'--(To the same, 23 March, 1819). 'The next most considerable
relic of antiquity, considered as a ruin, is the Thermae of Caracalla.
These consist of six enormous chambers, above 200 feet in height, and
each enclosing a vast space like that of a field. There are in addition
a number of towers and labyrinthine recesses, hidden and woven over by
the wild growth of weeds and ivy. Never was any desolation so sublime
and lovely.... At every step the aerial pinnacles of shattered stone
group into new combinations of effect, and tower above the lofty yet
level walls, as the distant mountains change their aspect to one
travelling rapidly along the plain.... Around rise other crags and other
peaks--all arrayed, and the deformity of their vast desolation softened
down, by the undecaying investiture of Nature.'
1. 7. _A slope of green access._ The old Protestant Cemetery. Shelley
described it thus in his letter to Mr. Peacock of 22 December, 1818.
'The English burying-place is a green slope near the walls, under the
pyramidal tomb of Cestius, and is, I think, the most beautiful and
solemn cemetery I ever beheld.
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