Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

John Dyer (1699-1757) took no delight in the study of the law, but having always amused him self with drawing resolved to turn painter and became pupil to Mr Richardson, an artist then of high reputation. (..) Having studied a while under his master, he became an itinerant painter and wandered about South Wales and the parts adjacent, but he mingled poetry with painting. (..) Being probably unsatisfied with his own proficiency he, like other painters, travelled to Italy, and coming back in 1740, published the "Ruins of Rome". (..) In 1757 he published The Fleece, his greatest poetical work.
Robert Walsh - Lives of the British Poets - 1819
Excerpts from John Dyer's The Ruins of Rome.

• The Palatine
• Colosseum
• Pantheon
• Aqueducts
• Campo Marzio

The Palatine with these I raise, The toilsome step up the proud Palatine, Through spiry cypress groves, and towering pine, Waving aloft o'er the big ruin's brows , On numerous arches reared; and frequent stopped, The sunk ground startles me with dreadful chasm, Breathing forth darkness from the vast profound Of aisles and halls, within the mountain's womb.

Colosseum Amid the towery ruins, huge, supreme, The enormous amphitheatre behold, Mountainous pile! o'er whose capacious womb Pours the broad firmament its varied light; While from the central floor the seats ascend Round above round, slow-widening to the verge, A circuit vast and high; nor less had held Imperial Rome and her attendant realms, When, drunk with rule, she willed the fierce delight, And op'd the gloomy caverns, whence out-rushed Before th' innumerable shouting crowd The fiery, madded, tyrants of the wilds, Lions and tigers, wolves and elephants, And desperate men, more fell.

Pantheon And next regard yon venerable dome, Which virtuous Latium, with erroneous aim Raised to her various deities, and named Pantheon; plain and round; of this our world no Majestic emblem; with peculiar grace, Before its ample orb, projected stands The many-pillared portal; noblest work Of human skill: here, curious architect, If thou assay'st, ambitious, to surpass Palladius, Angelus, or British Jones, On these fair walls extend the certain scale, And turn th' instructive compass: careful mark How far in hidden art the noble plain Extends ..

Aqueducts Thine too those musically-falling founts To slake the clammy lip; adown they fall, Musical ever; while from yon blue hills Dim in the clouds, the radiant aqueducts Turn their innumerable arches o'er The spacious desert, brightening in the sun, Proud and more proud, in their august approach: High o'er irriguous vales and woods and towns, Glide the soft whispering waters in the wind, And here united pour their silver streams Among the figured rocks, in murmuring falls, Musical ever.

Campo Marzio Behold by Tiber's flood, where modern Rome Couches beneath the ruins: there of old With arms and trophies gleamed the field of Mars: There to their daily sports the noble youth Rushed emulous; to fling the pointed lance; To vault the steed; or with the kindling wheel In dusty whirlwinds sweep the trembling goal; Or wrestling, cope with adverse swelling breasts, Strong grappling arms, closed heads, and distant feet; Or clash the lifted gauntlets: there they formed Their ardent virtues: lo the bossy piles, The proud triumphal arches: all their wars, Their conquests, honours, in the sculptures live.

Travellers covered in this section

• Introductory page
• Gregory Martin's "Roma Sancta", a description of Christian Rome in 1581
• Fynes Moryson's An Itinerary: Containing His Ten Years Travel .. in Italy .. in 1594
• John Evelyn's Diary and Correspondence related to his stay in Rome in 1644
• Francis Mortoft's Journal of his travels in France and Italy in 1659
• John Ray's Observations (..) made in a journey through part of (..) Italy in 1663
• Richard Lassels' The Voyage of Italy, or a Compleat Journey through Italy in ca 1668
• Joseph Addison's Remarks on several parts of Italy, in the years 1701, 1702, 1703
• Jonathan and Jonathan Richardson's Account of Some of the Statues, etc. in Italy - 1722
• Edward Wright's Observations made in France, Italy &c. in the years 1720, 1721 and 1722.
• Excerpts from John Dyer's The Ruins of Rome written in 1740
• Thomas Gray's Letters from France and Italy in 1739-1741
• James Boswell's Letters on the Grand Tour in 1765
• Tobias Smollett's Travels through France and Italy in 1765
• John Moore's View of Society and Manners in Italy (in 1775) - publ. 1781
• John Chetwode Eustace's Classical Tour of Italy (in 1802) - publ. 1813
• Joseph Forsyth's Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters in Italy in 1802-1803
• John Cam Hobhouse's Dissertations on the Ruins of Rome in 1818
• Henry Matthews' Diary of an Invalid (in 1817-1818)
• Anna Jameson's Diary of an Ennuyée (in 1821-1822) - publ. 1826
• Sir Charles Fergusson's Travel Notes a Journey Through Italy in 1824-1825
• William Hazlitt's Notes of a Journey Through France and Italy in 1824-1825
• Samuel Rogers' Italy - publ. in 1830 with illustrations by J.M. William Turner
• Hans Christian Andersen's The Improvisatore - 1834 (Engl. translation 1845)
• William Gardiner's Sights in Italy in 1846-1847
• George Stillman Hillard's Six Months in Italy in ca 1847-1848

Read What Dante Saw.
Read What Goethe Saw.
Read What Lord Byron Saw.
Read What Charles Dickens Saw.
Read What Henry James Saw.
Read What Mark Twain Saw.
Read What William Dean Howells Saw.
Read Dan Brown's Spaghetti Bolognaise (excerpts from Angels and Demons)