its name. We next passed the miserable hovels of San Quirico, and the solitary post-house of La Scala, not far from which are the Baths of St. Philip, where the calcareous water, being made to fall in spray upon moulds, hardens into exquisite |