Capua is a fortified town situated in a flat country and marshy withal.  It is a gloomy, dirty looking city and whatever may have been its splendour and allurements in ancient times, it at present offers nothing inviting or remarkable.  The lower classes of the people of this town are such thieves that our vetturino recommended us to remove every thing from the carriage into our bed rooms, so that we had the trouble of repacking every thing next morning.  Capua is the only place on the whole route where it is necessary to take the trunks from the carriage.  From Capua to Naples is twenty miles; a little beyond Capua are the remains of a large Amphitheatre and this is all that exists to attest the splendour of ancient Capua.  The road between Capua and Naples presents on each side one of the richest and most fruitful countries I ever beheld.  It is a perfect garden the whole way.  The chaussee is lined with fruit trees.  Halfway is the town or borgo of Aversa which is large, well-built, opulent and populous.  We entered Naples at one o’clock, drove thro’ the strada di Toledo and from thence to the largo di Medina where we put up at the inn called the Aquila nera.  A cordon of Austrian troops lines the whole high road from Fondi to the gates of Naples; and there are double sentries at a distance of one mile from each other the whole way.

NAPLES, Octr. 5th.

In Naples the squares or Piazze are called Larghi; they are exceedingly irregular as to shape; a trapezium would be the most appropriate denomination for them.  The Largo di Medina is situated close to the Mole and light house and is not far from the Largo del Palazzo where the Royal Palace stands, nor from the Strada di Toledo, which is the most bustling part of the town.  On the Mole and sometimes in the Largo di Medini Pulcinello holds forth all day long, quacks scream out the efficacy of their nostrums and improvisatori recite battles of Paladins.  Here and in the Strada di Toledo the noise made by the vendors of vegetables, fruit, lemonade, iced water and water-melons, who on holding out their wares to view, scream out “O che bella cosa!”—­the noise and bustle of the cooks’ shops in the open air and the cries of “Lavora!” made by the drivers of calessini (sort of carriage) makes such a deafening tintamarre that you can scarcely hear the voice of your companion who walks by your side.  In the Largo del Palazzo there is always a large assembly of officers and others, besides a tolerable quantity of ruffiani, who fasten upon strangers in order to recommend to them their female acquaintances.  A little further is the Quai of St Lucia, where the fish market is held, and here the cries increase.  The quantity of fish of all sorts caught in the bay and exposed for sale in the market is immense and so much more than can be sold, that the rest is generally given away to the