T H O M A S  A R N O L D

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D.
LATE HEAD-MASTER OP KDGBT SCHOOL,
AND REGIUS PKOFESSOK OP MODEM HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.
BY ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, M.A.
REQIUS PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
T. FELLOWES, LUDGATE STREET.
1858.
….

9. Lastly, we ascended to the top of the Colosseum, Bunsen leaving us at the door, to go home; and I seated myself with, just above the main entrance, towards the Forum, and there took my farewell look over Rome.
It was a delicious evening, and everything was looking to advantage : the huge Colosseum just under me,—the tufts of ilex and aliter- nus, and other shrubs that fringe the ruins everywhere in the lower parts,—while the outside wall, with its top of gigantic stones, lifts itself high above, and seems like a mountain harrier of bare rock, inclosing a green and varied valley.—I sat and gazed upon the scene with an intense and mingled feeling. The world could show nothing grander; it was one which for years I had longed to see, and I was now looking at it for the last time.
I do not think you will be jealous, dearest, if I confess that I could not take leave of it without something of regret. Even with you and our darlings, I would not live out of our dear country, to which I feel bound alike by every tie of duty and affection; and to be here a vagrant, without you, is certainly very far from happiness. Not for an instant would I prolong my absence from Laleham, yet still I feel, at leaving Rome, very differently from what I ever felt at leaving any other place not more endeared than this is by personal ties ; and when I last see the dome of St. Peter's, I shall seem to be parting from more than a mere town full of curiosities, where the eye has been amused, and the intellect gratified. I never thought to have felt thus tenderly towards Rome ; but the inexpressible solemnity and beauty of her ruined condition has quite bewitched me; and to the latest hour of my life I shall remember the Forum, the surrounding hills, and the magnificent Colosseum.