_Campagna Felice_ is the title given to the extensive tract of land which lies between the mountains to the north-east of Caserta and Naples, and the Mediterranean. The whole is cultivated like a garden: rows of lopped elms or poplars intersect the fields, at the distance of 40 or 50 feet between each row, to which vines are trained: and the intermediate space is occupied by luxuriant wheat; lupines, pulled green for fodder; garden-beans; or ground prepared for ploughing by two oxen, without a driver, for Indian corn, &c. This is one of the grand advantages of the climate of Italy, that, while in northern Europe vast tracts of land are devoted to the exclusive growth of barley for beer, the Italians obtain a far better beverage from the very same land that supplies their bread corn, and without materially interfering with its produce: for both the vines and the trees that support them are planted so deep as to consume only the manure, which, in any case, would be washed away; and their slight shade is rather beneficial than injurious to the crops below. _Fruit at Naples._--Mr. Spence saw in March grapes of several varieties, kept through the winter, not much shrivelled, and quite free from mouldiness. Oranges in glorious profusion (chiefly from Sorrento, fifteen miles distant,) and so cheap as to allow the poorest of the poor to enjoy (what Dr. Johnson complained he had never had of peaches but once) their fill of them, and that daily. The middle-sized ones (which are the best) sell at four for a grano, which is at the rate of ten for a penny English; and the poor get twice as many of those beginning to decay. * * * * * THE GATHERER. _Ancient Starvation._--Hume tells us "The Monks and Prior of St. Swithin threw themselves, one day, prostrate on the ground, and in the mire, before Henry II., complaining, with many tears and much doleful lamentation, that the Bishop of Winchester, who was also their Abbot, had cut off three dishes from their tables. 'How many has he left you?' said the king, '_Ten only_' replied the disconsolate monks. 'I, myself,' exclaimed the king, 'never have more than three, and I enjoin your bishop to reduce you to the same number.'" P.T.W. _Ice Water._--The Chinese rise at day-break, after a hard frost to gather ice, which they melt, and carefully bottle up as a remedy for fever in the hot months. A French marquess having received several blows over his shoulders with a stick, which he never thought of resenting, a friend asked him how he could reconcile it with his honour, to suffer them to pass without notice. "Póh," said the marquess, "I never trouble myself with anything that passes behind my back." _Epitaph in Wycombe Churchyard_, 1688. Here lies one whose rest Gives me a restless life, Because I've lost a good And virtuous wyfe.