Passing by Capria, with Vesuvius in front, blazing from time to time during the night, we anchored off Naples the next day, and this morning got prattick. LETTER VI. TO CAPTAIN SMITH. Naples, September 12th. MY DEAR FRIEND, WE lost no time in seeing the wonders of this extraordinary country. Our first object was to follow Æneas to the Cuman Shore, and on our way thither, it was but just to pay our oblations at Virgil's Tomb. This celebrated monument is close to the top of the Grotto of Pausilippe, on the left of the east entrance. The inside is a square of twelve feet, with three niches for urns on the east and west sides, two niches and a door, through which you enter, on the south, and the same on the north. The roof is arched, and about nine feet high. The outside was originally octagonal, but the angles being worn away, it is now circular, and at a distance looks like the remains of a small tower. The materials are of the common kind, and I did not observe any marble near it, except two modern inscriptions. Formerly the tomb was surrounded with laurels, but as every idle visitor took a leaf, there is not a sprig left. We could not help exclaiming against such sacrilege; but our guide endeavoured to comfort us, by saying that the Marquis Salcitro had ordered a new set to be planted. The Grotto of Pausilippe is at the west end of the suburbs of Naples. It is a public road cut through the mountain, near half a mile in length, and wide enough for two carriages to drive abreast. Its height is very irregular, in some parts eighty feet, and at others only five-and-twenty. In the day time you may see from one end to the other, by the help of two large apertures, cut diagonally from the center of the grotto to the surface of the mount; but at night we were obliged to use torches, which, when any number of vehicles are driving together, have a most beautiful effect. The bottom, like all Naples, is paved with square pieces of lava. Its exact date has not been ascertained. The common people insist that it was done by inchantment, as a proof of which they allege that no stones were found near the entrance. It would be to no purpose to tell them, that those who perforated the mount, very naturally made use of the stone in building the town. But after all, the difficulty in accomplishing this passage was by no means so great as one would at first imagine, for the stone is so soft, that until it has been for some time exposed to the air, you may crumble it to dust. Neither, in my opinion, is this celebrated excavation equal to the batteries, magazines, and communications, formed in the solid rock of Gibraltar by Mr. Inch, under the direction of General Eliott, and continued with astonishing success by Major-General O'Hara.